Muecas Dan: Sega's Official Shenmue Fan Club

Muecas Dan logo and slogan ("We are the Muecas Club!! ~We Deeply Love Shenmue~")

What Was "Muecas Dan"?

"Muecas Dan" (ムーキャス団) was a Shenmue fan club that regularly published Japanese-language Shenmue content online. It ran from early 2001 to 2004, and its founding members consisted of staff from the official Shenmue project team.

Shenmue Cast FAN

Muecas Dan was formed by the official Shenmue team to communicate with fans. Fans who made contributions to their web magazine were recognized as Muecas Dan members.

Muecas Dan was introduced in the January 2001 (Vol. 60) edition of the Weekly AM2 online magazine, in a section initially called 'Shenmue Cast Fan' - here 'cast' referred to members from the Shenmue project team.

"Yes! We are Shenmue's Cast Fans!" - the logo for the Shenmue Cast FAN page

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for August 2023

Every month Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted this time is:

"Translation of an early 'Muecas Dan' edition"

What Was Muecas Dan?

The "Muecas Dan" (ムーキャス団, meaning Muecas Club) page was a regularly-published online section of Japanese-language Shenmue content which ran from early 2001 to 2004.

It was introduced in the March 2001 (Vol. 62) edition of the Weekly AM2 online magazine, inside a section called 'Shenmue Cast Fan' - with 'Shenmue' of course referring to the game, and 'Cast' referring to the voice and motion actors/actresses. The name "Muecas" (ムーキャス) was formed from an abbreviation of  the words "Shenmue" and "Cast".

Logo for the "Shenmue Cast FAN" series which ran for only a few weeks before being replaced.

Muecas Dan was presented as a shadowy, elite organization with members known only by a code number or alias.

Two members gave their own tongue-in-cheek introductions:

"T.C." (which stood for "Top Cat")

T.C: "I'm T.C, Code Number 001 of the Muecas Club. I've got the vigor of a Wednesday morning and no one can beat my hourly voice dubbing output! My special skill is imitating Ryo's voice!"

"Giwara"

Giwara: "Hic. I can't drink anymore... Oh, it's my turn? I'm a sabotage specialist, Code Number 00... hic, 002. I'm also known as 'Giwara.' I can destroy everything from a chicken coop to a satellite - except for twelve things."

Although never stated outright, the more perceptive readers may have realized from the humorous hints that these two members were, in fact, the genuine Masaya Matsukaze (the Japanese voice/actor for Ryo Hazuki) and Takumi Hagiwara (the Japanese voice/actor for Wuying Ren) themselves. Together with other members of the Shenmue project team, they would go on to write humorous responses to fan submissions each week.

Before long, the new Muecas Dan page would grow in size and become the main place for Shenmue-related content, replacing the earlier Shenmue Cast FAN page and branding, and finding a new home on the official Shenmue.com website.

Muecas Dan logo and slogan ("We are the Muecas Club!! ~I Love Shenmue Deeply~")

Post Topic

In the near future we will be translating into English one of the first editions of Muecas from 2001. Watch for it to come!

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Ryo's Bicycle Riding Part Two: Shenmue 2 Cut Content

In a previous post, we covered the bicycle riding feature that had been shown in promotional footage for Shenmue I in the months leading up to the release but was not kept in the final version.

• Related post: Ryo's Bicycle Riding Ability - Part One | Cut Content

In fact, Ryo was also to have ridden a bicycle in Shenmue II. In this post, we'll look at clues to piece together what had been planned.

Ryo's Bicycle Riding: Originally Developed for Rural China?

The lead programmer for the first two Shenmue games, Tak Hirai, revealed in a RetroGamer interview that the bicycle riding feature was something he worked on early on in the project (before the later decision to dedicate a full initial chapter to Yokosuka) for Ryo to use in the countryside of China:

Tak Hirai: "Actually, I was the first guy who implemented the bike-riding feature,” he explains. “This was done at the early stage of the development. We originally intended to begin the game in China, so I made it as a showcase to see how it looked when you rode the bike in a meadow. Another programmer took over that part of the project and worked on the vehicle programming at the end of Shenmue."

Ryo Riding in Shenmue II: AM2 Cut Content Screenshots

While no video footage remains of Ryo riding in Shenmue II, there is a single screenshot that shows Ryo on a bicycle. This screenshot was one of several "cut content" screenshots shared publicly by the developers in 2002, after its release, in the Muecas section of the Shenmue.com website.

Apart from the bicycle screenshot, another similar screenshot showed Ryo running toward a shop outside which a young girl is standing. We'll look at them both together.

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Shenmue Comic: Training in Guilin

Today we take a look at a Shenmue-themed comic strip that was published on the official Shenmue.com website around the time of the release of the Shenmue games, to which I've added an English translation.

The comic strip in Japanese only. (Read on for the translated version.)

First, a few background notes that tie in to the comic.

Muecas and Shenmue.com

This comic strip was part of a section of Shenmue.com called "Muecas" (a word that was formed from "Shenmue and Dreamcast" Cast Fans" - thanks to Kiyuu for the clarification! Trust me, it sounds less weird in Japanese). Contributors to those section were called the "Muecas team", and consisted of a group of actual Sega staff who had been working on Shenmue, as well as a number of fans from the general public.

The logo of the Muecas Team.
"We love Shenmue deeply"

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