Spoilers Shenmue The Animation: Episode 1 - Thunderclap - Thread

Look at this sweet moment... 😊

One of the sweetest moments of the episode and if i remember correctly it is a new arrangement of Shenhua's theme in this scene, beautiful arrangement.

Showing Shenhua's life before meeting Ryo, building her character for the viewers to care about her, and also when Shenhua meet Ryo will be even more emotional because of this scenes in my opinion, beautiful decision to put more screen time for Shenhua.

I even cried watching the first episode, it is sweet and beautiful.


IMG_4205.png
 
Not that anyone cares, but I have to say that I am kind of shocked by how much I enjoyed the first episode. If I'm being honest, I was originally looking at the show purely as promotional material to help our chances for S4. I really didn't care for any of what I'd been reading in terms of details or seeing (art, trailers, etc), so I kept my opinions to myself in that regard. The actual show, though? I don't know what the heck happened, but it's fucking great!? Both very different and very similar to the games at the same time.

I saw some people talking about how different NOZOMI was in this, and at the very least it seems more similar to her S3 incarnation to me, so that could've been Yu's choice. Some little nitpicks here and there aside, the only thing that really triggered me was not seeing Xiuying art in the credits. My way of coping atm is thinking that they want her to be a complete surprise to people new to the series. What I mean is they'll introduce her as if she's a completely irrelevant background character, and viewers won't think anything of it at first since they hadn't seen her before. Then *WHAM*! She's the grandmaster Ryo was looking for! Or not, I dunno.

Also yeah Hiki, I loved that little goat scene.
 
Last edited:
The anime team did a beautiful job with the places in Yokosuka. The Hazuki Residence/Dojo, Ajiichi, Tom's truck in Dobuita, Sakuragaoka park and many other places.

Also it was nice to see the police involved, i don't think the Police will help Ryo in the future episodes, one of the reasons is that after the Chai fight Ryo says for Ine-san and Fuku-san to not call the police and Ine-san understood that faster in the anime, but for the first episode was nice to see this in my opinion.

IMG_4206.png
 
Last edited:
Dietsoap said:
the only thing that really triggered me was not seeing Xiuying art in the credits. My way of coping atm is thinking that they want her to be a complete surprise to people new to the series. What I mean is they'll introduce her as if she's a completely irrelevant background character, and viewers won't think anything of it at first since they hadn't seen her before. Then *WHAM*! She's the grandmaster Ryo was looking for! Or not, I dunno.
Click to expand...
100% this is my bet. If they show Xiuying in the title art now, viewers will immediately put two and two together and see that she is Lishao Tao when she's first introduced. It would totally ruin the bait-and-switch that Shenmue II does with the whole Lishao Tao and Hanhui/Xiuying arc.
 
Just noticed another fantastic detail: (though apologies if it's already been mentioned)

When Ryo enters the dojo just before being ambushed by Chai, he takes his shoes off like in the games. You don't see it, but you can clearly see he's fighting Chai in his socks!

Love how Ryo takes a moment to do this even though he must know he could be entering into a dangerous situation!
 
Mr Sun said:
When Ryo enters the dojo just before being ambushed by Chai, he takes his shoes off like in the games.
Click to expand...

The attention to the details about these things really shows the care with the details the anime team have with this project, it is beautiful, and if I remember correctly Yu Suzuki was involved in the world building of the anime's world, at the time in the interview for the anime Yu Suzuki even said that Ryo can't have a knife.

With so many beautiful and new arrangements of the songs and new songs now i need a soundtrack of the anime, i hope one day we can get Shenmue anime OST, Shenmue DVD/Blu-ray, action figures and many other merchandise about the anime.
 
Dietsoap said:
I am kind of shocked by how much I enjoyed the first episode. If I'm being honest, I was originally looking at the show purely as promotional material to help our chances for S4. I really didn't care for any of what I'd been reading in terms of details or seeing (art, trailers, etc), so I kept my opinions to myself in that regard. The actual show, though? I don't know what the heck happened, but it's fucking great!? Both very different and very similar to the games at the same time.
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly, what a wonderful surprise.

I loved how they took the time to establish Ryo's character before his father's murder (he's an amazing fighter that no one his age can touch, he's popular with lots of friends, he's super disciplined even though he's the best) and everything they added felt like a natural extension of what we're shown in the games. It was so nice to see him laugh and eat with Nozomi.

The only thing I didn't like was the fight with Chai at the end since it's something Ryo is supposed to have to work up to, but I understand why they would want the episode to end with a bang and maybe they have something else in store for the S1 ending.

Also, Lan Di officially knows about both mirrors! It'll be interesting to see how they address him leaving Japan without the second mirror if he thinks it's there.
 
I finally got around to watching episode one English dub. The episode had me grinning from ear to ear the whole way through. Just some random observations from me:

I didn't dig fuku-sans design in the anime I thought he looked much older than the game. It was a bit jarring at first glance same with Nozomis though her voice and design grew on me as the episode went on.

I liked how the sunglasses karate guy didn't take them off before the fight and got handled easily.

The handkerchief moment was a nice touch between Nozomi and Ryo. I also like how the fence along the park is heartshaped it is a really wonderful touch to include that in the anime. I also liked how Ryo dispatched the school bullies without taking his backpack off and only using one arm. Such a bad ass moment.

I absolutely loved the faithful recreations of the environments and how Ryo entering the residence is pretty much a shot for shot from the game.

It was nice seeing the tournament and the school. Also the police bit was nice too.

Does Tom and Ryo know each other? It seems like they do but aren't really friends yet.

One thing I will say is I definitely liked some of the game's dialogue better than the animes. I was hoping Ryo would say I'm looking for a fight anytime before beating the bullies or Nozomi would have dropped the line about the car splashing mud on her was a black luxury car that you don't normally see around here.

All in all I'm very pleased with the anime. I laughed out loudd so hard when at the restaurant I assume it's supposed to be Liu Gong Hui just dropping that info about the Chinese Mafia and apologizing for overhearing when it's literally just them two in the entire place.

The cutting to Shenhua scenes I can see being a bit jarring if you don't already know what's going down.

Can't wait for next week forgot to add how much I enjoyed the end credits song and sequences. I also noticed that Xiuying wasn't shown during the sequence. Maybe to keep as a surprise for the viewer?
 
Last edited:
Rewatching this, what I appreciate about this being an anime so far, is that for a video game adaptation the production values are respectable. It's not Demon Slayer quality, but I'm so relieved this isn't the quality of the Mortal Kombat animated movies. Most of the animations from Warner Bros Animation, including a large number of the DC ones, are SO static and boring for me to watch during dialogue scenes.

Make no mistake, the Shenmue animation isn't flawless but there does feel to be perpetual movement through most of the scenes.
 
Where do you all think it will end the first season?

I thought 3 options for this...

1. The season will end in Kowloon after the encounter and maybe fight with Lan Di, Ryo saying goodbye to his friends.

2. Ryo arriving in Guilin and meeting Shenhua.

3. The season will end in the cave like in Shenmue II, we can even see the cave scene in the first episode.
 
Hiki said:
Where do you all think it will end the first season?

I thought 3 options for this...

1. The season will end in Kowloon after the encounter and maybe fight with Lan Di, Ryo saying goodbye to his friends.

2. Ryo arriving in Guilin and meeting Shenhua.

3. The season will end in the cave like in Shenmue II, we can even see the cave scene in the first episode.
Click to expand...
I still think it will end with the anime equivalent of the bus ride to Kowloon, with huge panoramic shots of Kowloon walled city, and the final shots being more or less of Ryo exiting the bus about to enter through the gates.

I've got this impression from the way one of the team leads said in an interview how they hadn't originally planned to get to Kowloon yet in season 1, but they got so invested in the series and loved the city so much that they created the city combining 2d/3d animation (I could be embellishing this last part a bit, but I seem to recall him saying they had created the Kowloon cityscape.)

So this leads me to think they got as far as creating the city but not quite mapping out the story there yet. Guess we'll find out.

EDIT: Actually as Don Niou is confirmed to be appearing in the series already, the theory above is probably nonsense!

Next best guess is the cave, taking us full circle and properly contextualising the opening scene of ep 1
 
Last edited:
Mr Sun said:
I still think it will end with the anime equivalent of the bus ride to Kowloon, with huge panoramic shots of Kowloon walled city, and the final shots being more or less of Ryo exiting the bus about to enter through the gates.

I've got this impression from the way one of the team leads said in an interview how they hadn't originally planned to get to Kowloon yet in season 1, but they got so invested in the series and loved the city so much that they created the city combining 2d/3d animation (I could be embellishing this last part a bit, but I seem to recall him saying they had created the Kowloon cityscape.)

So this leads me to think they got as far as creating the city but not quite mapping out the story there yet. Guess we'll find out.
Click to expand...

I think Ryo and Lan Di in this promotional image are in Kowloon, maybe the anime will end in Kowloon.

As far i know the Guilin part with Ryo in Guilin is not confirmed, we saw Ryo in the cave with Shenhua in the episode but this do not mean that we will see all of the story in Guilin in the first season.

shenmue.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top