Official Shenmue Anime Announced | News

An anime adaptation of the Shenmue game series, called Shenmue -the Animation-, was announced on the Crunchyroll website during the Virtual Crunchyroll Expo. A single preview image below was released:

While various rumors are swirling around the net, this is what has been officially revealed so far:

• The series will consist of 13 episodes, with a plot that is based on the existing game trilogy (more specifically: "the story of the first game and most of the second").
• Animation production is by Telecom Animation Film (a subsidiary of TMS Entertainment which is owned be Sega Sammy Holdings), and directed by Chikara Sakurai (animation director on Naruto the Movie and director of season 2 of the animation TV series One Punch Man).
• The game's creator, Yu Suzuki, is named as Executive Producer for the project.
• In the US, the series will be shown on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim Saturday nights in the Toonami block. It will be available elsewhere (excluding Japan & China) on video streaming service Crunchyroll. 
• Work on it has been going on for a while as the project was greenlit "right after the release of Shenmue 3".
• Jason DeMarco, senior vice president and creative director on-air for Adult Swim, was the one who brought the anime project about, acknowledging in a tweet that "It was me that decided to make the show and took it to our partners."

DeMarco in a statement also said, "The world of Shenmue is fascinating and unique and we are so excited to partner with Yu Suzuki to bring his epic creation to anime - and make a kick-ass martial art epic!"

Further details are expected to be announced during the Expo's stage presentation (Sat, Sep 5, 2020 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM PT) .

The Toonami Facebook page has also announced an upcoming interview with Yu Suzuki:

"Check out an interview with Suzuki on crunchyrollexpo.com tomorrow, and get ready for the series coming to Toonami and Crunchyroll!"

Update: the interview is now available: 

• Video Q&A with Yu Suzuki and Chikara Sakurai 

Other Information

There has also been an interesting tweet from AestheticGamer, who teased the anime announcement in the days before the event. He shared the following information (note that this is not part of an official announcement, but included here for reference):

"The Animation will air on Adult Swim (as they're backing it) & Crunchyroll, the 13-episode season tackles the first game and part of the second game. Includes a lot of story ideas they never got to put into the game either due to budget, time, or mature rating reasons. It'll be an adult animated retelling of Shenmue 1 & 2 with lost story beats, series creator Yu Suzuki has been involved to help the adaption & to realize the previously scrapped story elements to realization."

Cedric Biscay, the CEO of Shibuya Productions and co-producer of Shenmue III, also revealed that his company has no direct involvement in the project. He also gave an assurance that the anime series will have "no impact" on a potential Shenmue IV:

"1) My company and myself are not involved , it can be considered as a « derivated product » like anime usually does with manga. 

2) There is no impact on a potential Shenmue IV game."

Sources:

• Announcement on Crunchyroll (archived)
• Tweets from Jason DeMarco's account (Tweet1, Tweet2, Tweet3, Tweet4, Tweet5, Tweet6)
• IGN Japan article (Japanese)
• Tweet from AestheticGamer
• Tweet from Cedric Biscay
• Facebook post from Toonami

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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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Ryo's Bicycle Riding Ability - Part One | Cut Content

Ryo makes use of various modes of transport to move around the world of Shenmue, including buses, motorcycles, ships and ferries - not to mention forklifts. However, one ability which had been widely anticipated but turned out not to be present in the final release is the ability to ride a bicycle.

Anticipation had been fueled prior to the release of the first two games with teases in game magazines and even promotional video footage that Ryo riding a bicycle around his neighborhood. But in the end this feature did not eventuate in either of the games despite development having seemingly been well-advanced.

We've gathered together as much information as we can find and over the course of two parts we will build up a picture of what may have been planned for this feature. 

Ryo's Bicycle Riding: "What's Shenmue" VHS Promotional Footage

In June 1999, a 30-minute promotional video tape named "What's Shenmue" (not to be confused with the game demo which was confusingly given the same name) was distributed in Japan ahead of the game's release, introducing some of the game's main gameplay features.

What's Shenmue VHS tape

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Project Team Memories of Working on Shenmue | Famitsu Article Translation

This is a translation of an article published online by Famitsu.com in November 2018 to commemorate the release of Shenmue I & II. Comments about working on the original Shenmue project were gathered from:

• Masaya Matsukaze (Ryo Hazuki)
• Takahiro Sakurai (Lan Di, Goro, Yuan)
• Megumi Yasu (Nozomi)
• Ikue Otani (Fangmei)
• Rio Natsuki (Joy)
• Tow Ubukata
• Toshihiro Nagoshi
• Takenobu Mitsuyoshi
• Yasuhiro Takagi
• Kenji Miyawaki

The translation begins below.

In commemoration of the release of Shenmue I & II for the PS4 on 22nd November 2018, we gathered comments from some of the staff members and performers who were involved with the creation of the original games. Enjoy hearing them speak about their remembrances and hardships of the time. (See our separate article to read comments from Fujioka Hiroshi).

Masaya Matsukaze

Role: Ryo Hazuki

"Ryo Hazuki is my other self"

Back when amusement arcades were booming, arcade game hit-maker Yu Suzuki turned his talent to creating a home console game. There was a large-scale audition that attracted actors in the motion picture industry, and as I was a Mega Ranger at the time that is when I first met Yu-san.

The game started as "Virtua Fighter RPG", and its genre was the world's first of its kind, designated as "FREE" (an acronym for Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment") but these days called open-world. What Yu-san ideally wanted was "freedom in everything, where things you would expect to happen would naturally happen," and together with a staff of hundreds, he took on the challenge of creating a world that had never before been seen.

I was in charge of the motion capture and spoken lines for the protagonist, Ryo Hazuki. The actions ranged from basic movement like sitting and walking, through to those for QTE events where Ryo would punch or alternatively get punched. When he falls from a high place, that is me falling. Falling down from a height of 15 meters (!) would be fatal, so for this motion capture data for falling from a low height would be extended, along with motion capture for hanging in mid-air and dropping down, The spoken lines for striking up conversations with people had slight variations each time, so I recorded all the lines needed for talking to the same person multiple times, even if they would probably never be heard by the player. It was really a huge volume of recording.

Some of Yu Suzuki's works are on display in the Smithsonian Museum, and this legendary work set a new record in gaming history. Furthermore, this long journey continues on with Shenmue III. There is rarely such an opportunity to obtain a truly legendary work yourself at such an affordable price. I encourage everyone to pick up a copy!

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for August 2020

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 the winning topic for August is...

"Ryo's Bicycle Riding Ability: What Had Been Planned"

SEGA head teased Ryo's ability to ride a bicycle before the release of Shenmue, and a clip of Ryo riding through Dobuita had even been included in promotional footage in the months leading up to the game. So it came as a surprise to players to find that this feature was not present in the final game.

We will gather together the clues that remain to piece together what had originally been planned.

Watch for an article on this topic in an upcoming blog post!

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Shenmue Forest Demo (1999 Digitaliland Event Promotion)

Digitaliland event flyer, with screenshots from the software demo.
Image credit: James Brown

In an earlier post we covered the extravagant Shenmue promotional exhibition, which was named "Shenmue Forest",  at an event called Digitaliland at the start of May in 1999.

Related Post:

• Exploring Shenmue Forest at the "Network Jungle II: Digitaliland" Event (1999)

The Digitaliland event came just a month and a half after the 1999 Spring Tokyo Game Show (at which Shenmue was also promoted), but a lot of forethought and planning was put into making this this exhibition something that would dazzle attendees. Yu Suzuki and team even went as far as to build a special software demo that allowed the public to virtually experience what the upcoming exhibition would be like. Full-color flyers announcing the event were distributed using screenshots from the demo (see the title image)

In today's post we will look more closely at this special "Shenmue Forest" demo.

About the Shenmue Forest Software Demo

The Shenmue Forest hands-on demo appeared at the SEGA booth at the Tokyo Game Show in March '99. as a way to fan excitement for the upcoming exhibition, and ran on Dreamcast hardware.

The concept of the demo was simple: it allowed the player to navigate (as Ryo Hazuki) around a three-dimensional virtual model of the yet-to-be Shenmue Forest exhibition.

"A virtual recreation of 'Shenmue Forest' was able to be played on screen at this game show (TGS '99). Amazing!"

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Special Items in Kowloon's "Magic Rooms" | Exploration Series Final Part | Jcgamer

In this Kowloon Exploration series, we have been examining the variety of furniture and other objects that fills the rooms of Kowloon's skyscrapers in Shenmue 2. All screenshots were taken by Jcgamer who carried out a thorough investigation of each room, capturing and cataloging everything found.

Links to the previous parts:

• Part One: Furniture, Sinks & Benches
• Part Two: Wall Hangings, Clothing and Dolls
• Part Three: Appliances, Bottles, Ceiling Fans & Plants

This post is the final part of the series, and we've saved some special items for last!

As well as rounding off our survey of more common items that can be found in multiple locations (Bags, Containers, Vases and Miscellaneous) we'll also present some rarer ones that can be found in only a few rooms - including revealing the location of the legendary revolver!

Category: Bags & Cases

Among the items In this first category, Bags & Cases, are a business-style case, hard-shell travel suitcases, a ladies' handbag and even a dubious-looking bag that looks perfect for holding bundles of cash.

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Bailu Village Secrets Part 3 - Kong Mei: A Life | Guest Post by Dave Matthews (SalsaShark)

Hello again everyone! Welcome back for Part III of Bailu Village Secrets!  If you missed them, Parts I & II can be found here:

• Bailu Village Secrets Part 1: Ema at Man Yuan Temple
• Bailu Village Secrets Part 2: Ranking Boards at Martial Hall

Throughout the last two posts I've been dropping what I hope were enticing hints about one of my absolute favorite characters in Shenmue III, Kong Mei. Now the time has finally arrived for a deep dive into a life that's taken many fascinating (and easily missable) turns!

A Kindly Shop Owner (or A Prickly Granny)

A view of Panda Market at night

Panda Market becomes accessible fairly early in the story when Ryo is tasked with tracking down the stone mason, Ke Junhao, and it's about the closest thing to a bustling downtown as you'll find in Bailu. Depending on the time of day, Ryo can encounter different villagers going to and fro as they shop at the fruit stand, take in the savory aroma of steamed buns, and line up in front of the Bai Jiu Stand (seriously, Su Hong must be doing gangbusters).

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