Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic the Gathering, recently put out an anime trailer in collaboration with WIT Studios ahead of the release of their upcoming set, Kamigawa Neon Dynasty.
To help showcase these more modern Japanese aesthetics, Wizards of the Coast reached out to WIT Studio, known for their work on Attack on Titan and Vivy, to add their aesthetic expertise to create a memorable promotional trailer for the franchise. This marks the first collaboration between the two, but hopefully not the last.
The trailer helps to set the scene for Kamigawa’s Neon Dynasty, a set which melds the traditional Japanese aesthetic with that of cyberpunk to showcase the previously-visited land of Kamigawa (in which the last set took place in 2004), which has since transformed into a cyberpunk wonderland in the 1200 years that followed.
You can check out the trailer here:
What is the story behind the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty trailer?
The trailer follows the Planeswalker Kaito Shizuki through his adventures with Kamigawa’s Wandering Emperor as the two travel through time and space to fight battles against a variety of enemies featured in the new set.
The trailer features the beautiful animation that WIT Studio has come to be known for, with heavy special effects like the ones used in Vivy, their flagship title of 2021. It’s a lovely, glittering opening to Magic: The Gathering’s first-ever sci-fi set, showcasing just how far the plane (or, to put it another way, the land of Kamigawa) has come in the past 1200 years. It’s nice to see a more modernized Planeswalker and to see just how far WIT was able to push both the character designs and aesthetics of the traditional Magic aesthetic while retaining elements of its own distinct style.
The video was produced by the Japanese office of Wizards of the Coast in tandem with WIT Studio and Maxilla.
The song performed in the trailer is “Scratch,” sung by Koshi Inaba with lyrics and music by TK. The song can be purchased on Amazon Music currently.
When will the set come out?
Kamigawa Neon Dynasty made its global release on February 18th, 2022. It brings back some familiar mechanics from the original Kamigawa block from 2004 and modernizes them with a new aesthetic and card mechanic design.
It’s one of the most anticipated Magic sets in recent history, and for good reason — it looks awesome! Be sure to check it out if you have any interest in Magic.