Photos courtesy of IMDB.com
Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation
Group TAC, 2000
Street Fighter Alpha anime the beta of fighting game franchise
Chances are, if you’re a fan of Street Fighter in general, you’ve probably already seen the Street Fighter Alpha anime. There was a time when this was required viewing for anyone who picked up a joystick and possibly enjoyed anime. Nearly 30 years after its release, it still fascinates but it’s iffy on whether or not it’s still required viewing.
The story begins with introducing the main crew: Chun-Li, Ken and Ryu. Following the story of the first game, Ken and Ryu are best friends who are like-minded in their pursuit of martial arts training. Ken gets the bright idea to enter a shady tournament and wants to drag along Ryu. Ryu, meanwhile, had to contend with a brother he never knew – Shun – popping up in his life, a new fan in Sakura and the Satsui no Hado threatening to take over his body and soul. All roads converge with the tournament, where a mysterious puppet string-pulling organizer collects data from familiar faces, such as Zangief and Birdie, and the crew.
There’s a lot to love about Alpha. The animation looks great for 1996 and it’s an interesting take on the now-established Alpha storyline. We know how it ends now but at the time, it was unheard of that Ryu might have family members we didn’t know about or Akuma actually talking instead of straight up killing folks. But that’s the charm of Alpha. It’s got the anime aesthetic we’re looking for from a licensed property, and it tries to add to the series’ lore with information that could be canon if we squint hard enough.
The most important part, however, is how does it hold up in the Street Fighter media juggernaut? It’s arguably fine. It’s much better than Street Fighter: The Movie, even without all of the cast showing up; it’s also slightly better than Street Fighter II V, an already solid property that also takes liberties with the lore. However, it isn’t better than the Street Fighter II anime. It doesn’t quite reach that level of legendary, but it’s almost there.
If you care at all about Street Fighter and want an entertaining set of fights, good voice acting and interesting what-if additions to the franchise lore, the Alpha anime is worth a watch and a gander at what a good Street Fighter property looks like.
HOW WE GRADE
We score the properties in three categories: Casting (or voice acting in cases of animated), plot and similarities to its source material. Each category receives points out of the maximum of 10 per category and 30 overall. The percentage is the final score.
Like the games: 8.5
Voice acting: 10
Story: 9
Total: 27.5/30 or 9.2
