Riot Games has made an anime reference in VALORANT through the Episode Six battle pass.
Akira is one of the most iconic anime movies in the world. Released in 1998 the action-packed film tells the story of the Japanese government dropping an atomic bomb on Tokyo after experiments on children go wrong. The story follows Shōtarō Kaneda who is pictured walking toward his famous red motorcycle on the cover of the film. Kaneda is the leader of the capsule gang and is on a quest to save his friend Tetsuo Shima.
This imagery has been recreated in the latest battle pass with VALORANT’s only Japanese agent Yoru. Yoru, who already had a similar jacket to Kaneda, can be seen walking towards his own motorcycle to directly reference the film. This is not the first time that VALORANT has created other media references within their battle pass content but this is one of the first official anime references in the game. Players can obtain the Akira-inspired player card by purchasing the VALORANT battle pass and making it through the various tiers.
Like all player cards the image will change based on if the player is waiting in the lobby screen or if they are waiting in the loading screen for the map. When the Yoru player card is turned sideways it will just picture his blue motorcycle instead. Akira is not the only anime to be referenced in Episode Six. The battle pass also features a Dragon Ball reference in the form of a spray that pictures Phoenix and Yoru bent over touching fingers together. Episode Six launches on Jan. 10 with the release of a new Act as well as a new map titled Lotus.
