4 Star

A Welcome Return to Aincrad.

Following on from Sword Art Online: Progressive – Aria of a Starless Night, director Ayako Kouno (Your Lie in April, After the Rain) takes us back to the early levels of the dungeon they are trapped in by game creator Akihiko Kayaba. This film is a retelling of the events of the dungeon, but in much more detail and more from Asuna’s viewpoint. Great Anime with plenty of sparkle, get ready to level up.

Two months into their incarceration in Aincrad, and its inhabitants are starting to get to grips with life, and the thousands of players that have died either in the game or by people removing the headgear, back in the real World. People have had time to venture into the dungeon’s lower level, getting world experience and more importantly get that all important ‘Experience’. Beta player Kirito (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Sword Art Online, High School DxD) has a lot more experience than nearly everyone else, hence being called a ‘beater’, and why most of the time he plays solo. He is always compelled to help players defeat the end of level Bosses.

Today it’s defeat level four boss day, and the two main rival factions, the Dragon Knights Brigade (DKB), and the Aincrad Liberation Squad (ALS), are about to head in and get the Boss special drop if they defeat it. Kirito’s fighting partner is Asuna (Haruka Tomatsu, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Durarara!!x2) and they both plan to join the raid. Defeating this boss allows players to move onto the next level, and this will mean they are one floor closer to the one-hundredth floor, and when that boss is defeated Kayaba says the game will end and all the players will be free to live out their lives in peace.

The main reason that the DKB and the ALS are at odds is that the DKB believe that the best players deserve to get all the best armours, weapons and accessories, whilst the ALS believe that the spoils should be shared out equally, but on a boss fight they all give it their all.

Kirito teaches Asuna that there are many more secrets to Aincrad than what she has seen so far, especially when you eat raspberry pies, trinkets start to appear before her eyes, and Kirito tells her that there are even more fanciful things down in the catacombs, which leads her to discover a very nasty plot.

It is nearly New Year’s Eve and there is a plan to run a raid to beat the next level and its boss, but there are also rumours that some of the ALS plan to do a naughty thing, and it is up to Kirito and Asuna to get a gang together and put things right.

It is great to see the beginning of this brilliant Anime, with it’s excellent characters and fantastic setting, for all the fans of dungeons and gaming, whether it is solo or multi-player, now on the big screen. A must-see for the fans of Aincrad.

Sword Art Online the Movie: Progressive – Scherzo of Deep Night is in Cinemas now.