Sword Art Online and Eternals join together for a special collab, with SAO author Reki Kawahara revealing he's a huge fan of the MCU.

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night, the new movie adapting the Asuna and Kirito prequel with a twist, teamed up with Marvel's Eternals. Resulting in a special collaboration trailer released in Japan.

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Sword Art Online Progressive and Marvel's Eternals Collab explained

There are several reasons why this collab happened. One of the biggest reasons is that they're both prequels, origin stories. Sword Art Online Progressive is a remake focusing on Asuna in the first floors of Aincrad, where the death game of SAO is taking place.

Unlike the original Sword Art Online anime and novel, where the SAO game itself is timeskipped and cleared in the first volume, Progressive goes floor by floor, following Asuna's early days as a VRMMO player. Eternals meanwhile is a prequel to all of the MCU, taking place thousands of years before the other movies.

Next, Eternals feature 10 heroes who join up against the Earth's destruction. Meanwhile, SAO Progressive is the story of Asuna as she joins with her friends to survive the death game of Aincrad.

The romance in both stories is also similar. Eternals protagonist Sersi is in love with Ikaris, the strongest warrior of the Eternals. Meanwhile, SAO Progressive's Asuna also develops a romantic relationship with strongest solo player Kirito later in SAO.

Asuna and Sersi are both voiced by Haruka Tomatsu

Another similar theme between the two stories is the setting. Eternals has the Celestials puling the strings. Sword Art Online has mastermind Akihiko Kayaba, who created the world of Aincrad and trapped its heroes in the death game.

Last but not least, Haruka Tomatsu, the seiyuu (Japanese voice actors) voicing Asuna, is also dubbing Sersi in the Japanese dub of Eternals. She's also narrating the special collab trailer. SAO author Reki Kawaraha also mentioned he is a big fan of the Marvel's Cinematic Universe, so this is a dream collab project.

Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night is launching in Japanese theater on October 30, and in the United States on December 3, 2021. You can always hit me up on Twitter to discuss SAO @A_iyane07.