Sword Art Online Animator Shares Special Season 3 Sketch

Kirito and company are looking to return this October as the second half of the third season of Sword Art Online dives into the “War of Underworld” arc. With the “black swordsman” seemingly stuck in a wheelchair and catatonic during the franchise’s return, it’s looking like the latter half may be led by Alice in Kirito’s absence. Regardless, an animator for the popular franchise that examines the world of massively multiplayer online role playing games has shared a special sketch showing a brand new side to Kirito.

The Twitter Account SAO_Wikia shared the sketch of Kirito in celebration of the third season from the character designer and chief animation director Suzuki Gou:

Kirito has had a strange series of adventures, first starting in an online world gone awry that was Alfheim Online, then jumping into a “first person shooter” in the form of Gun Gale, and finally finding himself struggling with the world of Project Alicization. Each of these story arcs has differed wildly from the one before, though season three has been a tad more reminiscent of the turbulent world of Alfheim versus Gun Gale to be sure.

Sword Art Online is easily the most popular anime that dives into an MMORPG scenario, with Kirito leading the charge on the events that transpire so it should be interesting to see how season three play out with him placed onto the sidelines.

What do you think of this new sketch of Kirito from Sword Art Online? Have you been enjoying season three of the anime franchise so far? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and massively multiplayer online role playing game anime franchises!

Sword Art Online was originally created by Reki Kawahara with illustrations provided by abec for ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki Bunko line in 2009. 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.

If you have yet to catch the new season of Sword Art Online’s anime adaptation, the original Japanese release of Sword Art Online: Alicization can currently be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu. The English dub of the series is now airing Saturday nights on Adult Swim’s Toonami block. The series will be returning for the second half of its Alicization season with War of Underworld in October.