Called Sword Art Onnyain (nya being the sound of a cat meowing in Japanese), these are official videos produced by video game publisher Bandai Namco to promote the October 27 release of Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.
And now, Sword Art Online is ready to enter one of the most important media categories of the modern era: cat videos, with cute kitties acting out the dialogue being spoken by the series voice actors.
Sword Art Online is what’s known in Japanese marketing parlance as a “cross media” property.
If that’s too intense, Cat Kirito and Cat Asuna (Sword Art Online’s leading lady, in feline form) share a tender moment in episode two, “Sleeping Next to Each Other.”