SPOILERS Shenmue The Animation Episode 8 "Aspiration" Thread

I still have to elaborate but i somehow really enjoyed the episode, despite it not really advancing the story much.

Though i am worried that theres only 5 episodes left and theres so many things left in Shenmue 2 story, at this point my best guess is that the anime will finish with Zhu Yuanda’s reveal about the treasure.
 
Another great episode - I agree with @24Nathan in that the Shenmue II content is a bit of a longer burn compared to Shenmue I, which is a bit of a surprise to me. I'd say it didn't feel like there were any major events in this episode, but there were a lot of opportunities to establish secondary characters. I'm starting to doubt that we'll get to Guilin in this season, unless Kowloon is severely truncated to an episode or two.

This is the first time that Ryo's revenge is addressed by Xiuying. There were hints that she knew, but it's the first time that it was acknowledged out loud. I wonder if catching leaves will be added, or if airing out the books and other chores will be sufficient.
 
A better episode this week (I’d give it an eight), though I’m very concerned about the season’s pacing now. With only five episodes left and so much ground left to cover, I don’t see how they can possibly make it to the cave without some major cuts. With that in mind, I have to question why they wasted time with Eileen and Izumi (which is effectively just an Easter egg for series fans) rather than covering some of the more pertinent Aberdeen events. There was plenty of fat in the Yokosuka arc that could have been trimmed too.

That said, I kind of like the fact that the wude are spanning the entirety of this section of the story (although they forgot the title card for this week’s, if I’m not mistaken), and also that Xiuying is still refusing to help Ryo. I’m not blown away by the new Fangmei, but I don’t hate her either and like that they’re taking some time to explore her character and background a little more as well as Wong and Joy’s. Also, Ryo paid for his room at the Come Over Guest House in full, which I’m thrilled to find out!

It feels a little hypocritical to complain about the pacing while praising some of the new additions (which are effectively why the pacing has slowed so much in recent weeks), but it’s a bit more complicated than that. I don’t like the disjointed pacing (fast one week, slow the next) and I don’t like that a lot of key stuff has been skipped over or cut entirely. This could have been avoided if they’d planned for a few extra episodes or just committed to a fixed pace throughout. Instead, I can see big sacrifices needing to be made to get the story over the line.

To be honest, part of me is now wondering whether we’ll even make it out of Kowloon before the first season ends. In a way I’d prefer it if we didn’t, as I don’t want them to butcher Kowloon for the sake of making it to a cliffhanger, but it would make their decision to start the show in the cave a strange one as it would make no sense whatsoever from a narrative point of view.
 
Loving how the pacing is starting to pick up just like in Shenmue 2. Also enjoyed the cameos of the side quests involving the kung-fu girls in both the park and Tomato Convenience Store. Also like how it changed how Ryo learned about the woman Kung-Fu Master in South Carmain Quarter with Wong and Joy finding out about it. Can't wait for more next week.
 
Nice slow burn episode.

Interesting choice to change the order Ryo learns the Wude in too. I didn't quite understand it but then I had a brainwave...

We're coming up on a confrontation with Ren pretty soon, and that got me thinking about his knife and the parallels to Zhangyu's razor at the barber shop. The series so far has loved doing this kind of setup and payoff within the same episode, so I'm guessing this is where they're going with it?
 
Once again, another brilliant episode, but with one egrigious error...NO TOMATO CONVENIENCE STORE!!!

That aside, I loved how characters that never meet in the game dovetail around one another or go to places you wouldn't expect such as Joy and Wong going to Man Mo Temple. I'm really enjoying how each episode focuses on an aspect of the wude and how clever little bits are put in the show (such as the little cameos from Eileen and Izumi). Fangmei is wonderful and like Nozomi, I enjoy seeing a little bit of gentle sass in the character. Xiuying is just as calm and collected as in the game and think that her characterisation is pitch perfect.

I also chuckled at the almost post-ironic scene where Wong mentiones how all the ladies love Ryo and he's oblivious!

I think I enjoyed this much more than the last episode (that's not to say the last episode was bad as there hasn't been a bad episode yet) as it feels like so much has been done, but in an unhurried way.

I think I will be sad that in a few weeks time, there won't be a new episode to look forward to. My only worry is what the final episode will be and where we will be in the story. I am really hoping that the producers and the bean-counters are looking at this show with promise and that the good feedback will give us a season 2 (and of course a Shenmue IV).

I wonder if perhaps they will do an extended episode that might cover disc 4 of Shenmue II. Imagine a 45 minute episode of Ryo and Shenhua walking through the forest. I would be all over that!
 
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Loved this episode. I really enjoy the slow burn episodes in the hong kong arc most tbh. At this pace, I feel like they should end it at Ryo and Rens big escape from Dancing Dragon instead of going over the rest of Shenmue 2 in just 5 episodes though.
 
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Interesting episode, the slowest yet (while still covering a large amount of material from an outside perspective) but I expect the next two episodes will ramp things up with the remaining three covering Kowloon. I don't expect anything of Guilin to be covered despite opening with the cave scene - a bit like the Shenhua tease with the eagle in Shenmue 1. I'm thinking that was put in to simply show new audiences that Ryo eventually meets with this character so the flashbacks to Bailu village have some context to them.

What a treat for existing fans this episode was though. Book carrying, Eileen and Izumi all making appearances while also giving Fangmei, Xiuying, Joy , Wong and Guixiang time to develop. I'm really liking how the writers are developing Ryo's character and finally the revenge angle is addressed.

Is it next Sunday yet?
 
At first I was a bit surprised with the "new" personality of Fangmey but I think it does work.

About the pace of the anime, I was thinking as well how the hell they are going to include all the events that happen in Shenmue 2 in just 5 episodes...so I think they will leave them for the second season. So I think they will include what is left from Shenmue 2 and Shenmue 3. What's the reason to show some characters and places of 3 if they aren't including it?

It's nice to see Izumi and Eileen but they have skipped some other events instead.

Nice work they are doing with Xiuying by the way. Her personality is perfectly portrayed and she is well designed. I alway loved in the game all of her appearings helping Ryo and it seems they are making it again.

Looking fordward for the next episode!
 
Are they actually gonna get to the end of Shenmue II? I mean with how much slower in pace the HK episodes have been, I've got to wonder if they'll even make it to the end of Shenmue II.
 
I think rearranging the wude hunt was a bad idea and the consequence of that is the whole plot got a bit convoluted for one, and two, some of the motivations don`t make much sense to me. Like when Hanhui is talking to Ryo about gathering wude but that actually never happened. The wude where never a subject before Ryo got to Jianmin and even he made him do the iron palm task without Ryo knowing it`s part of a wude, but at least he hints at what Ryo learns from him is necessary to meet the master, which in practice kinda was not.

In the game the wude where necessary to gain an audience to the master. It was to show that you at least know about these virtues and you have a certain level of perseverance. After Ryo accomplished that, Xiuying has the realization that you do have perseverance if you make it as far as to show the wude, but evaluating if Ryo has these virtues or just know about them is essential for how Xiuying deals with Ryo. To me the reason why she made him air out books and catch leafs is to decelerate him, simply because he lacks two of the four wude and the path he is going, to her, is a wrong one. In the game Xiuying realizses that in a nuanced way. In the anime it`s based on assumptions. Xiuying is my favourite character in Shenmue but this version I don`t like. The first scene with her was already very annoying to me.

One thing I realised for a while now is that the anime painfully tries every single character to be sympathetic or tough. I find it rather annoying...

I'm very curious though if the leaf catching will be a theme in the anime at all, because without the Wulinshu being locked away it won't make much sense. There has to be an essential thing that Ryo needs from Xiuying for that to still be happening. Because Ryo doesn`t have much use for the Man Mo Temple after he has the information concerning Yuanda Zhu. It`s a tunnel vision thing as far as I`m concerned.

Also they really held off on Ryo pursuing revenge for it to be revealed by Xiuying from looking into Ryos eyes. To me they compromised the whole of the Yokosuka ark for that kind of laughable realisation.

To end on a good note though I liked the tea scene with Guixiang and also I liked Hahui reminding Ryo of his father.

I very much though enjoyed the Eileen and Izumi scene. It is probably the first thing they added, that I really liked. They did a great job with that one! It`s pure fan-service though but a great way to show off some detective work. I would have liked it way more though, if Ryo would have spotted Eileen sparring while wondering around himself rather than being guided.

Having the fail-state-scenes be used as nightmare scenes is quite a great idea as well.
 
I think this was my favourite episode since the Yamagishi one. The last couple were spent setting up the characters, and this one starts to flesh out the world a little bit more, it doesn't feel as thinly spread as the previous ones. The episodes since Hong Kong have felt very much like set up episodes. It does feel like Kowloon is going to either be gutted, or perhaps we'll only see the start of it (if any of it, we Don Nui has a voice actor, but I guess they might not actually get into the Kowloon plot beats and leave him as a cliffhanger for next season)
 
Great episode. The female characters are taking charge. They continue to be excellent representations.

Well, I was happy to be proven completely wrong about Eileen and Izumi showing up :LOL: Seems like an odd thing to spend minutes on, but they at least worked them into the investigation, if a little awkwardly.

the_phoenix_mirror said:
I am worried though that they won't be able to show Kowloon to its full extent, since we have 5 episodes left
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I definitely think there are bits of Kowloon they could streamline, but yeah, I can't really see them making it all the way to Ryo meeting Shenhua...who knows, though, at this point.
 
Best episode so far. I loved the bad ending reference in Ryo's dream and Xiuying is a total badass.
 
Loved the episodes. It was great and it's awesome to see xiuying finally called Ryo out on his BS motives. That boy wants revenge first and foremost. I'm really enjoying these slower paced episodes.

The anime team pretty much stated they preferred the shenmue 2 characters, so it's no surprise they are focusing on them way more than the shenmue 1 cast. I also think it's safe to say, this anime is finishing on the kowloon rooftop, which would make a great finale. Remember, the anime team said they're covering most of Shennmue 2. I don't think a walk through guiling talking to shenhua would make a good finale for an anime. Save that for later. At the very least, at the end of episode 13, show Ryo finally meeting shenhua by the river and then end it there. Maybe some picture scenes in the credits of them walking through the forest.
 
Here's my recap/review!
shenmusings.wordpress.com

Shenmue The Animation Ep #8 -‘Aspiration’ 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

I enjoyed this more than last week - but I echo some of you wondering if we'll even get to the end of Shenmue II by Episode 13 - Kowloon would have be severely condensed...but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Xiuying's mention of revenge really caught me off guard (I believe this is the first explicit reference to it?), and I found that scene quite chilling and powerful. Ryo didn't exactly deny it in his silence, either. I quite like how they've chosen to do this, it makes you wonder if he secretly wanted revenge all along while claiming to just want to know the truth, or if it has been building up inside him.

Also - see this Twitter thread for my attempt to play 'Spot the Yellow Head' this week!
 
Another beautiful episode. I love the slow pacing episodes in this part of the story and it makes a lot of sense to do this. Ryo is impatient because he wants to meet Yuanda Zhu.

Ryo only see the path of revenge and he think he is wasting his time there, but in this episode Hanhui Liu said for Ryo to have more patience, that he is lacking and much more, and even question Ryo about why he practice martial arts, i love that so much. It is really nice to see a lot of scenes with Hanhui Liu and to see that he is helping Ryo.

Ryo learn a Wude per episode and i love that, it gave even more emotion to one of my favorite parts in Shenmue II, Ryo learning the 4 Wude is one of the unique and special things about Shenmue II and the anime team so far did a beautiful job in relation to this, and when Ryo learn a Wude in the anime the kanji of the Wude appear, beautiful detail.

To me everytime Ryo learn important things about martial arts the story progress a lot as well. Ryo learning the 4 Wude progress the story, Ryo learning important moves like the Body Check in Shenmue III progress the story as well and much more. Ryo improving as a martial artist is a big part of the Shenmue story, an important part of the story in my opinion so to me the story progress as well when this things happen.

In this episode i love all Ryo interactions with the other characters, so nice to see Izumi in the anime but no Tomato Convenience Store. 🍅😢

The anime team expanded Guixiang Lee and i love that. It is beautiful to see Fangmei, Wong and Joy with more scenes as well. Nice to see Eileen in the episode. No Ren in this episode... Ren was searching for Ryo in the previous episode so i thought he would appear in this one but i think Ren will probably appear in the next episode, i think in the next episode Ren will meet Ryo.

I love the scene that Xiuying saved the other characters, a scene that don't have in the game and in my opinion is a beautiful addition. Xiuying's gaze was enough to end the situation, i love that, we saw a different flashback but it was short, i hope in the next episode appear a longer flashback of Xiuying and Ziming, i think this will happen.

In this episode we even got character development for Fangmei, she was angry at Ryo and even thought bad about him, she got the wrong idea about who Ryo is, but when Fangmei saw Ryo helping Guixiang Lee and everything about this situation she changed her mind and even apologized for Ryo in the ending of the episode.

Character development for Ryo in this episode, Ryo learned to be more patient this time, he learned the Wude YI and again another character saying that Ryo is judging people by their appearence, Guixiang Lee. I think now Ryo fully learned this lesson in the anime, the lesson to not judge people by their appearance, this lesson have in the games as well with Shozo Mizuki and Xiuying, and this lesson is one of my favorite lessons in the story.

For the first time we saw a character talking about Ryo's revenge in the anime this way, Xiuying, and i love the way it happened, i love how it is in the games but so far i'm enjoying the way the anime team is doing the revenge in the story, and i think we will see more about revenge in the next episodes. In the anime the revenge is in a different way and i'm okay with that.

It is clear to me that the anime team have the care and respect to the original version, so much care and attention to the details of the Shenmue World, it is beautiful.

That final scene with Xiuying is beautiful, the soundtrack in this part is wonderful, i need a Shenmue Anime official soundtrack release, so many beautiful songs and even new versions of songs from the games.

In the next episode we will probably see Ryo meeting Ren, more flashbacks of Xiuying with Ziming, more interactions of Ryo with the other characters, Ryo learning about DAN and much more. I think episode 9 will be a slow pace episode again but i think that in episode 10 the pace will get fast again.

I don't know where the season will end but i can see just 3 options for this.

1. After a fight with Lan Di and the encounter with Yuanda Zhu Ryo saying goodbye to his friends in Kowloon and Hong Kong in an emotional scene
2. Ryo arriving in Guilin and meeting Shenhua
3. The season will end in the cave scene in a similar way that we saw in the beginning of the first episode.

To me it makes more sense ending in the cave scene, it is a good part to end the season, the ending of Shenmue II is so interesting and mysterious so it will be a good way to end the season, and it makes sense to end in this part because we saw a part of the cave scene in the first episode, but if the season ends in Kowloon or with Ryo arriving in Guilin it will be okay to me as well.

It is not impossible for the anime to end in the cave scene, in the Yokosuka part we saw that the anime team cut out many things of the story like everything about Shozo Mizuki, Ryo learning Tornado Kick with Tom and other things, so maybe the anime team will cut out more things so it is not impossible for the season to end in the cave scene.

i just hope that someday we will get a second season, and i think this will happen after the release of Shenmue IV, if Shenmue IV happen of course and i think it will happen, this is what i hope for the future of the Shenmue franchise.

When i miss the games version i can just play the games, it is so nice to see a new take on the Shenmue franchise, a new take on this beautiful journey, like i said other times the anime complement the games and the games complement the anime.

I need to see the episode more times to have more thoughts about it but i love the episode. Seeing the anime is like seeing the Shenmue story for the first time and this is a beautiful feeling, i'm looking forward for the next episode.
 
I don't know how they can cover Shenmue 2 unless they up the pacing again. With 5 episodes left, we would have to have: one more Wude and wrap up Hong Kong, one with Dancing Dragon arc, one with the scout/3 major fights, one with Yellow Head Building, and one Guilin. Doesn't seem like enough time.

Putting those worries aside, I loved the last two episodes taking their time and telling the story in a way that feels a bit more natural by involving the side characters more.

Oh and the revenge theme FINALLY makes an appearance! Interesting how they laid this out but it works for me that Ryo took longer to admit to himself that is his ultimate goal (well, he hasn't yet but Xuiiying implies she saw through his stated intentions)

I'm not sure how they could end this season with the cave but we'll see
 
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