During the Dengeki Bunko 30th Anniversary Event that was held on July 15th, 2023, Kadokawa announced that the production for the long awaited 2nd season ofSword Art Onlinespin-off series,Gun Gale Online, has officially started.
The first season ofSword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Onlinewas aired in 2018, specifically from April 8th to June 30th. That means it has been five years since the first season ofGun Gale Onlinegraced our screen.
Related:This Sword Art Online Spin-Off Is Better Than The Main Series
As mentioned earlier,Gun Gale Onlineis a spin-off series of the highly successfulSword Art Online. And just like the main series,Gun Gale Onlineis also an anime adaptation of a light novel series by the same name. However, unlike theSword Art Onlinelight novels that are written by its original creator, Reki Kawahara,Gun Gale Onlineis written by Reiichi Sigsawa.The light novels themselvesare published by Dengeki Bunko, an imprint of ASCII Media Works, one of the brands under Kadokawa Future Publishing.
The story ofGun Gale Onlinerevolves around Kohiruimaki Karen, a college student who plays a VRMMO game calledGun Gale Online. Karen uses the username Llenn, but she is widely known in the game by the moniker given to her by her fallen enemies, the Pink Devil. She earned that nickname because she always uses an all-pink military garb and will decimate her opponents with her absurd speed and agility. By the end of the first season, Llenn has become a top-rated player, and one of the rising stars of theGun Gale Online.
This announcement also comes with an official teaser image, featuring the main character Llenn, and a short promotional video that is published through the official YouTube channel of Aniplex USA. Similar to the first season, this second season ofSword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Onlinewill also be produced by Studio 3Hz.
Furthermore, the staffs that worked on the first season will also reprise their roles for the second one, including the director (Masayuki Sakoi), script supervisor (Yosuke Kuroda), and the voice actress forthe main character Llenn(Tomori Kusunoki), among others.
Unfortunately, the announcement doesn’t come with an official release date. That being said, the first season ofGun Gale Onlinewas announced at the Dengeki Bunko’s 2017 Fall Festival, specifically on October 1st, 2017. The first episode aired on April 8th, 2018, which was about six months after the initial announcement for the anime adaptation.
Since the second seasonwill be produced by the same team as the first season, we can assume that it will take them relatively the same amount of time to produce the new one. That means we can expect a Winter 2023 release date. However, keep in mind that this is merely an educated guess. The show runners will surely announce the official release date in the upcoming months. So stay tuned for that.
The first season ofSword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Onlineis now available to stream onCrunchyroll.
