The lights at Tokyo Game Show had barely dimmed on the final day when Hideo Kojima stepped onto the stage for a 90-minute presentation that felt part reunion, part variety show, and part carefully staged tease. It was his first major return to the event in five years, following his 2019 appearance ahead of the original Death Stranding. In 2026, the evening is remembered as a pre-launch time capsule: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach has since moved from speculation into the hands of players, but the Tokyo Game Show 2024 showcase still explains much about its tone, its cast, and its playful streak.

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Kojima was joined by singer and songwriter Daichi Miura, voice actors Kenjiro Tsuda, Nana Mizuki, Tomokazu Sugita, and Shion Wakayama, plus a brief in-person appearance from Danish film director Nicolas Winding Refn. The crowd welcomed Kojima back warmly, and the panel quickly settled into a mix of cast reveals, character footage, and the kind of eccentric showmanship that has become his signature.

Most of the announcements concerned the Japanese voice cast for Death Stranding 2. Tsuda and Mizuki would reprise their roles as Sam and Fragile from the first game. Sugita, a performer known for his boisterous delivery, was cast as the diminutive Dollman, a miniature living being. Footage showed Sam carrying Dollman attached to his body much like someone might clip a keychain or pendant to a backpack. The image was absurd, charming, and instantly memorable — a small detail that suggested the sequel would lean further into Kojima’s love of strange companions and tactile world-building.

Wakayama, an up-and-coming performer who won Best New Actor at the 2023 Seiyu Awards, would voice Tomorrow, a character modeled after actor Elle Fanning. A short scene showed Tomorrow chatting with a visibly pregnant young woman named Rainy, played by Shioli Kutsuna. Kutsuna, best known for her recurring role as Yukio in the recent Deadpool films, originally performed all her scenes in English with the rest of the star-studded Hollywood cast, but would provide her own voice for the Japanese dub. She addressed the crowd through a prerecorded video letter and praised Kojima for his uniqueness, saying that she had never experienced a shoot like this before.

Character Japanese voice Notes
Sam Kenjiro Tsuda Returns from the first game
Fragile Nana Mizuki Returns from the first game
Dollman Tomokazu Sugita A miniature living being carried by Sam
Tomorrow Shion Wakayama Modeled after Elle Fanning
Rainy Shioli Kutsuna Pregnant character seen with Tomorrow

🎮 Kojima also showed off two flashy ways to enjoy viewing the characters of Death Stranding 2. A new photo mode let players virtually hang out with the Drawbridge crew in-game. As seen on a screen above the Tokyo Game Show stage, Fragile, Tomorrow, and Sunny casually goofed around, posing and dancing for the camera. Clicking the shutter produced a Polaroid-like image, adding to the verisimilitude of the experience. It was less a technical demo than a mood piece: a reminder that even in a post-apocalyptic world, the characters could still be silly.

Another sequence showed Dollman dancing on a small table for Sam. The player could pitch and rotate the camera in real time. Initially alone, identical doubles — Dollmen, perhaps — joined him as part of a fully coordinated and choreographed routine. A virtual Daichi Miura also beamed in, taking the lead and singing vocals. The new single, Horizon Dreamer, was set to hit various music streaming services at midnight Japan time on Monday, September 30. The segment blurred the line between game promotion, music video, and live-stage spectacle, which was exactly the point.

With the focus on Japan, Kojima revealed a couple of upcoming merchandise opportunities for local fans to enjoy new Death Stranding gear. Designer Errolson Hugh came onto the stage bearing new jackets which he said he designed along with Kojima and artist Yoji Shinkawa for both the in-game characters and real-life fans. Kojima Productions already offered the jackets for sale online for 248,600 yen apiece, or about $1,749 at the exchange rates of the time. To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Death Stranding’s launch, Kojima Productions would open a pop-up shop at retailer PARCO Shibuya in Tokyo starting on November 8. Subsequent events were planned for PARCO branches in Nagoya and Osaka in early 2025.

🛍️ Kojima left the crowd waiting as far as details concerning Death Stranding 2’s release. While previously announcing that principal photography of the performers finished in May of that year, Kojima said that much work remained, including re-recording all the dialogue in Japanese with the aforementioned actors. Asked how development was going, Kojima said that various team members were each working on their part, and he reiterated that the studio was targeting a 2025 launch. Internally they had a date in mind, he said, but he declined to share that information with the assembled crowd. A later translation clarification made the exact progress figure unclear, so the safer takeaway was that production was deep in the pipeline rather than finished.

By 2026, the sequel has launched, and the conversation has shifted to how its oddities landed with players. The Tokyo Game Show presentation remains a useful map of its intentions: a miniature man clipped to Sam’s pack, a photo mode built for goofing around, a pop star inside a dance routine, and a director’s jackets priced like collectible art. Kojima’s stagecraft, as ever, made the waiting feel like part of the story. 🎤