'Shenmue The Animation' Trailer Premieres at 2021 New York Comic Con (Photo : Sega/Adult Swim/Crunchyroll/Sola Entertainment (talk | contribs))
Adult Swim and Crunchyroll have revealed the first sneak peek of the anime adaptation of Sega and Yu Suzuki's iconic video game series, "Shenmue".
The anime adaption of the console-spanning video game series, called "Shenmue the Animation" will see Ryo Hazuki's revenge quest take on a new form.
The new series' first art and trailer were seen during a virtual panel on October 8 at the 2021 New York Comic Con. Chikara Sakurai will direct the new show. He has previously worked on Sailor Moon Super S The Movie, Naruto Shippuden, and One-Punch Man.
The new series is going to be developed as a collaboration between anime streaming giant Crunchyroll and Adult Swim, just like the upcoming "Blade Runner: Black Lotus" and the recently released "Fena: Pirate Princess".
At the comic-con panel, viewers saw the first image from the series, where Ryo Hazuki is depicted fighting the man who killed his father, Lan Di. However, the additional details for the series such as the release date and voice cast were not announced.
"Shenmue" was first released in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast in Japan. Yu Suzuki, the creator of arcade hits such as "Virtua Fighter", "Outrun", and "Hang On", directed the game. At that time, the director was widely recognized as one of the top game designers for Sega.
"Shenmue", an adventure/action game with an unprecedented level of interactivity and detail at that time, was supposedly the most expensive video game ever developed during its release period. Sources even claimed that it had cost more than USD 70 million to produce the game.
Though the game had sold over a million copies, it was not enough to recover the costs for development or save the Dreamcast console of Sega, and the latter was discontinued due to the increased company debts and renewed competition from the then-newcomer Microsoft as well as Nintendo and Sony.
Despite the fallbacks, the series made two sequels. 2001 saw the release of "Shenmue II", which was one of the last Dreamcast games by Sega and also one of its first Xbox games.
In 2015, the third chapter of the series was announced and Kickstarter crowdfunded the development. The game was finally launched in 2019, and despite a mixed reception and poor sales, Yo Suzuki has said that he is still planning to produce a fourth entry in the series.
The new anime trailer suggests that the show will primarily create the events of the first game. Though the series' release date is yet to be announced, it is expected to release sometime in 2022.
