Wednesday, October 5, 2016
The anime film will play in approximately 1, 000 theaters around the world. The film is scheduled to open in 150 theaters in Japan, and Aniplex of America validated the film's overseas release. Amazon Japan had published a ticket/poster bundle that listed the February 18 opening date.
Aniplex explains the movie's story:
In 2026, 2 years since the SAO event, a new game titled "Ordinal Scale, " an Augmented-Reality MMO, has grown into famous among the players. But…strange issues are happening in the game and Kirito and the gang are dealing with a new danger. A fresh story created by the original author, Reki Kawahara and directed by Tomohiko Ito, "Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale-" is arriving at theaters in Spring 2017.
The film's all-new original story sets after the Mother's Rosario arc, which was the last arc shown in the TV anime's second season. Original light novel author Reki Kawahara is authoring the new story for the film. Tomohiko Ito is coming back again from the two TV anime series and the anime special to direct the film at A-1 Pictures. Shingo Adachi is also coming back again from the TV anime to design the characters based on abec's original character designs, and Yuki Kajiura is returning to score the music. The film will include a returning cast from the two anime series.
