Garou Densetsu

This film is a continuation of the two previous Fatal Fury movies, but unlike the previous two members of the trilogy, this one is of normal length for a film and appears to have a theatre-release budget.

The time and budget were put to competent use, as no one can deny that this is the most "epic" of the three. The fight scenes are bigger and longer, the moves from the game are shown in their full glory, and you just get more and better of what you got in the first movie as well as a lot more of the sexualization of Mai from the second movie.

In raw terms, however, the plot is generic martial arts fluff. A rich man with apparently infinite money at his disposal is looking to collect a bunch of pieces of Exodia to achieve ultimate bragging rights. He has cyborg henchmen and mutant henchmen (whose eyes also glow red sometimes so they might actually be cyborg mutant henchmen).

The plot will be like water, filling any of the various containers it's put into. Characters will defy gravity for no reason, the relationship between twins will show a complete defiance of basic biological principles, and a team of martial artists that had trouble defeating the henchmen of gods will suddenly have no problem defeating the giant god itself. I would would laugh at how they turned a game about petty revenge in martial arts circles into an international action thriller of global proportions, but actually the King of Fighters series is no stranger to plots involving the saving of the world from otherworldly divine forces, so it fits.

It's a big beautiful mess, with sleek animation and all the cameo appearances from the game you could want, as well as a healthy dose of Mai Shiranui and the twins. Action anime fans and fans of SNK lore won't be disappointed with this adaptation.

Honourable Mentions: Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle (1993). I found the simplistic plot arc and marginally better character and villain development in the second movie to be much more fulfilling from an artistic standpoint, but the grand nature of this film did give it a lot more mainstream appeal.

I admit that it's hard for me to judge this seeing as how I'm not into the "Fatal Fury" series that much. Of course, when you know as much about pop culture as me, you can't help but recognize a couple characters. I at least know Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui. There were some cameos by characters who unfortunately didn't have much relevance to the story, like Duck King. Of course, it's hard to have a character with that name being taken seriously. I actually do like the romance in this movie. It does come off as pretty believable and a lot of it ends up pretty tragically.

Maybe this was in fact in the actual games, but you don't really see much romance in fighting games. Yeah, I'm such a sucker for that stuff. I admit that the animation does look pretty bad at some points. I guess old anime doesn't hold up that well. I still found the cast to be pretty likable, especially Mai Shiranui. She seriously steals every scene she's in and yeah, that is kind of because she's so amazingly beautiful. The story could have been better but as far as movies based on video games go, it was certainly better than most. ***

Yes, the inspiration for this anime movie was a video game that was basically a "Street Fighter" clone that for me was not the most entertaining fighting game ever made. Here you have character from that game in a fight with a madman that is after the armor of mars, which of course makes its wearer very strong. During the course of the adventure you get to see the fighters display their various moves and even have an appearance by a character in a castle whose part in the movie makes him nearly pointless. You get to see two of the characters fall in love and you get a somewhat bittersweet ending. They do a bunch of moves to where they yell out their special attack which is sort of like a Dragonball Z show which also helped me enjoy this one more even though I was not particularly fond of the game. The character are rather interesting too, as they add much needed depth to the characters as opposed to just a bunch of dudes fighting in tournaments. So all in all a nice anime based on a not so nice video game.

But unfortunately my fave character is not in it much, his name is Geese Howard and he is only in a few scenes. But that's a minor quibble.

The plot is about Terry Bogard falling in love with a girl named Sulia who's brother is wrecking havoc all over the world searching for a suit of armor that will make him a God. Sounds like something from an Indiana Jones movie but it works well and there's enough humor and pathos mixed in with all the mighty kicking-of-ass to keep others interested who do not like martial arts.

Of course the story could be stronger with more developments but at 95 minutes you'll be darned if you can find another animated movie or even live action that crams in so much adventure, color and light-hearted thrills into its running time.

I am a big fan of the series and of the entire Garou Densetsu/Fatal Fury franchise and I hope a sequel follows soon.

now, this is more like it. video game based animes are generally decent or awful, but i think this is the best one i've seen since street fighter 2. most of your favorite characters are in it, the story was well thought out, and the animation is top notch. by the way, to the teenage audience, hope you like the shower!!! fatal fury is one to see.