Apex Legends leans into anime and VTubers with new event

polygon.com:

Apex Legends’ new event, called Gaiden, kicks off Tuesday, and brings One Piece, Naruto, and other anime-inspired skins to Respawn’s battle royale.

There are over 40 new items themed to the event. Four of those skins (and a corresponding gun skin) appear directly inspired by popular anime series, with Octane getting a One Piece skin, Wattson getting a Narutoskin, Mirage getting a My Hero Academia skin, and Revenant getting a Neon Genesis Evangelion skin.

These skins and heroes also feature heavily in the trailer for the Gaiden event, which is an awesome two-minute battle between the Legends and Mecha-Revenant. Several Legends play into the short, with Wattson even launching her own Kamehameha. Beautifully animated, it’s the kind of thing that makes you really hope an Apex Legends anime is in the works somewhere.

At the end of the trailer, Bangalore shows up in her new Apex Commander prestige skin, which has multiple transformations. Fans can unlock the skin for themselves in-game by collecting all 40 Gaiden items. One they unlock the first tier of the skin, they’ll gain challenges to unlock the second and third tiers, which will remain active past Aug. 2.

Finally, the event reveal comes with another announcement: Apex VTuber avatars. Starting July 19, fans can download their own VTuber avatars in the likeness of Bangalore, Mirage, or Octane. Respawn has provided instructions for fans who want to set up these VTuber avatars for themselves.

Apex Legends’ Gaiden event will run from July 19 to Aug. 2, with two different reward tracks and limited-time rewards. The first reward track will run from July 19 to July 26, with the second track running through the remainder of the event.