English Dub Review: Shenmue the Animation “Yin-Yang”

Overview

Ryo finally finds a person who can read Yuanda Zhu’s letter, which translates to “Find Master Chen for help”. Ryo later finds Master Chen and discovers that his full name is Chen Yaowen of the Chinese dealer company Jiu Feng Co. and asks him about Lan Di, the man who murdered his Father…

Our Take

This show is a bit of a refresher for a fan like me in terms of helping me understand the story of Shenmue in a more coherent and condensed way than ever before while providing more depth. There are a lot of differences from the games, such as how Ryo finds out about the handguard family crest and talking with Oishi, along with what the keyhole actually leads to in the dojo.

In the original game, we also didn’t really find out much about who Master Chen actually is. Now, we discover how everything slowly ties together. There also seems to be a subplot regarding Chen’s son Guizhang who has a strange father/son dynamic where his father doesn’t even wanna be called “Father” for some reason. But is still willing to help Ryo in his quest to put the pieces together after a brief & violent encounter with Chai who almost tried to steal Ryo’s so-called Plot-McGuffin away.

Overall, this episode felt better than the other two. Better pacing, with respect to the original source material on a consistent basis. If I had one complaint, it would be about the conversation between Mai and Nozomi about how they wish they had a “secret room” which inspired the proverbial lightbulb to go off in Ryo’s head regarding the possibility of a secret room in the Hazuki dojo which just seemed like a bit of a stretch. At the very least I’m left wanting more and that’s all that matters in a compelling mystery.