Sword Art Online Premiere Shocks Fans with Controversial Tentacle Scene

Sword Art Online has kept fans on their toes for a few months now, but the anime is finally back on the air. The show brought back its War of Underworld arc earlier this weekend to herald in the summer season. The update checked in on plenty of familiar heroes, but it turns out fans were less than happy with one scene earlier on in the premiere.

So you have been warned! There are spoilers below for the midseason premiere of Sword Art Online: Aliczation - War of Underworld that may be found upsetting:

For those who have seen the episode, you can more than likely point out the scene in question. The ordeal begins within the episode's first twenty minutes after Leafa is revisited. The heroine was a welcome face in the season after much focus was spent on Alice, but the poor girl was given the absolute worst kind of attention.

Leafa is shown in the midst of battle early on in the premiere, but she is restrained before her enemies before long. It is there that one baddie uses a series of glowing tentacles to bind Leafa, and the suggestive scene is uncomfortable from the start. It only gets worse when one tentacle is implied to have sexually assaulted Leafa, but that content is not shown on screen. The shot simply pans to Leafa's horrified face as she tries to break free.

As you can imagine, this content has not gone over well with fans. This is not even the first time that Sword Art Online: Alicization has leaned on such a horrific trope. Now, fans are demanding better from the anime, so here's to hoping those pleas are met for once.

What did you make of this surprisingly dark scene? Did it leave you upset? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!