Shenmue The Animation Announced

Oh that's a shame :(

Still, in all the excitement, tonight I found out that the Virtua Fighter anime is on TMS' YouTube page! I just watched the 1st episode and was genuinely surprised. It was very comical and lighthearted which isn't something i'd expect with VF, but it was cute and charming all the same. And of course, it was awesome to see Yu Suzuki's name in the credits.


I wonder what approach the Shenmue anime will take? I can't see it going the goofy, light hearted route like VF did, but I do hope there's room for a little humour here and there. Maybe I enjoyed the VF episode because things the world feels like it's on fire, so something funny made me feel better!
 
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Oh that's a shame :(

Still, in all the excitement, tonight I found out that the Virtua Fighter anime is on TMS' YouTube page! I just watched the 1st episode and was genuinely surprised. It was very comical and lighthearted which isn't something i'd expect with VF, but it was cute and charming all the same. And of course, it was awesome to see Yu Suzuki's name in the credits.


I wonder what approach the Shenmue anime will take? I can't see it going the goofy, light hearted route like VF did, but I do hope there's room for a little humour here and there. Maybe I enjoyed the VF episode because things the world feels like it's on fire, so something funny made me feel better!

Gonna give that a watch. Ive never seen the vf anime

Im hoping shenmue 1 is a little more darker and depressed, to show ryos agony. Hints of humor with tom, fukusan, goro and ren is a must though
 
Honestly I'm not surprised that this year is out the window. It would have been a pleasant surprise but I never expected it to. Fall 2022 has always been my bet. The rest of this year and majority of next will just give them more time to lineup the cast and polish this masterpiece. Still as excited for this as when it was first announced.
 
Still seems odd someone would fake something so insignificant...
 
I'm still going to keep an eye this weekend and on the Telecom Expo.

Who knows but I'd rather be ready than miss this!
 
I know, but it's not like there's been lots of demand for the Shenmue anime launch date. It's exciting, but not Shenmue 4--the kind of thing only the most hardcore of the hardcore Shenmue fans would actively look for. In any case, I've been down this road before. I'll keep my mouth shut.
 
Gonna give that a watch. Ive never seen the vf anime

Im hoping shenmue 1 is a little more darker and depressed, to show ryos agony. Hints of humor with tom, fukusan, goro and ren is a must though
I agree. What I don't want is grimdark as you want a bit of tonal shade. I can see arguments with Ren being pretty amusing ^^
 

Not much, but I noticed this popped up in my Youtube feed today.
For a Shenmue Anime update with about 3 minutes; not bad. The guy even sold better the Shenmue games in this video than Sega did back in the day.
 

Not much, but I noticed this popped up in my Youtube feed today.
Reading the comments section from the lamenting proverbial Ryu Ga Gotoku fanbase stirred my brain a bit. One fan seemed livid as to why Ryu Ga Gotoku is not receiving an anime adaptation while Shenmue is. From a business sense, this makes perfect sense as the former has been more successful than the latter.

In all honesty, I do not know as I do not have any real business acumen. However, I will say that this anime announcement now feels more special given the harsh history of the Shenmue series. When you put everything into context, it is a very romantic narrative when you think about it.

First of all, imagine the epic ending of Shenmue II being engraved in your mind in 2001. Now, imagine how painful it was to learn that Shenmue was for all intents and purposes...dead. Fans had to scavenge for any small hope for the release of a potential Shenmue III. So imagine how vindicating it felt in 2015 for the Shenmue III Kickstarter, there is a reason why the 2015 Electronic Gaming Expo was dubbed "The Expo of Dreams" or why Shenmue III broke Kickstarter records for a video game.

However, the amount of controversy swirling around the said event did not dissipate. Starting with the ambiguity of Sony's relationship with the title that would be cleared up later on. Then there was the infamous live stream with Awesome Japan that did not help matters.

After everything quieted down, we received a bad first impression trailer of the game at the time. It was ruthlessly mocked and criticized (despite being only in the early stages of development) by social media and commentators. Also, it was when I noticed among the fanbase apprehension beginning to set in about the release date and the quality of the title.

Fortunately, that obstacle was overcome as future trailers christened the footage with the "In-development" disclaimer and showed improvement. They even solved the (in my opinion), pedantic issue with the title logo. Unfortunately, another unintended misfortune would hurt the franchise even more. The infamous Epic Games Store controversy which Social Media had a field day with.

While the issue was eventually resolved via refunds from Epic, it left Shenmue with another deep wound it had to suffer. When the title was finally released in 2019, it was met with ambivalent reviews. Compounded by the fact that the Shenmue High-Definition re-releases of Shenmue Chapter One: Yokosuka and Shenmue II did not light the world on fire and having technical issues galore, it seems Shenmue was going to die yet again.

Yet, here we are, still standing after all the trial by fire Shenmue has been mired in. Only soldering onwards due to our love of this franchise. While I am not a fan of Shenmue III, it does not mean I do not appreciate its existence. The only issue Ryu Ga Gotoku has had to endure is two unreleased titles and the series dying with Dead Souls only to be revived in an even stronger state than Shenmue ever had.

I do not say this to disparage Ryu Ga Gotoku, I would love to see an anime adaptation one day. However, the amount of suffering Shenmue fans have had to endure is immense and their determination and passion are insatiable. Without this adaptation, Shenmue might once again fall back into the ether to be forgotten about. Ryu Ga Gotoku on the other hand will be perfectly fine.

Hopefully from here on out brighter days will be ahead for this franchise we all love. And hopefully, the legendary Yu Suzuki will one day be able to show the world the entirety of his grand vision. So for me, this is a time of vindication and celebration.

 
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Maybe Nagoshi has no interest in doing an anime? Hell, maybe that just hasn't come up yet for Ryu Ga Gotoku? Hell, why does it even matter if Ryu Ga Gotoku gets an anime or not? They had 6 games to fill out the saga of Kiryu. His saga actually got a beginning, middle and end in game form. Why do they NEED an Anime? I mean as a Ryu Ga Gotoku fan, I'd be down for an anime version if they ever wanted to produce one. But there are a number of reasons why it hasn't happened yet.

Hell, on that note, Ryu Ga Gotoku actually did get a live action TV version and a live action film version. The live action TV version was actually pretty successful in Japan and played into the PSP games, but hey...why mention that? I still want to check out that live action TV version out but I could never find a subbed version online.

But poor Ryu Ga Gotoku...it's just SO overlooked....even with its revival, new found success among the normies and what not...it's just SO overlooked though...new Yakuza fans annoy me. They jumped on board with 0 yet they weren't there in the true dark times where the series continuing in the west was always questionable. </Rant>

Honestly, why is it whenever something positive happens to Shenmue, you always have that group of people just willing to shit on it or compare it to RGG? I just get tired of it.

Any time you get even the slightest hint of positive news towards Shenmue, here comes the "let's shit on Shenmue" brigade and make it all about either how "shit" Shenmue is or the constant comparing to Ryu Ga Gotoku.

It gets so damn tiring.
 
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I find it funny how people are peddling the whole Shenmue 3 was supposed to end the saga shit, passing it off as fact.

More and more I've come to realise that rationale and informed points of view are a thing of the past, excluding present company of course.
 
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