SPOILERS SHENMUE THE ANIMATION EPISODE 7 "Future" THREAD

Another beautiful episode. I really like that they expanded this part of the story with Zhoushan Xuan and Zongquan Ba with Ryo in relation to the Wude JIE. Ryo is slowly learning a lot of things, character development for Zongquan Ba and character development for Ryo in this episode as well.

An episode to be good always need to have a big story progression? i really don't agree with that, to me sometimes a episode to be good just need to have good interactions between the characters, giving more depth to the characters, character development and things like that while advacing the plot even if it is in a slow way, and this episode did this things.

The episode was not just about the Wude JIE in my opinion. In this episode we got the introduction of Fangmei, Hanhui Liu helping Ryo, small flashback of Xiuying with Ziming, Ren searching for Ryo, Ren really want to meet Ryo, the fights with Yellow Heads, more scenes with Joy, this way Joy is getting more closer to Ryo, the anime team is expading Joy and this is really nice. The conversations of Ryo with Xiuying really nice as well. Character development for Zongquan Ba and Ryo.

As far as i remember EP 6 did the same thing, an episode dedicated to the Wude GON while other things happened as well, i really like the pacing in the previous episode and in this episode as well.

It is interesting that the anime dedicated an episode for the Wude JIE and these characters, giving more emotion to the situation, maybe in the next episode Ryo will learn DAN and YI, or maybe it will be a Wude for episode, i don't know, i like when Ryo learn a Wude the kanji for the Wude appear, it is a nice detail, i just wished that the same thing happened when Ryo learn a move in the anime.

Really looks like Xiuying will only change her mind about helping Ryo when Ryo learn all the 4 Wude, the pacing about this is really good, Xiuying is amazing just like in the game, one of my favorite characters of all time.

In the ending Xiuying saying that Ryo can stay in her room, meaning that Xiuying is slowly changing her mind, Xiuying even remembered about Ziming after meeting Ryo, the story progressed with this things as well, Xiuying is slowly changing her mind, i enjoy the pacing.

Probably in the next episode we will see more flashbacks with Xiuying and Ziming, maybe we will even see Xiuying crying, maybe the next episode will be emotional.

Shenhua in the ending, a short scene but it was nice, looks like Shenhua senses that something big is going to happen, i really think the last episode will end in the cave scene in a similar way that we saw in the first episode.

EP 6 and EP 7 had more of a slow pace, each dedicated to a Wude while other things happened and i really enjoy that. I think near the ending maybe in episode 10 the pace will be fast again.

I have a feeling that i will enjoy the anime even more when i can watch all the episodes, the Shenmue franchise is alive and i'm so happy about that, LetsGetShenmueIV
 
Last edited:
Shenhua-Nani? said:
This is basically my take on the episode, very weird choice to dedicate an entire episode to the least memorable Wude Moment of the game.

And i didnt like how they managed the first Xiuying fight, in the game Ryo was arrogant and sextist and got teached a lesson, here it was much more soft.

Also, im starting to seriously doubt that the anime will reach Guilin, we have 6 episodes left and we are still far from Kowloon.
Click to expand...

It’s not so much them dedicating an entire episode to one of the wude that bothers me, more the random approach taken to cuts and additions and the wildly inconsistent pacing. It makes the show seem a little disjointed, while the decision to cut or rush over key plot points in favor of including pointless scenes that add very little to the story feels like a missed opportunity.

To be fair, this was still a pretty good episode (I don’t think any have been bad thus far), but it could have been much better.
 
Man, the power of just 3 more episodes covering the game than the adaptation of Shenmue 1. Folks here yearn for a version of this show compromised of 26 seasons, but I'd settle for 15 if it meant the pacing of 1 was good as 2 has been thus far. It's really quite sad that every time we talk about this anime, there's an acknowledgment that it had to make sacrifices along the way that in another timeline, perhaps wouldn't have been the case. But still, I'd do better to be grateful for what I have and so far, these last 2 episodes have been very strong.

Perhaps, I'm wrong, but it seems commonly agreed that Shenmue 2 has more interesting characters overall than Shenmue 1. Not to disgrace the good name of Nozomi, Gui-Zhang and Goro, but Joy, Ren, Xiuying, Wong, Fangmei and even the NPC martial arts masters felt much more connected to the epic adventure. And I feel like the writers are aware of that.

Teasing the Yellow Heads early was a based move. I can sing praises about Kowloon all week, but it is a slight shame that Dou Niu and his empire weren't foreshadowed a little earlier.

I was a little nervous the first time they displayed the flashback of Xiuying and Ximing, because it's too soon to showcase that piece of story, which is why I was all the more relieved when it was merely a tease of the actual scene. That's absolutely the best way of doing it.

I guess having an extra scene in the ending credits was a one time novelty. This show confuses me a little sometimes.

I welcome slow pacing in Shenmue every day, but of course, the slower the pacing, the more one has to worry about they tackle the rest of the story from there. You can't do Kowloon justice at all, unless you have 4 episodes at least. That area took up only 1 disc of Shenmue 2 and yet it felt longer than Hong Kong. The Yellow Head Building section alone should really be 2 episodes. It's partially why I wouldn't mind if Guilin was saved for a second season, especially as Kowloon already ends on what would be a conclusion for any other game.
 
The theme "Future" is certainly embedded well in this episode.

The future that Ryo needs to learn all 4 Wude, which is an essential element of Shenmue 2.

The future that Ryo and Ren are going on an adventure together for the rest of Shemune 2, 3, and even 4 (if we get the game).

I like the way how this episode enhances the story of Zongquan.

And it looks like Joy is playing a bigger role in the Anime than Nozomi did, guiding Ryo to find the Wude JIE. Looking forward to more interaction between Ryo and Joy

P.S. There is great attention to detail by the Anime team again. The name of the newspaper and the beer look very similar to the popular ones in Hong Kong in the 1980s.
 
Last edited:
I saw the episode again, so emotional the last scenes about Zhoushan Xuan talking with Ryo about Zongquan Ba and the Wude JIE, the soundtrack in this scene is so sweet, beautiful and emotional, in the last scene with Xiuying the soundtrack is beautiful as well, would be nice a Shenmue Anime Soundtrack release.

To me everytime Ryo learn important things about martial arts the story progress a lot as well.

Like i said in my previous post, character development for Zongquan Ba and Ryo in this episode, the 4 Wude is one of my favorite things about Shenmue II and the anime team is doing a wonderful job in relation to this, beautiful.
 
Last edited:
I still think they will rush to the Shenmue 2 ending with the last episode.
Like fast mode, the episode before the last one ends after the Dou Niu rooftop fight and Ryo finds out where Lan Di is going,
cliffhanger,
then last episode Ryo saying goodbye to everyone in 2-3 minutes, traveling to Guilin
(30 seconds ship scene, arriving at the first village and asking around 30 seconds)
and then you still have about 15 minutes for Ryo meeting Shenhua,
she accepts to travel with him, they are going to cut all of the running through the nature parts,
they arrive at their stop for the night, Shenhuas song, cut to the next morning when they arrive at Bailu village,
maybe they will immediately look for Shenhuas adoptive father - cut to the cave where they find the mirrors. The end

I dont think they can go further than that because what else could be the final moment / cliffhanger of the show?
The Shenmue 3 ending is too far away.
 
Last edited:

Ryo breaking the rock ^


Ryo confronting Xiuying after learning Jie ^
 
terry.tsoi said:
There is great attention to detail by the Anime team again. The name of the newspaper and the beer look very similar to the popular ones in Hong Kong in the 1980s.
Click to expand...
Definitely! Saw that can and was like “yeah, 8HKD can of San Miguel from the nearest 7/11!” Hah. It’s those details, also the tiled red sidewalks so typical of downtown, the view across the harbour, the barred windows with the air cons of the residential buildings. Love it all so much.
 
Here are my pros (+) and cons (-) for this episode:

+ I like that Ren knows about Ryo before Ryo knows anything about him. It makes his stand within Hong Kong more meaningful, but having yellow heads do "business" right under his nose is kinda weird. It would have made more sense to me if it were heavens instead of yellow heads, even though I don`t see how adding this issue to the streetperformer-quest adds anything valuable right now really. I always thought the heavens and yellow-heads had respective turfs so I hope showing the yellow heads this earlier amounts to something worthwhile.

+ The reasoning for Hanhui helping Ryo for the sake of Xiuying makes sense in the context of the anime, it apparently doesn`t lead to much though because at the end of the episode she still welcomes him, even though he didn`t do anything special to warrant that.

+ Fangmei is awesome and funny! Hard to not get her right though...

- I didn`t appreciate Xiuying assuming Ryos feeling towards her being female. I think in the game they handled the situation more gracefully. Him saying he won`t fight a female would have been enough but assuming it beforehand feels cocky and arrogant from Xiuying. I mean Xiuying in the game was authoritarian and awesome. I think the anime version just handled the situation in a very condescending way. The Xiuying from the game seemed to be above Ryos assumption, which obviously was what her anime-self expressed.

- I`m ready to not see the swallow dive again. I mean they act like Ryo didn`t know martial arts before learning the swallow dive. At least at the end of the episode he used the iron palm but that`s also something he learned along the way. I`d rather they mix it up more with some juijutsu signature moves like the elbow assault.

- The search for the wude didn`t really help to make the city feel bigger like it partially suppose to be. I think Hong Kong generally feels way to small in comparison.

- Shuffling all the wude stuff just to show off Xiuying earlier is just not as good as what they did in the game. The line from the game, where she tells him which wude he lacks after he gathered them all is one of the most powerful lines in all of Shenmue. Throwing that away to me is a huge mistake. It also took away the tension of who the master is.

- Ryo barely reacts emotionally to anything. I think the most reactive we have seen him yet aside of rage, is when Xiuying tells him that he should use her real name. That scene is also miles better in the game simply because of how authoritarian Xiuying is and when Ryo wonders where he would sleep it was quite funny when she told him he had to use the sofa. A very funny scene considering her authoritarian attitude at the time and his stoic nature, which I always took as revange-based tunnel-vision.

- The pace of the wude-story is just weird to me. The anime moves so fast normally and now it takes super long for this one aspect and I don`t feel it`s justified. Like the back-and-forth feels random and tedious... I really don`t like, just like with the first wude, that Ryo essentially stumbles upon it. I think it would have been better for the master to tell him the problem. It feels very random as I said.

- They are trying to make Ryo way too awesome. I think it was always good to see how flawed Ryo was in the game. Considering the wude: he learns about them but actually, as Xiuying told him, doesn`t actually have two of them, but apparently in the game he thought learning of them is like learning them. In the anime he is the one coming up with the solution within himself and teaches it to the streetperformer. Making the character flawless just takes away from the potential of growth. I liked it more when the solution came from external factors.

- The streetperformer fighting the thugs and then acting like he is valuing the wude made no sense. He is clearly fighting in public with a bunch of thugs and just a second later acts like he wasn`t doing just that because Ryo held some speech. With this one I really didn`t understand where they are coming from.

The series gets worse with every episode. I still think episode 3 is the only episode half decent...
 
As much as I enjoyed this episode, I noticed that the characters were often off-model and there was more CG. I think this one had a lower budget than previous episodes, probably as a cost-cutting measure so they can go over-budget later on when the story really needs it, like say the Yellow Head building.
 
Yeah, in my opinion the introduction of Ren in the game was just perfect. When Ryo met Yuanda collaborator at the bar and this one tells Ryo to take care because it's dangerous... With that music, the light, the bar almost destroyed after the fight, amazing!

I miss a bit more moments with the outstanding Shenmue music. Today in the last part of the anime with Xiuying was nice.
 
24Nathan said:
View attachment 14560


Anyone else notice this guy as one of the Yellow Heads that attacked Ryo?
Click to expand...
After a second watch, I think all of the Yellow Heads here are in the anime. The guy holding Zhang seems to be the guy that comes to harass Zongquan in the mall the second time, and the one in all blue seems to be the guy in that group (~17:26 into the episode) that is right by the guy I circled in this picture.
 
Just seen ep 7. That was amazing. That might be one of my favorite eps. I know i keep saying that every week, but the anime continues to stay at a super high quality level. It would have been awesome if we got 24 eps to flesh out all the characters like this ep did, but such is life. 10/10
 
Master Mo said:
- They are trying to make Ryo way too awesome. I think it was always good to see how flawed Ryo was in the game. Considering the wude: he learns about them but actually, as Xiuying told him, doesn`t actually have two of them, but apparently in the game he thought learning of them is like learning them. In the anime he is the one coming up with the solution within himself and teaches it to the streetperformer. Making the character flawless just takes away from the potential of growth. I liked it more when the solution came from external factors.

- The streetperformer fighting the thugs and then acting like he is valuing the wude made no sense. He is clearly fighting in public with a bunch of thugs and just a second later acts like he wasn`t doing just that because Ryo held some speech. With this one I really didn`t understand where they are coming from.

The series gets worse with every episode. I still think episode 3 is the only episode half decent...
Click to expand...
Yeah man I think a lot of the context went above your head. The point of the wude SHOULD be to learn within and exhibit them. that is what anime ryo has done. He didnt teach it to the street performer, he simply stated that he now understands and he doesnt want him to go against it. Him fighting the thugs is fine. its about spectacle and doing more than whats necessary. He did the bare minimum which is the point of that wude.
 
Englishhedgehog said:
It's really quite sad that every time we talk about this anime, there's an acknowledgment that it had to make sacrifices along the way that in another timeline, perhaps wouldn't have been the case.
Click to expand...
Eh, I dunno -- the anime has exceeded my expectations despite the sacrifices made. It's made up for cut content and a quick pace by bringing something new to the table every episode. I can't imagine a scenario in which this anime would've been given a longer season -- it's bonkers it exists at all.

It has consistently improved upon the representation of almost every character in the games, in my opinion -- those they've chosen to give a bit of screentime, anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top