User Reviews

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Street Fighter game franchise, Group TAC released "Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation" five years after the highly fan acclaimed "Street Fighter II: The Animated movie". Many reviews have criticized this movie based on what the reviewer thought SHOULD be in the movie. Some wanted a direct adaptation of the Street fighter Alpha game storyline, other reviewers dissed the show just because some characters were not featured. This will be a true review of the movie itself, not of what i expected to be in the movie.

True to its title, Street Fighter Alpha borrows the characters, setting and the "look" of the SF Alpha series while crafting a new story separate from the games.The focus is squarely on Ryu, a martial artists haunted by the death of his master and the presence of a dark power lurking within him. As the story begins, Ryu meets up with Ken to pay respects to their deceased master, but Ryu is having trouble controlling this dark power called the "Dark Hadou" and keeps having strange visions. They encounter a boy called Shun who claims to be Ryu's long lost brother. At first skeptical, Ryu soon embraces Shun as family and trains together with the boy, who also displays formidable fighting skills. Word of a new Street fighter Tournament reaches Ryu and Ken and they intend to sign up. But little do they know that the tournament is a front for an evil scheme concocted by Dr Sadler, a top scientist for the Shadowlaw organization.

Kudos to Group TAC for trying to make a more coherent narrative with a proper emotional center. While the previous Street Fighter II The Animated movie was a stylish gritty martial arts movie, SF Alpha plays out more like a character Drama about Ryu. While we do get some insight into Ryu's inner emotional turmoil, it really is nothing original. Ryu struggling with control over the dark hadou seems ripped straight from Star Wars' Luke Skywalker and his struggle with the Dark side of the force. Also, thanks to the strict focus on Ryu, the other iconic characters are at best reduced to mere stock characters with little to no development, or just cameo appearances that add nothing to the plot. Little side stories about Sakura's obsessive tailing of Ryu and Chun Li's Shadowlaw investigation are more an easter egg treat for long time fans than newcomers.

The biggest fault of Street fighter alpha: The Animation, is the animation itself which is merely on par with a typical anime TV series of that time. If one were to expect the gritty brutality and fluid choreography of Street fighter II: The Animated movie, one would be sorely disappointed. Street Fighter Alpha's fight scenes play out like something worse than Dragonball. Fighters flying and hovering through the air constantly was probably a way to cut costs by not animating the characters running, but for some reason all the fights seem to be done in slow motion. If it was intentional, it is a poor directing choice as it quite honestly makes every single bout a total bore. If not intentional, then it was a result of cutting corners again in the animation.

Artwork is also a hit and miss. While the art does a great job of replicating the designs used in the game, the characters go off-model quite often. The best example is Chun Li's eyes which keeps changing size and even shape in different scenes. The art constantly shifts from a dark and highly detailed style to a bright flat cartoony look, sometimes in stark contrast to the scene being presented, giving the entire production a very inconsistent feel.

It is a huge pity Street fighter Alpha: The Animation turned out the way it did. There were a couple of great ideas and a lot of room for a deeper story. Too bad all that potential got totally wasted on typical anime story clichés including an uber-powered robot and landscape-destroying fireballs. Like Akuma said, "a true warrior enters the arena with ALL his powers at the ready". Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation not only fails to bring all that its got to bear, but it figuratively pulls its punches and ends up with a mediocre final product. More effort seemed to be spent trying to cut corners in everything rather than going all out to deliver an experience as awesome as its predecessor or the games that inspired it.

Whenever I watch an anime film based on a fighting game, I expect FIGHTING. I don't want some ramshackle plot that detracts from the whole reason I enjoyed the game in the first place. Even the presence of a good plot can not justify in my mind any fighting game-based anime that contains little to no action.

This brings me to my review of Street Fighter Alpha the movie. The plot, such as it is, concerns Ken and Ryu teaming up with Chun Li to battle some maniacal scientist who's trying to harness the "Dark Hadou" within Ryu. The "Dark Hadou" is sort of the Dark Side of Ryu's martial arts. Also thrown in the plot is Sakura as an admirer of Ryu and Rose as a being who tries to help Ryu understand his destiny.

The animation is pretty good. The character design is quite different than Streetfighter 2: The Animated Movie. I liked the "ultra-muscular" design of its predecessor more than the "huge hulking creature" design of this film.

The fighting is the films calling card. There's a lot of it, and it's well "choreographed" and animated. A lot of brutal, high impact martial arts with just the right amount of energy attacks thrown in. My only complaint is that Chun Li and Sakura don't get any memorable one on ones. I loved Chun Li's duel with Vega in this film's predecessor, but there aren't any moments for her in this (not that she doesn't fight). Overall, an entertaining animated movie.

This movie left me impressed & disappointed. It revealed something about Ryu, but the story itself was confusing. I've been a Street Fighter Fan since '88, and the problem is that "they" keep changing the story. It's like some one at Capcom can't stay the story line that was given previously. If you've played the game and watched the other animes, you will notice that they are almost completely different. Nothing is clear about the characters' background or their reason for fighting. There are similarities (like the characters' names), but there are way too many plot holes. If you like Street Fighter, this movie is for you, but if you're a hard core fan whole likes a story with some foundation, then watch this just to watch, because you'll be a tad disappointed.

Street Fighter Alpha (1999) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows Ken and Ryu training one day when an orphan claiming to be Ken's brother arrives. The brother trains with Ken and Ryu and eventually they are attacked by a man who wants to steal Ryu's power and kidnaps his brother as a trap to get Ryu into his lair. Can Ken and Ryu save the brother and stop the tyrant?

This movie is directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi (Dragon Ball Z) and contains the voices of Kane Kosugi (DOA: Dead or Alive), Kazuya Ichijô (Cowboy Bebop), Ai Orikasa (Sakura Wars) and Bin Shimada (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind).

The animation in this is just okay and hasn't aged well. The characters are fun to see, especially Vega. The scene he arrives is very well done.

The every day environments the fighters reside in is very well delivered and interesting. There are some clever scenarios our heroes need to overcome, the wooden ghosts were very cool. The fight scenes are good and the final battle is unpredictable and entertaining.

Overall this is a slightly above average addition to the animated genre that is a must see for fans of the video game series. I would score this a 6/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Being a huge street fighter fan and thoroughly enjoying the previous film, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, I was really looking forward to this one!

However, it seemed that the film had no real sense of direction or purpose. Most of the characters I could not associate with and it just lacked the intense action that made the other mentioned street fighter film so superior.

There are some good points however, the Animation is superb!!!

This movie is based on the series Street Fighter Alpha (or Zero)! It is placed in an other setting than Streetfighter the animated movie! This movie is all about Ryu who is accompanied by Ken and Chun Li. I recognized Rose,Zanghief and Birdie! There weren't any other characters used from the video game (that i could discover)! The fighting scenes were OK but nothing really spectacular! And there were not many of them! To me this is odd! Isn't Streetfighter about fighting! Streetfighter the animated movie (1994) is far superior to this movie. It tries to be more than it really is! The use of the "Hada Power" and other supernatural elemnents have nothing to do with skills the characters have in the video game! And in this case that is a bad thing! The story is so boring that you don't really care what is happening! The action is toned down considerably! Why? And what happened to the other characters from the video game! Surely they are more interesting than the villain in this story! The main attraction of the video game are the characters with their own special skills! In this movie it is all about Ryu! That is why this anime fails!

Street Fighter Zero is certainly better than any other SF movie.

The 1994 movie is a real joke; SF2 the animated movie is nice, indeed, but this movie is actually GOOD. First of all, unlike all others, it has a plot. A very nice one, too. There's a little mind game of "who to trust", and the end is really great.

Second: The battles are somewhat more energetic, more dramatic - a little slower, and emphasized. Impressing. Well, anything else I'll tell you will just spoil the movie. Go see it! It is great, even for those who aren't Street Fighter fans.

Overall - it isn't for nothing that around 19% of votes (and most) voted 10!!!

Street Fighter is a video game series that's very near and dear to my heart. It is a series that's not exactly known for its deep and profound story, but the characters are iconic, from Ryu's dusty old white martial arts uniform and red headband, Ken's bushy eyebrows, to Chun Li's buns and thunder thighs.

Where this movie went very wrong, I think, was that they chose to create new characters rather than try to incorporate the rest of the Street Fighter cast in any meaningful fashion. I feel that this is a great disservice to the fan base. Even putting aside the lack of characters from the game (but where was Cammy?!), it was very hard (for me at least) to care about any of the new characters or the overall plot. And it didn't have to be that way. I don't think we have ever seen in the Street Fighter games or movies any hint as to Ryu's past: we take him for what he is now, a stoic world warrior whose greatest struggle is within. This could have been an interesting fresh look at this character, but in its execution it just fell flat.

If you haven't already, I would strongly recommend Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (listed on IMDb as "Sutorîto Faitâ II gekijô-ban"), which does a much better job of putting together a coherent story and weaving in all of the characters.

This movie was not quite what I hope it to be. I mean, is good in terms of animation, script and voice acting, but lacks in story impact for the fans of the game (and we know that the real Street Fighter story would work better than this one, while this has at least some basis). In this movie, we know a young martial artist named Ryu. His sensei Gouken was killed some time ago by a man named Gouki (we, the game's fans, know that Gouki and Gouken were actually brothers, but this is not mentioned in the movie at all, maybe because is just not relevant). This Gouki uses the power of the Satsui no Hadou, wich is no other that the 'Evil Intent'. Ryu is feeling that power inside him, and try to find out how to defeat it. Just in this stage of his life, a kid shows up reclaiming being his young brother. This boy also has the power of Satsui no Hadou and manifests it. Things are not getting any good to Ryu. The script open many storyline gates, but the one that really matters is Ryu's internal fight, while not the character's life itself. So, when the movie ends, all other storylines remain opened, while only the important one closes. This is very risky for a script, but I think it works fine. I mean, in the real life at the end of one dilemma, other possible dilemmas might not get solved. This is what happens to Street Fighter Zero. However, some of this dilemmas actually needed to be solved, like Sakura's. For example, Chun Li has her own dilemmas, but she actually gets in Ryu's way, so to know some about her was obvious. But what impact had Sakura on Ryu's trial? None. It was, in fact, in the other way: Ryu has a strike on Sakura's trail. That would work for a Sakura movie, but not for a Ryu movie. I felt Sakura's incursion very rushed, like a fan service thing. However, in the whole, Street Fighter Zero is a good, but not excellent movie. It could be better, just that. And an advice: This movie is not for those who look for a lot of anime action. This is more like Ang Lee's Crouching Tigger, Hidden Dragon. It has some action, but the spirit lays in the inner fight.

Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie was cool when I first watched it. I was all like FINALLY Akuma appears fully in a animated movie. You see him have cameos and all that. I was kinda disappointed that Bison was replaced by a guy named Dr. Sadler. I think it might be a prequel to the SFA series. You get to see Ryu in his Evil form. And he has a little brother? that's odd.

Parts I liked:

The most funniest fight scene was Dan vs. Birdie that ended real quick.

A guard split Chun Li's legs that had to hurt as hell. I think that's the origin of how she does her spinning bird kick. I don't know Capcom knows the whole storyline.

Liked the ending Akuma vs. Ryu a classic match reminds me of play SFA2.

It was all cool but not the best as Street Fighter II: the animated movie was.

Still rated: 7/10

As a fan of Street Fighter, I was disappointed at this anime movie. The movie basically has a lot of stuff that was never in the game it's an adaptation of, like Ryu having a little brother, which makes no sense, characters who never appeared in the game it was based on (mainly Sakura, who is annoying in this, and Vega, who basically kills Dan in one scene). It does, however, keep some of the characters accurate, as Ryu is facing the Dark Hadou like in the games, and it sticks to Street Fighter 1's ending of Ryu defeating Sagat. Also, I hate how this film basically has shots of Chun-Li that are blatant fan service. This film is a disgrace.

Okay, granted, this animated film is based upon an arcade game. Not just an arcade game--an arcade *fighting* game. The requirements for a good arcade fighting game (especially back when Street Fighter set the standards) did not involve having a plot. If it played well and was fun, then you had a hit. It's a given that to make a film the creators are going to have to expand on the three sentences of backstory each character has, and the equally shallow endings they all have; sometimes even substancially change them . . . so why did they feel it necessary to invent a whole new villain with artificial fighters at his disposal? No.

Granted, I haven't played the original SF Alpha in ages, but I recall Bison (generally speaking) still being the villain in the Alpha/Zero series (yes, I know, not everyone fought Bison in the first one). I can understand them not wanting to introduce Bison in this film to preserve the storyline of the existing SF Anime, but you still have Sagat from SF1. Heck, this film even brings up Akuma (who would have made an excellent lead villain if given the spotlight) but he's not pursued. Instead we're stuck with a throwaway guy no one cares about who has no connection to the Street Fighter game universe. The only thing worse is they don't make much attempt to make him or his underlings as interesting as the "true" SF characters. He's just a cliche mad scientist. That's all.

Then the presence of annoying existing SF characters doesn't help either. I hated Sakura in the game; I hate her in the anime. Ryu's brother issue started out all right; however, it quickly dissolved into meaningless drivel as the "plot" involving the "villain" consumed him.

Much of Street Fighter Alpha/Zero's vast cast of characters is not utilized (understandably so considering the volume of faces they've developed over the years), but even the ones who are really don't do much but get beat up until Ryu overcomes his inner demons, discovers the true warrior spirit, yadda, yadda, yadda, and ultimately saves the day. Every Street Fighter player knows that Ken is just as bad as Ryu, if not he's even badder; they even fight to a standstill in this, and yet Ken can't put a dent in the android/robot/artificial guy/whatever he was supposed to be? No. If nothing else, Ken would be able to severly hurt the thing.

I liked the original anime and even the V series because in the end Ryu & Ken ultimately team up. One or the other (usually Ryu) has to get the final hit, but it takes both of them for a victory. Akuma would have given them both a run for their money with his raging demon; Street Fighter fans don't want the throw-away Sadler crap, we want the real deal--bring on Akuma.

Bad script and very uninspired animation. Besides being a B anime, spectator simply do not feel as watching Street Fighter characters. Besides that, the fights are a mess! Also, poor melodrama ending.

by now, you've probably heard that Street Fighter Alpha movie is not as good as Street Fighter II: The Movie. However, Street Fighetr Alpha is still amazingly good. Take the example of Matrix Reloaded. On it's own, it would have been a major success and everyone would have loved it. However, before that came The Matrix. The Matrix was so unbelievably good, so perfect in every way that Reloaded didn't really stand a chance. And it is the same here. Street Fighter II movie was so good, exactly what fans of the game wanted to see that anything after that would pale into comparison, which is exactly what happened to Street Fighter Alpha. The truth of the matter is, Street Fighter Aplha is an amazingly good movie. Sure, it has it's faults, but so did Street Fighter II. Still, Street Fighter Alpha is very entertaining and sticks well with the whole street fighter universe, and it is perfect for those who have played the ASlpha games, introducing new characters in the movie. The whole movie is more dark and mysterious and incredibly fascinating. You will not be disappointed, although Akuma could have done so much more in the movie, it was a waste of a good character.

Well like i said this is not the kind of movie i thought it would have been.I have been a big street fighter fan since the starting of the video game while it was still on arcade.But of course i just couldn't just stop at that.I was browsing through one of my friends collection of Videos and i saw that she had both the first movie that came out and most of the series.Well of course i went nuts about them and she allowed me to borrow the first movie.This movie i watched over and over again because of some of the best fight scenes i had ever seen at that time.I will admit that i now own both and i watch the first one that came out a lot more instead of Alpha.I found Alpha very slow and the story just didn't fit quite right (compared to the true story behind Street Fighter).If you are looking for a good movie with an all right story line but lots of fighting in an Anime,i suggest "Street Fighter the Movie".Alpha is ok in some sense but i suggest you stick to The movie i just listed and the series(which is quite funny and a good one).I have seen a lot of Anime movies and lots of normal movies.If you would like any info or advice on a movie feel free to email me.

Even though I am a bigger fan of the FATAL FURY franchise than I am of Street Fighter I still recommend this to anime and video game fans.

The quality of animation in this entry is quite stunning. A lot of time and care has been put into making this look like a work of art and some scenes and shots are definitely way past cool.

The sound design is also more sophisticated than most other anime video releases. Stereo separation and ambiance comes through with clarity and more authority than you would imagine. The DVD sound great in 5.1.

The story is stronger than I expected but still not up to the standards of SF2. The bad guy just isn't nasty enough or threatening. And the movie kind of suffers as a result. M Bison is barely glimpsed and he looks kind of different. Gile is completely absent. Vega is gone too.

I wouldn't really say that this entry takes place in the same universe as SF2, which is a shame because it was so much better than the live action movie. Ken and Ryu's friendship is mostly the same, tho that is where any similarity ends. But there is a whole animated series to back SF Alpha up, so if you dig it...there's much more.

This was set before SF ll The anamie movie, and it does a really good job i mean a lot of people say there was not a lot of action, well that dont bother me one bit. I love this movie and its 2nd best, may be they are saving all the action for Street Fighter Alpha 2 due later this yeah?. Anyways i am a big SF Fan have been for the past 11 years now, and this is one of the best if not de best.

Overall, I think that this film is much better than the previous Street Fighter anime. Despite the fact that the fight scenes are not as entertaining, I think this does a much better job in terms of character development, storyline and musical score. The story seems to have more in common with Street Fighter 1 than 2, even though it is set between the two games. It has characters from the original, like Birdie and Adon, as well as references to the Muay Thai Emperor, Sagat (who I think is the best villain in a fighting game ever). The relationship between Ryu and Ken seems a lot more convincing in this film as opposed to the Street Fighter 2 animation, where all the character seem a little stiff. Also, it was a much better idea to make Akuma the lead villain instead of Bison, who is annoying and not intimidating at all. Also, the dubbing in this film is extremely good. The only complaint I have about this film is that some of the dialogue involving Shun seems to be poorly written. Still, I give it a 10.

What sets this film apart from others in the fighting-game-turned-anime genre us that the plot and character setup are especially important to the actual portrayal of the character. Don't expect to be able to jump into this film and like it, because you won't. If, however, you choose to watch it from the beginning and actually empathize with the characters, you will most likely enjoy yourself.

Street Fighter Alpha (the videogame) was the turning point of the street fighter universe because Ryu ceased to be the wandering, invincible (and emotionless) street fighter who is thrown into the plot by accident, and became the central character of the story, in a far more convincing fashion than Guile and Chun Li ever really managed in Street Fighter II. This movie is the expression of that story in film.

The fighting scenes are spectacular and the story well-paced, but in the end, if you're looking for the kind of popcorn-action flick that guys watch during frat parties, the original Street Fighter Animated Movie is much more your cup of tea (or beer). If, however, you're looking for a sensitive film which deals with the personal side of each of the characters involved, Alpha is much better.

I have been waiting for this movie for nearly six months. After buying it on it's release day I must say I was impressed. I was not sure what to expect.. but it was definitely worth the wait. The movie departed from the light-heartedness of the series and previous anime. If you are a die hard Street Fighter fan, you can't not like this movie. It leaves you with a giant cliffhanger, and I for one am looking forward to the next entry. Also if you are a die hard Street Fighter fan, brace yourself. A major revelation is brought into possibility. What is it? Watch and find out.

Ok. Being an semi-anime fan for a few years, I once fell upon street fighter 2, as an animated movie it was pretty good. The drawing was top notch, and the plot made sense. Not to mention most of the fights were pretty well done. In this, street fighter zero(alpha?) I found it sucked. The drawing was nowhere near as good as SF2. The plot was crap, I mean, the kid shows up and this amazing hardcore die hard fighter dude just believes he's his little brother? What's with that? The whole dark ha-do(sorry, don't know how to spell) thing is kinda cool, but if this had been pursued as more of a sequal to SF2 using some continuity between them, not to mention better drawing in general, I would be more pleased. I can't say the movie didn't entertain me at all, I still like whatching people get beat up, but I think it lacks some of the more apealing features of most plain old let's kick some tail movies.