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.

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Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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