Shenmue The Animation Announced

Deep Silver is the gaming branch of Koch Media. Deep Silver doesnt release or sponsor movies, books or anything like that.
They only have like short movies created in house to boost their own products.

Adult Swim is a late night pay tv channel of a pay tv comedy network here in the german speaking countries.
(where Deep Silver and Koch Media is from)

I know that Koch Media is selling disc versions of Crunchyroll animes though
and of course Koch Media is the EU distributor for Sega
but it probably doesnt mean much in this scenario.

I mean if even Shibuya Prod is not involved, then this project is probably a Adult Swim / Crunchyroll / Sega / Suzuki thing.
The gaming stuff is a different branch
 
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Can anyone update me on how series on streaming platforms (netflix / crunchyroll) are considered a success? Does it simply come down to viewership numbers?
 
Deep Silver is the gaming branch of Koch Media. Deep Silver doesnt release or sponsor movies, books or anything like that.
They only have like short movies created in house to boost their own products.

Adult Swim is a late night pay tv channel of a pay tv comedy network here in the german speaking countries.

I know that Koch Media is selling disc versions of Crunchyroll animes though
and of course Koch Media is the EU distributor for Sega
but it probably doesnt mean much in this scenario.

I mean if even Shibuya Prod is not involved, then this project is probably a Adult Swim / Crunchyroll / Sega / Suzuki thing.
The gaming stuff is a different branch
This is all true, but you’d still expect them to comment on one of their games getting a large scale anime adaptation, no? They might not have a stake in the anime, but any success it achieves will likely lead to further sales of S3 which will be good for them. Plus if they’re considering publishing a fourth game, a project that could make the IP more popular would probably be of interest to them.
 
I think 13 episodes is a decent chunk to tell the story of the 1st game with some side stories.
The first season of the anime will cover S1 and S2. They said the story would take Ryo to "HK and beyond". I guess the first season will end in everybody's favorite cave.

If further Shenmue games won't happen I hope that a second season of the Anime would cover the story parts that would have been in S3 (2 episodes, one for Bailu and one for Niaowu) and S4 (11 episodes) and then a third season of the Anime would give the Shenmue Saga a grand finale with another 13 episodes for what would have been the fifth game.
 
Can anyone update me on how series on streaming platforms (netflix / crunchyroll) are considered a success? Does it simply come down to viewership numbers?
There are many factors at play (social media impressions, merchandising sales, critic response, etc), but viewing figures are pretty high up the list.

One of the more easily quantifiable metrics is Blu-ray sales, but as a decision regarding renewal is usually made before home media releases, it usually comes down to figures. I’m pretty sure that Crunchy Roll is free (with ads), so their viewing figures should be pretty accurate as there’s no reason for people to pirate the show.

Don’t underestimate the impact that positive feedback/discussion on social media either.
 
There are many factors at play (social media impressions, merchandising sales, critic response, etc), but viewing figures are pretty high up the list.

One of the more easily quantifiable metrics is Blu-ray sales, but as a decision regarding renewal is usually made before home media releases, it usually comes down to figures. I’m pretty sure that Crunchy Roll is free (with ads), so their viewing figures should be pretty accurate as there’s no reason for people to pirate the show.

Don’t underestimate the impact that positive feedback/discussion on social media either.

Thanks mate. Im still a noob when it comes to streaming services, so that clears a lot of things up.
 
There are many factors at play (social media impressions, merchandising sales, critic response, etc), but viewing figures are pretty high up the list.

One of the more easily quantifiable metrics is Blu-ray sales, but as a decision regarding renewal is usually made before home media releases, it usually comes down to figures. I’m pretty sure that Crunchy Roll is free (with ads), so their viewing figures should be pretty accurate as there’s no reason for people to pirate the show.

Don’t underestimate the impact that positive feedback/discussion on social media either.
Seems we know what we need to do when this is launched. Push Push Push
 
Seems we know what we need to do when this is launched. Push Push Push
I think one of the areas where we really could help is by recommending the show. As somebody else said earlier (maybe Orient?), it’s a lot easier to recommend a show than a game and people are a lot more likely to check it out as there’s no cost attached.

Ultimately though I think it’s going to come down to whether or not they make a good anime.
 
This is all true, but you’d still expect them to comment on one of their games getting a large scale anime adaptation, no? They might not have a stake in the anime, but any success it achieves will likely lead to further sales of S3 which will be good for them. Plus if they’re considering publishing a fourth game, a project that could make the IP more popular would probably be of interest to them.

I would not count on it to be honest. Koch Media (Deep Silver) is a austrian / german company
and german companies are really inflexible about things they are not directly involved in
because we have really strict content (rights) rules. Did you see any tweets or Facebook posts from Deep Silver
about "Hey Shenmue 1 & 2 HD being on sale right now" for example? No because they never mentioned the product.
Deep Silver never made any stand alone post about the original games.
I know it sounds a bit exaggerated but german companies are extremely cautious
about posting official comments / suggestions whatever, about products they dont own.
So if Koch Media is not directly involved in this thing, then no,
i dont think they will hype this up or anything.
Its not a german company thing to casually mention a product of another company.
It needs to be 102% officially arranged between the parties, otherwise they wont say anything.
 
I was thoroughly disappointed to hear it was an anime release as I have less than zero interest in that medium of media and further content for Shenmue 3 or a episodic gameplay DLC transitioning to Shenmue 4 would have been much preferred, but over the last 8 hours I've given it some thought and I am warming up to the idea of the Shenmue anime. I just pray it doesn't suck like every other anime I've seen in the last 20 years. Hopefully they don't try to make Ryo and Shenhua edgy, always angry and emotionless like anime and comics tends to do with characters. If they stay true to the formula that gives Shenmue it's spirit from the characters delivery to the music to the artistry then I'm all for it and optimistic. Very glad to see Suzuki will be involved in some capacity, hoping he has a lot of input and direction control. This is a risky thing because most anime is edgy and emotionless so it can attract the wrong crowd to Shenmue who may check out the games and find it's not for them. This anime can realistically have the potential to make or break funding and partners for Shenmue 4 being able to be made. I am hoping it's incredibly successful and draws the right funding for when they get back into the games.
 
I just pray it doesn't suck like every other anime I've seen in the last 20 years.


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Well if Cedric says that Shenmue 4 needs that much of a bigger budget to meet expectations,
then i think its safe to assume that it wont be a kickstarter game.
Like if they already know that they need more, it doesnt make much sense to
plan a Kickstarter campaign and just hope that it will raise even more money than 3
or just take whatever amount they can get and then pay like 90% out of their own pockets.
Imagine how much money they would need to raise for 4 via Kickstarter
if 6 mil USD + about 12-14 USD by Koch Media / Shibuya where just enough to make Shenmue 3
and they want to do better now.
It sounds more like it needs to be a fully company funded project right from the start.
 
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