Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Gets Blu-ray Release in 2019

Last Updated on 04/20/2020

Aniplex of America will be releasing the runaway hit anime, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, on Blu-ray beginning March of this year. Based on the light novel by military and gun fanatic Keiichi Sigsawa, who also authored Kino’s Journey and served as a gun consultant for Sword Art Online II, the series premiered in April of 2018 followed by the English dub in November. Produced by Studio 3Hz (Flip Flappers, Princess Principal), the show features the work of Yoshio Kozakai (Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu, Tsukimonogatari) serving as both character designer and chief animation director with Masayuki Sakoi (Strawberry Panic!, Princess Principal) as director and Yosuke Kuroda (Trigun, Hellsing OVA, My Hero Academia) as the screenwriter. The entire series will be released as two Blu-ray volumes each containing a deluxe booklet and postcard set along with the textless opening and ending as well as an option to watch episodes with the audio commentary by the Japanese cast and creators. Preorders are open now at RightStuf Anime for both Blu-ray volumes with Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Blu-ray Volume 1 coming out March 26, 2019 and Volume 2 scheduled for release on May 21, 2019.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, or GGO for short, has been lauded for featuring many strong female characters including the main character Karen Kohirumaki, a devoted solo player who goes by the alias LLENN in the virtual shooting game Gun Gale Online. In a piece featured on Polygon, Alyse Stanley writes, “the series posits, through gunplay action, that media featuring strong women doesn’t have to be beholden to a particular theme or look, that this entertainment should be as varied as the women watching it.” GGO has won numerous online fan polls including Anime Trending’s favorite action/adventure anime, top ending theme song, and best female character of the spring 2018 anime season. The series was also featured in Thrillist’s “The Best Anime of 2018” list noting that “while we still have a protagonist pulling off the impossible to succeed, [LLENN’s] wild pirouettes and ridiculous strategies are thrilling to experience on a moment-to-moment basis.”

©2017 KEIICHI SIGSAWA/KADOKAWA CORPORATION AMW/GGO Project

Both Japanese voice actress Tomori Kusunoki (Slow Start, Marchen Madchen) and English voice actress Reba Buhr (The Asterisk War, Violet Evergarden) for Karen were tasked with providing three different voices for Karen in the real world, her avatar LLENN in the virtual world and her iconic weapon in the game the P-90,which is lovingly named “P-chan” in the series. Yoko Hikasa (The irregular at magic high school THE MOVIE –The Girl Who Summons the Stars-, WAGNARIA!!), Kazuyuki Okitsu (Nanana’s Buried Treasure, Charlotte), and Chinatsu Akasaki (Fate/Apocrypha, ERASED) also lend their talents on the Japanese version, while Allegra Clark (Fate/Apocrypha, GRANDBLUE FANTASY The Animation), Ray Chase (March comes in like lion, anohana -The Flower We Saw That Day-), and Faye Mata (Fate/Apocrypha, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable) are featured in the English dub.