Shenmue The Animation Announced

I was thinking of watching it on Crunchy Roll, but that's assuming there's Japanese audio. I really have no idea if they'll actually have dual audio, or not, but I think it's pretty much guaranteed to be in English, at least, since it's airing on Adult Swim.

Does anyone happen to know if Crunchy Roll allows for switching audio tracks, and removing subtitles?

If I can't watch it in a 'raw' format, I might end up waiting for a Bluray release.
In normal circumstances I’d suggest using a VPN, but it won’t be distributed through Crunchy Roll in Japan. Come to think of it, they haven’t actually confirmed whether or not it will even air here.
 
Not been on the dojo in ages but I'm back just to drop my 2 cents on this.

I'm a bit worried about what this is going to turn out like. Castlevania got turned into an anime and while the first two series were entertaining, it changed a lot of the story and brought in lots of anime fans who didn't mix well with the fans of the games. I'm worried that very young anime fans might be seen as the primary audience for Shenmue from now on and Shenmue 4 will be very different.

I also hope that they don't continue the story in an anime. I'd rather have the rest of the story in a book if we don't get another game.
 
Not been on the dojo in ages but I'm back just to drop my 2 cents on this.

I'm a bit worried about what this is going to turn out like. Castlevania got turned into an anime and while the first two series were entertaining, it changed a lot of the story and brought in lots of anime fans who didn't mix well with the fans of the games. I'm worried that very young anime fans might be seen as the primary audience for Shenmue from now on and Shenmue 4 will be very different.

I also hope that they don't continue the story in an anime. I'd rather have the rest of the story in a book if we don't get another game.
Looking at the art style and going by Dusk Golem’s comments about them wanting to include some of the more mature themes that couldn’t be included in the games, I’d be very surprised if they’re making this with young children in mind.
 
Not been on the dojo in ages but I'm back just to drop my 2 cents on this.
I'm a bit worried about what this is going to turn out like. Castlevania got turned into an anime and while the first two series were entertaining, it changed a lot of the story and brought in lots of anime fans who didn't mix well with the fans of the games. I'm worried that very young anime fans might be seen as the primary audience for Shenmue from now on and Shenmue 4 will be very different.

Yeah, i mean it seems like the project idea came from the Adult Swim co creator as a Shenmue fan
and its a show made for Adult Swim. The target audience for Adult Swims own shows arent small kids.
Like i cant see them cater to a completely different audience at all just to reach more people,
i'm pretty sure that Adult Swim guy wants to make a show for the fans,
not a show to annoy the fans. He already tweeted comments like that he wanted to make this project because of fans
and how Shenmue has its own fan jokes / memes.
Of course that anime fan vs game fan problem could still happen but not intentional.
Also keep in mind that as far as we know the gaming branch, like Shibuya Prod, Deep Silver / Koch Media
is not involved in this project. Adult Swim doesnt want to make this anime just because of some hype or whatever
and nobody forced them to do it and as far as we know right now this doesnt replace the game Shenmue 4.
Theres a whole different door out there which is closed for the public where the companies talk about the games,
thats a different topic for now.
 
In normal circumstances I’d suggest using a VPN, but it won’t be distributed through Crunchy Roll in Japan. Come to think of it, they haven’t actually confirmed whether or not it will even air here.
Yeah, it would be nice to know some basic things like what their plans are for distribution outside of the US, or if there even are any plans for that outside of Crunchyroll.

I went on to Crunchyroll to see if I could figure out what their deal is. They actually seem to have the newer Kino's Journey series that I've been apprehensive about watching (and I can see why, now; it kind of tramples on the feel of the novels). Seems that most of what's up on the site is actually subbed, with a bunch of different language toggles, including "none." I guess there's actually a subset of shows that have separately cataloged dubs.

So it seems like it's still something of an open question as to what the hell is going to be done about Japan. (None of the outlets in Japan seem to know anything.) I'll probably do a Crunchyroll subscription for a couple months, just to contribute, once the show starts airing, though.


I'm a bit worried about what this is going to turn out like. Castlevania got turned into an anime and while the first two series were entertaining, it changed a lot of the story and brought in lots of anime fans who didn't mix well with the fans of the games. I'm worried that very young anime fans might be seen as the primary audience for Shenmue from now on and Shenmue 4 will be very different.
I'm anticipating a lot of butting heads between the anime fans and game fans, in the future. I'm also anticipating a lot of long time fans moaning about how the games are better, which is fine; I think that's probably a given. There's no way that anime will be able to capture everything that everyone loves about the games. It can still act as a serviceable companion to the games, with its own merits (I hope).

On the other hand, if Shenmue III is anything to go by, fans keeping their expectations in check and not attempting to nuke the show off the face of the Earth when it doesn't meet those expectations may just not be a thing. At least there's more Shenmue for everyone to spin her wheels on.
 
I hadn't really thought about it until now, but we were informed that the story will follow Shenmue 1 and part of Shenmue 2, right?

Am I the only person kinda disappointed that the story will only include part of Shenmue 2? I know it makes sense, since it's just 13 episodes and hopefully more will be covered in season 2, but Shenmue 2's story, characters and environments are just so vibrant and fun! I think they would work really well in an anime and more so than Shenmue 1.
 
I hadn't really thought about it until now, but we were informed that the story will follow Shenmue 1 and part of Shenmue 2, right?

Am I the only person kinda disappointed that the story will only include part of Shenmue 2? I know it makes sense, since it's just 13 episodes and hopefully more will be covered in season 2, but Shenmue 2's story, characters and environments are just so vibrant and fun! I think they would work really well in an anime and more so than Shenmue 1.
I suspect the line of thinking was that Shenmue 1 was probably too short to fill 13 episodes and whilst it might have been possible to condense Shenmue 2 down enough to fit both games into the first season, they’d probably have to cut or speed through some elements of the second game that would otherwise have made for some good viewing.

If the Anime is good then I don’t mind waiting a year for the second season.
 
I suspect the line of thinking was that Shenmue 1 was probably too short to fill 13 episodes and whilst it might have been possible to condense Shenmue 2 down enough to fit both games into the first season, they’d probably have to cut or speed through some elements of the second game that would otherwise have made for some good viewing.

If the Anime is good then I don’t mind waiting a year for the second season.

Just imagining Season 1 ending with Ryo leaving for Kowloon...and Season 2 opening with the bus ride and those incredible aerial shots.:love:

Tbh as so much great directorial work has already been accomplished in the games, I wonder how the director’s going to approach it. Hopefully they still incorporate some of the best stuff whilst allowing the anime to have its own pace/feel.
 
Just imagining Season 1 ending with Ryo leaving for Kowloon...and Season 2 opening with the bus ride and those incredible aerial shots.:love:

Tbh as so much great directorial work has already been accomplished in the games, I wonder how the director’s going to approach it. Hopefully they still incorporate some of the best stuff whilst allowing the anime to have its own pace/feel.
The more I think about it the more amazing I think this show could be if it’s well produced. Unfortunately, my past experiences with anime have me a little concerned that they’ll make a mess of it and we’ll end up with another cheap, generic anime with the Shenmue name slapped on the side. I suppose as somebody who doesn’t like anime I’m not really a part of their target audience though.
 
The Shenmue anime will be directed by Chikara Sakurai (One Punch Man, Naruto) and Telecom Animation Film will handle the drawings. Sola Entertainment is producing and Suzuki will watch over in an executive producer role. Early details on the series are light, but suggest the anime will follow the story of the game series — though it’s impossible to say right now how close or loose the adaption will be.

I've decided to make some researched with the information that was provided to us mainly in the artistic department; so I started loocking at Telecom Animation to try and find a similar Artstyle to the one that was presented to us and I've found out an anime that looks pretty similar to this artstyle.

The Anime that I think has a similar artstyle to the cover art that was presented to us is called "Sengoku Basara" and it is from Telecom Animation.
Shenmue Animation vs Sengoku Basara.jpg
Below are some videos for us to have a rough idea of how the anime may look like :



 
I think with Suzuki on board and the director saying that he want to be respectful to the source material, i'm confident that we will get something worthy of the Shenmue name. If Yu-san *wasn't* on board though, then alarm bells should start ringing.
 
Back
Top