Sword Art Online: Extra Edition

Anime Review

First airing at the end of 2013, Sword Art Online: Extra Edition is a 1 hour 40 minute feature based on the Sword Art Online anime franchise. Airing approximately six months before the show’s second season began its 24-episode run in Japan and western markets (the latter through video-on-demand services), this episode is more or less a recap episode which essentially summarises past events – and in a couple of ways bridges the two seasons together.

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For the most part, Extra Edition involves Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya having a meeting with Seijirou Kikuoka, a member of the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affair’s Virtual Reality division who takes on the role as a secondary character in Sword Art Online II. At the request of Kikuoka, Kazuto begins recapping the events which unfolded during his time in both Sword Art Online and ALFheim Online. Although there is a little bit of new content spaced throughout the recap, the first hour and twenty minutes is primarily dedicated to recapping the core events of season one.

I can imagine there would be some who could benefit from watching the recap portion of Extra Edition. For example, those who might not have seen the series in several years and wanted a refresher or otherwise want to skip Season 1 before diving into Season 2, might be able to justify the 80 minutes spent watching this. However, I didn’t gain anything from watching this portion of the feature. From my perspective, this is because the anime itself was neither complex or forgettable in the first place. If there were more episodes dedicated to each arc and/or we really got to delve into more of the events that transpired across the season then maybe… but based on season one as it stood, there wasn’t much of a need in my opinion.

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There is still some content that is completely new for this episode, with its pool/ocean and swimsuit themes fitting Extra Edition‘s Summer air date. The sub-plot present across most of the episode follows the female characters of SAO (Asuna “Asuna” Yuuki, Keiko “Silica” Ayano, Rika “Lisbeth” Shinozaki and Suguha “Leafa” Kirigaya) as they spend an afternoon at the pool. Nothing particularly special, although it does provide some swimsuit appeal, and it is nice to see the characters spend time outside of the ‘VRMMO of the Arc’.

The final 20 minutes of the episode takes viewers away from the real life setting, but not from a summer-inspired locale. Taking place in the VRMMO ALFheim Online and featuring many of the shows more recognisable male and female faces, this portion of Extra Edition focuses on Kirito and co completing an underwater quest. Far from being another attempt at showing the cast in swimsuits, this section alone could have worked as an hour long episode in my opinion. While it could be considered as a section which just focuses on a random quest, the progression of events were enjoyable, and there was some nice albeit brief combat. Another nice aspect was that this primarily takes place in an environment different from anything else presented in the show to date. I am not sure if this alone would justify paying the full price tag (at least for me), but it was a nice addition nevertheless.

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In terms of production quality, Sword Art Online: Extra Edition didn’t disappoint in either the visual, music or voice acting departments. The design is what I would have expected from A-1 Pictures given their past work and does look pretty on Blu-ray, the music is adequate although lacks opening/ending animations (Season 1’s opening theme is present in the opening scene however) and both the English/Japanese voice acting is as good as ever.

In terms of extra content, there isn’t particularly much. Outside of the standard assortment of trailers, there are almost 14 minutes of the talk show-like Sword Art Offline segments dubbed in Japanese.

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Final Words on Sword Art Online: Extra Edition

While there is a decent pool sub-plot and a really nice side-story following Kirito and his friends doing a quest to cap things off, unless you are actually looking for a recap of the entire first season, I wouldn’t say Sword Art Online: Extra Edition offers all that much. For those looking for one however, it does an adequate job of summarising the core events that took place during the show’s first 25-episodes – complemented by good production quality.

Acknowledgements

A review copy of Sword Art Online: Extra Edition was provided to me by Madman Entertainment. They currently sell this collection on both DVD and Blu-ray via their official online store and retailers across Australia.

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Final Score
The Quick Brief
While there is a decent pool sub-plot and a really nice side-story following Kirito and his friends doing a quest to cap things off, unless you are actually looking for a recap of the entire first season, I wouldn't say Sword Art Online: Extra Edition offers all that much. For those looking for one however, it does an adequate job of summarising the core events that took place during the show's first 25-episodes - complemented by good production quality.
Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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