The folks at Anime Limited are taking advantage of the MCM London Comic Con and all the general media attention to talk about a new acquisition today, where they’ve picked up the rights to Sword Art Online II with plans for it to be released on both DVD and Blu-ray in the UK. The series will be released in 4 parts total with both Collector’s Edition Blu-ray/DVD combi and Standard Edition DVD formats arriving, the first of which is being planned tentatively for August 2015 right now.
“Part 1 will contain episodes 1-7 of the “Phantom Bullet” arc of the series. The Collector’s Edition version will come packed in a rigid box, a digipack to hold the discs, a booklet containing information about the series as well as behind the scenes details and features exclusive to our release. In addition to this we can also confirm we intend to create a UK Exclusive storage box to house all four parts of the Collector’s Edition versions and this will be included with Part 1. We’ll have more details on this storage box, content to be included and release information for the other parts at a later date.”
“We’re really excited to be releasing Sword Art Online II on blu-ray and DVD. We have some pretty exciting plans for the release and it’s great to be able to bring this title to fans in the UK. The collector’s edition will be a combi pack, which allows us to bring the collector’s edition to as many people as possible – which is very important to us here at Anime Limited HQ. That being said, the addition of the DVD to the set doesn’t impact the overall costs of the release so we thought that would deliver the best of both worlds. Considering it’s a 4 parter, this made the most sense to us. It’s great to have Sword Art Online II as part of the Anime Limited family of titles and we can’t wait to share this with fans later on this year.” – Andrew Partridge, President of Anime Limited
Sword Art Online II (Part 1 of 4): Episode 1-7
Collector’s Edition Blu-ray/DVD combi, SRP: £39.99
Standard Edition DVD, SRP: £24.99
Release date: August 2015 (TBC)
Plot concept: 1 year after the SAO incident, Kirito is approached by Seijirou Kikuoka from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Department “VR Division” with a rather peculiar request. That was an investigation on the “Death Gun” incident that occurred in the gun and steel filled VRMMO called Gun Gale Online (GGO). “Players who are shot by a mysterious avatar with a jet black gun lose their lives even in the real world…” Failing to turn down Kikuoka’s bizarre request, Kirito logs in to GGO even though he is not completely convinced that the virtual world could physically affect the real world.
Kirito wanders in an unfamiliar world in order to gain any clues about the “Death Gun.” Then, a female sniper named Sinon who owns a gigantic “Hecate II” rifle extends Kirito a helping hand. With Sinon’s help, Kirito decides to enter the “Bullet of Bullets,” a large tournament to choose the most powerful gunner within the realm of GGO, in hopes to become the target of the “Death Gun” and make direct contact with the mysterious avatar.
