The second teaser trailer for the upcoming Arknights: Prelude to Dawn anime series has been revealed, providing a short one-minute glimpse into the original game’s dystopian, post-apocalyptic universe.
The description of the video reads: “And you’re our hope, Doctor” (see below to learn who is ‘Doctor’).
To commemorate the occasion, the Yostar OFFICIAL SHOP is launching a campaign that will see the special goods commemorating Arknights go on sale on July 29 (set to start at noon JST).
The Arknights: Prelude to Dawn anime — what we know so far
Arknights: Prelude to Dawn (アークナイツ 黎明前奏, Arknights Reimei Zensō) is based on the Arknights mobile game. The anime is set to premiere in October 2022, with the precise date yet to be announced.
Yostar Pictures is producing the series. The animation company has so far produced a number of animated promotional videos for the mobile game, so Yostar producing Arknights: Prelude to Dawn comes as no surprise.
The staff is, as follows:
- Yuuki Watanabe — director
- Masaki Nishikawa — assistant director
- Aya Takafuji — character designer
No additional names behind the Arknights production have been revealed, so stay tuned for supplementary info as it becomes available.
Meanwhile, here is the first anime trailer that was released in April 2022 when the Arknights anime adaptation was first announced:
About the Arknights mobile game
Arknights (明日方舟, Míngrì Fāngzhōu) is a tactical RPG/tower defense mobile game developed by Hypergryph Network Technology Co. Ltd. (a.k.a. Hypergryph), a video game development company based in Shanghai, China.
The free-to-play game is available on Android and iOS platforms and was released in May 2019 (China), January 2020 (worldwide), and June 2020 (Taiwan).
Arknights is a massively popular RPG game and has continually topped the charts since its release. It has won multiple awards for its extensive design and play style.
The game is set in the dystopian future setting of the fictional planet Terra, where natural diseases and a deadly infection (‘oripathy’) run rampant. Since oripathy is highly contagious, the infected are being persecuted. To protect themselves, they form a militant group (Reunion Movement) that spells trouble for the Terra government.
The PC takes on the role of ‘Doctor,’ a key member of Rhodes Island — the pharmaceutical company trying to develop a cure for oripathy and defends itself from both Reunion and Terra government. For some added thrills, Doctor suffers from amnesia.
In March 2022, a spin-off game for PC and mobile devices was announced. Titled Arknights: Endfield, the game will be a 3D real-time RPG. The setting and the storyline will be different as well, with Hypergryph clarifying that Endfield will take place on a different planet but will retain the same “worldview” as Arknights. Consequentially, it will introduce new characters and a new storyline. Presently, Endfield is in the early stages of development and no release date has been made knows yet.
Hypergryph has made it known that Arknights is to become a franchise, so Endfield may not be the last game we’ll see.