Street Fighter: The Animated Series

When it comes to non-game adaptations, Street Fighter has usually gotten the short end of the stick. Both of their movies are differing levels of shit, though Legend of Chun-Li is certainly the worst even on its own merits, even the games aren't pure, with home ports of the first Street Fighter being so bad that many feel Street Fighter II was the true start.

And cartoons.

I can't speak on behalf of Street Fighter's anime adaptations, though I will say Street Fighter II: The Movie was certainly kick ass. But that's because it was made in Capcom's home turf. American adaptations of Japanese games have typically led to disaster, and Mortal Kombat suffered because it was helmed by Lawrence Kassanoff, congrats that the movie isn't as shit as the other video game movies, but still.

In the 80s and 90s, video game cartoons were a dime a dozen, and many of them were crap. The Mario cartoons provided years of meme material and you know what, maybe some of you may find some ironic enjoyment out of the shows, the Mario series was never something to be taken seriously, so I can forgive the cheesy nature of the Mario cartoon, can't say the same for the Zelda cartoon, that makes me want to buy a CD-i and take a trip down to Gamelon, at least it's better than Zelda's Adventure.

I can't say I enjoy any of the Sonic cartoons, Adventures was too corny for its own good, SatAM was desperate at best and the sentiment goes to the Archie comics, Sonic Underground is only good for trolling fans of the former, Sonic X is the reason recolors exist and I have no interest in Sonic Boom, anymore.

Now while Mario and Sonic don't have a reliance on action and the platformer aspect leaves room for interpretation, it was the action games where the adaptations suffered the most. Bonus points if the game was made in Japan and has to fold under American standards and practices.

I talked about Darkstalkers a while back, and I have a feeling it's due for an update. It stands as the worst of the fighting game adaptations and for a good reason. I'd consider Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm to be a forgettable 90s cartoon, I'd sooner watch it than The Journey Begins.

I have no nostalgic background with the Darkstalkers video game, though I did play a bit of Mortal Kombat one and two on the SEGA Genesis, as with Street Fighter II, but I never considered myself a fan of either, and I never knew about any adaptation until years later. How so you probably aren't asking?

Enter The-Sw1tcher (Matt), aka the guy from Two Best Friends Play and Wha Hapun?, years before the former, Matt was just an average YouTuber, you can practically pinpoint the origins through his deviantArt account, where he published a journal detailing him starting Two Best Friends Play.

Anyhow, as an average-one, Matt posted compilations of idiotic clips from the video game cartoons I mentioned, under the (blank) Stupidity series. These are still up on YouTube, so it's just a matter of searching them up. Looking at these videos and getting a taste of these shows, I wound up binging the Darkstalkers series in its entirety, but I found myself having an aversion to the Street Fighter cartoon, and the hatred grew and grew.

Oh no, background

It seems the more infamous video game cartoons aired on USA Network back in the 90s (though it's disputable with Darkstalkers, some say it aired on UPN, some say in syndication, Matt says USA Network.) Back before USA became, whatever, they had a dedicated animation block, under differing incarnations, many of USA's animated originals were based on video games (I won't name them all, but I will say that apparently there was an animated series based on Dragon's Lair.)

The only good USA Network cartoon to air on it wasn't even within the block, it was Duckman.

Street Fighter The Animated Series is notable compared to Darkstalkers and Defenders of the Realm, in that while the latter two lasted for a single season, this managed to get two, in spite of negative reviews that have persisted.

You could assume this was just a misguided work by a small creator, but apparently this show was created full-stop by Capcom, no name on Wikipedia, no name on IMDb, does anyone even know what TV.com is anymore? But yeah, this was entirely the product of Capcom (of America I'm sure.)

The show was produced by Graz Entertainment, who was also responsible for Darkstalkers (okay and The Tick), I would say they did the animation, but their work seemed to revolve around licensing. This would only go for the first season, as by the second, they went to InVision Entertainment, this supposedly being their only hurrah as the erratic filmography gives me doubts that the same company produced them.

The change in producers is also highlighted in the outsource swaps. The first season was outsourced to Madhouse, but the second was to Sunrise. I'll get into this in a bit, but just know that Street Fighter is proof Japan can dip when it comes to animation.

The show was recorded in Vancouver at Ocean Productions (and with an additional credit to BLT Productions, I'm beginning to question their actual intent (I thought they were just another dubbing studio but apparently it's more or something.)) We have some familiar voices in this, namely Paul Dobson, Scott McNeil and Michael Donovan, but the show includes some rarely heard voices.

Tell me if you heard of them, Tong Lung, Lisa Ann Bely, Donna Yamamoto. Lung had appeared in G.I. Joe Extreme in terms of animated appearances, but is commonly found in live action roles, though all I know of him there is an appearance in The Outer Limits.

I highlighted Yamamoto and Bely in an editorial on the worst actors I ever heard, so keep that in mind.

Finally

Street Fighter II had no truly defined plot, at least that's the mindset Capcom had when developing this. So, they used the premise from Street Fighter: The Movie for this series. I would ask why bother, but this was the 90s and at the peak of Street Fighter's popularity, I guess.

Anyway, aside from going off the premise of a movie that wasn't that good to begin with, Capcom had to implement changes that did more harm than good.

How so? Well who would you consider to be the star of the game this show's based on? Ryu? Ken? Both essentially?

No, while every character got focus in the games and most adaptations, our prime protagonist in this is Guile. Just like the movie. I'd rant about how they always pick the American guy to be the lead in these shows, but Liu Kang was among one of the mains in Defenders of the Realm, at least it wasn't Johnny Cage.

Like the movie, Guile leads a team dedicated to taking down M. Bison, this consisting of Chun-Li, Blanka, Cammy and Ryu (well later on.) For the most part, Ryu and Ken are relegated to the background, they don't play a major role as often until later on.

The clip compilations I told you about earlier on didn't fill me with confidence. We have a generally serious series with idiotic execution. Would you even want to see an episode in full after having that mindset? I will say, at the very least it didn't end on a cliffhanger, I mean neither did Darkstalkers but whatever.

For perspective, there're 4-5 clip compilations made by The-Switcher, each with different clips that practically encompass the entire series. That's all the show is, stupidity.

So why don't I just spend the rest of the review talking about what stood out to me, aside from the animation which will come in the next section.

There is Cammy's ultimate betrayal, I was never a fan of betrayal, it's a desperate attempt at creating drama and is usually done when the writers throw their hands up. This had been done as well in Street Fighter II: The Movie where Cammy was brainwashed, though a similar principal happened here, I think. Teen Titans had the worst betrayal in animation, hands down.

The show is basically a meme goldmine, M. Bison is the ultimate old-school memelord, many of the show's more quotable lines came from him. Huh, that's about it. Why don't I complain about the acting now.

A lot of the actors are capable of good performances, only one of them really did any good. Richard Newman provided the voice of M. Bison in this, and as you saw before, he carried the show, much like how he carried the movie. Who knew the writers wanted to be so punctual.

While I loved Michael Donovan as Grey Hulk, he does not do Guile well. I don't know how well Guile could sound, but here's not a good place to start. The remainder are forgettable at best, less you want to hear Blanka try to do his best Dr. Claw.

Lisa Ann Bely offers an award-winning performance that got her two roles on Darkstalkers, and I established I'd consider her to be the worst Vancouver actress I ever heard. She gives Cammy a very robotic feel, like all she could do is what was asked of her, and nothing more.

My personal worst for this series is Tong Lung as Ryu and Donna Yamamoto as Chun-Li. In spite of being Asian, they sure as hell don't sound Asian. Yamamoto is so bad that they turned Chun-Li into a tanned brunette. Looking at her stills, how could I not draw that comparison? Lastly, Ryu's name is pronounced quite literally. Not like "REEEE-you", more like "Rye-you" Just wanted to let you know.

Animation

Adding to the list of shows I consider to be ugly, maybe you can agree with me on this. This show is proof that even Japan can fuck up when it comes to animation. In the first season, the movement is stiff and you know how they draw characters in a crowd or at a distance, some of them have that lack of detail.

The second season featured more detail, but it wound up making the show look uglier.

I have a feeling this was a weekly show. The animation tells me they animated the episodes one at a time, and started three days before the deadline. Darkstalkers' first episode looked to have been made before the rest of the series, with a clear quality drop as the show went on, but this show started poorly and finished all the same.

Overall

This is the worst fighting game cartoon show I've ever seen. I'd close with a quote from the show, but I can't fit it in without it coming off as awkward. I'd rather watch Magic Girl Friendship Squad or look at cringeworthy fanart for The Loud House.