The Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night movie will soon be available in North America, courtesy of Funimation! They announced that they will release the film together with Aniplex of America to theaters around the US and Canada this December. The film releases in theaters and on IMAX screens on December 3. 2021, in the United States and Canada (with tickets on sale November 5). Then in Australia and New Zealand on December 9, 2021, (with tickets on sale November 9). They also announced it would be coming soon to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Latin America.
You can check the official English-subbed trailer below:
The film will release both in Japanese with English subtitles as well as dubbed in English. It runs for a total of 1 hour and 37 minutes and Ayako Kono directs it at A-1 Pictures. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Haruka Tomatsu return as Kirito and Asuna for the Japanese version, while Bryce Paperbrook and Cherami Leigh also return for the English dub. Meanwhile, Inori Minase voices the new character Mito in Japanese, while the English voice actor for the character will likely be announced at a later date. The official premiere of the film in Japan is on October 30, 2021.
Sword Art Online: Progressive is a Japanese light novel series by Reki Kawahara, with abec as the illustrator. ASCII Media Works first serialized it in October 2012, and it currently has 8 volumes in circulation. The official synopsis for the movie:
This is a tale of the time before “Lightning Flash” and “The Black Swordsman” were known by those names…
Funimation
The day that she happened to don the NerveGear, Asuna Yuuki was a third-year middle school student who’d never even touched an online game before. On November 6, 2022, the world’s first VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, is officially launched.
But the players, still euphoric over having logged in, suddenly find themselves trapped inside the game when the Game Master deprives them of any way to log out. The Game Master then gives them this warning “This may be a game, but it’s not something you play.” If a player dies in-game, they die in the real world.
Hearing this, all of the players panic, and pandemonium reigns. One of those players is Asuna, but despite not yet knowing the rules of this world, she sets off to conquer the floating iron castle, Aincrad, whose peak is too high to be seen. As the days go by in this world where death is never very far away, she has a fateful encounter. And then, a parting…
Though she’s at the mercy of the reality before her eyes, Asuna fights on with all her might until someone appears before her: the aloof swordsman, Kirito…
Funimation and Aniplex will bring the Sword Art Online: Progressive movie in just about 2 months! Will you be watching it?
Source: Press Release, Aniplex USA YouTube Channel, Funimation Blog
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