Shenmue’s Anime Is Still in Development, Toonami Exec Confirms

The story of Shenmue is one of the most interesting in the world of video games in terms of its production, with the first entry in the franchise landing on the Sega Dreamcast and the third game arriving years down the road thanks to a Kickstarter campaign created by the man who brought the series to life. With Shenmue 3 already released, the Vice President and Creative Director of Adult Swim gave fans an update that the programming block is still working on bringing the anime adaptation to life with an entry on his Twitter account.

If you’re unfamiliar with Shenmue as a property, the official description for the upcoming anime series reads as such:

“After he witnesses his father’s murder at the family dojo, Ryo dedicates his life to finding the man responsible — a mission that takes him from the streets of Yokosuka, Japan to the sprawling metropolis of Hong Kong, and beyond. Soon he’ll learn that larger, mystical forces are at play as he trains to become the ultimate martial artist in his quest for revenge,”

Jason DeMarco shared the news via his Official Twitter Account that production was still running for the Shenmue television series, which will be brought to life by director Chikara Sakurai of One-Punch Man and Naruto fame along with the animation house of Telecom Animation Film:

The video game franchise first made landfall in 1999, and while the third entry was released in 2019, the creator has stated that he hopes to continue the series long into the future. While Shenmue is just one of the latest video game anime adaptations that are in the works, there have been more similar entries than we can count such as the Persona series, Dragon’s Dogma, Castlevania, and of course the most popular of the bunch in Pokemon. With Toonami and Adult Swim creating more original anime content, such as the upcoming adaptation of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, it seems as though Shenmue will be in good company when it eventually arrives.

What video game would you like to see adapted into an anime? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of video game adaptations.