SPOILERS - Shenmue The Animation Episode 11 "Entangled" thread

Nictac said:
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.
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I got sidelined by that too. Forgot she was an orphan for a good minute:grin:
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Ha, I didnt forget she was an orphan, just thought the reference maybe to them knowing of her father and what happened to him... Which would've been a pretty big exclusive for the anime.

But it's definitely a reference to Joy's father and those flashbacks of her (which are great), as you said.
 
Great episode. So cool how they managed to fit the "fighting blind" scene in there, with a camera shot directly from the game. Also bringing back the line, "If I were Lan Di, you'd already be dead" :whistle: We got Shenhua finding the mirror plans, too. Too much good stuff to mention.

Master Mo said:
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.
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Dude, Joy barely elevates herself beyond a "sexy biker chick with a heart of gold" caricature in the game. There's hardly any depth to her whatsoever. Her anime adaptation is clearly more nuanced and interesting by a fair margin.
 
Joka said:
I think the anime mirrors the games in terms in Xiuying saving Ryo doesn't it? She definitely steps in at Man Mo Park, the Qtr scene with Yuan and the yellowheads and Don Niu also
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Xiuying save Ryo many times happen in the game as well? i remember Xiuying encountering Dou Niu in the game but the other moments i don't remember now, I'm playing Shenmue II for the second time from beginning to the end so I don't remember all the details, I was not remembering this detail, thanks for telling me about this then.
 
Hiki said:
Xiuying save Ryo many times happen in the game as well? i remember Xiuying encountering Dou Niu in the game but the other moments i don't remember now, I'm playing Shenmue II for the second time from beginning to the end so I don't remember all the details, I was not remembering this detail, thanks for telling me about this then.
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You only completed Shenmue 2 once lol I lost count a long time ago of how much I replayed it over the last 20 years
 
Demon's Triangle said:
You only completed Shenmue 2 once lol I lost count a long time ago of how much I replayed it over the last 20 years
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I'm a shenmue fan since 2015, i completed the first game in english in 2015, after that i completed the version in japanese with english subs, the undub version, then only in the ending of 2017 i completed Shenmue II, i think i took so long because i was playing other games and because of other things in my life as well.

After that i bought Shenmue I and II HD and i finished the first game again, my plan was to play the second game again before the release of Shenmue III but i don't remember what happened, maybe i was playing other games, i just remember that i didn't played, then Shenmue III released and i decided to play the third game, i finished Shenmue III.

In the ending of 2021 i finished the first game again and only now i'm playing Shenmue II for the second time from beginning to the end lol, after that my plan is to play Shenmue III again, this is my Shenmue playthrough history.
 
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Another fantastic episode, absolutely loved how they further developed Joy as a character. I I would have preferred them to not focus on the Wude story arc for that long and put in the Chunyan and Rod Stunt fights instead, but whatever.

So, Baihu and Douniu fights next episode and off to Guilin we'll go for the season finale.
 
orient said:
Master Mo said:
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.
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Dude, Joy barely elevates herself beyond a "sexy biker chick with a heart of gold" caricature in the game. There's hardly any depth to her whatsoever. Her anime adaptation is clearly more nuanced and interesting by a fair margin.
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I disagree. A character that is hiding a dark past under a somewhat believable bubbly personal that is shed very quickly upon a obvious realisation on the same token could be categorized as highly caricatured as well...

As I said I like what they are showing off of her backstory and as we all know that kinda stuff was already teased in the comic. I mean we all knew this "sexy biker chick with a heart of gold" was at some point kidnapped while wearing very fancy clothes and had/has a connection to the Chens. The issue is how she conducts herself in the present!

Also elevating one character by deconstructing another is barely ever a good look, especially when they do it to Ren. Ren in the anime is a complete joke... Joy and Ren butting heads was fun but serious in the game. Now she comes off as mean and he just takes it. Just the thought of Anime-Joy talking to Game-Ren like that makes both characters in the anime look more ridiculous!

Compare the scene with her confronting Ren in the anime with the one when she first realizes that Ren and Ryo went to Kowloon in the game, which I`ll link below:

 
Enjoyed the episode overall.

Moved at a pace again and I really like the backstory for Joy. Her bubbly personality is hiding a deep rooted loss and quite often people become more extrovert to mask their true feelings so this makes sense.

Great to see Kai as I thought they might have cut that. Street fights were good and I can totally see why they only did the one mainline one. Greg Moore was a good choice given Ren's reaction after in the game. Had they done Chunyun instead that would worked too.

Seeing Baihu was a little odd for me, felt a touch forced but I can get the idea behind it.

Ending on floor 17 of the YellowHead building is cool. Seems we will get some chases, Yuan + chainsaw and Baihu for sure. Maybe even the rooftop stuff.

2 to go and I'm really pleased with the anime portrayal of this story.
 
Here's my recap/review for this week!
shenmusings.wordpress.com

Shenmue The Animation Ep #11 -‘Entangled’ recap and review

NOTE: This is a recap/review of the Japanese audio & English subtitled version of the episode, viewed via Crunchyroll. It is currently not possible to view the English dub where I am, in the UK…
shenmusings.wordpress.com shenmusings.wordpress.com

I enjoyed this a lot more than last week, and really liked the reveal of Joy's backstory (I wonder if its canon to the in-game Joy?), and the added depth to Ren was nice to see as well. And they did one of my favourite scenes, the mind's eye/Predictive Explosion stuff with Kai absolute justice here. Shame Chunyan and Rod didn't make the cut but I think it made sense to only have 1 of the 3 elite fighters to keep the story going.

Can't wait till the storm of the Yellow Head Building next week!!
 
another good episode but I was a little bummed they cut some things like the other fighters. Like most people here I kind of wished they included Chunyan over greg, but I guess they really wanted the gag where Ren bets against Ryo.

I'm also not feeling the Shenhua scenes anymore, if they are going to Guilin in the last episode then why not save that screen time to flesh out the existing scenes. it's also really weird from a pacing perspective given the fast pace of the Kowloon arc.
 
Hiki said:
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.



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.
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Great analysis of the future relationship between Ryo and Ren. I resonate with it.
 
For what it's worth, all Shenhua scenes seem to be sort of derived from her poem at the beginning of the games. I enjoy that.
 
Considering that Zhu Yuanda did write a book about martial arts, I guess it does make sense he does have some knowledge and the anime gives him a chance to use some. I wonder if Ryo will show him the pic of his father and Lan Di's father.
 
Okay I finally got around to watching it today.

Bit bummed that the 2 other fights were cut. We did get Greg Moore which was nice, but I would have loved to have seen the other two. Especially the fight with Chunyan...I felt that moment with Chunyan in the game was so powerful and so very telling of who Ryo was. That I don't think Ryo has it in him to actually kill.

A lot of interesting stuff with Joy came out of this. That's what I'm loving most about the anime. The little touches they keep throwing in to help expand these characters just a little more.

Hard to believe we've only got two episodes left. It really is making me want to go back and replay Shenmue II now. Maybe I will once the anime is done.

Anyways, I enjoyed it. I wish these episodes were longer just so we could cover more. Or I wish it was 26 episode run as opposed to 13 but what can you do? Still, I'm enjoying Shenmue 2 being re-told in this form even with its omissions.
 
spud1897 said:
Street fights were good and I can totally see why they only did the one mainline one. Greg Moore was a good choice given Ren's reaction after in the game. Had they done Chunyun instead that would worked too.
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I'd probably have preferred to see Chunyan over Greg, if just for that moment where Ryo hangs her over the chasm then tosses her back onto the platform, calmly walking away. But they went with the next best street fighter, IMO.
 
The Anime shows me again how good the characters in Shenmue 1 and 2 are (Xiuying so good!) compared to Shenmue 3 where I can barely remember anyone even I've completed it a couple of times. :(
 
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