Accel World Season 2: An Honest Look at Revival Hopes

Accel World – the anime that had me hooked from the first episode way back in 2012. The question is, will we get more seasons?

The unique sci-fi world, the intense brain burst avatar battles, the lovable band of underdogs, aka Nega Nebulus – what wasn’t to obsess over?

Like many of you, I’ve been desperately clinging to any shred of hope that we’ll be blessed with Accel World Season 2 to rejoin Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime on their quest.

But if I’m being perfectly honest here, those hopes are pretty dim at this point. We’re coming up on more than a decade – yes, a full 12 years – with absolutely no concrete news about Accel World continuing.

That stings, especially after the letdown of the Infinite Burst movie that was more repackaged recap than fresh content. Instead of fueling the chances of a sequel, it was like a bucket of ice water on our dreams.

Now, I’ve paid close attention to the fan rumblings about Accel World potentially tying into the mega-popular Sword Art Online universe. From the clues, it seems plausible that they’re set in the same world.

That’d be wild, right? If true, it means there’s an outside chance that once A-1 Pictures is done milking the massive SAO cash cow dry, they could circle back to Accel World.

But let’s be real – SAO shows no signs of stopping anytime soon with over 27 novels and side stories published so far by Kawahara.

We’re probably years (plural!) away from that even being a consideration for the studio.

And that’s assuming they’d want to pursue further animated adaptations of the Accel World property at all after it never quite blew up like SAO in popularity despite running for 27 light novel volumes as well.

Accel World Sword Art Online

Of course, fans have all sorts of fascinating theories about key characters and lore connections to keep the hope going.

The whole “Is Kuroyukihime the secret daughter of Kirito and Asuna?” chatter is particularly interesting to a mega-nerd like me. But at the end of the day, that’s all wishful thinking without more anime adapted from the source material to unravel those mysteries.

Speaking frankly, it pains me that the core Accel World fanbase has been essentially starved for over 12 years now. We’re running on dreams and hopes, sustained only by rewatching that single season, Infinite Burst, and the two OVA and dissecting the light novel lore.

It sucks knowing this amazing futuristic world may be relegated to the back burner permanently by Kadokawa, Sunrise and even the author, Reki Kawahara.

Part of me wants to be optimistic, to say “Hey, maybe a change in production studio could revive it!” But my more cynical side has mostly made peace with the fact that Accel World’s time has passed.

We should be immensely grateful for the roller coaster ride of a season we did get, before the wheels fell off.

I’d love to be proven wrong – I’ll be first in line if another season somehow materializes! Until then, I’ll keep stoking the flames of hope, no matter how faint.

Accel World’s story and characters deserves to live on. Are you with me? Let me know in the comments, and read next about Tokyo Ravens Season 2!

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