Death Stranding Fans Create A Touching Tribute To Kojima's Work
Reception from casual fans and professional critics alike to Death Stranding was mixed. Being a Hideo Kojima game, however, means being driven first and foremost by an idiosyncratic vision (while maybe even predicting the future). As with previous games in Kojima's oeuvre, for each player that Death Stranding's creative decisions left feeling uninspired, there were plenty of others for whom its singular experience was deeply fulfilling. GameRant has detailed a new book created by and in honor of the latter group, titled A Hideo Kojima Book: Tomorrow is in Your Hands.
Project lead Tarak Chami previously published a similar tribute to the Metal Gear series titled A Hideo Kojima Book: From Mother Base With Love in 2016. Contributions included art submitted by fans of the Metal Gear games, as well as first-hand perspectives from those who have worked on the series over the years. As per a goal stated upon the project's inception, Chami was ultimately able to present a copy of the book to Kojima himself during the 2016 Tokyo Game Show.
Whereas From Mother Base With Love was distributed primarily to its contributors, Chami's new Death Stranding project was funded on Kickstarter and released to a wider audience. The book's pages feature fanart, cosplay and text tributes to Death Stranding. Its text pieces include works by communities formed in appreciation of the game, developers who were influenced by Death Stranding, Kojima Productions employees, the band Low Roar (which was featured throughout the game), and even the actors who portrayed Heartman and the similarly-named Die-Hardman.
While Chami plans to release the project in a multitude of languages, the current edition is in English with accompanying translations into Kojima's native Japanese.
A post by Metal Gear Informer showcases some of the fan-created works featured in Tomorrow is in Your Hands. These include real-life reproductions of a chiral crystal, Sam's dreamcatcher, cryptobiotes and Amelie's gold necklace, as well as cosplay photos depicting Cliff Unger and Mama on backgrounds meant to emulate imagery directly from the game.
Due to the Kickstarter project meeting a stretch goal, Chami also published a zine tribute to longtime Kojima-affiliated artist Yoji Shinkawa. Contributions are not just in commemoration of his work on Death Stranding, but the entirety of Shinkawa's output for Kojima. This encompasses virtually the entirety of the Metal Gear Solid series, the short-lived Zone of the Enders series and the one-off Policenauts.
Paper copies of both the Death Stranding book and the Shinkawa zine are currently available through Chami's Germany-based Etsy store. Both works are also free to download digitally.