Sega’s Shenmue returns as an Adult Swim anime—and so far, it’s promising

Enlarge / Shenmue protagonist Ryo Hazuki bids his father farewell in an iconic game series moment. The new animated TV version expands upon this scene in interesting ways, and it's a great start for the series' first season. (credit: Adult Swim / Crunchyroll)

For its 23 years of existence, the Sega game series Shenmue has been embroiled in drama beyond the events of the games themselves. The series began life with a record-breaking budget and industry-changing aspirations, only to flounder as a casualty of its original target platform, the short-lived Dreamcast. While the series returned as a surprising, Sony-promoted Kickstarter in 2015, the resulting Shenmue III underwhelmed (and left some backers livid thanks to an EGS-related switcheroo).

Yet the series' first two games, in spite of their dated mechanics, remain beloved for players who reveled in Shenmue's mix of substantial martial arts combat, open-city exploration, and fully voiced dialogue. (The 1999 original's best ideas are better realized in the likes of Grand Theft Auto and Sega's own Yakuza.) Furthermore, Shenmue games always came with an intriguing, detective-like story of family, friendship, and revenge. Forget the game industry drama. Ryo's suspenseful search for his father's killer, Lan Di, was the good stuff, and dedicated fans continue to hope its story might even see a logical conclusion.

I kept all of that in mind while tuning in to this week's Shenmue: The Animation, a new TV series co-produced by Adult Swim and Crunchyroll, in hopes that its season premiere might benefit from leaving its video game roots behind. And now I'm a bit upset-enough to beg Sega: please don't get fans' hopes up with an animated series premiere this good, only to yank Shenmue away from us again.

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