The Shenmue anime gets its first trailer

Shenmue III

Shenmue III sees the eagerly anticipated continuation of the epic story-driven saga. Take control of Ryo Hazuki, a teenage martial artist, determined to unravel the mystery behind his father's murder and to exact revenge on the killer.

We've known for a while that One Punch Man director Chikara Sakurai and producer Yu Suzuki were working together to bring us a Shenmue anime, and now we've got our first look at the Cruncyroll/Adult Swim production in action - and it looks pretty decent!

With an understandable focus on the action of the series rather than its more ponderous moments where star Ryo Hazuki feeds a kitten or goes for a long walk at night across town so he can play Hang-On, it's a high energy look at the world of Shenmue as established in the first three games. Indeed, there are several memorable moments such as Ryo's encounter with Lan Di as well as his arrival in Hong Kong, as seen at the start of Shenmue 2.

Will this anime give fans the closure they've been waiting so long for? After the much-anticipated Shenmue 3 also ended on a cliffhanger, there's been murmurings the story might wrap in a medium outside of video games - but to be honest, I'm happy for Ryo to be in pursuit of his father's murderer for as long as possible if it means we get some more sweet Shenmue action.

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