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Shenmue Episode 1 - “Thunderclap” Discussion Thread


Jman

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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.

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Watched the first episode on the [as] website just now - long story short, DVR shat itself overnight and didn't record anything I told it to - and I gotta say, I'm digging this. Considering the staff overlap with Cosmo Samurai, I'd be surprised if Toshiyuki Tsuru didn't randomly pop up to direct an episode somewhere in there.

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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.

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2 hours ago, Jman said:

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.

Demarco's still promoting originals as Toonami's future moving forward so i doubt Originals are off the table completely

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