Sword Art Online Celebrates 10 Years of Anime in New Anniversary Video

It has been ten long years since Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online light novels made their anime adaptation debut, and the franchise is celebrating this milestone anniversary with a special new video looking back on the anime's journey so far! The original light novels were already big in their own right before the anime made its debut, but it's an entirely different world today. Since the anime first premiered, it has since spun off into multiple seasons, spin-off anime, manga, and novel projects, two feature films (with a third already in the works), and has no signs of slowing down.

Sword Art Online officially kicked off its 10th Anniversary for the anime (which first debuted in Japan back in 2012) with a special celebration looking back on just how far the anime has come. This extra long promo showcases the big moments from every single anime releases in the main series with not only the three seasons, but both feature films, and plenty more fun moments. It's a great trip down memory lane, and really helps to cement just how long the franchise has been up and running. You can check out the special promo below as released by Aniplex: 

It's been a long journey for Kirito and the others ever since they were originally trapped within a virtual game. The franchise has expanded its story far beyond those early days, and the TV anime itself will be returning someday with some sort of futuristic war involving a type of virtual world that has evolved over the course of thousands of years. In the meantime, the franchise is continuing with some new feature film releases officially taking on Kawahara's official companion series, Sword Art Online Progressive, which puts more of a focus on the events of the Aincrad arc from the start of the series. 

The next film in this franchise, Scherzo of a Dark Dusk, is currently scheduled for a release in Japan later this Fall but has yet to confirm any potential international release plans as of this writing. But given that the first film had a successful release in North America last year, there's a good chance its follow up will get an official release too. What do you think? Can you believe it's been ten years of Sword Art Online? What are some of your favorite moments from the anime so far? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!