'Sword Art Online' Shares New Kirito and Sinon Artwork

Fans have been patiently waiting for any new information for the next wave of Sword Art Online, and with both a third season and a spin-off series on the horizon, there is plenty to look forward to.

Case in point is this magazine cover for SAO Magazine, which features a new look for Kirito and Sinon. Their look come from the recently announced video game, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet and translate well to 2D.

Cover for SAO Magazine vol.4, featuring FB Kirito and Sinon, released. Magazine to be out on 31 January from r/swordartonline

The new SAO magazine will hit shelves January 31, and will include some new information for Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet as well as some bits about the upcoming anime series. Along with this, there's also the promise of more information coming February 5, which will hopefully deliver on new visuals or a trailer from both of the upcoming series.

Fans are definitely excited about the third season of the series since it will tackle a major arc in the light novels, "Alicization." The Alicization arc of the series is ten light novel volumes long, and that happens to be longer than every other arc in the series so far. For example, the Aincrad and Fairy Dance arcs only covered about five novels in the series. Even if the series trims story bits from the novels for the adaptation, there is still a good deal of promised content for the upcoming season.

The next arc covers Volumes 9-18 of Kawahara's light novel series. In 2026, Kirito is offered a job with Rath. He's asked to work for the firm in order to test a new type of FullDive equipment known as the Soul Translator. But Rath had no plans to make a new FullDive gaming console. Instead, the firm is working to make a new military AI.

For those unfamiliar with Sword Art Online, the series was originally created by Reki Kawahara with illustrations provided by abec. The series follows a boy named Kirito after he and thousands of gamers get trapped in a virtual reality video game known as Sword Art Online. The gamers must band together to defeat the game's final level to escape, but Kirito and his guild learn there is more behind their prison than they were originally told.

The series began as a series of light novels published through Dengeki Bunko in 2009, and has been adapted into eight different manga series by ASCII Media Works and Kadokawa. The series has been licensed for an English language release by Yen Press, and has been adapted into an anime series by A-1 Pictures.

Its first season aired in 2012 and ran for 25 episodes, while its second season, Sword Art Online II, aired in 2014 and ran for 24 episodes. The series currently gearing up for its next big arc in the light novel series, "Unitial Ring," and the next season of the anime is set to adapt "Alicization."