Street Fighter II V

The OVA returns in the shape of a series.

Continuing with our tribute to the Street Fighter video-game franchise, we start where we left off in our previous entry: Street Fighter II V AKA Street Fighter II Victory, the remake/folllow-up animated series that came right after the successful OVA from 1994.
 

Directed by Gisaburo Sugii, who also directed Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, the series first aired in Japan in 1995, from April 10 to November 27, on YTV. An English adaptation of the series was produced by Manga Entertainment in 1996 and was originally released on home video in North America and shown on television on SBS in Australia before being released on VHS (and later DVD) by Madman Entertainment. 

The Animé is a loose adaptation of the Super Street Fighter II Turbo videogame, taking several liberties with the established storyline and characters from the games. The show takes place during the present time of 1995 and follows the adventures of the seventeen-year-old martial arts masters Ryu and Ken, as they go through a journey to improve their fighting potential after they both experienced a brutal defeat at the hands of Guile. During the course of the series, Ryu and Ken become acquainted with other Street Fighter characters such as Chun-Li, Fei Long, Sagat, and Dhalsim. Eventually the duo find themselves involved with the criminal syndicate Shadowlaw, led by M. Bison, after defeating one of their subordinate organizations.

Ken & Ryu, united by friendship and martial arts.

...And 90's clothing?.

I was practically raised by Arcade Centers and the Nintendo NES & Super Nintendo in the late 80's & early 90's, like most of you reading this. And like you and me, the world fell in love with Street Fighter II. I love Street Fighter!. I have been a fan for a long time. When this show came out, I was pretty young at the time. Now, thanks to the modern technology of the DVD, I can enjoy them all over again.

It's funny that when you look at something from your childhood, it has a profound difference now than it did then. This comes into play with Street Fighter II V. First, this show is pretty violent. I mean, really violent for a kids television show. it is also very mature, and that may put off some viewers. Some examples would be when Ryu is falsely convicted for drug smuggling. he is beaten by the prison warden who repeatedly screams for Ryu to scream. Viewers 14 and up will realize that he gets some kind of sex thrill out of this, but younger viewers will not. 

Guile & Chun-Li are here too.

And so is Dhalsim.

The story is a major diversion from the actual video game. Ryu gets a letter from Ken to come to America, and he does. During his first night, they both get thrashed by Guile, and so they decide to travel the world in search of new fighting techniques. They first stop in Hong Kong, where they meet Chun Li, who will be their tour guide. After some fights and some escaping and more fighting, Ryu, Ken, and Chun Li discover the evil Shadaloo organization and it's leader, M. Bison.

Okay. Not exactly the video game, but a pretty straight-forward concept.

All the characters you know and love, with a few alterations to their character profiles, and with the exception of a small few, are present. Ryu and Ken battle and defeat them all.

It should be pointed out that while the concept is incredibly simple, the story lines are uniformly well done. Each episode packs enough interest and action to keep you entertained well into the 29th episode. I found myself so enthralled with the Vega vs. Ken episode that I was unable to believe a whole half hour had passed by. But that's where we come to a major complaint.

Fight or be defeated!

Never trust a Spanish guy in a mask.

The opening credits. While the opening cinematic is nice, and you get a great feel of the show and the kick-ass soundtrack in place, it is overly long. As well as the closing credits. Together, I would estimate that they take up around 5 to 6 minutes. Not to gripe, but that is pretty long. Plus, you also have to count in the lengthy "in our last show" and "in our next show" segments.

Another small complaint are the characters. Not to poke fun at Japanese anime, but some of these characters are of different nationalities than just Japanese, so they shouldn't look Japanese. Also, some may have a small complaint about the way each character was handled. this is a small complaint (Such as the lack of an eye patch on a certain fighter. You all know who I'm talking about), and shouldn't detract from the overall quality of the show.

Plotwise, SF II V is pretty much the OVA's plot: M. Bison is looking for a way to either steal the abilities from the best world fighters or to take control over them. In the OVA, Ken is captured and re-programmed to serve under M. Bison's evil organization, while here well, he does the same thing twice: First by turning Chun-Li "evil" and then by doing the same to Ryu (some say the evil Ryu concept seen in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and later games was actually taken from here). Of course, all of these events taken place once the series is halfway through, so you get to see a lot of fighting around the world until our heroes meet the Shadaloo first hand.

Cammy's back but, on whose side is she this time?

Bison is a bad motherfucker.

Being a made for TV Animé the violence, fan service and nudity have been cut down to an extreme minimum compared to the previous year OVA. 

The only Street Fighter II characters missing from this entire series are Dee Jay, E. Honda, T. Hawk and Blanka. The show also had original characters such as Damdo, Detective Dorai, Eden, Kikun, Kokuja, Lo Yang, Ortega, Rinko, Sodom & Gomorrah, Yo Senkai and Zoltar. However, T. Hawk briefly appears in the Japanese intro, hinting that he was considered to appear in the series at some point. In addition, Akuma can be seen in many cameos throughout the entire series.

For those that are not familiar with the Japanese language. Ryu's name is pronounced (Ree-you), not (Rye-you). Also Ryu is a direct translation meaning Dragon in Japanese, thus making Ken's and Ryu's signature move Sho-ryu-ken literally translating Rising Dragon Punch. 

Promo art from the series and the 90's attire the characters would wear.

All in all. Yes, the show is for children, and naturally filled with clichéd antics and cheesy dialogue. But most can take pride in the fact that the franchise is handled so well in this anime show, and not torn through the ground like so many other tie-ins (I'm looking at you Super Mario Bros: the Movie). 

Here's the international opening:

Here's the Japanese opening:

Here's the international ending:

Here's the Japanese ending:

The Manga Video SF II V promo video: