Jman

I think the cut-aways to the village do a fairly decent job of establishing Shenhua since she literally has zero dialogue until the end of the second game. "Mugging is out of style." It is the 80s, everyone's into stock market manipulation and white collar crime. Come on, you got a few years before the bubble economy bursts! They compressed another multi-hour subquest line into roughly...7 minutes. The thing is, the compression doesn't make the anime seem too fast paced, it just reminds me how much of a goddamn slog the original Shenmue could be. And it has a completely different ending to boot. Finally, an explanation for Lan Di's motivation. The fight scenes continue to be pretty good. Fluid, dynamic, and the choreography is on point (fitting considering Yu Suzuki's team is responsible for Virtua Fighter, probably the first fighting game to at least try to add a somewhat realistic base to the fighting styles. Akira's kung fu was specifically based on a martial art Suzuki was learning at the time as a hobby. Suzuki went so far as to have his development team learn the martial arts they were including to help get this across). The next episode preview is literally just the forklifts. Yes people, we're getting a forklift episode. This continues to be a really solid martial arts anime with...questionable dubbing for Ryo (although it seems more like it's reflecting his own internal issues vs. incompetent direction ala the game) which by default makes it the best Crunchyroll original up to this point given the sheer incompetence of the others. Looking at you Onyx Equinox, you piece of shit.

A secret code can be punched in so Nozomi helps you fight those two bullies from the first episode. Why she's doing a goddamn Rumina Sato flying armbar is another matter.

Relatively inexpensive programming that Netflix figured "Hey, let's stop treating this as if it only belongs in a very small, specific section of discussion," which exposed people who would have pooh-poohed it as "weebshit" (the course correction when every American studio tried to use surface elements in the work), and created a casual audience who saw it alongside their preferred programming. Add on that, when one company is successful with something, everyone wants to play follow the leader, and now here we are. You simply could not advertise shows like Cobra Kai as being live-action shounen without people looking at you like you had smoking turds in your mouth, now that’s how Netflix does it.

Ryo's quest for answers leads him to Master Chen and Guizhang, Chen's son with a serious chip on his shoulder. However, Master Chen may be the only one that can actually explain who Lan Di is and what he wants. This is roughly the halfway point of the first game (which in case you can't tell, was glacially paced).

Here's the official statement. Also Steve Blum has been urging unionized voices to not audition in an attempt to get 20th Century Studios back to the bargaining table.

No. DiMaggio is still in active negotiations for more money.

I think this is more a damning indictment of just how terrible the entire CR originals lineup has been. Also that is one stretched metaphor.

If the shows CR was on production committees for were added to the list, ODDTAXI and The Rising of the Shield Hero alone would label them successes. Sadly that is not the case. The disconnect of what CR originals wants to be is a huge issue. At least Shenmue has a solid foundation in its original material

At least Shenmue made the top 50. Makes sense, a legitimate premiere with presumably no other way to watch the English dub until it inevitably hits HBO Max in June or so vs a show aired everywhere else behind a few weeks.

Honest question since Shenmue is surprisingly good only two episodes in, stringing together a lot of fetch quests and detective work into a coherent narrative, and the competition is well, dreck. High Guardian Spice - A meme for how terrible it is. Onyx Equinox - Proving Americans do not care about Mesoamerica. God of High School - Rushed, incoherent mess. Ex-ARM - Some of the worst CG animation this side of Reboot Season 1. Blade Runner Black Lotus - Quickly eclipsed by Arcane and left to be forgotten. Tower of God - Ok, that one wasn’t so bad. Is it a fair assessment?

I think the anime has boiled down the essence of Shenmue's story to what it is without hilariously awkward dubbing and outdated gameplay mechanics. A Hong Kong martial arts movie. The opening music even sounds like something from a Shaw Bros film. I do like how the script is outright lampshading the questionable tics of the original game dub as well. Ryo's inflection isn't because the actor can barely speak English, it's because something is legitimately wrong with him and he won't find peace until his father's death is avenged. That being said, the timeline is off. The game takes place in the 80s but the arcade has Virtua Fighter 1 machines and there's Sonic toys. The arcade being dark and dingy was actually a purposeful thing, since that was the stereotype of arcades back then. Suzuki made a lot of machines that were essentially amusement rides (OutRun, Space Harrier, Hang On) to get games into more family oriented spaces.

Genndy was very adamant the show not debut on Toonami as he feels that limits the audience.

Same people who did The Expanse. I’m curious. But again, Toonami is overshadowed. At this rate someone is going to announce a Yakuza anime with celebrity voice actors.

Fight’s in round 3, so hopefully Adesanya has FUNiNow.

Meanwhile at the UFC, the camera cut to a guy in the audience doing a shoey while wearing a Naruto shirt.

If he hasn’t watched it on the FUNi app, I seriously see Adesanya trying to KO Whitaker early so he can watch AOT.

Last time on Shenmue - Karate prodigy Ryo Hazuki's life was shattered as his father was murdered by a mysterious kung fu master. After taking a leave of absence, Ryo is unsure whether to pursue revenge when confronted by the Chinese equivalent of Gollum, who wants the Precious, Precious mirror. After driving him off with the power of flashbacks, Ryo decides that he is going to pursue his father's killer because he done made this personal with the assassin. Today, well...Ryo begins looking for clues at the docks. Cue the sailor jokes.

This trailer is just pure concentrated 90s anime stereotypes. It looks amazing.

Greoning’s past based spin-off is on Netflix and his future one is on Hulu. Way to play the field. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/futurama-revived-at-hulu-1235090020/

Eighty Six 15-17.

Considering the rumors that CR Originals are going the way of the dinosaur thanks to the Sony buyout, it looks like they definitely saved the best effort for last. Especially compared to the not ready for primetime Webtoon lineup (God of High School was supposed to be CR's attempt at a tournament anime in the vein of Baki or Kengan Ashura and it flopped flat on its face) or the megfail Western shows (HGS and Onyx Equinox) and Black Lotus which quickly found itself overshadowed by Arcane. This show is good one episode in, it's working from a solid foundation, and it might actually be really good.

Shenmue's legacy remains a rather complicated one. It is undoubtedly extremely influential but its heyday has passed and its hardcore fans who see this show as merely a tool to get a hypothetical Shenmue IV made (still suck in that 2001 era gameplay because God help anyone who tries to improve Shenmue!) do this show a massive disservice. As a show, it's actually rather good. Things have been moved around so you actually get more of a feel for the characters, Ryo isn't a mannequin who talks like he barely knows how to speak the language of the HOO-MAN, and the plot moves nicely but not so quickly that you get lost. Visually this is the best looking show on the block, at least till next week maybe. That's all well and good but considering the utterly terrible quality of Crunchyroll's original slate up till now (Onyx Equinox and High Guardian Spice being the double dose of fail they were, and let's not forget EX-ARM) it's nothing short of a miracle. The Ryo/Chai fight looked amazing. Easy A- for this first episode, as it doesn't expect you to play the games, is very welcoming, and gets rid of a lot of Shenmue's tic's and -isms to tell a solid martial arts story of revenge and grief. Which makes Shenmue's hardcore fanbase not wanting the story to continue in an anime (should the quality remain consistent) but another near-unplayable game infuriating.

In 1999, Yu Suzuki bet the future of the Dreamcast on a game experience he dubbed “FREE”, claiming it would transcend games. While he lost that bet, it laid the groundwork for the modern open world genre. However, all these years later, Suzuki has never been able to finish telling the story of the series. Over 20 years later, [adult swim] and Crunchyroll as part of their brief alliance made an anime that is an adaptation of the first two games. Will the story of one man and his quest for revenge resonate without the gameplay and awful dubbing?