Shenmue the Animation

A pulse-pounding and deeply in depth anime version of the amazing video game series! The style is fantastically smooth and retains the drama and internally-driven grit of the original storyline. The characters were just as intriguing, rich, and complex as in the games and I was very pleased how they were written in the series, really made them all the more interesting. Both emotional and spiritually engrossing aesthetic with an intriguing air of mystery that makes Heroic Journey stories such as this one so resonant.

A shame it was not renewed for a second season, I really was eager to see the story continue.

It is safe to say that after many, many attempts over the years, someone making an adaptation of a video game for the purpose of TV or film is going to be perceived, at best, with a sense of high scrutiny. Such was my reaction when I saw Crunchyroll and Adult Swim had teamed up to create "Shenmue the Animation", based on Sega's open-world fighting game franchise that is more notable for it's long-hiatus between Vol's 2 & 3. As a younger man, I played some of the Shenmue games on the Dreamcast and enjoyed the beat 'em up aspect and the freedom of a ... sandbox world, while trying not collapse from the woefully poor voice acting. I felt this was a fine choice to adapt into an anime. Lots of martial arts fighting, a spiky-haired, teenage protagonist, and the long, winding road of a quest for revenge and the friends and lessons learned along the way. But the thought occurred to me also, how much artistic license and creative liberties would be taken to make the show unique? Would fans of the game even recognize it? I can report back it is, for better or worse, a loyal representation of the game.

The story is simple. 1986, Japan. Ryo Hazaki is a teenage martial artist who's father is attacked and murdered in the family dojo by a Chinese man named Lan Di. The motive is revenge and for an ancient mirror. Lan Di easily defeats the capable Ryo and then leaves, and the journey is now set as Ryo swears revenge. Simple, even cliched plot. The story then continues much as the video games did, perhaps even too much. Ryo finds clues left behind as to who and why this happened, he asks characters questions, which leads to more items, and checkpoint discoveries are made as the bigger picture starts to slowly come into focus. I even laughed as I recalled some of the scenes from the games- "There's a guy named Charlie..."- and enjoyed the faithful adaptation before me in a sense of nostalgia. Thankfully, the voice acting has improved, but I still sense a lean towards the poor dialogue of the game. Ryo is a very dry hero. He asks questions, gets answers, and then often repeats the answers in the form of a question. "You'll need a tea cup." "A tea cup?" Yes, Ryo- did the lady stutter? These fetch quests and less than enthralling dialogue exchanges are made up for in the case of some decent fight scenes. The settings are loaded with street toughs, gangs, and martial artists looking for a sparing partner so exchanging blows is common as it was in game. Thankfully, less clunky.

The meat of the show itself would really make for a poor show in it's bland story, almost cookie cutter characters, and the mediocre animation that is provided by the normally good studio of Telecom Animation Film. But what keeps the show from being anything but skippable or just a niche product for fans of the game is it's message. Concepts of honor and perseverance are highly spoken of, Ryo is not without his faults (he gets his ass handed to him many times) but the lessons he learns are not just new moves to fight with but lessons for life. It is almost Saturday morning cartoony in it's messages, but it's not something touched on enough in my opinion. To experience the learning portion of a journey, to question one's self and motives, and not just out to make the world a better place by off-ing a bad guy, but making yourself better by doing what is right. Even if the latter means not doing the former. Ryo's journey in Japan and then Hong Kong changes many lives for the better, even helping take down some mafia syndicates, which was made easier by the fact he seems to live in a world where guns don't exist. I kept waiting for a gangster to draw a pistol on him, but the worst that ever came his way was a chainsaw.

Overall, I can say this made for some decent casual viewing. Enjoyable enough for anyone who's never heard of the game, but faithful enough for game fans to enjoy, too. Thankfully more the former than the latter, as to be too loyal would've featured an entire episode of forklift shenanigans and difficulties for 20 mins straight. And as Shenmue the game certainly wasn't bad, neither is the animated adaption here. I give this show a solid 6/10. And if the creators want to be as accurate as possible to the game, they can wait 18 years before releasing the next season. Cheers!

"It's called the Shenmue tree."

-- the following is a brief paragraph on my overall thoughts, followed by spoilers of story structure. reader discretion advised. --

Feel like I'm in the minority here, but I found Shenmue: The Animation to be an absolute slog and consistently boring. An overpowered protagonist who almost never loses and when he's on the verge, there's a plot device to save him out of the situation or a flashback that gives him the motivation to suddenly defeat his adversary. Being an adaptation of two separate games, there's a giant divide between the two halves as every character is basically forgotten as we ... make the switch from game 1 to game 2. The art is lackluster (looking at background characters is always my favorite and Shenmue doesn't disappoint in that department) and the music / sound seems like it was booted off any run-of-the-mill sound bank (although the opening has been growing on me). Every character has a single personality trait that drives them and no one seems to grow.

The video game pacing shines through with no regrets. Every scene feels linear, stitched together with a single rope. Ryo needs something, he doesn't know where to get it. He talks to someone. They tell him to talk to another person. He goes to the person and talks to them. They tell him to visit another location. He goes to the location and finds a thing. He brings the thing. Now, he needs another thing. He talks to someone about the thing. They tell h-
And it just goes on like that for 13 episodes. Circular in execution. It's a big fetch quest of a show just for the next point to be another fetch quest. I thought it was hilarious during the first few episodes, but it quickly becomes a bore. Maybe this seems more obvious considering the negative reputation Shenmue as a game series has (at least the one I have been led to believe) for being repetitive and a walk-athon. I really want to play them for myself given the positive reputation these games have, but haven't had a chance so the only idea I had was the one I've seen others spout and I can't help but think it describes the anime quite well. Progression seems obsolete. Ryo needs to learn the teachings of Wude. So, he does. And it seems like filler and a way to add more scenes to the flashback catalog as Ryo's fighting seems to stay exactly the same. Every scene seems to exist purely to move along, not for characterization or to let the world breathe. Point A leads to B leads to C etc. A friend joined me for a few episodes mid-season since I was lagging behind and consistently said "has anything happened at all?" Nothing seems purposeful.

When it comes to video game adaptations, I would much prefer something like Street Fighter (1994). Delightful camp happy to exist instead of something lifeless like this. There were times when I found myself enjoying the show, but those were all during the first half - due to it being better told or perhaps I hadn't formed a full opinion yet, I'm not to say. I'm glad others are having a blast, but the ship left without me this time.

Thanks for reading.