Taking place in the new year, Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night follows Kirito and Asuna as well as other survivors of this death game as they try to continue their slow crawl to the top floor of Aincrad and beat the game. When a realization occurs that a plot is forming that could cause strife with the various guilds trying to beat the game, it is up to Asuna and Kirito to begin forming alliances and see about stopping a possible war between players. It isn’t a story we haven’t seen in the world of Sword Art Online, especially compared to the origin story of the first progressive movie, but we don’t dislike the simple story that still examines more of the universe of SAO and the characters we don’t often see.

Plus, there are some really cool new enemies, one of which takes the cake at nearly the hour mark which was really exciting to witness! The OST made us sit up and amp up our volumes, it felt like a video game moment and that wasn’t a bad thing in the slightest!

Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night really is a sight to behold. Sword Art Online has always been a beautiful anime thanks to studio A-1 Pictures but their movies for the franchise are on an entirely different level and the same can be said of Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night. Every character model, new and old, looks even more detailed than before. Parts of Sword Art Online’s various new locations/monsters in Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night are marvelous! Some of the fights in Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night gave us literal goosebumps and when the movie takes more of a break for moments like Asuna and Argo having a swimsuit battle, Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night doesn’t disappoint visually.

Yes, we can’t deny it was nice seeing more of the world of SAO from the eyes of Asuna versus Kirito, who is the usual protagonist. Yet, in the first movie, Kirito almost was non-existent, only having several minutes of screen time at the beginning of the movie and near the end. Fans of the Black Swordsman—not Guts from Berserk in this case—will be happy to know that Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night has more Kirito while still keeping the camera focused on Asuna. Their partnership is still one of our favorites in the world of anime which makes their returned cooperation nice to see. We even see more Argo—in a swimsuit—which is a rare sight!

Those who loved Mito the scythe-using warrior—one of the newer characters introduced in the first SAO Progressive movie—returns quite a bit late in Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night. Regardless, Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night is more akin to an elongated SAO episode but that is what works well for the Progressive series.

There is only one issue we had with Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night and that is when you compare it to Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night. This sequel movie doesn’t really change anything from the format we’ve grown accustomed to. Where the first movie shocked us by having a focus on Asuna/Mito and their early days of survival in SAO, Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night is a return of characters trying to beat floor dungeons/bosses and with some conspiracy thrown in, but even that isn’t going against the themes found in other SAO stories. Don’t expect the same level of shock to appear in this movie in comparison to the first.