I'm not too picky about details in plotlines when it comes to Street Fighter since what exists in the game doesn't really pass as a plot. SFII V blurs the lines between the Street Fighter Alpha/Zero series , and the Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, and in its own way roots back to before that. These episodes come across more as an alternate retelling from someone with a different interpretation of the general Street Fighter plot instead of remaking the exact existing material for the twentieth time. Spoilers below as I compare game to anime.
In SFII V, the characters are much younger therefor they meet each other sooner than they would have in the game. Chun Li's father is not dead, Sagat has never seen Ryu before, Balrog works for Interpol, and Cammy is a freelance assassin. SF purists will notice dozens upon dozens of inconsistencies with the game, but then again, who cares? At times it does seem like they changed a character's role (Balrog) for the sake of getting him in the film--oh well. If you're nitpicky, stay away.
This film's storytelling bothers me more than the actual story. Part of it comes from the fact it was intended as episodes in a tv series with obvious breaks between each, and watching them back to back on DVD results in a great deal of redundency such as when Ryu's taps into that great power (I think they call it Hadou here too, but I may be mistaking it for the SF Zero anime). To me, Ryu comes across this power and masters it far too quickly, so when Ken finally taps into it numerous chapters after Ryu it's even more unbelievable that he masters it even more quickly. I find myself not believing much in Dhalsim's words when he mentions that it takes a lifetime to learn and master when two kids pick it up in a couple of weeks with no real repercussions.
The V series does a better job of fleshing out more characters as a whole than any of the other entries in the Street Fighter film universe again because the fact it is much, much longer and can support more. Still though, many characters come across as shallow even though we have more time with them. The set of DVDs feels more like a ride from one place to another just to fit more characters into the series, but, at least that basically was the idea behind the plot initially.
I felt everything slowed down for the ending, as though an entire DVD was dedicated to the ending sequence--did we need a third of the series to cover the climax of this thing? It just loses momentum because suspence is really hard to sustain over the course of that long a time. Especially when the whole thing is already much slower than the film counterparts due to the episodal nature. The fact that it's broken up at the end of each episode doesn't help either--it'd be nice if you could turn on an option on the DVD to cut out the Title sequence, the summary, and "in the next episode" without having to click "Next". Just make it one loooong movie.
Many aspects were over-emphasized such as the whole hadou animation every time Ryu casts it, and he does it a lot, Cammy has an unneeded daydream before executing her mission, a bunch of little things like that that just take up time but don't add anything to either character or plot. And finally, this came across more geared towards kids than the anime movie and Zero. Characters behaved more childishly, have more simplistic logic, and easier to grasp (but less realistic) resolutions. Not necessarily bad and understandable for a program geared for television--that's why I'm not that big a fan of TV programming. I'll stick with features.
Overall, this ain't bad for tv. And it's way better than the crappy American programming we have over here, so . . .
In SFII V, the characters are much younger therefor they meet each other sooner than they would have in the game. Chun Li's father is not dead, Sagat has never seen Ryu before, Balrog works for Interpol, and Cammy is a freelance assassin. SF purists will notice dozens upon dozens of inconsistencies with the game, but then again, who cares? At times it does seem like they changed a character's role (Balrog) for the sake of getting him in the film--oh well. If you're nitpicky, stay away.
This film's storytelling bothers me more than the actual story. Part of it comes from the fact it was intended as episodes in a tv series with obvious breaks between each, and watching them back to back on DVD results in a great deal of redundency such as when Ryu's taps into that great power (I think they call it Hadou here too, but I may be mistaking it for the SF Zero anime). To me, Ryu comes across this power and masters it far too quickly, so when Ken finally taps into it numerous chapters after Ryu it's even more unbelievable that he masters it even more quickly. I find myself not believing much in Dhalsim's words when he mentions that it takes a lifetime to learn and master when two kids pick it up in a couple of weeks with no real repercussions.
The V series does a better job of fleshing out more characters as a whole than any of the other entries in the Street Fighter film universe again because the fact it is much, much longer and can support more. Still though, many characters come across as shallow even though we have more time with them. The set of DVDs feels more like a ride from one place to another just to fit more characters into the series, but, at least that basically was the idea behind the plot initially.
I felt everything slowed down for the ending, as though an entire DVD was dedicated to the ending sequence--did we need a third of the series to cover the climax of this thing? It just loses momentum because suspence is really hard to sustain over the course of that long a time. Especially when the whole thing is already much slower than the film counterparts due to the episodal nature. The fact that it's broken up at the end of each episode doesn't help either--it'd be nice if you could turn on an option on the DVD to cut out the Title sequence, the summary, and "in the next episode" without having to click "Next". Just make it one loooong movie.
Many aspects were over-emphasized such as the whole hadou animation every time Ryu casts it, and he does it a lot, Cammy has an unneeded daydream before executing her mission, a bunch of little things like that that just take up time but don't add anything to either character or plot. And finally, this came across more geared towards kids than the anime movie and Zero. Characters behaved more childishly, have more simplistic logic, and easier to grasp (but less realistic) resolutions. Not necessarily bad and understandable for a program geared for television--that's why I'm not that big a fan of TV programming. I'll stick with features.
Overall, this ain't bad for tv. And it's way better than the crappy American programming we have over here, so . . .