Shenmue Anime Coming to Crunchyroll and Adult Swim

An anime adaptation of Yu Suzuki’s Shenmue game series has confirmed a release.

After years of waiting, Shenmue fans crowdfunded a new game last year, and now the story of Ryo Hazuki will be told through this new anime series.

Announced during the Virtual Crunchyroll Expo, the show will be a co-production between Crunchyroll and Adult Swim.

One Punch Man director Sakurai Chikara will handle this series, and Telecom Animation Film is handling production.

Crunchyroll will stream the 13-episode series worldwide outside of Japan and mainland China, and Adult Swim will air it on its Toonami block in the United States.

It’s often heard that Shenmue set the standard for a living, breathing open world in video games when released on Sega Dreamcast in 1999.

The first piece of key art for the Shenmue animehas left us amazed.

The anime’s story continues after Ryo witnesses his father’s murder at the family dojo.

He dedicates his life to finding the man responsible — a mission that takes him from the streets of Yokosuka, Japan, to the sprawling metropolis of Hong Kong, and beyond.

Soon he’ll learn that larger, mystical forces are at play as he trains to become the ultimate martial artist in his quest for revenge. The series was initially planned as a trilogy.

Sega released the Shenmue I & II game collection in North America and Europe for PS4, Xbox One, and PC in August 2018.

The game was initially funded through a Kickstarter campaign in 2015, which set a new record for the highest-funded video game Kickstarter campaign.

The campaign closed after raising US$6,333,295 from 69,320 backers.

A release date for the anime was not announced, but we can predict that it’s just around the corner.

About Shenmue

Shenmue is an action-adventure game series created, produced, and directed by Yu Suzuki.

Shenmue (1999) and Shenmue II (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. Shenmue III, developed by Suzuki’s company Ys Net, was released for PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2019.

The Shenmue games consist of open-world 3D environments interspersed with brawler battles and quick-time events.

They include role-playing, life simulation, and social simulation games, such as a day-and-night system, variable weather effects, non-player characters with daily schedules, and interactive elements such as vending machines, arcades, and minigames.

The story follows teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki as he travels through the 1980s Japan and China to pursue his father’s killer.

Source: Crunchyroll

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