Opening in the U.S. this Thursday – an anime feature based on the Sword Art Online light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. This feature was produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Tomohiko Itō, featuring an original story by Kawahara, character designs by Shingo Adachi and music by Yuki Kajiura. Animplex, Eleven Arts and Fathom Events are scheduling the release as a one-night theatrical event in the United States on March 9th, 2017. Here’s the trailer:

The film is set after the events of the anime’s second season, in which Kirito, Asuna, and their friends start playing a new game known as OS (short for “Ordinal Scale”) that, contrary to the previous ones they played, doesn’t have a full-dive function and is based on a new augmented reality device instead called “Augma”. In this game, players are ranked according to their achievements and players with lower ranks have serious disadvantages in duels against their higher ranked peers. However, Kirito and co. discover that something is wrong when they come across monsters from Aincrad, the world from the same game they were trapped inside for two years while fighting for their lives.

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.

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