Street Fighter Zero

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Street Fighter game franchise, Group TAC released "Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation" five years after the highly fan acclaimed "Street Fighter II: The Animated movie". Many reviews have criticized this movie based on what the reviewer thought SHOULD be in the movie. Some wanted a direct adaptation of the Street fighter Alpha game storyline, other reviewers dissed the show just because some characters were not featured. This will be a true review of the movie itself, not of what i expected to be in the movie.

True to its title, Street Fighter Alpha borrows the characters, setting and the "look" of the SF Alpha series while crafting a new story separate from the games.The focus is squarely on Ryu, a martial artists haunted by the death of his master and the presence of a dark power lurking within him. As the story begins, Ryu meets up with Ken to pay respects to their deceased master, but Ryu is having trouble controlling this dark power called the "Dark Hadou" and keeps having strange visions. They encounter a boy called Shun who claims to be Ryu's long lost brother. At first skeptical, Ryu soon embraces Shun as family and trains together with the boy, who also displays formidable fighting skills. Word of a new Street fighter Tournament reaches Ryu and Ken and they intend to sign up. But little do they know that the tournament is a front for an evil scheme concocted by Dr Sadler, a top scientist for the Shadowlaw organization.

Kudos to Group TAC for trying to make a more coherent narrative with a proper emotional center. While the previous Street Fighter II The Animated movie was a stylish gritty martial arts movie, SF Alpha plays out more like a character Drama about Ryu. While we do get some insight into Ryu's inner emotional turmoil, it really is nothing original. Ryu struggling with control over the dark hadou seems ripped straight from Star Wars' Luke Skywalker and his struggle with the Dark side of the force. Also, thanks to the strict focus on Ryu, the other iconic characters are at best reduced to mere stock characters with little to no development, or just cameo appearances that add nothing to the plot. Little side stories about Sakura's obsessive tailing of Ryu and Chun Li's Shadowlaw investigation are more an easter egg treat for long time fans than newcomers.

The biggest fault of Street fighter alpha: The Animation, is the animation itself which is merely on par with a typical anime TV series of that time. If one were to expect the gritty brutality and fluid choreography of Street fighter II: The Animated movie, one would be sorely disappointed. Street Fighter Alpha's fight scenes play out like something worse than Dragonball. Fighters flying and hovering through the air constantly was probably a way to cut costs by not animating the characters running, but for some reason all the fights seem to be done in slow motion. If it was intentional, it is a poor directing choice as it quite honestly makes every single bout a total bore. If not intentional, then it was a result of cutting corners again in the animation.

Artwork is also a hit and miss. While the art does a great job of replicating the designs used in the game, the characters go off-model quite often. The best example is Chun Li's eyes which keeps changing size and even shape in different scenes. The art constantly shifts from a dark and highly detailed style to a bright flat cartoony look, sometimes in stark contrast to the scene being presented, giving the entire production a very inconsistent feel.

It is a huge pity Street fighter Alpha: The Animation turned out the way it did. There were a couple of great ideas and a lot of room for a deeper story. Too bad all that potential got totally wasted on typical anime story clichés including an uber-powered robot and landscape-destroying fireballs. Like Akuma said, "a true warrior enters the arena with ALL his powers at the ready". Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation not only fails to bring all that its got to bear, but it figuratively pulls its punches and ends up with a mediocre final product. More effort seemed to be spent trying to cut corners in everything rather than going all out to deliver an experience as awesome as its predecessor or the games that inspired it.

What sets this film apart from others in the fighting-game-turned-anime genre us that the plot and character setup are especially important to the actual portrayal of the character. Don't expect to be able to jump into this film and like it, because you won't. If, however, you choose to watch it from the beginning and actually empathize with the characters, you will most likely enjoy yourself.

Street Fighter Alpha (the videogame) was the turning point of the street fighter universe because Ryu ceased to be the wandering, invincible (and emotionless) street fighter who is thrown into the plot by accident, and became the central character of the story, in a far more convincing fashion than Guile and Chun Li ever really managed in Street Fighter II. This movie is the expression of that story in film.

The fighting scenes are spectacular and the story well-paced, but in the end, if you're looking for the kind of popcorn-action flick that guys watch during frat parties, the original Street Fighter Animated Movie is much more your cup of tea (or beer). If, however, you're looking for a sensitive film which deals with the personal side of each of the characters involved, Alpha is much better.

Being a huge street fighter fan and thoroughly enjoying the previous film, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, I was really looking forward to this one!

However, it seemed that the film had no real sense of direction or purpose. Most of the characters I could not associate with and it just lacked the intense action that made the other mentioned street fighter film so superior.

There are some good points however, the Animation is superb!!!

I was disappointed after watching this movie. As a Street Fighter fan I was expecting this to show us the mother of all battle, Akuma vs. Ryu&Ken. The script writer of this movie have obviously had not play the game before, much more read the story behind the game. Where the Alpha series were suppose to be after the famous Sagat vs. Ryu battle (in SF1) and before the Street Fighter 2 tourament. This is where all the magic take place. Here is a list of what should be in the movie:

1.Ken giving Ryu the famous red headband after a sparring battle 2.Death of Charlie during a mission with his buddy Guile 3.Unfolding the mystery between the Akuma and Ken&Ryu 4.Fighting more in the style of SF2: the animated movie rather then DBZ 5.Hyper moves we use in the games 6.One of the Shotos (thats Ken or Ryu) commenting on the similiarities of Dan's fighting style (same master) (or small stuff like this thats derived from the game) 7.Chun Li hunting down Bison 8.Bison having an interest in Ryu's dark ability 9.have fights with back drops that remind us of the game stages 10.Fill the rest up with game's minor character having fights with one another 11.Showdown between Akuma and the Shoto boys

This movie is not bad, but its not a Street Fighter movie. Its like they pick up a random script and call it ST:A just to cash in from the fans.

Ok. Being an semi-anime fan for a few years, I once fell upon street fighter 2, as an animated movie it was pretty good. The drawing was top notch, and the plot made sense. Not to mention most of the fights were pretty well done. In this, street fighter zero(alpha?) I found it sucked. The drawing was nowhere near as good as SF2. The plot was crap, I mean, the kid shows up and this amazing hardcore die hard fighter dude just believes he's his little brother? What's with that? The whole dark ha-do(sorry, don't know how to spell) thing is kinda cool, but if this had been pursued as more of a sequal to SF2 using some continuity between them, not to mention better drawing in general, I would be more pleased. I can't say the movie didn't entertain me at all, I still like whatching people get beat up, but I think it lacks some of the more apealing features of most plain old let's kick some tail movies.