With the German premiere and roll out happening this week, Peppermint Anime is again making their push with Sword Art Online – Ordinal Scale – with its release. Kicking off on April 6th, 2017 in theaters and rolling out from there, they’ve now released a new clip from the film that’s essentially four minutes of early setup material that introduces us to the augmented reality side of the property. It provides a good look at the design work and style of the film with how the gaming side of it works.
The new film was animated by A-1 Pictures with Tomohiko Itou returning to direct and Shingo Adachi on board to do character designs again. Yuki Kajiura is on board with the music. The film will be an original story written by Kawahara specifically for the screen.
The German cast includes Denise Monteiro as Asuna Yuuki, Patrick Keller as Kazuto Kirigaya, Christiane Werk as Yui, Clara Dolny as Silica, Dirk Hardegen as Agil, Isaak Dentler as Klein, Jennifer Weiß as Sinon, Julia Meynen as Lyfa and Nina Amerschläger as Lisbeth.
Plot concept: In 2026, two years since the SAO incident, a new game called “Oridinal Scale,” an Augmented-Reality MMO, is becoming popular among the players. But…strange things are happening in the game and Kirito and the gang are facing a new danger.
Property concept: In the year 2022, virtual reality has progressed by leaps and bounds, and a massive online role-playing game called Sword Art Online (SAO) is launched. With the aid of “NerveGear” technology, players can control their avatars within the game using nothing but their own thoughts.
Kazuto Kirigaya, nicknamed “Kirito,” is among the lucky few enthusiasts who get their hands on the first shipment of the game. He logs in to find himself, with ten-thousand others, in the scenic and elaborate world of Aincrad, one full of fantastic medieval weapons and gruesome monsters. However, in a cruel turn of events, the players soon realize they cannot log out; the game’s creator has trapped them in his new world until they complete all one hundred levels of the game.
In order to escape Aincrad, Kirito will now have to interact and cooperate with his fellow players. Some are allies, while others are foes, like Asuna Yuuki, who commands the leading group attempting to escape from the ruthless game. To make matters worse, Sword Art Online is not all fun and games: if they die in Aincrad, they die in real life. Kirito must adapt to his new reality, fight for his survival, and hopefully break free from his virtual hell.
