Sword Art Online: Alicization (ソードアート・オンライン アリシゼーション) is a 2018 television anime series based on the light novel of the same name written by Reki Kawahara. It was adapted by studio A-1 Pictures and directed by Manabu Ono. Aniplex published the series and was first broadcast in Japan on October 2018 as part of the Autumn season.
Background:
“Kirito Kazugaya spends his days in simple, childish bliss, playing with his friends Eugeo and Alice and revelling in the quiet harmony of the land known as Underworld. This peaceful life is shattered when playful exploration sees the trio arrive on the cusp of entering the so-called Dark Territory. When a brief slip sees Alice fall within this territory, the sentence meted out to her is a harsh one: execution.
This, however, is not a memory he will easily recall, provided as it is by a new and incredibly immersive Full-Dive technology which he has been hired to test, and which leaves him with no tangible recollection of his adventures. Little does Kirito know that he will soon be returning to Underworld in unexpected and dire circumstances, reuniting him with his good friend Eugeo and setting him down the path of a battle not just to save the missing Alice, but also himself.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, October 2020
As many have previously said before, Sword Art Online is a huge franchise at this point. It’s now reached a point where the series has entered its third anime season after a film and a spin-off series were animated prior. This time though, the story is much larger so the third season is technically considered “Part 1”.
Sword Art Online: Alicization adapts the Alicization story arc but only from the light novel volume 9 “Alicization Beginning” to 14 “Alicization Uniting“. In addition, Kirito is the only main character who has a bigger role than Asuna and the others as the story also feels like a proper Isekai due to how it develops. Asuna and the others do make an appearance but for the most part that doesn’t happen until the season after that.
What makes Sword Art Online: Alicization different to the previous seasons is that the world Kirito visits is a lot different in tone. The violence in this Underworld setting is stronger than Aincrad or even Gun Gale Online. In other words, we have gore involved and there’s even one scene which may upset viewers due to acts of sexual violence. Episode 10 alone was the reason why the UK ratings board, the BBFC, gave this set an 18 rating.
Aniplex of America did tone down Episode 10 for Crunchyroll’s simulcast and even further for Toonami’s broadcast, but the Blu-rays are 100% the exact same as the Japanese Blu-ray release, so nothing has been removed or censored for those who really want to know.
On a positive note, the show’s animation is on the same level as the film Ordinal Scale and it’s impressive how far the series has gone ever since it first got an anime over half a decade ago. A-1 Pictures animated the series and at the time of this post, the next SAO project is Sword Art Online: Progressive so that’s going to be exciting (Progressive is a remake of the Aincrad story arc).
Aniplex of America have the English rights to the series and released it as a big complete series box set which surprised everyone, however the price itself is pretty insane. As such, Anime Limited and Madman have decided to release the series in two parts to lower the cost. Anime Limited have the UK & Ireland rights while Madman have Australia & New Zealand rights.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Anime Limited loves providing collector’s edition releases for their catalogue and Sword Art Online: Alicization follows a similar design to the previous Sword Art Online releases from the distributor.
Part 1 of the set comes with a rigid box using artwork carried over from the Aniplex releases and houses the discs in a digipack packaging. Unlike Sword Art Online II, this is a Blu-ray only release though they did bring back that gloss effect which once again ruins the artwork in my opinion (it’s one of those ideas that looks good on paper but the execution is not the greatest).
Also included is an outer box to house both parts of the series and the physical items included with this set are a couple of art cards. I suspect the booklet from Aniplex of America’s release will be brought over in the second part of the UK release.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £59.99. A regular DVD version is available with the Blu-ray standard edition not possible for the time being.
Now I hate to brag but I actually acquired this set during a pricing mishap with Amazon. So rather than the set going for about £40-50, it was £14. Now when most of the titles were caught up I had my suspicion that this set would get the same result so I kept an eye on the listing. My assumption was correct and I grabbed it as soon as I could. It did get amended very early on but those who ordered it at that price were honoured.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with digipack packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- Outer Box with clean artwork to house both collector’s edition parts
- 6 Art Cards
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 26th October 2020
The collector’s edition release for Sword Art Online: Alicization Part 1 covers episodes 1 to 13 across two Blu-ray discs. 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.
And to reiterate, yes this release is uncensored and uncut. The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are locked to B for Blu-ray.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- Japanese Promos
- Web Previews
- Textless Opening “Adamas”
- Textless Closing “Iris”
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Sword Art Online: Alicization Part 1 is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. You can order the collector’s edition Blu-ray over on Amazon UK.
The Normanic Vault 
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