Sword Art Online announced two new anime projects at the “Dengeki Bunko Fall Festival 2017” held on Oct. 1: Sword Art Online: Alicization and Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online. They also revealed cast information as well as visuals by original illustrators abec ( Alicization ) and Kuroboshi Kouhaku ( Alternative Gun Gale Online ).
Based on Kawahara Reki’s fantasy novel series, SAO received its first anime adaptation in 2012, which was followed by a second season in 2014. Ordinal Scale, the first movie of the franchise in 2017, also became a huge hit garnering 2.5 billion yen at the box office.
SAO: Alicization follows the original novel and it continues where Sword Art Online II left off. Matsuoka Yoshitsugu and Tomatsu Haruka will be reprising their roles as Kirito and Asuna, and Kayano Ai and Shimazaki Nobunaga will be voicing new characters Alice and Eugeo, respectively.
SAO: Alternative Gun Gale Online is a spin-off by Shigsawa Keiichi, a light novel author most well-known for Kino’s Journey. The cast will feature Kusunoki Tomori as Llenn, Hikasa Youko as Pitohui, Okitsu Kazuyuki as M, and Akasaki Chinatsu as Fukaziroh.
(C)2017 Kawahara Reki / ASCII Media Works Kadokawa / SAO-A Project
(C)2017 Shigusawa Keiichi / ASCII Media Works Kadokawa / GGO Project
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!