Shenmue The Animation: Episode 2 Review
The Shenmue anime had a lofty task to pull off in its premiere episode, to bridge the gap between Yu Suzuki’s masterwork in the video game space and television storytelling, and while that debut alone did enough to pass the mark, Ryo’s second animated outing does a far better job at providing viewers with a solid 23 minutes of entertainment.
On this occasion, Shenmue achieves this by giving Ryo plenty to do in a quest-like manner but also making sure to add a few action sequences along the way that help the series pick up the pace before things get too sluggish. Naturally, this means the Shenmue anime and the game begin to split even more with regard to the exact timing of some scenes, though fans of the games will find plenty of easter eggs and direct callbacks to the Dreamcast masterpiece.
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As far as presentation goes, the series abandons the mythical initial sequence from the game it featured in episode one, and instead makes room for its opening song which was actually used in the end credits in the premiere (forklifts and all). The catchy theme song, titled “UNDEAD NOID”, is rather upbeat for the overall tone of the show and is pretty much as anime as it gets, however, the credits do feature Joy (a Shenmue 2 character), which again poses the question of just how far the story in season one progresses.
With that out of the way, Ryo picks up right where he left off, now having to find a Chinese translator for the mysterious letter sent to his father by Yuanda Zhu, which is the main theme for this episode and quite fitting for a Shenmue adventure. Shigeo Yamagishi is hardly changed from the games, and most of his scenes with Ryo are practically carbon copies from
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