This is the Weekly Argo (not actually weekly), run through a collaborative effort between the SAO Wikia and subreddit to provide you with the latest news in regards to Sword Art Online, since 2022.
First, I think we should get caught up on the current state of affairs regarding the fandom and franchise. This first post will be somewhat longer, in order to bring you up to speed!
Sword Art Online - Ordinal Scale is the upcoming SAO movie, hitting theatres in Japan this February 18th, and in various other countries at later dates. Rather than taking place within a VR game, Ordinal Scale focuses on the possibilities within Augmented Reality (AR). The movie is set after weeks the Mother’s Rosario story arc, and contains an original story written by Kawahara Reki.
A pre-release showing was held in Japan on January 30th, where many fans got the chance to see the movie early. During the greetings, Director Itou Tomohiko told viewers to enjoy what was at the end of the end-credits. Later on Twitter, rumors began to pop up claiming that the post-credits leaves the message “SAO will return”. No official announcement has been made regarding this rumored message as of yet.
Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag is a game for iOS and Android that, until recently, was a Japan-only game, and was even declared the most trendy game as of December 2016 in the Google Play Store. Just recently the game received an official English port, and you can download it now through the Google Play or App Store.
Live-Action American TV Series
American independent production company Skydance Television announced mid last year that it acquired the global live-action television rights for the Sword Art Online franchise from Kadokawa. Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Terminator Genisys) is writing the script and executive producing along with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross.
No ETA has been announced, nor any information on the adaptation’s plot.
In Japan there are currently 18 Volumes of the Sword Art Online LN, and 4 volumes of the Progressive spin-off series. Yen Press has translated up to Volume 9 of the main series, and is caught up in the Progressive series.
Volume 18, released last August, wrapped up the longest arc so far—Project Alicization, spanning 10 long volumes—however, it has been confirmed that not only will Volume 19 be a side-story taking place within the Alicization arc, the author, Kawahara Reki, also answered a fan’s question, stating that he plans to “write one more big arc”.
With an indefinite amount of SAO planned for the main series, and the nature of Progressive’s “one-floor-per-book” pattern, the end of this ride is nowhere in sight.
