Ever since Ryu and Ken began their journey around the
world, every punch, hit, friendship, rivalry and new technique has all been
leading to one last showdown. Their
opponent: M.Bison, the head of Shadowlaw and his merciless warriors. Their allies: numerous and scattered, locked
in their own battles with Shadowlaw’s finest.
As Guile, Chun Li, Cammy and Fei Long fight for their lives, Ryu and Ken
must tap into the deepest recesses of their Hadou and do the impossible: defeat
the nearly invincible M. Bison, who has already defeated both young men once
before. Working together might be the
only way Ryu and Ken can survive this fight to the finish.
After two back to back weeks of pretty disappointing
episodes, you’d better believe my expectations for todays finale were almost
sky high. I mean, the show had slowed to
a snails pace and seemed keen on reusing tons of footage and, in one instance,
confining one single episode to Ken’s attempt to escape his lab table, instead
of propelling things ahead rapidly now that Shadowlaw was in full view. Well, despite the same batch of flaws that
have plagued the latter half of this series, Street Fighter II V gave me
everything id been hoping for. The
stages had been set and it was time for everyone to get it on.
The Fight to the Finish Arc is more or less the spiritual
sequel to Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, pretty much a feature length
finale. Once Ryu and Ken started trading
punches with each other, the action hardly ever let up until the end. There were about six major engagements
throughout these five episodes: Ken vs. Ryu; Guile vs. Zangief; Fei Long vs.
Cammy; Guile vs. Bison; Guile vs. Chun Li; and finally Ryu and Ken vs.
Bison. All of these fights were good but
you can bet some stood out among the others.
Personally my favorite was Fei Long vs. Cammy. Not only was it good to see Fei Long fight
again, it was a chance to show us what Cammy can really do and she proved she’s
more than just a sexy assassin. Plus,
her banter with Fei Long was pretty cute and it got Cammy to see the truth
about her “assignment”. If nothing else,
we got to see Balrog get the total ass kicking from Cammy he’s had coming since
the moment he first gave her the Dorai assassination mission. Sigh, I kind of wished we’d gotten a Street
Fighter Spin Off series about Cammy, either a continuation of this series or
something closer to her mission in the video games.
Guile got put through the ringer as much as Ken and
Ryu. Not only did Zangief give him one
of the hardest hitting fights of the whole series, but Guile had to deal with
the death of his best friend, Nash, and receive an equally near spirit breaking
defeat at the hands of Bison himself. Oh
and he had to face off against a totally unchained Chun Li…it’s a miracle he
can still stand and smile after all of that.
Still, it was good to see Guile reunite with the boys briefly before
their big match with Bison. I kind of
wish we’d gotten more closing time with Chun Li, and that she was freed from
mind control much sooner. How cool would
it have been to see her and Guile aiding Ken and Ryu in a four on one showdown
with Bison? I shouldn’t complain too
much, Chun Li was very active in the finale, even if she was under Bison’s
sway.
Which brings us to the match everything had been building
towards. The 2v1 match between Ryu and
Ken against Bison bore all the feels of actually playing the Street Fighter II
video game. Everytime they thought
they’d scored a hit on Bison, the big guy came back twice as hard and fast and
one upped the dynamic duo in every way (yep like pulling a God Mode Cheat on ya
when you get him down to like a quarter of health in the game). The fight choreography was some of the best
to date and seeing Ryu and Ken working in sync with one another reminded me how
much I missed these two together on screen.
While I’ve enjoyed the story arcs with other characters like Fei Long
and Cammy, Ryu and Ken were both out of this series spotlight for way too long,
particularly since they are the central focus of the show. When they weren’t bro-ing it out or facing
down a random opponent, the shows spirit seemed to be missing. Leave it to the finale to bring it back in a
big way. Better yet, Ryu and Ken didn’t
even have to spend 10 minutes charging their attacks…after the first time they
had to in their own fight. Ugh, did we
really have to watch the two charge up like we’d seen them do numerous times in
the past and, quite frankly, kill precious time? The only upside to Ken and Ryu’s initial duel
was that we were cutting back between Guile and Fei Long’s fights to keep the
momentum going. Though, I feel that
Ryu’s ultimate finisher was a little underwhelming to finish off Bison. And if im honest, Kens Hadou Shoryuken is
much more visually impressive in the Anime.
Well with Bison gone all that was left was to wrap
up. And we did so by seeing Ryu and Ken
part ways but promising to meet again…and that’s it. Chun Li was freed from Bison’s control with
his (supposed) death, but we didn’t get to see her with Dorai again (though im
sure he’s alive). We didn’t see what
happened to Guile and Fei Long after the fall of Shadowlaw or get a fun montage
of all the characters we’ve seen throughout the series and what they might be
up to now. The series just ends a bit
abruptly. Seriously, this show could dig
into the same flashback 10 times (AND STILL CONTINUED TO DO THAT THOROUGHOUT
THE FINALE!!!) but couldn’t spring for a 60 second sequence of final glimpses
of the shows diverse cast of characters?
I guess I shouldn’t be too mad.
After 7 episodes that moved things at a terribly slow pace, Fight to the
Finish was the win Street Fighter II V needed to end on, flaws and all.
So, how was Street Fighter II V as a whole? Was it better than The Animated Movie? Wellll…it was a little better yeah, at the
same time about even though. The first
half of the series has most of the best stuff until the finale. Ryu and Ken’s bromance is the beating heart
of the series and adding Chun Li to the group on a semi regular basis didn’t
hurt much either. I liked the globe
trotting aspect that brought the duo into contact with the diverse cast the
game is known for. The second half is
where I have the most problems with the show.
Shadowlaw had a huge entrance but then things grinded to a halt thanks
to reused footage of Ryu’s arm exercises and Ken struggling to escape a lab
table while continuing to recall Chun Li getting choked out by Bison. The support cast had to step up big time to
make up for lost time and they did in their own way, just not enough for me to
totally ignore the poor pacing of the second half leading up to the final
episodes. The action was always great
and felt properly transplanted from arcade video game to Anime and some of them
looked really good, animation wise, though never quite as good as The Animated
Movie. Every characters unique martial
arts style was given time to shine and test its power against various
opponents. In truth, I don’t think there
was a single character I flat out hated, the cast was great (though I did have
my favs like the energetic and confident Fei Long and the gorgeous as all get
out Cammy and Chun Li). Bottom line: if
you’re a Street Fighter fan, Street Fighter II V is a pretty good adaptation of
one of the franchises high mark periods with some great action and memorable
characters. As far as Video Game Anime
go, it’s not bad, could be a bit better but im not sorry I gave it a shot.
7.5/10 (would be an 8-8.5 but goddam those two weeks of
bad episodes really, really, really sucked.
Since we’ve still got a couple of weeks left in
September, we’ll be closing out the month with the unexpected return of
Tetsunosuke Ichimura and the Shinsengumi with the two part Peacemaker Kurogane sequels, Belief
and Friend. And in two weeks we hit October and that
means it’s time for some juicy horror Anime.
Get your guns out and your coolest sunglasses, I’m finally gonna check
out Hellsing Ultimate for
Halloween. Keep your eyes on the Gundam
Anime Corner everyone. See ya.
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