Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

  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 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, the show can go so cringy. Cartoon Guile was made the...

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 -- ...

Make no mistake that I saw Conan the Adventurer before I saw the rather bloody Conan the Barbarian . Yes, that was an incredible shock for my younger days. The name Thulsa Doom was used in the movie. However, anyone who has seen Conan the Adventurer might easily call him "Wrath-Amon" like I did. However, the Movie Thulsa seemed to be referenced in Conan the Adventurer via Ram-Amon . It was years later when I discovered that the "Skeletor" that Conan fought in the comics was actually THULSA DOOM. Comics Thulsa was introduced as the archenemy of Kull. Even more, it wasn't Conan but Kull who was enslaved as a boy and became a king at his own hand. Basically, Conan the Barbarian (1982) combined the different elements of Kull and Conan into one epic film. In the 1982 film, Conan was enslaved as a boy and rose up against Movie Thulsa.  Back in the day, I remember talking about how He-Man was inspired by Conan . People would say that the Movie Thulsa had this skull. It...