Spinoff series premieres in April

The official Twitter account for the Sword Art Online anime franchise announced with a video on Wednesday that Eir Aoi will perform the opening theme song for the television anime of Keiichi Sigsawa's Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online novel series. The song is titled "Ryūsei" (Falling Star).

The anime will premiere on Tokyo MX, BS11, Tochigi TV, Gunma TV, MBS, and TV Aichi in April.

Masayuki Sakoi (Celestial Method, Princess Resurrection, Strawberry Panic!) is directing the anime at Studio 3Hz (Flip Flappers, Princess Principal). Yousuke Kuroda (My Hero Academia, Gundam Build Fighters, Mobile Suit Gundam 00) is in charge of series composition and the script. Yoshio Kosakai (Chaos;HEAd, Needless) is chief animation director, and he is also designing the characters based on Kouhaku Kuroboshi's original designs.

Tomori Kusunoki stars as Llenn, and Yōko Hikasa also stars in the series as Pitohui. Kazuyuki Okitsu will play M, and Chinatsu Akasaki will play Fukaziroh. Llenn and Pitohui are playable characters in the Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet video game, which shipped in Japan on February 8, and in the West on February 23.

Kusunoki is also performing the ending theme song.

The story follows Karen Kohiruimaki, a 183-centimeter-tall (6-foot-tall) college student who's insecure her height, and is bad at dealing with people in the real world. She enters the world of Gun Gale Online with her avatar, Llenn, who is less than 150 centimeters (5 feet) tall and wears all pink. She meets a beautiful, brown-skinned female player who goes by Pitohui. They hit it off, but one day Pitohui pressures her to participate in "Squad Jam," a team Battle Royale variation of the Bullet of Bullets tournament.

Sigsawa (Kino's Journey) launched the novel series with Kouhaku Kuroboshi's illustrations in 2014, and Kadokawa released the sixth volume in March 2017.

Artist Tadadi Tamori launched a manga adaptation in 2015, and Kadokawa released the second volume on November 10. Yen Press is publishing the light novels and Tamori's manga adaptation.