''Sword Art Online: Alicization'' is the third season of the anime series adapted from the light novel series ''

Sword Art Online is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the then-near future and focuses on protagonists Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki as they play through various virt ...

'', written by

Reki Kawahara is a Japanese light novel author. He is best known as the creator of '' Sword Art Online'' and ''Accel World'', both of which have been adapted into anime. He has also written ''The Isolator''. Career Kawahara wrote the first volume of ''Swo ...

and illustrated by abec. It is animated by

A-1 Pictures is a Japanese animation studio founded by ex- Sunrise producer Mikihiro Iwata and it is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan's anime production firm Aniplex. History The studio was established by SMEJ's animation production divisio ...

and directed by Manabu Ono. It covers the first part of the "Alicization" arc and adapts from the novel's ninth volume, ''Alicization Beginning'', to the fourteenth volume, ''Alicization Uniting''. The second part of the anime, titled ''Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld'', adapts from the novel's fifteenth volume, ''Alicization Invading'', to the eighteenth volume, ''Alicization Lasting''. While not covered in the light novels, ''Alicization'' takes place after '' Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale'', as it incorporates elements from the film not found in the novels. The first part of the series premiered on October 7, 2018, and aired until March 31, 2019, with a one-hour world premiere airing in Japan, the United States, Mexico, Australia, France, Germany, Russia, and South Korea on September 15, 2018. The second part of the series premiered on October 13 and aired until December 29, 2019, with a recap episode summarizing the first part airing on October 6, 2019. The second half of the ''War of Underworld'' series was originally scheduled to premiere on April 26, 2020, but was delayed to air from July 12 to September 20, 2020, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Aniplex of America Aniplex of America Inc. or Aniplex USA is the U.S. distribution enterprise of Aniplex, an anime and music production company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was established in March 2005 in Santa Monica, California, with the goal of ...

's English-dubbed version aired on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

Toonami Toonami ( ) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese animation and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a d ...

programming block from February 10 until July 14, 2019, while the first cour of the second part of the series aired from January 19 until April 5, 2020. The second cour of the second part of the series premiered on Toonami on November 8, 2020. The series is available with multilingual subtitles on iQIYI in South East Asia. __TOC__

Music

The first opening theme of ''Sword Art Online: Alicization'' is "Adamas" by

LiSA Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer * Lisa Komine (born 1978), ...

, and the first ending theme is by

Eir Aoi is a Japanese singer from Sapporo, Hokkaido, signed to Sacra Music. After being discovered through the Japanese video sharing website Niconico, Aoi made her major debut in 2011 with the release of her first single "Memoria", whose title track ...

. The second opening theme is " Resister" by

Asca ''Asca'' is a genus of mites with worldwide distribution in the family Ascidae. Species * ''Asca acornis'' Lindquist, 1972 * ''Asca annandalei'' Bhattacharyya & Sanyal, 2002 * ''Asca anwenjui'' Ma, 2003 * '' Asca aphidioides' ...

, and the second ending theme is "Forget-me-not" by

ReoNa Reona ( ; stylized as ReoNa, born October 20, 1998) is a Japanese singer who is signed to Sacra Music. Having been active as a cosplayer and independent musician, she made her major debut in 2018 as the singing voice of the character Elza Kanzak ...

, with episode 19 featuring , also sung by ReoNa. In ''Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld'', the first opening theme is "Resolution" by

Haruka Tomatsu is a Japanese voice actress and singer, employed by Music Ray'n. She received the Rookie of the Year award at the 3rd Seiyu Awards and the Synergy Award at the 9th Seiyu Awards. Tomatsu voiced Asuna Yuuki in ''Sword Art Online'', Zero Two in '' ...

, and the first ending theme is " Unlasting" by LiSA. The second opening theme is "Anima" by ReoNa, and the second ending theme is "I will" by Eir Aoi. The series' music is composed by

Yuki Kajiura Yuki, Yūki or Yuuki may refer to: Places * Yuki, Hiroshima (Jinseki), a town in Jinseki District, Hiroshima, Japan * Yuki, Hiroshima (Saeki), a town in Saeki District, Hiroshima, Japan * Yūki, Ibaraki, a city on Honshu island in Japan * Y ...

Episode list

''Sword Art Online: Alicization'' (2018–19)

''Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld'' (2019–20)

Media release

Japanese release

''Sword Art Online: Alicization''

''Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld''

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{Toonami Adult Swim Anime postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2018 Japanese television seasons 2019 Japanese television seasons 2020 Japanese television seasons Alicization Sword Art Online episode lists