Street Fighter II: Special Edition

Who could forget the horrible U.S. live-action film featuring the muscles from Brussels, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue (playing a British character no less) and Raúl Juliá as a very weedy Bison? As far as game to film adaptions go, only the Super Mario Bros. film managed to beat Street Fighter for being worst film ever. Thankfully the same year saw the Japanese anime film’s release. That was 13 years ago, now Manga is releasing the completely uncut version of the film for fans to enjoy.

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (to give it its full title) follows the many different characters of the game as they travel the world for their own reasons. Ryu is on a constant quest to improve himself, Ken is looking for Ryu and being a general smart arse, while Guile and Chun-Li are trying to track down the infamous Shadowlaw’s HQ and finally put an end to M. Bison and his army of minions and cyborgs.

Yeah, the storyline isn’t going to win an Oscar anytime soon, but it does what it sets out to do, namely giving the fighters a reason to bump into each other and fight. What else would you expect from anime based upon a fighting game?

What sets this apart from the usual fighting anime, is that the fight sequences in Street Fighter are incredibly well choreographed making for some truly memorable scenes. The Chun-Li vs. Vega sequence has to be one of the best animated fight scenes in recent history, with incredible life-like movements whilst at the same time performing near-impossible stunts, which just emphasises how much more powerful these fighters are compared to regular people. If you enjoy your one-on-one fights in anime, this is certainly one to check out.

But if you've already seen Street Fighter II, what's on offer here to make you splash out again? Simply put this version contains the Japanese dub, as well as the original Japanese soundtrack, which is a first.

This version also remains completely uncut. So yes, you get to see all of Chun-Li in the shower. UKA can hear the joy erupting over the internet already! Both English and Japanese dubs are in Dolby Digital 5.1 and non-anamorphic widescreen for those with the kit to make use of them both.

Street Fighter II has always been a great action anime to watch. It is a little brain-dead in the plot department, but the fight scenes are some of the best your likely to see and even after over 10 years, still entertaining to watch. Just remember to switch off your brain when watching.