What parts/beats need to stay in the Shenmue Animation?

I do kind of wonder whether the show will start off with Ryo walking up to the Dojo after Lan-Di's arrival, or if it potentially begins with little Ryo training with Iwao.


I was sort of thinking how the show might break down by episode:

ep. 1, 2, 3 - Shenmue disc 1, 2, 3 respectively.

ep. 4 - Boat chapter, perhaps.

ep 5 - Arrive in HK, and get swindled, etc.

ep 5 - Four Wude, and learn Xiuying's identity.

ep 6 - Training at Man Mo Temple.

ep 7 - Ren and the Heavens.

ep 8 - Move to Kowloon and work up the ranks in the arenas.

ep 9 - Dou Niu, Yellow Head Building, and Yuanda Zhu.

ep 10 - Train.

ep 11 - Suzhou?

ep 12 - Meet Shenhua in Guilin, and traverse the path to Bailu.

ep 13 - Bailu (maybe up to a point of finding out Yuan is kidnapped).


I think things will probably move pretty briskly through Yokosuka. It's not a particularly eventful part of the story. I doubt the plan is to go through a whole season without having Ryo come in contact with Shenhua, also. I guess the only thing I really wonder about is if something like Suzhou (moved somewhere else) makes it into the travel from HK to Guilin, which I feel like will at least have a train section to it.
While it makes sense I would rather that you are wrong. I think the pacing would be too fast and combat scenes too short with your proposed episode breakdown a good combat choreographythat is beautifully animated could draw a lot of viewers/new fans to the series like what ahppened with Kimetsu no Yaiba.
 
I would do a lot of new stuff, not be strict as an adaptation, but keeps these

First 4-5 episodes

Shenhua's prophecy
Iwao's death
Ryo faces the school bullies (expanded plot) brief search for sailors/Charlie, maybe introduce Chai earlier for pacing, and have a more reoccurring enemy
Master Chen/Phoenix mirror
Brief travel money
Mark's brother (expanded plot instead of just forklifts), the motor bike race, the 70 man brawl, Chai battle

Hong Kong

First 1-2 episodes

Ryo loses bag, expanded plot with the heavens/poison brothers. Maybe Yuan is leading the loan sharks, so there's a more frequent antagonist.

Brief Wude (I don't think it would be as entertaining as anime, compared to playing the mini games)
Xiuying beats Ryo

Episode 7

The Wulinishu, battles with Yellow heads over the markets and in Bistro

Episode 8/9 Ren hunt

Episode 10, Dragon Street, captured by Dou Niu and escape
Episode 11 Following Yuan, Ghost Building
Episode 12 Yellow Heads Building
Episode 13 Meeting Shenhua

For 2, I'll spread all the street fights around the episodes for pacing, and have the scout as a recurring character

Fan fiction ideas

Maybe combine some characters for pacing, like Master Baihu and Yanlang. Baihu could occasionally show up with the yellow heads, and he could show up at the end as a final battle in Bailu Village, where he's looking for Shenhua's dad. Then you have a more dramatic last episode.

I think I would expand Lan Di's role, to make the overall story more exciting. Like there's a new plot with the long Zha and we see Lan Di interacting with Terry, or in Hong Kong we see him giving Baihu orders.
 
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I was thinking about them showing stuff that happens before the beginning of the game too.
I imagine it as coming in the form of a flashback, like tomboz suggested, maybe an episode or two in to illustrate what Ryo used to be like before Lan Di came and flip turned his life upside-down.

It's funny...the Saturn trailer has what looks like an original opening in the first few minutes. Where Iwao is talking to Ryo and Fuku-san, then the next scene is Ryo walking home to find the men in black suits waiting by the gate.

I always figured that might have been an original opening at one point. But I wouldn't mind a new opening. Maybe a day before Iwao's death. Something to establish normalcy before the tragedy happens.

 
As I mentioned in the announcement thread, while structure of the series I'm not sure of, I can definitely see things such as:

- the basement scene being expanded upon, in terms of lore and extra scenes/explanations. Perhaps Fuku-San goes down there with him?
- Ghost Hall Building room: that scene has so much lore, info and questions arising from it, it too could be expanded upon.
- Ziming being finally introduced (as an adult) on something other than the comic; maybe when Xiuying is looking at the photo, she cries, runs out of the room, Ryo sees the photograph and it cuts to Ziming in real-time, either pondering his sister or doing something in his role/"job," in the CYM.
- Niao Sun can now be shown prior to 'mue III events, expanding her character a bit as well.
- Oh yes, the Boat chapter; that would easily take no more than 1 episode to detail, so I can definitely see that being thrown in.

There are hundreds of avenues that the creative team can venture down and so much can be covered/retold/re-imagined/etc.

Goosebumps just thinking about it :D
 
I honestly don’t know how they could condense the first two games into 13 episodes without cutting a lot of/rushing through the story. There are so many important story beats that deserve proper time to tell. If they rush through it will lose the emotional impact.

The wude alone should take multiple episodes or it will seem like Ryo learns them in a rush without taking the time to reflect on the message behind each.

They will *have* to leave anything in Guilin for a second season. Rushing through meeting Shenhua and those initial conversations will be a disaster.

I’d say the first 4-6 eps need to be Shenmue 1 and 7-13 should be Hong Kong and Kowloon. Preferably I’d like them to hold off Kowloon until the second season. That would keep some action for the second season.

Then season three will be Shenmue 3.
 
I honestly don’t know how they could condense the first two games into 13 episodes without cutting a lot of/rushing through the story. There are so many important story beats that deserve proper time to tell. If they rush through it will lose the emotional impact.

The wude alone should take multiple episodes or it will seem like Ryo learns them in a rush without taking the time to reflect on the message behind each.

They will *have* to leave anything in Guilin for a second season. Rushing through meeting Shenhua and those initial conversations will be a disaster.

I’d say the first 4-6 eps need to be Shenmue 1 and 7-13 should be Hong Kong and Kowloon. Preferably I’d like them to hold off Kowloon until the second season. That would keep some action for the second season.

Then season three will be Shenmue 3.
I’m really coming around to the idea of the season ending after Ryo meets Ren and leaves for Kowloon. They might have to jazz up the action a little in the heavens hideout to give the season a more fulfilling climax, but in terms of pacing, Yokosuka + boat + Aberdeen / Wan Chai seems like the perfect amount of story for 13 episodes.
 
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I'd like to see the Karate tournament where Ryo got the scar played out, leading up to Iwao's murder.
 
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I'd like to see the Karate tournament where Ryo got the scar played out, leading up to Iwao's murder. Perhaps some moments cutting to him being absent from school after.
Maybe you would, but do you think that the average viewer with no prior knowledge of Shenmue is going to sit through 10-20 minutes of filler when there are hundreds of other anime for them to choose from?

The first episode could make or break the series.
 
Maybe you would, but do you think that the average viewer with no prior knowledge of Shenmue is going to sit through 10-20 minutes of filler when there are hundreds of other anime for them to choose from?

The first episode could make or break the series.

If done well yeah I think the final match could be a decent hook/segway into the intro of the game. 10 minutes nah? I was thinking 3 minutes tops, as the prelude or even playing while the introductory credits are rolling, before he goes home.
 
Maybe you would, but do you think that the average viewer with no prior knowledge of Shenmue is going to sit through 10-20 minutes of filler when there are hundreds of other anime for them to choose from?

The first episode could make or break the series.
I always thought the intro to Shenmue 1 was great, because Lan Di was so intriguing and mysterious. They should make a lot of changes to make it work as an adaption, but I don't think they need to change the intro much. The Hong Kong intro would probably need more changes, because running around looking for your bag, it works in the game as a way to learn about the harbour, but isn't exactly a compelling story.
 
The only fan service thing I hope for is the toy capsule machine. They should avoid doing too much of the fan service stuff if it doesn’t advance the story or build the world.
 
While it makes sense I would rather that you are wrong. I think the pacing would be too fast and combat scenes too short with your proposed episode breakdown a good combat choreographythat is beautifully animated could draw a lot of viewers/new fans to the series like what ahppened with Kimetsu no Yaiba.
That's certainly true, but I do expect that the pace, in general, will be far, far quicker than the games. I imagine there won't be much in the way of non-dialogue exposition shots, and that even combat won't necessarily feature as prominently in most places. That sort of leads me to this:

The Hong Kong intro would probably need more changes, because running around looking for your bag, it works in the game as a way to learn about the harbour, but isn't exactly a compelling story.
I both agree, and disagree with this. Part of the reason I think Yokosuka could fit into 3 episodes, is because a lot of the story in that game fits the gameplay, but there's no way Ryo spends 10 minutes looking for sailors, for instance. So I agree in the sense that a lot of the story beats in Yokosuka aren't required for a purely visual medium. I wouldn't be surprised if characters like Mai and Hisaka get the axe, so to speak.

I think that tends to mean that Ryo ends up getting into fewer fights, and even a lot of the ones he might get into would probably be over very quickly (10 to 20 seconds). The only real fights in the first game are the ones against Chai, and the 70 man battle. The latter of which I think could play out very differently in anime; I think it will probably have Ryo and Guizhang mowing through some guys for a bit, and maybe a minute or so to have a showdown with Pedro, or something.

I disagree, though, that Ryo having his bag stolen only serves to facilitate gameplay. That's certainly part of it, but it does much more than that. It introduces Ryo to Wong and some of the Heavens. It introduces Ryo to the harshness of a foreign city. It has a number of action sequences. I feel like a lot of it would be in the animation, just without the branching paths, obviously.

It all really depends on how the director wants to approach the material, though. I only know him from One Punch Man, and I couldn't watch more than the first episode of that. So my expectations for the adaptation are fairly low. Suzuki may be involved as a producer, but he won't be making the creative decisions. That's not what producers tend to do. A lot of times they're just money-people to facilitate the creative staff (managing production schedules and such). I'm sure Suzuki will be providing some input, but I highly doubt he'll be micro managing. I assume his primary focus right now is still on the games.
 
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At least one scene for forklift racing.
Yeah, it would be criminal not to show the forklift race sequence in an episode. I'm convinced that would make for a pretty cool scene.
 
Nah you're wrong. One scene showing Ryo bonding with the other workers, it's fun. If it's afraid of being Shenmue, then they shouldn't bother.
It has only 13 episodes for both Shenmue1 and Shenmue2 or that is what I have understood. I doubt it will show much of the coworkers aside of Mark story related beatings so any bonding scene is quite doubtful when those characters will not appear anymore in the remaining 7-10 episodes and when they do not provide any extra motivation to Ryo.

And you can be Shenmue without any forklift racing, just see Shenmue 2.
 
In these instances I form zero expectations. I only hope, and assume, that what is important will be focused on. I don't watch anime so I have no idea what sort of structure to expect.

I hope they pull from the massive archive of beautiful and iconic music. This music should be utilized as much as possible. It's so wonderful and needs to be used more.

I think there's things from the games that wouldn't translate well. The homeless old guy from the pier (I'm terrible at names) is something so memorable to me but not sure it would get attention in any other format.

It's certainly exciting to imagine how things that are important to shenmue fans will be treated. Sights and sounds, familiar faces.... it'll be a lot of fun to just see Ryo walk by Tomato convenience, or see Tom dancing in the street, or see Nozomi giving Ryo a shy glance as he walks by.

Also, when you crunch 20+hours down to 6.5 hours, there's bound to be some disappointments and things that don't get referenced or shown. I don't want to form too many expectations because not everything can be shown.
 
It has only 13 episodes for both Shenmue1 and Shenmue2 or that is what I have understood. I doubt it will show much of the coworkers aside of Mark story related beatings so any bonding scene is quite doubtful when those characters will not appear anymore in the remaining 7-10 episodes and when they do not provide any extra motivation to Ryo.

And you can be Shenmue without any forklift racing, just see Shenmue 2.
NYH is just a habour, it'll be boring to spend a couple of episodes there if you remove the aspects that make it charming. It makes the mad angels better antagonists, if we become more fond of the people they're harassing.
 
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