We hope it won’t repeat the game and introduce something new.
Hoyoverse announced their collaboration with Ufotable on the second anniversary of the game. The trailer was breathtaking — beautiful landscapes of Mondstadt, everything is green and fresh, Paimon, Lumine and Aether are also here. But how is the story going to unfold in this anime? Nobody knows. It’s been almost a year since the announcement, but we still have zero information not only about the plot, but also about the release date.
Fans started to make theories about what we can expect from the anime — repeating the game’s plot, showing the Archon War in details, showing Phanes and Seven Sovereigns (dragons), or revisiting well-known regions, but with new stories which expand the game’s universe, also it can be just the scheme like new episode — new story and they would be connected somehow. Some lore from Genshin Impact needs to be explained, or at least expanded, because since the game’s release we still don’t know much about the Archon War, but it is mentioned many times, about Phanes, again, even about Celestia — we know it’s something powerful, but who lives there, who they are — we don't know anything about it. Some characters can also be introduced through anime. For example, Rhinedottir, who created Albedo, or Skirk, who trained Childe in the Abyss, or maybe even Alice, the powerful witch and the mother of Klee.
It's hard to say what we'll see in the anime, but let's imagine something. Hoyoverse would decide to repeat the plot of the game. Why would they do that? To expand their player base through the anime? Maybe, but when the audience of the anime decides to play the game, they won't see anything new because it's already in the anime. New players won't be happy, and old players won't be happy either, because they were expecting something new from the anime, and what they got was a repetition of the plot. And we don’t think that Hoyoverse would do that to expand the player base — they would do that through in-game events and rewards.
What if they show the Archon War? That would be a win-win. Players would be happy to see what happened, what the other archons looked like, and Ufotable is capable of making incredible fights — so it would be worth watching. Just imagine seeing the battles in Liyue among Morax, Guizhong and Osial, or in Mondstadt between Decarabian and Andrius. And we would be able to see not only these characters, but also new Archons or maybe even someone from Celestia.
If they show Phanes and Seven Sovereigns — get ready for millions of lore videos on YouTube — people who make lore content won’t be starving anymore. In case you don’t know, Phanes is the “Primordial One” who took control of the Old World by defeating the elemental dragons (Seven Sovereigns). To do this, he created four of his shades — one of them is Istaroth (the god of time) and the other might be Paimon, but it is still a theory. As you can see, there are a lot of interesting things to cover, starting with dragons and finishing with four shades — every bit of this lore would cause thousands of discussions among the players.
One of the most obvious ideas is a new episode — a new story. It might be interesting for the audience, but it won’t get much attention. Just imagine — Lumine and Paimon travel and visit regions and places we already know, they meet characters that we already know, and solve problems we already solved. It won’t be interesting, because the game itself is criticized for stories which have zero purpose for the main, or even sub stories. This concept would be interesting if other playable characters were the main characters of the anime. It would be amazing to see Kaeya and Diluc arguing about something in one episode, Razor, Bennet and Klee going on an adventure, Cyno playing Genius Invocation, Itto and his gang getting into trouble. Or seeing Xiao’s flashbacks and how he overcomes his pain, how Kaveh finally solving his financial problems, Kazuha and Beidou sailing the seas — there are so many ideas that would help players to get to know some characters better, and if Hoyoverse chooses this path, that would be amazing.
One more idea is almost like the previous one. Stories that happened to playable characters before or after they met the Traveler. It also can be anything — Cyno and Lisa in the Sumeru’s Academy, Kaeya, Diluc and Crepus — their relationship in the Ragnvindr Clan, the story of Raiden Ei’s deceased friends — Kitsune Saiguu, Sasayuri, Mikoshi and Chiyo. To talk about the events after meeting the Traveler — Baizhu’s health, Childe and his family in Snezhnaya, Collei and her shyness and so on. There is also a lot to cover.
Unfortunately, these are all just guesses, and Hoyoverse can decide anything. But we hope that it will be something new and interesting, which will help the game to regain its popularity after the release of Honkai: Star Rail and low-income banners. An anime adaptation of Genshin Impact is something that players have wanted for a long time, since the end of the original manga. We are sure that Hoyoverse and Ufotable will deliver a high quality product, but it is still a secret what it will consist of.