Jman

Random thoughts - Welcome to Hong Kong Ryo. Watch out for pickpockets and wandering supporting characters. Yeah, he got his shit boosted at the start of the second game as well. You had to pawn off your gatcha toys and get a part time job to get money, everything from lifting stuff at a store to good old underground fight rings. Ah, the days before online booking and AirBNB. You got out kung-fued by an old dude at the park. Do you really think you can beat Lan Di? Suzuki's pacing for this series really works better for a passive medium like an anime than it did for a game. Look, your average Yakuza game has long cutscenes too, but they are also stuffed to the absolute freaking brim with gameplay, interactive elements, and other things that make the experience feel far more rewarding than Shenmue did. Which is part of why I'm so amazed with how the anime has taken the games' writing and refined it. Some of the dialogue remains stilted, which I think is trying to convey that Ryo is still learning Cantonese. It works when he's talking to people for whom Japanese isn't their first language. Joy is a pretty fun character so far, but the visual similarities to Nami are going to be rather...distracting. Honestly the old guy's Tai Chi speech just makes me want to watch Man of Tai Chi again. "The only way this backpack is worth any money is if a $3,000 hooker is wearing it!" Ok, jujutsu is the name for practically dozens of fighting arts, and considering that Yu Suzuki put in a lot of the moves Akira used in Virtua Fighter into it, it incorporates a fair amount of kung fu influence as well. So the name passes the smell test. Not to mention, this was before the popularity of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was a thing. And the master was the woman the whole time. Also there seems to be a recurring theme of people telling Ryo that pursuing revenge is pointless, but he charges forward anyway. The show continues to be pretty good even as we go into the Shenmue games I admittedly never played. Given the length of the series, I doubt we hit Shenmue III, but considering Shenmue III was a gigantic waste of time for everyone involved, maybe if this gets another season the writers can work their magic on that too, as well as the scripts for any hypothetical sequels, since no one is funding another Yu Suzuki Kickstarter. Or maybe Suzuki just makes that OutRun anime he said he wanted to do during the NYCC panel for Shenmue. (He said the idea was for couples to be in a Cannonball Run style race).

The plot of Shenmue II kicks off in earnest as Ryo lands in Hong Kong, only to be immediately assailed by thugs. Can the anime keep telling the story as well as it did for the first game?

Unfortunately, with Oda having a fair degree of veto power on this, I don't think characters can be completely excised. So you're dealing with a bad hand. Recast, put the work in to look like Alvida is supposed to post Devil Fruit, or end up canceled like Bebop where it's a punchline for just about everyone and everyone involved becomes a pariah in Hollywood except the script coordinator who's a child of a Netflix VP. Gotta pick one.

The pronouns I don't give a shit about, and it's considered polite these days. That's fine. Fucking up Alivda's arc the same way Bebop fucked up...everyone, that's where the show needs to die in a fire. Even if the days of Robert DeNiro losing AND gaining tons of weight to play Jake LaMotta are long gone. Either put her on the diet Marvel uses to give sitcom actors abs or recast her for post Smooth Smooth fruit Alvida.

So we’re fucked in other words. LEARN YOU FUCKING IDIOTS! I’m just sick of feeling inevitable resignation to the complete and total mutilation of any property that these morons adapt.

More casting news - Either the lady playing Alvida is getting recast or is going on one HELL of a diet routine. At least if they don’t want to Bebop this.

The alteration of events seems to continue to be working in the show's favor, most notably, giving Mark and Goro's arc more of a direct hand in the resolution of the first game's story. The 70 man battle lacks the mini-bosses, but it does make up for it with a rather fast pace and a clear sense of stakes to replace the stakes having a controller would give you. Funny thing, Ryo quits with dignity in the show. In the game, he got fired because of all the random fights he got into. Marriage? Aren't you still a minor?! This isn't Kentucky, it's Japan! Nozomi and Ryo clearly can't spit it out, and unlike the game, it's portrayed as an inherent tragedy. Man, this fight with Chai was way easier than the game's. Also - Next - Finding one person in Hong Kong is the definition of "needle in a haystack."

This was the climax of the first game, but not the last fight.

Tonight - 70 men vs Ryo and Guizhang. AKA - You think that’s enough goons?

This is presumably setup for a deal with HBO Max.

Clearly the answer for Crunchyroll is to make more adaptations of properties with cult followings. Airwolf anime. Do it.😁

Good question. This is Sony running things and they, with some exceptions, still seem to be willing to do business with Toonami. I don’t see that changing.

If it helps any, you aren’t the only one.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/futurama-john-dimaggio-hulu-revival-1235102273/ DiMaggio is back as Bender following negotiations and the cast is ready to go.

It’s March, and that means March Madness. On top of the news, it’s going to be a rough month for ratings.

So who’s subscription am I canceling here?

OK, I'm pretty sure Mark's terse delivery is supposed to show that he's not a native language speaker rather than how it was in the game, AKA "I AM SPEAKING WITH THE HOO-MAN. CYBER-MAN MUST UPGRADE THE PORT." Forklifts. But sadly no wildly unsafe racing of the forklifts. "HI RYO! LET ME GIVE YOU SOME BRUISES WHILE I TEACH YOU THIS AXE KICK!" I don't remember Goro and Mai being this...enthusiastic? It's actually pretty funny. The fight scenes continue to be really well done. Again, more compression that works for the story. In the game, Ryo has to find someone who will loan him a motorcycle and race the clock. Here he just kicks the bastard. Also the whole kidnapping subplot occured over multiple nights, while here it's compressed. Next time -

This is the song, written for the game's meme. The one thing everyone wants HE TRIED TO KILL ME WITH A FORKLIFT! (OLE!)

Honestly, I needed a laugh today.

Shenmue continuing to beat AOT makes me happier than it should.

He is a surprisingly good actor in that show. I think years of antagonizing the IWC have made him an expert in manipulating emotions.

March 4 sees The Batman hit theaters after all those delays. And as we’ve seen, whenever there’s a film release or HBO Max release, Toonami likes to show something DC related. With no shortage of DC stuff to still air, anyone think they will show something from the archives? It probably won’t be Peacemaker although given the show’s streaming popularity, it would probably result in a big ratings bump if it did air.

That’s an interesting pickup. Do they still have a working arrangement with Crunchyroll post sale? Because that wouldn’t be the worst idea.