On November 7, 2024, fans of Sword Art Online (SAO) celebrated the exact in-story date that protagonist Kirito cleared the infamous VR game Sword Art Online. In honor of this special date, exclusive commemorative goods have been unveiled and released, capturing the enthusiasm of SAO’s dedicated fanbase.

At 2:52 PM JST, just moments before the fictional game-clear time of 2:55 PM, a special segment titled “Let’s Shop from Home!! SAO Game Clear Special” aired on TOKYO MX, a local Tokyo TV channel. For five minutes, the segment exclusively featured new SAO game-clear merchandise, including an original A3-sized character fine art print featuring special commemorative artwork. Simultaneously, Aniplex Online opened pre-orders for the items, which will be available until November 24, and offered fans who missed the live airing an on-demand archive of the broadcast.

In addition to the televised promotion, a special edition flyer with headlines proclaiming "SAO Incident Resolved!" was distributed outside Animate’s flagship store in Ikebukuro at 2:55 PM. The flyers, designed to resemble breaking news from the SAO universe, attracted a large crowd of fans, with all copies claimed in about ten minutes. Fans who missed out can still view a digital version of the flyer online.

To further celebrate, Dengeki Bunko released a special commercial and PV. The commercial featured announcer Yoshiki Yoshida, delivering the "breaking news" of SAO’s in-universe game-clear event, while the PV provided a detailed recap of Kirito’s journey through SAO.

Originally written by Reki Kawahara, Sword Art Online follows Kirito as he navigates the immersive, and sometimes dangerous, worlds of VR gaming. Since its debut in 2009, the series has achieved immense popularity, selling over 30 million copies and inspiring anime adaptations, films, and a worldwide fanbase.

Source : ORICON NEWS