Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night

Sword Art Online the Movie - Progressive - Aria of a Starless Night retells the opening arc of the Sword Art Online story from Asuna Yuuki's perspective. A diligent student who has never taken much interest in games, Asuna borrows her brother's virtual reality gear and enters Sword Art Online, the first full-dive online role-playing game, to join her friend Misumi Tozawa, known as Mito. What begins as an adventure turns into a trap: the players find themselves unable to log out, and the game's creator, Akihiko Kayaba, informs them that dying inside the game means dying in reality. Escape is possible only by clearing all one hundred floors of the floating castle Aincrad. Asuna, unwilling to wait for others to fight her battles, throws herself into learning the game's mechanics and swordplay, and her speed with a rapier draws the attention of Kirito, a solo player who prefers to rely on no one but himself. Their meeting on the front lines marks the start of a partnership.

The film was directed by Ayako Kono, her second feature after Accel World: Infinite Burst, and precedes her work on Scherzo of Deep Night. Yukito Kizawa wrote the screenplay, and the voice cast includes Haruka Tomatsu as Asuna, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Kirito, Inori Minase as Mito, Koichi Yamadera as Akihiko Kayaba, Hiroki Yasumoto as Agil and Nobuyuki Hiyama as Diabel.

Released in Japan in late October 2021, the film took about 14 million dollars worldwide. It holds a 7.2 rating on IMDb from roughly 2,600 votes and a 7.8 on TMDB from a smaller base of 345 votes, indicating a warmly received film with a devoted but modest audience.