Street Fighter Alpha

Summary: >

Ryu is a martial arts fighter who's trained in the mountains for many years. One day a boy appears claiming to be his brother. About the same time Ryu's long time sparing partner Ken shows up. The two are suspicious of the boy, but accept him anyway. Ken has returned to Japan to enter a fighting tournament with a big payout. Ryu struggles to control the dark hadou, a core part of their fighting technique. He's concerned fighting may bring out this power in him, so declines to enter the tournament.

Things change when it turns out Ryu's brother is entered in the tournament. While just a boy, he may also have the power of the dark hadou. Can Ryu master the dark hadou? He may have to once his brother is kidnapped by a scientist intent on studying the power and taking it for himself.

Thoughts: >

Ten years after the first release of the hit Street Fighter II arcade game, a new anime is released to commemorate the occasion. After ten years of college, a person can have a Phd. In ten years grape juice can become a fine wine. In ten years Street Fighter Alpha glues together a bunch of dumb cliche fighting game plots, which have never worked well. Glad I waited for this.

The story starts from scratch. Ken and Ryu know each other as part of their back story, but none of the other characters have met before. Trying to tie in everyone's game based story is always a train wreck, so at least Street Fighter Alpha side steps that problem. Which makes it mysterious how they fail to capitalize on this clean slate to create something better.

From the perspective of animation and soundtrack it's not bad. If you want to watch anime characters fight in decent martial arts battles, that's not bad either. It's the story which makes this one so bad. I can't be sure what I was expecting of a Street Fighter anime, but this one is so unoriginal and dumb I just couldn't like anything about it. Maybe in another ten years they'll make a Street Fighter anime worth watching, but I doubt it. At least I won't have to endure the pain more than once a decade when they fail yet again.

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