Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

Original Title: ストリト ファイター II
Romanized: Street Fighter II
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Guile is a cool soldier with an unenviable task--join up with a Chinese Interpol agent, Chun Li, and track down the most notorious international criminal in the world, Bison, head of the Shadowlaw organization. Bison has been picking out the world's best fighters and using his psychic powers to possess them, slowly building his empire. Most recently, Bison has taken an interest in Ken and Ryu, the two best street fighters in the world. The pair of martial artists trained as brothers, but have taken different paths in life--Ken as the flashy street fighting actor, and Ryu as a wandering brawler, fighting any taker in every corner of the world to increase his skill. Bison has at his disposal a number of other unpleasant henchmen, and Guile and Chun Li, working with Ken, Ryu, are going to have their hands full dealing with them.

Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-06-20

Of the many fighting games reborn as anime, Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie is the only one that can claim to be based on the game that started it all. While the plot fails to do much more than convince you you're not just watching a string of fights, the film is second to none when it comes to superbly animated brawling that's about as close to realistic as anything in the genre. Couple that with a distinctive live-action-film directing style, and you get a movie that should satisfy just about any action fan's desires.

The story tends to drag just a bit between action scenes, but it's about par for a decent action movie. Simple and unoriginal, it is functional in getting characters around and building up a reasonable degree of empathy for the good guys and enmity for the bad guys. About the only part that might be called "good" is some brotherly build-up between Ken and Ryu. The flashbacks to their youth and the mix of camaraderie and uncertainty in their relationship are done fairly well.

On the relative down side, almost none of the multitude of plot lines from the game(s) appear here. It's a pity, since a couple of them could have been decent if fleshed out into a real story (which would have been much more interesting than what we get). On the other hand, it's closer to the game's plot than the Van Damme movie. Speaking of which, the animated version quite frankly beats the living daylights out of the live action take, Raul Julia or no.

However, there is one obvious problem with the story, even by action movie standards: The glut of characters. It's nothing new in fighting-game-derived anime, but of the host of unrelated brawlers our heros meet on the long road to their showdown with Bison, most are just there to satisfy the "I want to see Zangief fight somebody!" crowd. On the positive side, the four main characters and a couple others have a reasonable amount of personality. The rest just show up long enough to assault somebody (usually for no apparent reason whatsoever) and then disappear. It's not really a shock, and it certainly could have been considerably worse. The film wisely focuses a few characters, and many of the fights are, impressively enough, meaningfully connected to the plot, and at times even dramatically effective.

Now for the good news: Visually, Street Fighter II is second to none. The art is high quality, the animation is fluid (and, by fighting game standards, realistic), and the whole package looks expensive and polished--real theater-quality stuff. The directing style, interestingly, owes more to American action movies than anime. This style fits well, and makes the movie somewhat distinctive among its kin. The visuals also do a great job of capturing the feel of the early games. The character designs are even better than most versions of the games (but still quite recognizable), the personalities fit well, and the moves are simultaneously faithful and surprisingly believable (though certainly not realistic by any stretch).

And the action? Among the best looking brawling you're going to find, bar none. Surprising reserve is shown with the superhuman abilities, although they never try to explain them at all. The action is mostly straight melee with an occasional over-the-top move and a surprisingly rare flash of magical-type stuff. Bison is the only character with serious and frequently used supernatural powers, and those look very cool--landing just above the ground, for example--even if they are a little overboard.

The acting in the dub is not terribly noteworthy, but isn't bad either. The original Japanese version hasn't been available in the US, but Manga has finally remedied that. It features several notable personalities in the voice cast, but in truth I didn't like the casting. Ken and Chun Li sound good, and Guile is ok, but Bison sounds a bit elderly and Ryu's voice just doesn't fit (though at least it's distinctive). The rest of the crowd is unremarkable. Also a problem is that some of the martial arts yelling (particularly Fei Long's but also Ryu's) is so high pitched and exaggerated that it sounds downright silly. At least the dramatic acting, or what little of it there is, is decent.

There seems to be a lot of debate over which version of the background music is better--the original Japanese score, which is mostly standard theatrical background music with a vocal tune or two, or the American dub version, which credits rock tunes by several recognizable groups (Alice in Chains and Korn, to name a couple, though KMFDM for some reason gets the biggest plug). Quality is relative since they're totally different styles, but the original score makes for a somewhat more dramatic presentation, particularly toward the end, and it leaves almost all of the fights without any background music, an interesting effect. The metal-heavy American version, on the other hand, is more fun, particularly in a couple of the fight scenes.

A final note: There are four different versions of the film floating around, three of which are edited to various degrees. See the notes for extensive details, but setting aside the heavily edited PG-13 US theatrical release, the older "unrated" version end the "UK Edition" on the newer DVD release are nearly identical (both remove bits of a Chun Li shower scene and tighten up a few scenes elsewhere, though the newer one cuts less of the brief nudity), while the Japanese language version on the DVD is complete. Though there is finally an unedited version available, it's odd that the "mature" American version didn't include the footage, as the entire shower scene is so short it barely even seems gratuitous--all of two shots containing nudity totaling maybe 10 seconds.

Overall, Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie is a must see for any fan of the game or of fighting game anime in general. Admirers of fine animation or just a good fist fight are also likely to find something to enjoy. Action nuts may be disappointed at the plot-to-punching ratio, but that little change makes this one at least watchable for people who aren't fans of the video game, though it's definitely not going to win any awards for the story.

Related Recommendations

This is along the lines of the many other fighting game derived animation out there, among them Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge, Battle Arena Toshinden, the Fatal Fury series, and a host of other Street Fighter 2 animated series. The Fatal Fury movie is probably the top of the pack in terms of plot, but this is almost certainly the best in terms of action; the only thing that is even in the same league is Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie.

US DVD Review

Manga has finally replaced its old, inadequate DVD version with an "Uncut" 2006 disc. The new release is far from perfect, but relieves the confusion by finally including the long-overdue unedited version with a Japanese language track (it's about time). It's being advertised as having the UK soundtrack (in the dub) by KMDFM, although this is no different from the score used in the older US release and there's no particular reason I can see to single out that band.

The disc itself is a bit of a disappointment; since even the "UK Edition" is slightly edited, it comes on a 2-sided DVD, with the uncut Japanese subtitled version on one side (thankfully with soft subtitles), and the English dubbed version on the other. Both languages come in your choice of Dolby 2.0 or 5.1, but both, sadly, are letterboxed, rather than anamorphic widescreen.

This isn't AnimeOnDVD, but the video transfer in the two versions are noticibly different. The English version has interlaced video and the transfer looks a little less vibrant, but is brighter, making it a little easier to follow the action in the darker scenes (of which there are a lot). Since it's a proper film-style 24 fps and claims to be the "UK" version, I wonder if it wasn't converted from an interlaced PAL master. The Japanese version is not interlaced and richer-looking, but also seems to suffer from a little more color fringing and is dark enough that it was hard to pick out details in some of the darkest scenes, at least on my TV. It's also a proper 24 fps. Overall the Japanese version looks a little better (and benefits from not being interlaced if you're watching on a computer or flatscreen TV), but it's sad that neither is a proper widescreen transfer.

To illustrate the fairly subtle differences, here are a couple of images (they only show a small part of the full frame, to highlight details):

In the top image, the left is from the Japanese side of the DVD and the right is from the English one (neither is deinterlaced, since there was no motion in this shot). Note the color fringing on her bow on the left, and the slightly softer colors on the right. In the bottom image, the left is from the Japanese side, the middle is computer-deinterlaced from the English side, and the right is interlacing-intact from the English side. This shows some of the color difference, but mostly just illustrates what interlacing will do if you aren't watching it on an old-fashioned TV.

Extra features are limited to basically just the trailer for the film on the English side and some simple character bios on the Japanese side (with clips from their fight scenes). There's also a decent-looking full-color promotional mini-comic included in the box--it's a scene from the movie to whet your appetite, nothing more. The box, by the way, is a standard clamshell box, but comes with a paper outer slipcover that is bright red and has an embossed fist on it. Depending on whether the product photo shows the outer cover or the actual box, it can look like there are two versions, but there's only the one.

The original release from Manga is not what you'd call a stellar DVD (although to their credit, it was one of the earliest anime DVD releases). The US-release disc features widescreen, letterboxed video (not anamorphic), and includes the English stereo soundtrack (no Japanese at all--highly disappointing), and an English subtitle track. It is the American "unrated" version, which is still slightly edited from the original.

Content Guide

Soon to be available in the US in two versions, not including the old PG-rated one which removed much of the gore, nudity, and harsh language. Both the unrated and completely uncut versions probably qualify as 16-up on account of the violence and nudity, though 13-up isn't entirely unreasonable.

Violence: 3 - Not extremely graphic, but plenty of violence and some gore.

Nudity: 2 - A brief shower scene and one long fight with Chun Li in her nightclothes. The dubbed versions remove some of the already brief nudity.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Some romance between Ken and his wife-to-be, nothing more.

Language: 2 - Some expletives.

Notes and Trivia

First, some random trivia: Akuma actually appears briefly in the background during the film, but has no speaking part. Funaki Masakatsu, who voices Fei Long in the Japanese version, is a pro wrestler in addition to an actor. Kusaka Takeshi, who voices the main villain (Vega in the original, Bison in the US naming scheme), is better known as an occasional live-action actor. His best known performance is probably a role in Akira Kurosawa's final film, Madadayo.

If you're wondering, the story of this movie contains a few references to the various plotlines in the original game, but it is basically self-contained. It also has nothing to do with the stories of the many other Street Fighter 2 anime incarnations.

There has been so much confusion and misinformation about the varioius versions of this title floating around over the years that I'm going to go ahead and take some time to clear up as much as I can here. I've double checked all of this, so there shouldn't be any mistakes.

On the topic of confusing names: In the English version of the games (and therefore the dub of this movie, as well as the English subtitles), the skinny guy with the mask is named Vega, the big boxer is Balrog, and the main villain is Bison. But, in the original Japanese versions, Vega is the villain, the masked Spaniard is Balrog (Balrog Fabio La Cerda, apparently), and the American boxer is M. Bison (the M. ostensibly stands for "Mike", obviously a reference to the famed real-life boxer). I've heard rumor that the boxer's name was changed due to the threat of a lawsuit from Mike Tyson, but even if true I'm not sure why the rest of the shuffle happened. Another funny name is E. Honda, who despite being a Japanese sumo wrestler is apparently named Edmund. Finally, the evil organization is dubbed as "Shadowlaw", in the Japanese version they're saying "Shadowloo."

Now to cover the seriously confusing situation about which versions are available where.

The movie was released theatrically in both the US and Japan, although the US theatrical version was edited significantly to get a PG-13 rating. There have since been two additional edited versions released, for a total of four versions. They are:

1. An edited PG-13 version for the US market that saw a limited theatrical release as well as a VHS run. It is sans much of the gore and most of the Chun Li shower/fight scene. The video is now out of print.
2. An "unrated" US version that is less edited (a few cuts for time and both shots showing nudity in the shower scene). This was the only version available in the US until 2006, first on VHS then on one of the earliest anime DVDs.
3. The "UK" version, which is as far as I can tell nearly identical to the "unrated" US release with the exception of one upper-body shot of Chun Li in the shower added. It still contains several minor edits for time and has one shot removed from the shower scene. This version is now available in the US on the dubbed side of the 2006 DVD release from Manga.
4. The original unedited version, which was not available in the US at all until Manga's 2006 DVD re-release; it's on the Japanese side of that disc.

Due to the editing and exaggerated runtime numbers, there's some confusion about how long the movie actually is; the US DVD version claimed a 96-minute runtime though it's actually 98, while the "UK Edition," regardless of what the box says, is an almost identical 98 minutes and a few seconds, including the credits. The fully uncut Japanese version is 101 minutes; more than half of that difference is just because the Japanese credits are longer.

For all the fuss that's been made over the years about the missing shower scene, I must say that there really wasn't much cut--all of about 10 seconds of nudity. The other cuts are not substantive--mostly bits here and there to pick up the pace a little. For those who just have to know what the edits are, I went through and compared the English ("UK Edition") and Japanese (completely uncut) versions on the 2006 Manga DVD release, and here is a list of every single cut (warning: spoilers, if you care):

• About 20 minutes in, at the very end of the section with Fei Wong, about 12 seconds are cut from the part where they silently part ways, mostly from a long shot of Ryu walking away in silence.
• Later, in Calcutta, about 8 seconds are cut from the scene where the kid spills the milk--bits and pieces throughout to speed up the scene slightly. At the end of the same scene another 6 seconds are cut from the end of the shot where Ryu walks away.
• In the infamous lead-up to the Chun Li fight, about 25 seconds are cut; most of the edits are pans of buildings, but there is one long pan of Chun Li's exposed backside in the shower removed as well as part of a pan away from the closed shower door. The Unrated US version also cut one more shot of Chun Li's chest.
• Around an hour into the film, there is a total of 13 seconds cut from the build-up to the villain's jet running Ken's car off the road; the edits are all shots of the lights in the sky and Ken driving in silence.
• When the head villain is finished telling off Sagat, a shot of the boxer following his boss out of the room and a long shot of Sagat left standing alone are removed for a total of 10 seconds.
• Finally, in the establishing shot of the mountains in Thailand immediately following that scene, the shot starts a little later, making the total pan 4 seconds shorter overall.

The total of these minor edits is 75 seconds or so of runtime. The Japanese credit crawl is additionally a minute and 45 seconds longer, for a total difference of about 3 minutes of runtime.

Availability

As of 2006, is finally available in the US from Manga Video on uncut hybrid DVD. The earlier "unrated" dub-only DVD has minor editing, and is still available as of this writing. There were also two VHS versions, both long out of print, one of a heavily-edited PG-rated version, the other the same as the slightly edited "unrated" DVD.

RightStuf has the new uncut DVD available for pre-order at a nice discount, and they still have a couple copies of the older unrated DVD. AnimeNation also carries the soon-to-be unnecessary untranslated import Japanese DVD, but it's Region 2 without subtitles and rather expensive.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store