Guess what, ya’ll, I’m excited, because this season, like always, Crunchyroll is bringing the new hotness.
Sekiro: No Defeat is coming. That’s the real headline. The trailer dropped last week, and it’s perfect—visceral, painterly, and…BRUTAL. FromSoftware’s uncompromising game about a shinobi bound to protect a young lord is becoming anime exactly as it should: hand-drawn, no AI corners cut, with the original Japanese voice cast returning because they understand that continuity matters.
Director Kenichi Kutsuna isn’t fumbling this. The action animation is where the money lives. Watch the sword combat in that trailer. It’s fast. The sequences are elegant in their chaos. The whole thing has an intentionally rough aesthetic, as if it were drawn on rough paper by an artist working with a broken hellbent on making this work live, not rendered smooth like today’s pristine anime.
That matches the world.
This isn’t pretty…but it is pretty deadly.
It’s meant to scar you, body and soul.
This is Ninja Scroll energy, returned.
Ninja Scroll redefined what anime ninjas could be back in 1993. Brutal, gorgeous, unafraid of consequences. It became a reference point. Every ninja story after had to exist in its shadow. Sekiro: No Defeat has that same potential, that same juice.
FromSoftware is directly involved, reviewing storyboards to ensure the lore remains consistent. The anime will pick one ending, the director hasn’t said which, and that’s smart—mystery works. But more importantly, it’s expanding the character work. The game gives you NPCs as fragments. The anime will make them cry, bleed, and hurt.
Studio Qzil.la is handling production. The game’s cast returns: Daisuke Namikawa as Sekiro and Miyuki Satou as Kuro. Isshin Ashina, Ema, Busshi—all reprised. That’s not fanservice. That’s respect.
Nothing’s grabbed the form and shaken it as Ninja Scroll did for ninja stories. Sadly, the genre has been coasting, staying afloat only thanks to the likes of anime such Brave 10 and Naruto.
Sekiro: No Defeat is theoretically about to change that. The material is there. The team is committed. The animation is legit.
I believe this could be a touchstone moment. This is the ninja anime that could, like Ninja Scroll, reset the category.
Trailer #1
Trailer #2
