Sword Art Online is certainly a guilty pleasure of mine. The first half of the original season and Season 3 Alicization have a special place in my heart as some of my favorite seasons of anime of all time. But all things must come to an end at some point. It is high time for the final new season of Sword Art Online and 2025 feels like its last shot.
For the record, the last season of proper SAO was Season 4 War of Underworld that concluded in 2020. That was more than four years ago at the time of writing. That may not sound like a ton, but it is quite a lot considering the biggest gaps before now between seasons was between Season 2 and 3. That was also four years.
The problem, though, is we have no release date or formal announcement of an upcoming season. Waiting five years for a new season is some Attack on Titan-level patience and it shouldn’t happen. 2025 certainly feels like the last time Sword Art Online will feel relevant enough to garner a new season and it just needs to happen.
To make matters worse, as of this year, we are now in the official SAO timeline. In the anime lore, the original Aincrad game came to an end in 2024, which we are now in. It has also been a whopping 12 years since the first season dropped. There is no reason to keep fans waiting this long, especially considering how close to the end it is.
Sure, the light novel series is still going in the midst of the final arc known as Unital Ring, but that equally needs to wrap up soon. It is in its seventh book thus far, which is coming close to matching the full length of the Alicization arc. Given how weak Season 4 and the conclusion of Alicization was, it is only more frustrating SAO isn’t returning yet.
Then there is the matter of other similar anime. Attack on Titan started after Sword Art Online. And even with the infamous wait for that series, it still managed to conclude long before Season 5 of SAO. The same goes for Tokyo Ghoul and its four-season adaptation of two different manga series. But, to be fair, those are series that started around the same era as SAO.
What about series that came long after Sword Art Online’s beginning? Equally notable and popular series like Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, Black Clover, Boruto, Oshi no Ko, and even My Hero Academia are done right now, at least in manga form. All of these series started after SAO and several of them even have many more anime episodes as well. Heck, even One Piece is in the final stretch and could finish first.
With the prevalence of virtual reality and AR in culture today, there is no better time to bring back Sword Art Online. Any longer, though, and it has the chance to come back with a whimper. To help, Gun Gale Online Season 2 is happening right now in the Fall 2024 anime season. It is doing just as great as the first season and is filling a nice gap right now.
But Gun Gale Online Season 2 should only be the start of the return of SAO. It feels like a neat appetizer for the main event next year. Plus, it would help the other aspects of the franchise, such as video games. The games have been in a slump for a few entries now and being able to fully adapt the Unital Ring arc alongside the anime would be an excellent opportunity.
It is high time for Sword Art Online to come back with a new and, hopefully final, season in 2025. Next year feels like the final opportunity for this series to stay relevant and popular. It already feels almost too late if it wasn’t for the ongoing Gun Gale Online Season 2. If Aniplex and A-1 Pictures waits past 2025, it may not even be worth going back to Kirito, Asuna, Alice, and the gang for the community and company alike. The return needs to be announced now.
Sword Art Online is available to stream right now on Crunchyroll.
Published: Nov 20, 2024 04:45 pm