Death Stranding Becomes an Anime
Video games have increasingly developed into independent art forms in recent years and hardly any other title embodies this claim as much as Death Stranding. Released in 2019, the game comes from Japanese developer and cult game designer Hideo Kojima, who previously became world-famous through the Metal Gear Solid series. Kojima is known for his cinematic approach and experimental ideas.
The game takes us to a dystopian future: After a series of mysterious catastrophes, the world is devastated. Humanity lives in isolation, the boundaries between life and death have been broken. As a player, you take on the role of messenger Sam Porter Bridges (played by The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus), who tries to reconnect the last remnants of society. Now the story of this idiosyncratic world is being told in a new format: An animated film is in the works, with a completely new plot.
Why an anime - and what can we expect in it?
The fact that Death Stranding is made for a film adaptation was already clear to many fans while playing. The dense atmosphere, the serious themes (isolation, humanity, life and death), the cinematic staging – all this almost cries out for a film and television adaptation. And that’s exactly what is happening in two forms: In addition to an announced live-action film, an animated film for an adult audience is being created. The film also doesn’t tell a mere copy of the game, but a new, original story in the same universe. So even people who haven’t played Death Stranding should be able to get in without any problems.
The film is produced by the US studio Line Mileage, which specializes in adult animation. Studio boss Daniel Dominguez compares the emotional experience of Death Stranding with films like Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell – profound, disturbing, but also fascinating. The anime is said to be stylistically oriented towards modern genre productions such as the new John Wick prequel or the sci-fi horror Predator: Killer of Killers. Aaron Guzikowski, author of the thriller series Raised by Wolves and the award-winning film Prisoners, is in charge of this.
Even more Death Stranding in the pipeline - what about the live-action adaptation?
Parallel to the anime, Kojima Productions is also working on a live-action film adaptation. A real heavyweight of the independent film scene is on board: A24, the studio behind Everything Everywhere All At Once, Midsommar or Hereditary. Michael Sarnoski (A Quiet Place: Day One) is scheduled to direct.
The live-action adaptation and the anime are two independent projects, but both with Hideo Kojima as the creative mind in the background. This creates a kind of narrative universe around Death Stranding, similar to series like The Last of Us or The Witcher, which also started as video games and later became successful as series. And the gameplay also continues: On June 26, 2025, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will be released for the PlayStation 5.