Shenmue Anime: First Trailer

Rydeen said:
Seems like everyone is pretty happy with this, so hopefully I won't be throwing a wet blanket over it at all. I just wanted to put this out there in case anyone happened to be like me, and not all that into the style of the trailer:

I was noticing the possibility of a trend between this and the first trailer for Blade Runner: Black Lotus.

A lot of Blade Runner fans were not too happy with this one because it didn't capture the feel of Blade Runner (which is kind of weird, considering the writer/director for Blade Runner: Black Out 2022, Watanabe Shinichirou, is the creative producer, and one of the co-directors is Kamiyama Kenji, director of GitS: SAC).

Well, they just released a second trailer today, and in my opinion, at least, it has more of a Blade Runner feel to it than the first. (Plus Com Truise BGM!)

Never underestimate the power of editing.

At any rate, I was just stopping by to say that I think this may be a trailer meant to highlight more of the action, to sell to a 'broader audience,' than may be representative of the final product.

Also, I'm pretty nearly positive that it's the same Japanese voice actress as Shenmue III for Shenhua, based on the trailer. I'm sort of expecting a lot of reuse of voice talent from Shenmue III for this.
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Quite the contrary, I appreciate your honesty as it is always important not to get too ahead of ourselves. I believe you remember a post I made a couple of years ago about how I wished that the anime went down the direct-to-video route instead of a television series or movie. The reason being that it is the perfect middle ground between a cheaper television series and an expensive film.

Given the sheer depth of the franchise, I know there is no way they can convey that within twelve to thirteen twenty-minute episodes. To me, Shenmue is equivalent to "The Legend of the Galactic Heroes" original animated series in terms of scope and scale. On top of that, the animation quality would be on an even higher tier than what we are getting. And finally, Yu Suzuki would be unhindered in terms of expressing his full vision. Therefore, I surmise that the direct-to-video format is optimal.

The reason I am elated by this news is that it shows that Shenmue is not dead. It gives us another opportunity to show SEGA that the Shenmue intellectual property still has life. That it can serve as a stepping stone towards perhaps Shenmue IV or more anime in the future. Also, it could be used as bait to attract more new blood to the franchise who either never heard of Shenmue or were initially turned off by it.

In either case, I appreciate your honesty as it is always important to remain grounded.
 
I understand why they chose to go all action with this trailer. They're trying to get eyeballs on it and what better way to do it then cut together an action packed trailer? I mean I don't think the more mundane aspects of Shenmue that we all and know love would make a great impression on newcomers. Although, slice of life anime fans would probably love it.

I'll be curious to see how they handle the slice of life elements. I mean if there is one good thing the Japanese do well, it's to mix humour and seriousness and I'm sure there will be moments here and there in this anime that will capture that slice of life feel. But what I really liked about this trailer was the tone of it. The tone got me. It was exactly the type of tone I was hoping this thing would have. I have my slice of life game, now give me something different. Maybe something that is straight forward and linear with more focus on mood and atmosphere.

So I'm perfectly fine with what I saw here...this was exactly what I wanted. A new take on a familiar story. And one that might open it up to a new audience. And hell, maybe it will even influence the story telling of IV going forward. As much as I liked SIII, we all know the story left something to be desired, so maybe there is something to be learned from the Anime approach going forward and brought to IV.

I'm all for this...I was not disappointed in the slightest. It gave me pretty much everything I wanted from it.
 
In this scene Ryo is not with the band-aid, the scene where Longsun Zhao kills Iwao. In the game Ryo have the band-aid from the start, i'm wondering why he is not with the band-aid here.

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In this scene we can see blood in his face where the band-aid is supposed to be so i'm starting to imagine what happened in this scene, I really think Ryo will get the scar in the tournament because was what Yu Suzuki said, but in this scene it looks like he is fighting Chai so i'm wondering what happen in this scene, interesting.

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The animation is gorgeous, so beautiful. 😍
 
Tsukuyomimagi99 said:
Quite the contrary, I appreciate your honesty as it is always important not to get too ahead of ourselves. I believe you remember a post I made a couple of years ago about how I wished that the anime went down the direct-to-video route instead of a television series or movie. The reason being that it is the perfect middle ground between a cheaper television series and an expensive film.

Given the sheer depth of the franchise, I know there is no way they can convey that within twelve to thirteen twenty-minute episodes. To me, Shenmue is equivalent to "The Legend of the Galactic Heroes" original animated series in terms of scope and scale. On top of that, the animation quality would be on an even higher tier than what we are getting. And finally, Yu Suzuki would be unhindered in terms of expressing his full vision. Therefore, I surmise that the direct-to-video format is optimal.

The reason I am elated by this news is that it shows that Shenmue is not dead. It gives us another opportunity to show SEGA that the Shenmue intellectual property still has life. That it can serve as a stepping stone towards perhaps Shenmue IV or more anime in the future. Also, it could be used as bait to attract more new blood to the franchise who either never heard of Shenmue or were initially turned off by it.

In either case, I appreciate your honesty as it is always important to remain grounded.
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Just didn't want sour the moment for anyone.

I am very happy that so many are this excited by the trailer. I much prefer a scenario where I'm maybe the least enamored, compared to a scenario where everyone is feeling disappointed.

Truly it is cause for celebration. It is our time, Shenmuers!
 
sayuhhm said:
Is there a chance the 'band-aid' timeline we're seeing here more closely reflects the events outlined in Yu-san's original plan and was cut during the games development for brevity?
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Yu Suzuki is the executive producer of the anime so is possible that maybe what we will see in the anime is more closer to his original plan, looks like we will even see the martial arts tournament and this part was one of my favorites of the trailer.

Question for people here, where you think the first season will end? in the panel we saw that Kowloon will be in the anime, maybe the ending will be in Kowloon or meeting Shenhua in Guilin.
 
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That was a fantastic trailer. My main thoughts after watching it:

-I hope we don't have to wait 18 years between seasons...
-There is enormous potential to expand on the story from the games, especially when they get around to Shenmue III. Huge opportunity to take the sloppy storytelling from Shenmue III and present us with the narrative that game deserved.
-If they have the opportunity to go further than Shenmue III and finish the story thru the anime, they should. Yeah I said it.
 
Gang Entertainment said:
That was a fantastic trailer. My main thoughts after watching it:

-I hope we don't have to wait 18 years between seasons...
-There is enormous potential to expand on the story from the games, especially when they get around to Shenmue III. Huge opportunity to take the sloppy storytelling from Shenmue III and present us with the narrative that game deserved.
-If they have the opportunity to go further than Shenmue III and finish the story thru the anime, they should. Yeah I said it.
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I really don't mind though--as long as they eventually become game(s)

Perhaps showing Shenmue 4/5 story in anime first will draw in a lot of the new audience plus us to look forward to game adaptation?
 
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I'm reading comments on Chinese websites. Several years ago people's reaction used to be "Oh, I know this game, this is the pioneer of the open world games promoting our Chinese culture" but now they're like "Oh, I know this game, it's the gambling game setting in Guilin. Can we see more gambling in the animation?" (Shenmue is now famously known as Guilin Gambler in China)
This really makes me sad.:(
 
FUCK YEAH! Haven't watched anime in about twenty years - and even then it was only really Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z, and CardCaptors - but I'm gonna run through this one like a train the moment it's available.
 
Just thought people would find this interesting. Maybe we should start up a facts thread as @ShenGCH did for Shenmue III.

www.siliconera.com

Core Voice Cast Returning for Shenmue Anime Series, More

Yuu Suzuki and the producer of the Shenmue anime series discuss the story, production, voice cast, and more. Check out all the bits here.
www.siliconera.com www.siliconera.com
 
So how far will the anime go story-wise?

The rope-lighting scene from the Guilin cave can be seen in the trailer and there is a rooftop fight against Lan Di(Big Ox Building?).

I used to be indifferent about the medium to use to finish the story after playing S3, but if the anime is anywhere near as good as the trailer suggests, I think anime should be the preferred way to go.

Holy cow, this trailer looks amazing. Give me that shit! Now!!!🤩
 
hyo_razuki said:
So how far will the anime go story-wise?

The rope-lighting scene from the Guilin cave can be seen in the trailer and there is a rooftop fight against Lan Di(Big Ox Building?).
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That's why I still think it may end at Bailu...otherwise why else tease that scene in the cave? I could see it being 6 episodes in Yokosuka. 6 in Hong Kong/Kowloon with one final episode being a truncated version of Ryo meeting Shenhua and walking to Bailu.

But that's my guess. Who knows.
 
After getting some sort of sleep, coming back on this, I have to say I'm hugely impressed with this.

It says a tonne when no one is even talking about the prophecy being re-worded.

Also, live on stream I was fairly adamant it wasn't Brianna Knickerbocker as Shenhua. Listening again I'd say it is probably is her and its the original VO from Shenmue 3 (JP dub) for Shenhua in the JP trailer.
 
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