Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle

Original Title: バトルファイターズ 餓狼伝説2
Romanized: Battle Fighters Garou Densetsu 2
Literal: Battle Fighters - Legend of the Hungry Wolf 2

Plot Synopsis

Terry Bogard, world famous martial artist, is taking it easy (sorta) after defeating Geese Howard, the man who brutally murdered his father. But one night, he is challenged by the sinister German nobleman Wolfgang Krauser, and barely escapes with his life. Terry goes completely to pieces over the loss, convinced that he'll never be able to be the best again. Can his brother Andy, friend Joe, and a young fan named Tony help Terry recover his skill to and challenge Krauser to recover his honour?

Quick Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Arcane
Review Date: 2002-05-29

Legend of the Hungry Wolf may have been disappointing, but the good news for fans of Fatal Fury is The New Battle is a major, major improvement on the original, with a better plot, better characters, better fighting, better everything. The existing characters are fleshed out into more interesting people, and there are four new characters that spice things up. In particular, Wolfgang Krauser is a very cool villain, and Andy's buxom girlfriend Mai Shranui and the wise (and lecherous) old Master Jubei add some humor. The plot has issues, but at least it's more original than yet another martial arts tournament and revenge quest, and it does spend as much time on the characters as the action. Speaking of which, the action is very cool, and notably more down-to-earth than average.

Martial arts anime fans or Fatal Fury aficionados who were disappointed by Legend of the Hungry Wolf should give The New Battle another go--you won't regret it!

US DVD Review

Available on a joint VIZ-Pioneer DVD together with the first OAV (Legend of the Hungry Wolf); the disc includes character bios and both English and Japanese language tracks.

Content Guide

Appropriately rated 13+ by Viz on account of a lot of fighting and rather revealing costumes.

Violence: 2 - Although its a fighting anime, there is no gore, and the fighting isn't very brutal.

Nudity: 1 - No actual nudity, but look at Mai! Just look, for crying out loud! Then look some more, heh, heh.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Not much--surprising considering that Mai's in it.

Language: 1 - Nothing notable.

Notes and Trivia

Note that the Fatal Fury series is essentially a trilogy with an ongoing story; Legend of the Hungry Wolf starts it, is followed by The New Battle, and the story is wrapped up by The Motion Picture.

Based on the series of Fatal Fury 2-D fighting games by SNK, released for the Neo Geo throughout the '90s. Later, there were several adaptations for various home consoles. Note that Art of Fighting (which also has an anime adaptation) is a sort of "cousin" series of games, and while there's no crossover between the two, a character from that series makes a cameo in this OAV.

Availability

Available in the US from VIZ on hybrid DVD (a joint production with Pioneer which also includes the first OAV). Was previously available on dubbed VHS, first on its own and later combined with the other OAV on dubbed VHS ("One Two Punch").

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