While I haven't exactly seen that many of them, I keep hearing over and over that anything based on a video game is bad. This was a wonderful exception and it is without a doubt one of the best things ever made based on a video game! It's just great to see all of these wonderful classic characters together and looking and acting just like they do in the games. I admit that I am not that big a fan of the "Street Fighter" series, but seeing as how it's been referenced so many times, it's very hard for me to not be familiar with it. My only complaint is that some of the appearances of the characters don't mean that much.I have yet to see any other Street Fighter adaptations at all, which mostly can't be better than this. Chun-Li is probably the best here. She is indeed represented as a powerful woman. She's also smart, funny and just enjoyable to watch. While I don't like the idea of her being taken out of commission halfway through the movie, it doesn't matter that much. I appreciate how realistic this was represented. The animation is absolutely gorgeous in this and it perfectly represents the characters. M. Bison is possibly the best one, if only because he's presented just how a villain should be, strong, stern, and scary. This more or less featured him trying to take over the world ("Of course!"). A pity the bad live-action movie came later this year. It still doesn't tarnish a wonderfully colorful film. ***1/2

i really enjoyed this animated movie based on the video game of the same name.i thought the animation was good,and i liked the story.there's also a great back story that's really useful to the viewer up to speed,if that aren't already familiar with the history of the characters.the characters(especially the main ones) were interesting and had some depth and development.the action scenes were great.the voice acting was good all around.this is definitely not for young kids.there is some nudity and a bit of language,and it is violent,thought i have seen much worse.for me,StreetFighter II:The Animated movie is an 8/10

Many fans will argue that THIS is THE Street Fighter movie. The prefect adaptation of a popular fighting game franchise.Is it good? yes. Perfect? Hardly.Lets start with the Good stuff. 1)The animation. This anime, along with a number of anime movies in the late 80s to 90s break free from the stereotype of anime utilizing more animation short cuts and lower frame rate than western animation. The frame rate here is exceedingly smooth, it almost looks rotoscoped. Characters aren't stiff and are always in motion with expression in the faces and body posture portrayed very nicely in the art.2)The art. One would think that with a higher frame rate and smooth animation, the detail of the art would suffer. This is not the case here. The artwork is beautiful and finely detailled. Shadows and blacks are heavy lending to very nice gritty look and feel for the show. And the painted backgrounds are works of art on their own. The character designs are true to the game and pleasing to the eye, though some like Guile and Balrog tend to border on unrealistic.3)The fights. Beautifully choreographed and realistically played out, the fights are the main attraction here. Every punch from wind up to the hit to the follow through is thoroughly animated. Close ups and long shots are used appropriately to give a very dynamic viewing experience. Characters act and react to their opponents like how real fighters would and unlike other fighting anime like Dragonball, special powers are not thrown around. In fact, special powers are very rarely used in this movie and only as a last resort. Most of the time, we have 1 on 1 duels that look better than some big budget kung fu movies.The Bad 1)The story Weak and clichéd, the story in this movie teeters between juvenile and logic failing. A power hungry dictator capturing the world's greatest fighters to turn them into his own army, seeks out one particular fighter just cos his "power level" is higher than the others. This just reeks of typical shonen anime like Dragonball or Naruto. The story plays out very straight forward with no hint of intrigue or build up, and hearkens back to the cheesy spy movies of the 60s with evil crime empires and giant sky ships.2)The characters Aside from Ryu, most of the characters are 1 dimensional stereotypes of different cultures or races. Perhaps that comes from trying to cram in too many characters into one movie, something many game adaptations suffer from. The motives of the other characters are never explained or only briefly touched on and they are never developed as the movie progresses. Even Ryu gets little development. The there are appearances by Zangeif, Blanka, Sagat etc who seem to be just there to make the game fans happy. They lend nothing too important to the plot, especially Zangeif and Blanka whose appearance is totally non-essential to the story and could have been cut out, that time and money used to actually further the plot. 3)The scripting and dialogue Cheesy lines and over the top speeches abound in this movie. Thankfully, unlike other anime, characters don't talk to each other and spew lengthy monologues in the middle of fights. Honestly, i preferred the English version to the Japanese version. The Japanese version is a lot more over the top wheras the English version has more realistic, subdued acting and some lines are changed to make them less cheesy. Plus it is more believable to have the majority of the characters which are non-Japanese, speak English. Not to mention that the animators never bothered to properly sync the lip movement to the Japanese dialogue in the first place.Overall 7/10 A greatly enjoyable movie that captures the spirit of the games and likely to please fan and newcomer alike. Aside from the simplistic story and cookie cutter characters, the animation and fight choreography definitely sets the bench mark for fighting genre anime.

People would like to think that the Anime Film version of Street Fighter II - The Fighting Game is far more true to its origins than the live Hollywood version starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Well, we have every character from the Super-edition present, many of them perform their signature moves such as Hadoken etc., Blanka and Charlie are not the same person and they stuck to the original character back-stories.Is it more true to its origins? Yes. Is it a better movie? Nope.Here's why. Although the Anime had a lot more fight-scenes and on average they were quite impressive, the movie has no plot to speak of. The anime reeks of fan-service, starting with bit-appearances by Fei Long, Cammie, DeeJay, Dhalsim, Zangief, Blanka and T.Hawk and truth-be-told Sagat didn't get to do anything cool either. Plus, the film contains a shower-scene with Chun-Li where the director made a point of showing off her "womanhood" as often as possible.By comparison, the Hollywood film at least had a plot and was rather funny. This film has that "anime-magic" about it, but is really nothing more than a theatrical "TV-special".