Sure, Dota 2 now has its own anime show inspired by the MOBA game in Dota: Dragon’s Blood – with another season already on the way – but it’s not the only way to put an anime-style spin on the game. One fan has shared a video they’ve created that imagines some of Dota 2’s best heroes in a “’90s style anime opening” for a short film contest, and it feels pretty darn spot on.
Dota fan Morphling-artist has shared their creation on the game’s subreddit – a one-and-a-half-minute-long animation that really captures the look and feel of a 1990s-style anime show’s opening sequence, which you can check out below. Emphasising that the clip isn’t about the Dragon’s Blood series – though there is some crossover in the heroes featured – the creator explains that they took “heavy inspiration” from the Slayers anime in particular, and composed the music you hear, with themes being “variations on Dota themes”.
Zooming in on a version of Dota’s map, we see the title card punched through as the action kicks off and switches into a montage of our favourite faces from Valve’s MOBA.
We see Shadow Fiend, lonely on a green hill, looking out at the moody sky ahead, shots of Nature’s Prophet readying for action as he turns to the ‘camera’, Pudge marching cheerfully onward, Anti-Mage whooshing around to batter a foe, and – well – cameos from a whole bunch of others. See if you can spot your main below:
The creator explains that they made the intro using Blender’s Grease Pencil animation tool, and the result is great. It’s a really lovely tribute to the game and captures the style of a ’90s anime opener pretty superbly, I reckon – as well as the spirit of each hero lucky enough to make it into the clip.
If you’re keen to check out some other artistry fans have been getting up to in recent times, you can also see every one of Dota 2’s heroes – well, apart from Dark Willow – sketched in under just one minute each.
Top image credit: Morphlg-artist / YouTube