The Street Fighter Team
Welcome back to 1 out of 5 – Would Recommend, where this week I discovered a childhood favorite was on Amazon Prime – 1995’s Street Fighter: The Animated Series!
What’s The Plot?
Colonel William Guile, one of the world’s top martial artists, has been dishonorably discharged from the military and is traveling the world living off the underground fighting circuit…at least, that’s what the public believes. In reality, he’s leader of a top secret unit called “Street Fighter”, uniting the world’s finest martial artists to battle the super criminal forces of Shadaloo!
Who Made This Beautiful Garbage?
Some production company called InVision Entertainment that doesn’t even seem to have a Wikipedia entry. It aired as part of the USA Action Extreme Team alongside Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, Savage Dragon, WildC.A.T.S., Ultraforce, and Double Dragon.
M. Bison, apparently modeled on Robert Z’Dar.
Five Reasons to See It
- Well, it’s the cloest thing to a sequel the 1994 film ever got. While the character designs are straight from the video games, most of the characterization hails from the flick. The most notable examples is the combination of Guile’s best friend Charlie and the Brazilian wild-man Blanka into Carlos Blanka.
- Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick is even more ridiculous than it is in the games, at one point being used to suck some poison gas out of a room.
- Most of the non-American characters are voiced by the show’s Anglo-Canadian cast putting on accents. This gets as cringe-y as you might imagine.
- Even the lowest level street fighter that Guile squares off with, the Crimson Crawdad, can toss around fireballs. It seems that’s just a thing you learn in martial arts class in this ‘verse.
- “Justice. Commitment. Discipline.” – the Street Fighter code of honor, which will be repeated endlessly.
Justice, Honor, Commitment: The cornerstones of unsanctioned street fights.
Recommendation
This is pure 90’s cartoon cheese, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. While not as fun as the movie from which it takes inspiration (which I hold in the same regard as 1966’s Batman: The Movie and 1980’s Flash Gordon), it definitely has its moments. A great, low effort show to keep on in the background for nostalgic 90s kids.
Come Back Next Week for a New Installment of Strange times & Places!
