Online Sword Art The second Sword Art Online: Progressive movie, Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night, continues up the plot a little less than a month after Aria of a Starless Night ends. Kirito, Asuna, and the other elite players have made it all the way to the fourth-floor boss during the time skip. It’s not the dungeon itself, though, that poses an increasing threat to halt their advancement.
By positioning himself as the antagonist in their perspective, Kirito brought the best players together in the last movie. Although this was effective in the short run, the player base has become fragmented due to the growing dominance of two frontline guilds: Aincrad Liberation Squad and Dragon Knights Brigade. Due to their distinct leadership beliefs and approaches, the two guilds are in continual conflict. But even with lone players or lesser guilds helping out, neither guild has enough high-level members to raid successfully without the other’s assistance, thus they are compelled to cooperate.
The main storyline of the movie is around our heroes’ attempts to handle the precarious situation, which gets even worse when they understand the consequences of any guild ever gaining a significant edge. Simultaneously, PKers are beginning to appear, using the almost hopeless state of affairs as a pretext to fulfill their darkest fantasies, namely, murder. Moreover, these PKers would naturally like nothing more than for the Aincrad Liberation Squad and Dragon Knights Brigade to turn on one another in a depressing carnage that would most likely prevent them from making any more progress through the dungeon.
Scherzo of Deep Night illustrates the early issues the developing society in the game faced through the guild power struggle and PKers. It establishes the framework for the current situation as it is presented in the main narrative and provides background information on the different factions that recur. The worldbuilding is sound.
Conversely, there is the more intimate side of the narrative. Scherzo of Deep Night, like Aria of a Starless Night, is primarily Asuna’s tale. She and Kirito’s developing connection is given a lot of attention, but we also witness the continuation of her tumultuous relationship with Mito—her former “one true friend” from the real world. Additionally, a significant amount of screen time is devoted to Asuna befriending Argo, the first female character in the game world. The movie does a fantastic job of highlighting how crucial Argo is to our brave couple in these early moments, even if she is barely more than an occasional supporting role in the main series. Additionally, we witness Asuna’s continued development from the damaged and reclusive loner to the powerful warrior we know and love through the two girls’ interaction.
Unfortunately, Scherzo of Deep Night is far from flawless, even though the film’s central conundrum and Asuna’s character development are both rather strong. It is repetitive and lacks emotional impact because it uses a lot of the same character beats from the Aria of a Starless Night, particularly in relation to Kirito and Mito. No matter how amazing the action sequences appear, they lose a lot of their effect if you can predict every shocking revelation ahead of time.
And this movie does look really nice, don’t get me wrong. The animation is fluid and lively throughout, while the background designs are vivid and bright. The film’s boss bouts are a true highlight, particularly the second one, which effectively incorporates 3DCG into both the boss and battle designs. This is reinforced with a soundtrack that features numerous iconic Sword Art Online audio remixes, giving the experience a yet familiar and fresh vibe.
Overall, Sword Art Online The Movie – Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night is a passable movie but isn’t all that outstanding. It’s merely mediocre. Fans of Sword Art Online will undoubtedly enjoy witnessing these “lost adventures” of their beloved characters, but that’s about all the content you’ll get from it. Nothing revolutionary or paradigm-shifting can be discovered here. If you’re interested in the characters, it’s worth watching; otherwise, there’s no reason to make the extra effort.
