Death Stranding 2 Features Usada Pekora Because Kojima Likes Her — That’s How He Works

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is out, and if you’ve made it far enough into the story, you’ve probably seen something unexpected. Not another cryptic cutscene. Not just a nod to anime or film. It’s VTuber Usada Pekora—fully featured, voiced, and integrated right into the main questline. And no, this isn’t a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter egg. It’s a real, ongoing presence in Sam Porter-Bridges’ second journey.

Hideo Kojima says the reason is simple.

“If I like something, I will add it in.”

This quote came from a recent interview where he explained how Pekora became part of the Death Stranding universe. Kojima watched her stream the first Death Stranding game and enjoyed it. He saw the fun. He saw the energy. And in true Kojima fashion, he didn’t just tip his hat—he gave the rabbit-girl streamer her own place in the bleak, decaying world of post-apocalyptic America.

The impact isn’t small. Sam can wear a special Pekora-themed hat that makes him shout “Peko” during delivery sequences. In safe rooms, entire walls can be taken over by hyperactive, looping Pekora visuals. Her music. Her aesthetic. It’s not background noise. It becomes part of the game’s pulse.

That kind of decision sounds strange until you remember who we’re talking about. This is the same director who, during Metal Gear Solid 2, shifted the playable character from Solid Snake to Raiden without warning. Who made you swap controller ports to defeat Psycho Mantis. Who added a monkey in a diaper selling rations between acts in MGS4. Kojima doesn’t just allow surprise—he designs around it. His signature is taking pop culture, absurdity, and media obsession and blending it into the core mechanics of a serious game. It’s not decoration. It’s a texture.

In Death Stranding 2, that texture includes VTubers.

Usada Pekora isn’t just internet-famous. She’s part of a broader wave of virtual influencers who’ve defined a new generation of fandom. She’s a member of Hololive, a massively popular Japanese VTuber agency. Since debuting in 2019, she’s built a loyal global following by mixing fast-talking chaos, fourth-wall humor, and long-form game streams. Millions tune in not just for games, but to spend time in her curated, chaotic digital persona.

The VTuber boom—especially during the pandemic—filled a space that traditional media couldn’t. Personal, reactive, low-stakes content from avatars that felt familiar but otherworldly. It gave fans a new kind of celebrity, one you could interact with almost daily. Kojima saw that, and like always, he responded with integration, not observation.

“I was like, ‘Oh this is fun to watch. I understand why she’s popular.’”

That’s how Kojima builds worlds. If he finds something culturally powerful, he brings it in—not as a reference, but as a character, a mechanic, or even a narrative layer. That’s how Guillermo del Toro, Léa Seydoux, and Nicolas Winding Refn all ended up in Death Stranding. That’s why Metal Gear Solid would leap from political realism to military cloning conspiracies in a single codec call. And that’s how Pekora fits into Death Stranding 2. Not just because she’s fun, but because she represents what fandom looks like now—interactive, animated, noisy, and weirdly sincere.

There are other Kojima's weirdest ideas that also pop up across the map, including a lonely submarine captain obsessed with whales and a highway preacher who only speaks in Morse code.

Kojima’s games have always been about the space between media and player. He builds games that feel like they’re aware you’re watching. That’s why Pekora fits. She doesn’t break immersion—she is the immersion. A live-streamer dropped into a universe about connection, delivery, and fragmented societies trying to stay bonded across impossible distances. That’s a metaphor, not a gimmick.

While some players may brush it off as Kojima being “Kojima again,” there’s a specific purpose to this move. Death Stranding 2 is about evolution of people, systems, and storytelling. Adding a digital rabbit-girl idol from a real-world YouTube channel might seem like a stretch. But to Kojima, it’s the same kind of risk as giving a camera crew narrative weight or asking Norman Reedus to carry a baby across a destroyed America.

In the same game, Ghost in the Shell’s Mamoru Oshii shows up playing a martial arts pizza chef. And a man who played Jesus in The Chosen is now a character named Dollman. These roles don’t fight for realism—they help define the tone. They’re part of a signature collage of tones that only Kojima games deliver.

It’s like he made this game on a dare, and still managed to make it beautiful. By the way, in our Death Stranding 2 PC Player’s review, we try to capture the essence of the game without playing it. Is it strange? It’s all like Kojima.

Kojima’s not done pushing boundaries. He’s talked about wanting to make a game in space. And while Death Stranding 3 may not be in the works right now, he’s already mentioned he has a plan. What’s clear is that when he gets excited about something—whether it’s a film, a meme, a scientific theory, or a VTuber—it’s going to show up in his next creative project.

That’s how Death Stranding 2 ends up with hyper-realistic delivery mechanics, philosophical musings on life and death, and a pastel-haired anime girl dancing in the corner of your safe house. It’s strange. It’s deliberate. It’s Kojima.