Sword Art Online The Movie -Ordinal Scale-

Sword Art Online The Movie -Ordinal Scale- (劇場版 ソードアート・オンライン -オーディナル・スケール-) is a Sword Art Online movie that was released in about 1,000 theatres worldwide on February 18, 2017. The movie is set after Mother's Rosario, but before the Alicization Arc and has an original story written by the author, Kawahara Reki. The theme song of the movie is Catch the Moment, a new song by LiSA.

The stage of the movie is an Augmented Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (ARMMORPG) titled «Ordinal Scale» (OS) for an Augmented Reality device called the «Augma». A feature of Ordinal Scale is a «Ranking System», according to which, each player is assigned a rank, indicated by an ordinal number instead of a cardinal number. The game is set in the real world, and players can increase their rank by gathering items that appear in various places of the real world, or by defeating monsters. Higher-ranked players are granted overwhelming power and this is commonly a major factor in deciding the outcome of Player versus Player (PvP) battles.

Prologue
In 2022, the world of virtual reality was upended by the arrival of a new invention from a genius programmer, Kayaba Akihiko.

Called NerveGear, it was the first full-dive system and with it, came endless possibilities to VRMMORPGs.

In 2026, a new machine called the Augma is developed to compete against the NerveGear and its successor, the AmuSphere.

A next-gen wearable device, the Augma does not have a full-dive function like its predecessors. Instead, it uses Augmented Reality to get players into the game. It is safe, user-friendly and lets users play while they are conscious, making it an instant hit on the market.

The most popular game on the system is «Ordinal Scale», an ARMMORPG developed exclusively for the Augma.

Asuna and the gang have already been playing OS for a while, by the time Kirito decides to join them.

They’re about to find out that Ordinal Scale isn’t all fun and games…

Plot
One night in Sword Art Online, Kirito and Asuna were enjoying the night sky of Aincrad. As Asuna complained about having never seen shooting stars because her neighbourhood was too bright, Kirito remarked that there were several good places to see them in his area, and thus they made a promise to see meteor showers some day in the real world. Kirito additionally promised to have a gift for Asuna that day.

More than a year later, by April 2026, an Augmented Reality (AR) device named Augma and its games, especially Ordinal Scale, were quickly becoming popular among the masses. The game's idol Yuna had also gained a lot of popularity, resulting in her first live concert being planned at the New National Stadium in Tokyo later that month. Students of the SAO Survivor School were granted a free Augma and a ticket for the concert.

One day, Yuuki Asuna (Asuna), Ayano Keiko (Silica), and Shinozaki Rika (Lisbeth) played an AR Pac-Man 256-like game in co-op mode in a cafe, while Kirigaya Kazuto (Kirito) observed their game with disinterest. By clearing the game, the girls earned free cakes; however the cake Rika ate exceeded her daily calorie limit, thus she left the cafe for a brisk walk in the mall outside.

Moments later, Rika created a virtual stage for Keiko, compelling her to sing one of Yuna's songs in the middle of the mall. Upon finishing an excerpt from the song, Keiko rushed back to the group in embarrassment. At a reference to Sword Art Online during a following conversation, Keiko recalled a rumour about the appearance of Sword Art Online bosses appearing in Ordinal Scale. As the location of the boss battles was only revealed nearly at the last minute, the girls needed a method of transportation to reach one in time. Thus, they persuaded Kazuto to drive one of them with his motorcycle.

As Asuna won a game of rock–paper–scissors to decide who would ride the motorcycle, Kazuto and Asuna drove to the location of an upcoming battle, where they met with Tsuboi Ryoutarou (Klein) and his guild members, the Fuurinkazan. The moment the clock struck 21:00, Kagachi the Samurai Lord, Aincrad's 10th Floor boss spawned. At that moment, Yuna entered the scene via a drone and, announcing the start of the battle, began singing, which provided buffs to the players attending the battle.

During the battle, a player fired a rocket at the boss; however, the boss dodged it, thus it flew towards Yuna, who was behind the boss at the time, instead. At that moment, Eiji, the second-ranked player of Ordinal Scale, joined the battle and deflected the projectile, causing it to hit the boss instead. As the fight continued, Asuna noticed an opening and assaulted the boss. The moment Asuna passed Eiji, he whispered the term «Switch», which was often used during battles in Sword Art Online. A moment later, Asuna defeated the boss, thus becoming the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the battle, which earned her a kiss from Yuna and an extra ten thousand points.

In the aftermath of the boss fight, a member of Fuurinkazan noticed a series of pop-ups, which led him to a collectible in a parking lot. Just as the man retrieved the item, he was confronted by Eiji. As Eiji was emanating hostility towards him, the man drew his sword in preparation for a fight.

Meanwhile, in Asuna and Kirito's forest house in ALfheim Online, Asuna, Klein, and Kirito told Agil, Leafa, Lisbeth, Silica, and Sinon about their Ordinal Scale boss battle. After Kirito mentioned that Yuna had come to sing at the battlefield and Klein complained about not being able to get a ticket for Yuna's live concert, Agil and Sinon revealed that they had both won a pair of tickets for it. As neither Klein nor Leafa had any tickets, Agil and Sinon offered their spares; however, at that moment, Leafa dejectedly remembered about having a kendo training camp at the time of the concert.

The following evening, whiles browsing for a gift in her bath, Asuna received an invitation from Ryoutarou to join them for a boss battle near her home. However, when Asuna arrived at the venue minutes later, she learnt that one of the members of Fuurinkazan had become unreachable, thus she proceeded to the battlefield alone while the guild decided to remain outside to wait for him.

As the battle with the boss and an impromptu Yuna concert began, another boss suddenly spawned near the members of Fuurinkazan. Although the guild was faring well against the boss, they were suddenly assaulted by Eiji, who disabled all of Ryoutarou's guildmates with martial arts. At that moment, Ryoutarou unequipped his Augma and attempted to punch him, but this resulted in his arm being caught and broken by Eiji. After putting Ryoutarou's Augma on him again, Eiji offered the injured man to the boss while holding him by the neck, thus allowing the boss to defeat him.

The next morning, while waiting at the venue of the previous boss fight for Asuna to arrive for their date, Kazuto was convinced by Yui to train for upcoming Ordinal Scale battles. While practising, he suddenly noticed a hooded girl right next to him. The girl pointed in a specific direction, murmuring something inaudible before disappearing. Based on the hooded girl's mouth movements, Yui interpreted the inaudible voice to have been a request to search a specific place. At that moment, Asuna arrived at the scene, thus the trio headed to a nearby restaurant, where Asuna shared her suspicion that Eiji could have been Nautilus, a lower-ranking member of the Knights of the Blood in Sword Art Online. In the middle of their conversation, Yui suddenly interrupted, informing them that she had discovered something.

Having gathered the majority of the group at the log house, Yui reported her finding that the spawn points of the old Aincrad bosses in the city aligned with the positions of their boss rooms in Aincrad, thus enabling them to predict that the next spawn point would be Yebisu Garden Palace. Asuna, Lisbeth, and Silica showed interest in joining the next boss battle; on the other hand, Sinon had to work at her part-time job at the time, while Kirito showed no interest in participating.

That evening, Asuna, Lisbeth, and Silica came to Yebisu Garden Palace, where the boss of Aincrad's 12th Floor, The Strict Hermit, spawned at 21:00. During the battle, Asuna noticed that Eiji was present at the battlefield, thus she approached him to confirm whether he was Nautilus. In response, Eiji requested her to stop using that name, showing her that he was currently known as Eiji.

When less than three minutes remained till the end of the battle, a dragon similar to Pina appeared on the battlefield. Thinking that Pina had come to help, Silica approached the monster; however, to her surprise the dragon suddenly transformed into Dorz'l the Chaos Drake, the boss of Aincrad's 91st Floor, and began pursuing her. Fleeing the boss's attacks, Silica accidentally collided with Eiji, who pushed her back.

Collapsed, Silica was about to be struck by the dragon, when Asuna suddenly shielded her from the attack. Thus, instead of hitting Silica, the dragon slashed Asuna, depleting all of her hit points and causing her to collapse the moment a yellow sphere was launched from her Augma. Having witnessed the incident, Kirito rushed to Asuna and attempted to confront Eiji in rage; however, in a split second, Eiji entered close range, pointing his sword at Kirito's throat. Moments later, the dragon interrupted their conflict just as the battle timer struck zero, causing both bosses to leave the battlefield.

Woken by a nightmare in the middle of the night, Asuna called Kazuto, asking him to come to their log house. There, she revealed that she had been losing memories of her time in SAO, causing Kazuto to become worried. In the morning, Kazuto brought Asuna to Doctor Kurahashi at the Yokohama Kōhoku General Hospital to have her checked. Having examined Asuna's brain with the Medicuboid, the doctor revealed that he had found evidence of a scan targeting specific memories to have been performed on her brain, resulting in the loss of her SAO memories. Kurahashi also informed them that similar incidents had occurred to other people, all of whom were SAO Survivors who were playing Ordinal Scale.

In the evening, Kazuto came to the site of the next Ordinal Scale battle, where Yui promised to look for leads for the memory loss incident during the fight. At that moment, the two were joined by Asada Shino (Sinon), who had decided to help Kazuto in the battle, arguing that there was no risk of her memories being scanned due to not being a former SAO player. Moments later, the Ordinal Scale event began; however, the monster that appeared was The Dire Tusk, the boss of the 18th Floor of Aincrad, rather than the expected 13th Floor boss. As Kirito expressed surprise at this change, Yui reported that several bosses had appeared in various areas of the city simultaneously, while their positions were shuffled.

At that moment, the timer began ticking and the boss attempted to assault the players, but its attack was stopped by a chain binding it to a wall. Just as some players were about to reach the boss, the boar managed to extract the chain from the wall and hit an SAO Survivor with it, depleting the players hit points to zero and causing the brain scan to engage. Noticing a piece of data being launched from the player's Augma, she followed it to find its destination but her attempt was blocked by a barrier midway. Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Kirito recklessly attempted to defeat the boss himself but was forced into defence when the boss began chaining attack with its chains. At that moment, Sinon sniped the chain and then the boss itself, allowing Kirito to deal the final blow.

In the aftermath of the battle, Kirito noticed the hooded girl again, but by the time he reached her, the girl disappeared, pointing at some location in the distance. While getting a drink from a nearby vending machine in disappointment, Kazuto suddenly recalled that the girl had asked him to search the place she pointed at during their first meeting. Upon asking Yui to analyze this, he discovered that the location the girl pointed at was the Touto Institute of Technology, where the developer of the Augma, Professor Shigemura Tetsuhiro, worked.

The following day, Kazuto participated in a lecture by Professor Shigemura on the advantages of Augmented Reality as compared to Virtual Reality. At the end of the lecture, Kazuto asked for Professor Shigemura's opinion on the potential dangers of Augmented Reality, prompting the professor to conclude the lecture. The two continued the conversation in the professor's office, where Kazuto questioned him about Eiji, and the Augma's ability to scan and damage the user's brain. Implying that such a scan was impossible, the professor questioned what issue was there with people losing their memories of SAO, presuming that the survivors wished to forget them.

After noting the presence of various parts in the room at the end of the conversation, Kazuto noticed a photo of a girl on the professor's desk just as he was leaving the room. Outside, Kazuto called Kikuoka Seijirou to enquire about the girl, and thus discovered that the professor had a daughter named Shigemura Yuuna, who had lost her life to the SAO Incident. After the conversation with Seijirou, Kazuto received a call from Asuna, with whom he then arranged a visit at her house, as it was relatively close to the institute.

In Asuna's room, Kazuto accidentally came across her diary while she was getting tea. By reading the last entry, he learnt the extent to which the memory loss incident had affected Asuna, thus when she returned to the room, he promised to retrieve her memories for her.

In the evening, while walking through a park, Kazuto was approached by the hooded girl from behind and suddenly transported to a mysterious place in his Ordinal Scale outfit. There, Kirito encountered the girl, whom he now recognised as Yuuna. After the girl informed him that he needed to increase his ranking in Ordinal Scale if he wished to retrieve Asuna's memories, Kazuto awoke in the park. <!--On the day of Yuna's concert, Kazuto, who was already ranked 9 in Ordinal Scale, headed to the stadium's basement parking lot to answer Eiji's challenge mail and to confront him. During the battle, Kirito managed to rip Eiji's equipment that assisted him to move and react faster. Shortly after the equipment had been ripped, Kirito was able to defeat Eiji, who was not experienced in AR fights without the support of his equipment. After his defeat, he revealed the reason behind his actions, namely that he was close to Yuuna while they were trapped in SAO, and also told that the concert was a trap to gather all SAO Survivors. According to him, Shigemura planned to capture the SAO memories of the survivors gathered there to rebuild Yuuna as an AI using the SAO boss monsters and drones placed throughout the stadium, employing wireless energy transfer from the drones to the Augmas of those present to trigger a NerveGear-like pulse that would potentially kill everybody inside. After their talk, Shigemura also stole Eiji's memories from SAO after he deemed him useless to the plan.<--transition is still off. When / why did Kirito leave?->

As the concert ended and Dr. Shigemura released lots of different SAO boss monsters into the venue in AR, the spiritual Yuuna appeared in front of Dr. Shigemura to attempt persuade him to suspend his plan of scanning everyone in the hall to revive Yuuna as an AI as that would damage their brain and she does not wish to revive in this form. Dr. Shigemura rejected her wish, claimed the real Yuuna would not request this and he had prepared to face the consequences of his action. Hearing this, Yuuna faded away from the control room and headed to the stadium where everyone was engaged in a battle.

Kirito managed to get into the arena and fought the monsters with his companions. Asuna's condition worsened, as the bosses triggered the survivors' fear, which are indicated on a meter in the middle of the venue, and it was revealed that when the meter reached 10,000, the scanning program in Aguma would be activated with elevated output by using drones in the venue as additional power source via wireless charging. And as a Fatal Scythe almost defeated them, Hooded Yuuna appeared in front of them and shield them with her shield and told them to defeat the 100th Floor of Aincrad’s original boss using Augma capability to initiate FullDive. Before Kirito, Lisbeth, Silica, Agil, and Sinon initiate the FullDive command, Kirito gave Asuna a ring as promise to come back.

Kirito, Agil, Silica, Lisbeth and Sinon entered the Ruby Palace on 100th Floor in Aincrad, where they began to battle «An Incarnate of the Radius», the true final boss of SAO. As they were about to be overpowered by the boss, Asuna dove in and joined the battle. With the help of Yui, Leafa, Klein, Sakuya, Eugene, and Alicia Rue from ALO and Dyne, Behemoth, and 2 other players from GGO also dived into the Ruby Palace and helped them. Yui also restored the saved game data of the SAO survivors from game data's copies in Ordinal Scale server and gave Sinon her avatar along with her GGO equipment, allowing them to turn the tables on «An Incarnate of the Radius». And as the boss was killed with Kirito dealing the last attack, Kayaba's voice congratulated the players, and Kirito is rewarded a sword that is powerful enough to kill boss monsters in one slash.

Kirito returned to the stadium as his Aincrad avatar in virtual projection, combined his newly achieved position as the number one player of Ordinal Scale with wielding the sword that he obtained from defeating the 100th Floor boss. The hooded Yuuna also start sang to motivate the survivors and the monsters were eventually eliminated. Meanwhile, Kikuoka and his squad moved in to apprehend Shigemura, who was found in Argus' server room.

Hooded Yuuna returned the memories of the survivors and, and as she was made of floor 100th boss data from Aincrad and the boss data has been reset due to being defeated, she disappears.

Some time later, Kirito and Asuna fulfilled their promise to see the meteor shower in Ooyama. Asuna returned the ring to Kirito, asking him to put it properly on her ring finger this time.

After the movie's credit, it was revealed that Kikuoka did not arrest Shigemura, who was shown to be the mentor to Kayaba and Sugou Nobuyuki as well; rather, Kikouka saw potential in Shigemura's AI system and recruited him to help work on Rath.-->

New Characters

 * Yuna (Shigemura Yuuna)
 * Professor Shigemura Tetsuhiro
 * Eiji (Nochizawa Eiji)

Named Bosses

 * Kagachi the Samurai Lord (10th Floor Boss)
 * The Storm Griffin (11th Floor Boss)
 * Zehghi the Flame Caller (11th Floor Field Boss)
 * The Strict Hermit (12th Floor Boss)
 * Dorz'l the Chaos Drake (91st Floor Boss)
 * The Dire Tusk (18th Floor Boss)
 * Waheela the Black Wolf (28th Floor Boss)
 * Xodera the Merciless Razor
 * BuuRaa the Vile Flesh
 * Z'y the Brutal Demolitionr
 * Armadillon the Burly Blaster
 * Barlon the Barbarous Barber
 * Igor the One-armed Squelcher
 * Gosirsa the Bullheaded Tormentor
 * Asvasirsa the Horseheaded Tormentor
 * The Flameeyes
 * The Fatal Scythe
 * The Gleam Eyes (74th Floor Boss)
 * The Skull Reaper (75th Floor Boss)
 * An Incarnate of the Radius (100th Floor Boss)

Locations

 * 22nd Floor of Aincrad
 * Yuuki family residence
 * Argus office
 * Mall
 * Akihabara Urban Development X (UDX)
 * Forest House K4
 * Kirigaya Residence
 * Yoyogi Park
 * Yebisu Garden Palace
 * Yokohama Kōhoku General Hospital
 * Touto Institute of Technology
 * Saitama mountain
 * New National Stadium
 * Rath's base

Preview
Teaser=|-| Trailer 1=|-| Trailer 2=|-| Trailer 3=|-| Trailer 4=|-| Dub Trailer=|-|

Trivia

 * Many of the products featured in the movie actually exist.
 * An "SAO will return" teaser was shown at the end of the movie after its post-credit scenes.
 * Despite Kazuto's statement that he had never visited Asuna's residence in Volume 9, which takes place after the movie, he visited her residence twice in the movie.

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