Sword Art Online: Alicization Director Reveals Initial Casting Concerns

There are few anime which have escaped the inevitable ups and downs of production. Not even heavy hitters like Attack on Titan can say they avoided the curse, and Sword Art Online is on the list too. After a shaky second season, Sword Art Online fans were hesitant about the third, but it seems those worries were all for not.

That is, unless you happen to be the director of Sword Art Online: Alicization. It turns out the creator had a big concern about the anime, but he told ComicBook.com his fears were unnecessary.

Recently, ComicBook.com got to speak with Manabu Ono at Anime Expo 2019. It was there the anime director said he was concerned about how the cast of Sword Art Online: Alicization would get along since season three required lots of new talent.

"Since main characters such as Kirito are continuation from first and second seasons, one of the big concerns is whether the voice actor, the cast members, for the existing characters would have good chemistry with new characters, such as Alice and Eugeo," Ono said.

"But it turns out that the new cast members and the old cast members are people who get along in private life, in the real world. [Everything] worked out pretty nicely and the chemistry hasn't been an issue."

As you can see, the cast of Sword Art Online's third season had very few problems getting along. While stars like Yoshitsugu Matsuoka came back to play Kirito, new talent like Ai Kayano and Nobunaga Shimazaki were in charge of Alice and Eugeo. But as fans as said, the actors' on-screen chemistry works wonders, and Ono is happy to know his initial concerns never came to pass.

So, how have you enjoyed Sword Art Online's latest season...? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

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.