'Sword Art Online' DVD Contains Teaser For Season 3

It's been awhile since Sword Art Online fans have thought about a third season, but there's hope yet. The anime's film, Ordinal Scale, just hit DV in Japan, and it includes a teaser for what will come in its future.

Hint: it has to do with the Alicization Arc.

Thanks to Yaraon, fans learned the DVD rentals of Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale include a teaser for the anime. The film ends with a short tag-scene that appears to lead into the franchise's next story arc. The 'Alicization Arc' is the fourth of Sword Art Online, and it appears to be the anime's next target.

If you are not familiar with the arc itself, you should know it sees Kirito introduced to a new form of VR. The hero is asked by a company known as Rath to try out an experimental FullDive machine called the Soul Translator. The device is meant to be different from the one which trapped Kirito in Soul Art Online so many years ago, but Rath isn't what it seems to be.

The company is not performing the test to make video games but to aid the military instead. The Soul Translator is meant to give the military top-notch AIs, but Rath cannot make its creations break the law. Hoping to corrupt its AI process, Rath sends Kirito into the game and forces the hero to live in its 'Underworld' for more than a decade. Rath only frees Kirito and blocks his memories of the ordeal when an AI manages to break one of Rath's pre-set rules.

The 'Alicization Arc' is an on-going one for Sword Art Online, so there is no telling if an anime can begin adapting it already. As fans know, it takes less time to animate an anime episode than to produce a manga chapter. Sword Art Online would likely catch up with its manga releases, but fans are happy to see the teaser either way. The tag-scene shows that A-1 Pictures has not forgotten about the series just yet, so fans can expect to see more of Kirito's adventures in the future.