Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994)

 "I can't stand women who jabber like parrots!

I never really was a gamer in the modern sense of headphones and immersive games. I played computer games until about '94 or so when I discovered rock music, and from that point on I stopped buying games for the Sega Mega Drive and started buying CDs. It all seems so quaint now.

I've never really been much of a gamer since, and my interests in the genre these days are decidedly retro. Hence my interest in this, what I believe is only the second anime I've ever blogged, as I have fond memories of playing the game in the arcade- yes, the arcade- in the early '90s.

There was, of course, a live action film of the game released in the same year, which I blogged some time ago. This animation, cheerfully daft though it is, with hilariously rubbish dialogue, is far superior. It actually features all the characters, faithfully, although many of them (Guile, E. Honda and especially Ken) are absolute wankers and M. Bison's fictional terrorist organisation is risible. 

Despite this, it's great to see the characters all shown as true to their appearance, all getting reasonable amounts of screen time despite the focus on Ryu and Ken, and some truly aweesome animation. The fights, in particular, look amazing. And those are the main things, really; this was never going to be great drama, although the scene where Ken proposes to his girlfriend in the clumsiest possible way and then sulks when she says no is hilarious.

This is a load of old tosh. But it's enjoyable tosh.

Incidentally, the soundtrack is awesome, with Alice in Chains, and Korn from when they were good.