'Sword Art Online' Gets Live-Action Makeover in New Commercial

To celebrate the October release of Sword Art Online's third season, Alicization, the series is doing a special collaboration with XFLAG's mobile game Monster Strike in Japan. Such a special partnership needs a special ad, so the series got a hilarious live-action spin.

Yusuke Inoue of the comedy duo NON STYLE wore a full Kirito cosplay for Monster Strike's commercial for the crossover event.

When a group of kids spot Inoue playing Monster Strike alone, they offer to play together. Inoue refuses because he's too into the Kirito cosplay, and quickly regrets it when the kids leave. But this commercial could have a different ending as Japanese fans are encouraged to vote on Twitter over the commercial's potential endings.

Finally, from 13 July till 2 August, Monster Strike will have a collab story mode. During this mode, players will face Kuradeel and Heathcliff. If the two are defeated, players will win in-game items and be entered in a giveaway for special collab goods.

— SAO Wikia (@sao_wikia) July 9, 2018

The final commercials in this hilarious series are set to debut July 17, and Monster Strike will even have a special story mode where players will stand off against Heathcliff and Kuradeel where they'll win loot and be entered to win special prizes.

The third season of Sword Art Online is scheduled to begin in October. It's set to adapt the Alicization arc, which takes part in 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.

Bringing Kirito in to act as a human influence on AI, he finds that Rath had already trapped a child's soul in the machinery. When Kirito was brought out of the machine, Rath blocked his memories of his time in Underworld, but Kirito learns there are many who want him to keep quiet about his time with the AI, a child named Alice.

If you're a fan that wants to get closer to Asuna sooner rather than later, a new VR app will allow you to do just that. Sword Art Online VR: Lovely Honey Days is an app for iOS and Android that lets players "enjoy a sweet life" with Asuna which includes dates, chats, and especially close moments.

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.