With the end of Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld back in 2020, it concluded by making sure we know there’s more coming. And that’s in the form of Sword Art Online: Progressive, which is basically a retelling in a cleaned-up fashion of the original story. Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night arrived with an October 30th, 2021 release in Japan, and with that came the news that another film, going by the subtitle of Scherzo of a Dark Dusk.
The film eventually saw an October 22nd, 2022 debut in Japan and it’s had a rollout in numerous other territories and a North American release as well.
Now, Crunchyroll has set the streaming premiere for the film with it going live today at 8:00 pm ET for its members in both its original Japanese language and the English dub. It’ll be available to subscribers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Nordics, Latin America, Europe (excluding Italian-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and Portuguese-speaking European countries)
Check out our review of the film.
The film has Ayako Kohno directing it with Kento Toya handling the character designs for it. A-1 Pictures is on board for the animation production. It’ll feature the return of Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Kirito and Haruka Tomatsu as Asuna as well. Yusuke Kobayashi as Morte and Kaedo Hondo as Liten.
The original novels are things that will definitely appeal to two different types of fans with an overlap; one are those that enjoy worldbuilding and want to see more of Aincrad explored and characters and stories that were passed over in the original, and those that really enjoy the Kirito and Asuna relationship, which is covered both in-game and in real life more than in the original.
The novels and manga have been picked up and released in North America by Yen Press.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot Concept: The world’s first VRMMORPG (Sword Art Online) became a game of death. Over a month has passed since 10,000 users were trapped inside the game world. Asuna, who cleared the first floor of the floating iron castle of Aincrad, joined up with Kirito and continued her journey to reach the top floor. With the support of female Information Broker Argo, clearing the floors seemed to be progressing smoothly, but…
Conflict erupts between two major guilds who should be working together – the top player groups ALS (the Aincrad Liberation Squad) and DKB (the Dragon Knights Brigade). And meanwhile, behind the scenes exists a mysterious figure pulling the strings….
In a dangerous battle of death, there is an assault that differs from the threat, and it will involve Asuna and Kirito…!
Previous promos and visuals:
