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Jul 10, 2022 9:35 AM

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Dec 2015
311
i genuinely loved and enjoyed this and i can't wait for the sequel + asuna is best sao girl so this instantly gets a 10!
Jul 10, 2022 11:08 AM
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Feb 2020
183
DooMWhite said:
Kays90 said:
I just don't understand why they changed a couple of scenes & dialogues from the main show.

I happened to watch first 2 episodes of SAO Season 1 just before watching the movie, so I clearly noticed the points they changed in the movie and that kinda ruins the storyline.

The changes were in basic elements like Sword of Floor 1 boss, the Mito-Asuna-Kirito switches between fights (Mito wasn't engaged in the fight in main show, basic conversation before & after fight between Kirito & Asuna, and so on. Some of these changes contradict what happened in main show.

Progressive will contradict SAO's main-series.


But why?

Moreover I don't think whole series of Progressive will contradict as apart frkm Floor 1 boss fight the only other time Kirito & Asuna were shown together was just after Kirito lost the team of amateurs to a trap (as I recall) and returned to front lines.

How'll it more contradict from main series any further if the same is missing from the main series.
Jul 10, 2022 11:12 AM

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Jul 2016
364
Kays90 said:
DooMWhite said:

Progressive will contradict SAO's main-series.


But why?

Moreover I don't think whole series of Progressive will contradict as apart frkm Floor 1 boss fight the only other time Kirito & Asuna were shown together was just after Kirito lost the team of amateurs to a trap (as I recall) and returned to front lines.

How'll it more contradict from main series any further if the same is missing from the main series.

Kirito and Asuna are gonna be together for most of the starting floors(We still don't know for how long.), this straight up contradicts SAO main-series, even the author talked about this in the Progressive novel afterword, the author didn't really give a reason for this, he just wanted to write about Aincrad.


In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Jul 10, 2022 11:21 AM

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Jul 2016
364
Kays90 said:
DooMWhite said:

Progressive will contradict SAO's main-series.


But why?

Moreover I don't think whole series of Progressive will contradict as apart frkm Floor 1 boss fight the only other time Kirito & Asuna were shown together was just after Kirito lost the team of amateurs to a trap (as I recall) and returned to front lines.

How'll it more contradict from main series any further if the same is missing from the main series.

From the Progressive 1st volume afterword:





In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Jul 10, 2022 11:26 AM
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Feb 2020
183
DooMWhite said:
Kays90 said:


But why?

Moreover I don't think whole series of Progressive will contradict as apart frkm Floor 1 boss fight the only other time Kirito & Asuna were shown together was just after Kirito lost the team of amateurs to a trap (as I recall) and returned to front lines.

How'll it more contradict from main series any further if the same is missing from the main series.

Kirito and Asuna are gonna be together for most of the starting floors(We still don't know for how long.), this straight up contradicts SAO main-series, even the author talked about this in the Progressive novel afterword, the author didn't really give a reason for this, he just wanted to write about Aincrad.


Speaking strictly in anime context, Kirito & Asuna staying together after Floor 1 boss fight wouldn't contradict as anime didn't show after that. Anime straightaway jump to their interaction at a fight meeting after Kirito lost the party of amateurs to a trap.
Jul 10, 2022 11:28 AM

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Jul 2016
364
Kays90 said:
DooMWhite said:

Kirito and Asuna are gonna be together for most of the starting floors(We still don't know for how long.), this straight up contradicts SAO main-series, even the author talked about this in the Progressive novel afterword, the author didn't really give a reason for this, he just wanted to write about Aincrad.


Speaking strictly in anime context, Kirito & Asuna staying together after Floor 1 boss fight wouldn't contradict as anime didn't show after that. Anime straightaway jump to their interaction at a fight meeting after Kirito lost the party of amateurs to a trap.

Yes, it would, in the anime, after the first boss, they had a talk and split up.


In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Jul 10, 2022 11:33 AM
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Feb 2020
183
DooMWhite said:
Kays90 said:


But why?

Moreover I don't think whole series of Progressive will contradict as apart frkm Floor 1 boss fight the only other time Kirito & Asuna were shown together was just after Kirito lost the team of amateurs to a trap (as I recall) and returned to front lines.

How'll it more contradict from main series any further if the same is missing from the main series.

From the Progressive 1st volume afterword:





Thanks for sharing but my point was how'll the movie series contradict to anime series any further (i.e. after Ep 1&2 of main series & Movie 1 Progressive) since anime straightway jumped to a later floor raid meeting or the PK gang fight meeting (whatever it was as I don't clearly recall the event order) after Kirito lost the party of amateurs to a trap & didn't mentioned anything at all of in-between.

So all we anime watchers will have whatever story the movie series tell us now.

Moreover I was of the interpretation that Asuna & Kirito remained in contact after Floor 1 boss raid even before movie expressly cleared it that way.
Jul 10, 2022 11:37 AM
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Feb 2020
183
DooMWhite said:
Kays90 said:


Speaking strictly in anime context, Kirito & Asuna staying together after Floor 1 boss fight wouldn't contradict as anime didn't show after that. Anime straightaway jump to their interaction at a fight meeting after Kirito lost the party of amateurs to a trap.

Yes, it would, in the anime, after the first boss, they had a talk and split up.


I don't recall that happening expressly in anime. I always interpreted the open end as they still remain close (or atleast in contact) till the time they meet at that meeting (as shown in anime).

Ep3 straightaway dealt with Kirito's party of amateurs while Ep2 ended with the Beater stuff & Kirito suggestion to Asuna of joining a party.
Jul 10, 2022 8:43 PM
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Sep 2017
502
Enjoyable overall. 8/10

Yuki Kajiura did a phenomenal job as always
Kirisuna look adorable together.

Mito was decent.
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Jul 10, 2022 8:45 PM

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Kays90 said:
DooMWhite said:

Yes, it would, in the anime, after the first boss, they had a talk and split up.


I don't recall that happening expressly in anime. I always interpreted the open end as they still remain close (or atleast in contact) till the time they meet at that meeting (as shown in anime).

Ep3 straightaway dealt with Kirito's party of amateurs while Ep2 ended with the Beater stuff & Kirito suggestion to Asuna of joining a party.

In that Meeting, Kirito clearly said it's been almost 1½yrs since they met 🥲. It has some elements, especially the anime original is making the storyline to diverge. Where Eiji & Yuno were Perfect, they became canon to the main storyline.

Still, Reki himself said Progressive will undergo some changes, for ex, u can see Kirito's change in behaviour, Asuna said "I'm gonna follow him" , and again from the 2nd floor they frequently meet each other. That's the biggest difference between Progressive & the main series, other than that almost everything is fine. So I also agree Reki took a good choice by not changing the Main heroine, or you would've seen someone like Mito with Kirito for 1½yrs, and Asuna will disappear like some insignificant character, which will be a very big flaw
WISHED I COULD ALSO GET TRANSPORTED TO A WORLD FULL OF MAGIC And DUNGEONS, please take me there too if you could (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠
Jul 11, 2022 3:17 AM
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Jan 2020
1988
Are they just gonna forget Mito like that?
Jul 11, 2022 2:14 PM
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Dec 2019
74
For a SAO movie, I was surprised. I didn't think it would be entertaining as the average sao fan is used to accept garbage (Alicization S2). The soundtrack was great, even if at times it gave me the impression that I was watching .Hack//
Jul 12, 2022 7:10 AM

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Aug 2013
5420
I loved the fact that it was told from Asuna's perspective.
Visuals were top tier. Voice actors were phenomenal as always. Can't wait to see other movies.
Dub = fake crap. Always.
Jul 12, 2022 12:57 PM

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May 2021
820
this felt very nostalgic. The fights were intense, the visuals on point and ost was really good. looking forward to the next one
Jul 13, 2022 9:36 PM
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Aug 2011
25
The original was much better to me..
Jul 14, 2022 3:43 PM
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Jul 2018
564074
That Was Actually Really Good! I Quite Enjoyed That, And I'm A Big Fan Of The Changes, Looking Forward To The Next Movie.
Jul 14, 2022 3:45 PM
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Jul 2018
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Ronninn said:
Are they just gonna forget Mito like that?


Asuna is probably still sour about Mito "ditching" her, but just put on a brave face as to not upset her, Makes sense Asuna wanting to leave Mito for Kirito
Jul 15, 2022 10:45 AM

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May 2018
5915
ngl this was so nostalgic. Definitely better written than the original SAO. I'm kind of interested in reading the progressive light novels now

6/10
Jul 16, 2022 10:51 AM

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Apr 2021
61
I'm the only one who thinks that Mito contributes nothing to the movie? Just a little conflict that matters nothing at the end?
Jul 16, 2022 11:42 AM

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Jan 2017
603
NGL it was way beyond my wildest dreams. A1 is flexing so hard, can't wait for the rest of the movies to come out.

To everybody crying about the movie not following the OG story, this is the whole point! Progressive is not a remaster but a total remake and rewriting of SAO as we know. (Diabel is still dead like a stupid mofo tho..)
Jul 16, 2022 11:50 AM

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Jul 2016
364
Dudi4PoLFr said:
NGL it was way beyond my wildest dreams. A1 is flexing so hard, can't wait for the rest of the movies to come out.

To everybody crying about the movie not following the OG story, this is the whole point! Progressive is not a remaster but a total remake and rewriting of SAO as we know. (Diabel is still dead like a stupid mofo tho..)

It's cuz the entire first boss arc in the OG anime actually came from Progressive itself, God, I want to rewatch the OG anime once AGAIN...


In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Jul 16, 2022 11:51 AM

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Jul 2016
364
Ivanexo said:
I'm the only one who thinks that Mito contributes nothing to the movie? Just a little conflict that matters nothing at the end?

She actually makes Asuna look worse, as in the Progressive novel she has to fight even harder stuff...


In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Jul 16, 2022 11:53 AM

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Jul 2016
364
If anything, this movie made me appreciate the OG anime more.


In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Jul 17, 2022 8:01 AM
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Aug 2015
65
Best moment
1. Argo debut
2. Argo debut
3. Argo debut
Jul 17, 2022 12:15 PM

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Mar 2010
55833
It was kinda refreshing..

Behold of my awesomeness~
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But my feels.
Jul 17, 2022 1:41 PM

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Jan 2015
37
Damn I was kinda enjoying it until Kirito showed up, after that it just same old
Jul 18, 2022 2:45 AM

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Oct 2008
13718
they should have named this SAO: Regressive (your NTR WAIFU ASUNA and another NTR gurl)
lolz jokes aside...i like this version of SAO..there are now three main chars!
5/5.
8/10.


Jul 24, 2022 8:07 PM

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Oct 2015
6916
This was progressing well until Kirito appeared. I'm not saying Kirito shouldn't have appeared, I'm just stating every scene he was in was hogged by him. If it wasn't him trying to look good by saving, giving advice or slaying the the last boss, he's basically THE HERO. He kinda messed up the pace, for what suppose to be an Asuna moment movie. Let Asuna shine and stop bullshitting with these masculine shit. I get it SAO has a male dominated audience, but come the fuck on, this essentially was excessive and pointlessly done. The Mito and Asuna plot was watermarked and became so dulled I wanted to scream: smh


Kirito had his moment at the first series, now it was her turn and how she managed to be one of the best players in SAO. Now it was how Kirito aided her in becoming one of the best, meh fuck you and this movie. The series had the best version of Asuna than this shit," oh save me Kiri..." o shut the hell up!

I'm not even an Asuna Stan, but they did her wrong though
lihle808Jul 24, 2022 8:10 PM
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb --- Dr Strangelove

Jul 24, 2022 8:12 PM

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Jul 2016
364
lihle808 said:
This was progressing well until Kirito appeared. I'm not saying Kirito shouldn't have appeared, I'm just stating every scene he was in was hogged by him. If it wasn't him trying to look good by saving, giving advice or slaying the the last boss, he's basically THE HERO. He kinda messed up the pace, for what suppose to be an Asuna moment movie. Let Asuna shine and stop bullshitting with these masculine shit. I get it SAO has a male dominated audience, but come the fuck on, this essentially was excessive and pointlessly done. The Mito and Asuna plot was watermarked and became so dulled I wanted to scream: smh


Kirito had his moment at the first series, now it was her turn and how she managed to be one of the best players in SAO. Now it was how Kirito aided her in becoming one of the best, meh fuck you and this movie. The series had the best version of Asuna than this shit," oh save me Kiri..." o shut the hell up!

I'm not even an Asuna Stan, but they did her wrong though

We are gonna literally have the entire Progressive series to see her and Kirito 100% of the time...


In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Jul 24, 2022 8:14 PM

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Oct 2015
6916
combi2015 said:
Damn I was kinda enjoying it until Kirito showed up, after that it just same old


Me too my guy. Me too.
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb --- Dr Strangelove

Jul 24, 2022 8:25 PM

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Oct 2015
6916
DooMWhite said:
lihle808 said:
This was progressing well until Kirito appeared. I'm not saying Kirito shouldn't have appeared, I'm just stating every scene he was in was hogged by him. If it wasn't him trying to look good by saving, giving advice or slaying the the last boss, he's basically THE HERO. He kinda messed up the pace, for what suppose to be an Asuna moment movie. Let Asuna shine and stop bullshitting with these masculine shit. I get it SAO has a male dominated audience, but come the fuck on, this essentially was excessive and pointlessly done. The Mito and Asuna plot was watermarked and became so dulled I wanted to scream: smh


Kirito had his moment at the first series, now it was her turn and how she managed to be one of the best players in SAO. Now it was how Kirito aided her in becoming one of the best, meh fuck you and this movie. The series had the best version of Asuna than this shit," oh save me Kiri..." o shut the hell up!

I'm not even an Asuna Stan, but they did her wrong though

We are gonna literally have the entire Progressive series to see her and Kirito 100% of the time...


Lord help me dig my hole. I doubt I'll watch the second movie. We basically had their shit for way too long, it was time for them to freshen things up. Tell an alternative version that led to how they got together, while power upping Asuna's character. Kirito doesn't need that much OP, the dude is already God tier mc, give the wife a chance to greatness please. Series Asuna wasn't this shitty "damsel I'm distressed" character, what is wrong with Japan? Why why o why%

It was just character assassination at its best.
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb --- Dr Strangelove

Jul 24, 2022 8:31 PM

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Jul 2016
364
lihle808 said:
DooMWhite said:

We are gonna literally have the entire Progressive series to see her and Kirito 100% of the time...


Lord help me dig my hole. I doubt I'll watch the second movie. We basically had their shit for way too long, it was time for them to freshen things up. Tell an alternative version that led to how they got together, while power upping Asuna's character. Kirito doesn't need that much OP, the dude is already God tier mc, give the wife a chance to greatness please. Series Asuna wasn't this shitty "damsel I'm distressed" character, what is wrong with Japan? Why why o why%

It was just character assassination at its best.

FYI, they changed the original content from the novel to try to add more "content" to Asuna, with that new original character, and killed what you wanted, a "stronger" woman that exists in the original work. I just don't see why you blame Kirito for all that tho, this new character was already stealing Asuna's show by herself.


In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Jul 25, 2022 3:57 PM
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Apr 2020
7
Inorichi said:
I wouldn't even consider Mito's actions a betrayal, more like a misunderstanding. Given the circumstances, it wouldn't have been possible for her to reach Asuna or Asuna to survive unless some god smurf came along.

I agree, but I think that Mito will not appear again in the following movies.
Jul 27, 2022 4:20 AM

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Sep 2014
4842
This wasnt bad at all! Taking Asunas POV instead of Kirito was interesting, though I wonder if they expect you to have watched the original first.
The buildup to the boss fight was surprisingly short, maybe the school part was too long. I have to wonder, is Progressive a remake? Because Mizumi is obviously new but I also dont remember Asuna having a brother.
Is the story still that kirito and Asuna split up before they meet again later? Because obviously that did not happen and I dont see a better point for it than the boss fight.
I also fully expected Mizumi to die, having her around seems odd for Asunas progression.

Maybe I misremember it but the fight seemed more desperate in the original. Maybe thats just partly knowing whats going to happen though.

Animation was good, A1 doesnt disappoint with SAO. But for a movie it was a bit underwhelming, atleast it doesnt look much better than the show with alicization. No complaints about the fight but some other parts were a bit sloppy.

I dont know what I expected but half the movie was the fight, the school part was too long and the rest of the buildup was actually done better in the show.
Combining both POVs doesnt work either because Asuna meets Kirito way too much so early on. Though I guess Kirito did not know her name yet.
The Mizumi drama had potential but was ultimately too easily resolved.

I was really hoping progressive would shed more light on the normal daily part of beeing stuck in SAO, how the groups and guilds formed early on etc.

Im mainly worried about what feels like Kiritos and Asunas characters getting assassinated. Kirito is way too "nice" so early on, originally he was a solo player because he didnt trust anyone. Him staying with Asuna from the start ruins that character developement. Asuna even had the perfect way out by staying with Mizumi to catch up and simply losing sight of Kirito. She seemed more cold hearted and collected early on, only warming up way later into the story after she got used to Kiritos laid back way of life. Again that character developement got completely ruined. I dont see how we will get it back unless some major drama happens (again) and they split up. Which just feels like a missed chance now. Asuna was never just the damsel in distress in the original Aincrad part of the story, she was a strong, collected and capable, but unsocial character who evolved into a leader later on and only warmed up after re meeting Kirito. Now she feels like an all around weaker character with less potential for developement.

Obviously the relationship between asuna and kirito is the backbone of the story for SAO overall, but that story is long and in the future. Atleast by now Aincrad as a setting is interesting enough to get explored independently of that relationship.

We could totally get Asunas POV independently from Kirito, even at the expanse of him if screentime is a concern. But the story just feels wrong if both characters are already developed like they are at the end of the original and their chemistry never developes but is just there from the start.

7/10, its only getting more interesting from here since now we go to the previously skipped parts

PS: I have watched SAO Abridged too much, I imagined all the scenes as their abridged versions
Comander-07Jul 27, 2022 4:42 AM
"This emotion is mine alone.
It is for Madoka alone." - Homura
or how I would descripe Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica.
Jul 28, 2022 3:09 AM
scientia exitus

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Sword Art Online was within my first 5 or so anime. Like most other people, I thought it started out great with much potential, but ultimately just left me feeling disappointed. I watched the second season, I thought the first battle royale part was kind of cool, but dropped it halfway through the Alfeim arc, which was twice the garbage it was in the first season (honestly just delete the alfheim arcs from both seasons and SAO becomes alright). I watched Gun Gale Online; it was fine, but my opinion on it was still skewed more toward the negative. Ordinal Scale was... I watched it but I literally can't really remember anything about it. I watched one episode or two of Alicization (did I spell that right), but didn't go any further because I just really didn't dig the art style at all. Yeah, I'm on the ever-so-massive "SAO sucks" bandwagon... because really, it does.

...but it's still something that I really wanted to actually like all this time. So here we are, at the first of three (it is 3, right?) of these "Progressive" movies. I honestly didn't know at first what to expect, was it a reboot of sorts, maybe retelling the original story but just fine-tuning it and tweaking it a little to make it better, perhaps told from a different viewpoint other than Kirito's? And most importantly: does this make SAO, into something good?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Kind of. Everything actually pretty much stays the same as far as I can tell, it's just elevated to that of movie-caliber, production-quality-wise and also writing-wise. So what's different? Well for starters, Misumi Tozawa is a completely new character created just for Progressive. Unless my memory fails me, she was not a character in the original series and her name wasn't even mentioned once. She is there to help give depth to Asuna, who is our main lead this time around.

And speaking of Asuna, that's the one main big change that makes this different from SAO the series: we follow Asuna as our protagonist instead of Kirito. I still think I prefer her as a side character though rather than our main lead. Not that she gets the job done however, it still works either way. But I don't remember her being quite so bumbly and quirky in the series... maybe it was because we were seeing things from Kirito's perspective instead, but what I remember is that by the time they were fighting the first boss, Asuna was kind of already a battle-hardened warrior of sorts. Or again, maybe my memory fails me there. Also why is Kirito so skinny?? Anyway, I like how Asuna as a character received more depth here in this movie, with her family, with the new character Misumi, and all the extra scenes in between that helped flesh her out a little more. And speaking of extra scenes, is that something they changed, which is Kirito and Asuna's first meeting? Because in the tv series, if I remember correctly, the first time they meet was during that meeting in those ruins to discuss the boss fight. Heck, I don't think they even met properly there, I think Kirito just glanced at the mysterious red-hooded figure. But here we are shown their first meeting to be when he saves her from the man-eating plants. I guess this still fits in with the main series since Kirito was unaware of this hooded-figure's identity anyway up until she removed her cloak during the boss fight. So it works I think, no continuity issues here. And even if it ruined the continuity, I wouldn't have minded. Heck I was expecting this movie to entirely be it's own thing, the story retold from the ground up, the only things in common being the main overarching premise of being trapped in a game. But no, it fits in quite well with SAO, just expanding more things from the perspective of Asuna.

Enough rambling on about unimportant stuff. Did I like it? Yeah I liked it. I like how the story was elevated via it being a movie. I think the death aspect was treated with more weight here, something I think was KIND OF glossed over in the tv series. You die irl if you die here? Oh well, let's go fight some bosses! But in this movie it actually gave you more of a sense of the fear that the players had, although I'd have liked them to cover that aspect even more so. Anyway yeah, I liked it, I didn't love it, but I do appreciate that it is SAO elevated in a sense. It's still not great by any means imho, but it certainly is BETTER than what it was.

I'm glad we at least got to the end of the first boss fight in this movie, so in the next one we can move on from there. I'm curious to see what events they will cover in the next one. I do hope that as movies they really do focus on just the important stuff and cut off any slack and instead focus more on developing our main characters. The second Progressive movie, "Scherzo of Deep Night" should be released there in Japan just a couple months away in early September, but we over here will probably have to wait around a year from now to watch it ourselves (this movie, Aria of a Starless Night, aired October 30, 2021, but it was only just available for us in NA to watch sometime in June I believe), but yes I am very much looking forward to it when we eventually do get to see it, probably sometime around this time next year hopefully.

Sorry for rambling on, I don't expect anyone to read all this anyway. Just a quick TL;DR: yes I liked it and I think these movies really will make SAO better (just the Aincrad arc, the Alfheim arcs may as well be deleted from the historical records forever, and I don't necessarily need or want a remake/reboot of the battle royale arc from S2, the "phantom bullet" arc I believe it's called.), it's nowhere near a masterpiece, but at least I can quite comfortably say that it will now become a truly enjoyable watch for the most part.

6/10


NYANPASU
whiskey tango foxtrot

Jul 28, 2022 7:52 AM
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Aug 2019
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Movie was amazing. Loved Asuna's journey and how she showed that she's a bigger person when she forgave Mito. Also, Kirisuna scenes built their relationship foundation perfectly! Can't wait for the continuation!!
Jul 29, 2022 8:11 PM

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Oct 2020
1770
lihle808 said:
This was progressing well until Kirito appeared. I'm not saying Kirito shouldn't have appeared, I'm just stating every scene he was in was hogged by him. If it wasn't him trying to look good by saving, giving advice or slaying the the last boss, he's basically THE HERO. He kinda messed up the pace, for what suppose to be an Asuna moment movie. Let Asuna shine and stop bullshitting with these masculine shit. I get it SAO has a male dominated audience, but come the fuck on, this essentially was excessive and pointlessly done. The Mito and Asuna plot was watermarked and became so dulled I wanted to scream: smh


Kirito had his moment at the first series, now it was her turn and how she managed to be one of the best players in SAO. Now it was how Kirito aided her in becoming one of the best, meh fuck you and this movie. The series had the best version of Asuna than this shit," oh save me Kiri..." o shut the hell up!

I'm not even an Asuna Stan, but they did her wrong though

Kirito isn't OP here, he might be someone like class topper but not the scientist here.....u understand? And honestly, Kirito gets much better development than Asuna, this movie is already tangled up with original stuff and Asuna stuff, this wasn't meant to be about Asuna at all, the 1st vol 1st part i.e., the 1st floor is about Kirito, as shown in the og series but Kirito gets lot more depth, u can understand him, how he levels up every time, almost everything is stated in th LNs......SAO is a book stuff, book is a lot more detailed version is, every book can't be adapted perfectly onto some show.

And progressive is 50-50 Kirito & Asuna , it's not about who got more screentime, og show is different from this and Kirito & Asuna will get equal importance. In this movie Kirito hardly got any depth, the same old Kirito with little awkwardness........it is like 50% from the LNs. Asuna definitely got her moments and if Kirito getting 15mins of screentime in 1hr show is a bad thing iyo, idk what to say.
WISHED I COULD ALSO GET TRANSPORTED TO A WORLD FULL OF MAGIC And DUNGEONS, please take me there too if you could (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠
Aug 1, 2022 10:06 PM

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Aug 2011
150
I think I read the source material for Aria in the Starless Night way back ago but I honestly didn't remember much besides the unique name at this point. Just noticed it was the 10 year mark from the original series anime release... SAO will always have a special place in my heart for being one of the first isekai I got into. It was nice to revisit Aincrad again and relive the memories.
Aug 4, 2022 8:19 PM
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Jul 2018
564074
For anime only I think this is a great adaptation, superb choreography and visual. The pacing itself can be understandable, I also understand the sentiment coming from the fans but man I'll be lying if the movie is "average".

Great OST by Yuki Kajiura as always, exceptional voice acting by the VA's, a job well done by Yasuyuki Kai and Ayako Kouno for directing it, and props to A-1 Pictures staff also.

I'm looking forward to Scherzo of Deep Night.

Aug 6, 2022 5:53 AM
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Feb 2022
339
I liked it because the movie shows how Asuna ended up in the Sword art online game and how her friend abandoned her because she didn't want to see her friend die but Kirito appears and saves her making her awaken a passion for him
Aug 7, 2022 3:06 PM

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Aug 2017
483
The animation and sound effects were epic, it was actually really good ,3
Aug 8, 2022 6:36 PM

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May 2021
59814
I finally got around to watching this; was waiting for a few of my tests to end. I will, of course, be treating this as separate from the TV series since it is.

In my opinion, a solid movie ... NOT unfortunately but not bad either; just bogged down by a few writing decisions towards the end. Following Asuna's PoV, it starts out pretty good, establishing Asuna and Mito's close friendship(this is important; it seems good initially but...) whilst giving a fair bit of depth to their characters, particularly Asuna and the expectations she has to live up to. She then tries out the Nerve Gear, due to a recommendation from her friend followed by the stuff you have already seen (thankfully they didn't rush this which is important since I'm treating this as separate). We get more bonding moments between her and Mito(the more the bonding; the more the movie shot itself) and ultimately a certain event causes them to separate.

Now many people have called this betrayal by Mito but I disagree. Mito simply couldn't bear watching Asuna's heath bar go down to zero so she exited the party. Dunno how something as simple as this was misconstrued.

Soon after, Asuna gets attacked by a huge beast who would have definitely killed her but fear not since Sword Jesus is here to save the day. Yes, Kirito is here. And unfortunately not fleshed out. On the plus side, his interactions with her are a bit awkward as one would expect of a teenager like him if you could call it that.

Fast forward to the boss raid meeting(Agil is a chad) and then boss battle, which boasted really good technical aspects and was decently choreographed. Mito finally learns that Asuna was alive all along and has tears in her eyes(during the middle of the fight), Diavel is dead and Kirito is accused; he takes the blame and y'all know the drill.

Now here's where the main flaw with the movie lies, Mito tries to re-form the party but Asuna refuses. Why you ask? Because she wants to "strive" toward Kirito. Why does she want to do that? Dunno. Why the emphasis on her friendship with Mito if she so easily chose Kirito? Dunno. The scriptwriter certainly didn't elaborate on this. Mito is a good character and her bond with Asuna is good but ultimately, it gets dumped in favor of following the Novels, when they should have done so from the beginning.
5/10

Also this;
"You're a guy?!"
"You were lying about being 17?!"
Gets me every time.




Aug 14, 2022 7:53 PM

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Mar 2013
3705
I feel remorseful about rating the first season with 9~10/10... to think they hid so much character developments (and especially those characters beauties, both the Scythe girl, Misumi, and the hooded girl, which looks like an info broker, which probably has a very interesting character at first glance, Argo?) and solely focused on Kirito but even Kirito is shallow without these kinds of character developments in the adaptation. Fortunately, I've get to watch this.

All I can say is R.I.P S1 and the following seasons they fucked up and thank you for this progressive Movie. They made it clear how much they trashed the "greatness" & "potential" of the story.

P.S. I bet they removed 85~90% of the story to get the S1 to 6.5~★ lol... not funny.

To be honest, I found Kirito and Asuna's character in this Movie more attractive than just getting the OP scenes. Asuna has a cuter side in this Movie... why did they skipped them... ugh...
CrazyButNot4UAug 14, 2022 8:02 PM
It's not that I dislike this genre but... to add unnecessary fan services to/in/for heroines
and ultimately destroys her character and personality; their purity tarnished because of it,
is the only thing I hope to not happen to them. For that sole purity is my fan service.
Aug 14, 2022 9:25 PM

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Jul 2016
364
astralkill00 said:
I feel remorseful about rating the first season with 9~10/10... to think they hid so much character developments (and especially those characters beauties, both the Scythe girl, Misumi, and the hooded girl, which looks like an info broker, which probably has a very interesting character at first glance, Argo?) and solely focused on Kirito but even Kirito is shallow without these kinds of character developments in the adaptation. Fortunately, I've get to watch this.

All I can say is R.I.P S1 and the following seasons they fucked up and thank you for this progressive Movie. They made it clear how much they trashed the "greatness" & "potential" of the story.

P.S. I bet they removed 85~90% of the story to get the S1 to 6.5~★ lol... not funny.

To be honest, I found Kirito and Asuna's character in this Movie more attractive than just getting the OP scenes. Asuna has a cuter side in this Movie... why did they skipped them... ugh...


"P.S. I bet they removed 85~90% of the story to get the S1 to 6.5~★ lol... not funny."
What does that mean? Kinda curious.


In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Aug 15, 2022 2:02 AM

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Mar 2013
3705
DooMWhite said:

"P.S. I bet they removed 85~90% of the story to get the S1 to 6.5~★ lol... not funny."
What does that mean? Kinda curious.

It's already in my message lmao...
It's not that I dislike this genre but... to add unnecessary fan services to/in/for heroines
and ultimately destroys her character and personality; their purity tarnished because of it,
is the only thing I hope to not happen to them. For that sole purity is my fan service.
Aug 15, 2022 1:56 PM

Offline
Jul 2016
364
astralkill00 said:
DooMWhite said:

"P.S. I bet they removed 85~90% of the story to get the S1 to 6.5~★ lol... not funny."
What does that mean? Kinda curious.

It's already in my message lmao...

This is what watching 2k animes does to people, I guess..


In most cases, the MAL Average Scores don't mean anything, here is a question: were the works made before 2000 all shit?
Why are they so damn scarce in the Top 50? Think about how MAL is quite literally a filtered amount of the Anime fanbase.

Here's a timeline of the Top 15 in which you can check that, almost always, the scores are affected by the freshness, popularity and other factors that have nothing to do with quality.

Aug 15, 2022 8:33 PM

Offline
Mar 2013
3705
DooMWhite said:
astralkill00 said:

It's already in my message lmao...

This is what watching 2k animes does to people, I guess..

¯\_ಠ_ಠ_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's not that I dislike this genre but... to add unnecessary fan services to/in/for heroines
and ultimately destroys her character and personality; their purity tarnished because of it,
is the only thing I hope to not happen to them. For that sole purity is my fan service.
Aug 16, 2022 5:42 PM

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Jan 2013
1177
Just wanna point out that there are 3 main girls in the original SAO game (not including Sachi) yet we're gonna spend the entire movie (and lets be honest, the entire movie franchise) focusing on what Asuna's doing because it's not like she had enough screentime in the main anime. And in fact lets retcon in a new girl instead because fuck Silica and Lisbeth I guess.

The boss fight was better in the original too btw. Making it longer and flashier isn't always better. Overall pretty disappointed. And I was looking forward to this movie believe it or not.
Aug 18, 2022 8:15 AM
Shalltear

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Apr 2018
34441
It wasn't disappointing at all, loved re-discovering the initial Aincrad arc after so many years and with Asuna's point of view which was probably as interesting as Kirito's one even when it comes to the drama aspect, also the animation was great especially during the boss raid, loved the OST as well so now I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the 2nd part of the Progressive movie.
8/10
Aug 28, 2022 12:30 PM
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Oct 2020
2
This is the way to show that SAO is the best show
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