A suspenseful and action-packed trailer has dropped for Sword Art Online -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night.
The trailer gives viewers glimpses of many aspects of the new movie, including the characters, combat, narrative stakes and monsters. More importantly, it showcases the developing relationship between leads Asuna and Kirito. Scherzo of Deep Night premiered in Japan on Oct. 22; its original release date was Sept. 10, but it experienced delays regarding its premiere due to a resurgence of confirmed COVID-19 cases. At the time of writing, it is unclear when the movie will debut in North America or internationally.
Scherzo of Deep Night Is Aria of a Starless Night's Sequel
Based on the Sword Art Online -Progressive- light novels by series creator Reki Kawahara, the Progressive film series greatly expand upon the events of the "Aincrad" story arc, detailing what occurred on individual floors of the deadly video game. Scherzo of Deep Night is a direct sequel to 2021's Aria of a Starless Night, which earned an impressive box office of $14.03 million and won Best Picture and Best Character Design at the Newtype Anime Awards.
The sequel movie introduces viewers to Aincrad's fifth floor, a massive mazelike ruin. The story sees Kirito and Asuna adventuring together in order to find treasure and equipment that can help, and the other members of the vanguard defeat the level's boss and move on to the next floor. While the new trailer for Scherzo of Deep Night promises a narrative filled with brutal combat and intense emotion, a piece of promotional artwork released earlier this year teases moments of levity and joy between the two leads.
A-1 Pictures, the studio behind Aria of a Starless Night, produced the sequel with Ayako Kono (The Seven Deadly Sin the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky) and Kento Toya (Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans) once again serving as chief director and animation director, respectively, and Yuki Kajiura (The Case Study of Vanitas) composing the music. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma) and Haruka Tomatsu (Uncle from Another World) have reprised their starring roles as Kirito and Asuna. Other members of the voice cast include Inori Minase (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?) as Mito and Kaede Hondo (Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun) as Liten.
The Progressive light novel series is distributed in English by Yen Press, and the original Sword Art Online anime is available to stream on Netflix, Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Source: YouTube