The Street Fighter II V Collection

Medium:  DVD

Release Date:  Original Japanese airing 1995, US collection DVD release April 29, 2003

To me, the big influx of modern anime started with one film – Street Fighter II The Animated Movie.  After the live action Street Fighter movie made audiences vomit with disbelief, Street Fighter II saved what little credibility it had left and helped create the modern niche anime watching audience, along with Akira, Ninja Scroll, and the over 9000 episodes of Dragonball Z.  A few years later, with Street Fighter Alpha running through arcades, a set of animated episodes came out that changed the story of Street Fighter II completely.

Street Fighter II V is a 26 episode OAV (original animated video) that chronicles the adventures of 18-year-olds Ryu and Ken.  It follows the old game backstory initially, but goes off in its own direction later.  Ryu and Ken are old friends that trained together when they were young.  Ryu has been working the logging industry in Japan, and Ken is almost an adult and working with his father.  Ryu receives a letter from Ken to visit him in San Francisco.  The duo decide to hit the town and try to get into trouble, only to get their asses handed to them by a passing Guile.  Learning from this experience, they decide to tour the world and get into fights, hardening themselves for battle.

This series is not part of what is considered the Street Fighter canon, as it completely bypasses the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha series, focusing mostly on the original twelve world warriors from Street Fighter II.  Super Street Fighter II characters Fei Long and Cammy make appearances as well.  The series also makes a few changes, as Sagat is not working as a Shadaloo agent, and he doesn’t have the giant scar on his chest.  Cammy isn’t a clone of Bison (at least, not as it seems), and doesn’t sport the uniform seen in Alpha 2/Alpha 3 - in fact she almost seems like a different character.  Chun-Li’s father is still alive, and Nash looks nothing like the Nash (Charlie) from the Alpha series.

Although it’s a decent story, and the fight sequences are pretty cool, this anime really shows its age.  Street Fighter II V had competition from a lot of anime, including one of my favorites, Rurouni Kenshin, in Japan.  However, the Street Fighter name carried it over Stateside first.  Now, though, Street Fighter II V ends up more as a novelty anime than something that stands out from the crowd.  The collection can be had for pretty cheap now, and I don’t think it’s bad to pick up, but I wouldn’t pay more than twenty bucks for it.