Please do not pet this dog
Resident Evil 4the remake of Capcom’s 2005 action-survival-horror game of the same name, is set to arrive this Friday.
The highly anticipated revamp of one of the most influential titles of the 2000s isn’t exactly that kind of game, really. Need Huge marketing push to get potential audiences to pay attention. However, that doesn’t mean Capcom isn’t willing to have some fun while promoting it, as we can see in this hilarious (and gory) ad for the game that makes a nod to one of the most popular Japanese kids’ shows of the ’70s.
The ad, which was released on Sunday, recounts the opening moments of Resident Evil 4, albeit now depicted as an episode of “Resident Evil Masterpiece Theatre”. The ad title, along with the cute cartoon style, is an explicit reference to World masterpiece theatera series of children’s animation produced by Japanese animation studio Nippon Animation, which originally aired from 1969 to 1997.
The series has adapted several notable works of children’s literature into animation, which featured many works by animators such as future Studio Ghibli founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, as well as Mobile Suit Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. Arguably the two most popular anime in the World Masterpiece Theater series are 1974’s Heidi, Alpine girl (Directed by Takahata) and 1975 Flanders dogthe latter of which Takahata and Miyazaki worked on and is explicitly referenced in the opening minutes of this new Resident Evil 4 advertisement.
It’s a fun and quirky way to not only promote one of the biggest video game releases of the year, but also honor a beloved work of Japanese animation with its own legacy. Just don’t expect the game itself to be engaging; this He is Still Resident Evil 4 We are talking about him after all.
Resident Evil 4 It will be released on March 24th for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
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