Sword Art Online: Progressive Movie - Hoshi Naki Yoru no Aria

Excelling socially and academically, Asuna Yuuki is on track to ace her high school entrance exams. Her friend and classmate, Misumi "Mito" Tozawa, advises her to take a short break from studying and join her on the launch day of Sword Art Online (SAO)—the highly anticipated online virtual reality multiplayer game. Asuna accepts her offer and soon meets her in the game.

In a cruel twist of fate, Asuna, Mito, and every other player logged into SAO find themselves trapped in the game permanently. The only way out is to clear all one hundred floors of the game, and to make matters worse, dying inside the game will kill the player in real life. With SAO now turned into a nightmare death trap, Asuna and other gamers—such as the lone swordsman Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya—must adapt and survive, all whilst attempting to beat the unforgiving competition to the top.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kirigaya, Kazuto Main

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Yuuki, Asuna Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Tozawa, Misumi Main

Minase, Inori Japanese

Tsuboi, Ryoutarou Supporting

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Ayano, Keiko Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Kayaba, Akihiko Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Mills, Andrew Gilbert Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Argo Supporting

Izawa, Shiori Japanese

Heathcliff Supporting

Diabel Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Kawakami, Ryuutarou Producer

Futami, Yousuke Producer

Niwa, Masami Producer

Kuroi, Hitomi Assistant Producer

Reviews

Oct 30, 2021

JongoPorgo

Recommended

It's no surprise that SAO is one of the most significant franchises in the anime industry. No matter how each of us feels about it. We're not maniacs, are we?

I don't even know what to say. Perfect balance. The pacing is great, the visuals and the story are well adapted. (even including Mito) Music from Yuki Kajiura, as usual Godtear. If you are a fan of the franchise, then this is one hundred percent win. But even for people unfamiliar with original anime it will be interesting, or even become the door to the franchise.

I went to see the movie with a friend of ... mine who stopped watching SAO on the first season and he really liked to.

The relationships of the characters who try to grasp the reality of the death-game concept are interesting. The atmosphere of pressure, which grows into a light hope crashed into harsh reality, can also lure the viewer and of course the very spirit of virtual immersion. For me personally, this movie is much better than Ordinal Scale

As a fan. My scrore will be 9 but even objectively the film deserves a minimum of 8.

P.s ( Unless you are a "crazy hater/troll" who wants to attract attention or something. Just putting 1 point out of 10 without objective facts. Because this is an adult act, right? )

P.S.S ( And yes, please. There is no need to fool people that you allegedly watched a movie (( if you are going )). At the time of this review, it was only viewable in Japan and I highly doubt that presumable future English speaking reviewers live in Japan. There is no need to spread misinformation or hate for the sake of hate. Have self-esteem for others and for yourself. )

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 7, 2021

Snolled

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Sword Art Online: Progressive Review
From a person that has not watched any SAO Series.

**This is my first review on MAL**

Surprisingly, good except for the storyline.
A-1 Graphics and animations alleviates this movie a lot.

[Story 4/10] [Character 5/10]
The story is very short and doesn't have anything relevant. The whole plot is mostly the intro of the series. The story is brief to the point that I can summarize it in only 5 minutes. Most of the air times in this series are edgy scenes, specifically the MC, who I had to watch his edgy personality for about an hour. About the jokes in this series, they are ... directing Kirito to be a comical character, which I personally like. In this movie, Kirito isn't an OP MC and has a harem, which adds more to my liking. My most favorite moments are Kirito's interaction with Asuna, where he is always nervous and jumpy around her. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka uses his voice acting in these parts very well too.

[Animation 9/10]
Animation is great. Action scenes are
natural and very smooth. Other than that, it just has a microscopic scene that burns the animation for like 2 second, which is not a big deal.
[Sound 10/10]
Music and sound effects are a masterpiece. Although the first half of the movie doesn't include many fight scenes making is very inviting to sleep, the BGM helps a lot, keeping me from sleeping. I enjoy Ayase's OST and LiSA's vocals the most. To be exact, I played the song on repeat for almost 70 times (not lying). About the voice actors, there were no problems with their acting in my opinion. Inori Minase and Haruka Tomatsu did good like their past works.

[Enjoyment 7/10] [Overall 5/10]
Overall, I enjoyed this series, but at the end of the day, I can give this series only a 5/10 mainly because of the story.

Special thanks to my friend that translate this review to English Ver.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 21, 2022

Lawlithon

Not Recommended

SAO is a franchise that tends to get a large amount of backlash and hate whenever it is brought up, and while that tends to be an excessive amount for a show that isn't necessarily the worst of all time, it certainly deserves some of the vitriol that goes its way. Having seen the entirety of S1 and half of S1 of Alicization, I was pretty much done testing the show, as I found nothing enjoyable or memorable after season one's aincrad arc, which was my favorite section of the series. So naturally, when a movie is released that promised to develop Asuna, one of ... the most disappointing characters post-Aincrad, I was excited to hear what they had in line. Given that most, if not all, characters in SAO were half-baked disappointments, I was interested to see what they could do. So imagine my reaction when they somehow managed to make her character worse.

I am convinced that Reki Kawahara has never talked to a woman in his life. After seeing this movie, there is no doubt in my mind that the only things he knows about women are the cliches and stereotypes in media. The introduction scene is the smoking gun, where we watch Asuna have a "conversation" with girls in her school, where they grunt and say "hello" and "bye" to each other with the most shallow of exchanges that wouldn't even equate to a puddle in depth. Things take on a bit more depth when they get in-game, but even after that the story begins to seriously lose me more and more.

The chemistry between Asuna and Misumi is bland. There is almost no chemistry between these two characters, which is kind of a problem when you consider that the movie is about these two. Asuna in the Aincrad arc of S1 was at least somewhat lively. Sure, her personality was very surface-level, but at the end of the day there was something there, something that had substance. In this movie, it feels as if they forgot she was a character, something which I don't blame them for considering the cardboard cutouts of characters that almost all girls are in this show.

Story-wise, the main plot is meant to lead into the first boss of the game. The pacing is alright and the story remains relatively on track. However, nothing of substance can really be said of the story here. It's the same as you saw in the Aincrad arc, but with more training on Asuna's part. Nothing much can be said about the overall story, but the final act's aftermath ended up making the conclusion worse in comparison to the original story, something I didn't even consider possible until now.

In short, this movie was bland and disappointing. In its attempt to flesh out the characters, it ended up making them even more boring and lifeless, but hey at least the animation and sound is ok so there's that. Someone please tell Kawahara how to write female characters, though, because somehow he managed to make the only interesting one worse.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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