SPOILERS - Shenmue The Animation Episode 12 "Guidepost" thread

Just watched and can only really echo what most people have said, really liked how they pulled the Joy and Wong story threads together that the anime has been sprinkling, showing how Ryo has actually impacted on them.

The Baihu fight was awful and clearly rushed, I think I would've preferred just the cameo from last week and left the mystery there, or made him the fight instead of Greg to get access to the Yellowhead last ep. There was just no scale to what a step up in skill he is meant to represent. In the games he's a more proficient fighter than Chai right? Definitely better than the 3 street fights you've head to get to him. There's no sense of that at all in the anime except is stun chop on Joy, which I liked but is then completely undone by the time of the fight with Ryo.
They did leave his 'Hazuki... I'll remember that name' remark so maybe he will assist in future and be fleshed out a bit.

As for the 'Baihu is Ziming' theory I think that was put to bed by the bonus comics surely?
I mean Baihu is Yellowhead and Ziming is clearly Chiyoumen and very senior, literally standing on the symbol talking to Niao Sun, a leader, in that comic, he's also not dressed at all like Baihu:
Niao&Zimming.jpg

Plus, in the official concept art of the Heads of the Chiyoumen, the silhouette on the right matches Ziming's design from that comic perfectly, all but confirming he is at Niao Sun and Lan Di's level within the organisation:

download.jpeg

The fact they have the same voice actor in the anime is nothing, there must be various other characters with the same actor, it's a standard budget managing approach. I get they're both mysterious characters so same voice actor might perk some intrigue but we know enough already to know Baihu, a Yellowhead fighter/leader who is hanging out in the Kowloon, is not Ziming, one of the heads of the Chiyoumen. :)
 
Last edited:
Just watched and can only really echo what most people have said, really liked how they pulled the Joy and Wong story threads together that the anime has been sprinkling, showing how Ryo has actually impacted on them.

The Baihu fight was awful and clearly rushed, I think I would've preferred just the cameo from last week and left the mystery there, or made him the fight instead of Greg to get access to the Yellowhead last ep. There was just no scale to what a step up in skill he is meant to represent. In the games he's a more proficient fighter than Chai right? Definitely better than the 3 street fights you've head to get to him. There's no sense of that at all in the anime except is stun chop on Joy, which I liked but is then completely undone by the time of the fight with Ryo.
They did leave his 'Hazuki... I'll remember that name' remark so maybe he will assist in future and be fleshed out a bit.

As for the 'Baihu is Ziming' theory I think that was put to bed by the bonus comics surely?
I mean Baihu is Yellowhead and Ziming is clearly Chiyoumen and very senior, literally standing on the symbol talking to Niao Sun, a leader, in that comic, he's also not dressed at all like Baihu:
View attachment 15161

Plus, in the official concept art of the Heads of the Chiyoumen, the silhouette on the right matches Ziming's design from that comic perfectly, all but confirming he is at Niao Sun and Lan Di's level within the organisation:

View attachment 15160

The fact they have the same voice actor in the anime is nothing, there must be various other characters with the same actor, it's a standard budget managing approach. I get they're both mysterious characters so same voice actor might perked some intrigue but we know enough already to know Baihu, a Yellowhead fighter/leader who is hanging out in the Kowloon, is not Ziming, one of the heads of the Chiyoumen. :)

It's already been stated that Ziming is not one of the Chiyou Leaders
 
It's already been stated that Ziming is not one of the Chiyou Leaders
Has it, by Yu? I don't recall that tbh but if that's true fair enough but he's still one of their members surely? He clearly is implied as a member in that comic... The whole 'stronger than me' alluding to him joining them and him being with Niao Sun in one of their locations.

Anyway one thing he's definitely not is Baihu, and that was the the main bit I was getting at :)
 
I did not mind the comedic elements of this episode, but falling back on scenes from previous episodes (especially the intro) and nerfing the Baihu fight were incredibly disappointing, even if it were budget related. Seeing as they still included Baihu's line of asking Ryo's name from SII, it's clear he still has a role to play in the overall story.
 
Really late to the game today, but another strong episode as always. This episode struck me as interesting in that Ryo isn't in the episode as much as you would think. That's not a bad thing, because this episode has been brilliant in seeing other characters interact in a way you would never expect (seriously, who had Zhu and Wong on their Shenmue bingo card?)

Some bits made me smile - the plank scene (!!) and Yuan with the chainsaw especially. Joy's backstory was brilliant and something i've never gave much thought to before.

That said, I do have two critcisms. First of all, there is a bit too much recapping; possibly 2 minutes of used footage before that could've been used better fleshing out some more story. The biggest one is the fight with Master Baihu. I'm sorry, but this was such an anticlimactic battle compared to the game. This might be the biggest upset of the series so far truth be told.

I pray the final episode is a bumper episode, because I would be very upset if the final disc is done in less than 15 minutes. What made the final disc of Shenmue II so special is that it went against gaming conventions of the time (and still to this day) in that the final hours of the game is very gentle. There's no way it would be done in 4 hours like in the game, but I think this is possibly the part of the games where rushing through it would do more damage than anything else. I await whilst praying.

Finallly - having the name of the final episode spoken by Ryo and Shenhua is gently genius.
 
There's only two things I didn't particularly like in this episode, the rat throwing escape and the Baihu fight.

Budget aside (and it likely was a contributing factor) I would have preferred Wong got caught after falling in to the room where Yhunda Zhu was being held and they used the extra time to beef up the Baihu fight a bit.

1650804802819.png

That said I really enjoyed everything else, I was caught off guard a bit by this scene, I really love what they've done with Wong and some of the other side characters.
 
Baihu got done dirty. No cage fight, no critique of his style (which is a damn shame since he uses tiger swallow). I do like how Yuanda Zhu is not as feeble as he seems in the games.

I'm looking forward to Ryo and Lan Di's spar next week...I would imagine that Do Niu will interrupt it before it gets series and Lan Di will stand back and watch them fight instead.
 
I think if the Baihu fight literally was given 10-15 extra seconds.. Ryo tries to throw a punch, Baihu blocks it and does one of his super fast combo moves... Ryo begins to lose his nerve... THEN it flashes back to the Wude and he beats Baihu.

I think even just that would've done a bit of justice.

Aside from that, a well-balanced episode!
 
probably the weakest episode in the series, imho. The Baihu fight was really bad, I get that budget is an issue and the series really isn't about fighting but come on, some of the sailor fights in Yokosuka were more epic than this. They didn't even fight in the cage.

Anyway, the episode was still good, but there will be a lot to cram into the last episode. Douniu and Lan Di fights, Zhu's mission briefing, meeting Shenny and talking to her about the Shenmue tree (the episode is called Shenmue), getting to the cave. Whew, that's a lot.
 
Same general thoughts as everyone else. The Baihu fight just straight up sucked. Also, I wouldn't normally mind the flashbacks, but the way they were presented/edited just looked weirdly amateurish. Could have been done a lot better imo.

Those grievances aside though, I thought the episode was fun. Excited to see what's planned for the finale next week!
 
Baihu fight was a bit lame. I liked the idea of Ryo using the Wude, but there just wasn't enough to it. I'm guessing time/budget restraints meant that they had to cut it back a bit.

Other than that, I loved the episode. I love how much more involved Joy and Wong are and I love how they've played up Joy's backstory. They've done an amazing job with all the side characters all through out the series.
 
They've done an amazing job with all the side characters all through out the series.

Minus Tom the Hotdog (official name) they could've gave him a story about why he has to make hotdogs, like his parents are held hostage and he has to make a million dollars to save them.
 
because I would be very upset if the final disc is done in less than 15 minutes. What made the final disc of Shenmue II so special is that it went against gaming conventions of the time (and still to this day) in that the final hours of the game is very gentle. There's no way it would be done in 4 hours like in the game, but I think this is possibly the part of the games where rushing through it would do more damage than anything else. I await whilst praying.

I have a suspicion that we might not even get it. I don't know how people would feel about that, but I wonder if the credits will roll as Ryo is just leaving Hong Kong or arriving at Guilin, or when he first meets Shenhua. I don't know, but I think they are going to extend the disc 3 conclusion, particularly as there is going to be a Lan Di fight.
 
I have a suspicion that we might not even get it. I don't know how people would feel about that, but I wonder if the credits will roll as Ryo is just leaving Hong Kong or arriving at Guilin, or when he first meets Shenhua. I don't know, but I think they are going to extend the disc 3 conclusion, particularly as there is going to be a Lan Di fight.

If the disc 4 stuff was done as a special bonus episode, that would be so good. I'm thinking of Violet Evergarden; that was a 13 episode series, but there was a special 14th episode that was slightly longer. If they did that, I would be satisfied.
 
Baihu fight sucked. Not sure how I feel about Lan Di actually getting off the copter. Will this negate Shenmue 3's conclusion? That was so poorly done I wouldn't mind if they rewrote it, but the tension the end of 2 evoked just with a stare down was epic.

Also not sure if Disc 4 Guilin is going to be incredibly rushed now into the back half of the finale but I am assuming it is. They will end with the cave sequence that we saw in Ep 1. They should have devoted an entire episode for it, incorporating as many guilin cut scenes as possible.

A little disappointed this time but all in all this series has been great.
 
Another beautiful episode. What the anime team did with Wong is beautiful, beautiful character development, Wong even said he hate living robbing people, Wong really changed after meeting Ryo, and i love his determination to help Ryo, like i said about the previous episode, for Wong Ryo is like his older brother now.

I love Joy in this episode as well, Joy remember a lot of moments with Ryo and we can see how Ryo made a impact in her life and then Joy decide to help as well, beautiful. Joy and Wong getting expanded is one of the beautiful things about the anime, it is really emotional, loved it.

I agree with many people about the Ryo VS Baihu fight, it was a short fight, but i think i understand why the anime team did this way, for me Ryo winning against Baihu quickly is to show that Ryo really improved as a martial artist and as a character, that everything that he learned made a impact on him and that he changed with that.


i say this because before winning Ryo remember about what Kai said and about the 4 Wude, so to me this is to show how much Ryo improved as a martal artist and as a character, Ryo got stronger, so if i think about it this way i can accept the fight, but the fight could have been way better, a longer fight with more tension.

This is one of the reasons why i say a Shenmue anime with 24 episodes would have been even better about more content and development, but just the fact that we are getting a Shenmue anime is beautiful and amazing.

The scenes with Dou Niu are nice, the scenes of Ryo with Ren, and i love that the high five of the duo is in the anime, same thing about the scenes with Yuan, really nice scenes. The scenes of Wong with Yuanda Zhu was a beautiful surprise to me, loved it. Yuanda Zhu again defending himself.

The final scene with Ryo and Lan Di looking at each other was a beautiful way to end the episode.

The name of EP 13 is Shenmue so i imagine that we will see something about the Shenmue tree, i noticed that Ryo and Shenhua said the name of the EP together in the ending.


The season will end in the cave? i think is possible but i feel that the anime team will need to cut out a lot of things about the Guilin part so the anime can end in the cave.

I agree with bcdcdude, I don't want to see the Guilin part in a fast way, the Guilin part is so gentle, calm, mysterious and much more, one of my favorite moments of the Shenmue series, so i hope the season ends with Ryo meeting Shenhua. Maybe Ryo trying to save the deer and Shenhua, or maybe ending with Shenhua saying for Ryo to follow her, i don't know but something like this, i will prefer if the season ends with Ryo meeting Shenhua, the season will probably end in Guilin.

Just one more episode left to end the season, like i said in the other weeks, i will miss this time of Shenmue content every week. 😿 I have hope that we will get the announcement of Shenmue IV after the last episode of the anime. ❤️

Overall good episode, i'm loving the anime.
 
Last edited:
I haven't watched any previews but I can't imagine the Lan Di fight will take much time if he's as untouchable as he should be. That said, Ryo's been a lot stronger in the anime.

But interested to see why Lan Di would get off the chopper, only to get back on it...I guess Zhu is the obvious answer. Would he kidnap Zhu? Curious to see how they spin this.
 
Back
Top