Gisaburo Sugii’s anime carrier goes way back including his role in “Astro Boy”’s original show. Together with Kenichi Imai, he wrote the script for “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie”. This film would be animated by Group TAC which was closed down at some point and distributed by Toei. 20th Century Fox released an English dubbed version of it abroad. A commercial success upon its release,” Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie” was later made into a loose adaptation known as “Street Fighter II V,” directed also by Sugii and featuring the same animation team.
This film was released in the same year as Street Fighter, which was a live-action adaptation of the game. The story of this movie involves Ryu, an experienced fighter that travels around the globe to fight other accomplished martial artists. During this time, Shadowland (a crime organization) is operated by M. Bison, who is a villain with ambitions of world domination. He’s out to get Ryu and his best friend Ken also a martial artist who wants to start settling down with his girlfriend. In addition, Chun-Li an Interpol agent and Guille a United States Air Force major are engaged in a quest for revenge against M. Bison over their loved ones who were killed by him.
The opening scene of “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie” makes it abundantly clear that this film was never meant to be a philosophical treatise on martial arts. It’s main goal is to entertain and mess around with its own stories and characters which it definitely achieves. Furthermore, it retains so much from the original work and shows the potentiality in converting video games into movies. Though it rarely offers some dramatic moments, humorous asides are well balanced with breathtaking action. World-building in the movie is reliable; there are many fights but Sugii must give breaks for interactions and banter between characters.
Additionally, the world building is one of the strong points of Street Fighter. The movie also has its downsides as far as world-building is concerned. Two main storylines take place in this film; with Ryu and Ken being the A plot while Chun-Li and Guile are on B plot all tied to M. Bison. Good from what’s shown but more character development could have been done were the film bit longer or did not occasionally divert into random digressions about some franchise characters here and there throughout the storyline.
While it is true that few of them related somehow to some parts of the script, they could have simply been omitted so that at least it would be possible for one to understand what really happened in a very full text. The film however loses its focus in these interludes since plots are mentioned which end up having no meaning at all throughout the texts. Perhaps, there was a plan for subsequent release hence teasing with interest for next series which never came making such moments meaningless too. These elements do not spoil the entire feeling of viewing but could be revised to bring even more cohesion into the play format.
Most of the popular “Street Fighter” characters appear here, but mainly, lead heroes and the main bad guy get some screen time and are the top personalities in the film. Ryu and Ken’s friendship is heartwarming as they have often displayed mutual respect for one another albeit with different destinies and personalities. While Ryu continues to keep in touch with his spirituality and martial arts skills while he travels around the world looking for worthy challengers, Ken wants to settle down with his girlfriend yet he still remembers his best friend. Chun-Li has a charm that makes her funny but also cool at the same time. She also combines well with Guile’s serious expression. M.Bison is an awesome villain who takes pleasure in being wickedly melodramatic but remains fearsome at all times. He definitely poses a real threat during combat engagements too. It also helps that voice acting on “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie” stands out both in its original Japanese language version and English dubbing
The movie’s greatest attribute is doubtless the stunning animation by Japan’s Group TAC. It is visual feast all through from “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.” With a stylish and colorful art direction that has been carefully edited and shot with Hiroaki Edamitsu’s precise cinematography, this beloved characters have never looked so good. These animated fight scenes are among the best ever put on celluloid. Top of these would be Chun-Li fighting Vega and Ryu/Ken facing M. Bison in an ultimate battle of epic proportions. Most of the fight choreography was done with input from real martial artist Kazuyoshi Ishii and professional Japanese fighter Andy Hug who work as consultants for the action sequences. There are also many fan pleasing moments as iconic moves such as Hadoken, Shoryuken and Spinning Bird Kick are thrown in to further enhance their gaming experience.
About the music, for the Japanese version, Yuji Toriyama composes the score and it includes J-pop tunes by Ryuko Shinohara, Big Life, and Alpha Lyla. For the English Dub, Cory Lerios and John D’Andrea are its composers; they used songs from famous rock bands including Korn and Alice in Chains. The two soundtracks may be different but both of them are good on their own ways. While Toriyama’s music compositions tend to be more laid-back and atmospheric, those by Lerios and D’Andrea have a grungy alternative rock-oriented feel, but also one knows when to pull-back in particular moments.
It is not a great movie per se but it is very enjoyable to watch “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie”. This film will appeal to die-hard fans of Capcom’s “Street Fighter” series as well as those that just want a fun action flick. Besides that, it is stunningly animated. It could do with some script rewrites and more screen time though many other features make up for this deficiency making it worth watching. If anything can be said about Gisaburo Sugii’s anime martial arts epic ‘Street Fighter II,’ it shows that good video game adaptations aren’t impossible.
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