Synopsis:

Sword Art Online Abridged is an abridged series by Something Witty Entertainment under the YouTube channel SWEabridged. It is a parody of the anime series Sword Art Online. Ascending Aincraid is the same story in movie form. In 2022, a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online (SAO) was released. With the NerveGear, a helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. Both the game and the NerveGear were created by Akihiko Kayaba. On November 6, 10,000 players log into SAO's mainframe cyberspace for the first time, only to discover that they are unable to log out. Kayaba appears and tells the players that they must beat all 100 floors of Aincrad, a steel castle which is the setting of SAO, if they wish to be free. He also states that those who suffer in-game deaths or forcibly remove the NerveGear out-of-game will suffer real-life deaths. Kirito, a beta tester of the game, adventures through Aincraid to keep himself, and those around him, from dying and beat Sword Art Online.

Intentions:

I love this series. The first arc of the show translated very well into the Abridged series. When the first few episodes aired, the creators were trying a few different things like a recap intro, Christmas episode, or live action inserts/narration. After they found their footing they stuck to anime only production. I felt that this series would greatly benefit if I removed those experimental elements and then super cut the remainder into a film. What remains is an anime only supercut complete with credits from the original airing.

Change List:

- Moved Official Release Support (ORS) to beginning of movie - Title card change to include Movie Edit name - Removed Beta testers youtube clip - Slightly lengthened clip of Kirito running from BallsDeep69 and added music to transition to next scene - Removed EP1 Closing Animatic (CA) - Removed EP2 ORS - Removed Recap Voiceover from EP2 beginning with Kirito talking to Narrator mode - Removed EP2 Opening (OP) - Added Time and Location title to Boss Room meeting - Removed Cheetos and Mountain Dew break - Removed Jeffrey and Jesus scene - Modified EP2 ending. Removed Kirito extended laughter and cut Asuna's line short with a door slam for better transition. - Removed EP2 CA - Removed EP3 Christmas Episode Opening with Jack Dapper - Removed EP3 OP - Added Time and Location title to Tavern scene - Removed Jack Dapper narration of Kirito making friends - Removed Jack Dapper narrating Kirito and Sachi's conversation - Removed Jack Dapper and Keita's suicide - Slight Dialogue change with BD69 - Removed Jack Dapper talking about Saint Nick - Removed Jack Dapper closing speech - Removed EP3 CA - Removed EP3 Custom animatic of Don Fluffles - Removed EP4 ORS - Removed EP4 OP - Removed extended Silica crying - Removed EP4 CA - Removed EP5 ORS - Removed EP5 OP - Removed EP5 To Be Continued - Removed EP6 ORS - Removed EP6 OP - Toned Asuna's racist behavior towards Tiffany way down - Removed EP6 CA - Removed Kirito is always right foundation - Removed EP7 ORS - Removed EP7 OP - Removed end of Lisbeth's final conversation with Kirito to remove joking end - Removed EP8 ORS - Removed EP8 OP - Removed EP9 ORS - Removed EP9 OP - Removed EP9 CA - Removed EP10 Teaser - Removed EP10 ORS - Removed EP10 OP - Removed EP10 CA - Removed EP11 ORS - Removed extended pantless man - Removed EP11 OP

Additional Notes:

With anime it becomes easy to slightly lengthen or shorten any clip due to most clips being static or basically large pictures. Exporting those clips into Photoshop makes adding mouth movement or subtitle removal easy. The SAOA wiki keeps a comprehensive list of all music they use in each episode which makes it easy to sync modified clips to the music.

Other Sources:

Persona Q - Labyrinth Cultural Festival YouTube - Happy Pig Snort Asmr The Men Who Stare At Goats - Opening Titles: A Run at the Wall The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Inside A House Psychonauts Cinematic Score - My Patron SAO - A Tender Feeling SAO - In Your Past YouTube - Cold Wind Sound Effect YouTube - Cartoon Fall (Sounds Effect) YouTube - Sleigh Bells - Sound FX (HD) SAO - At Our Parting YouTube - Fire Sound Effect In High Quality YouTube - Glass Breaking Explosion Sound Effect SAO - The First Town YouTube - Stone Door Trine 2 OST - Trine 2 Main Theme YouTube - Crickets And Running Water Sound (Pure Sense of Nature)

Special Thanks:

JasonFlippy and ArtisDead for great insight into how to improve my edit.