Sekiro: No Defeat director reproduces a key in-game move

Director Kenichi Kutsuna outlined his approach to Sekiro: No Defeat at the 2026 Annecy Animation Festival, saying he aimed to both adapt FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and capture the feel of the game’s major fights. “One of the biggest elements that I put in the movie is the guard that you have in the game,” Kutsuna said at Annecy.

“When you watch the movie, you can actually see through the sound and the image where there was a guard and when there wasn't one.” He also focused on conveying how grueling a boss fight can feel. “I really put a lot of thought into it and through the storytelling, we tried to actually make the viewers feel this difficulty, like after a combat scene people will say, Oh my God, I actually watched something that felt difficult.” Kutsuna acknowledged that condensing a game that takes more than 30 hours to complete required cuts.

“If we had put everything in, the movie would last maybe eight hours, so we had to make choices,” he said.

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