 Crunchyroll announced an anime adaptation of Sega's action-adventure game series Shenmue during the Virtual Crunchyroll Expo on Friday, revealing the main staff and a teaser visual (pictured). The anime will run for 13 episodes.Chikara Sakurai (One Punch Man 2nd Season, Majimoji Rurumo) is helming the anime at Telecom Animation Film. Yuu Suzuki, the creator of the Shenmue franchise, will serve as the executive producer for the project. Sega released the first Shenmue game in Japan in December 1999 on the Dreamcast console, in November 2000 in North America, and December that year in Europe. The second game in the franchise was released in 2001 in Japan and Europe on the same console, followed by a reissue on Xbox in the US in 2002 and Europe in 2003. A compilation of the first two games, Shenmue I & II, was released in 2018 on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Sega published the third game, Shenmue III, worldwide last November on Playstation 4 and PC after a crowdfunding campaign, which began in June 2015. The Shenmue anime adaptation marks the second collaboration between Crunchyroll and Adult Swim, with the first being Fena: Pirate Princess, which is being produced by Production I.G and is scheduled for a 2021 debut. Source: Crunchyroll |
ImperfectBlueFeb 2, 2022 8:05 PM
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| Can't wait. I just didn't know how to express my excitement upon seeing the announcement for this anime. This and a Yakuza anime or film were some of my most-wanted adaptations of all time! (Also, I hope that my database submission gets approved! 👀) About people saying it's the OPM2 director, he's only directed two products, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. It's easy to make a product that doesn't land, then end up making one that does. I'd rather not base what Shenmue: The Animation has going on director alone, I'll wait until there is some more for me to take apart. Remember that Telecom Animation Film is a subsidiary of TMS Entertainment, which in advance is owned by SEGA (Sammy Holdings). So, it makes sense why this studio was chosen in particular. TMS produced Sonic X, and Telecom produced a PSO2 anime. Now that would be something to make me question the status of this anime. |
ChartTopper60Sep 5, 2020 3:34 PM
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| What the heck, 2020 keeps throwing these surprise reveals at us lmao I've never played this, but I have heard of it... don't really know much other than I know that it has its fans. Crunchyroll funding "vidya gaem" adaptations too, huh? |
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| Director of One Punch man season 2... oh boy. |
| "Otaku search for patterns within data presented and draw conclusions. Anime fans only see clones and copies." -artificialnightsky |
| Not really sure how well this adaptation will turn out... shenmue isn't really the type of game that translates into a series |
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| Shenmue fans represent! I can't wait to check this out, whenever it comes out! I'll definitely be watching. |
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| Just please for the love of all kami, don't mess this adaption up. I love this game series and instantly excited to hear that it finally getting an anime adaption, but I am worried that it will be butchered. Though I will keep my fingers crossed for it to be good. |
| CrunchyRoll x Telecome Animation Films. Didn’t click for me the earlier (Kami no Tou/Tower of God) but here’s to hoping this will. Sounds like a pretty popular game, judging from the comments above. Hopefully, the anime will live up to the hype now. |
#Anime4Life be my Life Motto! #PrayForKyoAni  |
| A lot of shenmue's charm comes from it being a video game so I don't know how well this will turn out. Also I need to play the third game some day. |
| MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST |
| I'd never of seen this coming |
 _______I like rocks__  |
| Havn't heard of this game before. Is this a moba? Also lol OPM s2 director. |
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| Is this the first adaptation? Warcheef said: Why would you do that especially after the Shenmue 3 shitshow? Why?! Have you ever heard of such a thing as "advertising"? |
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| This is the most random anime news of the month. Seriously, no one saw this coming. |
Bum Bum Dum Dum |
| Shenmue! The director can mess up everything in the anime, BUT if he can maintain Ryo's character from the games, then that is all this anime needs to remain faithful to the games. Ryo's personality is going to matter more than anything else. They mess that up, and this anime adaptation is a wash. |
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Warcheef said: Yeah, I'm sure advertising a game that literally everyone and their mothers trashed and is an epicgames exclusive will do wonders for the sales 😒 So, what's so strange about the creators choosing to make an anime to bring more attention to the franchise? Do you really think that authors should give up advertising and promotion if the original product does not sell well? I don't know how knowledgeable you are about business, but it doesn't work that way. |
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| Nice, it will be interesting to see what they can do. Honestly this could be quite good, the story can be adapted to an anime easily. It might actually be able to flesh out some side characters and improve on some parts of the story, if the script is written by someone competent. Animation wise it's bound to look better than the third game at least. The voice acting is bound to far better too lmfao. As for the directing, we shall see. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| With the director of OPM S2, this could go anywhere. |
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| Director of OPM S2 and the studio that adapted Tower of God I feel bad for Shenmue fans |
| And here I am, still waiting for a Skies of Arcadia remake so it gets its own anime adaptation (wich will probably suck d*ck and will make me wish I never wished for that) |
| :v |
jc9622 said: Ah i c thnx for the info. If it was anything close to Persona games then I would have tried it.MegamiRem said: In terms of gameplay, it's like Persona except it's boring af. Actually, think of Persona's social sim, except it's just that and no dungeon crawling. Havn't heard of this game before. Is this a moba? Also lol OPM s2 director. The only reason why this game was beloved is because it was one of the most technically impressive game, at the time that it came out. I don't even think the PS1 could output such graphics at the time. |
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| What's the point of this adpatation? Those games were never interesting thanks to their story... It was the systems they exploited/popularized , the "interactions", the fact you had a whole little neighbourhood "simulated", etc jc9622 said: I don't even think the PS1 could output such graphics at the time. Well, you're comparing the first 128 bits generation console with Sony's 32bits model. It would be more fair to put the Dreamcast and PS2 in the same bag. |
| Wow, this is surprising and unexpected. I’m a huge fan of Shenmue. These kinds of game adaptations usually turn out mediocre at best, but I’ll remain cautiously optimistic until it’s out. |
| Its all going to come down to budget. One Punch Man 2 sucked mostly becase of extremely cheap and poor action scenes using every trick in the book to skimp on frames. If this show manages to circumvent that by making a peaceful/serene style avoiding need much smooth action, then the backstory already penned by Suzuki should provide enough good material to make something good, especially since much of it has already been animated 20 years ago. But I still would be $50k that numerous 'old school fans' will rise out of obscurity to bash this show no matter what because it betrays 'their true vision' of the series from their adolescence. MichaelJackson said: And here I am, still waiting for a Skies of Arcadia remake so it gets its own anime adaptation (wich will probably suck d*ck and will make me wish I never wished for that) You are also a man of refined tastes I see. Warcheef said: RobertBobert said: So, what's so strange about the creators choosing to make an anime to bring more attention to the franchise? Do you really think that authors should give up advertising and promotion if the original product does not sell well? I don't know how knowledgeable you are about business, but it doesn't work that way. I am a marketing advisor... And yes it does. The potential margins for this series are likely better than your average manga tie-in anime. Many people bash Shenmue for poor sales but in comparison it almost certainly earns more than most manga vying for seasonal anime. Its become a pet project of gamers to bash Shenmue anywhere and everywhere, and frankly its embarrassing. Mod Edit: Merged duplicated posts; please use the edit button. |
MonkeyDHunterSep 7, 2020 2:13 AM
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| I don't know what to expect from this at all. It's literally the latest thing I could think of, honestly. The first two games are some of my all-time favourites while 3 while I wouldn't call it bad is pretty underwhelming given the long wait both in terms of story and gameplay. Not sure how it will feel watching this in a weekly-format. I want to believe they will nail the SoL elements of the series. The director choice given his work on OPM2 makes it a bit "ehh" but we will see. As a major fan of the series, I hope it will turn out good but realistically my expectations as of now are pretty low. |
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| Holy flipping martial arts from Dreamcast days!!!! |
| Gaming channel just for fun: https://www.youtube.com/cataorshane |
Warcheef said: RobertBobert said: So, what's so strange about the creators choosing to make an anime to bring more attention to the franchise? Do you really think that authors should give up advertising and promotion if the original product does not sell well? I don't know how knowledgeable you are about business, but it doesn't work that way. I am a marketing advisor... And yes it does. Are you a marketing advisor and genuinely confident that a poorly selling product doesn't need advertising? Whoa, dude, it's good that you're not working for me. |
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Warcheef said: RobertBobert said: Are you a marketing advisor and genuinely confident that a poorly selling product doesn't need advertising? Whoa, dude, it's good that you're not working for me. I agree, I wouldn't want to work for a man who would be facing bankrapcy in no time. What you do not understand is that depending on how poorly your product sells there is a point where you must cut your losses instead of bleeding additional money for a lost cause with no hope of actual profit. Shenmue 3 is a financial deadweight, good luck selling that. Dude, do you understand that advertising is a means to draw attention to your product, and not some kind of proof of the quality of your product? |
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