Theatrical Sword Art Online Project Confirmed
It looks like Kirito may finally be putting his amusphere to one side and taking his beloved Asuna to the cinema – at least in one way.
At the Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival this week, the publisher of the franchise’s original light novels announced that the animation production company A-1 Pictures are now working on a theatrical animation instalment in the Sword Art Online series. Series’ director Tomohiko Ito is returning to helm the project, which will be an all-new original story penned by the series’ original author, Reki Kawahara. Shingo Adachi is also returning as character designer. More details about the project will be revealed in the 10th October issue of Kadokawa’s Dengeki Bunko Magazine.
Although fans in the west are still looking forward to Bandai Namco Games’ upcoming European release of the PlayStation 4 and Vita title Sword Art Online: Lost Song on 13th November, the event also confirmed that an all new video game has entered development. Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization will mark the fourth console game based on the franchise when it launches on Sony’s current generation platforms next year.
Last but not least, another of Reki Kawahara’s hit light novel series’ is set to return to the realm of animation. Following 2012’s Accel World‘s television anime, the Dengeki Bunko Autumn Festival has confirmed that a new project has entered production at Sunrise. Accel World: Infinite Burst will feature an original story and new characters created by Kawahara and a number of voice actors have already been confirmed as reprising their roles from the original series:
- Kuroyukihime – Sachika Misawa (Aldnoah.Zero‘s Rayet Areash).
- Haruyuki – Yuuki Kaji (Attack On Titan‘s Eren Jaeger).
- Chiyuri – Aki Toyosaki (K-ON!‘s Yui Hirasawa).
- Takumu – Shinataro Asanuma (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds‘ Crow Hogan).
A format for Accel World: Infinite Burst has yet to be confirmed.
Sword Art Online‘s first television anime series was released in the United Kingdom by Manga Entertainment, with Anime Limited currently releasing the second. Accel World is also currently available on home video courtesy of MVM Films.
