Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night (Limited Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night (劇場版ソードアート・オンライン -プログレッシブ- 冥き夕闇のスケルツォ, Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Kuraki Yūyami no Scherzo) is a 2022 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 2022.

Background:

“A death game where “Game Over” leads directly to death in the real world… This is the long-awaited second movie in the animated film series Sword Art Online -Progressive-. “You will definitely become stronger.” The world’s first VRMMORPG “Sword Art Online” became a game of death. Over a month has passed since 10,000 users were trapped inside the game world. Asuna, who cleared the first floor of the floating iron castle of Aincrad, joined up with Kirito and continued her journey to reach the top floor. With support from the female Information Broker Argo thrown into the mix, clearing the floors seemed to be progressing smoothly, but… The top player groups leading in clears are “ALS”, the Aincrad Liberation Squad, and “DKB”, the Dragon Knights Brigade. Conflict erupts between these two major guilds that should be working together. But behind the scenes exists a mysterious figure pulling the strings… In a dangerous battle of death, there is an “assault” that differs from the “threat”. And it will all involve Asuna and Kirito…!”
Plot Synopsis via Aniplex of America, December 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 second film Scherzo of Deep Night is an adaptation of the fourth novel volume, because the second and third volumes were tied to an arc that has not been wrapped up at the time. It has been a few years since this film was released and is currently the last Sword Art Online anime related to the main series to this date, because other than a second season for Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, we haven’t had anything else in anime form – partly because the main novel’s Unital Ring arc hasn’t wrapped up yet.

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. At the time of this write-up, no UK distributor has secured the rights to release this film.

Limited Edition Contents:

Aniplex of America have modelled Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep 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 84-page special booklet, which includes a synopsis of the film, character designs, monster & background designs, key animation artwork, 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: Scherzo of Deep 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
84-page Special Booklet

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Aniplex of America
Released: 12th December 2023

The limited edition Blu-ray release for Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep 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, Shiori Izawa & Hisanori Yoshida (Dolby Digital 2.0 audio)
Extras
- Teaser 1 (00:25 runtime)
- Teaser 2 (00:48 runtime)
- Teaser 3 (00:38 runtime)
- Theme Song Release Trailer (00:36 runtime)
- Main Trailer 2.0ch (01:36 runtime)
- Main Trailer 5.1ch (01:36 runtime)
- Additional Trailer (01:24 runtime)
Commercials:
- Commercial 1 (00:17 runtime)
- Commercial 2 (00:49 runtime)
- Blu-ray & DVD Release Announcement Commercial (00:34 runtime)