Sword Art Online – Progressive - Volume 7 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

Thank you for reading Sword Art Online Progressive 7, “Rhapsody of Crimson Heat (Part One).”

First of all, I want to apologize that just after doing it with the sixth floor, I am again writing a two-book story. When I started, I thought casually to myself, I’ll only write about the casino and the beach, and it’ll be done before I know it, but then we didn’t get to the casino for a while, and there’s conspiracy afoot when we get there, and we can’t ignore the stolen keys from the sixth floor—so the story grew more and more in the telling, until I finally realized I had to write my editor and say, “I’m sorry, it has to be a two-parter…”

I think the biggest reason the story ballooned so much is that it’s just really fun for me to write scenes where Kirito and Asuna are traveling alone, fighting monsters, and eating food and such. In the Unital Ring arc, which I’m writing in parallel with this, there are tons of other friends around, plus Kirito’s the leader of the attack team, while Asuna’s the leader of the defense team, which separates their duties, meaning there are almost no scenes with just the two of them. So as a reaction to that, I ended up writing lots of those scenes in this book…but I feel like that’s also a big draw of the Progressive series, so I hope you all enjoyed them, too.

The story was just getting into the depths of the conspiracy around the casino when I hit you with that “to be continued,” but the next volume that finishes this floor should be out soon, if my schedule works out. I want to make sure you’re not waiting too long, so I hope you can hold out. In the next volume, we should see plenty of Kizmel, of course, as well as Argo and the other players, plus the mysterious Nirrnir and her battle maid, Kio, whom you’ll notice did not actually do any battling yet. Look forward to it!

And speaking of Progressive! As of January 2021, when I’m writing this afterword, the theatrical movie Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night is in full-powered production. The book should be coming out in Japan right around the time they announce a date for its release, I think. It retells the story of the first floor with extra focus on Asuna, so if you’ve read the first volume of SAOP or watched the first season of the anime, I hope the movie will give you a new perspective on the story. Look forward to it, folks!

Lastly, to my illustrator, abec, whom I dragged into my tough schedule right at the start of the year, and my editors, Miki and Adachi, I’m so sorry once again! It’ll be another tough year, I’m sure, but let’s all get through it as a team along with our readers!

Reki Kawahara—January 2021