Death Stranding Is Getting a Hand-Drawn Anime — First Teaser, Story Details and a 2027 Disney+ Date

Hideo Kojima’s world of strands, porters, and BTs is heading somewhere nobody predicted: a traditional, hand-drawn 2D anime. During KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS’ 10th anniversary celebration — BEYOND THE STRAND: The Odyssey of Creation and Endeavor, held at Azabudai Hills Gallery in Tokyo — the studio shared a first teaser and a batch of new details for DEATH STRANDING ISOLATIONS, an animated series streaming exclusively on Disney+ and other Disney services in 2027.

First, what Isolations is not: it is not a retelling of Sam Bridges’ journey. The series tells a completely new story, separate from the video games, following a young man and a young woman as they set out on an adventure of their own. It is set in North America immediately after Sam reconnects the continent through the Chiral Network — and it digs into the uncomfortable question the games always circled: what happens to people who got used to being alone when the world suddenly asks them to connect again? The young woman at the center of the story has grown comfortable with isolation, and the renewed connections Sam created bring consequences nobody foresaw. The teaser’s haunting tagline says it all: “My mom became a crater.”

Visually, this is a deliberate departure from the games’ photorealistic style. Isolations is being made with hand-drawn 2D animation by E&H production, the studio behind NINJA KAMUI and BULLET/BULLET. Takayuki Sano directs, original character designs come from Ilya Kuvshinov, and Hideo Kojima himself serves as executive producer.

The newest name on the credits list is a big one for anime and sci-fi fans: renowned author Tow Ubukata has joined the project as Series Composition & Screenplay writer. Ubukata’s bibliography includes Mardock Scramble, work on Psycho-Pass, and the Ghost in the Shell franchise — in other words, exactly the kind of writer you want exploring a world about fractured societies, technology, and what connection costs.

Why does this matter beyond Death Stranding diehards? Because Kojima Productions is quietly building Death Stranding into a full cross-media universe. Alongside Isolations, the studio showed a location-based AR experience, DEATH STRANDING ODRADEK: TOKYO PROTOTYPE, developed with Niantic Spatial for exhibition attendees. An anime with a standalone story is also the lowest-friction entry point the franchise has ever had — no 50-hour game required, just a Disney+ subscription and a willingness to get weird.

For more games jumping to the screen, check out Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 Is Streaming NOW on Netflix — and Cyberpunk 2077’s Update 2.5 Drops in Two Days and The Going Merry Has Landed — One Piece Is FINALLY Coming to Fortnite.

Plenty is still unannounced: no cast, no episode count, and no exact premiere date beyond 2027. But between the hand-drawn look, the post-Chiral Network setting, and a creative team stacked with top Japanese animation talent, Isolations already looks like far more than a licensed cash-in. The anniversary exhibition itself runs at Azabudai Hills Gallery from October 31 to December 20, if any Tokyo-based porters want the full experience.

Keep on keeping on — 2027 can’t get here soon enough.

Source: KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS announcement via GamesPress.

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