"The younger generation - they're watching a ton of anime" - Suikoden IP Director Rui Naito on Suikoden: The Anime

If it wasn't for Konami's idea for Suikoden: Star Leap, the recent Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars release would never have happened. According to Suikoden IP Director Rui Naito, the start point for the series' revival was never the remasters themselves, but rather they were a result of working backwards from the idea of reviving the IP as a whole.

"We started thinking about how to revive the Suikoden IP around 2017 - almost a decade ago, now. At that point, it wasn't so much about deciding to do a remaster, or an anime specifically; rather, it was considering how best to bring back Suikoden." Naito talks through the history of the series revival, and how each individual project came to be.

"Our first idea was Suikoden: Star Leap. It would be easier for people to access, since it would be a mobile project; and the decision to remaster Suikoden I and II was in order to make them part of a 'bible' for the series, Genso Suikoden, as a whole. The anime adaptation of Suikoden II was decided to help expand upon that bible."

The choice to adapt Suikoden II specifically instead of starting with the first game has what feels like an obvious answer; it simply had the more compelling story to adapt, which should come at no surprise to anyone who has played both of the original games. That being said, adapting said story will come with its own set of challenges. Not every 108 Star of Destiny will be fully featured in the adaptation; some might only have a Where's Waldo? style cameo, owing to the difficulties of condensing an entire RPG storyline within the scope of an anime. 

There's no promises that every minor Star of Destiny will make the cut, either; and we weren't able to prod much about any specific changes that the adaptation will be making, besides an acknowledgement that one way the series will differ is by trimming certain sequences where it would make sense to.

"When it's a game, you're the one playing - so you get to choose your pace. Sometimes you have to go through the town multiple times; or you have to go and grab an item for an event, then come back. If you tried doing that in an anime, you'd miss your core audience."

As for who this adaptation is for - while both Rui Naito and Kensuke Ito of Konami animation mentioned that it's for a younger audience, it doesn't take much guesswork to put things together when by their own admission that both the anime and the remasters are meant to draw interest to the upcoming release of Suikoden: Star Leap.

While it's been an unspoken truth for at least a few years at this point, there's a large overlap between anime fans and gacha players. This year especially, the representation for gacha games at Anime Expo reached a fever pitch; the booths for series such as Umamusume, Blue Archive, and Wuthering Waves taking up a significant portion of the Exhibit Hall, in addition to mainstays such as Fate/Grand Order, Hoyoverse titles, and Love and Deepspace.

"The younger generation - they're watching a ton of anime. We wanted to meet them where they're at, rather than force them somewhere else."

It's all up in the air exactly how the gambit will work out, but at least so far it seems like Konami is on the right track for reviving the series. I'll be curious how things turn out for a number of reasons, not least of which is that Konami animation is still very new - with this project being one of their first cracks at a full series. Here's hoping that all works out well when it starts airing this October.