The link between Virtua Fighter & Shenmue

[code l name]

There was a pretty cool discussion on GAF the other day talking about Shenmue and it's development. You can read the full thread here

Anyway one of the posters made an interesting observation about the Virtua Fighter anime and provides another link between that and what would eventually become the Shenmue series. See below;

At any rate, a friend of mine picked up 2 DVDs of some old Virtua Fighter anime for cheap some time ago and we watched some of it together. I got some really strong Shenmue vibes from it. First, one of the main recurring evil guys reminds me quite a bit of Gui Zhang, which doesn't seem at all coincidental considering that Gui Zhang's character was the original design for Lan Di (and that there's another low-ranking bad guy in the VF anime that looks fairly similar to the Saturn version of Lan Di):



And then there are fight scenes that seem eerily similar to those in Shenmue II, right down to the way they display the attack names:



Appoligies for the horrible quality screencaps. Information on this show is scarce as hell, so I had to settle for Youtube screens. (The anime itself was enjoyable if unremarkable, btw.)

I had never seen this before nor mentioned.

[Bluecast]

Pretty cool find but does make sense since Shenmue was originally a VF spinoff game and a young Akira took Ryo's spot.

[TapamN]

Haha. I have the Virtua Fighter anime DVDs myself. There's more similarities than just that. For example, there is a part that strongly resembles the whole Yellow Head Building and roof sequence.

[ShenGCH]

Pretty neat find here, dude. The one of Gui-Zhang, and the one of the person performing a [what looks like] counter elbow-assault are strikingly similar to Shenmue.

[Kiyuu]

Pretty neat find here, dude. The one of Gui-Zhang, and the one of the person performing a [what looks like] counter elbow-assault are strikingly similar to Shenmue.

Yes, that Guizhang look-alike image is neat! ;)

The Japanese in the VF anime screenshot says "Elbow Assault," while it says
"Counter Elbow Assault" in that Shenmue II screenshot.

BTW, the opening song for the 2nd season of the anime was sung by Mitsuyoshi Takenobu,
the sound director of Shenmue and the composer of the "Shenmue" main theme, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuus-x59Vog

This is another link between Shenmue and the VF anime, isn't it?

[Axm]

Wow thats really cool.

[Kiyuu]

I've just found another similarity in this video of VF anime in English:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrh87KN2RRY

The scene where young Akira trains with his grandpa reminded me of a scene in Shenmue.

[code l name]

I've just found another similarity in this video of VF anime in English:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrh87KN2RRY

The scene where young Akira trains with his grandpa reminded me of a scene in Shenmue.

Very interesting Kiyuu, thanks for expanding upon the definte links between the anime and Shenmue.

I would say Akira talking about the stars is another general link to a key element through Shenmue also. Makes you wonder doesn't it?

[Vyse Hazuky]

Well, one of the things that makes the most sense to me in VF to Shenmue similarities is that Lan Di might be Shen Hua's father, considering the relationship between Pai and Lau from VF. Of course that might not be but in terms of character to character relation it might be the most obvious.
Other theories: Sarah as Joy or Chunyan, Jacky as Ren; Jeffry as Rod Stunt and Wolf as Greg More, Dural as Baihu, Shun Di as Jianmin, Lion as Chai (at least in fighting stance haha), Aoi as Xiyuying... at least it seems to make some sort of sense. Even if very remote.

[HappyKillmore]

Wow, thats pretty interesting. I knew it was based on VF, but i never thought there were similarities like that

[TapamN]

The Japanese in the VF anime screenshot says "Elbow Assault," while it says
"Counter Elbow Assault" in Shenmue II screenshot.

Akira does the counter elbow assault in a similar fashion (freeze frame with attack name written on screen), but it's on someone else.

Well, one of the things that makes the most sense to me in VF to Shenmue similarities is that Lan Di might be Shen Hua's father, considering the relationship between Pai and Lau from VF. Of course that might not be but in terms of character to character relation it might be the most obvious.
Other theories: Sarah as Joy or Chunyan, Jacky as Ren; Jeffry as Rod Stunt and Wolf as Greg More, Dural as Baihu, Shun Di as Jianmin, Lion as Chai (at least in fighting stance haha), Aoi as Xiyuying... at least it seems to make some sort of sense. Even if very remote.

It's:

Sarah: Chunyan
Jeffrey: Rod
Wolf: Greg
Lion: Chai
Akira: Xiuying
Pai: Chen, Gui Zhang
Lau: Lan Di, Baihu
Dural/Aoi/Kage: Ryo

In the games, no one has shown to use Jacky, Kage, Shun Di, Aoi, and Taka-Arashi moves exclusively, but Ryo learns a few of their moves. For example, Ryo's Big Wheel (X+A) is Jacky's attack, Vortex Throw (Back+B) is Aoi's, and Shadow Reaper (Running Y+A) is Kage's, modified a bit. A lot of Ryo's "dodge, then attack moves" are Aoi's.

While Ryo's appearance resembles Akira the most, his fighting style is a mix of everyone, so one could say that Ryo is based off Dural (the boss character of VF, who uses the best moves from everyone). But out of the normal characters, Ryo fights closest to Kage and Aoi, who both use jujitsu like Ryo. Kage uses a made up "Hagakure" style jujitsu, and Aoi uses aiki-jujitsu.

Another BIG reference to Virtua Fighter is when, in the Japanese/European versions of Shenmue II, Ren says, "Juu nen hayain dayo," (I think that's spelled right) which is Akira's most famous win taunt. Ren says it a couple times, one of which is after handcuffed Ryo and Ren jump onto the Great View Bldg. (?) to escape Dou Niu.

[Bluecast]

Wow, thats pretty interesting. I knew it was based on VF, but i never thought there were similarities like that

Technically it is VF as it was VF at one point the game WAS VF even in the saturn footage at that point was still a VF spinoff game starring a teenage Akira before Yu changed his name to Ryo and all the character names.

[Vyse Hazuky]

[quote="TapamN
It's:

Sarah: Chunyan
Jeffrey: Rod
Wolf: Greg
Lion: Chai
Akira: Xiuying
Pai: Chen, Gui Zhang
Lau: Lan Di, Baihu
Dural/Aoi/Kage: Ryo

In the games, no one has shown to use Jacky, Kage, Shun Di, Aoi, and Taka-Arashi moves exclusively, but Ryo learns a few of their moves. For example, Ryo's Big Wheel (X+A) is Jacky's attack, Vortex Throw (Back+B) is Aoi's, and Shadow Reaper (Running Y+A) is Kage's, modified a bit. A lot of Ryo's "dodge, then attack moves" are Aoi's.

While Ryo's appearance resembles Akira the most, his fighting style is a mix of everyone, so one could say that Ryo is based off Dural (the boss character of VF, who uses the best moves from everyone). But out of the normal characters, Ryo fights closest to Kage and Aoi, who both use jujitsu like Ryo. Kage uses a made up "Hagakure" style jujitsu, and Aoi uses aiki-jujitsu.[/quote]

I wasn't really thinking of fighting styles (except maybe for Lion/Chai) but more of what each character reminded me more of. Especially since.. I believe at least since they were making VF3 they concentrated on making VF more of a fighting simulator, with more and more fighting styles, rather than a backstory to what would be Shenmue. I don't expect to find in shenmue 3 any characters inspired on VF4 onwards.
Now that i'm thinking about it.. Aoi looks a lot like Niao Sun.

[Miles Prower]

The only ones we can really be sure of, i.e. who was who in VFRPG are;
Chunyan= Sarah
Greg= Wolf
Rod= Jeffry

It seems reasonably likely that Lau had Lan Di's role, but I don't know where Pai would fit in if that was the case. Its also worth noting that Akira's father is mentioned as being alive and well in each of his bios for each VF game...who knows, maybe the plot was entirely different.

Anyway, in regards to the VF anime, that's actually really interesting. I was considering getting the DVD's and I think this has sort of pushed me to do so

[Bluecast]

Some forget the project berkley vid where Ryo (then Akira) had Akira's wristbands on.
Not to mention how the hair and their appearance is all to similar.