With the recent release of Street Fighter IV both in the arcades and on two popular home consoles (PS3 and Xbox360), I thought it might be worthwhile to take a quick glance at the several appearances of the Street Fighter franchise in the animation world. Based on my research, we are first taken back to 1994 with the release of Street Fighter II: the Animated Movie.

Appearing to have an involved plot, it utilizes a good number of the Street Fighter cast. It begins with an enticing fight between Ryu and Sagat in which we get to see the cause for Sagat's trademark scar on his chest. Everyone has their own agenda and through some interesting events, it winds down to a fight with Bison, not an unlikely villain for such a story. I won't try to spoil the plot (rather, mistype and screw it up) any further, but this would not be a waste of time to watch as it has no commitment more than the 100 minute or so running time.

Moving on in the timeline, Street Fighter II V (pronounced two vee, V is for Victory?) is a Japanese anime also based on Street Fighter II and was in fact produced by the same company that made the movie. This show aired from 1995 to 1997 with 29 episodes. As many adaptations, this one follows the basic storyline of the game, but takes some alternate routes to its final destination. This show generally revolves around the story of Ken and Ryu as they attempt to increase their strength, an adventure sparked by their loss to Jean Claude Van Damme. This show definitely includes almost all of the characters who were in the latest game available at that time (Street Fighter II Turbo), however E. Honda, Blanka, T. Hawk, and Dee Jay do not appear.

Let us fly over to America to check out the English animation series Street Fighter. It aired from 1995 to 1997 with a total of 26 episodes. This time, we followed Jean Claude Van Damme's story where he created some type of supergroup to fight evil-doers. M. Bison is once more the primary antagonist in this series. This show took a little bit more liberty in terms of the cast of characters as it began to delve into the Alpha series as it was released around this time.

Finally, we look at Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, which is obviously based on the Alpha series. This movie was released in 1999 in Japan and an English adaptation was available in 2000. In this release, Dr. Sadler was the main antagonist and the final boss of the movie. The bulk of this movie follows Ryu as he tries to save Shun, his supposed brother, from Dr. Sadler. Not much to say again - it's all in the link!

Anyway, the take-home point is that we will never forget Jean Claude Van Damme, the Belgian actor and his spin on the most American character in anything, Guile.

Written by :

masterfork