Teaser image for Shenmue the Animation.
Shenmue the Animation is an anime series of the Shenmue series directed by Chikara Sakurai whose credits include One-Punch Man and Naruto. Animation production was led by Telecom Animation Film, and production management was provided by Sola Entertainment. Shenmue series creator Yu Suzuki is credited as executive producer. The first episode premiered on February 5th, 2022 on Crunchyroll and Adult Swim.
The animated Shenmue series streams worldwide outside of Japan and mainland China on Crunchyroll and aired on Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block in the United States.
The series consists of one season that has 13 episodes, which tackles Shenmue I and Shenmue II and supposedly includes story ideas that never got to put into the game either due to budget, time, or mature rating reasons.
On October 7th, 2021, an official trailer was released by Crunchyroll.
On January 19, 2022, an official trailer for the English dub and Japanese dub were released.
On September 27th, 2022, it was announced on Twitter that the show was removed from Adult Swim's website and that it was canceled. Jason DeMarco on Twitter said that the show did well enough that they were gearing up for Season Two, and says that it might still happen one day. [1]
In an May 2024 Interview with Yu Suzuki, he said that it was his understanding that only Season One had ever been planned for the anime. Season One was developed in conjunction with Sega, since they own the rights to the first two Shenmue games. Since the rights to Shenmue III are owned by Suzuki's company YS Net, their involvement would be needed. He said that the decision for a Season Two would be up to Sega, since the original Shenmue IP is owned by them, and that he'd cooperate if he was approached about it. [2]
Characters and Cast[]
- Ryo Hazuki - Masaya Matsukaze (Japanese) / Austin Tindle (English)
- Lan Di - Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese) / Scott Gibbs (English)
- Iwao Hazuki - Takayuki Sugo (Japanese) / Luis Galindo (English)
- Shenhua Ling - Haruka Terui (Japanese) / Natalie Rial (English)
- Shigeo Yamagishi - Junichi Sugawara (Japanese) / Carl Masterson (English)
- Chai - Yoshimitsu Shimoyama (Japanese) / Greg Ayres (English)
- Liu Gong Hui - Toshihide Tsuchiya (Japanese) / Seán Patrick Judge (English)
- Nozomi Harasaki - Haruka Fushimi (Japanese) / Cat Thomas (English)
- Masayuki Fukuhara - Satoru Ito (Japanese) / Ben McLaughlin (English)
- Ine Hayata - Mayumi Karyou (Japanese) / Joanne Bonasso (English)
- Tom Johnson - Akihiro Tajima (Japanese) / Shannon Reed (English)
- Akio Enoki - Takahiro Sumi (Japanese) / Joe P. (English)
- Tetsuya Nagashima - Hiroaki Okuda (Japanese) / Scott D. Forsyth (English)
- Mingyang Lei - Takaaki Torashima (Japanese) / Jeran Ugokwe (English)
- Charlie Grant - Kentaro Ito (Japanese) / Blake Shepard (English)
- Tony Abrams - Hiroaki Okuda (Japanese) / Mike Yager (English)
- Smith Bradley - Akihiro Tajima (Japanese) / Malcolm Farrell (English)
- Gaowen Xie - Mari Hino (Japanese)
- Guizhang Chen - Ryuichi Kijima (Japanese) / Jeremy Gee (English)
- Master Chen - Hidenari Ugaki (Japanese) / John Swasey (English)
- Terry Ryan - Takahiro Sumi (Japanese) / Jovan Jackson (English)
- Goro Mihashi - Hayato Kimura (Japanese) / James Marler (English)
- Mai Sawano - Mari Hino (Japanese) / Juliet Simmons (English)
- Mark Kimberly - Akihiro Tajima (Japanese) / Orlanders Jones (English)
- Xiuyu Xia - Kozue Saitō (Japanese) / Allison Sumrall (English)
- Joy - M.A.O (Japanese) / Luci Christian (English)
- Wuying Ren - Osamu Taira (Japanese) / Cody House (English)
- Wong - Shouta Hayama (Japanese) / Bryson Baugus (English)
- Dou Niu - Takahiro Sumi (Japanese) / Joe Daniels (English)
- Yuan - Tomohiro Yamaguchi (Japanese) / Blake Jackson (English)
- Shuqin Zhang - Fukushi Ochiai (Japanese) / Mark Ivy (English)
List of Episodes[]
| Ep.No. | Episode Name | Air Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thunderbreak | February 6th, 2022 |
| 2 | Daybreak | February 13th, 2022 |
| 3 | Yin Yang | February 20th, 2022 |
| 4 | Shackles | February 27th, 2022 |
| 5 | Equal | March 6th, 2022 |
| 6 | Dignified | March 13th, 2022 |
| 7 | Future | March 20th, 2022 |
| 8 | Aspiration | March 27th, 2022 |
| 9 | Distinct | April 3rd, 2022 |
| 10 | Comeback | April 10th, 2022 |
| 11 | Entangled | April 17th, 2022 |
| 12 | Guidepost | April 24th, 2022 |
| 13 | Shenmue | May 1st, 2022 |
References[]
Gallery[]
Artwork[]
Screenshots[]
