Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night
2 months after the global debut, CGV group (a movie distribution company in Turkey) announced that SAO movie is coming to select theaters in Turkey at 31 December. In the past months Kimetsu no Yaiba, Boku no Hero Academia and Fate: Grand Order movies was also presented to the viewers.
So you might say it’s normal but, for me this was an unexpected thing. Because SAO isn’t as big as other series aforementioned. And when the theatre list announced, I was right. List of theaters were way inferior compared to other 2 movies.
Well, I was a lucky one as I live in Antalya, but even then things aren’t that pretty even for me. Because unlike last movies, it comes to one movie theatre in the Antalya and it is at the remotest place of the Antalya (or at least it’s far for me). Even worse, movie was coming in my finals week and it was staying in the view for 1 week. Yes, 1 week. There was enough demand for Kimetsu no Yaiba and Boku no Hero Academia movies so they have extended time view time and added it to new theaters for view. But, this and that was in the view at the same time. There isn’t any chance that they’ll extend the time.
Luckily due to my lesson choices, I had an empty day in the middle of my finals. Also, that shopping mall is really close to my school, you don’t even need to pick up any public transportation. With that sorted, I’ve said OK LET’S GO!
So after my Literature Final, I went to the mall. It’s the first ever shopping mall in the Antalya. Not the biggest one but it’s pretty.
So usually I buy tickets a few days before the movie but based on my past experiences I’ve decided to not buy tickets beforehand this time. (Also if you buy from the internet, they usually charge you extra. I have no idea why)
When I finally reached to the theatre, there was one person. That’s probably due to fact that I went there right after the opening hour, but anyway I got my ticket from a kiosk 15 minutes before the movie. Even at that time the theatre was empty. So, I was able to pick the center. (Nice!)
Hall 3 was the one that movie was playing in. A.k.a. the smallest one. I think they have that one solely to play niche movies like that because it’s “Arthouse”. But I’m not sure because I’m not a type that goes to theatre very often.
5 minutes before the movie a couple came to hall, we did a quick analysis after the movie.
Anyway after 10 minutes of boring and pointless ads and trailers, finally the movie began.
The Movie
Ok, enough with my adventure. From now on there might be spoilers, but since this is SAO, I don’t think anyone who reads this cares about that. I didn’t made any research on this movie whatsoever. Due to that I’ve assumed that it’s a prequel to the OG anime from 2012, which I watched at 2019 and I don’t really remember too much about the anime. I remember the main theme, major events and the fact that it’s unnecessary to watch after episode 17. But holy cow! I wish I had made a short research beforehand because,
there are tons of adaptations or alternatives to the original LN storyline. And this movie is an alternative one. If we look to the relations page of the original anime, this movie is nowhere to be found. In fact it’s hard to reach to the movie even from the original LN’s relations page.
If you look closely, you can find it as an alternative, “Sword Art Online -Progressive-“. So yeah turns out this movie was not prequel of the OG anime.
Not knowing this fact caused lots of confusion to me while watching the movie. So you should keep that in mind.
If I oversimplify, this movie tells story of a girl named Asuna. Asuna is a hardworking, successful girl in the school. Her rich and oppressive family doesn’t care about her much. They just care about her success. With her successful and game otaku best friend “Mito”‘s advice Asuna enters to the new shiny full-dive VR MMO game called Sword Art Online. In the game they realize they cannot quit the game by any normal means, if they got out of the game without finishing floor 99, they will die in the real life. So, Asuna, with the help of the her best friend, decides to finish the game but because of an incident she had to separate with her friend. While Asuna is desperate, she meets with someone. What would happen next?
Well now I want to look to the movie more throughly as much as I remember. I will be looking in 2 parts, first Aincrad second Asuna’s daily life. Why you ask? Well, it’s been 3 weeks since I watched the movie so I remember the last part better.
The Aincrad part of the movie is mostly parallel to the OG anime. Actually I can tell that most of the stuff is recycled from there but I can’t compare them side-by-side because I didn’t took photos. One of the two things I can say is first floor boss scene is definitely different than the original, I’ve compared them right after the movie. Second thing seemed odd to me is Kirito, he looks more shota than the one in the anime. And there are some changes that breaks parallelism with the OG anime just like how Apple breaks ARM architecture standards.
We see everything from Asuna’s perspective. What she was doing before the Kirito final boss incident™️, how she became powerful etc. Asuna’s best friend Mito is an important part of this part, as she raises the Asuna during her adventure. They promise to complete the game together but at some point they split away, and this happens at the unnecessary (almost) rape scene. But for some reason they reunite at the first floor final boss scene and at the end of the scene they split roads AGAIN. And at that part, Asuna’s road unites with the our beloved beater shota MC Kirito™️. That’s probably a subtle nod to the fact that writers breaking this alternative story too much against the original. This move feels like a maneuver to the OG story. But one thing I can say about Asuna x Mito relationship, it’s cute in my opinion and there are some fanservice ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). For now, that’s all I can criticize in this part for now.
The Asuna’s daily life part is actually what makes the movie worth watching in my opinion. Because if you remember in the OG anime, Asuna doesn’t even know how to check her party’s name and health status but she plays pretty damn good. How does this happen? Well, that part of the movie answers it very well. Asuna goes to an all-girls school. She’s a successful student (although she’s always second). If you know a little bit about Japanese (or Asian) school system, being “successful” means being good in theoric lessons, sports, after school activities, etc. Due to that, she uses her sword (the one used at fencing, idk what it is called) very well, not only because of her athletic side, she does fencing in the real life.
Most critical part of that part is “Mito”. Actually if I recall correctly her name in that part was different, because she doesn’t use her real name in that part, but I can’t recall what it was. Anyway, Mito is the first at Asuna’s school, not only she’s better than Asuna, she has time to play video games. Therefore she’s also good at them. (That’s where the anime unreality kicks in lol). One day Mito goes to the arcade, she kicks everyone’s ass and makes a godly streak. But one thing she didn’t knew was, arcade was live-streaming her to the street sign. That’s how Asuna and Mito met. They become close friends and they start playing games at school. At school because Asuna can’t play games at home due to her oppressive family. Her family wants her to be first so no time to spend on wasteful stuff like video games. One day Mito tells about new fancy game SAO, Asuna borrows her brother’s NerveGear and rest is history.
Well, that’s all remember about the movie. If I had mistakes, I’m sorry. This isn’t a review, it’s more like an overview and quick opinion sharing. If movie drops to the nyaa I might write a proper review.
Overall, what have learned today?
- SAO franchise is a mess.
- You don’t really need to watch that.
- I should learn how to write shorter.
Experience: 10/10 (My legs are trembling because of 22k steps)
Movie: 7/10
Very good! (sorry for my bad england)
Nice job my friend. I want to meet you one day.
Nice content, keep it up!