English Dub Review: Shenmue the Animation “Future”

Overview

After finally stepping into Hong Kong, Ryo coincidentally finally finds the martial arts master Lishao Tao, who easily defeats him and tells him to go home. Thinking he lost because he does not have enough strength, Ryo goes around Hong Kong to find another Martial Artist…

Our Take

Picking up immediately from twist from the last episode, Ryo encounters Lishao Tao but things don’t completely go his way since she wants his ass out after defeating him in a match, but Master Liu Hanhui advises Ryo to master the 4 Wude (pronounced “Wuda”) before going any further, leading to him going to Guang Martial Arts School, and meeting Master Xuan Zhoushan who happily welcomes Ryo, though it’s a pass as the reason that is this so-called martial arts philosophy called the “Wude” claimed someone’s life…

But with Joy’s help, he finds a rugged street performer by the name of Zongquan, and right there and there he performs an improvised street act, but the like the Man Mo Temple master also gives him a pass (though he knows clearly what’s going on as the performer is the very same former disciple whom Master Zhoushan banished), but during Ryo’s experiences, he starts to gain a deeper understanding to proceed further.  And later on, we learn that Lishao Tao isn’t even her real name…

Overall, this was a decent episode. It also was nice that Ryo was sort of the mediator between Zongquan and Zhoushan since they both had been blaming themselves but now gained closure towards one another, but his quest to discover the “4-Wude” is far from over.  You can feel the videogame mechanics at work in this episode. with the plot being in line with having to track down specific NPCs, completing side quests, etc. It’s handled in such a way that this is probably more entertaining than watching an actual game playthrough on youtube. In a separate subplot aside from Ren attempting to find Ryo, It’s also funny how Joy is so interested in Ryo but he keeps not getting the message because he’s so laser-focused on his motives. But that remains to be seen in later episodes…