Street Fighter II The Anime Movie REVIEW! - The Fighting Game Theatre (ft. Justin Wong) 

Check out Justin's channel HERE ➤ @jwonggg

It’s crazy to think that Bryan Cranston voiced Fei Long in the Street fighter 2 Movie

That Chun-Li scene awakened something in some of us. Also, the Ryu vs Sagat fight was hype as hell

It’s crazy how influential this film (and to a lesser extent the live action film) was on the series. Bison hypnotizing fighters and bending them to his will started with these two films, and was adopted into the games.

Guile's car is a '66 Shelby GT350 dude! Super iconic American car and (I think) suits Guile right down to the ground... even though he REALLY doesn't look after it!

😭😭😭 Hearing Bison say I don’t give a shit cracks me up

The Damage shown in both the Fei Long/Ryu & Chun Li/Vega battles BLEW my mind back in the 90s

Bison was the most powerful he had ever been in all of the lore. He could've defeated anyone on that film, but he just had to do Martial Arts against two of the most Martial Arts guys in the world, lol

In Japanese, special moves (including fighting game ones) are called "hisastuwaza", and the kanji/ideograms used to write it literally mean "technique that is certain to kill". ...I thought it was relevant to your conversation at the beginning to point that out. The Japanese pretty much have their brain set up (by their own language) for the "my new secret technique wins the fight in one blow" trope. XD

That Ken & Ryu combo attack with the tatsu into the shoryuken into the air and ground hadoken was reused as a tag team super in Rival Schools (Justice Gakuen) by Hideo and Kyoko.

Chun-Li with the couch advantage!

Still have my VHS copy. I always thought it was arranged how the cyborgs were supposed to be infiltration units but stood out like cyborgs. A ball cap wouldn’t hide the half metal face, glowing single red eye with a glowing single white eye.

When talking about the violence in the movie, you have to remenber that original games were inspired by just as violent shonen manga. None of the violence in this movie would be out of place in Hokuto no Ken, Saint Seiya or Jojo.

I watched this when bootlegs were in. Any store that sold imports had this. Best $20 I spent, plus it was letterboxed, I love fan subs. I think the Chun-Li shower scene was everyone's favorite back then. The battle between Balrog/Vega and Chun-Li was also top tier. Talk about nostalgic memories, I can't believe it's been 3 decades.

So much of this changed the street fighter series. Dramatic battle, alpha 2 intro, Bison's psycho powers, Zangief's cape...

Fun story. I think in 7th or 8th grade, my friend had the Van Dam movie on VHS and he was letting everyone borrow it. I wanted to borrow it, but when I asked, he told me another friend had it. He told me whether I would like to borrow the animated movie instead. Disappointed, I borrowed it as a way to tie me over until the live action movie returned. I was blown away by it. When I finally saw the Van Dam movie, I was like WTF is this shit? The animated movie was better. I saw it uncensored and subtitled.

22:22 Sluffing off "Sluffing has multiple meanings: Loose snow avalanche, non cohesive snow falling down a slope. Truancy, absence from schooling. Sluffing (cards), playing cards of little or no value in a card game." I'mma assume it's the truancy one in this case. :P

40:55 Guile and Chun-Li go to Los Angeles, not New York City. That’s what’s written on the screen in Japanese. That may explain how Guile was able to get to Seattle so quickly, lol.

The hurricane kick didn’t break his arm. Ryu folded his arm backward and dropped him on it. It’s in the scene playing in the background

EVERYONE GET IN HERE!!

And that was the first time I ever heard of Korn - Blind, also how Chun-Li became my eternal crush.

Bro, when Akuma launches that's how you should meet him in world tour mode! 😂 He should just be selling fruit on the side of the road in Nayshall!

I still have my VHS from this masterpiece from back in 1996, it came on a bundle with the Fatal Fury anime movie, i saw both movies 3 or 4 times a week, i was so addicted for both franchises!!

16:47 The DVD you're referring to was released by Manga Entertainment in 2006. It was technically a re-release since the original 90s DVD & VHS tapes were put out English-only by a division of Sony Music in the US.

This is definitely the Real Battle On Film. Also, because of the dub version of this film i learned that Japanese fighters stick together CUZ WE'RE BROTHERS! AHHHH HAHA HAA.

Ken was looking for sailors at the docks

ITS TIMELESS LIKE TONI STORM

A moment of silence to all the lads that watched the censored version back in the days and got absolutely robbed. 😔😔

I have memories of watching Street Fighter II MOVIE back in the early 2000s at my grandparents house. They showed it on Cartoon Network, who also used to broadcast the anime series and the U.S cartoon. One cool detail about that is that all of 3 Street Fighter animated projects shared the same voice cast, since they were dubbed in the same recording studio in Colombia, though there was an alternate Neutral Spanish dub made in Mexico in which M. Bison was dubbed by the same VA who dubbed Raúl Julia in the live-action movie and many years later dubbed Bison in the anime Hi-Score Girl I have to say that it's incredible how this movie has such an impact on the Street Fighter universe, especially in the Alpha series or how now Cammy has a Super Movie in SF6 based on a scene from this movie, not to mention that her new look seems based on her appearance from SFII V

This was the first movie I imported, from the UK, on VHS. Oh the memories of waiting until I was home alone to watch it.

LETS GOOOOOOO Extra points for THEM BONES

I had the original VHS and I’m convinced I had a version that didn’t have the Alice In Chains or any of the other rock music. I was only allowed to watch if I fast-forwarded the shower scene. I’m 🌈 now so jokes on my parents, that scene would have no effect on me anyway

Soundtrack for this is some of the most '90s shit ever. It's great.

The main impact the anime movie had is that I've always felt that every iteration of Sagat in the games since has been too small. It also made me always want Sagat to have a super version of Tiger Shot since it looks so good in the anime. The movie's got peak Sagat design at the very least.

I kinda liked the Japanese soundtrack better than the domestic release. I'm probably just biased because the Japanese version was the first one I saw. I especially liked the song that played when Chun Li fought Vega.

Ken's Playlist still slaps. Israel's Son, Them Bones... It still slaps.

I love the original Japanese version of the Street Fighter II Movie. The Japanese version music seems much more fitting, and the voice acting is powerful and more emotive than the American version

I remember finding this in a comic shop just after i got my first job on DVD. I was looking for more Dragonball because i didn't know what 'anime' was yet, so the person there told me to get this, Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll... which blew my mind. I was never the same again.

For anyone wondering the song during Bison landing in the face of the statue is Mantra by Intermix.

Dear Matt and Justin, The Shadowlaw\NWO reference @18:05 was BRILLIANT! I popped hard to that and in retrospect makes so much sense now. (can potentially be applied to The Judgement Day now, too with Metalingus - "The Other Side") I've played that clip so many times in this vid since then. Fave bit by FAR!! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Well done for this video. Probs shamelessly considered niche by now, but still the GOAT!!

The song when shadowlaw/bison enters scene is forever stuck in my head

Thrilled to see this series continue. I love these videos!

the ungodly amount of times we watched that damn vhs is unimaginable : P

I originally watched this movie from my copy of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection on the PS2.

... so Fei Long is two of Rita Repulsa's monsters, got it. 😂 (Yes, I know he was Zordon in the reboot movie too, but his MMPR TV work was closer to this timewise.)

One of the best animated movies ever, phenomenal voice cast and an amazing soundtrack.

Justin bringing up Ryu and Ken training as an anime made me immediately think of the next thing you should cover on fighting game theater, matt. GET READY FOR A NEW CHALLENGER! Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist!

I think the specific meaning Ken uses of "Sluffing off" for Ryu in the flashbacks is the absence of schooling. He's calling him a dumbass.

I remember saving up and having my dad use his eBay account to win an auction for VHS copy. Turned out to certainly be a bootleg copy, but I certainly enjoyed it!

Guile is definitely driving a Shelby Cobra Mustang

Fantastic episode, brilliant content, thanks guys!

Sick intro.

I watched this movie a ridiculous amount of times back on VHS (and it was the Manga Video UK version so it had the US dub/music AND the uncut parts including the shower scene). It's still easily my fave video game movie and probably my fave looks for most of the Street Fighter characters too. They look great in this style. Also... KMFDM's Ultra to Chun-Li and Vega fighting is just the best! Also I bought that Jada Toys Fei Long action figure a few weeks ago and refer to it as a Bryan Cranston action figure just to see which of my friends understood the reference. :P

This was the movie that got me into anime. Legendary awesome flick.

Guile is the biggest wet fart in this movie, but he does manage to damage Bison's cape with the sonic boom (you can see the cape is torn when Bison shows up after it)

I remember the ps2 hyper street fighter 2/street fighter 3 3rd strike had it!

So happy to see this still going!

I really hope someday we get a Fighting Game Theater episode on the Power Stone anime. Absolutely one of the best anime adaptations of a video game.

I saw the original version on bootleg VHS. No subtitles or anything. _And it was glorious!_

One other thing that's worth bearing in mind: There was literally only so much they could do with the budget they had to fill 100 minutes with PEAK animation. There's obviously a lot of moments in the movie that leave you wanting more in terms of showcasing characters and deep-diving into lore and rivalries and stuff like that. You kinda have to remind yourself, for the era this movie came out and for the budget they had, this was TOP TIER animation, and it had it's limits. In some ways, it's probably much harder to make an animated film back then than it was to make one in live action. This was well before CG animation technology had developed as far as today. This was the same year the original Toy Story came out, after all. Most of this animation was still being drawn and painted BY HAND. By necessity, they had to narrow their focus onto the aspects they thought were most important. Chiefly, the relationship between Ken & Ryu, Bison driving a wedge between them with his Psycho power mind control, and the two of them eventually teaming up again to take him out. A lot of stuff has to take a backseat to tell that story, so they had to make the most of what little moments they could to showcase the supporting cast. Heck, even a character as important as Guille kinda has to play second fiddle through the whole movie. Guille doesn't even get a truly kick-ass fight scene to showcase him, so he's almost worse off than Chunners in that regard. But even if the movie does leave you wanting more, it DELIVERS on what it brings to the table with aplomb. That's a big part of why it still holds up 30 years later.There was literally only so much they could do with the budget they had to fill 100 minutes with PEAK animation.

My first memory of this movie was in a JC Penny. Back in the day, they had a small electronics section with demo kiosks for SNES and Genesis demos. They had the movie playing behind ymthe counter. I must've been there the first time they showed it, cuz I got to see Chun Li in the shower. At a JC Penny. In the mall. Lol! They fast forwarded last that scene the next time I was there

13:24 Claw is 6 foot 1 and only 160 pounds? With that amount of muscle?

"Sloughing off", like what happened to Itchy Tasty Guy's skin. Kind of an odd accusation but it is Capcom.

A classic here

I’ve been waiting for this one ever since I watched it years ago (uncensored, of course. Thanks Crunchyroll).

Ryu totally no sold getting hit by that Dragon Kick 😏

This is one of my favourite anime ova movies still to this day up there with Guyver Bio booster armour, Urotsukidoji legend of the overfiend, Cyber City OEDO 808, Dominion Tank Police, Akira, Robot Carnival and Ninja Scroll are my top animes from then and still to this day 🥰

In regards to wanting a new animated a few years back there was actually a pitch for a Street Fighter animated series called Warriors Dawn, by a guy who was an episode director for Batman The Animated Series, Last Airbender and Legend of Korra (for people who don't like Korra's story he was only an episode director he didn't dictate the story). Apparently it nearly got made and would have been animated by Studio Mir (in their usual art style).

I had the original EU VHS copy and Akuma was visible. You could see they used pan and scan to transition the shot across from left to right.

58:46 Guile: She'll definitely be impressed by my muscles while she's unconscious in a hospital bed.

I had the good luck of having the uncensored version back in the day, glorious days of discovering manga, It still has the great animation and darkness of that stuff from the 90s, seeing this and GITS inja scrool, it was new exciting young adult entertainment. I also only started getting anime i liked, like the usual suspects, Eva, Trigun etc when internet and DivX stuff started being shared. But I think I still have the vhs

I ditched all my old VHS years ago. All except one... this gem. I love this movie and I even got the accompanying manga.

Every character who had beef with Bison should have been there at the climax

“Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa to” is a god-tier song. I don’t think I can ever imagine this movie without it. The fact that it was re-recorded for SF6 makes the devs true marks, and I love them for it.

this is why we have Street Figther V that does a better job at story telling with ken and Ryu on their journey especially learning their special moves.

Matt: "Why is cyborg so sexy?" Fun fact: The character designer for Street Fighter 2 the Movie is Shuko Murase, a veteran animator in Japanese animation. His next design job after this movie was for Gundam Wing--so he went from designing huge, over-muscled sexy men to designing pretty, twink sexy boys.😂

I'm glad I'm not the only one whose first real experience with a lot of anime and Japanese gaming was those weird ads in the back of game magazines.

I remember watch this on the theater here in Brazil, uncensored

Bryan Cranston was also in an episode of Seinfeld back in the early 90s as well

I watched this movie back in 96, in Brazil. It has just blown out our minds at the time.

Guile drives a ford mustang 😂 Also i always thought that Chun Li might have lost a lot of blood during that fight, i mean Vega has a pretty big claw and she gets sliced on the chest, i can imagine it being pretty deep and thats why the fight takes a lot out of her

Capcom should have funded the team that made Street Fighter Assassin Fist series. They did live action SF very well

It’s the greatest video game movie of all time & one of the greatest OVAs ever made. A movie so influential that it set the tone for SF Alpha & beyond. 30 years, man time goes by fast

Fun Fact: Shuuko Murase, the character designer behind Gundam Wing, made this 9 months prior.

Okay I call bullshit that Claw is 6'1" and 160lb. I'm the same height as him and when i was a marathon runner in my twenties I weighed 185lb and had a total body fat of only 4.8% and was skinny as hell with very little upper body muscle. How the fuck can he weigh 15lb less then I did and still be jacked as shit.

I’m not a huge fighting game fan, but I’ve always admired the art and characters of Street Fighter as a series. It’s one of the things that got me interested in art as a kid. I kinda wish we had a game set in the street fighter world, but that was a 3D adventure brawler. Something like Sunset overdrive mixed with the Dragon’s Dogma, but again in the Street Fighter Universe. I want themed areas, big boss reveals, a banging soundtrack, and festive visuals. Honestly, art wise, I think Capcom is probably my favorite video game company out of all of them. There is something about their style, man.

I first saw this movie on the sci-fi channel. Back in the 90's.

I always remember Bison calling Cammy a b*tch in the English dub. We know Bison is evil, but DAMN Bison you didn't have to call her that.

29:26 "I am the one who Dragon Kicks."

JUSTIN WONG! OH MY GOD!

That's cool that scenes from this movied basically inspired the Street Fighter Alpha franchise.

Did anyone else notice Bison’s scientist looks like Dr. Wheelo’s assistant from Dragon Ball: The World’s Strongest?

I was a teenager when both this and that super awesome live action movie came out. I cannot properly express the profound disappointment my friends and i had at the live action. We were all arcade rats and obsessively played Fighting Games and Street Fighter in particular. But my GOD were we all pumped beyond belief finding out the animated version existed, we hunted down a copy after seeing frames of it in an old game rag, can't remember the one. I cut out the pictures and kept some in my wallet, i was (am) that big of a fucking Street Fighter nerd lmao. We must've watched that tape dozens of times, i still watch it and own it now. Absolutely adored part of my youth. Also had to buy a physical copy of the live action movie to get that sweet ass Bison buck lmao, as i got older i really appreciated Raul Julia's performance that much more. Legend.

I love this movie, I think in the short list of people who enjoy the Japanese soundtrack over the us version.

oh hell yeah, I havent watched this is ages, takes me back to muh childhood

Didnt Ryu break Fei Longs arm with another move before the tatsu?

1:09:05 : NGL, this is exactly what the NYT would have written IRL. Genius.

It always makes me laugh the way Ryu's english dub sounds like he just came out of Brooklyn🤣🤣🤣🤣!!! "I'm just a Japanese man trying to take in a fight!!" 🤣🤣🤣

This anime is still a kazillion times waaay better than modern anime now

childhood nostalgia