Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994)

[ストリートファイター II MOVIE]

Director: Gisaburo Sugii
Starring: Kojiro Shimizu, Kenji Haga, Miki Fujitani

Synopsis:
An Interpol agent teams up with an American Air Force officer to investigate the criminal syndicate Shadowloo, which is brainwashing the world's best fighters to act as assassins.

Impressions:
This movie was well-timed to cash in on Street Fighter at the height of its popularity. (The live-action effort is another story for another time.) It follows a similar pattern to fighting game adaptations before and after, with a bunch of fight scenes strung together by an excuse plot with as many cameos crammed in as possible. Honestly, I don't know why they didn't go with the original tournament plot of the game. It would have been a more organic way to string the fight scenes together. Speaking of the fight scenes, most of them are fairly well-done, with most of the budget and attention rightfully devoted to them, but more ordinary interactions tend to be on the herky-jerky side. Performances can also feel a bit stilted at times (not just the dub but in the original Japanese as well). The uneven production values may bother you. Now, while there are differences between the original and the old US release, to include rescoring and some edits for content, don't expect anything too dramatic in much ballyhooed uncensored versions. Overall, this is far from high cinema, but fans of the Street Fighter franchise and/or 90s anime should appreciate it. Give it a watch.

Rating:
Watch It