Shenmue the Animation

Some extra bits of info about this (most of this info comes from a forum thread on a Shenmue fansite):

The series will be 13 episodes and covers the first game as well as part of the second
Will include story elements cut from the games due to "budget, time, or mature rating reasons."
Going to be airing on Crunchyroll and Toonami so I suspect there definitely will be an English dub
Yu Suzuki will be Executive Producer of the series, Chikara Sakurai (director of One Punch Man S2) will be directing

The description for the series also says the journey will take Ryo "beyond Hong Kong" so I suspect quite a bit of Shenmue 2 will wind up in here or perhaps the added story elements will lead to some large deviations from the games. I'm 100 percent fine with this as adapting the games as accurately as possible would be terrible. We don't need an entire episode consisting of Ryo searching for sailors.

I know the choice of director isn't exactly amazing considering the mixed reaction to OPM Season 2 but considering that this is by a different studio and adapting Shenmue into anime form shouldn't be too difficult (they really just need to trim most of the slower aspects of the games like I said) I actually have a feeling this has good potential to it. If this winds up being successful enough for followup seasons I have a feeling they could also possibly conclude the entire story in this fashion and if this anime turns out good I'm all for it!
Supercat126 said:
Lies. I am.
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Yay!
 
Years ago... I was Chinese.
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https://www.siliconera.com/core-voice-cast-returning-for-shenmue-anime-series-more/
(this article probably didn't have a particularly accurate translation, see my edit)

Stumbled on this interview from late October. If I'm reading this right we likely won't be seeing much of the events of the second game here at all as it says it covers the story up to Ryo arriving in Hong Kong aka the first scene of Shenmue 2. At the very least it means there's little risk of the staff having to cut things from the second game out as they could have a theoretical second season cover that, but it's going to be interesting how this goes if almost the entirety of the episodes for this are in Yokosuka. It also talks about a few other things like some of the original Japanese voice actors returning. Didn't say which ones but I'm going to make a wild guess that the VAs for Ryo and Lan Di will be the same ones as the games.

Still excited for this. To be entirely honest I'm not entirely sure if what I read was 100 percent accurate as what I read before seemed to suggest that most of the second game would be covered. One of those cases where it looks like we'll have to wait and see but just in case this is accurate I'm going to be trying to keep my expectations in check for this one. Though if those cut story elements I mentioned in my earlier post have a bigger impact than what I'm thinking there's the chance this could go in an interesting direction... or we'll just get a whole episode of Ryo searching for sailors and I'll be like "What the hell are you guys doing?"

Small update: Going by what seems to be a more accurate translation here, it sounds more like they don't know how much is going to be covered after Yokosuka but they do want to get to those parts if possible:
https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2020/10/part-12-shenmue-animation-famitsu.html
Second part of the translation is on the same site

Also forgot to say that they also mention that the budget is apparently somewhat higher than most TV anime. That's gotta be a good sign I hope.
 
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HYPE!
I like what I see in the trailer so far, but a lot of what they show here looks like it's from Shenmue 1. With that said, I like what I see so I'm hyped to see how this turns out.

Also that new cover art raises so many questions for me and I'm even more hyped now.
 
New trailers today!
Subbed:
Dubbed:

It's coming out in February too? Holy crap that's a lot sooner than I thought.

Some quick thoughts:
I love the song they use in the Japanese trailer. If that's the opening theme, hell yes! The animation seems a little bit on the janky side, it didn't look bad to me but it'll be easier to tell when it's released (with that said I like what I see). As for the English Dub, most of it sounds pretty solid though I don't know how I feel about Lan Di's English voice. I'm much more used to how he sounded in the first two games since his original english voice really added to how menacing and terrifying he is in the brief times he shows up. Once again a lot of what's shown here is from Shenmue 1, but the artwork used for the youtube thumbnails shows Joy, Ren, and Dou Niu from Shenmue 2 which tells me that we're going to see Shenmue 2 get partially adapted after all. My best guess is that the anime will leave off right after Kowloon, with Guilin and beyond being in future seasons if they get made.

I'm not too concerned with the one-cour episode length yet, the thing is Shenmue has a lot of sections that can be streamlined or tweaked to add more plot and action so the situation this adaptation has is actually the reverse of what I see with most other adaptations. It's not like let's say, Danganronpa where they tried to take a long VN-style adventure and cram it into a single cour. I have no doubt in my mind that I'll enjoy it either way (as long as this isn't a complete disaster) but I want this to be good, and not just good in my case cause I'm a fan of the games but good in a way where anyone including people who don't like the games has a shot at enjoying it.

Looking forward to February!
 
Episode 1

As a fan, I love it! I felt like they did a good job trimming the slower parts of the games while adding some new details here and there that I went nuts over.
I definitely didn't expect Ryo to fight and win against Chai in his first appearance (considering he doesn't show up in the game until quite a ways into it), but you know what, I'm fine with changes like this as long as they don't interfere with my enjoyment. I also absolutely love how the fight between Ryo's father and Lan Di was done. It's pretty close to the games but the added detail of Lan Di giving Ryo the scar on his face gave me chills, not to mention he now has a permanent reminder of his quest. Also liked how that wasn't the scene that opens the anime, it really added a sense of dread knowing what was going to be happening in the near future.

It definitely feels like a different execution compared to the games (like how Ryo's motive in the anime appears to be more focused on learning about how his father's past ties in with Lan Di, compared to the largely straightforward revenge motive that he has in the games), but I think this could be a good thing to help with pacing and making it work as an anime. My only concern is if they're going to rush the Shenmue 2 parts of the story too much but I think even if the execution is different from that of the game, it'll be fine.
I have one really minor issue with the subtitles though. I'm pretty sure those henchmen that Lan Di was with should be calling him "Master Lan Di" instead of "Master Lan", but eh I'll live with it.

It's hard for me to say with 100 percent certainty if general audiences who haven't played the games will also like it or find it good (in all honesty I'm very biased from the start since I'm a big fan of the "love it or hate it" games that this is based on) but I like what I watched.
 
I honestly just don't get why we had to have a school scene. Say what you will about the Shenmue games, but for some reason making people not sound awkward and maybe putting school in didn't quite feel the same. I'm aware I'll be a minority, but I don't quite get why this anime will really be better than the games.
 
Helbaworshipper said:
I honestly just don't get why we had to have a school scene. Say what you will about the Shenmue games, but for some reason making people not sound awkward and maybe putting school in didn't quite feel the same. I'm aware I'll be a minority, but I don't quite get why this anime will really be better than the games.
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I feel like stuff like the school scene was added because they had room to add some additional scenes during the process of streamlining the slower aspects of the games for adaptation purposes. I love the games but a straight adaptation of them wouldn't quite work since it would largely be Ryo running around talking to people without much else going on.

As for it being "better" than the games I don't think I'll view one as better than the other unless the anime gets really botched later on. For a good number of people though, the anime is just going to be easier to consume due to the divisive nature of the gameplay. I've never managed to convince anyone to try the games (and a few people I know won't go anywhere near them) but I already got two of my friends to check out the anime.

We'll see what happens with future alterations or changes in later episodes but for now I'm actually a bit excited to see what they do with it going forward. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about how the episodes covering Shenmue 2 will turn out, but it'll be interesting to see what they do with the material. My hope is that the anime will be good in it's own way. For now though the idea of this being a somewhat different take on Shenmue has me excited!

I do wish that they would have brought back more of the old English voice cast though, people can say what they want about the English voice acting of the games but it'll always be jarring hearing Ryo with a voice that isn't Corey Marshall's. Same goes for Lan Di as well, though Kyle McCarley's voice work for him in Shenmue 3 grew on me when I replayed it!

...Didn't intend for this post to turn into a long ramble but I always do this when talking about these games. :laugh:
 
Vega said:
I feel like stuff like the school scene was added because they had room to add some additional scenes during the process of streamlining the slower aspects of the games for adaptation purposes. I love the games but a straight adaptation of them wouldn't quite work since it would largely be Ryo running around talking to people without much else going on.

As for it being "better" than the games I don't think I'll view one as better than the other unless the anime gets really botched later on. For a good number of people though, the anime is just going to be easier to consume due to the divisive nature of the gameplay. I've never managed to convince anyone to try the games (and a few people I know won't go anywhere near them) but I already got two of my friends to check out the anime.

We'll see what happens with future alterations or changes in later episodes but for now I'm actually a bit excited to see what they do with it going forward. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about how the episodes covering Shenmue 2 will turn out, but it'll be interesting to see what they do with the material. My hope is that the anime will be good in it's own way. For now though the idea of this being a somewhat different take on Shenmue has me excited!

I do wish that they would have brought back more of the old English voice cast though, people can say what they want about the English voice acting of the games but it'll always be jarring hearing Ryo with a voice that isn't Corey Marshall's. Same goes for Lan Di as well, though Kyle McCarley's voice work for him in Shenmue 3 grew on me when I replayed it!

...Didn't intend for this post to turn into a long ramble but I always do this when talking about these games. :laugh:
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I understand your feelings in regards to that. I think in general I feel like how people who saw Ender's Game after all the concepts were being used by other fiction and such. It has a story and it has a nostalgic feel. However, the story itself is something that back then was executed in a unique way. We'll see if it makes it any more interesting.
 
I think the school stuff was added to fit a more traditional narrative structure. It's a quick way to establish Ryo's personality while also showing that he's more than a competent fighter. It makes it more impactful later when we see him get completely owned.

The first episode was fine. It has a lot of set up work to do, but adds in enough action that it doesn't turn into a slog.
 
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