SPOILERS - Shenmue The Animation Episode 11 "Entangled" thread

Amazing how they managed to dive into deeper lore that we haven't seen yet, cut out a lot of things from the game we would have liked to see, but still manage to craft an absolutely amazing episode that had me on the edge the entire time. I'm disappointed that Chunyan was cut - an epic emotional moment in the game even though she was such a minor character - but tapped into some Xuiying and Joy lore that we knew was lurking but haven't seen. And my fear that some of these tidbits from Shenmue 2 that went completely and shockingly unaddressed in Shenmue 3 are very clearly still relevant to the story - Ziming and Xuiying's own involvement, for example.

Kowloon was hella rushed but we will have a full 22 mins for Disc 4 Guilin, it would seem, and I hope they do it justice. Please show the scene with Shenhua and the dandelions!! Potentially retconning Disc 4's hints of chi and mysticism was my biggest gripe with Shenmue 3 by far.
 
Trying to stay spoiler-free (for the most part) but jumping in to ask if it seems that we will reach the end of II or not by the end of the season
 
So Baihu has to be significant in some way besides being a street fighter for the Yellow Heads, otherwise why even mention him in the anime?

Is he as his name implies, the White Tiger of the Chiyoumen? Is he Land Di's protégé as he also uses Tiger Swallow Style? This is feeling like 2003 asking these questions.
 
I was wondering why they left the cliffhanger at the Xiuying fight last episode since the fight between her and Dou Niu was about 2 seconds. Then they suddenly spring open a version where Xiuying kicks everyone's butt. Love it.
the5thwude.gif
-when Yuan said said 'do you think she's Chun's daughter?' I was like 'whaaaaaaat?! Holy shit Xiuying's parents were cartel?!' But as Nathan's explained above it's a reference to Joy's father, nice but I thought we were getting some major new info for a mo lol

I got sidelined by that too. Forgot she was an orphan for a good minute:grin:
polishedmirror.gif
 
Beautiful episode. Was nice to see Xiuying fighting Dou Niu and Yuanda Zhu trying to defend himself, One of the things i love in this episode is that this episode is by far the episode that the anime team expanded 3 characters the most. The characters are Joy, Ren and Wong, loved that.

With this episode we see more about Joy's story, the woman really is Joy's mother, Joy's mother getting assassinated because her father was in the Chinese syndicate. We see that Joy care about Ryo and what is happening but she is afraid because of what happened to her in the past. we even see Joy visiting her mother's grave. This things about Joy don't have in the game, it is a beautiful addition to the story.

With this episode we can really see that meeting Ryo made an impact in Ren's life somehow, deep down now he cares about Ryo, and Ren is even questioning what to do, the scene that Ren is talking with Joy made it this clear to me, i love the scene with Joy talking to Ren, one of my favorite scenes of the episode, later in the episode we see that Ren decided to be with Ryo again.

Another nice detail in this episode about Ren is that Ren said again "Junnen hayai da yo" one of the phrases that Akira Yuki say when he wins a fight in Virtua Fighter, Ren say this phrase in the games as well? i don't remember right now but this is a beautiful detail.

In my opinion in Shenmue IV or Shenmue V we will really see Ren admitting that he view Ryo as a friend, and i have a feeling Ren will die maybe saving Ryo and this will have a big impact in Ryo and in the story, i feel that this is the reason Akira say Junnen Hayai da yo in VF, i feel that Akira say this phrase as a way of honoring and remembering his friend, i think that Ren saying Junnen Hayai Da Yo is in The Legend Of Akira scripts/novels.

Akira's headband probably is a part of Ren's bandana and Akira wears for the same reason, i like this theory, to me Ryo is like a younger version of Akira, in my opinion Yu Suzuki changed to Shenmue but the main story of Akira's journey is the same, the journey of how Ryo (Akira) learned all the Bajiquan moves, the journey of how Ryo (Akira) became a powerful martial artist, in my opinion in the end we will probably see Ryo similar to Akira like this.


1650201042093.png


Wong have more screen time in this episode as well, we see how Wong care about Ryo, Wong really want to help Ryo. These things about Joy, Ren and Wong don't have in the game and it is a beautiful way to expand the story and the characters. In the games we see the story through the perspective of Ryo, so most of the time in the games we see what Ryo see, i like this style in the games but in the anime we see the story not only through Ryo's perspective but through other characters as well.

We know that Yu Suzuki shared many pages of the story with the anime team, so there is a good chance that these things are from Yu Suzuki's vision about the story, about what Yu-san wrote at that time but for some reason is not in the games. this is one of the beautiful things about the anime to me, to see how the anime is expading the story and the characters.

It is sad that probably we will never see the catching leaves training in the anime, like i said other time we lose in some areas but we win in other areas like more scenes for Iwao, Yamigishi-san, Joy, Dou Niu, Yuan and many other characters.

At least Xiuying taught the Counter Elbow Assault for Ryo and talked about that Ryo have to clear his mind, this lesson is important so i'm glad that Xiuying taught this in some way for Ryo.

Just 2 more episodes left to end the season.. i will miss this time of Shenmue content every week. :( With just 2 more episodes left to end the season i feel that it is possible that the last episode we will end in Guilin in the cave just like in the game, i'm not sure yet, it will depend on what will happen in episode 12, but maybe this episode will end with Ryo arriving in Guilin, i'm not sure, all i know is that i'm looking forward for the next episode.
 
Last edited:
I absolutely love all of the additional scenes added to side characters to expand the lore. Overall, the episode is very good. My only change wouldve been to replace the minor street fights Ryo faces with Rod and Chunyan in order to get all of the Big 4 in.

It looks like Ryo may have 3 major fights next episode. Baihu, Don Niu and maybe a small skirmish with Lan Di.
 
This was a pretty good episode. The pacing is still not to my liking, nor will it ever be. But some off the cuts make sense to me, like cutting out the second chawan sign quest or doing just one of the three big street fights, even though I agree, I`d rather they did a quick montage of all three or choose Chunyan instead of Greg.

Some stuff I didn`t like though:

I really hope the Counter Elbow Assault is not becoming the next Swallow Dive! It looked a bit too much like a normal Elbow Assault. At least it was used reactively, instead of proactive like the Elbow Assault. I also hope its depiction on Dou Niu will be slower and more forceful.

I like Joys backstory, which somewhat was teased in the comic on Shenmue IIx, but the way her interactions with Ryo are handled is super weird and annoying to me. Somehow imo they made Ryo more empathetic and Joy less so. I think giving the circumstance that`s a change I don`t appreciate. Her scene with Ren was painful. To me that was probably one of the worst scenes of the whole anime. Absolutely horrible.

Ren is just generally handled badly and this episode, aside of the betting bit, cemented my impression on that.

Some decisions are baffling to me: Why show Master Baihu so soon? It doesn`t make sense to me. He is meant to be a mysterious character. Showing him off as a character who participate in normal street fights and then potentially having him be an opponent within the Yellow Head Building will diminish the impact of his mysterious entrance into the series.
 
Good episode but I'm always anxious watching because there's so much to cover and you wonder what will be cut. I thought Baihu's appearance was an ode to the original intention for his character in the series as simply the 4th street fighter Ryo was meant to face. I'm not 100% sure but I feel like he goes under (sf4 or street fighter 4) in the game's code.
 
View attachment 14916

And no before anyone suggests it, Xuiying doesn't count.

Didn't Ryo also say that in the game? "I'd never hit a woman" or "I'm not fighting a woman"

As for Baihu...interesting to tease him, I imagine they will include the fight with him in the next episode. Maybe Baihu was going through the same motions as Ryo - impressing the Scout and trying to join the Chi You Men?
 
It looks like Ryo may have 3 major fights next episode. Baihu, Don Niu and maybe a small skirmish with Lan Di.

I think this could be a reason why some of the street fights were cut. Too many fights in a quick succession could diminish the impact of the true set-piece moments, and this week's episode started off with a major fight, too.

Also - let me channel Dojo 2001 by asking: "Master Baihu = Joy's Father?"
 
Too rushed for my liking, I hope they can include the other fighters and cut characters if they do season 2. Chunyan and Rod Stud could fit at the rose garden in Niouwu, shame the leaf scene is gone, that might be my favourite in the game.

Yuanda Zhu is more cool and calculated in this adaptation, almost able to defend himself against the yellow heads. So far the anime may lend itself to the Zhu/Tentei theory
 
I think if they could have picked one of the three street fighters, the fight with Chunyan is probably the most important for the story. In that fight we see Ryo exhibit mercy, showing he has yet to fall on to the evil path Xiuying spoke of.
 
I saw the episode more times today, i have more thoughts about it. We saw in this episode that Xiuying saved Ryo many times in the anime, as far as i remember this don't happen in the game, in the game Xiuying is worried about Ryo, but not to the point of following Ryo and saving him in many situations like it happened in the anime, another beautiful addition to the story, the anime team expanded more Xiuying and Fangmei, loved that.

I love the street fights but it was sad that we didn't saw Chunyan and Rod Stunt in this episode, maybe these characters will appear in the next episode but in a different situation? the anime have many differences in relation to the games so it is not impossible but maybe this will not happen.

Nice to see Kai and Predictive Explosion.

The scene with Shenhua is short but it is nice that she saw the Diagram of the Mirrors.

I love that Master Baihu is in this episode, in the next episode we will probably see Ryo VS Baihu and maybe we will see Baihu getting expanded in the anime, the style that Baihu use is the same used by Lan Di and Sunming Zhao, Tiger Swallow Style.

The theory Master Baihu = Joy's Father is interesting, Master Baihu continues to be a mysterious character, maybe we will have more revelations about Baihu in the anime when Ryo rescue Joy, it will be really nice if this happen.
 
Last edited:
I saw the episode more times today, i have more thoughts about it. We saw in this episode that Xiuying saved Ryo many times in the anime, as far as i remember this don't happen in the game, in the game Xiuying is worried about Ryo, but not to the point of following Ryo and saving him in many situations like it happened in the anime, another beautiful addition to the story, the anime team expanded more Xiuying and Fangmei, loved that.

I think the anime mirrors the games in terms of Xiuying saving Ryo doesn't it? She definitely steps in at Man Mo Park, the Qtr scene with Yuan/yellowhead thugs and Don Niu also
 
Last edited:
Back
Top