The comic was drawn by the Muecas team, which consisted of actual Shenmue project members.
Actually, アニィたかはし (Anii Takahashi) who drew the comic was not an official Shenmue project team member, but one of us, Shenmue fans. Muecas-dan was formed by the official Shenmue team to communicate with fans and the fans who contributed to their web magazine were acknowledged as Muecas-dan members. Anii-san was the first fan who got the honor and awarded #011 as a Muecas-dan member. Myself got #023, btw. ;-)

Here's the last Muecas magazine and you can find the member list in the left column:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130829034029/http://www.shenmue.com/muecas.html

Anii-san who was an amateur cartoonist back then now has become professional and even published a comic book like this:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/asin/4865370323/tavel-22/

Ha ha, how great to have been able to interact with the staff members like that. It's probably a part of the Shenmue history that non-Japanese fans may not be so familiar with.
Japanese Shenmue fans had been interacting with the Shenmue team even before the release of the first game. The Shenmue BBS was opened for the fans one year prior to the release of the game, which was often visited by the staff members to interact with. Apparently, the development team had been heeding the voices on the BBS, and some of the fans dreams had been materialized in the game; feeding the cat, finding a cockroach in the kitchen. :lol: If you are interested in the history of Shenmue BBS, check out this page of Felicity-san, a legendary Shenmue fan:

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Domino/2061/shenmue/bbs/

I've put up a translation of an article on my blog which is about the AM2 Summer Festival, an event held in Tokyo in early September of 2001. The event was attended by Yu Suzuki and helped to promote the soon-to-be-released Shenmue II.
That was really a wonderful event; a big Shenmue fan gathering in an intimate atmosphere. Since the festival in Tokyo was held several days before the release of Shenmue II, it practically was the Shenmue II launch celebration. Yu-san, the casts and the fans shared the happiest moment together. I got my Shenmue II guide signed by all the main casts who were so friendly. Though I wasn't able to get an autograph of Yu-san, I shook hands with him. The biggest day in my Shenmue history. 16 years since then? ... time flies!

Interested to know if people find the video amusing, or too over the top?
Good job, as always, Switch-san! Those fast nonsense conversations must have given you headaches.
It's a shame they wrote "2000" instead of "2001" as the year. Also, I wonder why Dou Niu's narration which was heard at the event had been removed from the final product. :???:

Anyway, that slapstick video gave the audience an explosive laugh at the festival. Good old days...

I can imagine how fun it must have been to watch it at the event. The energy and craziness of the video is great, and the two actors really have a good rapport.
It really was fun. They could succeed as a "Manzai (comic dialogist) duo," don't you think? :lol:

So the year "2000" was just a pure mistake, wasn't it - seems like it would have been easy to notice though.
Indeed. They must have been so rushed and didn't take much time to proofread, I guess.

And I had been wondering about why Dou Niu was given credit in the video - so he did some live narration at the event? I thought he might perhaps have been the voice of the interviewer or something as well.
As you see, his name appears on the same screen with "First, please view this" caption, right after the introduction. I believe he started giving narration there. I don't remember how often he narrated in the video unfortunately, as the event was the only chance when I heard his narration. The interviewer should be Hagiwara-san, though he may sound a bit different; too serious for him.

And thank you for your help in getting those names correct in the credits section!
It's my pleasure to help with your devoted work. Thank you for your immediate correction!

im still looking for the guy that gives the move scrolls? where is he exactly??

Thats what I want to know.
Do you mean the Lucky Hit where you could win those move scrolls, right?
You can get there through a narrow path at the bottom of the stairs in Dragon St.
near the Chinese fiddler. It's on your right-hand side when you look up the stairs.

this time I'll only be playing an in-game day each day, no more, no less. If time skips forward for Ryo, then I am not allowed to play Shenmue until the realtime day and ingame day sync up again. Anyone wanting to join me is welcome--although I understand why it may not be super appealing of a playthrough.

Since today is the day that Iwao Hazuki died, I'll be starting today. (although there's not much to play today haha)

I'll also be keeping a personal journal entry of everything that happens in game.
That's exactly the way we played the first game 13 years ago as you see here:

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19679&start=15

I see many old faces joining in the game there. Memories...