Shenmue The Animation: Episode 1 Review
The idea of turning an icon of open world gaming such as Shenmue into a fully-fledged anime production might sound intimidating, but series creator Yu Suzuki and One Punch Man’s Chikara Sakurai make sure Ryo Hazuki's transition into streaming goes far smoother than his last video game adventure on the eighth console generation.
See, when Shenmue came out on the Sega Dreamcast in 1999, the game’s slow pace and never-ending side quests were part of what gave its unique charm, yet the anime manages to scrap that in favor of something much better suited for viewers. Part of this is down to changes made in Ryo’s own personality, as the protagonist ditches his neutral-sounding speech to transform into the type of character that can actually bring some emotion to the series.
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That is because if there’s one massive gain the Shenmue anime already has over its video game counterpart, it’s definitely the voice acting. Full voice acting was far from being the standard back then, and while it was one of the things that made Shenmue stand out, the truth is that NPCs sound particularly terrible (especially in English) and protagonists are nothing to write home about; luckily, the anime fixes all of this with both Crunchyroll’s Japanese actors and Adult Swim’s English dub delivering great performances that will help the audience immerse themselves in the story.
The first episode, titled “Thunderclap”, starts off with the game’s pre-menu sequence featuring Shenhua Ling narrating the story behind Ryo’s destiny but unlike the first game, instead of cutting right to the scene where his father, Iwao Hazuki is killed by Lan Di, viewers get to know a bit more about the show’s
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