Shenmue the Animation

I am excited, and maybe in the first time in 7 years, hyped.

 

oooh I cant wait for this! I know only Shenmue 1 has been confirmed but... might this be the way to "finally" close shenmue story, if it goes well and they adapt Shenmue 2, 3 .... and so on? I have no hope we're gping to see the end of story in game form so... might this be the way Yu Suzuki can finally tell his story?

 

Okay, so it's a straight-up adaptation of the games. Cool, and I'm always hype to see more Shenmue, but is there any reason for me to watch it given I've already played the games to death and know the story inside-out?

 

Isn't there a portion of the story only told in manga? If they include that, it would be a more cohesive way to enjoy the story.

 

There's a bit on the boat between Japan and Hong Kong. And I guess all the bits in Shenmue games not yet made, depending on how much of that is still canon.

 

I'm excited for this, as it looks really good and will ideally end up covering both sequels. Should it prove popular enough, it could even generate more interest in Shenmue 4 in one form or another.

 

I'm actually genuinely interested in this (and also reminded that I need to go finish Shenmue 3 >.>).

SiliconEra has some more details. It says the "core voice cast" from the games will return so it seems Corey Marshall will be back: https://www.siliconera.com/core-voice-cast-returning-for-shenmue-anime-series-more/

 

The trailer already partially answers that question, but it was also confirmed a year ago when they first announced the anime was being worked on that it will include story elements that were not represented in the games. As far as what I meant by the trailer - you see Ryo before he got the injury on his face, as well as the clip mid-trailer with the bloody cut on his face. That is one of the backstory pieces not shown in the games that we know they're covering in the animation.

 

The anime is most likely retconning the intro of the original game to say that's how he got the cut on his face, as it's not there when Lan Di fights Iwao.

We see exactly one clip that could take place before this, with Ryo in what looks like a martial arts tournament, which I guess is something.

 

Good catch, I haven't seen anyone point that one out yet.
It seems odd that Ryo would go through with a martial arts tournament so soon after his father died instead of investigating the murder, so it will be interesting to see if that's either an oversight or indeed a retcon.

 

I reckon it's just an oversight - the tiger on his jacket disappears in several shots.

 

Spoiler

Called it. I do like the way they bigged up Ryo's martial arts ability first before seeing him get utterly annihilated by Lan Di, definitely made Lan Di more of a badass.

Also I can't believe I'm saying this about Shenmue of all things, but... anyone else feel like they're rushing through the story? After Iwao's death it seemed to just cut from scene to scene to scene without staying in the same place for more than a minute, and everything seems to happen by chance (e.g. Liu Sr. just happens to be in Ajiichi and overhears the conversation and gives his info without Ryo even asking). Where in the games Ryo was steadfast on finding Lan Di, here it seems like he doesn't care and just happens to be getting the information he needs because it pushes the story along. I'm not expecting him to ask a hundred different people about a black car but it'd be nice if Ryo was actually doing something instead of just cosmically receiving the plot points.

Wasn't expecting a Chai fight this early on - Chai is supposed to be an insurmountable foe until after Ryo's development fighting with Gui Zhang, but with Ryo beating Chai this easily I'm wondering who's going to fill the gap.

 

Crunchyroll page for the show: https://beta.crunchyroll.com/watch/GK9U34XQ5/

The first episode is locked to premium users only, unfortunately. Free users will have to wait a week from the day it airs. Adult Swim's website, however...
https://www.adultswim.com/videos/shenmue-the-animation

EDIT: Just watched the first episode. I liked it! Animation and music are great, voice acting is okay but there's a few awkward line deliveries. Then again, this is Shenmue so I guess it fits.

Seems the article I cited earlier in the thread was not accurate about the cast because Corey Marshall is definitely not voicing Ryu here (maybe it was referring to the Japanese cast?), but the voices all sound good regardless. Only one I'm not quite sold on is Lan Di; he sounds a bit too young.

 

I'm torn on the dub. It's kinda sorta mostly not bad? But then the weird parts stick out that much more?
It feels like one of those early '00s dubs from Bang Zoom. The voices are mostly okay, but the English script is sticking slightly too close to the Japanese, in that it's technically understandable but feels very unnatural and wordy in spots. Like the script writer is counting up the syllables as he types or something, but then forgets it's 1986 and just randomly tosses in "noobs" as an insult instead of, y'know, "newbies" or something. M'kay.

 

Second episode:

Spoiler

Big improvement over the first. I think I see what they were trying to do before with Ryo not being proactive at first but it didn't work for me - luckily he's actually doing things now. I like the reshuffling of the story beats so that things happen concurrently - this wasn't really possible in the game because of the way it works, but it helps with the flow of things. Getting some scenes from the Mad Angels' perspective helps flesh out their backstory a bit too, and that's something that was missing from the games (because it was all from Ryo's perspective). Definitely interested in where they're going with it now.

 

It was alright, I think what helds it back is that it suffers from anime video game adaptation issues in that it sticks perhaps too close to the games and it's mechanics, but then those things make the show feel awkward and boring.

Like you're watching the Shenmue cutscenes> things happen by chance since this is the part where usually the player takes control/there's gameplay>another cutscene.

The Persona anime shows and movies also suffer from this. They could basically be JoJo shows or movies since each Persona has their respective strengths and weaknesses, but that would mean having to get out of the confines of the game, and put in effort that perhaps there's no time or money.

Idk, would anyone really mind if they kept the basics of the story, but blew stuff up/drastically change some story elements here and there to make it flow better as a show?

I honestly don't see a lot of people watching this show and being interested enough to check out the games or get into the franchise. (Which is the reason why it's made to begin with)