Ask John: How Much Street Fighter Anime Exists?

Question:
I was wondering if you could shed some light on the Street Fighter series? When were they released? What has been released in the USA? What order should they be watched in? Is there any more coming to the US? And is anymore being made in Japan?

Answer:
Now that we’re in the 15th anniversary of Street Fighter year, interest in the Street Fighter anime seems to have picked up again.

The first Street Fighter anime was the famous motion picture, released in Japan on August 6, 1994 (actually the same summer that the Fatal Fury motion picture was released in Japan). This movie was released to American DVD on July 1, 1997 in an edited version that’s missing 2-6 minutes worth of footage depending on which running times you trust. (The American cut of the film is 96 minutes long. The Japanese version of the film has been reported to be a short as 98 minutes, but is listed on the Japanese DVDs as running 102 minutes.) In any case, the American version of the film has nudity excised from Chun-Li’s shower scene, and reportedly removes graphic violence periodically throughout the film. The American version of the Street Fighter II movie also replaces the original Japanese score with an American soundtrack performed by various hard rock groups. The American release of the film, and all of the other Street Fighter anime released in America, also used the American character names.

The 29 episode Street Fighter II V television series premiered in Japan on April 10, 1995. It premiered on American DVD on February 27, 2001. Sadly, the Street Fighter TV series fared little better than the movie did. For the American version, all of the original Japanese music was removed and replaced by an American score, and the original opening animation was replaced with a montage of footage from the show.

The two episode Street Fighter Zero OAV series debuted on Japanese home video on April 26, 2000. The American release of both episodes edited together into a single “movie” followed on January 30, 2001. As a bit of a mixed blessing, this was the least molested American release of Street Fighter anime, suffering only the removal of the credits at the end of the first episode and second episode title screen, and having its character names altered and title changed from the Japanese “Street Fighter Zero” to the American “Street Fighter Alpha.”

The only other existing Street Fighter II anime exists in the very rare Japanese exclusive Street Fighter II Movie adventure/fighting game for the Sega Saturn, released on March 15, 1996. This game featured a condensed, playable version of the Street Fighter II anime movie with an entirely new anime opening animation sequence and small bits of incidental anime created for the game.

Each iteration of Street Fighter anime is self-contained and not directly connected to any other title. The Street Fighter II V series is an origin story that diverges from the video game’s origin story. The Street Fighter Zero anime is also an origin story, this one loosely based on the established continuity of the Street Fighter video games. The Street Fighter II movie can loosely be said to occur several years after the events of Street Fighter Zero.

In September 2003, Manga Entertainment announced that the second Street Fighter Zero OAV series would be released in March 2004. That did not happen, and no Japanese news sources or anime industry magazines in Japan have reported on the production of a second Street Fighter Zero anime series, so there’s really no way of guessing when, or even if a second Street Fighter Zero anime series will ever get made and released.