Sword Art Online Celebrates 10th Anniversary With Special Exhibit

Sword Art Online is celebrating its tenth anniversary in style! Having already announced the release of its official Instagram Account, along with new artwork, the former light novel series doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon with its announcements as it just dropped the “bombshell” that a special exhibit will be held to celebrate the series to boot. “Sword Art Online: Ex-Chronicle” will be an interactive exhibit that is sure to help fans celebrate the series.

Anime News Network released a story on the interactive exhibit, touting four interactive areas and a merchandise store that will take place for one week in August in Japan:

The four interactive activities will give fans a feeling of “logging into” this popular massively multiplayer online role playing game anime series. The areas themselves will be called: “EX-REALITY -Welcome to RATH-“, “EX-VIRTUAL THEATER -Dive into AINCRAD-“, “EX-CHRONICLE -Birth of the Death Game-” respectively. Each area will offer a new piece of either artwork or interviews for fans to gain a better look into the series that is Sword Art Online.

Fans who live in Japan, or are looking to travel there specifically for this exhibit, may not be so lucky as to attend this exhibit as demand has been so high that tickets are only available through a lottery system. Pre-Ordering a ticket will not guarantee entry so if you’re a fan of Kirito and the gang, and are looking to visit this exhibit, you’d best cross your fingers and hope the virtual gods are smiling on you.

What do you think of this recent news for the tenth anniversary of Sword Art Online? Will you be paying a visit to Akihabara to attempt to visit the exhibit for yourself? Let us know in the comments or feel free to hti me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and MMORPGs!

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.