The upcoming Sword Art Online film Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night has announced its official release date with a new poster.
The poster, revealed during the Sword Art Online talk show event at Aniplex Online Fest 2021, confirms that Aria of a Starless Night will release in Japanese theaters later this year on Saturday, Oct. 30. Information regarding the film's United States release will be revealed at a later date.
Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night is based on Sword Art Online: Progressive, a series of light novels that serves as an expanded retelling of the original Sword Art Online's Aincrad arc. The original anime series' voice cast, including Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Haruka Tomatsu, are set to reprise their roles for the film, with Inori Minase also joining the cast as a new, anime-exclusive character named Mitol.
Aria of a Starless Night is written by Sword Art Online creator Reki Kawahara and directed by Ayako Kōno in her first primary directorial role at A-1 Pictures. The film also features character designs by Kento Toya and music by Yuki Kajiura.
Sword Art Online began life in 2002 as a series of novels by Kawahara, with the popular light novel series written by Kawahara and illustrated by abec debuting in 2009. An anime adaptation ran for 25 episodes from July to December of 2012 (July 2013 to February 2014 in English). A special episode/television film titled Sword Art Online: Extra Edition aired in Japanese in December 2013 and in English in December 2014.
The original anime was followed by Sword Art Online II, which ran for 24 episodes, and Sword Art Online: Alicization, which ran for 47 episodes. Aria of a Starless Night is Sword Art Online's second theatrical feature film, following 2017's Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale. A number of other spinoffs and pieces of media -- including more light novels, manga adaptations, the Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online anime and a collection of video games -- have also been released.
Directed by Ayako Kōno from a script by Reki Kawahara, Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night stars the voices of Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Haruka Tomatsu and Inori Minase. The film arrives in theaters in Japan on Oct. 30.
Source: Funimation
