Yeah, Ryo isn’t the only one missing something. It feels like a whole bunch of people missing are something in this show. Or maybe this episode is because it felt like a slightly bigger slog then usual. Maybe that could be from how unfocused it is or how hard the show nailed some of its elements down and how obvious some things kind of were. But the experience was fun with some more cast members appearing and just the show just having random martial artists all over it in normal places that a person usually would expect. Either way, I find so many female martial artist living in Hong Kong to be pretty cool.
Oh, I get why the episode didn’t click with me. I think the whole idea of it felt too sledge hammery. I mean, Ryo being desperate to search out another martial artist to find another Wude does make sense because he’s a giant himbo. A himbo that seems to gather people to him for his own quest. So it is interesting to see Joy and our scammer Wong trying to help him discover something new even if he can’t see anything that’s in front of him either. So him discovering a Wude from the old lady he didn’t help out with its lesson of jumping in to fight injustice is a pretty cliche action hero one and that is the point.
But Fangmei and Xuiying going on their shopping trip and then helping a young boy and girl being attacked by mobsters was a good moment for her though. It did contextualize Xuiying refusing people who fight for revenge. So of course she won’t help Ryo until he understands his own quest is based on the flames of revenge. It makes sense and it must have something to do with Xuiying’s own story that we haven’t seen yet. We’ve also seen how powerful she is because not many people in Shenmue have had an aura yet. With Xuiying sharing what she thinks Ryo is missing, how will he approach that next episode? Consider it nothing or push forward anyways?
Then there is that connection between Fangmei and Ryo that is very simple and kind of fun in its own way. I mean, Fangmei is the adorable girl character who is as straight forward as Ryo and is such a straight shooter, but I think she and Fangmei ending up understanding each other at some level is pretty cool too. A very easy arc that doesn’t feel like it weights anything, but I am ok with this one because it provides a moral choice for Ryo coming in to the next episode. Will Ryo ignore Xuiying’s attempted lessons and try to find his own route by reading the book Fangmei mentioned or try to understand himself more? We all know that answer, but I want to see how it will play out.
See you guys next episode!
Mechanical Anime Reviews 