Movies / Animé and Toons

Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie (2006)

By Julie Gray
July 21, 2006 - 04:13

Street Fighter has had many adaptations over the years. It all began with the game created by Capcom.  This was a game that was considered one of the most popular of its era.  Arcade gaming was at its peak when Street Fighter arrived on the scene. This was soon followed by the anime adaptation of the game which was then adapted into a live action movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme as Guile and Kylie Minogue as Cammy.

From that point on, the game could only go upwards and there have been comic book releases and more animated movies since. What makes this DVD release so special is that this version is unedited, uncut and unrated, filling in all the gaps that were masterfully placed into the edited version for rating purposes.

 

Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie

The storyline behind Street Fighter II begins with ‘legendary martial arts warriors’ Ken and Ryu. To many arcade gamers, Ken and Ryu represent the pinnacle of Street Fighter gaming. They are two warriors who become best friends after having trained with the same martial arts teacher. Ryu is a native of Japan and Ken is from the USA. Their friendship is what links the rest of the story together.

Street Fighter is not just a story about friendship. The dark element in Street Fighter is represented by one M. Bison; the big, bad psychic (and, some would think, psychotic) megalomaniac who plans to take over the world by recruiting the world’s greatest street fighters to do his bidding. After setting his eyes upon Ryu (through the use of robots who are setup to spy for Bison), Bison decides that Ryu is the one fighter he must have on his side if his plan is to be successful. The rest of the story follows Bison on his evil mission to use Ken as his lethal puppet and take over the world.

 

Ken Masters

One of the most important factors in any game-to-anime adaptation is character portrayal. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie delivers this flawlessly. It is very refreshing to see the same characters gamers world-wide have revered brought to life in all their arcade-like glory. Although Ryu and Ken are the main character focus in the movie, they are joined by a few familiar faces; Guile and Chun-Li, who are part of the ‘good’ fight against M. Bison’s evil robotic reign. Sagat, Blanka, Vega, E.Honda, Dhalsim and Zangief all receive small appearances in the movie, but Guile and Chun-Li appear through-out as main characters opposite Ken, Ryu and M.Bison.

The original movie was released in 1994. One of the main characters in Street Fighter (M. Bison) went through an interesting name change. Capcom, fearful that Mike Tyson (the boxer) might sue them, decided to change M. Bison’s name. The name change was made in three different places, causing nothing but confusion. M.Bison now appears as himself in Japanese versions of the game and as Balrog everywhere else. The Spanish street fighter is known as Balrog in Japan and Vega elsewhere, and the evil head of Shadowloo is recognised as Vega in Japan and M. Bison outside of Japan.

 

Ryu

This version of the movie doesn’t really offer a lot of new footage. Obviously, being uncensored means more violence and some nudity. That is easily displayed in the 16+ rating (as opposed to the PG-13 rating for the 1994 version). The infamous ‘shower scene’ where Chun-Li is semi-nude is completely unedited as is the classic fight scene between Chun-Li and Vega, complete with extra gore. The best thing to remember is that this version is the original Street Fighter 2 movie released in Japan all those years ago and has finally been given the green light for release internationally.

Extra content in this DVD release includes a collector's item comic of Street Fighter 2, 5.1 English and Japanese versions (listen to the Japanese version for authenticity), Interactive game cards, UK Trailers and motion menus.

Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie is a whole lot of fun to watch, all name confusion aside. The animation is produced by Group Tac and features fluid snap shots of the same animation that made the Capcom games so popular. The fighting scenes in the movie are what hold the pieces of the (almost) transparent story line together and will ultimately give fans of the movie the world over a much needed dose of long-awaited Street Fighter mayhem.

Animation: 8/10
Story: 7/10
DVD Extras: 7/10

Rating: 7 / 10

Last Updated: November 29, 2025 - 16:51