Even after all of this time, my original concerns about the anime that were there when it was announced are still there today. It's incredibly rare to find a 13 episode anime that doesn't feel rushed. I just don't know how they will manage to break that cycle with Shenmue, especially seeing as they plan to include parts of Shenmue 2 in it.
My biggest concern is them telling the story but failing to flesh out the characters. With a 13 episode anime, I am struggling to see how they can avoid this issue. When playing the games, you can get through the story quickly if you wanted to, but by doing that, it all feels so hollow. By talking to the characters and learning all of these little details about them, it makes me care about them and the Shenmue world. This is impotant for Ryo's character more than anybody else because it was through all of these conversations that I started to care about him. If that is reduced to 10 second cameos, then it's going to lose so much of what makes it so special.
It kind of reminds me of Sonic X. Around the midway point of Sonic X, they covered Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 in only 12 episodes, it felt really rushed and I remember being annoyed about it when I was younger. Shenmue's story is much deeper and relies a lot more on the characters than Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, so I just don't see how they can possibly tell this story in a satisfying way with so few episodes.