Shenmue: The Animation drops a violent new trailer to reveal February debut date
Adult Swim announced in 2020 that Shenmue, the game about making friends, getting a job, and avenging the death of your father at the hands of a mysterious kung fu master, is being made into an anime. Now we've got an official debut date: The 13-episode anime will premiere on February 5.
We've also got a new trailer, and this one is more to the point than the first look we got at it in October. Ryo wins the tournament, skips the celebration, and arrives at his father's dojo just in time to see the old man get absolutely rocked by Lan Di. Ryo lips off and gets fed a triple-decker knuckle sandwich for his trouble, at which point the trailer moves into his quest for sweet revenge: To learn why his father was killed, and get some righteous payback.
As with the first trailer, this one doesn't waste time on the every-day life side of Shenmue—driving a forklift, collecting capsule toys—and instead focuses on the good stuff, which is to say people beating the shit out of each other. That seems like a solid approach to attracting an audience beyond core Shenmue fans: I haven't played any of the games, but I might be convinced to watch a cartoon—sorry, anime—of kung-fu superstars hammering one another into goo.
If you haven't played Shenmue and this trailer has you curious, this is a good time to jump in: Shenmue 3, "a seamless continuation of the series that makes up for its limitation with pure heart," is on sale on Steam for $7.50/£6/€7.50—that's 75% off—until January 24.