In Defense of the Street Fighter Cartoon

This is a Cartoon Historian Special Presentation!

In Defense of the Street Fighter Cartoon!

What you are about to read is a Defense of the widely disrespected and hated Street Fighter Cartoon series.

In the mid-90's a Street Fighter Cartoon series was created to complement the popularity of the hit Video Game,Super Street Fighter II. After the Van Damm Street Fighter movie,fans were ready to experience something Worthy of the Street Fighter franchise.

However,most fans were disappointed about what they got. So they complained to Capcom USA and they told Capcom Japan and that lead to the creation of Street Fighter II:The Animated Movie and Street Fighter 2V......But that's a story for another time.

Anyway,the Show,despite what others say,isn't that bad. In fact most people who bad mouth the show have Only seen about 8 minutes of a single episode. The Show has it's flaws yes,but what Game,Comic,or TV show doesn't?

First I'm gonna talk about the Series Flaws,just to get them out of the way. As well as the other reasons why Street Fighter Fans tend to hate this show. On with the flaws.

The First flaw is an obvious one: The show is somewhat of a continuation of the 1994 Live-Action Movie,which most Street Fighter fans hated. That hurts the series significantly. Not to mention that,since this show is a continuation of the movie,Guile is the Main character rather than Ryu and Ken,Who were turned into guest stars.

The Next flaw is another obvious one: The Fight Scenes. The fight scenes of this series tend to get,well,Unrealistic. This is one of the main gripes fans have with this cartoon series. After all,people expect a show that's based on a fighting game series to have awesome fight scenes. Plus,those "hitting effects" make things even more lame.

For those who don't know what "Hitting Effects" are. They are the sparks that you see when someone is hitting someone. You see this alot in old comic books and cartoons.

The Next flaw would be the artwork quality of Season 2. Man,compared to season 1's decent artwork,Season 2 really disappoints. The characters faces and bodies look weird...especially their muscles. What The Hell Happened,why couldn't those dopey animators just copy season 1's art?

Anyway,the next flaw was the pronunciation of Ryu's name. In the show he's called "Rhy-Yoo" instead of "Ree-Yoo". "Ree-Yoo" is the the True pronunciation of the characters name. I can safely say that All Street Fighter fans(includin' myself) were understandably annoyed by this.

The Final flaw takes us back to the First. Ryu and Ken as side-characters. Another reason why this show was a turn-off for fans was the fact that Ryu and Ken,the main characters of the games,were reduced to side-characters.

Another reason why the SF fans hate this series is because when they watch it they compare it to the Anime series. This is a problem that provents them from enjoying the series. The fans also despise how Akuma was portrayed in the series.They hated the intro too. But who can blame them,the intro's dialog was kinda corny.

Now that all of the Major negatives have been covered...It's time for the Defense.

First off lets talk about the artwork. Season 1 had some decent awrwork. I'm quite fond of it. However,like I stated earlier,Season 2's artwork was bad. Though Chun-Li looked good. Plus, all the characters looked similar to their Game Counterparts.So you can easily tell who they are,Unlike the Live Action movie.

Also unlike the Live Action Movie,The Characters Actually used their Special Moves.Sure,this show had some animation errors,but almost Every Cartoon during that time had animation errors.

Another thing that was awesome about this series was the Music. It's well writen and It went with the scenes well. Speaking of the Scenes,the Storylines were also good. The storylines and music were the things that made this series a good one.

Unfortunately,many Street Fighter fans are just a bunch of purist pricks,closed minded people who hate the show mostly because it's not Japanese and Unlike the games.

Another thing I'm gonna defend is the Characters personalities. They're fine. Especially,considering that their Game Counterparts had very little personalities to begin with...at least in the U.S. games.

Remember this Cartoon was being created in 1994. This was Before the Alpha games,where the characters personalities were beginning to blossom.

The next thing I'm gonna stick up for is the Art Style. Considering that Anime wasn't that popular in the U.S. at the time,I'd say that the Artwork was appropriate. Anime wouldn't gain a U.S. fanbase until 1997,the Year Toonami was introduced.

Had the show had taken an Anime-ish look to it,and thus making the characters look more like their Game counterparts,The show wouldn't have done well. Remember This Cartoon series was,for the most part,targeted at a 8-12 year old demographic. And most kids of that era were used to an American look to their animated shows.

And another thing,So what if the Cartoon's not Canon. Hell,neither are the Anime movies or The Anime series. Now if fans would just look past the mentioned flaws and forget the fact that the show is somewhat of a continuation of the movie,they might come to respect,perhaps even like,this Cartoon series.

You also have to remember that compared to the Cartoons of today,the Street Fighter cartoon is kinda nice. And thus concludes the Defense of the Street Fighter Cartoon. I hope you all enjoyed this.

Special Thanks goes to General-Radix of Deviant Art for inspiring me to do this.