Resident Evil 4 Gets An Adorable Anime Spin-Off Before Game Launches

Only a few more days remain until the release of the Resident Evil 4 remake, and to celebrate the return of a game that’s up to its knees in blood and parasites, Capcom has released a cute anime short starring Leon Kennedy. Titled “Leon and the Mysterious Village”, this Resident Evil adventure is produced by Japanese animation studio Nippon Animation and is the first of several shorts. Despite the very cute art and intro, you probably don’t want your kids to see it.

The first episode features a much younger–and armed–Leon stumbling across a small town populated by homicidal villagers and ends with the unlucky government agent blocking an axe with his head. It’s gruesome, but adorable. It also looks like it was stylistically influenced by the 1974 Heidi anime series, and good luck getting this banger of a theme tune out of your head. Ever.

This isn’t the first time that Capcom has had some fun with its Resident Evil series, as shortly before the launch of Resident Evil Village, the company commissioned a series of terrifying puppet shows to help promote the game.

Resident Evil 4 remake launches on March 24 for PC, PS5, PS4, and Xbox Series X|S, and the critical consensus has been overwhelmingly positive so far. “The remake stands as a re-envisioning of its past rather than a replication of it,” Kurt Indovina wrote in GameSpot’s Resident Evil 4 remake review. “In doing this, it raises the bar for what a good remake is and at the same time, preserves Resident Evil 4’s legacy as a genre-defining experience and one of the greatest games of all time.”

If you’re interested in picking the game up on PC, you can save almost $10 with this deal, or if you’d prefer to dive back into the original game and you’re looking at enhancing the dated graphics, you can read up on how hackers spent eight years working on the Resident Evil HD project.