Random Shenmue Anime Thoughts

Inspired by recent discussions about the key art showing Ryo and Lan Di facing off on a Kowloon rooftop, I'd just like to point out that the Dou Niu fight music in Shenmue II was titled "Encounter with Lan Di" in the Shenmue I & II sound collection that came with the Japanese Limited Edition release.

What if rather than this being a change... this is how it was originally intended in the scripts. 👀
 
If that is the case, I'd be interested to know why their first battle was moved to Niaowu instead of Kowloon.

I heard Yu-san wanted Shenmue 2 to "go out with a bang" (mystical cave scene) so surely a Lan Di battle in Kowloon would have helped with that? I guess they just ran out of time.
 
During the latest Dojo podcast the idea of the Shenmue anime may debut in 1st quarter of 2022. This makes alot of sense if Yu and company plan on announcing Shenmue 4.
Maybe even a 2nd quarter release would line up as well. We all know that E3/Sony presentation will be in the summertime.
 
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I'm playing the first game again and i imagined something for the anime. It would be nice if we see in detail what happened that day, the day of Iwao's death, the day the snow turned to rain.

Details the characters talked in the game but we didn't saw this scenes in the game. Scenes like the black car arriving in Dobuita, Sakuragaoka and Yamanose.

Tom arguing with the characters, the characters that were in the car.

Yamagishi-san almost getting hit by the car, the cat dying and the kitten surviving, Megumi crying and much more.

It would be nice to also see the scenes in the dojo before Ryo arriving because when Ryo arrived Ine-san was already on the ground.

Why Ryo was running at the beginning of the game? maybe Yu Suzuki wrote about this and now we will see in the anime, maybe we will see a complete version about what happened that day, i hope we can see Iwao's funeral as well or something like this.

Looks like they will really expand the story, we will see a lot of new things that will add even more to the Shenmue Story and this is awesome.
 
hyo_razuki said:
They‘ve also released ports of the first two games, licensed the IP out to YS Net for S3 and are currently having their own Anime Studio Telecom Animation making an Anime about Shenmue. :D
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Lol true. But they didn't do any of that on their own accord. The hd remaster was because of yu suzuki's success with the kickstarter. The ip licence was down to suzuki, biscay and the fans. The anime is down to crunchy roll and adult swim.

Its awesome they're helping by using their resources, but it would be nice if they just did something with the shenmue ip on their own accord without something or someone forcing their hand.

Seems like shenmue is the black sheep of the SEGA family.
 
ShenSun said:
Lol true. But they didn't do any of that on their own accord. The hd remaster was because of yu suzuki's success with the kickstarter. The ip licence was down to suzuki, biscay and the fans. The anime is down to crunchy roll and adult swim.

Its awesome they're helping by using their resources, but it would be nice if they just did something with the shenmue ip on their own accord without something or someone forcing their hand.

Seems like shenmue is the black sheep of the SEGA family.
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I think Sega’s treatment of Shenmue is to be expected. To a lot of today’s upper management, Shenmue is nothing more than “that expensive game that almost bankrupt the company twenty years ago.” What’s more, there’s also the issue of ownership. Sure, Sega could make their own Shenmue game or even reboot the entire franchise if they really wanted to, but, realistically, any Shenmue project would need to at the very least have Suzuki’s blessing to be accepted by the fan base, which would likely mean placing him at the helm of the project.

Why exactly would Sega want to spend tens of millions of dollars on a niche project to satiate what it is ultimately a relatively small fan base? What’s more, why would they want to give somebody who no longer works for the company and hasn’t created a financially successful game in two or three decades creative control over the project; especially when some - rightly or wrongly - believe that Suzuki and the Shenmue series are responsible for the company’s collapse at the turn of the century?

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for Sega to bankroll Shenmue 4, but I’d be very surprised to see it happen for the above reasons.
 
tomboz said:
I think Sega’s treatment of Shenmue is to be expected. To a lot of today’s upper management, Shenmue is nothing more than “that expensive game that almost bankrupt the company twenty years ago.” What’s more, there’s also the issue of ownership. Sure, Sega could make their own Shenmue game or even reboot the entire franchise if they really wanted to, but, realistically, any Shenmue project would need to at the very least have Suzuki’s blessing to be accepted by the fan base, which would likely mean placing him at the helm of the project.

Why exactly would Sega want to spend tens of millions of dollars on a niche project to satiate what it is ultimately a relatively small fan base? What’s more, why would they want to give somebody who no longer works for the company and hasn’t created a financially successful game in two or three decades creative control over the project; especially when some - rightly or wrongly - believe that Suzuki and the Shenmue series are responsible for the company’s collapse at the turn of the century?

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for Sega to bankroll Shenmue 4, but I’d be very surprised to see it happen for the above reasons.
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It pains me to admit it, but this is probably the raw truth of the entire situation
 
Did Shenmue bankrupt Sega or were they already on the way out? IMO the PS1/PS2 is the reason Sega had to close its doors. Since Sega got out of the console market there plan has been low risk projects and easy cash grabs. Even if the Shenmue anine is a success I could only see Sega supporting the anime more heavily and releasing merchandise associated with the anime.

IMO the best case scenario is if the anime is a success maybe Sega lets Yu use Sega's likeness in future Shenmue installments and maybe chip in a low risk free amount of money.
 
An easy scapegoat much like dReAmCaSt sHoUlDvE bEeN dVd. The real downfall for me was:

Sega America royally fucking up Saturn with the surprise launch plus Sega Japan wasn't helpful at the time--refusing to allow the cartridge slot to read Genesis games... which instead was 32x forced onto SOA by SOJ if you believe one of the stories... really should've been a "power base converter" for Saturn, not a Genesis add-on
 
BruceWayne911 said:
Did Shenmue bankrupt Sega or were they already on the way out?
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No. SEGA was loaded with debt regardless because of hardware flops, which is what ultimately forced them out of the console business. They received $730 million+ of stocks and debt forgiveness from the former president in his will, which is likely what kept SEGA together as a single entity instead of being broken up and sold off piecemeal.

Shenmue's development, while immense at the time, was a drop in the bucket compared to the overall picture of SEGA's poor financial health. The "Shenmue bankrupted SEGA" stuff is an urban myth from message boards, but it does reflect the real resentment in SEGA's management that Shenmue failed to save the Dreamcast; which is why Yu Suzuki got mothballed.

Shenmue was a big bet from their star creator who wasn't able to deliver a miracle. It's unfair, but business culture - and especially Japanese business culture - is like that sometimes.


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As for whether SEGA today has any love for the series, it definitely has advocates. Don't really know how high up the chain that goes, but on the Japan side there's still a lot of respect for Yu Suzuki, and in the West there are Shenmue fans working in various social media and licencing departments.
 
Xat's got it; the reason for the downfall was the exorbitant amount of money lost, due to the Saturn and 32X (especially the latter).

The DC had the best launch of any game console in history, up to that point (was soundly-trounced by the PS2) and made Sega a good share of money, but to take a loss on 'mue when funds were already tight (due to the above issues), really set them back, not to mention the amount lost to piracy, not having an EA deal, etc.

It was a bunch of little things that were made much-worse, due to the losses sustained in the mid-90s anda company that DIDN'T have those losses, wouldn't have been hurt so much by those little things..

EDIT* Spags got it as well lol
 
Always worth remembering that suzuki made them a fortune and then some with virtua fighter 4.

I do wish Sega continously supported all of their ips from back in the day up until now. They practically invented all the gaming genres and could have flourished in every sector in the gaming industry. Unfortunately, their mentality is, if one entry doesnt meet their targets, they need to cancel and bury it forever. Its very weird.

Now they're playing catch up with their older ips trying to establish new fans.
 
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