Shenmue The Animation: Episode 7 Review

gamerant.com:

The following article contains spoilers for Shenmue: The Animation.

Moving or traveling to a new city is always bound to bring tons of changes, and Shenmue's Ryo Hazuki is surely becoming aware of that as the anime’s change of scene to Hong Kong has significantly slowed down the pace of his adventures in a way that might not suit every fan’s expectations.

This sudden shift in rhythm suggests Ryo’s quest in the animated series could take just as long as in the games, which does raise the question of just how Yu Suzuki' plot handling will unfold in the remaining six episodes. So just what is so important that’s caused Ryo to become so occupied since he landed in Hong Kong? Well turns out the young Hazuki has to become familiar with all four Wude, the four legendary teaching of martial arts that are passed on to the protagonist by four different masters.

Related: 10 Anime That Killed A Character Way Too EarlyLast week’s Shenmue episode saw Ryo learn the meaning of “Gon”, as well as adding the Iron Palm technique to his karate repertoire, however, while his encounters with Master Xiuying and the Man Mo temple monk suggested a slightly different path towards that goal, that’s most certainly not the case. Episode seven, “Future”, instead has Ryo walking around asking strangers for a martial arts expert before eventually finding his way to the familiar Guang Martial Arts School.

Nevertheless, that only happens after Ryo is quickly dismissed by Xiuying who is not one bit impressed by his knowledge of “Gon” when the two spar in what is without a doubt the episode’s best action sequence. Though short, this scene does a great job displaying the massive gulf in skills that exists between Ryo and more seasoned martial arts masters like