Introduced my all new badass "Fightin' Marathon" logo, for future Game reviews as well as some non-game fightin'-related stuff~
*note: I will edit and add this logo on already-uploaded F'M stuff.
Movie: Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
Directed by Gisaburō Sugii/Group TAC
Release date 1994
Genre Anime
Country Japan
The year was 1994, Capcom was at the high of its popularity, Street Fighter was the kind of arcade cabinets... Naturally, every Street Fighter related piece of merchandising was selling mad. So logically Capcom started to adapt its franchise into other medias.
A live Street Fighter movie was released (with Van Damme), an all-american cartoon was made (Street Fighter the Animated series) as well as an anime TV series (Street Fighter II V)...and this animated movie from the studio Group TAC.
(we'll probably end up talking about some of those at later points....in future posts..)
Street Fighter II The Animated Movie is basically a literal adaptation of SF2's storyline into an 1 hour and ~40 minutes original "animated movie", as the title clearly implies.
It really respects the original source material and uses it entirely. You'll see most SF2 characters fighting, using their own trademark moves, Shadoloo trying to conquer the world (of course!), Ryu as the main character, Chun-Li and Guile as major characters in the plot, etc..etc..
And once more, you'll see this classic/familiar scene in case you forgot who did that mark to Sagat.
The story starts off with the ending of Street Fighter 1. Ryu defeats Sagat for the title of the first Street Fighter tournament.
In a very dynamic and well choreographed fight scene, might I add.
Opening credits.
Then from that point, Ryu will be travelling across the world, seeking new challengers and to perfect his training.
The story, mostly told through Ruy's point of view, also shows us Guile and Chun-Li co-operating to track down and defeat Shadoloo's empire. (Shadowlaw/Shadolaw/Shadowloo? so many alternative spelling for such a simple word...)
Also, Bison is sending his main guys, the SF2 sub-bosses Sagat, Balrog, Vega, after the good guys...
This all ends up with a fight, I mean fights. Ryu vs Ken... Vs. Bison...
I won't spoil the little details, but there's nice twists here and there.
All in all, it's a pretty violent, dark and faithful adaptation.
Very well done and animated, everything I always loved about 90s anime-movies! (Yeah, I kinda find 2000s anime to be kinda...bland...)
Overall, it's a pretty amazing animated adaptation for Street Fighter! Without dragging in this review the other movies/adaptations, this is one of the better ones. Forget the animated SF2V series with its little liberties in the plot & design. Forget the american cartoon with its pretty low quality animation and ugly designs.
If you want to see a good Street Fighter movie or a well animated/drawn SF adaptation, this is something you should definitively check out!
I have the movie on a french DVD I bought so many years ago...
I only watch it in japanese every time (with subtitles). It wasn't edited, nor cut, it's the original japanese version as it was intended to be and as it was originally released.
It seems, from what I've seen around, the Americans have a lot of different cuts, edited cuts, and finding the perfect version might be a bit difficult. It is a pretty violent/R Rated animated movie afterall, and I imagine that Americans would like to cut it here and there like they seem to do pretty often with animes...
So try to inform yourself on the version you might end up buying!
(in Europe, the movie doesn't seem to have been edited in many countries, so simply import a brit' release! 'nuff said~)
Finally, let me say that the fact that this movie is pretty faithful to the original game might turn out to be a little problem for non-fans. Afterall, it's mostly fights after fights, little plot (which is kinda far fetched), with over-the-top characters!
So this is something I recommend you to check out/watch that might not be your cup of tea depending on your own tastes in both gaming and animated flicks!
I give it:
