Guilty Gear Strive Dual Rulers is coming. God I love these titles. I thought that Guilty Gear Xrd was the best due to its unpronounceability (zerd? kserd?), but Strive: Dual Rulers, an anime based on the game series, has me even more hyped.
What is Guilty Gear about?
What are any fighting games about? Punching each other. That’s all you need to know. But for those who want to familiarize themselves with the deeper intricacies of the plot, read on. Guilty Gear is set in a world where magic has replaced technology in almost every way. How whimsical! One would think, but magic-infused creatures called Gears have risen to power in this world, and the battle between the world’s denizens and Gears have made the planet practically post-apocalyptic.
The main hero of the Gears series is a fighter named Sol Badguy. Yes, that is his name, like his Badguy father before him. Sol Badguy was a scientist who worked under an enigmatic inventor known as That Man, who was responsible for creating Gears. During the experimentation process, Sol himself was turned into a half-Gear and ended up causing widespread destruction because of it. He feels really Guilty about it. Now he has turned into a Gear bounty hunter and relentlessly pursues That Man for unleashing the Gear threat upon the world.
When will Strive: Dual Rulers be released?
How do we even know that Strive: Dual Rulers is coming out in the first place? Twitter. That’s how.
While there aren’t any concrete release dates for the series, it’s likely that we’ll find out more at the 2024 Anime Expo in July, where Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers is said to be making an appearance. With that in mind, it’s possible we could be looking at a fall 2024 or spring 2025 release.
Who’s involved in the project?
According to the Twitter post, Shigeru Morikawa (director of Argonavis the Movie: Axia) will direct the series. Guilty Gear writer Norimitsu Kaihō will also be involved in creating the series, and Seiji Mizushima (who produced Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Fullmetal Alchemist) will serve as associate producer.
As for the finer details of the series (the plot, the cast, etc.), we don’t know for certain. What we do know is that the plot of the Guilty Gear anime will likely follow the plot of the games. There will be a lot of punching. And kicking. And magical explosions. And vows for vengeance.
