Resident Evil 4 Meets Studio Ghibli In Bizarrely Cute Official Trailer

Capcom has just released an official trailer for the upcoming "Resident Evil 4" remake that features a bizarrely adorable animation style reminiscent of Studio Ghibli. There are a lot of spooky thematic staples in the "Resident Evil" universe. These games are full of gritty and dilapidated settings, corporate intrigue, over-the-top death sequences, and grotesque body horror. "Resident Evil 4" is particularly well known for the monstrous designs of the cultist villagers that have been infected, mutated, and mutilated by the Las Plagas parasite. This is just one of the reasons that many people consider it to be one of the best horror games of all time. There is a certain level of camp to all of the "Resident Evil" games, but "cute" is a word that has rarely been used to describe any of them.

That's why this new trailer is so peculiar. The Ghibli-style artwork that it uses is bright, vibrant, and full of soft-featured designs that look as if they were illustrated with the goal of portraying safety and innocence – two things that are in incredibly short supply in the "Resident Evil" universe. Still, the only thing that might be stranger than the fact that this trailer exists is that it actually kind of works.

The animated short is designed to look like it's an episode of a fictional television show titled "Leon and the Mysterious Village." It opens with Leon S. Kennedy and Ashley Graham jogging merrily on a sunlit hillside in front of a peaceful looking European town. A dog then appears that sprouts tentacles from its back before Leon and Ashley are chased, "Scooby-Doo" style, from the area by the dog and a group of villagers. There's even an appearance by the mutated salamander Del Lago that is one of the many boss fights in the game. After that, it shows Leon looking for Ashley. He runs into a bunch of red-eyed villagers who speak a language he doesn't understand before one of them splits Leon's head open with an axe, sending rainbows shooting out of his skull as the caption declares that he is dead.

Several fans commented on the video to show their appreciation for Capcom's unique approach to advertising the game. One user proclaimed that they would like an entire "Resident Evil" series animated in this style. Meanwhile, user @amarolidris4324 wrote, "God I love this game company so much[.] So glad that they embrace the wacky and campiness of the series and don't take it seriously."

So while this blend of genre styles might initially seem strange, it appears that it has been successful in marketing Capcom's upcoming game.