Country: Japan
Language: Japanese, English

About the film:

Return to Aincrad for a brand new arc written by Reki Kawahara, the original author of the bestselling light novel series.

One month after Kayaba Akihiko’s game of death began, two thousand players have already lost their lives in the ultra-difficult VRMMORPG world of Sword Art Online. On the day of the strategy meeting to plan out the first-floor boss battle, Kirito, a solo player who vows to fight alone to get stronger, runs into a rare, high-level female player who gracefully dispatches powerful monsters with a single rapier that flashes like a shooting star in the night.

Images courtesy of Funimation

About the filmmakers:

Japanese director Ayako Kawano has worked on episodes of animated series including Love Live! School Idol Project, Your Lie in April, Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga and After the Rain. Sword Art Online The Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night, a reimagining of the beginning through Asuna’s eyes, is Kawano’s feature directorial debut. The film is from A-1 Pictures, the animation studio behind the Sword Art Online series as well as Black Butler, Fairy Tail, Blue Exorcist and Fate/Apocrypha as well as feature films including Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day.

MAJOR SUPPORT
Ohio Arts Council
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Campus Partners

WITH HELP FROM
G&J Pepsi
WOSU Public Media