Sword Art Online II Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray & DVD) Unboxing Redux

Sword Art Online II is a 2014 television anime series based on the light novel of the same name written by Reki Kawahara. It was adapted by studio A-1 Pictures with director Tomohiko Itou, and published by Aniplex. The series first broadcast in Japan on July 2014 as part of the Summer 2014 anime season.

Brief Unboxing Redux Note:

I first acquired Sword Art Online II Part 1 in April 2016 followed by Part 2 in November 2016, Part 3 in June 2017 and Part 4 also in June 2017. All four parts were unboxed over on my Normanic Vault blog via Blogger. This post is a remaster of that unboxing with better photos, updated information and any added extras. Enjoy!

Background:

“A year has passed since SAO was cleared. Summoned by Seijirou Kikuoka of the Virtual Division at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Kazuto (Kirito) learns of a series of bizarre murders linked to the popular VR game, Gun Gale Online (GGO). After being shot in-game by a player calling himself Death Gun, two prominent GGO players have mysteriously turned up dead in the real world.

As Kazuto logs in GGO and starts investigating the mystery, he meets a girl sniper named Sinon who wields a Hecate II rifle. Is she friend or foe? Kirito enters the virtual world once more for an all new adventure!”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, September 2015.

Sword Art Online is one of those franchises that blew up and the anime community either loves it or hates it. The same can also be said with the franchise’s story arcs and the waifus they have. It’s been over five years since Sword Art Online II first aired in Japan and I don’t think much has changed outside of the growing popularity, reaction and production quality of the series as a whole.

A-1 Pictures have animated all of the main Sword Art Online anime content so far and apparently they would like to adapt the whole story which is great but will take time due to almost catching up with the light novel source material. At the time of this post, Sword Art Online: Progressive is getting adapted which is a remake of the light novel’s first story arc so that will have the spotlight for the meantime.

Moving back to Sword Art Online II, the franchise has been distributed by Aniplex of America with a home video release as well as an English dub. In the UK, the first season was handled by Manga Entertainment while the Extra Edition special was never acquired. The second season was picked up by Anime Limited and since then the franchise has remained under their distribution for the UK, though Manga Entertainment still has the rights to the first season and no one has Extra Edition.

Because of Aniplex’s strict rules, the series has to be released across four volumes. Fortunately the UK & Australian releases were able to tweak the episode count included in volumes 3 & 4 to be more balanced compared to Aniplex of America’s approach which was 1 arc for Volume 3 rather than 1 arc and a bit of the next arc.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Anime Limited loves providing collector’s edition releases for their catalogue and Sword Art Online II was no exception. This was released during the time the distributor liked to have their A logo branding on the spines though the BBFC logos are no longer on there.

Each part of Sword Art Online II comes with a rigid box using artwork carried over from the Aniplex releases to house both the digipack containing the Blu-ray and DVD discs and a booklet. The booklet is an interesting one as we have the Aniplex of America contents plus the interviews included in the Japanese Blu-ray releases, which increases the page count to about 52.

Also included with the first batch of units for Part 1 is an outer box to house all four parts together. This outer box uses the artwork that represents the Gun Gale Online / Phantom Bullet story arc which was used as an outer box for the Japanese Blu-rays. Anime Limited did something similar for the standard edition Part 1 by using the artwork representing Calibur & Mother’s Rosario story arc.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet was wrapped around the box similarly to the original Mobile Suit Gundam Part 1 Blu-ray release.

Like the other Anime Limited sets, these collector’s edition releases each have 1000 units printed for an SRP of £39.99 for Parts 1 & 2 and £34.99 for Parts 3 & 4. Regular editions were eventually made available for a lower SRP as all four parts of the collector’s edition have since gone out of print.

Physical Contents:

• Part 1 first batch: Outer Box with clean artwork
• 4 x Rigid Box with Amaray case packaging and clean artwork
• 4 x 52-page booklet
• 4 x Info sheet for specs and BBFC which was merged with the wrapping

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 21st September 2015 (Part 1), 28th December 2015 (Part 2), 11th April 2016 (Part 3), 27th June 2016 (Part 4)

Sword Art Online II was released across four parts for the UK & US. The first part covers episodes 1 to 7, the second part covers episodes 8-14, the third part covers episodes 15-19 and the fourth part covers episodes 20-24. Each part has the episodes on a single Blu-ray and DVD disc. The encode and authoring were done by Madman. The audio options available for the series include Japanese with English subtitles and the Bang Zoom! English dub.

The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are locked to B for Blu-ray and 2 for DVD.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	4 (1 per part)

DVD Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English Dolby Digital 2.0 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0
Video	Standard Definition in NTSC format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	2
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	4 (1 per part)

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Part 1:

• Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 1
• Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 2
• Original Web Previews
• Textless Opening “Ignite”

Part 2:

• Episode 14.5: Debriefing
• Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 3
• Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 4
• Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 5
• Original Web Previews
• Textless Closing “Startear”

Part 3:

• Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 6
• Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 7
• Original Web Previews
• Textless Opening “Courage” Ver. 1
• Textless Closing “No More Time Machine”

Part 4:

• Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 8
• Special Animation “Sword Art Offline II” – Part 9
• Original Web Previews
• Textless Opening “Courage” Ver. 2
• Textless Closing “Shirushi” Ver. 1 & 2

DVD On-Disc Extra Features:

Part 1:

• Textless Opening “Ignite”

Part 2:

• Episode 14.5: Debriefing
• Textless Closing “Startear”

Part 3:

• Textless Opening “Courage” Ver. 1
• Textless Closing “No More Time Machine”

Part 4:

• Textless Opening “Courage” Ver. 2
• Textless Closing “Shirushi” Ver. 1 & 2

Unboxing Photos:

Part 1: Phantom Bullet arc:

Part 2: Phantom Bullet arc:

Part 3: Calibur & Mother’s Rosario arc:

Part 4: Mother’s Rosario arc:

Final Notes:

Sword Art Online II is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition sets as well as the first print edition for the standard edition Part 1 releases have all gone out of print and are no longer available. You can still acquire the standard edition sets on Amazon UK.