‘Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night’: Asuna Gets Her Spotlight Pt. 2 [Non-Spoilery Anime Review]

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night is in many ways a successor to the previous anime film. It finally ties up some loose ends from Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night, while at the same time giving Asuna a new adventure to embark on. With Kirito of course, but he’s not the one hogging the spotlight here, no matter how much he wants to.

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night: Details

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night is the second anime film of the Sword Art Online Progressive series, making this anime film the third overall in the Sword Art Online anime film series after Ordinal Scale and Aria of a Starless Night. Sword Art Online Progressive is itself a light novel spinoff/retelling of the Aincrad arc of Sword Art Online by writer Reki Kawahara (Accel World), with illustrations by abec. A-1 Pictures (Black Butler, Valkyria Chronicles, Lycoris Recoil) is the animation studio behind Scherzo of Deep Night. Ayako Kōno directed this anime film. Shintarou Kawakami, Kaoru Adachi, Yousuke Futami, Keisuke Hirai, and Masami Niwa produced it. Yukito Kizawa wrote the screenplay, while Yuki Ōshima was responsible for the cinematography. The famous Yuki Kajiura composed the music. Lastly, Aniplex is handling the distribution of this anime film.

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night features the voices of Haruka Tomatsu (Cherami Leigh in English dub) as Asuna “Asuna” Yuuki and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Bryce Papenbrook in English dub) as Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya. Other notable roles include Shiori Izawa (Kimberly Ann Campbell in English dub) as Tomo “Argo” Carina Hosaka, Inori Minase (Anairis Quiñones in English dub) as Misumi “Mito” Tozawa, Kaede Hondo (AmaLee in English dub) as Liten, Yuusuke Kobayashi (A.J. Beckles in English dub) as Morte, Hiroki Yasumoto (Patrick Seitz in English dub) as Andrew “Agil” Gilbert Mills, and Tomokazu Seki (Derek Stephen Prince in English dub) as Kibao.

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night will make its debut in select NA theaters on February 3, 2023. You can purchase tickets to this anime film right now on Fandango. If you want to watch the previous anime film Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night, then you can do so on Crunchyroll.

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night: Synopsis

Normally, this would be the part of the review where I give a fairly detailed summary of the plot. However, this is the non-spoilery review of Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night. Thus, you’re going to get an official synopsis from Crunchyroll here. You can check that out below:

This may be a game, but it’s not something you play.

The world’s first VRMMORPG (Sword Art Online) became a game of death. Over a month has passed since 10,000 users were trapped inside the game world. Asuna, who cleared the first floor of the floating iron castle of Aincrad, joined up with Kirito and continued her journey to reach the top floor. With the support of female Information Broker Argo, clearing the floors seemed to be progressing smoothly, but…

Conflict erupts between two major guilds who should be working together – the top player groups ALS (the Aincrad Liberation Squad) and DKB (the Dragon Knights Brigade). And meanwhile, behind the scenes exists a mysterious figure pulling the strings….

In a dangerous battle of death, there is an assault that differs from the threat, and it will involve Asuna and Kirito…!

Run time: 100 minutes

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night: The Good (Non-Spoilery)

Simply put: Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night reminds me of why I liked Sword Art Online in the first place. Specifically season 1. You know, when it was just Asuna and Kirito building a strong relationship together? Before Reki Kawahara effectively put Asuna on a bus for several story arcs and made Kirito a harem protagonist? Yeah, the Progressive side story hasn’t reached that point yet, so it’s still good. Not only that, but the story actually fleshes the game out some more. By fleshing out the game, it makes it more believable as a game. It’s still got some holes in terms of gameplay, but there’s less of it simply due to that fleshing out.

Speaking of fleshing out though, Scherzo of Deep Night also does a good job with fleshing out the side characters. Argo, for instance, gets quite a lot of screen time here, and even gets a big role in the story. However, it’s Asuna who gets the maximum amount of spotlighting here. After all, she is the main character of the Progressive light novels. It’s why the focus is on her, her story arc, and her growth as a person. It honestly makes her a much more compelling character than Kirito. As for Kirito himself, he does get a significant amount of screen time. However, it’s always in connection with Asuna, and Asuna overshadows him a lot in those cases. If you’re an Asuna fan, this is the anime film for you.

Finally, you’ll probably notice the incredible music of Scherzo of Deep Night. Yuki Kajiura shows off once more why she’s such a famous composer. If you’re a fan of Sword Art Online, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, or even Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle; you’ll likely recognize her distinct music style. Her combination of orchestral classical music with electronic music mixed with some beautiful female vocals is hard to miss once you hear them.

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night: The Bad (Non-Spoilery)

The only thing really bad about Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night is a few plot holes that only fans of the anime would notice.

Without going into spoilers: Kibao’s personality in the Progressive storyline directly conflicts with his personality in the mainline anime series. He’s basically an entirely different person in this anime film. I honestly cannot see how this Kibao is capable of turning into the Kibao we see in the anime. It’d require some radical and frankly unbelievable personality changes for that to happen. The fact that the Progressive light novels is a retelling of the Aincrad arc though does suggest that it’s an AU to the main story. It’s just speculation from me though with no actual confirmation from Reki Kawahara. Take it with a grain of salt until then. Although, I do hope that Progressive‘s Kibao does become canon, to be honest.

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