Sword Art Online Progressive, the remake of SAO's first arc set in Aincrad, is slowly getting animated, not through TV series but anime movies. And the second movie, Scherzo of Deep Night, has finally announced its release date in Japan.
While an international release date hasn't been announced yet, the Japanese date is a good indicator of when you'll be able to see the movie in the US. The first movie, Aria of a Starless Night, opened in Japan on October 30 and in US theaters on December 3. As such, we can expect Sword Art Online Progressive Scherzo of Deep Night to open in US theaters a month after the Japan release, at the end of October.
Director: Ayako Kouno
Writer: Reki Kawahara
Stars: Haruka Tomatsu, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Shiori Izawa
Scherzo of a Dark Dusk is the second film in Sword Art Online: Progressive, picking up the story just under a month after the ending of Aria of a Starless Night. During the time skip, Kirito, Asuna, and the rest of the top players managed to reach the boss on the fourth floor. However, there is a growing problem that threatens to stall your progress, and it's not the dungeon itself.
In the previous movie, Kirito united the best players by playing the bad guy in his eyes. While this worked in the short term, the growing dominance of two front line guilds, Dragon Knights Brigade and Aincrad Liberation Squad, has fractured the player base. With different leadership styles and philosophies, the two guilds constantly clash. However, neither guild has enough high-level members to raid safely, with even individual players or smaller guilds lending a hand, without the help of the other, and thus being forced to work together.
The overall plot of the movie centers around our heroes trying to get around the situation, which becomes especially dire once they realize the implications of what would happen if either guild were to gain a notable advantage. At the same time, there is the rise of PKers who have decided to use the almost hopeless situation as an excuse to live out their darkest desires, namely murder. And of course, these PKers would love nothing more than for the Dragon Knights Brigade and Aincrad Liberation Squad to face off against each other in a despair-inducing bloodbath that would almost certainly make it impossible to advance further through the dungeon.
Through the fight for the power of the guilds and the PKers, Scherzo of a Dark Dusk shows us the first problems that the flourishing society faces within the video game. It lays the groundwork for the status quo we see in the main story and explains the origins of the various factions that appear throughout. It's a solid world building.
On the other side of things, we have the more personal aspect of the story. As with Aria of a Starless Night, Scherzo of a Dark Dusk is very much Asuna's story. Not only do we get a lot of focus on her and Kirito's growing friendship, but we also see the continuation of her rocky relationship with Mito, her one-time "true friend" from the real world. Also, a good deal of screen time is spent on Asuna making her first friend in the game world, Argo. While she's little more than an occasional supporting character in the main series, the movie does a great job of showing just how important Argo is to our heroic couple in these early days. And furthermore, through the relationship between the two girls, we see Asuna continue her growth from the withdrawn and damaged loner to the strong warrior we know and love.
Unfortunately, while the film's overall dilemma and Asuna's character build are relatively solid, Scherzo of a Dark Dusk is far from perfect. It repeats many of the same character beats from Aria of a Starless Night, especially when it comes to Kirito and Mito, making things more predictable and less emotionally powerful. No matter how great the action scenes look, if you can guess each dramatic reveal before it happens, much of the impact is lost.
And make no mistake: this movie looks pretty good. The background designs are vibrant and colorful, and the animation is fluid and dynamic throughout. The boss battles in the movie are an absolute highlight, especially the second one, which makes great use of 3DCG in both the battle and boss design. This is further enhanced by a soundtrack filled with classic Sword Art Online musical remixes that make things feel familiar and new at the same time.
All in all, Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of a Dark Dusk is not a bad movie, nor is it particularly good. It's just average. Sword Art Online fans will no doubt enjoy watching these "Lost Adventures".
Watch Progressive - Kuraki Yuuyami no Scherzo 2022 Movie Trailer
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