Sword Art Online Vol. 29 is Coming Soon!
The next never-before-seen work to be released by Sword Art Online author Reki Kawahara will be the highly anticipated Vol. 29 of the main Sword Art Online light novel series. Vol. 29 will continue on the engaging Unital Ring arc.
News of the announcement – made via an official Kawahara broadcast – comes after much anticipation and even some teasing around the new year. As I wrote about at the end of 2025, Kawahara himself somewhat cryptically teased some announcements would be coming in 2026. Although he left it ambiguous as to what those announcements would be about, many among the SAO fanbase – myself included – took that to be a thinly veiled announcement for some much needed SAO news.
With the announcement of the next SAO Volume, it turns out that we were right, and there could still be more news for the franchise coming out this year. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Sword Art Online Vol. 29 adds another chapter to the Unital Ring arc
Vol. 29 could be a pivotal book for the Unital Ring story based on the events that occurred in Vol. 28 – a novel which just released in the middle of 2025 in English. Vol. 28 saw many big reveals (no spoilers) and events that show just how much the story is heating up. Vol. 29 will undoubtedly keep the excitement going, although fans stateside will likely have to wait some time before getting the official translated version in their hands.
SAO Vol. 28 is available in English
Although some speculate that the release of Vol. 29 in Japan could be as early as April, 2026, English translations for these books typically come about a year later than the original release, meaning we might not get the English version until 2027.
Yet, news of the next main installment in the SAO story may not be the only thing fans have to look forward to.
Will more Sword Art Online anime news be coming soon?
With new manga editions getting released, the next Progressive light novel releasing in English in 2026, and now news of Vol. 29, SAO fans do have a good deal to be excited about right now. Yet the big question still remains: when will the next anime installment be released?
The latest installment of Progressive gets its English release this year.
2026 marks four years since the now infamous announcement was made that a new original SAO film was in the works. Despite having ample time, essentially zero information has been shared about this film, when it will be released, or even what the subject of the film is going to be.
However, it seems news could be getting shared soon. A fan that listened to the broadcast in Japanese says that news about the original anime film would be getting shared soon.
In today's stream, they hinted to the effect that follow-up information about the new SAO movie will be coming this year. However, according to Miki, updates on Demons' Crest will be coming out first.#SAO#sao_anime#SwordArtOnline
— AQUA SAISON (@PLUSaq1989) January 26, 2026
Assuming this is true, much bigger news than even a new light novel could be getting announced sometime in 2026. It seems about high time for something like this to happen. 2026 is heating up to be a huge year for anime, and any kind of news about an SAO film would be met with insane excitement from the dedicated fanbase still eagerly awaiting it even after four years of silence.
