“My Mom Became A Crater” Is A Very Death Stranding Way To Start An Anime

The first trailer for the Death Stranding anime spin-off, Death Stranding: Isolations, has dropped, revealing a quick and spooky glimpse at a world that has been ravaged by several extinction events. The brief teaser reveals little, and amusingly, the official synopsis simply reads, "My mom became a crater." But if you are a fan of Hideo Kojima's post-apocalyptic world and setting? There's plenty to glean from this footage through the visuals, and the trailer also reveals the talent behind this project.

If you're unfamiliar with the games, Death Stranding takes place in a world where humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction. After Beached Things (BTs) began to roam the land, various cataclysms broke out across the world. BTs would arise via necrosis from deceased humans, and if they made contact with living people, that would result in massive "voidout" explosions that could easily wipe out a city. To make matters worse, BTs are also the root cause of Timefall, a rain that rapidly ages anything it hits, which eventually led the surviving populace to form Knot Cities across the USA, which was subsequently renamed to the United Cities of America.

Death Stranding: Isolations tells an original story within that setting, and it follows a young girl living in a voidout crater--possibly the one caused by her mom, as the trailer suggests. "In the wake of this cataclysm, many were forced to live in absolute isolation--among them, a young girl. Although this lonely existence was forced upon her, she soon grows to prefer solitude, eschewing all opportunities for real human connection and allowing herself to be strung along by fate," the synopsis reads.

The series also has notable talent attached, including director Takayuki Sano (Jujutsu Kaisen). The crew also includes writer Tow Ubukata (Psycho-Pass), character designers Ilya Kuvshinov (Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045) and Sayaka Koiso (Dorohedoro), and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima is listed as an executive producer. E&H Production, the studio behind recent projects like Undead Unluck and the 2026 version of Magic Knight Rayearth, is handling the animation. Death Stranding: Isolations will stream exclusively through Disney+ in 2027.

This is one of several Death Stranding projects in development currently, as Death Stranding: Mosquito from director Hiroshi Miyamoto and ABC Animation Studio was shown off last year, and a live-action Death Stranding movie is also in development. Michael Sarnoski (A Quiet Place: Day One) will be directing the movie, which will tell an original story that aims to "capture the soul" of the games.

Death Stranding isn't the only video game property getting an anime adaptation, as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Bloodborne, and Ghost of Tsushima projects are also in varying stages of development.