Another Wild Ride is On the Way
If you’ve been in the gaming world for long enough, you’ll probably have heard about Shenmue. It’s a series with a mix reputation, but an unforgettable structure. Many players became immersed in the game’s world, with day-long cycles of NPC schedules that the player had to navigate and plan around. The game’s most recent installment was funded through Kickstarter and found an equally controversial reception on release, but the game’s small-but-undying fan base remains strong enough to keep the content trail rolling. Their enthusiasm was enough to greenlight an anime adaptation, one that just recently gave hopeful fans a taste of what’s to come.
A collaboration between Crunchyroll and Adult Swim, Shenmue: The Animation is set to release next year, and the freshly-released trailer has plenty of goodies for fans to enjoy.
Fans of the cult-classic game series have been super enthusiastic about what they’ve seen so far. A Reddit post discussing the change is absolutely flooded with praise, including such stellar quotes as “I had high hopes for the Anime, but this has knocked it out of the park! Cannot wait!” ,And of course, we have the ever-popular “AHHHHHHHHHHHH!“, a staple of excited fan discourse.
The adaptation will be created as a 13-episode season, and brings in Chikara Sakurai as director. For reference, that’s the guy who directed the ever-popular One Punch Man – so hopes are high for Shenmue’s performance in the anime world! If the trailer is anything to go by, this’ll be a dramatic, action-packed adventure through Shenmue’s world, exporing some characters, and punching down even more. No hint of forklifts yet, but anything’s possible.