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Streetfighter II
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UnDisney
Some people call them Japanimation. Most refer to them as "anime." Forget the latest Toyota sedan. Animated films are emerging as Japan's dominant export to the United States.
Comic buffs have followed anime adventures for some years. Now, through home video, anime is reaching larger audiences. For the uninitiated, the latest Street Fighter DVD releases offer an intoxicating mix of hyper-action, pounding music and colorful visuals. They're impossible to resist.
Street Fighter is a more family-friendly variety of anime. There is little sex and the violence remains at a cartoon level similar to World Championship Wrestling.
Still, these Street Fighter serials are worlds apart from cute Disney animals and kids cartoons like Pokémon and Digimon. Their non-stop martial-arts action and cliffhanger-obsessed storytelling are thoroughly UnDisney. Street Fighter helps to erase the kiddy bias toward animation felt by many American audiences. It's proof that teen-friendly anime has moved beyond the Pokémon craze.
Street Fighter II Volume 1
Unrated
1996, Manga
It's hard to believe that there was a time when anime was something known to a few cultish admirers. Now, local superstores have shelves of anime. It's as if anime isn't all that alternative anymore.
Die-hard anime buffs might scoff at a family-friendly title like Street Fighter II. But Street Fighter II has little in common with the dull Jean-Claude Van Damme film. Video game repetition is deftly transformed into a series of action cliffhangers. The heroic duo of Ken and Ryu look fit and muscular with their spiky hair and fighting togs. More importantly, their kicks and spins defy gravity.
There is no need for an explicit warning label warning on Street Fighter II. Its action heroics is targeted for the teen-ager in all of us. (Grade: B)
Street Fighter II Volume 2
Unrated
1996, Manga
I never thought of myself as one of those fanatical "otaku" fans of Japanese anime. I don't buy manga comic books or graphic novels anymore. Still, I confess that I'm hooked on anime. I love Patlabor and its futuristic robotic police force and Perfect Blue remains a favorite suspense film. But Street Fighter II replaces the kinkiness that makes most anime a guilty pleasure with a series of high-energy adventures that celebrate the era of the movie serial. Worlds apart from the Astro Boy and Speed Racer TV cartoons I used to watch as a kid, Street Fighter II has the adrenaline drive of a blockbuster movie.
The graphics are visually exciting, although adventurers Ken and Ryu possess the obligatory cartoon look of most anime heroes. During its endless battles against a series of comic-book-like villains, Street Fighter II reminds us that the girl warriors are just as tough as the guys.
Street Fighter II is not the most amazing anime I've ever seen, but it's fun nonetheless. (Grade: B)
Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie
Unrated
1999, Manga
Street Fighter has little to do with Pokémaniacs and their Saturday morning fixations. There is little of the comic slapstick so integral to Bugs Bunny and his Warner Bros. adventures. It's not that there is anything wrong with cute pocket monsters. But there comes a time to switch off Sailor Moon.
Street Fighter Alpha replaces its serial format with a feature-length tale filled with the requisite pounding music, lively dialogue and hyper action. The chiseled look of heroes Ken and Ryu is familiar. The cityscape backdrop is as colorful as ever. But Street Fighter Alpha stacks its adventures into one narrative heap, losing its Saturday matinee charm in the process. Without its usual comic-book format of cliffhanger storytelling, Street Fighter Alpha doesn't seem so much like Street Fighter anymore. (Grade: C)
Contact Steve ramos: sramos@citybeat.com
