Shenmue the Animation

I didn't watch many anime this season, but of the few I watched this was my favorite. Shenmue the anime is an incredibly faithful adaptation of the first 2 games and finally helps tell the story of Shenmue the way the game's creator always wanted it told without any of the hardware limitations of the Sega Dreamcast or budget worries.

So, what the Hell is a Shenmue? Before we get into the anime review, we have to talk about one of the most unusual franchises in the history of gaming. The story of Shenmue begins with its creator Yu Suzuki. This guy was 25 years ... old when he made his first hugely successful arcade game in 1983. Throughout the 1980s, he just made hit after hit for the arcades. Games like Space Harrier, Hang-On, Out Run, etc. He was a programming wunderkind and everything he touched was gold. Then in the 1990s, he directed Virtua Fighter 2, which was a huge step forward for competitive fighting games and had a heavy influence on series like Tekken, Dead or Alive, and Soul Calibur. By 1999, Sega trusted Yu Suzuki so much that they were willing to sink the equivalent of 123 million dollars in today's money into Suzuki's dream of creating the video game version of a Shaw Brothers Kung-fu film. Yu Suzuki really, REALLY likes 1970s Kung-fu films! Since the Dreamcast wasn't the bestselling console, the game lost quite a bit of money. However, Sega doubled down and gave Suzuki a boatload more money for Shenmue 2, which also lost an ungodly amount of money and helped lead to Sega's bankruptcy and purchase by Nintendo. For 20 years, Yu Suzuki promised that he was working on Shenmue 3. However, he admits that he didn't pay any attention to gaming developments during that time or play any games. Instead, he spent a large sum travelling around the world riding roller coasters. However, he was eventually able to kickstart and release Shenmue 3, which played exactly like a Dreamcast era Shenmue game on the PS4. Reviews were mostly negative, although I personally found it amusing.

I mentioned that Shenmue was heavily inspired by Suzuki's love of kung-fu films, and I really mean that. Our hero Ryo is a goodhearted teenager whose father is the local martial arts master. One day, a cruel yet powerful kung fu master from a rival school kills his father and sets Ryo on the path of vengeance. Ryo must now track down various kung fu masters and train under them to learn the techniques to avenge his father. Meanwhile, Ryo also wishes to uncover more about his father's past. His father was somehow entrusted with 2 mirrors that hold the key to unlocking the world's largest treasure, which is pursued by triad gangsters who wish to resurrect the Qing Dynasty. The plot is straight out of a kung fu film and is pretty damn fun!

Unfortunately, Kung Fu films rely on a lot of training montages and don't actually have that much meat to their stories on average. In the game, Shenmue decided to pad its length with menial, repetitive chores. An NPC will send you to the shop to get milk and you have to wait 15 minutes in real time for the shop to open. One thing the Shenmue games received both praise and criticism for is just how little they care about player convenience. Shenmue is the gaming world's closest thing to art for art's sake. Yu Suzuki wants you to experience his vision and doesn't give a shit if you're not having fun. Shenmue the anime has a bit of padding to stay faithful to the games. For example, we still get about 5 minutes of Ryo learning how to operate a forklift. However, the anime is overall MUCH better paced and feels like a real story. The anime is able to flesh out some characters that didn't get as much time in the game. Another way that the anime improves on the games is explaining things a little better. In the games, the main villain just fucks off at the end of the 2nd game and players thought he was ducking Ryo. This is why players got very upset that Ryo couldn't touch him in Shenmue 3. However, the anime has the villain briefly fight Ryo and realize he isn't nearly worthy as a challenge before fucking off, so it is much clearer what Ryo's skill level is compared to the villain. It was a minor touch, but the anime has tons of these little moments that polish up the story. The people who made this anime weren't just taking a paint by numbers approach. They truly cared about and loved Shenmue, which was cool to see!

When you look up the production to Shenmue, you immediately encounter something horrifying. Crunchyroll. Original. Anime. Immediately, all expectations of quality go soaring out the window! However, in this instance those fears aren't justified. Shenmue looks just fine. It's pretty well directed. It's not Ghibli quality but it's a HUGE leap forward since Ex-Arm!

Overall, this was a fun little anime that I'm kind of sad almost nobody watched while it was airing. I highly recommend watching this one if you've never played the Shenmue games and are interested to see what the franchise is about. I would also recommend this to longtime Shenmue fans as well. As someone who enjoyed the game trilogy, I had a great time with the anime. Basically, this is a fun, underrated little anime that is very much giving a watch.

I have never played the games so have no high expectations nor can I be utterly devastated. It looks exactly like the trailers. Very average, perfunctory, and ultimately forgettable. It's something you can throw on the background and sort of zone out while doing other things, much like a mundame crime procedural e.g. CSI. It won't offend or excite. It's just there. There is zero character development or emotional drama. You won't care for any of the characters. Everyone is very simple and one-dimensional. Same for the repetitive dialogue. It's a simple revenge story involving a murder mystery that's really just an excuse for yet ... another martial arts battle. You can clearly see the game-centric nature of the storytelling. He finds some martial arts master, the master gives him a one-line metaphor about life that embodies a fighting style, he gains a new skill instantly, goes to fight a mini-boss, and masters that skill. Rinse, repeat. The fighting isn't that ugly 3D stuff in so many other martial arts anime, but it barely counts as a fight, a couple hits usually ending it. Then there are the numerous key items like mirrors, sword relics, and passwords to progress the story or lead to another section in a dungeon. There's a lot of mindless running around and wild goose chases that don't advance the plot. It is the typical "I'm sorry. Your princess is in another dungeon." It also reminds me a lot of Scooby Doo. The running back and forth and baddies going "if it weren't for you meddling kids..." after every encounter. If you are fine with Scooby Doo style level of entertainment mostly designed for kids that's simplistic and lighthearted with no real consequences or meatiness, then you will be okay with this show. It's kind of fun to see their take on the crappy side of Hong Kong back in the day, with the thugs and rundown buildings. They don't pretend that it's anymore than a backdrop though, with borderline authenticity and super repetitive signage using Japanese characters in place of traditional Chinese ones, which are slightly different. The mandarin is bad and they don't even attempt the cantonese inside hong kong. They never establish a real bond between the main protagonist (who is utterly devoid of emotion) and his father, so the revenge story feels hollow and just an ostensible reason for the game/anime to exist. You are basically trading all the obnoxious anime tropes like cat girls/maids/moe/girls screaming hentai for a different subset of tropes. I guess it's something different compared to all the super low quality isekai anime being released around the same time.

"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.