Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night (Limited Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night (劇場版ソードアート・オンラインプログレッシブ星なき夜のアリア, Sword Art Online: Progressive – Hoshi Naki Yoru no Aria) is a 2021 theatrical anime film based on Reki Kawahara’s light novel series Sword Art Online Progressive with illustrator abec. The film was directed by Ayako Kōno and produced by studio A-1 Pictures, with script writer Yukito Kizawa, character designer Kento Toya and music composer Yuki Kajiura. The film was first theatrically released in Japanese theatres in October 2021.

Background:

“This is a tale of the time before “Lightning Flash” and “The Black Swordsman” were known by those names… The day that she happened to don the NerveGear, Asuna Yuuki was a third-year middle school student who’d never even touched an online game before.

On November 6, 2022, the world’s first VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, is officially launched. But the players, still euphoric over having logged in, suddenly find themselves trapped inside the game when the Game Master deprives them of any way to log out. The Game Master then gives them this warning “This may be a game, but it’s not something you play.” If a player dies in-game, they die in the real world. Hearing this, all of the players panic, and pandemonium reigns. One of those players is Asuna, but despite not yet knowing the rules of this world, she sets off to conquer the floating iron castle, Aincrad, whose peak is too high to be seen. As the days go by in this world where death is never very far away, she has a fateful encounter. And then, a parting… Though she’s at the mercy of the reality before her eyes, Asuna fights on with all her might until someone appears before her: the aloof swordsman, Kirito…”
Plot Synopsis via Aniplex of America, January 2023.

It has been over 10 years since the Sword Art Online anime series started airing and it became a cultural phenomenon amongst the anime community in the same scale as the Weekly Shonen Jump anime. Literally everyone watched it and regardless of whether you liked it or not, it did contribute to bringing in newcomers into the anime medium. The series spawned numerous seasons, an original anime film and also the spin-off series based on the Gun Gale Online arc, plus the dozens of video games that take an alternate story route.

But around the same time the first anime series started airing, author Reki Kawahara decided to write another series called Sword Art Online Progressive that expands on the first story arc Aincrad. To provide some context, Aincrad was literally one and done in the first light novel volume which was a complete surprise to me when I first read it. The second volume expanded on the world’s side content which the anime series mixed in so that it was in chronological order, before the third volume moved forward with the Fairy Dance arc. In fairness to Reki Kawahara, he probably didn’t expect the series to blow up that fast in terms of popularity but a lot of readers and anime watchers do consider Aincrad to be one of their favourite arcs in the series.

Sword Art Online Progressive is not considered a replacement of the original story arc but more-so adding more content in more detail, for example the first light novel volume of this new series is essentially exploring the events of the first two chapters of the original novel and early episodes of the anime series.

Aniplex and A-1 Pictures decided to adapt Sword Art Online Progressive into a theatrical adaptation path, rather than as a television series, and I think that’s partly due to the story arcs in the light novel are not fully completed just yet and these volumes are not written as fast as you would expect, which probably explains why it took this long to finally have an adaptation.

The first film Aria of a Starless Night is an adaptation of the first novel volume and also one of the chapter names too. You could technically watch this film without ever seeing any of the Sword Art Online content but I think its worth at least reading or watching the Aincrad arc portion before checking this out. Also worth mentioning that Asuna is the main lead in the film this time around, so you’re witnessing the events that take place from her perspective instead of Kirito’s.

Aniplex of America have been releasing the Sword Art Online franchise as they went along, including the spin-off series and film, so they have also acquired the rights for the Sword Art Online Progressive films. The UK scene is in a weird position as Crunchyroll UK theatrically released the first film but have not acquired the license to do the same for home video. Anime Limited, who have distributed Season 2 all the way to Alicization -War of Underworld-, have also not licensed the films either for the UK though they did secure French rights.

Limited Edition Contents:

Aniplex of America have modelled Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night after the Japanese home video release and surprisingly price-wise it’s more affordable than the previous releases for the franchise.

The limited edition Blu-ray release is presented with a rigid box featuring a info card wrapped around parts of the set (similarly to the Kizumonogatari film series releases), a digipack housing the disc, and a 64-page special booklet, which includes a brief synopsis of the main series’ story arcs, synopsis of the film with some character designs, monster & background designs, interviews with the original author and Japanese cast, and celebratory artwork for the theatrical release.

The rigid box has clean artwork with the title on the spine, and the info sheet has the information and specs. The limited edition Blu-ray set was released for an SRP of $64.98.

I acquired Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night from the Crunchyroll Store alongside a few other Aniplex of America releases as part of a catch-up haul.

Physical Contents:

Rigid Box with clean artwork
Info sheet for information and specs
Digipack case packaging
64-page Special Booklet

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Aniplex of America
Released: 24th January 2023

The limited edition Blu-ray release for Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night contains the film on a single Blu-ray disc, authored and encoded by Aniplex of America.

At the start of the disc, it will automatically play the film so you’ll want to select the Top-Menu to access the Main Menu and the other options. The set includes the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and the Bang Zoom! Entertainment English dub commissioned by Aniplex of America, plus Japanese Audio Commentary is available with optional English subtitles.

The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the Blu-ray disc are region accessible to players set to A & B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	Japanese, English
Audio	Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English Linear PCM 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	1 BD-50

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Japanese Audio Commentary with Reki Kawahara, Haruka Tomatsu, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Inori Minase & Hisanori Yoshida (Dolby Digital 2.0 audio)
Scherzo of Deep Night Announcement (00:22 runtime)
Teasers:
- Teaser 0 (00:17 runtime)
- Teaser 1 (01:02 runtime)
- Teaser 2 (01:40 runtime)
- Teaser 3 (00:32 runtime)
- Main Teaser (02:09 runtime)
Trailers:
- Pre-Release Trailer: Friendship Edition (00:17 runtime)
- Pre-Release Trailer: World Edition (00:17 runtime)
- Pre-Release Trailer: Battle Edition (00:17 runtime)
- Now Playing Trailer (01:44 runtime)
- Overseas Release Regional Trailer (00:35 runtime)
Commercials:
- Commercial 1 (00:49 runtime)
- Commercial 2 (00:17 runtime)
- Commercial 3 (00:49 runtime)
- Blu-ray Release Announcement Commercials (00:34 runtime)