Hour-long 1st episode to premiere same day in Japan

Aniplex of America announced at Otakon on Saturday that the United States premiere of the Sword Art Online: Alicization anime will take place at the Montalban Theatre in Los Angeles on September 15.

The hour-long first episode will have a premiere event in Japan on the same day. The series will also have premiere events in Australia, France, Germany, Russia, and South Korea.

The anime will premiere on Japan television in October.

Manabu Ono ( Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere , Saki , The Asterisk War ) is directing the anime at A-1 Pictures . Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale animation directors Gou Suzuki and Tomoya Nishiguchi will join Shingo Adachi for the character designs.

The series will again star Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Kirito and Haruka Tomatsu as Asuna. Ai Kayano will play Alice, and Nobunaga Shimazaki will play Eugeo.

The anime will cover the entirety of the novels' "Alicization Arc." The Alicization arc is in volumes 9 through 18 of the original novel series. Ono said in an interview on the anime's official website that he accepted the job as director around the time of the Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale film's preview screenings, and he has heard from Aniplex staff since that time that the plan is to adapt the original novel series all the way to the end.

The novel series has two television anime adaptations, an anime special, and a recent film. The franchise has also inspired multiple manga series, games, and a virtual reality demonstration in Japan. Aniplex of America releases the anime in North America. Skydance Television is planning a live-action series on Netflix based on the novels.