Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

The Street Fighter American cartoon was somewhat lucky to still have a SECOND SEASON despite how terrible the first season was. The second season started adding characters from Street Fighter Alpha,  such as Akuma having his actual role but all too cartoony, and it was on February 3, 1996. I thought that the second season was even more convoluted, and it was like, "Was it worth it renewing a contract with Capcom and paying more royalty rights?" The second season had the "Cammy Arc," which is separated into: "Cammy and the Bachelor" "Cammy Must Die" "Cammy Tell Me True", which is the FINAL episode The plot had Cammy, who was later revealed as a brainwashed double agent for Shadaloo. What freaks me out is how Bison made Cammy into his lover (despite the huge age gap, and Bison is apparently in his 50s) via brainwashing. Also, to no surprise in the finale, Cammy discovers Bison murdered her parents, and she's but a plaything. I thought...

Street Fighter Alpha 3 -- like it, hate it, love it, or just be neutral. I thought about how the Arcade version often got flak because you were only GIVEN ONE CHANCE to defeat the unplayable Final Bison (or Bison II as I called him) and that's it. I mean, WTF Capcom. Sure, I found the X-Ism, A-Ism, and V-Ism interesting ways to play the character. However, there's some SERIOUS writing hiccups that contradicted Street Fighter II such as... Sagat was supposed to be a bad guy in Street Fighter II and the Alpha series' events takes place BEFORE that game Street Fighter II came out with the established lore that Bison created the Four Heavenly Kings are Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and Bison. However, Street Fighter Alpha 3 created a huge continuity headache with Sagat. Sure, I can FORGIVE Street Fighter II V where Sagat was a framed Muay Thai champion who got disgraced by Ashura's frame-up. Street Fighter II V  was meant to operate OUTSIDE the game canon.  However, the game canon h...

  It's a common playground argument about which name was which. A person who had a Super NES (American) may argue with the one who has the Super Famicom (Japan). I even remember using the Street Fighter: The Movie (which had Boxer as a good guy) to be the source of the real names. However, if anybody observed it -- if the game uses the Bison-Balrog-Vega naming -- the GAME WAS IN JAPANESE. This is a naming controversy that actually understood the INTERNATIONAL MARKET. If Rockman was renamed as Mega Man for America, then a lot of localizations DO HAPPEN!  There's no questions asked that I can be "quite a purist" with Japanese sources. My dislike for Power Rangers is something I can't deny even if I acknowledge the necessity. The Mike Bison controversy may have just been one -- all to avoid a lawsuit with Mike Tyson. We need to look into the NAMES and what they meant and why they may fit the international market better... Changing M. Bison to Balrog for the Boxer An...

I remember Friday evenings on ABS-CBN shifted with new shows. There was also that atrocious Street Fighter American cartoon . This one is a HUGE MISALIGNMENT when the toning down went from PG-13 (which was the case of the first Mortal Kombat film) to TV-Y7-FV. Yes, talk about the Insult to Injury. Thankfully, the cartoon only lasted 13 episodes, unlike Conan the Adventurer -- a show I was obsessed with UNTIL I saw Conan the Barbarian.  The show is a pseudo-sequel of sorts of the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie. It was all before that also AWFUL Mortal Kombat Annihilation movie came out in 1997. At least  Mortal Kombat Annihilation still the PG-13 filter. Here? Everyone becomes a Saturday Morning Cartoon character. Everyone turns into a generic action hero. I still can't get over how badly EVERYONE was done whether it's my favorite Liu Kang or my other favorites like Jax, Sonya Blade, Kuai Liang, Jax, Nightwolf, Kitana, and back then, Stryker was still viewed as bland.  The show ...

  Street Fighter II V is one series that may have only done better because the American cartoon really sank too hard . A rewatch of the Anime series for anyone who saw the SH*TTY Street Fighter American cartoon AND the cult classic movie Street Fighter (1994),  which earned Capcom USD 165 million at that time, might notice the movie DNA baked into the series. It seemed like a correction of sorts. But let's think about the pros and cons. Honestly, I felt that Street Fighter II V wasn't exactly faithful to the lore either. Now, let's think of the movie DNA. Note: I'll be using the international version names instead of the Japanese version, for easier reference. This is where I can name a lot. I was thinking about how Street Fighter (1994) influenced this series' formula. The series tries to focus on "near-realism," such as how projectiles aren't even used (and they're a PRIVILEGE) and have to be earned by hard work. This series somehow felt that eve...

Back in the 1990s, it was the analog age, and people simply couldn't see the difference between the U.S. adaptation and the American original. Power Rangers was also a licensed adaptation, so dislike the franchise all I want -- I understand Toei had a contract! Now, another one that came out in 1995 (the same year as Street Fighter II V ) was the American Street Fighter cartoon. It aired late in 1995 and had a second season (which had its first episode on September 21, 1996) that later introduced characters from the Street Fighter Alpha series.  Basically, the  Street Fighter American cartoon may have been a response to the Street Fighter movie. However, the Street Fighter  movie, HORRIBLE AS I THINK IT IS, actually had redeeming factors. For example, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile was better than the Cartoon Guile. The late Raul Julia gave his all for the performance. However, the biggest mistake for me was the dubbing and the bad writing. In fact, more often than not, t...

It's known that I didn't like the Street Fighter live-action film. Adaptations will always have some form of altercation. I felt that Ken Masters, not William Guile, should've been the protagonist for an American adaptation of Street Fighter . However, the movie itself was still more forgivable than that accursed Street Fighter cartoon in 1995 -- which came out in the same year but a few months later. So yeah, Capcom was getting double royalties from Group TAC (Japan) and the American companies, Graz Entertainment and InVision Entertainment. The American cartoon ran for two seasons, which was considered the worst addition of the franchise with a very anticlimactic end.  However, it seemed that Street Fighter II V decided to follow the movie DNA in some way. The American version made Guile spam Sonic Booms as the main character and use projectiles. However, here, we don't see any projectiles and it took AN ENTIRE SEASON before Ryu and Ken performed Hadou energy moves -- ...