Suikoden: The Anime, an animated adaptation of Konami’s Suikoden II, is set to air in 2026. In a recent interview with Famitsu, Suikoden series producer Rui Naito, anime director Yuzo Sato and anime producer Ryo Hino talked about how the animation staff implemented Konami’s game technology when creating the adaptation.
“A big selling point of Konami Animation is the fact that we use game technology,” Naito explains, following up with an example. “The motion capture room we used for this project is a part of the company’s facilities originally intended for game development. Konami has accumulated a lot of technological know-how through game development, but finding a way to use it in anime production is challenging.”
“Director Sato has a long track record of using digital technology in his works. He spent a lot of time figuring out how to combine our technology with his work and how to make the hand-drawn animation stand out,” Naito added.
For the Suikoden anime, the production team used two different technologies specific to Konami Animation – the first one being utilization of 3D CG for camera work testing. This allows them to test various scenes in 3D with no limitations to the camera work, thus making the world of the anime feel more immersive. The results are then finalized as hand-drawn animation. Producer Hino further emphasizes that the anime will be a “hybrid of 3D and 2D hand-drawn animation.”
The other one is motion capture previsualization. What this means is that the production staff captures the motions of real actors, and those recordings are used to help them with directing the storyboards and determining frame compositions and how the scenes play out.
Sato notes that, in order to accomplish this, Konami hired Hideki Sugiguchi, a stuntman who did motion capture and stunt work for Dragon Quest XI, Final Fantasy VII remake, NieR:Automata, and the Yakuza series, among other titles.
Naito explains that the anime production staff also gets advice from the game development team – specifically, they check the plot and make sure all the details are consistent. On the other hand, as the team is aware that there may be many people getting into the Suikoden series for the first time through the anime, they’re not going for a word-for-word adaptation of the games. While staying faithful to the core story elements, Konami is aiming for an anime that’s approachable for newcomers.
Suikoden: The Anime is set to air in 2026.
