Late last week I celebrated my 32nd birthday and I
kicked it off with a film that came out when I was nine—Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.
This was my one of my earliest anime experiences which I
discovered the anime boom of 1995-1996 kicked off with Ronin Warriors, Eagle Riders (Gatchaman II), Samurai Pizza Cats, Dragon
Ball, Robotech, and Sailor Moon
on UPN and Cartoon Network showing G-Force
(Gatchaman) and Speed Racer in
the same period.
When I finally got to see The Animated Movie I remember it was after going to 3rd Avenue
Video with my dad and brother and getting that, Tecmo Football (my dad got that damn game every time we went), and Cool Spot (I got that game all the time)
on Genesis.
Reading the back cover on the way home I was getting
stoked about what fights would be in the movie. Not even the storyline itself I
just wanted Ryu vs. Sagat and everything else was a bonus. What I got in the
first six minutes set the pace for everything.
First Ryu fights Sagat on a field during a storm. Sagat
is my favorite street fighter and in this he isn’t really done justice since he
gets fed to Ryu in the first five minutes—see Street Fight II V for a better depiction of Sagat. This first fight
was mainly to measure Ryu’s fighting potential as M. Bison really wants Ryu.
Now this is something I LOVE about battle anime/martial arts anime: technology and systems
are mainly based around measuring someone’s fight potential or power level. In Dragon Ball Z you had scouters which had
a maximum power level ceiling during the Saiyan Saga apparently.
In Pokemon trainers
are ranked. In Naruto there’s a rating system. Also in martial arts anime and
fighting games there’s a thing with robots out to fight human fighters and
someone’s manufacturing them: Mortal
Kombat, Fatal Fury, Street Fighter II, Tekken, and Dragon Ball Z.
Not only do we have Ryu and Sagat in the first six minutes, we get Cammy killing a
politician by breaking his neck then going on to make sure the politician’s
security detail don’t earn their money.
Almost 40 minutes in and we get Ken vs. T. Hawk, Ryu vs.
Fei Long, and E. Honda vs. Dhalsim. Of those three, the best fight was Ryu vs.
Fei Long. It was short, but it was fast paced purely based on speed which was
different from Ryu vs. Sagat which was power.
Ryu vs. Fei Long was mostly hands and feet flying with
Ryu breaking collecting Fei Long’s arm like he was Dean Malenko. Fei Long
should’ve been out, but continued and picked up the pace against him. It was my
second favorite fight of the movie.
Fights after these were Dee Jay beating up some scrubs in
the street after kicking them out of a club—he was just in there barefoot—then
beat up some dudes who probably touched the jukebox. There was also Blanka vs.
Zangief in Las Vegas at a party held by Balrog…which no one cared about.
With Shadowloo carrying on about finding fighters to
serve them and hunting Ryu, they find Ken as a likely match to at least beat Ryu
while MI6 is still hot on their trail and trying warn fighters. It is during
this time M. Bison is perving on live footage of Chun Li after her and Guile go
to warn Dee Jay. He sends Vega after her and it results in the best fight in the movie.
Chun Li’s taking a shower then goes to settle in for a
night of music in her apartment and wait for investigation partner Guile. Vega
breaks into the room and watches her before springing his attack!
This fight was very similar to Ryu vs. Fei Long in it was
all speed and agility, but it was more intense because Vega was coming for her
life while Ryu and Fei Long were just having an exhibition bout in a fighting
den. After getting cut up by the Spanish assassin’s claws she sees her own
blood, picks up a sofa, and flings it at Vega, staggering him.
Some moments later after Guile gets to her apartment
after not getting a call back from Chun Li, she puts him through a wall with the Lightning Kick, sending him falling to what
should be his death. It’s one of my
all time favorite anime fights because of how quick and condensed it is while
keep the intensity.
This is a movie
so it’s not going to be a lot of standing around and talking and explaining
what a move does and going into childhood trauma—thank fucking goodness—but it’s
still paced as a straight forward fight. Even if the fight was in a series it
wouldn’t be several episodes long.
Due to her injuries, she’s put in the hospital and Guile
vows revenge. Ken has a run in with M. Bison after dropping off Eliza and falls
prey to his PSYCHO POWER. The movie continues towards the end where Guile finds
Ryu staying on top of a mountain with E. Honda—who he met in India during the
fight between Honda and Dhalsim. He is there to warn him only for M. Bison to
show up having tailed him.
Brainwashed and under M. Bison’s control Ken and his
cooler than M. Bison’s cape show up to fight Ryu and bring him in. This leads
to the fight showdown of the movie in Ryu, Guile, and E. Honda vs. M. Bison,
Ken, and Balrog. Guile’s really no match for M. Bison’s PSYCHO POWER, E. Honda
and Balrog is a hoss fight and they end up tumbling off the edge of a mountain,
while Ken and Ryu are evenly matched…only because Ryu doesn’t want to bury his
foot to the ankle in Ken’s ass.
Eventually Ken remembers that Ryu is his best friend
through flashbacks from their training. Pissed, M. Bison uses his PSYCHO POWER
to toss Ken…probably off the mountain or in the distance. Pallet swap Ryu
definitely flew over a ridge and it should’ve been to his death, but he just
busted his leg. So he crawled back to where Ryu is fighting M. Bison.
In the final moments Ken draws on his training and
mastery of fighting spirit to recover and join Ryu. M. Bison still can’t be
fucked with and he’s blocking all their attacks. Like Ryu is throwing DBZ-speed rush punches and M. Bison not
only dodges them, he headslams Ryu then baseball slides through him and Ken.
M. Bison gets a little cocky and Ken and Ryu double team
him before hitting him with that double Hadouken and sending him into his
Shadowloo jet which explodes Team Rocket style. PSYCHO POWER was no match for Shotokan
Karate.
After that everything is gravy. Good triumphs over evil,
Shadowloo is shutdown, Chun Li is playing games having Guile thinking she dead,
and Balrog is apparently dead because E. Honda came back. Ryu and Ken say their
goodbyes and agree to meet up again. M. Bison survived the Hadouken and is
about to run Ryu down with that same CAPCOM truck that almost hit Ken and Eliza
earlier in the movie but Ryu is ready for it.
The end theme even asks “ARE YOU READY?!!” before going
into Korn’s Blind.
All in all this was a great piece of old school early 90s
anime and one of the best things Manga Entertainment came out with at the time
that didn’t have AKIRA, Ghost in the
Shell, or Ninja Scroll in the
title. The story wasn't deep or anything, but it's up there with Dragon Ball Z and Fist of the North Star as far as high octane anime goes.
I definitely suggest checking it out for a history refresher and it’s
essential if you’re a huge Street Fighter
fan. For a better alternative I also recommend Street Fighter II V which is more of a
series version of the film only taking place during a break from young Ken and
Ryu’s training.
M. Swift is a long time wrestling fan. When he's not writing about wrestling history and other stuff he is often writing short sci-fi stories, listening to heavy metal, and playing RPGs.
Follow @metalswift
M. Swift is a long time wrestling fan. When he's not writing about wrestling history and other stuff he is often writing short sci-fi stories, listening to heavy metal, and playing RPGs.
Follow @metalswift
We need more reviews from metal. I need more articles from this man especially old anime reviews.
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