Sekiro: No Defeat anime gets bloody new trailer at Annecy
A new trailer for Sekiro: No Defeat, a feature-length anime adaptation of FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The anime brings the 2019 video game’s distinctive martial arts violence to animation, drawing visual inspiration from filmmaker Mamoru Oshii’s work, particularly Patlabor 2, alongside Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke.
Director Kenichi Kutsuna has prioritized capturing both the game’s narrative and its gameplay feel within the constraints of a feature film—a common challenge in video game adaptations, which typically compress 20+ hours of game content into a shorter runtime. A key focus for Kutsuna has been translating the game’s guard mechanic to film through sound design and visual composition, ensuring that viewers experience the same defensive tension that players encounter during combat encounters.
The adaptation represents an attempt to overcome the video game movie genre’s historically poor track record by balancing faithful storytelling with authentic recreation of the gameplay experience that defines Sekiro.