Hideo Kojima Has a Voice Cameo in My Chemical Romance's New Short Film
Homework is late again.
Hideo Kojima has popped up in a lot of unexpected places over the years, but this one might be the most fun yet. The Death Stranding creator has a small voice role in Prelude to The End, a new animated short from My Chemical Romance and artist Lauren Tsai (IGN).
The short arrived as a surprise drop on Thursday night, right before Halloween weekend. It runs about seven and a half minutes and doubles as a 20th anniversary music video for "The End.," the opening track from The Black Parade.
Who does Kojima play?
He's credited simply as The Teacher. When the main character, Astrid, retreats to her room to listen to her missed calls, Kojima's voice shows up in the third voicemail. "Astrid your Japanese homework is late again. This is unacceptab-" he says, before the message cuts off (IGN).
He isn't the only famous voice in those messages, either, since Grammy winners Billie Eilish and Phoebe Bridgers also have quick voice cameos. (Of all the people to leave you a voicemail, Kojima is the one you call back.)
What is Prelude to The End?
It's a stop-motion dark fairy tale based on director Lauren Tsai's The Dying World. Tsai and My Chemical Romance made it to celebrate 20 years of The Black Parade, one of the biggest rock albums of the 2000s (IGN).
Kojima's love for the band is well documented. He went to one of their concerts in 2022 and joked afterward that he didn't see any other men his age in the crowd. He also hinted at the project a few days ago when he posted about picking up the band's 20th anniversary vinyl.
What else is Kojima working on?
Quite a lot, actually. Kojima Productions is currently developing the horror game OD and the spy game Physint, and the first trailer for the Death Stranding Isolations anime series dropped this week (IGN). Kojima also confirmed that he has a cameo in an upcoming live-action movie, though nobody knows which one yet. He even reprised his Cyberpunk 2077 role in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2.
My read is that this is a perfect Kojima moment. He loves music, film and games equally, and a tiny voicemail scolding a kid about late homework is exactly the kind of weird, sweet cameo he's known for. Now we just need to figure out which big movie he's hiding in.
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Header image is from Prelude to The End, by My Chemical Romance and Lauren Tsai. In-article images are official screenshots from Death Stranding, from Kojima Productions.
