The worlds of video games and anime go together like peanut butter and chocolate with crossovers a-plenty between the two mediums. When it comes to anime franchises hitting the video game world, we’ve seen entries for Dragon Ball, One Piece, My Hero Academia, and more taking the world by storm. On the flip side, anime adaptations of popular games such as Castlevania, Devil May Cry, and Persona are only a handful of examples of video games bringing their stories to the anime medium. One of the greatest examples of this mixture of worlds happens to involve one of Capcom’s biggest franchises and we’re more than happy to break down why.
Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie feels like the perfect adaptation of the original fighting game story. The original story of what is considered by many to be one of the greatest fighting game sequels is a loose one. While the big bad of the story, M. Bison, is attempting to take over the world with his empire known as Shadaloo, the brawlers themselves are all attempting to make their unique dreams come true. What the animated movie does with its runtime is unite several of the key fighters under “one roof” and fight against Bison and his four kings. Speaking of fights…
I hold a special place in my heart for the opening fight of Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie. The movie begins with a battle between Ryu and Sagat, documenting how the former was able to give the latter the striking scar on his chest. The choreography in this one-on-one immediately lets you know what you are getting into and for me, it is a battle that feels like the pinnacle of both mediums involved here. The direction, tension, and sheer coolness factor of seeing Ryu fight against this titanic Muay Thai fighter works so well to kick things off. Firing off a fireball might seem unbelievable and often times ridiculous when you see it pixelated but the work that production house Group TAC does with the movie creates a build-up that proves why Ryu might be the strongest world warrior of them all.
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Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention another legendary fight from the anime adaptation and I’m not referring to that of the grand finale featuring Ryu, Ken, and Guile teaming up to fight M. Bison. Chun-Li’s fight against Vega in her apartment is perhaps the most recognizable fight from the film, still making the rounds thanks to its choreography and the impeccable use of a rocking track from band KMFDM. Much like the Ryu/Sagat introduction, the Chun-Li/Vega fight ratchets up the tension while showing off the skills of both fighters in a cramped location. While Ryu’s fireball was given its due, the same could definitely be said for Chun-Li’s lightning kick that she employs to send Vega spiraling out a wall.
The story itself doesn’t win any awards for breaking the mold or presenting the psychological implications of dedicating your life to the street but it doesn’t need to. For something like Street Fighter, the movie only needs a solid enough reason to get these characters together and send them on a path to begin fighting one another in dynamic ways. Bison himself is deliciously evil, taking home the cake for my favorite interpretation of the villain this side of Raul Julia.
There have been other anime adaptations of Street Fighter, including the Street Fighter Alpha films and the television series, but none managed to walk the fine line between cheese and bone-breaking brutality in quite the same way as the animated movie. Luckily, if you haven’t witnessed the hard-hitting spectacle of the Capcom anime adaptation, it’s available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Retro Crush, and many other platforms.
Want to see what the future holds for the World Warriors in the anime realm? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for all the latest on the animated adventures of Street Fighter and other video game anime adaptations and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
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