Shenmue The Animation Announced

It's unclear exactly what he meant since he's not a native English speaker, but I wonder if by saying "There is no impact on a potential Shenmue IV game", he means what Golem said in that the anime's story won't cross into Shenmue IV territory?

I do think he meant the anime is not there to end the saga instead of getting a proper video game.

The "much higher budget than S3" and "not only fans" is puzzling me. Nothing new there but the idea of a revamped Shenmue formula is getting more and more concrete. Looks like Suzuki (or his future partners) have made their intention very clear behind private doors.
 
Brianna is pretty big in anime circles isn't she. It's a good chance she would be involved.

Yup! 86 credits with extensive work in both anime and video games, according to IMDb.
Even her latest video game work is impressive, even if it's only additional voices: Last of Us 2 and FF7 remake.
Not having her in the anime would be... bizarre.
 
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I’ve gotta say, his comments about budget give the impression that S4 is not in production right now.
I'd say so but we don't know what's been said behind the scenes. If this is successful enough we might well see 4 with a bigger budget.

It's also difficult, go too high and will you get the investment. Go too low and its Shenmue III all over again.

Just have to keep the push going for Shenmue 4 the game. This anime is great for the franchise and can help realise the dream of Shenmue, as a game, which we all want.
 
I'd say so but we don't know what's been said behind the scenes. If this is successful enough we might well see 4 with a bigger budget.

It's also difficult, go too high and will you get the investment. Go too low and its Shenmue III all over again.

Just have to keep the push going for Shenmue 4 the game. This anime is great for the franchise and can help realise the dream of Shenmue, as a game, which we all want.
I’m sure that conversations have been had and like to think that this anime is Sega dipping their toe in the water before backing a fourth game - but I’d be surprised if they’ve gotten past the pre-production stage of S4 if budget hasn’t been secured. Also worth noting that Yu has probably had his hands full with the anime too.
 
I’ve gotta say, his comments about budget give the impression that S4 is not in production right now.

Yeah - I think if it was under production but not ready to be announced, he wouldn't have been as direct with his answer and would have been more coy. However, that doesn't 100% mean there's no development going on at all and his answer could be a misdirection for all we know.
 
I’m sure that conversations have been had and like to think that this anime is Sega dipping their toe in the water before backing a fourth game - but I’d be surprised if they’ve gotten past the pre-production stage of S4 if budget hasn’t been secured. Also worth noting that Yu has probably had his hands full with the anime too.
Exactly that. They must have something ready to go in terms of structure.

It will be telling if this gets a second season or not. If it does I think that may well give us a very clear indication of what's to come.
 
I look at it this way: over the years I've encouraged basically all my real-life game-playing friends to play Shenmue, and guess how many have actually done it? Two, in over a decade. Neither one finished it, and both waited till it was < $15.

It takes a lot for the average person to pay for and play an old, 30 hour game. But with TV the barrier to entry is dramatically lower. If you have the correct subscription, all you're giving up is 20 minutes of your time to see if you like it. If you don't have a subscription, you're looking at $10 (or a free trial) + 20 minutes.

Since the announcement, three of my friends have already said they'd give it a shot.
 
Curious to see how others interpret this.

"I do not want to tease anything for nothing..."

The pessimist in me worries they should have been deep into Shenmue IV preparations by now, not still deliberating if its feasible.
I guess you could read into it in a number of ways, but ultimately this announcement puts Shenmue (and Shenmue IV) in the best position it's probably ever been in. It really removes any doubt in my mind that we will get a Shenmue IV.

To see that Shenmue is receiving funding to make this anime with some pretty big players, with backing from Sega is just amazing. Sega are actively doing something with the IP, we have Cedric/YsNet/(maybe still Deep Silver) all pushing to make it happen. We are in a great spot, and more importantly, the IP is in a great spot. The anime only helps instill more value into Shenmue, which then can be used when searching for further budget/investment/publishing deals for future games. It's a win win in every single way :D!
 
Exactly that. They must have something ready to go in terms of structure.

It will be telling if this gets a second season or not. If it does I think that may well give us a very clear indication of what's to come.
Most anime don’t make it past the first season, so if we do see a second season I think the project will have been deemed as a success and S4 will be greenlit.
 
On the subject of DS, have they (or the Embracer group) commented on the Anime yet? If not, I think their silence probably says quite a lot.
So far not a peep.

We will watch with interest I didnt know most dont get a second season.
 
On the subject of DS, have they (or the Embracer group) commented on the Anime yet? If not, I think their silence probably says quite a lot.
I mean the announcement wasn't even meant to have happened yet lol It was originally planned for 11 hours from now :p Don't think we will get a peep from Embracer group till the financials, but if DS are involved maybe we will get a tweet/retweet or something. I have a feeling this might all be Sega though, and that DS might not be involved, much like Cedric isn't. We'll see though. Hopefully we'll get a load of news, some images, and maybe a trailer later on today!!!!
 
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So far not a peep.

We will watch with interest I didnt know most dont get a second season.
To be fair, it depends a lot on the studio producing it and merchandise sales, but yeah. It’s a super competitive industry and good anime isn’t easy to produce (even if they do pay the artists next to nothing).
I mean the announcement wasn't even meant to have happened yet lol It was originally planned for 11 hours from now :p
Haha. Yeah. I realized this after posting. Will be interesting to see if we hear from them in the coming days. If Sega are back in the fold though I’m not sure what part DS could play in future games.
 
Haha. Yeah. I realized this after posting. Will be interesting to see if we hear from them in the coming days. If Sega are back in the fold though I’m not sure what part DS could play in future games.
Could always be a joint venture to offload a lot of the funding and logistics. Deep Silver do publish a lot of Sega's games in the EU and outside of Japan. The yakuza games are a good example of this, all published by Deep Silver. EDIT:- OK maybe not all the games, can only find the Deep Silver Logo on my Yakuza Kiwami 1 lol.
 
Deep Silver publishes SNKs games in the UK too and I can tell you those games sell terrible here but they still keep on publishing them.
 
This should sum up why an anime is great idea for the series

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I think 13 episodes is a decent chunk to tell the story of the 1st game with some side stories. I think it's a smart move with the hope that a further 13 episodes will be green lit for Shenmue II and so on. If Castlevania can have multiple seasons (although wasn't the first season only 4 episodes?), I see no reason why Shenmue can't.

I think a serious story is needed, but I wouldn't object to a little humour here and there.

I'm just picturing the scene where Nozomi and Ryo are on the bench and she asks him to stay with her for a while...that would be beautiful to see animated!

To think that 5 1/2 years ago, we had nothing and now we have the re-release of Shenmue I & II, the release of III and now an anime! We are a passionate bunch and I can feel it in my bones that good will come out of this 😊
 
I think 13 episodes is a decent chunk to tell the story of the 1st game with some side stories. I think it's a smart move with the hope that a further 13 episodes will be green lit for Shenmue II and so on. If Castlevania can have multiple seasons (although wasn't the first season only 4 episodes?), I see no reason why Shenmue can't.

I think a serious story is needed, but I wouldn't object to a little humour here and there.

I'm just picturing the scene where Nozomi and Ryo are on the bench and she asks him to stay with her for a while...that would be beautiful to see animated!

To think that 5 1/2 years ago, we had nothing and now we have the re-release of Shenmue I & II, the release of III and now an anime! We are a passionate bunch and I can feel it in my bones that good will come out of this 😊

It's always important to remind ourselves of the following

Shenmue fan wins

2015: Win
2016: Win
2017: Win
2018: Win
2019: Win
2020: Win
 
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