With the new season of Sword Art Online revealed at the Dengeki Game Festival 2014 that it will premiere this July, we’re definitely expecting a few new images to start popping up for the show. And such is the case of this new one from the latest issue of Animage, which gives us a taste of som eof the new characters for the series along with a returning character.
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka will be reprising his role as Kirito for the series while Miyuki Sawashiro, who playing Shinon in the PSP game Infinity Moment, will be taking on the same role for the anime series. In addition to that, Tomohiko Ito will direct the series for A-1 Pictures while Shingo Adachi has signed on to return as the original character designer.
Sword Art Online II was announced at the end of the Extra Edition episode as part of the New Year’S Special. The focus of the series, at least to start, will be on the fifth and sixth novels of the series that revolves around the game Gun Gale and specifically the Phantom Bullet Arc. In continuity, the game takes place in 2025 as the game itself becomes the most popular game since SAO went online. The game is a science fiction type that focuses largely on firearms but also delves into other types of weapons as well. One of the characters from the game, Shinon, makes an appearance in the Extra Edition episode.
