Suda 51 stands out from other game makers in the industry as something of a mad scientist. Even if his game may not always hit all of the right notes, they’re just so darn interesting. Like the time he took players to high school to play as a zombie-slaying cheerleader with her boyfriend’s severed head hanging from her belt in Lollipop Chainsaw. The very same game was promoted with a casting competition for women vying for the role of playing the series protagonist Juliet at all promotional events leading to the game’s release. If that’s not enough evidence of Suda’s explosively extra approach to everything he does, then look back to his bombastic stage entrance during Nintendo’s original Switch reveal event. Many Suda fans would argue that his finest work is still his No More Heroes series. The series contains some of the most violent, crass, and over the top games ever made.
It’s highly surprising as well that these games got their start on the Nintendo Wii, one of the most wholesome, family-approved consoles of all time. There are very few M rated games on the Wii, and No More Heroes and its sequel No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle wear their ratings with a badge of honor. While the world will receive No More Heroes 3 some time within the next few years, there’s a lot more that could be done with the series in the meantime. Specifically, the series has all of the right elements to translate perfectly into an anime series.
Travis Touchdown is the greatest representation of the gaming nerd turned action hero. Not convinced? Then take into account the fact that his signature weapon, the beam katana, was obtained in an online auction. It’s inspired by the Schwartz in Spaceballs, which itself is of course a parody of Star Wars. He essentially bought a lightsaber on eBay. If that’s not enough, Travis plays videogames constantly. He’s also a huge anime buff, sporting t-shirts of his favorite series throughout the games. The most recent entry in the series, a spinoff titled No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again allowed players to don a large collection of shirts with designs from real-world indie games like Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, and Hyperlight Drifter. Travis would be an oddly relatable protagonist in an anime series due to sharing many of the same interests as his audience. Even if he’s a foul-mouthed jerk at times.
It also helps that Travis is unquestionably cool. He’s always wearing the dopest leather jackets that look like they were stolen from an 80’s glam rock show. His signature yellow sunglasses give off Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas vibes, while his motorcycle literally looks like it was ripped out of a movie like Akira. His beam katana already looks cool on its own, but Travis wields it in a manner reminiscent of Cloud from Final Fantasy VII performing an Omnislash. Travis’s mixture of style and swordsmanship means that he’s undeniably fun to watch as he fights on screen.
Speaking of battles, this is where the No More Heroes series really would work well as an anime. Travis has to take down all of the world’s top assassins in order to become the number one assassin in the world. This structure could be broken out into an episode per assassin, with Travis fighting his way through enemies or challenges on his way to his target. All of the assassins are wildly different in their character designs. There are assassins that live in lavish mansions and have weapons for appendages, but there’s really no limit to how out there they can be. There’s a superhero, a killer obsessed with baseball, and even a boozing woman that tries to beat him to death with a baseball bat. Don’t forget the assassin that appears to be directly ripped from a classic Japanese haunted house film; he’ll probably live rent-free in players’ nightmares forever.
One thing that might be a little tricky to figure out is how much of the game’s gore to include. Travis has an unquenchable bloodlust which drives him to mow down enemies in ways that cause them to lose limbs and end up decapitated (the term “blood fountain” comes to mind). Travis also constantly screams profanity at his enemies, so the amount of F-bombs would most likely need to be toned down a bit if the series wants to have any hopes of finding a wider audience.
Lastly, an anime series adaptation of No More Heroes would have more depth than just over the top battles and a meta sense of humor. No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again revealed that Suda, the sneaky rascal that he is, has actually merged this universe with his other title Killer7. This opens up the doors to a whole new underworld of assassins that Travis hasn’t even heard whispers of in the past, but that is sure to play an important role in the next game. There are also the insane-looking alien superheroes that have been introduced in the No More Heroes 3 trailer, adding yet another layer to what would already be a hacking and slashing good time.
No More Heroes 3 is currently anticipated for a 2021 release.
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