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Sword Art Online Author's Demons' Crest Novels Get TV Anime
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Kadokawa announced on Tuesday that Sword Art Online author Reki Kawahara's Demons' Crest novel series is inspiring a television anime. The novels' illustrator Yukiko Horiguchi (who is also known for character designs in Kyoto Animation's K-ON!, Lucky Star, and Tamako Love Story) drew the below illustration to celebrate the announcement. Kadokawa did not reveal any other information on the anime.
Yen Press licensed the novels, and it describes the story:
The latest VRMMORPG, Actual Magic, has sealed an entire class of sixth graders in a terrifying game of life or death. Countless dangers await eleven-year-old Yuuma and his friends. One of their classmates has been turned into a monster, and gargantuan beasts lurk around every corner. Their only hope? The demon Valac who has possessed Yuuma's twin sister. Following Valac's guidance, Yuuma and his party set out to save their missing friend, Nagi. But an unexpected encounter awaits them...
Kawahara launched the series with the first novel volume in November 2022. Kadokawa will release the fourth novel volume on December 10. Yen Press will release the third novel volume in English on December 30. Tomoe (art) and Koroku Takano (script) launched a vertical-scrolling manga adaptation of the novels in Wit Studio's vertical-scrolling manga service HykeComic in November 2022. Kadokawa released the manga's first compiled book volume in June 2024.
Kawahara is best known for his Sword Art Online novels, which he began in 2001, and serialized from 2002 to 2008 on his website. Kadokawa's Dengeki Bunko label began publishing a newly-edited print version in 2009, ending the original story with the "Alicization" arc as Kawahara had wrote it in his website with the 18th volume in 2016. The novel series returned with an all-new "Moon Cradle" story arc in 2017, and another all-new "Unital Ring" story arc in 2018, and is now in its 28th overall volume. The series has inspired novel and manga spinoffs, a television anime adaptation with several seasons, an anime film, and proposed live-action series. Kawahara's Sword Art Online: Progressive spinoff novel series inspired two anime films of its own.
Kawahara also penned the Accel World novel series, which inspired its own manga adaptations, a television anime adaptation, and an anime film. He also penned The Isolator: Realization of Absolute Solitude light novel series. Yen Press is releasing Sword Art Online, Accel World, and The Isolator: Realization of Absolute Solitude novels in English.
Sources: PR Times, Comic Natalie
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
