Graphic 'Sword Art Online' Episode Gets Mature Rating On Toonami

Toonami is the premiere place to catch up on anime in the U.S., and the late-night program hit up [...]

Toonami is the premiere place to catch up on anime in the U.S., and the late-night program hit up cable this weekend with an unusual caveat. Thanks to the program's latest episode of Sword Art Online, a ratings bump went down, and fans admit they are grateful for the last-minute change.

For those unaware, Sword Art Online aired a new episode of season three on Toonami last night. The big episode was a major one for Eugeo as the Alicization lead learned an important lesson, but it came at a cost.

After all, episode ten features some heavy content about sexual assault, and that forced the release to get a TV-MA rating for a chance.

For those who didn't tune into the episode, Toonami saw Sword Art Online treat Eugeo to a traumatizing experience. The knight-in-training went to confront two bullies at his academy after his female friends Tiese and Ronye went to talk to them.

The two bullies wanted to prove to Eugeo that he was far beneath them, so they decided to violently sexually assault the girls after paralyzing the boy. With the Taboo Index in play, the two girls were nearly raped before Eugeo broke lose and saved his friends. The graphic scene was censored on several TV stations in Japan, but its uncensored release shows a truly disturbing scene. It was for this reason Sword Art Online had to bump up its rating, and the English voice actor for Eugeo even warned fans before the episode began.

"Tonight's episodes of #SwordArtOnline will be very heavy content wise.. so please use discretion. These episodes are also very important to Eugeo and his character development. I hope you will still join us tonight. Only on #Toonami," Brandon Winkler wrote on Twitter.

So, what did you make of this episode's cable debut? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

If you have yet to catch the latest season of Sword Art Online yourself, Sword Art Online: Alicization can currently be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu in its original Japanese release. The series is described as such:

"Where... am I...?" Before he knows it, Kirito has made a full-dive into an epic, fantasy-like virtual world. With only a murky recollection of what happened right before he logged in, he starts to wander around, searching for clues. He comes upon an enormous, pitch dark tree (the Gigas Cedar), where he encounters a boy. "My name is Eugeo. Nice to meet you, Kirito." Although he is supposedly a resident of the virtual world - an NPC - the boy shows the same array of emotions as any human being. As Kirito bonds with Eugeo, he continues to search for a way to log out of this world. Meanwhile, he remembers a certain memory deep down within him. He remembers racing through the mountains with Eugeo as a child... A memory that he should not have in the first place... And in this memory, he sees someone other than Eugeo, a young blond girl. Her name is Alice. And it is a name that must never be forgotten..."

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