Sword Art Online Hits Cinemas For Special One-Night Event

The wildly popular anime series Sword Art Online is set to make its U.S. cinematic premiere with the English subtitled “Sword Art Online The Movie -Ordinal Scale- A Special Event.” At this exclusive event, anime fans will experience an all-new adventure with Kirito, Asuna and their party members as they explore the world of “Ordinal Scale,” a new hit game utilizing augmented reality technology.

This one-night event comes to movie theaters on Thursday, March 9 at 8:00 p.m. local time, from Fathom Events, Aniplex of America Inc. and ELEVEN ARTS. In addition to the full-length, English sub-titled feature, the Fathom event will include exclusive content to be announced soon.

Immediately following the Fathom premiere event, “Sword Art Online The Movie-Ordinal Scale-” will kick-off its wide theatrical release.

Tickets for “Sword Art Online The Movie -Ordinal Scale- A Special Event” can be purchased online by visiting www.FathomEvents.com and www.elevenarts.net/sao or at participating theater box offices. Fans throughout the U.S. will be able to enjoy the event in more than 500 select movie theaters.

The animated TV series Sword Art Online is based on author Reki Kawahara’s light novel of the same name. Since the first volume was published in April 2009, the series has sold more than 12.5 million copies in Japan and 19 million worldwide and spawned two TV anime adaptations, video games, comic books and merchandise.

In “Sword Art Online -Ordinal Scale-” the game’s players find the line between the virtual world and reality beginning to blur, and their worst nightmares coming true. As his fellow players find themselves in danger, Kirito, the hero, is called upon once again. Can he save his friends, or is this going to be game over for him?

“Fathom Events is proud to continue to bring the very best in anime to American cinemas with the debut of this title,” Fathom Events CEO John Rubey said. “We are pleased to partner again with ELEVEN ARTS and for the first time with Aniplex of America to offer this unique presentation to fans,”

Sword Art Online Extra Edition Coming on Blu-ray and DVD

Aniplex of America, Inc. recently announced at their industry panel at Anime Weekend Atlanta (Atlanta, GA.) that they will be releasing the home video versions of SWORD ART ONLINE –Extra Edition– on Blu-ray and DVD on December 23rd. Pre-orders for this product will begin next Monday (9/29/2014) on the official U.S. Sword Art Online homepage (www.SwordArt-OnlineUSA.com) and also through official retailers. The SWORD ART ONLINE –Extra Edition– will be available in the U.S., Canada, Central and South Americas.The SWORD ART ONLINE –Extra Edition– will feature both the original Japanese and English audios with English and Spanish subtitles. 

Bonus contents for the Blu-ray release will include the “Sword Art Offline” special animation (English subtitles included), the Sword Art Online II trailer, a deluxe booklet and an exclusive poster. The standard edition DVD will include the SAO II trailer as the bonus content. < BD Features>  Spoken Languages: Japanese & English  Subtitles: English & Spanish  Total Run Time: Approx. 100 min.  Rating: 13UP  Special Animation “Sword Art Offline” (English subtitled)  SAO II Trailer  Deluxe booklet  Exclusive poster.

About Sword Art Online Extra Edition
On a hot summer day, Kazuto (Kirito) takes Suguha (Leafa) to his school, to meet Asuna, Keiko 
(Silica) and Rika (Lisbeth). Their mission: teach Suguha how to swim. Kazuto, however, has a 
prior commitment to see Seijiro Kikuoka, an officer with the Virtual Reality Section of the 
Department of General Affairs. Kikuoka wants to go over Kazuto’s recollection of his time in 
SAO and ALO, to resolve some unanswered questions. Later in ALO, Kirito and the girls (along 
with Klein and Agil), embark on an underwater quest to show Yui her very first whale. But the deeper down they go, the more mysterious the quest becomes…

New Characters Announced For Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax

I'm sure everyone  knows SEGA is no stranger when it comes to games featuring anime our favorite anime characters, and it seems Dangeki Bunko Fighting Climax will be no different! Check out the new trailer below.

SEGA is out to make a anime fighter that will rival "J-Stars Victory Vs" using all our favorite characters from non jump anime. Includes characters from sword art online, Durarara!!, Strike the blood,the devil is a part timer, and even Oreimo. All characters under the ASCII Media Works umbrella. The two new characters announced are Yukina Himeragi from "Strike the Blood" and Rentarō Satomi from "Black Bullet". Dangeki Bunko Fighting Climax is slated for a japan only release for Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita On Novermber 13, 2014. So go to your local import store to pick that up!

Aniplex of America Announces Sword Art Online II Simulcast Details

Aniplex of America has confirmed that Sword Art Online II will begin its simulcast schedule on July 5th for multiple territories across the world through Hulu, Crunchyroll, and DAISUKI. See below for streaming details.

Platform	URL	Streaming Starts	Available Territories
Hulu Hulu Plus	http://www.hulu.com/sword-art-online-2	July 5th	U.S. only
Crunchyroll	www.crunchyroll.com/sao	July 5th	U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, U.K., Ireland, Latin American Countries, Europe (excluding German & French speaking countries), Asia (excluding China, Korea, Taiwan)

1 year after the SAO incident, Kirito is approached by Seijiro Kikuoka from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Department "VR Division" with a rather peculiar request.

That was an investigation on the "Death Gun" incident that occurred in the gun and steel filled VRMMO called GunGale Online (GGO). "Players who are shot by a mysterious avatar with a jet black gun lose their lives even in the real world…" Failing to turn down Kikuoka’s bizarre request, Kirito logs in to GGO even though he is not completely convinced that the virtual world could physically affect the real world.

Kirito wanders in an unfamiliar world in order to gain any clues about the "Death Gun." Then, a female sniper named Sinon who owns a gigantic "Hecate II" rifle extends Kirito a helping hand. With Sinon’s help, Kirito decides to enter the "Bullet of Bullets," a large tournament to choose the most powerful gunner within the realm of GGO, in hopes to become the target of the "Death Gun" and make direct contact with the mysterious avatar.


 

 

Sword Art Online DVD/Blu-Ray Release Dates Announced

Recently at their panel at Anime Boston, Aniplex of America Inc. announced their release plans for the hit anime series Sword Art Online in North America: 4 volumes per format, Limited Edition Blu-ray Box Set and Standard Edition DVD. Release dates are as follows: 
Volume 1 – Aincrad Part 1 - August 13th 
Volume 2 – Aincrad Part 2 - September 17th 
Volume 3 – Fairy Dance Part 1 - October 15th 
Volume 4 – Fairy Dance Part 2 - November 19th 

All SKUs will be available for pre-order and purchase through rightstuf.com and Aniplex’s official retailers (Aniplexusa.com/retailers) from May 28th . Each of the Limited Edition Blu-ray Box Sets will come with tons of bonus materials including Original Soundtrack CD (Vol.1 & 3) or Bonus DVD of English cast interviews (Vol.2 & 4), a deluxe 16 page booklet, illustration pin-ups as well as exclusive collectible card from Bushiroad. In addition, bonus contents on each Blu-ray discs will include audio commentary by creators and Japanese cast, Special Animation “Sword Art OFFline”, and more.

Pre-orders for all volumes begin today and can be ordered through Rightstuf and Official Retailers

Right Stuf:           Limited Edition Blu-ray Set Vol. 1: http://bit.ly/12gzPJS

DVD Set Vol. 1: http://bit.ly/12gzPJS

Official Retailers: http://www.AniplexUSA.com/retailers

Sword Art Online Review (S.A.O) -ItsComicKid

If you haven't heard Sword Art Online is the new love it or hate its show that ended 2012. with many who will rejoice to hear if it earns another season. And with many viewers crowing S.A.O  "-THE best anime I've seen in a couple of years" it most likely will, but like any thing popular there are just as many people who cant stand It claiming it to all be just hype. Is it just S.A.O just hype or is it well deserved. 

In S.A.O The players of a virtual reality MMORPG, Aincrad Online, are trapped and fighting for their very lives. After it is announced that the only way to leave the game is by beating it, Kirito—a very powerful swordsman—and his friends take on a quest to free all the minds trapped in Aincrad. -Anime News Network that's pretty much the base story to S.A.O with out spoilers or an essay. The story revolves around Kirito a mmo expert who was a beta tester for Aincrad Online be for it launched, and his struggles through out the cyber world. As he tries to beat the game to be set free.

Pacing a double edged sword for S.A.O. At the beginning of the show there is nearly no slow points at all. Your thrown right into the thick of this world and its characters problems. Some thing is always happening for the  first half of the show. For the sake of entertainment lets not spoiling things and just say there is literately a game changing plot twist. I would not go as far to say its unpredictable but what happens later really is and makes you think the show is finished. Right after the show seem to come to a complete halt  and moves along slowly for the next five or six episodes. which is not a bad thing it explains the story but for some one who really is not committed to the story it will leave them bored and may very well be a deal breaker.

That said if you can get past the slow streak then this is the show for you. The story is one of the most addictive i seen in along time. And by taking a different path than most action anime it focus on character and relationship building in stead of action. At some points it feels like fight scenes were scraped or shortened to leave more room for connections and story telling. Clearly my favorite anime of the year. Also Sword Art Online is now on hulu you could search for it or clicking here to bring you straight there.

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