Anime opens in theaters in Japan in 2026 with cast returning from game
The staff for Sekiro: No Defeat, the new anime based on FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice game, announced more details in a promotional video on Monday. The video reveals the anime’s theatrical edition which will play throughout Japan in 2026, its cast, and the theme song “Blu” from composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s The Best of ‘Playing the Orchestra 2014’ album.
The Japanese cast members from the game are reprising their roles, including:
Image courtesy of Crunchyroll
© FS. Published by Activision. ©KA/SNDP
Crunchyroll will exclusively stream the anime in 2026 worldwide excluding Japan, China, Korea, Russia, and Belarus.
Kenichi Kutsuna is directing the anime at Qzil.la. Takuya Satou is the screenwriter. Takahiro Kishida (Durarara!!) is designing the characters. Shūta Hasunuma is composing the music.
Additional staff members include:
The staff issued an official statement on August 22 confirming that no AI is being used for this anime:
“We’re incredibly excited to bring Sekiro: No Defeat exclusively to Crunchyroll in 2026. The whole anime adaptation is a fully hand-drawn 2D animation created by the talented teams at Qzil.la, ARCH and Kadokawa. We can confirm that no AI is being used in the creation or production of this anime. Fans can look forward to the same artistry and precision that defined the original game, now reimagined in a new medium.”
Publisher Activision describes Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice:
Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, and published by Activision, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a third-person, action-adventure game with RPG elements. The single-player game puts players in the protagonist role of a hard-hearted warrior whose mission is to rescue his master, a young lord who is the descendant of an ancient bloodline, and exact revenge on his ARCH nemesis. Set in the re-imagined world of late 1500s Sengoku Japan; a brutal, bloody period of constant life-and-death conflict, in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice you are the “one-armed wolf,” a disgraced and disfigured warrior rescued from the brink of death.
In the game, players come face-to-face with larger than life foes; unleash an arsenal of deadly prosthetic tools and powerful ninja abilities to blend stealth, vertical traversal, and visceral head-to-head combat in a bloody confrontation.
Take revenge. Restore your honor. Kill Ingeniously.
The game launched for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam in March 2019, and it sold more than 2 million copies worldwide in less than 10 days.
Sources: Kadokawa’s YouTube channel, e-mail correspondence
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
