\n<\/p>\n
The Bandai Namco Entertainment Southeast Asia YouTube channel has dropped the first 20 minutes of Unanswered\/\/butterfly<\/em>, the CG anime that serves as promotional content for soon-to-launch Sword Art Online action RPG Echoes of Aincrad<\/em>. The opening scene sets up Sword Art Online protagonist Kirito as an antagonistic figure to Unanswered\/\/butterfly<\/em>\u2018s main characters Emirun and Lex.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The full anime, which totals at more than 110 minutes of runtime, is included with Echoes of Aincrad<\/em>\u2018s Ultimate Edition. The synopsis reads:<\/span><\/p>\n The world\u2019s first full-dive VRMMO, Sword Art Online\u2014known as SAO.<\/span><\/em> Emirun and Rex, who once knew each other in the real world, reunite by chance within SAO.<\/span><\/em> One day, however, they encounter a mysterious PK (Player Killer) known only as the Black Swordsman.<\/span><\/em> The one who wiped out their entire scouting party\u2014was the Black Swordsman.<\/span><\/em> Unanswered\/\/butterfly\u00a0<\/em>is directed by\u00a0Tadahiro Yoshihara<\/strong>\u00a0(Star Wars Visions<\/em>\u00a0Volume 3 \u201cThe Bird of Paradise\u201c) at Polygon Pictures <\/strong>and written by the game\u2019s scenario writer Keisuke Makino<\/strong>\u00a0(Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut<\/em> anime series composer and light novel author). The cast includes\u00a0Tomoyo Kurosawa <\/strong>as Emirun and Koki Uchiyama <\/strong>as Lex.<\/span><\/p>\n Echoes of Aincrad <\/em>will be out on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X\/S, and Steam on July 10 (in Japan, the console versions will launch on July 9), with a DLC expansion scheduled for December 31. The \u00a0Game Studio Inc.<\/strong>-developed title has been described as a \u201creboot\u201d of the Sword Art Online series\u2019 opening \u201cAincrad Arc\u201d that focuses on Aincrad\u2019s first two floors. Features include a customizable original player character and a Death Game mode that deletes the player\u2019s save upon a game over.<\/span><\/p>\n Source:<\/strong> Bandai Namco Entertainment Southeast Asia YouTube channel<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Bandai Namco Entertainment Southeast Asia YouTube channel has dropped the first 20 minutes of Unanswered\/\/butterfly, the CG anime that serves as promotional content for soon-to-launch Sword Art Online action RPG Echoes of Aincrad. The opening scene sets up Sword Art Online protagonist Kirito as an antagonistic figure to Unanswered\/\/butterfly\u2018s main characters Emirun and Lex. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11622],"tags":[195,8594,14806,14807,3981,450,232,22921,4065],"class_list":["post-32804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animeplug","tag-anime","tag-art","tag-bandai","tag-namco","tag-online","tag-previews","tag-sword","tag-unansweredbutterfly","tag-youtube"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Sword-Art-Online-Unansweredbutterfly-screenshot.png?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"ANIME PLUG<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The Bandai Namco Entertainment Southeast Asia YouTube channel has dropped the first 20 minutes of Unanswered\/\/butterfly, the CG anime that serves as promotional content for soon-to-launch Sword Art Online action RPG Echoes of Aincrad. The opening scene sets up Sword Art Online protagonist Kirito as an antagonistic figure to Unanswered\/\/butterfly\u2018s main characters Emirun and Lex.…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32806,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32804\/revisions\/32806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
What was meant to be a dream come true has instead transformed into a deadly game where dying in the virtual world means dying in reality.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
They join a scouting party to learn how to survive in this unforgiving world.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
When Emirun rushes to the scene, she finds Rex collapsed in despair, and the Black Swordsman standing over him.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
Determined to avenge their fallen comrades, Emirun and Rex seek out the legendary prodigy swordswoman Asuna, and begin intense training under her guidance.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n