Crunchyroll and Adult Swim announce Shenmue the Animation

At the Virtual Crunchyroll Expo today, Crunchyroll and Toonami’s Adult Swim announced that Shenmue the Animation, an anime adaptation of the Sega franchise, is in the works.

This third collaboration between Crunchyroll and Adult Swim will bring the Sega Dreamcast game back into the spotlight, this time as a 13-episode series.

Telecom Animation Film, a subsidiary of TMS Entertainment known for Lupin the Third: Part 5 and Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation, is working on the anime production.

Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki will work as Executive Producer, joining director Chikara Sakurai (from One-Punch Man Season 2).

According to Anime News Network, Sola Entertainment is in charge of production management.

For those who may not be familiar with the franchise, Shenmue is an action-adventure, life and social simulator game follows the life of Ryo Hazuki. He wants to know who is responsible for his father’s death. Sega released the first two games in 1999 and 2001 in Japan, and in North America in 2000 and 2001. The third game in the series, Shenmue III, was produced by Yu Suzuki’s company, YsNet, after succeeding in a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of the game, launching the game in 2019.

TMS Entertainment became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings in 2010.

More details about Shenmue the Animation will be announced at a later date.

Check out the interview with Yu Suzuki tomorrow Saturday at crunchyrollexpo.com.

You heard right https://t.co/Rj6t9loAYG

— Kyle Cardine@Otakon (@Kyle_Cardine) September 5, 2020

[Sources]: Crunchyroll: Shenmue Anime Announced as Crunchyroll and Adult Swim Production. Anime News Network: Crunchyroll, Adult Swim Announce Shenmue Anime Series.