COVID-19 causes yet another delay.
In an announcement posted to Twitter on Friday, April 10th, it was confirmed that the final television season of Sword Art Online: Alicization War of Underworld will not air in April as originally planned. Due to the spread of the virus, the final season will now begin airing in July 2020. No further details were revealed.
Due to the COVID-19 infection spread, the final season of Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld, which was planned to begin April 2020, has been postponed.
The broadcast is now scheduled to start July 2020. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. pic.twitter.com/skCGtLm7K5
— Sword Art Online (@SwordArtUSA) April 11, 2020
The third television season of the hit anime Sword Art Online premiered in October 2018. The first half ran for two cours. The second half, which will also run for two cours, started airing in October 2019. The story of this season covers the Alicization arc which ran from volume nine to volume eighteen of the light novel series. Crunchyroll describes the story of the third season as:
“Where…am I…?” Before he knows it, Kirito has made a full-dive into an epic, fantasy-like virtual world. With only a murky recollection of what happened right before he logged in, he starts to wander around, searching for clues. He comes upon an enormous, pitch dark tree (the Gigas Cedar), where he encounters a boy. “My name is Eugeo. Nice to meet you, Kirito.” Although he is supposedly a resident of the virtual world – an NPC – the boy shows the same array of emotions as any human being. As Kirito bonds with Eugeo, he continues to search for a way to log out of this world. Meanwhile, he remembers a certain memory deep down within him. He remembers racing through the mountains with Eugeo as a child… A memory that he should not have in the first place… And in this memory, he sees someone other than Eugeo, a young blond girl. Her name is Alice. And it is a name that must never be forgotten…
This is obviously bummer news for anyone who was looking forward to seeing how the series would end but it’s also unfortunately understandable. Hopefully, fans will understand and be patient in these trying times.
