'Sword Art Online' Announces New Progressive Manga

Sword Art Online fans were surprised to find out that the manga adaptation of Reki Kawahara's [...]

By Nick Valdez

Sword Art Online fans were surprised to find out that the manga adaptation of Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online: Progressive light novel series would end its run in February. Luckily, the ending was only temporary.

According to Anime News Network, the second part of the manga adaptation is set to begin in the April edition of Kadokawa's Dengeki G Comic with a new title and artist. Now titled Sword Art Online: Progressive - Hoei no Barcarole (which shares the same title as the third light novel volume), artist Shiomi Miyoshi is handling the illustrations for the manga.

Sword Art Online: Progressive's manga adapts Kawahara and abec's novels which retells the story of the series' first arc and Kirito and Asuna's journey through Aincrad. Yen Press has distribution rights for the manga adaptation in the U.S. and the synopsis for Progressive's first volume is as follows:

"Yuuki Asuna was a top student who spent her days at cram school and preparing for her high school entrance exams - but that was before she borrowed her brother's virtual reality game system and wound up trapped in Sword Art Online with ten thousand other frightened players. As time passes, Asuna fears what will become of her life outside the fantasy realm - the failure she might seem in the eyes of her peers and parents.

Unwilling to wait on the sidelines for more experienced gamers to beat the game, Asuna employs her study habits to learn the mechanics of gaming - and swordplay. Her swiftness impresses Kirito, a pro gamer who invites Asuna to join the best players on the front lines. Is Asuna ready to swap class rankings for player rankings and join Kirito?"

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.

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."

The Alicization arc covers Volumes 9-18 of Kawahara's light novel series. In this arc, 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.

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