‘Resident Evil 4’ has received its own anime short ahead of the remake

The remake of Resident Evil 4 is upon us, and with the review embargo lifted and nothing but praise being heaped onto the title, the Capcom marketing machine is in full swing – and in true Resident Evil fashion, some of it is just straight-up weird.

The weirdest and most nightmare-fuelling of it all is perhaps a minute-long anime short, and it’s probably not even close to what you’re picturing in your mind. The cartoon stylizes Leon, Ashley, and the various spooky villagers and denizens of Resident Evil 4 as children’s characters, with a sing-songy “Saturday morning cartoon”-esque theme to boot. 

Following the opening, the plot of the short is very straightforward. Leon asks a villager where he might find Ashley, and gets an ax to the skull in response. Roll credits.

Thoroughly amusing and wildly disturbing all at once, the clip certainly captures the absurdity which will undoubtedly be present over the course of the campaign of Resident Evil 4. Whether we’d rather sit through that again or just play the game in all its visceral, 4K glory to get a better night’s sleep is another question. 

Resident Evil 4 releases on March 24, 2023 – and it’s shaping up to be one of the best releases of the year so far. It’s sitting comfortably above 90 percent on review aggregators like Metacritic, and we share that sentiment – we thought it was fantastic.