Shenmue: The Animation Review

The premiere of the dubbed version of Shenmue: The Animation aired on Adult Swim on Feb. 5, 2022. The subtitled version is now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Yu Suzuki's Dreamcast classic Shenmue was the most expensive video game ever developed when it debuted in 1999. It – and its sequels, released in 2001 and 2019 respectively – is a sprawling epic composed of RPG systems, open-world 3D areas to explore, and social simulation elements mashed up together to make a captivating story. Now, 23 years later, Shenmue’s made another kind of debut: an anime series, co-produced by Crunchyroll and Adult Swim. Its first episode makes a few missteps, but ultimately does a good job of translating the characters and lore of the games.

Shenmue is a lengthy game series with intricate details and storytelling, and it’s already been established that this adaptation will span 13 episodes for this first season – it’s unclear if there will be additional seasons just yet. The first episode careens through the game's early expository elements as it introduces Ryo (Austin Tindle), the Hazuki family, and the revenge he's seeking.

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It's worryingly fast at first, as it covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time, but it slows down a bit to explore a brief period where Ryo takes time to regroup, hang out with friend Nozomi Harasaki (Cat Thomas), and tussles with Chai (Greg Ayres), another member of the group Lan Di leads: the Chi You Men – all after the same mirror that brought death upon Iwao. Nozomi is practically unrecognizable in the anime, which is a bit off-putting, and Ryo’s tussle with Chai is completely downplayed in relation to the character’s role in the game, but a lot can be forgiven in the name of advancing the saga for the sake of 13 short episodes.

Luckily, all the components are here to inspire confidence for the long run, including the new voice cast for the English dub, which this review is covering (the Japanese version includes several returning actors from the games). Austin Tindle settles into Ryo's role nicely, replacing the original English game dub actor Corey Marshall, for a much more fluid, laid back version of the character. Similarly, Natalie Rial does a fantastic job as the voice of Shenhua, a massively important character as the main Shenmue story marches on. Shenhua doesn't appear in the first episode very long and doesn’t get a proper introduction just yet, but she does get plenty of chances to shine as the narrator, with some intriguing bits of foreshadowing.

Unfortunately, there are a few missteps along the way. There are more than a few pieces of incredibly silly dialogue, such as Ryo's ultimate declaration that he's "made up his mind" that he would like to know why his father was killed near the end of the episode (one would assume he'd want to know this immediately). He also proclaims that his father's advice that he must push harder and that he hasn't done "enough" doesn't make sense, but it's quite obvious to any outside observer that his father is telling him to expect more of himself.

And as many game-to-anime series adaptations go, the animation also leaves a lot to be desired. For a short season, character and environment detail and sharpness is lower than, say, even more recent series like the currently airing My Dress-Up Darling. Still, it does a decent job of translating these beloved game characters to a 2D format. It's more reminiscent of Sailor Moon Crystal's broadcast quality, however, at the moment, which will likely (and hopefully) improve when and if it ends up hitting Blu-ray.