Shovel Knight is an indie platformer game that proves that even without magnificent, hyper-realistic graphics and deep lore-heavy plotlines, video games can provide a fun and enjoyable experience. This 8-bit action sidescroller’s success has made fans wonder if it could be migrated to other forms of media. Let’s see if a Shovel Knight anime could ever happen.
Shovel Knight Anime
The possibility of a Shovel Knight anime isn’t exactly a widespread expectation among the fans of the game, but still, it is a rather unique idea that could potentially be explored. Apart from the main series platformer game and its campaigns, there have been dungeon crawler spin-offs and a multiplayer fighting game but an anime adaptation is yet to be confirmed.
In terms of the potential for an anime, Shovel Knight does have what it takes, especially if we try to venture down the parody. The main character is literally what the title says. He is a powerful Knight who wields a shovel as his primary weapon, through which he does everything from fighting to jumping around. This could be looking at a Gintama-esque parody anime.Â
Possible Storylines and Plot
Shovel Knight focuses a lot more on its gameplay and gimmicks rather than providing a cohesive, deep, and intricately woven plot spanning several paragraphs’ worth of lore. This means an outright serious anime with a medieval setting, while possible, might not be the ideal approach. Still, Shovel Knight’s simple story can be told in other ways.
While not super complex, the plot is quite elaborate for an indie game, and could very well work as an anime. The basic concept is Shovel Knight’s journey towards the ‘Tower of Fate’ to reunite with his old friend, Shield Knight. This could make for a pretty short, single-season adventure anime with a nice sprinkle of humor and overblown action.
Art and Animation
As far as the art goes, Shovel Knight is an eight-bit game with pixelated graphics, so certain creative liberties can be taken freely while making a Shovel Knight anime. While official concept arts and such exist, they could be easily replicated by anime studios in Japan, given how the whole medieval art style is nothing new to anime.
The animation would play quite an important role though, because as a game with a heavy focus on action and combat against the forces of evil Shovel Knight has the player fight through every level, ending it with a Boss Fight like the classic platformers. A versatile studio probably with shounen experience could work best for this case, for example, Studio Pierrot.
Conclusion
Overall there are official announcements or talks about a Shovel Knight anime so far. Oddly enough it is more of a joke than an actual expectation. But it does sound quite promising, and the fact that we’ve seen other video games like Cyberpunk getting an anime means this isn’t entirely impossible.
If the right crew of writers, animators, and a powerful animation studio comes together, we might get to witness an amazingly chaotic yet weird and bizarre action-adventure Shovel Knight anime.