Over a year has passed since the Progressive Movie Hypetrain has begun! Aria of a Starless Night Megathreads have decorated the sub as the main pinned thread for a while, but with Anime Japan 2022 on March 27, that era is coming to a close. So welcome everyone, to the Sword Art Online Progressive -Scherzo of Deep Night- Movie Megathread! The goal of this thread is not only to ensure the Front Page does not get flooded with “Is Progressive a musical series?” or other, probably less funny common questions, but also to provide you a central avenue to reach information. Below, you will find an FAQ regarding Progressive in general, as well as Scherzo of Deep Night in specifics, as well as a regularly updated source of material for the upcoming movie as they come! Feel free to ask your questions in the comments for fellow members to respond to! We’ll be adding common questions to the FAQ as well.

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Sources for information:

Official Sword Art Online Twitter account (Japanese only)

Sword Art Online Wikia Twitter account (translates from the official account as quickly as possible)

Gamerturk on Youtube (basically news from the Wikia twitter account in video form if that’s your thing, along with Introductory videos we produce with SAO Wikia)

Official Sword Art Online USA account (if you want to get your news 1-6 weeks after you get them from other mentioned sources)

Disclaimer: I am part of the SAO Wikia crew. Gamerturk is also my personal channel. Revenue generated by Wikia videos are directed to the SAO Scans project in full. Revenue generated from my personal videos remain with me.

September 6

New release date for the movie is October 22! New OST release is October 21, Theme Song “Shinzou” by Aoi Eir to release on October 19.

SAO Anime Twitter confirmation: https://twitter.com/sao_anime/status/1566984541444751368

August 21

The movie has been postponed from its original release date of September 10, along with the OST released scheduled for September 9. The Early Premiere Event has been cancelled. The cause has been stated to be the re-emerging spread of Covid and production issues. No new release date has been scheduled yet: https://twitter.com/sao_wikia/status/1561648415213121537

August 2

New Trailer, still not a long PV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOQ_MmBnrw

Raw PV (non-translated, official upload): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JQy_lGsqlY

New Key Visual: https://twitter.com/gamerturk95/status/1554453134809989124

July 22

New character art for Kirito, Asuna, Argo and Mito have been revealed, showcasing their Floor 5 attire and weapons: https://twitter.com/gamerturk95/status/1550419529125216256

Stay tuned for August 2nd, where there will be screenings of Aria of a Starless Night in Japan, and we’ll get more Scherzo information there: https://twitter.com/sao_wikia/status/1550417824895578112

July 1

We received our second trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCdgcKRfR0o

It is a 40 second trailer that was published on Japanese TV. Could be a shorter version of the Anime Expo trailer, or the same one.

June 15

We received our second Key Visual along with the release date of September 10 in Japan: https://twitter.com/gamerturk95/status/1537003357075906560

Currently no worldwide information.

March 27, Anime Japan

We received our first (teaser) trailer for Scherzo of Deep Night.

English translation by SAO Wikia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hpfFHVHYcY

Original raw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uv8VUYS5JQ

Current Upcoming Events for info:

August 2nd will provide more info, new PV and Opening Theme info, which is already known to be Shinzou by Aoi Eir, just not yet officially announced: https://twitter.com/sao_wikia/status/1550417824895578112

What is Sword Art Online Progressive?

Sword Art Online Progressive is a spin-off Light Novel series written by the author of the SAO series, Reki Kawahara. The books are a revisit to the original Aincrad Arc that was initially written as a standalone story of the final days of Aincrad, that was later expanded on via various side stories, thus leaving a lot of time skips in its wake. Progressive starts 3 weeks after the First Day side story and aims to cover Aincrad’s skipped portions Floor by Floor.

Spin-Off? Isn’t this canon?

It is very much canon. The fact that it is considered a “Spin-Off” is solely due to it not directly being part of the Sword Art Online Main Series Novels that follow the “Sword Art Online Volume XY” naming scheme, but rather going with the title “Sword Art Online Progressive Volume XY”. Canon and Spin-Off are not mutually exclusive terms.

What is Scherzo of Deep Night?

Scherzo of Deep Night is the 5th story of the Progressive series, covering the events of Aincrad’s 5th Floor. The story is featured in Sword Art Online Progressive Volume 4 (Light Novel). More would be spoilers really.

Light Novel? I thought this was a Manga with Asuna as the main character?

The source material for Progressive, much like almost all SAO Stories, are the Light Novels. Progressive Manga is just as much of an adaptation as the Anime will be, if even that. The manga adaptation of Progressive has had multiple runs with different Mangakas, each having their own take on the story and characters. Some are slightly faithful, some change entire events, thus the Manga adaptation is considered to be non-canon.

Yeah, but Asuna is still the main character, right?

Not exactly. Depending on your take, you can consider her a co-main character, or simply a strong deuteragonist. Her appearance in Progressive is very similar to Eugeo’s appearance in Alicization (Anime did not do Eugeo any justice FYI). Majority of the story is told from Kirito’s perspective and his knowledge, but there are portions from Asuna’s PoV too, as Progressive is the story of the duo.

The first movie took an Asuna centric approach to the story, mostly assumed due to the fact that we had already seen Kirito’s perspective of the events back in Season 1 Episode 1 and Episode 2 (albeit the latter cut out 80% of the content, which led to there being enough to cover for a movie). We currently do not know whether this approach will continue in Scherzo movie too, or whether they will return to a Light Novel accurate perspective, as none of this content has ever been covered before in the Anime.

So…. Is this thing anywhere near complete?

Hahahahah. No.

Currently, 8 Volumes of SAO Progressive have been released. These 8 Volumes cover up until and including Floor 7 (V1 has F1&2, V5&6 have F6, V7&8 have F7). Progressive v9 is expected to release this year (2022).

How much is the Anime going to cover?

The first movie, Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night will cover the Floor 1 story, Aria of a Starless Night.

The second movie, Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night will cover the Floor 5 story, Scherzo of Deep Night.

More movies are expected in the future, as the reason for the jump from Floor 1 to 5 has been explained due to the nature of an ongoing, overarching story that is yet to be completed in the Light Novels. The Elf War Campaign starts on Floor 3 and is supposed to last until Floor 9.

When will it air?

Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night is scheduled for September 10, 2022 release in Japan. Worldwide information has not been shared yet.