The upcoming anime project for the Sword Art Online: Alicization arc of the novels by Reki Kawahara is set for the fall 2018 season in October 2018. It’s set to cover nine volumes of the light novel and now the official site has updated with an interesting reveal that the first episode will be an hourlong premiere event in Japan, the United States, Australia, France, Germany, Russia, and South Korea. While it did list the location for this in Japan, unsurprisingly, the locations overseas have yet to be determined but could make for a pretty interesting event when it gets finalized to make it a big fan participation piece. It looks like the Japanese side has a stage greeting event tied to it with several of the main cast there, which one can imagine being packaged quickly into something like a Fathom Event one-night event staggered out.
Manabu Ono is directing it and A-1 Pictures handling the animation production. Gou Suzuki, Tomoya Nishiguchi, and Shingo Adachi are handling the character designs.
The announced cast so far includes Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Kirito, Haruka Tomatsu as Asuna, Ai Kayano as Alice, and Nobunaga Shimazaki as Eugeo.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot Concept: Kirito awakens in a vast, fantastical forest filled with towering trees. In his search for clues to the truth of his surroundings, he encounters a young boy who seems to know him. He ought to be a simple NPC, but the depth of his emotions seem no different than a human.
As they search for the boy’s parents, Kirito finds a peculiar memory returning to him. A memory from his own childhood, of this boy and a girl, too, with golden hair, and a name he should have never forgotten Alice.
