So I got bored today and just started doing this...
*All the pages indicated in this thread are calculated from the Baka-Tsuki PDF files. Basically anything not story related and all images were excluded.
So according to my calculations the series will be about
17.5 episodes if they just stay to the main story and the few SS we KNOW they're doing.
Of course this only if they follow the stories to the absolute letter [which we know they aren't doing].
Based on the titles of the next few episodes we can hypothesis that they are going to shorten the Aria SS from
3 episodes down to
1 episode. Based on that information we can make the assumptions that anything under
3 episodes can, and will most likely be, shortened to
1 episode.
Based on that information you can say this now... the SAO main story and SS will be between
12 and
13 Episodes long. Even if they length one or two of the SS that will only change it to a moderate length of maybe
14 and
15 episodes. Of course they won't go word for word so you can probably even short the main story to
6 episodes.
So.... unless they are going to add more SS and a lot of fillers that will distract and break up the pacing of the story, I can't really see how they are going to make this a 24-26 episode series based solely on the SAO arc.
Now let's see what the ALO arc is...
So it's only about
10 episodes long [if they do it word for word]. If they were to add it as the last half of the series it would definitely fit nicely there...
15 Episodes [SAO arc max amount of episodes]
11 Episodes [ALO arc max amount of episodes, plus one for good measure]
26 Episodes
So there you have it... My bored ramblings and calculations for this series. Before you say it YES! I have way too much time on my hands.
*All calculations are approximate and at the very best are guesses [though educated ones]. This mostly as a bored thing to kill time, but I thought it was interesting and so decided to post it.