Kawabata's Renders, Final Part: Locations and Promo Renders

Welcome to the fourth and final part of our review of the art renders shared by AM2 developer Hideki Kawabata (previous parts: Part One, Part Two, Part Three). This final post in the series will touch on some of the location renders and promotional CG art that was included in the collection.

The Original Karate Tournament Location: Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan

The first location we'll look at is one that once lived only in the imagination of fans: the stadium in which Ryo's high school karate tournament took place prior to the start of the first game, as revealed by Yu Suzuki in 2015:

Q: Where did Ryo get his band-aid?

Yu Suzuki: It didn't appear in Chapter 1, but there was a martial arts event. The scar is from the final match.

This response is from a Twitter event called "#YouAskYu" in 2015 - a transcript is archived on the old Shenmue Dojo forums.

This took on a concrete form in recent years, when a scene from this tournament was included in the first episode of Shenmue The Animation in 2022. For the anime, the tournament location was directly based on the real-life sporting venue, the Yokosuka Arena:

The location of the karate tournament in Shenmue The Animation: Yokosuka Arena

However, with Kawabata's collection of renders, another piece can now be added to the puzzle: a fully-rendered model of a stadium had been prepared back in the early days of the project, in April of 1996. 

Furthermore, it even shows two tatami platforms for the matches, set up inside the hall:

Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium: 30 April 1996

Interestingly, this is not the stadium used in the anime - text at the bottom of the image identifies it as the Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan (Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium). As the name suggests, this building was located in Yokohama, near Chinatown.

A comparison with the interior shows how accurately it was modeled, including the ceiling tiles, lighting, seating, and even the large air conditioning units standing below the windows:

Interior of the Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, just before its closure in 2020 (image: Kojinteki Yokohama)

Once hosting volleyball matches during the 1964 Summer Olympics, this aging building closed in 2020, but has been replaced by a new complex named "Yokohama BUNTAI" in a nod to the original name, which opened in April 2024 in the same location. Here is a shot of the interior:

Karate tournament at the Yokohama BUNTAI (2025) which has replaced the previous building.

This was also, coincidentally, the venue of a Japan-wide karate tournament in which IGN Japan's Esra Krabbe participated earlier this year (you can see him above, in the middle of a match).

Returning to the CG model, some of the details that can be observed include:

• A large "No Smoking" sign.
• A large Japanese drum (taiko) on a stand. This may have been to signal the start of the tournament.
• A number of folding seats and tables typically used at such events by match officials.
• A small vertical sign standing near each of the tatami platforms, possibly to help identify which matches would take place at each.
• Portable wooden staircases for ascending to the platforms, on either side.
• A red human figure in the distance, most probably placed as a size reference.
• The tatami mats have line markings at their center for the participants.

Interior detail

Some smaller-sized images focus on the seating layout, from various angles:

Seating arrangement detail

View of the seating layout from above

Perhaps one day this model can serve as a reference for bringing Ryo's tournament back to life inside a game.

Kowloon Walled City Model & Project Berkley

The next set of images is of a large-scale but highly-detailed model of Kowloon Walled City under an ominous, cloudy sky. A human figure can be seen on the corner at the front, for scale.

Kowloon (May 1996)

In fact, this model has appeared publicly prior to the release of the first game, as pointed out by GeordieBoySteve on the Shenmue Dojo forums: it can be glimpsed briefly in the Project Berkley CG trailer, where it was shown at night during heavy rain, increasing its menacing feeling. This promotional trailer was released on a special disc that was packaged with the Japanese version of Virtua Fighter 3tb for the Dreamcast in November 1998.

Side-by-side comparison:

The Kowloon model (right) as seen in the Project Berkley trailer (left)

Other angles show off the impressive size. The model is packed with detail: laundry hanging on poles outside apartment windows, safety "cages" to help prevent items (or people) from falling, air conditioning units, shop signs, stalls and shutters. 

Kowloon model (right-hand side)

Kowloon model (left-hand side)

Smaller sections of the model are shown in close-up on a separate page: 

Kowloon: building and shop model details

Sampan Boats on Hong Kong Harbor

The render below shows a model of a traditional Hong Kong wooden houseboat, known as a sampan, placed against a harbor and mountainous background.

Wooden houseboat

This is reminiscent of the sampans in Shenmue II, in the introductory cutscene and in the Beverly Hills Wharf area during the game, however the resemblance is not strong enough to be able to draw a direct connection between the model in the render and the in-game models.

Beverly Hills Wharf (Shenmue II)

Further images show groups of houseboats together, and design variations:

Houseboat community and details

This made me wonder if it might be possible to identify the exact location shown in the background of the first render. The CG image shows a harbor, a number of distinctive high-rise buildings, and a mountain with tall cable-carrying towers.

After some exploration with Google Maps, I managed to track down the location to Aberdeen Harbor, which in real life is situated on the opposite side of Hong Kong island to Victoria Harbor and Wan Chai. 

Several of the buildings can still be matched, although several new buildings have also appeared:

The scenery used as the background of the CG render: Aberdeen Harbor and the mountainside of Hong Kong Island.

Hand Gestures

The final set of renders shows a hand at different orientations and angles, making various finger gestures. This level of movement and flexibility for a character's hands was unheard of in games at the time, so no doubt Yu Suzuki wanted to produce these renders to demonstrate just how advanced Shenmue was going to be in this area, even if these were not actual in-game models.

Hand gesture renders

And indeed, these renders did appear in games magazines at the time. For example, the excerpt below is from the January 1999 edition of Japan's Dreamcast Magazine. The same renders can be recognized (with rotation).

Dreamcast Magazine (Jan 1999)

Here is the blurb that accompanied the images:

Take a look at the screenshots on the left. You’ll notice human hands in various poses - but more importantly, what truly deserves attention here is the fingers. From fingers forming a peace sign to ones that seem like they’re about to grasp something. Even in movie-grade CG, there have probably been very few examples that depict such realistic and expressive finger movements.

The words spoken by Yu Suzuki during our interview came clearly to mind as we viewed this footage: "This project incorporates many world-first technologies."

These "hand motions" are also likely one of the cutting-edge technologies developed by AM2. Even with conventional motion capture technology, capturing such subtle movements would have been impossible until now. When it comes to the human body, at best only a dozen or so points could be tracked. Even then, the raw data would need to be heavily processed before the motion could appear remotely convincing. However, with human fingers, each of the five has multiple joints. To animate them naturally in real-time CG requires overcoming a huge number of technical hurdles. But with Shenmue, AM2 has succeeded in doing just that. That much seems clear. And it's safe to say that this innovation is something we’ll see used in various scenes throughout the game.

"We’ve recreated a wide range of hand and finger movements within the game. If this were just a fighting game, where all you do is throw punches and kicks, we wouldn’t need to go to such lengths - but Shenmue is more than that." - Yu Suzuki

Hands and fingers: one more thing to look out for in Shenmue.

While there might have been just a touch of promotional smoke and mirrors involved, in showing high-quality CG renders rather than in-game screenshots, they served their purpose well in helping to promote excitement and stir interest in the upcoming game

Final Comment

That brings us to the end of our coverage of the unearthed CG renders created by Hideki Kawabata. I hope you enjoyed browsing through them.

These assets offer a rare glimpse into the depth of world-building and technical ambition that defined the Shenmue project from its earliest stages. It’s wonderful that even decades later, there’s still more to uncover and appreciate from the development of Shenmue.

-- End of Final Part --

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