Season 2 officially cancelled (for now)

I feel like ranting here so don't expect coherency :ROFLMAO:

If a second season ever does actually get made some day, let its inevitable failure be the final nail in the coffin for why Shenmue just can't catch a break: the main story just isn't all that interesting.

The third game, even after decades of waiting, couldn't find anything interesting to tell us further about Ryo's story. They had forever, I mean, come on now! There's really no excuse unless Yu Suzuki is hell bent on making sure the series has a zillion chapters before it ever gets to the point.

I honestly think this anime series would have been something special if it came out in the 90s and the games never happened, but it's just too tied to the games, and the games themselves are honestly just huge slogs. Most people weren't seeing it as an anime to check out, they were seeing it as "that anime based on those games," and after how badly the third game did it surprises me anyone even gave this a chance. I never watched the anime personally, and its specifically because of how disappointing and worthless Shenmue 3 was in the story's timeline. They really lost me, and that reputation surely made most people just dismiss this as an anime based on a series that led up to.... whatever the hell that game was.

I've done some personal reflecting on why i even cared about this series in the past and it all came down to the journey it offered in a time when such a technically vast game was super impressive. That journey is no longer unique, games have gotten so epic in scale, and that scale was really the main thing the game series had going for it. Basing an anime off of its story just wasn't destined to work since the story mostly felt like a backdrop to just exploring. I mean, I'll admit, Shenmue 2 did quite a bit that started making it interesting, but in retrospect all the random side quest characters you met in that game never progressed Ryo's actual quest since it ends the same as the third game, Lan Di just shows up and runs away. I mean, I was left at the end of the second game getting a sense that there's going to be some sort of ancient magical Chinese secret thing going on, but the third game showed they still were never really going to go anywhere with that anytime soon. So is the end goal that he finally meets Lan Di and defeats him? That's it? Sure seems like that's all they want us to keep thinking.

Maybe if Shenmue was an anime that was like One Piece or Pokemon even, where there's an ultimate goal but it's mostly episodic adventures along their grand journey, it would have worked in some way? Well, if this had started years and years earlier, anyway. But the story they were trying to rush through just never felt like it had anything interesting it was leading up to. Again, the third game proved this.

If it's not obvious, i mostly blame it all on that terrible third game. They had their chance, proved to us they really don't know what they're doing, audiences in turn knew not to really care. I'd happily just take a release of Saturn Shenmue for posterity purposes and be content. They lost fans like me long ago when the series vanished after the second game. It's honestly just too late for anyone but the most diehard fans.
Sorry but I gotta admire the hardcoreness. Are you doing some social anthropologic experiment? Nah youre faking it, its kind of too obvious. It's kind of cute imo. You reminded me Bruce Willis in Die Hard 3 when he meets Zeus, naked with the sign LOL
You little flamer...
Go with your yummy looking cupcakes and your orange cat! (joking)
LMAO the final nail in the coffin XD
geez you 're top model.
 
They probably saw how awful Shenmue 3 was and thought lets not bother.
What a ridiculous comment. If you've seen our interviews with Jason Demarco you'd know it's not even close to being an issue.
 
Wait, you're not... you're not going full Deliverance on us, right? Right? OMG... Not Deliverance, please...
Haha no mate lol but its annoying that they cancelled the show after a really good first season. Maybe if they wrap up the story it will release Chiyou irl and it will devour our planet and thats why they wont release more games or other media.
 
Haha no mate lol but its annoying that they cancelled the show after a really good first season. Maybe if they wrap up the story it will release Chiyou irl and it will devour our planet and thats why they wont release more games or other media.
Its been released, Chiyou. No seriously my tinfoil brain part says all the massive 2023/24 delays are due rich CEOs having privilege information about a black swan this winter. We dont count, Shenmue IV will be for the Brave New World people.
I mean, we all gonna die, this Christmas.
So go, jingle the Bell, jingle it.
 
I wasn't all that impressed by the anime anyway, so I can't say I am as disappointed as the rest of you. I thought the art style and animation was mediocre, the voice acting the same and I wasn't a fan of pretty much any of the big changes they made.

There were a lot of people saying that they would hope the story would continue in the form of an anime if a 4th game couldn't be made, I would have hated that personally. I am surprised so many Shenmue fans were okay with the changes and they thought this would be a good substitute to finish the series if we couldn't get anymore games. You're basically saying you're okay with them retconning parts of a story you have immersed yourself in for over 20 years. I would genuinely rather have no end at all than to finish it in anime form. Also, experiencing Shenmue in tv form is nothing compared to actually playing the game where you can fully immerse yourself in the world. It's very hard to immerse yourself in a world and story that has time restrictions.

There has never been a story from a game or book that was improved in the form of a tv show or movie and I still feel that way after watching Shenmue the Animation.
 
You're basically saying you're okay with them retconning parts of a story you have immersed yourself in for over 20 years.
Yes. Because we like risk and adventure.

There has never been a story from a game or book that was improved in the form of a tv show or movie and I still feel that way after watching Shenmue the Animation.
Objection (for books).
The Sweet Valley High Twins were way better tv than book series.
Jessi, Lisa
 
I wasn't all that impressed by the anime anyway, so I can't say I am as disappointed as the rest of you. I thought the art style and animation was mediocre, the voice acting the same and I wasn't a fan of pretty much any of the big changes they made.

There were a lot of people saying that they would hope the story would continue in the form of an anime if a 4th game couldn't be made, I would have hated that personally. I am surprised so many Shenmue fans were okay with the changes and they thought this would be a good substitute to finish the series if we couldn't get anymore games. You're basically saying you're okay with them retconning parts of a story you have immersed yourself in for over 20 years. I would genuinely rather have no end at all than to finish it in anime form. Also, experiencing Shenmue in tv form is nothing compared to actually playing the game where you can fully immerse yourself in the world. It's very hard to immerse yourself in a world and story that has time restrictions.

There has never been a story from a game or book that was improved in the form of a tv show or movie and I still feel that way after watching Shenmue the Animation.
I think most people of course want the series to continue and conclude through games, but if it ever turned out that for some reason it was just never going to happen that way, not just in a "oh I guess it's cheaper to do it in anime/book/whatever form, let's just do that" but in a sense that a game just cannot happen, then I would take the alternative. Wouldn't you want the closure of knowing what happens?

I thought the anime was a great supplement to the series, but of course it's not going to be something everyone is going to like, and that's fine. I don't know if I would necessarily say they retconned anything in the anime, rather that extra content was content that was going to be in the games but got cut. Because otherwise why would they randomally add extra stuff like the Chen's family backstory and Joy's family backstory. That's my theory anyway.
 
There has never been a story from a game or book that was improved in the form of a tv show or movie
Hoo-boy. I know much of this is subjective, but as blanket statements go this is a silly one, lol.

Not really on-topic, but there are plenty of books that are improved upon in their film adaptations.
 
You're basically saying you're okay with them retconning parts of a story you have immersed yourself in for over 20 years.
What was retconned in the anime?
I would genuinely rather have no end at all than to finish it in anime form.
It appears your wish has been granted.
There has never been a story from a game or book that was improved in the form of a tv show or movie and I still feel that way after watching Shenmue the Animation.
Arcane.
 
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