Guilty Gear Strive Anime Teaser Trailer Debuts At Anime Expo [IGN]

During Anime Expo, Arc System Works unveiled a world premiere teaser trailer for its upcoming Guilty Gear anime, Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers, which is set to be released sometime next year.

Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Riders is a 3D CG anime adaptation of the eponymous fighting game that is being animated by SANZIGEN. While the teaser gave little away story-wise, the trailer did showcase the long-running fighting game’s central characters, Sol Badguy and Sin Kiske. The trailer, which is stylized in a similar fashion to the game’s cutscenes, pits the pair against a mysterious new foe named Unika, who has a grudge against Gears.

— Arc System Works America (@ArcSystemWorksU) July 4, 2024

Guilty Gear stands head and shoulders above other fighting games series thanks in part to it being one of the flashiest anime fighters of all time. Consequently, Guilty Gear also has a reputation for being one of the hardest story timelines to follow. A case in point is the fact that the story mode for Strive’s predecessor, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, is essentially an uninterrupted hour-long anime unto itself. For folks wondering where Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Riders will sit in the series storied lore, here’s a plot synopsis for the show:

“After the decline of the once robust fields of science and technology, a new energy source known as magic fuels the modern era,” the official description reads. “Humanity creates forbidden biological weapons: Gears. Those Gears eventually stand against humanity in a rebellion. Although they manage to overcome in the struggle for survival known as the Crusades, humanity’s losses are so great that even after several decades pass, their emotional wounds remain unable to fully heal.

“Sin Kiske, the child of a human and a Gear, heads to his father Ky and mother Dizzy’s wedding ceremony. Their wedding breaks the ultimate taboo: a union between a human and a Gear. Even with the world at peace, it took many years for such a ceremony to come to fruition. Despite the complex array of emotions surrounding it, the wedding ceremony is met with blessings. When suddenly, a mysterious girl appears… The fated child inheriting Gear blood–and the mysterious girl who despises Gears. Their meeting would shake the world.”

In our review of Guilty Gear Strive, we gave the game a 9/10, saying, “Guilty Gear Strive sets a new standard for anime-like fighting games with its visuals, stellar netcode, and flexible fighting system that encourages and rewards creativity.”

Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.