SPOILERS Shenmue The Animation Episode 6 "Dignified" Thread

Englishhedgehog said:
Well this episode didn't feature Dou Niu appearing out of nowhere and Ryo making short work of him, so it's immediately better than the opening episode of Shenmue 1's adaptation.

Speaking as one of the fellows who liked the first 5 episodes, but was also openly critical of them, I'm joining the camp of those who feel this was the strongest episode. Mostly because despite the cut corners, it actually felt like it was able to breathe for a moment or two. The pacing actually felt pretty acceptable throughout and the character moments generally sold themselves. The Shenmue 1 section wishes it could have a segment as steadily paced as the iron palm arc. It wasn't perfect though. For example....

- 10 minutes into this episode, I was thinking, "Man, Wong's lookin hella insufferable, isn't he?" I'm glad they didn't cut out him returning Ryo's bad as I feared they would, but between his anger in his scene with Joy and the fact that the episode's means of garnering our sympathy was exposition, his character's likability felt semi-compromised.

- A few here have complained that Ryo comes across as a bit too overpowered in this anime and the amount of leaves he releases from the tree with that final punch is evidence of that. In the game, he got better, but nowhere near Jianmin's level. Here, the arc ends with an implication that he's as good as Jianmin now, at least in this front.

- While I can understand why some people found the end credits sequence clunky, my constant thought was if they can give extra time to the anime via the credits as well, WHY THE HELL DIDN'T THEY DO THAT SOONER!? That's a solid 10 minutes more of time that you could have given to develop Chai's intimidation, add a farewell to Tom, have Ryo interact with bloody Santa Claus, absolutely anything. Why wait until now? There's jarring and then there's absurdity. I really can't wrap my head around that one.

- Even though I'm all aboard the end credits having a scene or two, showing Ren this early was too much. Episode 2 or even 3, sure, 1, nooooo. We have enough characters to bond with as is at this stage.
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So what did you like about the episode?
 
Araviel said:
So what did you like about the episode?
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The pacing actually felt pretty acceptable throughout and the character moments generally sold themselves. The Shenmue 1 section wishes it could have a segment as steadily paced as the iron palm arc. The action was very solid, the environments looked great, the characters were faithfully recreated, the decision to include another scene or two in the credits was welcome. And to put it simply, if you adapt one of the best games ever and do it well enough, the positive aspects of it will speak for itself.
 
I think one of the most interesting aspects about Shenmue II is the stark contrast to Shenmue I. You have a very familiar environment in Shenmue 1, to where you know most of the people in Sakarugaoka and Dobuita by name. Now in Hong Kong the first scene with people gathering around you trying to sell you stuff, the guy taking your picture, Joy warning you and then getting funnelled into this huge open area (pigeon park) with that amazing view and also the sun really burning down... It just felt overwhelming and different from japan. To me they lost all that and instead it felt a bit like they concentrated to much on the language barrier, which they mentioned alot, but in practice is just not there. That makes it rather uninteresting. To me this introduction is crucial to consolidate the culture shock Ryo feels when he gets there. The omission of that in favour of cutting directly to Joy made this less impactful.

Another thing I really disliked was how they handled the wude: having Ryo go to Hanhui and the very same sending him for a journey to get the four wude made sense because that is what they require (at least for Ryo) to meet the master and if you have all the wude, you actually learn the basics from the master without actually meeting him/her. But Ryo stumbling upon a wude and Hanhui just accepting it as something he asked for is just not exciting at all. That`s just weird. I`d rather they cut the wude-situation out completely and have Ryo learn the stuff in the temple in a montage or at least have a little line from Jianmin telling Ryo that what he learns will be crucial for his ability to meet the master and then have Ryo actually getting the knowledge that what he is doing is actually progressing his journey. Ryo doesn`t know that his real goal should be focussing on kung fu, because his mind is clouded by revenge! I liked the introduction of Jianmin but honestly because of the way they handled the wude it made the second part meeting him and the iron palm training feel very forced and super long, without having the context of why Ryo is investing so much time in it.

I truly think they way they handled the wude was the worst way possible. Absolutely abysmal and that also goes for the reveal of Xiuying consequentially!

What I did like is how they handled the scene with Joy and her explanation of the situation with her and Wong and also how they incorporated that tease of her situation from the comic. I think having Ryo have a turn-around on Wong a bit earlier is a good way of saving time. Very crucial is that it doesn`t take away the possibility for the scenes when Wong gives Ryo the lighter. That cutscene to me is maybe my favourite, period!! Absolute perfection! If that cutscenes doesn`t happen it could be because Ryo didn`t fail at beverly hills wharf and we all know at some point we need the guy to fail...


I think this episode is a rather low point, which I didn`t think would have been possible. I thought this show couldn`t be getting worse in my eyes but honestly the trend of them changing stuff without need and because of that making it less impactful or nonsensical is something they seem to always manage to do unfortunately.
 
code l name said:
Nice! I hope you guys didn’t get a warning/strike or anything that could potentially hurt the channel?
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Nah it's fine. No strike and I pulled it fairly quickly. Just we now know where the line is.
 
Have to say it was a damn good episode. Sure I get that some don't like the pacing of it but that has to happen with the limited time they have for episodes.

The soundtrack is out of this world and that shot of Lan Di in Niawou gave me chills.

11/10 best EP yet!
 
Forgot to mention in my first post that I loved the episode, besides the ending credits and theme playing over the Xiuying reveal but I understand why they had to do it. Right away they introduced the characters of Wong, Joy, and Xiuying along with a bit of their background info. I'm really excited to see how this all shakes out.

Every time I watch an episode I'm surprised with how quickly it ends, and I was fully engaged in this one. And again, I think they did a great job at transferring the video game quests into this new format, such as removing "man mo something" and needing to know 1 Wude to meet Xiuying (as long as the other 3 are learned throughout the rest of the season).

A few things I'm realizing with the changes to the S1 content is that the story arc needs to feel cohesive as one continuous story across the season, not necessarily a S1 arc and then a S2 arc as if they're actually seasons 1 and 2 combined into 1. I think this explains why some of the teaching moments were reduced in S1 and with Ryo feeling "OP" during those fights. Ryo can start to fail more often in this part of the story, and the stuff you learn from Xiuying is probably more important than learning tornado kick from Tom, but to each their own.
 
That was awesome! All the main characters got an introduction, even Ren right at the very end.

Joy looks great but Xiuying looks absolutely gorgeous.
 
This was the first episode where I really felt like the series was struggling under its constraints. It covered a lot of ground but didn't do the legwork to actually make the progression make sense. And the way they shuffled events around, while interesting in theory, really just made it feel haphazard. Ryo gets his bag stolen, and… the story just kind of moves on, until later when Ryo hears about Wude and decides to get his bag back. Likewise that Ryo's struggles to navigate Hong Kong (finding a place to stay) is suddenly brought back up later in the episode. Just really awkward.

To be sure, each of the previous episodes were compressed, but I thought they still hung together as a comprehensible (and compelling) narrative. This just felt like it was a few choice scenes with the barest connective tissue.

Hopefully this was just a misstep and not a portend of things to come. I already think Shenmue II's story is— by series standards— pretty brisk, and I don't think it can really be compressed too much further without making it feel positively breakneck, as here.

The scenes of Ryo leafing through his Cantonese dictionary was cute, and it's nice to see an acknowledgement of the language issue, but I agree it was the wrong call— there is really no language barrier in the games, and the focus on this seemingly came at the expense of really honing in on what makes Hong Kong such a culture clash to Ryo.

Also, the lack of Joy's theme really hurts… that she's always introduced with the blaring YEAAAHH!! is such a big part of her character that she doesn't feel the same without it. How cool would the scene of her breaking up the fight between Ryo and the rando thugs been with it?! If there's some sort of licensing issue involved that prevents them using more than a track or two from the games, they could have at least come up with an ersatz substitute.

On the other hand, I do appreciate they managed to include the random scene of a plane flying over Hong Kong. That's not sarcasm. I chuckled when it appeared.
 
I was in heaven for 20 minutes.

The room in the Come Over Guesthouse. The lobby in the Yantin Apartments. The Pigeon Park Fountain. The Beverly Hills fence-lined pathway. Lotus Park. MAN MO TEMPLE.

I loved how Joy's game persona is developed. She is protective towards Wong, and territorial of the city — setting Ryo straight by explaining the political context of Hong Kong (amazing addition) and thus giving justification for Wong's actions. I think she's given more of a role in the anime that's important to Ryo's character development beyond just being the brash but supportive hot, chick on the motorcycle in a bikini top ;) She basically says to Ryo "Don't make assumptions about this city and it's people".

Xiuying. She is my favourite character and I was so nervous about her debut. She has such gravitas in the games, that I felt was done justice in this episode. Man, I loved the scene in the courtyard where she says Ryo is so swept up in his emotions that he can't see what is right in front of him. I didn't even notice the irony of those lines until the second watch.

Until the credits started to roll, and I felt some disappointment hit as I Got Sriracha In My DNA noted. The moment where Tao Lishao's true identity is revealed. The credits and the outro music made it feel rushed, even though the script is quite similar to the game. (Honestly I felt it was the outro music more than anything that undercut it) I think different choices were certainly possible with this episode, and this scene should have been prioritised. Ryo makes a bunch of incorrect assumptions about Xiuying and eventually learns a great deal from her. I felt like this scene was important for setting that up, along with the drama the twist brings when her identity is revealed. But hey, it seems like the upcoming episode will give them ample screen time, so I'll probably be able to get over my disappointment :D

We see flashbacks of young Joy mourning a dead relative (her mother?) and learn of Wong losing his parents. What will we see of Ren and his history?

P.S Hi everyone, I used to lurk on this forum about 18 years ago. I had to get these feelings off my chest about this truly special episode and this seemed like the place to do it!
 
Finally watched it this morning and wow. This one was a fantastic episode and was perfect representation of first stage of Shenmue 2.

First if all Joy and Wong are fantastic characters and I can see then both getting quite a lot of time. Joy and Ryos relationship will be interesting to see how it develops.

The iron palm and wude was such a great aspect to the episode and the fact he didn't hit the thugs as promised to Joy was incredibly respectful and shows his learning curve.

The fight outside the cafe with poison bros was good with defense and Joy intervening


It did cover a lot this episode but it worked

I can't wait for next few episodes.
 
Here's my recap/review for this week's ep!
shenmusings.wordpress.com

Shenmue The Animation Ep #6 -‘Dignified’ recap and review

NOTE: This is a recap/review of the Japanese audio & English subtitled version of the episode, viewed via Crunchyroll. It is currently not possible to view the English dub where I am, in the UK…
shenmusings.wordpress.com shenmusings.wordpress.com

A really good start to the Shenmue II portion. I liked how Ryo's mastery of the Iron Palm was stretched out a bit here, it helped reinforce the idea of GON, to practice every day. The question is, will Ryo still learn the other 3 Wude?

Also, an interesting change to have Ryo be sensible enough not to keep the money and Phoenix Mirror in his bag in this version of events!

One quirk I did notice is that a few characters aren't actually introduced by name in this episode - a newbie would only know Jianmin's name from the synopsis/end credits! I wonder if he'll appear again...
 
Englishhedgehog said:
WHY THE HELL DIDN'T THEY DO THAT SOONER!?
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Budget, most likely? It's not like adding content during the credits is free. It's like saying, "Why didn't they just make it two episodes longer?"

I said this last episode but the goodbye scene with Tom would've felt completely out of place in the anime.

Back to the current ep: I just love the depth they add to each character. The exchange between Ryo and Joy about Wong's situation being emblematic of the harshness of HK was more interesting than anything Joy says to Ryo in the game.

That's not being critical of the game, either, because the game can and does communicate these things via interaction and exploration, but the anime can't. They're playing to the strengths of the medium, and the upside is most of the characters feel more 3-dimensional.
 
I found these little descriptions on rotten tomatoes

Episode 7 Future
Ryo coincidentally finally finds martial arts master Lishao, who easily defeats him and tells him to go home.

Episode 8
Distinct; Ryo finds a book written by Yuanda Zhu in Xiuying's library. In the book he finds a memo of chawan sign, which coul..
 
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