This year, the hit animeSword Art Onlineis celebrating its 10th anniversary. In honor of this event, a special art exhibition has opened in Tokyo for an extremely limited time for thishugely popular anime. The exhibition is called [The Art ofSword Art Online] and is being held in the Ueno Royal Museum.
Sword Art Onlinebegan as a story about thousands of people who logged into a virtual reality video game on its launch day, only to be trapped in there until someone could beat it! And to add pressure, dying in the game meant their body would also die in the real world. The story has sinceexpanded dramatically, adding in new video game worlds, characters, problems, and more.Sword Art Onlinenow has 96 episodes so far spread out over multiple seasons, along with several spin-offs anime series, some movies, light novels, and 18 video games.
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The main character of Sword Art Online is a boy named Kirito. [The Art ofSword Art Online] will follow his journey so far, starting from his beginnings in the first season of the animeall the way through his adventures. And it is not only about his fictional adventure story, it is also about his creation as a character!
Visiting the [The Art ofSword Art Online] is like going on a journey through different chapters of Kirito’s story. It is split into five sections, titled 00/link_start (a special introductory movie for the exhibition), 01/world (artboards about the worlds in the anime), 02/life (storyboards and original drawings showing howKirito and Asuna’s characters were first created), 03/action (original paintings of action scenes), and finally 04/continue (newly drawn art for the anime’s future).
Some pieces of art displayed at [The Art ofSword Art Online] are being shown to the public for the first time at this exhibition, especially in the 04/continue section of the show. This will likely be one of the main points of interest forSword Art Onlinefans, as it will give them the best idea of what to expect from the anime going forward. The official website says that this art exhibition is thefirst step towardsSword Art Online’s future.
[The Art ofSword Art Online] also has special goods that are only on sale at the exhibition. These include exclusive file folders, tote bags, stickers, pens, a mug, and plenty of keychains and badges. There are even cookies printed with the name of the art exhibition in a keepsake jar.
A normal entry ticket on the day costs only ￥2200 (around $20 USD), so that leaves plenty of money to shop for merchandise guilt-free. There is also a special ticket that comes with an exclusive notebook decorated with images from [The Art ofSword Art Online] for ￥3800 (around $35 USD) for serious fans.
[The Art ofSword Art Online] is a great way to celebrateSword Art Online’s 10th anniversary. It has some unique exhibitions for people to see, including live-size art, full wall murals, and original pieces totake fans on a journeyalongside Kirito. With how limited the exhibition’s run is, it is likely to be very popular throughout July, attracting fans from all over Japan.
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[The Art ofSword Art Online] is at the Ueno Royal Museum from July 2 to July 24.
