ikrani It takes liberties with the source material, not every character is exactly how they are in the games, and M. Bison's Psycho Power has a different backstory than "an evil form of Soul Power".However, I can forgive all that because the anime remembers to tell a good story before all else, unlike, let's face it, pretty much every other Street Fighter adaptation to date. Yes, I'm including the 1994 animated movie in that. I reviewed it already and if you care to know why I dislike it (which you probably don't), just look it up in my profile. I might call Street Fighter the Movie starring Raul Julia a better Street Fighter product, but I could just be suffering skewed vision from how awesome Julia's performance was.Anyway, the series functions as a pseudo-prequel to the games: Ken and Ryu don't even become aware of any supernatural power until around Episode 9, and even then it doesn't factor into the story until the halfway point. The anime instead focuses on the journey that Ryu and Ken undertake towards becoming the best fighters in the world after Sergeant Guile kicks their rear ends in sequential order, giving them the idea to travel the world in order to fight and train with "street fighters" like Guile.Ryu and Ken are good characters. They kind of come off as carbon copies of each other with their wise-cracking attitude and penchant for never taking anything seriously, but by the halfway mark Ryu's become a bit more training-obsessed and socially awkward and Ken's become a bit more mature, even sparking a downplayed romance with Chun Li. Come to think of it, the halfway mark is right about where the anime goes from decent to good.The rest of the characters are used effectively. Chun Li is a sweet girl who is shown to be competent on her own right, Guile is the weathered badass kicks off the plot and Shadaloo's members are all given plenty of screen time and fights, with the exception of Balrog, who for some reason never throws a punch in the entire series. Steve Blum as Dhalsim does a good job of building up the mystical aspect of the series and M. Bison has the best elements of the Animated Movie's Bison combined with the best elements of Raul Julia's Bison (though I still like Raul Julia's more). The only notable characters who don't make an appearance are Akuma, E Honda, Dee Jay and Blanka, though Akuma does make a pointless cameo as he does in the animated movie.I take a star off for minor things that didn't ruin the anime but still put a hiccup in my enjoyment of it. One of these things was the fact that Zangief sounds like a caveman instead of a Russian wrestler speaking broken English. Another was Ryu spending entire episodes practicing the Hadoken only for Ken to instantaneously learn it whilest out cold in Bison's headquarters.But the biggest bump in the road was the declaration that Chun Li is 15 years of age. This seems... Wrong. Chun Li looks Ryu and Ken's age and sounds like she's a bit older. It gets especially off- putting when much older characters like Vega start taking a fancy to her even though she's underage. However, at that point the anime has taken to pretending that it never said any such thing, so I learned to as well.Overall, Street Fighter II V (V as in the letter, not the Roman Numeral) is a damn good series that may drag at times but gets the tone and nature of Street Fighter right, unlike the live-action movies (though Raul Julia as Bison was awesome). It also manages to get nearly every character in and give them stuff to do other than throw them in pointless fights to pad out the run time. It's fun, it doesn't try to be too adult or too kid-friendly, and the final episode is one of the most satisfying final episodes to any series I've ever seen, animated or otherwise. The build-up, the execution, and the resolution are all near-perfect, just like the series itself.

somedude248 As part of the endless Street Fighter craze in the early to mid 90's, two Street Fighter TV shows were made. One was an American GI Joe knockoff, and the other was II V, a prequel to the Street Fighter II game. Let's compare the two, shall we? II V is about the main characters of the game, Ryu and Ken, barely out of their teens as they travel the world in a quest to improve their martial art skills, meeting new foes and friends along the way (most game characters of course). No top secret crime fighting organization (US cartoon) or country invasion that has nothing to do with street fighting (US movie), the show actually sticks to the premise of the title, street fighting!The show does deviate in character designs for a bit, but most are recognizable. Fighting babe Chun-Li looks a bit different from her video game incarnation, but she's still immediately recognizable.The show is reasonably well animated, not as good as the SF II anime movie (although that's expected considering the budget) but far superior to its American animated counterpart.And of course, how can you not like a show that ends its previews with "Gonna burn some muscle!" You can't. Unless you're a soulless critic (oh wait...) So if you like fighting anime and don't mind some deviations from the plot in your instruction manual, do yourself a favor and hunt down the DVD's, or wait till it airs on WAM! or Encore Action. You won't be disappointed.

David Milward * Spoilers ahead * I was a fan of the Street Fighter series as well, and I found this series to be a sheer delight to watch. Sure, it had the occasional spot of campiness. But hey, they had the time to put together an engaging and coherent story.However, that story involves a deliberate departure from the official Street Fighter canon of Capcom. But hey, it worked wonderfully. They basically played around with some of the characters' personalities both to give them some much appreciated character development, and to tie them into the overall story in a believable way. For example, Chun Li goes from Interpol agent on a mission to an innocent wide eyed doe. Dhalsim becomes a mystic spiritualist who gives Ken and Ryu some much needed lessons for their development, and not just martial. Sagat as a Muay Thai champion who befriends Ryu as a kindred spirit. Vega as a vain matador who becomes obsessed with possessing Chun Li.And of course ... everything leads to the exciting and titanic confrontation with Bison, who was extremely well done in my opinion. Now ... I hope they pick where this left off and use Akuma somehow. Anyway, the ending was somewhat disappointing since ... what about Chun Li and her father? Oh well. Maybe for a resumption.

Shawn Watson I bought all 4 of DVDs of this show some time ago and only started to watch them now. I liked the Street Fighter II animated movie but I was put off watching this one as I wasn't too keen on Street Fighter Zero, even if this series is directed by Gisaburo Sugii who did Street Fighter II (as well as the brilliant Night on the Galactic Railroad). How is that for confusing? What makes this better than the rather dour Street Fighter Zero is that it has a pretty good sense of humor, great fight scenes, interesting plots and the occasional moment of cartoonish goofiness. Each episode is made up of a brand new adventure as Ken and Ryu travel the world, getting into mischief. A simple formula, but it works.Since the show is from the mid-nineties the animation isn't as smooth as more recent stuff, but you shouldn't let that ruin your enjoyment. The only thing I can complain about is the opening credit sequence, which just takes too long.