FromSoftware fans are so passionate, the upcoming Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice anime will be 'under the microscope', says director

The Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice anime is ticking along nicely—after a brief hubbub about potential AI use (which the director was quick to dismiss, and I never held much stock in any way, smear frames look weird), talk about the series, dubbed Sekiro: No Defeat, mostly quietened down.

Well, it's all livened up again, thanks to both a recent Variety interview with its director, and a new trailer that looks—for lack of a better word—sick as hell.

While the trailer from six months ago was certainly nothing to sniff at, suspicious smear frames notwithstanding, this new one gives off a much stronger visual identity. Scratchy, loose linework and kinetic action combined with some lovely painterly backgrounds—the words 'controlled messiness' come to mind.

Which is somewhat fitting if you're trying to replicate the frantic pace I felt while fighting most of the bosses, several of which can be spotted here—Owl can be seen in several scenes bodying/throwing the poor Wolf around, Genichiro's flinging lightning again, and is that Gyoubu Oniwa I spy? (as he breathes, you will not pass the castle gate).

This kind of trailer-combing has, per the aforementioned Variety review, been of some concern to the series' director Kenichi Kutsuna:

"FromSoftware, they make such high quality game experiences, and they've established this community and fandom worldwide," he explains. "So we understand that the potential audience for what we're making in this anime is going to put this under the microscope, and it's going to be a very, very—I don't wanna say harsh or strict lens, but you could say the audience will be looking at it.

"So I of course, am nervous if we are able to answer that level of resolution that they perhaps might be looking for. But I think we've done everything we could from the production side in terms of maintaining a level of quality that wouldn't tarnish the FromSoftware and 'Sekiro' brand."

I don't think there's any risk of tarnishing going on here, after all, this isn't Elden Ring, ohoho. But in all seriousness, I'm more bought in than I was before. As for what game ending the anime will be bending towards, Kutsuna states that it'll be just as open to interpretation:

"[Sekiro] allows a lot of interpretation on the players' part in terms of how they want to proceed through the game. And those who have played will know that type of experience. So, in taking that and transforming it into an audio-visual adaptation, we wanted it to be open to interpretation in a similar way that the game presented itself to its players."

Sekiro: No Defeat doesn't have an official release date yet, but it'll be coming this year. In the meantime, I'll be preparing myself by watching those sickos no-hit Genichiro off his stupid, lightning-infested tower again.