Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night

Sword Art Online the Movie: Aria of a Starless Night
Directed by	Ayako Kawano
Written by	Reki Kawahara
Story by	Reki Kawahara
Based on	Sword Art Online by Reki Kawahara
Starring	Yoshitsugu Matsuoka Haruka Tomatsu Ayana Taketatsu Kanae Itō Rina Hidaka Ayahi Takagaki Miyuki Sawashiro Hiroaki Hirata Hiroki Yasumoto Kōichi Yamadera Toshiyuki Morikawa Sayaka Kanda Yoshio Inoue Takeshi Kaga
Cinematography	Kentarō Waki
Edited by	Shigeru Nishiyama
Music by	Yuki Kajiura
Animation by	Kento Toya
Production company	A-1 Pictures
Distributed by	Aniplex
Release date	2021
Running time	100 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Sword Art Online the Movie: Aria of a Starless Night (Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン映画：星のない夜のアリア, Hepburn: Gekijō-ban Sōdo Āto Onrain eiga: Hoshi no nai yoru no aria), also known as Sword Art Online: Progressive the Movie - Hoshi Naki Yoru no Aria or Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night, is a 2021 Japanese animated science fiction action adventure film based on the Sword Art Online: Progressive novels written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The film is produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Ayako Kawano, and is an official part of the Sword Art Online storyline, featuring an original story by Kawahara, character designs by Shingo Adachi and music by Yuki Kajiura. The title Aria of a Starless Night derives from volume 1, chapter 1 of the Progressive light novel series and covers events on Aincrad's first floor, in particular Asuna's initial struggle to cope with the realities of her new world.

Production

After the finale of Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld, an anime adaptation of Sword Art Online: Progressive was announced on November 8,2020 along with the trailer on AnimeUS and Aniplex USA. The first trailer of the movie was release of the official twitter account of the anime. It was later revealed to be a new film titled Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night, which is set to premiere in 2021.

Ayaka Kawano is director, Yasuyuki Kai as Action Director and A-1 Pictures returning for production. The voice cast from the anime series returned to reprise their roles in the film. Voice actor Yoshitsugu Masuoka returns as Kirito and Haruka Tomatsu returns as Asuna.

New website for the film was launched , firstly in Japan then for the USA. The official USA website of the film was launched on 11 November 2020.

Voice cast

Character	Japanese	English
Kirito / Kazuto Kirigaya	Yoshitsugu Matsuoka	Bryce Papenbrook
Asuna / Asuna Yuuki	Haruka Tomatsu	Cherami Leigh
Leafa / Suguha Kirigaya	Ayana Taketatsu	Cassandra Lee Morris
Yui	Kanae Itō	Stephanie Sheh
Silica / Keiko Ayano	Rina Hidaka	Christine Marie Cabanos
Lisbeth / Rika Shinozaki	Ayahi Takagaki	Sarah Anne Williams
Sinon / Shino Asada	Miyuki Sawashiro	Michelle Ruff
Klein / Ryōtarō Tsuboi	Hiroaki Hirata	Kirk Thornton
Agil / Andrew Gilbert Mills	Hiroki Yasumoto	Patrick Seitz
Akihiko Kayaba	Kōichi Yamadera	Marc Diraison
Seijirō Kikuoka	Toshiyuki Morikawa	Matthew Mercer
Yuna / Yuuna Shigemura	Sayaka Kanda	Ryan Bartley
Nautilus/ Eiji / Eiji Nochizawa	Yoshio Inoue	Chris Patton
Dr. Tetsuhiro Shigemura	Takeshi Kaga	Jamieson Price

Release

The film is set to premiere in 2021 in Japan. The theatrical version of the first limited edition advance ticket using a teaser visual with Asuna standing in front of "Aincrad" was released on 28 December 2020 on the official website at Aniplex+. The production studio announced that the first limited edition advance ticket of the film was the world's fastest advance ticket sale. These tickets are expected to be delivered by the end of February 2021.

No release dates for West has been announced .

External links

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Official website(in English)
• Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night at IMDb
• Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night at Anime News Network's encyclopedia