As part of the endless Street Fighter craze in the early to mid 90's, two Street Fighter TV shows were made. One was an American GI Joe knockoff, and the other was II V, a prequel to the Street Fighter II game. Let's compare the two, shall we?
II V is about the main characters of the game, Ryu and Ken, barely out of their teens as they travel the world in a quest to improve their martial art skills, meeting new foes and friends along the way (most game characters of course). No top secret crime fighting organization (US cartoon) or country invasion that has nothing to do with street fighting (US movie), the show actually sticks to the premise of the title, street fighting!
The show does deviate in character designs for a bit, but most are recognizable. Fighting babe Chun-Li looks a bit different from her video game incarnation, but she's still immediately recognizable.
The show is reasonably well animated, not as good as the SF II anime movie (although that's expected considering the budget) but far superior to its American animated counterpart.
And of course, how can you not like a show that ends its previews with "Gonna burn some muscle!" You can't. Unless you're a soulless critic (oh wait...) So if you like fighting anime and don't mind some deviations from the plot in your instruction manual, do yourself a favor and hunt down the DVD's, or wait till it airs on WAM! or Encore Action. You won't be disappointed.
