Note: I'm just going to have to assume that most of you at least have a basic understanding of Street Fighter characters. They've been around for so long, after all. They're icons. I just don't want to have to waste my time explaining things like who Ken and Ryu are. Figure it out for yourselves. Also, for the sake of simplicity, I'll be using the American names for characters where applicable.

Ryu and Ken are reunited in Japan when Ken hears of the passing of their master. Together they train and reminisce about old times, but are surprised when they are joined by a young boy (more like annoying little brat) claiming to be Ryu's little brother. Ken then reveals another reason for his arrival: a street fighting tournament is taking place in Japan, and he wants in. Ryu chooses to just support Ken rather than fight in the tournament himself, as he has been haunted by dark visions of the evil warrior Akuma.

Anyways, the whole street fighting thing ends up being a front for some evil guy's ambition of collecting data from fighters. Shun gets kidnapped for some reason, so Ryu and Ken join with police officer Chun Li and go to another tournament to figure out what the deal is.

Ok, so there's a fair bit more to the story than this. I'd just rather not explain it any further so that I don't spoil it all. The thing is, though, that just about everything else in the story is tacked on and doesn't really go anywhere. It's like they've just decided to throw in as many characters from the game as they could in order to justify calling this Street Fighter Alpha. The choices of the characters they used and how they were presented is where this stumbles for me. What we get instead are a few extra little wrinkles to supplement the story, but in the end all we're left with a big wrinkly ball of disappointment.

Sakura gets a fairly prominent role, essentially as a Ryu fan girl (Funny, most fangirls I've encountered really hate Ryu). She sees Ryu, likes his style, and tries to emulate him. But by the time it's all over, what has she done? Nothing. All she really adds is her cuteness (and don't get me wrong, she is really cute) and her perkiness (ditto). What we wind up getting is the overdone standard "Why do people fight?" rhetorical anime cliche as she tries get involved with martial arts.

Rose is also hanging around, seen in some dream like sequences where she uses her powers to communicate with Ryu. No reason at all is given for her to be there, and much like Sakura, her presence only adds a variation to the story and credibility to the Street Fighter title. I don't even think Ryu even figured out why she was talking to him. Neither did I.

Other characters like Dhalsim, Adon, Guy, Sodom, Vega, and Dan show up as well, and are given about as much characterization as a piece of cardboard. They show off a couple of moves, fight for a bit, and that's all. Some of them don't even have any lines. The only "extra" character that is given any significant screen time is Birdy, the big punk with the chains. Now, I don't have anything against the guy, but why only him?

And then we have Akuma, who seemingly gets the main villain role. At least, that's what they want you to believe. Thing is, you hardly ever see him at all, except in the form of visions while Ryu is overcome with evil. He doesn't even do anything until after the credits have finished. After all the build up, after seeing Ryu struggle with his dark side and eventually concur it, you don't even get to see them fight.

Instead, we get an evil science dork named Saddler, the real main villain here. He collected data from the street fighters in order to create the ultimate fighting body (because, as we all know, evil science dorks are all wimpy) and the last bit of data he needs comes from Ryu's dark chi. Now, there's two problems that I have with this. First off, he's got this huge, nearly invincible cyborg thug under his command. For crying out load, shouldn't that be enough? Ken, Birdy, and Chun Li fight this guy for what seems like hours, each of them taking turns on who is getting beaten, who is watching it happen, and who is incapacitated. Next, if we've got all of these nearly worthless appearances by other Street Fighter characters that only appear because this is a Street Fighter anime, than why the hell are we wasting our time with these two punks who, as far as I know, are not even characters from the video game?!

As I've been saying, it's all wasted potential. Where is Charlie? Where is Sagat? And most puzzling to me, where is Bison? Isn't he what Street Fighter Alpha is supposed to be about? Why not show, or at least talk about, his rise to power, beginnings of the evil Shadowloo organization, how he corrupted the psychic techniques he learned from Rose, and how he used the Street Fighting tournaments as a way to further his agenda of global domination? Even just a brief little side plot like this would have scored a few extra points with me, just because Bison is so cool. Sagat is mentioned a few times, but you never see him. Come on, don't tease me like that.

Add all of this to the fact that all previous Street Fighter animation, including the Street Fighter 2 Animated Movie (which actually did a good job of using lots of characters), is disregarded and not part of the story at all. Really now, how many times do I need to see the first time Ken and Ryu meet Chun Li? Sorry, but sometimes I like continuity.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all bad, just disappointing because they could have done so much more with the material they had. But with all of that said, I can finally get to some of the good things.

I'll be blunt. The animation is freakin' beautiful. A fairly high level of detail, a unique style, fluid motion, a very nice and tasteful color palette, and decently animated renditions of the well known character designs. The poses are well drawn and are enhanced by some great camera work. All in all it's a very nice, and often incredible, visual product. I didn't care for some of the choices made in how the characters were drawn, such as the impossibly perfect torn edges on Ryu and Ken's costume or Akuma's large, flat nose, but that's just a personal style thing. It's a very original look, but still in line with the established Street Fighter style.

Now we all know that what we really came here to see is the fighting. Well, this anime does not disappoint in that regard. There's plenty of martial arts smackdown for all, with mangled up faces and a hearty helping of spilled blood. So all you little Street Fighters better wait till you're old enough to handle watching all the animated flying arterial fluids, or at least until your parents aren't around.

The Disk.

The picture and sound quality is top notch. The image is very clear and sharp, and it sounds great. Watch it really loudly, you'll enjoy it. The menus are animated based on actual scenes and look very cool.

As usual, the DVD gives you the choice of English or Japanese audio. The English audio is in Dolby Digital Pro Logic Surround sound. Personally, I don't have a preference between the two in this case considering that the material isn't really that great. Neither vocal performance struck me as being better than the other. I guess you can interpret that as the English dub not being so bad. Most of the English cast seems to be the same batch of actors who have dubbed the other Street Fighter anime.

The extras are a very strange bunch. Obviously, as with most anime DVDs, you've got your standard bunch of trailers and previews. Now, this disk is by Manga Entertainment, a company that strikes me as trying to look much cooler than it really is (kind of reminds me of Microsoft with the X-Box). So there's quite a bit of their usual fanboyishness set to "kewl' music. Geez, these guys can't even pronounce their own name right. I saw right through it all.

We've got some interesting interviews with the Japanese voice actors. They mostly talk about what they brought to the role, and if they were familiar with the characters at all beforehand. There's some funny stuff here. Knowing that this was recorded for the DVD, some of them talk about how they don't own DVD players and wish they did. A few of them were quite shy too. The funniest part is when Sakura's actress totally spaces out and admits that she has know idea what she's saying.

The other major extra is very weird. Called "The Making of Street Fighter Alpha", it is a bizarre black and white documentary with jerky camera movements and no speech whatsoever. Watch with amazement while you see people drawing, then people talking, then people eating doughnuts, then people drawing some more, then people painting cels, then people smoking, then people mixing sound, then people editing film, and on and on like this, all to the tune of the anime's score (which, by the way, does not sound anything like the video games). It might be interesting if you know something about animation. I do, and I still thought it was fairly strange. It ends with a shot of people sleeping on an airplane. That must of been when they were writing the script. *rimshot*

Conclusion.

While watching the Manga video trailer for this DVD, included as one of the extras, you will be bombarded by text taken from various magazine reviews proclaiming Street Fighter Alpha to be a masterpiece and the best Street Fighter anime ever. I strongly disagree. It's got some excellent animation and great fighting sequences, but it's ultimately a hollow shell of what it could have been.

Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie still stands as the best Street Fighter anime in my book. That doesn't mean that this isn't worth checking out though. Looking at it as it is rather than what it could have been, it might not be as bad as I've made it out to be. As an artist, I don't regret buying this. It's good reference material and a fine example of anime from a purely visual sense. It's also more than adequate as a DVD. The story just did not live up to my expectations. And considering that, as a fan of Street Fighter, I'm exactly the type of person that this should be appealing to, I can't help but to feel let down.

But here's a funny picture anyway.

Sayonara.

More fighting!

Capcom The official Page.