Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

"Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie" is an anime that packs everything you could ever wish for in a Street Fighter-anime, and it is everything that the movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme should have been. I think of myself as a fan of the glorious Street Fighter videogames, and especially the original Street Fighter II videogame. This movie brings you brilliant martial-art-sequences and it really captures the atmosphere of the videogame. Pretty much all of SFII`s characters appear in this movie, and although Ryu and Ken are the main characters, every character from the game that is present here gets to fight. An excellent musical score is also worth noticing. This is in my opinion the finest pure martial-art-anime available today. This movie`s intro, where Ryu fights Sagat, is probably the best intro ever for an anime, and it really makes you expect an extraordinary film, and this movie more than delivers. Everyone with an interest in action-anime will love this, and it is completely perfect for the fans of the videogame-series. So, if you fancy watching an anime where you get to see old favorites such as Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li go head-to-head in explosive battles against villains such as Balrog, Vega and Bison, then this is your movie.

10/10

When I first bought this film, I bought it for two reasons: it's based on the popular video game (of which I play often) and I wanted to start off my own collection of anime films. I probably would have trashed it right away because the live-action film version of the video game wasn't that great, but after watching my newly bought anime, I actually enjoyed it. The people who made SF2TAM managed to keep the movie faithful to the video game it was based upon and managed to fit every character into it in one shape or another. The characters themselves are portrayed the way they should be and the fights were well drawn. Worth watching if you're a fan of the series and even if you're not, do watch this film. It's a good movie on its own right.

Viewed on: Amazon Prime Video.

Adaptation of the popular fighting game franchise of the same name, it follows a wandering warrior known as Ryu (the "face" of the franchise) as he's hunted down by the villainous M. Bison (series long villain & usual endboss in the games, here he heads off a terrorist organization known as Shadaloo that is capturing powerful "street fighters" & brainwashing them into supersoldiers). Interpol & the U. S. military (represented by series regular good guys Chun-Li & Guile) involve themselves by trying to warn Ryu before he's endangered.

It doesn't have a deep narrative, and it probably won't appeal to anyone not already familiar with the games, but if you do fall into the fan base there's a lot to like here. Ryu's wandering nature provides ample opportunities for most (if not all) of the playable characters of the time to make an appearance, most of which are involved in at least one scuffle. The fights themselves (as well as the true to the game character design) are expertly animated & detailed, with weighty, crunchy impacts that hit hard. The infamous Chun-Li shower scene is another plus (& uncensored on my viewing platform of choice), and is directly followed up by the most tense confrontation in the entire film.

I haven't played a Street Fighter game in twenty years, so I didn't approach "The Animated Movie" expecting spot-on character treatments, backstories, etc. The story on this thing's fairly nonsensical, everyone's either a mercenary or government op. But it does benefit from great production values; this looks damn good. And no one comes to this expecting anything deep, I mean it's full of 'roided out physiques squaring off against each other. It's whether or not the movie delivers on the fight scenes, which are top-notch (especially the tense Vega/Chun Li face-off). I imagine that, were I a more devoted fan of the games, I would've given a rip about the story. But again, fights and quality animation are the focus. My only gripe with the U.S. version are the songs, none of which fit (Korn, seriously?).

Scratch that, I've got one more gripe. Internet lore tells of an extended Chun Li shower scene, the juicy parts of which were missing here. Manga Entertainment apparently forgot that "sex and violence" is a package deal. You put that T&A back where it belongs! Are we really pretending teens aren't this movie's target audience?

6/10

Street fighter the animated movie is a well animated fight fest that serves as a superior companion piece to the revolutionary fighting game on which this anime is based .

Its silly plot is full of holes and would make little sense to a non street fighter fan but not to worry, the story is merely an excuse for street fighter characters to dragon punch and shin kick the hell out of each other, and its in this department that the film delivers on a huge scale.

The battles that these characters have are truly incredible to watch! Well thought out, well animated and just astounding to gawk at, they work just as well as the best live action fight sequences out there. The two stand out fights are a masterfully executed battle between Chun li and Vega that will make your jaw drop and the final climatic battle of the film which wraps everything up in an adrenalin pumping fashion .The animated fighting on display here more than makes up for the films faults like its annoyingly slow establishing shots that seem to go on forever.

Street fighter the animated movie is first-rate animated action that does its source material justice and allows you to contemplate on how good that garbage live action version could have been.

Knowledge gives this : 4 out of 5 (It makes me want to throw fireballs baby!)