Sekiro Anime Film Review: Gorgeous but Gutted, Says Kotaku

The Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice theatrical anime looks stunning with its ukiyo-e-inspired visuals, but Kotaku says the story is a disjointed mess that cuts too much.

A Sekiro movie that looks like a moving painting but tells half a story? That's the verdict from Kotaku, and honestly, it stings a little.

Sekiro: No Defeat is a theatrical anime adaptation of FromSoftware's beloved action game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, co-produced by Kadokawa and FromSoftware. It hit Japanese theaters on September 4, and Kotaku has now weighed in with a viewing report that calls the film "fragmented" and overall "disappointing."

To be fair, this isn't a lazy copy-paste job. The film actually tries to do its own thing rather than just stripping the interactivity out of the game and calling it a day. You can see that instantly in the visuals: gone is the game's gritty, realistic texture, replaced by something more abstract and painterly. The slightly faded look evokes ukiyo-e and ink-wash paintings, art forms the Japanese used to capture fleeting moments and remember the past. As the images move, the story starts to feel like a legend passed down through generations, slowly distorting over time. A lot of the time, it genuinely looks stunning.

The overall story stays the same as the game, but the shift between mediums brings changes. In the game, the bond between Wolf and Kuro rarely gets room to breathe outside of combat, because the medium itself makes extended downtime feel aimless. The film, meanwhile, zeroes in hard on Kuro and Wolf and cuts away other perspectives to keep things focused. It's a two-hour movie adapting a game many times longer, after all, and that compression is exactly where things fall apart.

We do learn more about who Wolf and Kuro are outside of battle, but those moments feel like isolated vignettes rather than part of a whole. What's missing are the connective scenes that would tie them together.

Action takes a back seat here, and when fights do happen, they lack impact. There's some weight to the combat, sure, but battles wrap up way too fast, rarely lasting more than a minute. Enemies get cut down before they ever feel like a real threat, and without proper backstory, those fights land even softer. One villain drops, another pops up with barely any setup, and gets sliced down just as quickly. Even when the animation is technically impressive, it never carries the heft or momentum it should.

Here's the real problem: if you don't know the game, most of the story beyond Wolf and Kuro's relationship will leave you confused, sometimes completely lost. And if you do know the game, it's hard not to feel like you're watching an inferior version of a story you love rather than a bold reinterpretation.

Kotaku notes the version they saw is the two-hour theatrical cut, and a re-edited series version is planned for streaming later, so things could change. But as a film, it feels like half the story is missing, and the result probably won't satisfy anyone. In the rare moments when everything clicks, it only makes you mourn what could have been.

Are you planning to check out the Sekiro anime when it hits streaming, or are you sticking with the game? Let us know in the comments.