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.

When Manga Video first released this, I snapped it up right away. Looking back, I remember it being good, yet I only watched it a few times before it was left to gather dust on the shelf with the rest of my impulse anime buys (the kind they snag you into buying by packing the trailer with nearly all the fast moving eye-candy the feature has to offer.) I couldn't quite remember why, though... so I popped it in the ol' VCR again. The best thing about it (to me), and what I think is better than all of the Street Fighter branded animation before it, is the consistency and quality of the artwork - it thoroughly matches the games it is based on. All you have to do is to compare (nearly) any moment of the movie with a victory screen or portrait of the same character from Alpha 3 to see the care that was put into pulling this off. The animation is quite good too, although I think the style is adhered to the fault of creating some awkward positioning and there is definitely an excess of close-ups - to the point that you are more likely to see a zoomed-in image of someone's face (or crotch, in Chun-li's case) rather than anything else going on.You could talk about the problems with the story (not that many game-movie conversions ever do too well in that regard), many of the clichés are there and are pretty obvious, and much of it is far too over-dramatic for it's own good, but as it is with any good action flick, those aren't the main things I'm concerned about...My main problems are with the fights. Aside from a few quick, entertaining brawls that are merely teases (one of which plays while the credits are rolling, making you realize how good it all could've been ), they seem to take place one move at a time, and thus feel unusually slow, even by vintage SF2 standards. In nearly all of the 'important' fights, there is almost no continuous motion to the action. And to slow it down further, we also get some of the usual "is that the best you can do?" dialogue (the kind any DBZ viewer will be familiar with) between the short bursts of action. Ugh.It's kind of sad when a video game shows more fluidity than a movie does during a fight. :(Pros: Good animation. Nice consistency in artwork. Signature moves are well represented.Cons: (some spoilers)Fight scenes feel unnaturally slow. The majority of the game's fighters are limited to 'quickie' cameos (Birdie was done pretty well, though.) No climactic battle with Akuma. Missing characters: no Charlie, no Sagat, etc. A lame villain who has nothing to do with the game (I really hate that stupid grin he always has.) General stupidity: an annoying little brat holding his own against Zangief (PUH-LEASE!), Ryu dodging bullets, etc...Despite what flaws it has, it is still worth watching if you enjoy the unique look of the Alpha series, as it has been very carefully replicated here.

I was disappointed after watching this movie. As a Street Fighter fan I was expecting this to show us the mother of all battle, Akuma vs. Ryu&Ken. The script writer of this movie have obviously had not play the game before, much more read the story behind the game. Where the Alpha series were suppose to be after the famous Sagat vs. Ryu battle (in SF1) and before the Street Fighter 2 tourament. This is where all the magic take place. Here is a list of what should be in the movie:1.Ken giving Ryu the famous red headband after a sparring battle 2.Death of Charlie during a mission with his buddy Guile 3.Unfolding the mystery between the Akuma and Ken&Ryu 4.Fighting more in the style of SF2: the animated movie rather then DBZ 5.Hyper moves we use in the games 6.One of the Shotos (thats Ken or Ryu) commenting on the similiarities of Dan's fighting style (same master) (or small stuff like this thats derived from the game) 7.Chun Li hunting down Bison 8.Bison having an interest in Ryu's dark ability 9.have fights with back drops that remind us of the game stages 10.Fill the rest up with game's minor character having fights with one another 11.Showdown between Akuma and the Shoto boysThis movie is not bad, but its not a Street Fighter movie. Its like they pick up a random script and call it ST:A just to cash in from the fans.

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.