How Do You Play a Man of Few Words? Director and Cast on Voicing Wolf at the SEKIRO: NO DEFEAT Premiere

The premiere of the anime film SEKIRO: NO DEFEAT was held on August 14, 2026, at a theater in Tokyo.

The film is based on FromSoftware’s game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and will have a limited three-week theatrical run in Japan starting September 4, 2026. KADOKAWA handled production, ARCH served as producer, and Qzil.la handled animation production. Kenichi Kutsuna directed the film, marking their feature-length directorial debut.

Speaking at the premiere, Kutsuna discussed portraying Wolf, the protagonist of the original game, saying, “Compared with a typical anime, this work has an overwhelmingly small amount of dialogue, so each individual line carries a lot of weight” (translated from Japanese). Daisuke Namikawa, who voices Wolf, also said, “Since he doesn’t talk much, I wanted to treasure the moments when he’s silent, too” (translated from Japanese), revealing that he placed importance on acting through silence. Also appearing at the event were Miyuki Satou, who voices Kuro, Shizuka Itoh, who voices Emma, and Kenjiro Tsuda, who voices Genichiro Ashina.

The event also revealed for the first time a collaboration with Kakiyasu, which operates the Japanese confectionery shop Kofukudo, drawing an audible stir from the audience. Starting September 4, a product inspired by the “Sweet Rice Ball made by Wolf and Kuro” will go on sale at Kofukudo stores nationwide. It comes in two versions — a single item and a set of three that includes a newly illustrated postcard — and will be available at each store while supplies last. Tsuda said, “I’d wanted to eat Sweet Rice Ball for a long time. I really love Sweet Rice Ball, you know” (translated from Japanese), and was reportedly eating a Sweet Rice Ball right up until the event began. Namikawa recalled hearing Tsuda repeating the phrase “Sweet Rice Ball” in the green room, saying, “His voice was so deep, I wondered if some kind of Sweet Rice Ball ghost had shown up” (translated from Japanese).

Moviegoers who attend during the opening week, from September 4 to September 11, will receive a B5-size art board featuring a new illustration by character designer Takahiro Kishida. A series of stage appearances is also planned to commemorate the release: on September 5, Kutsuna and two others will appear at T-JOY UMEDA in Osaka and at a theater in Nagoya, and on September 6, Namikawa and three other cast members will appear at a theater in Tokyo.

The theme song is Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Blu,” a pre-existing track included on the album The Best of ‘Playing the Orchestra 2014’. Crunchyroll will handle international distribution and is set to stream the film exclusively worldwide, excluding Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, and Belarus.