Street Fighter American Cartoon: Another Fuel To My Dislike Of Licensed American Adaptations Of Japanese Shows

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 main character but was practically this...

We really need to look into how projectiles get spammed. Talk about how Guile's SONIC BOOM was just spammed. Any Street Fighter player may have realized Guile's Sonic Boom required holding Back (or Downwards-Back), Forward + Punch (speed depends on which punch was pressed), and NOT something that the player can spam. However, Guile was treated like the CPU that cheated. He was a botched caricature of Guile!

The cartoon was meant to mimic G.I. Joe. I felt that Shadaloo here (and Balrog's well, aligned with Shadaloo and given his boxer persona) was a cheap imitation of G.I. Joe's COBRA. General M. Bison here feels hollow. The whole thing goes cartoony, but not in a good way. Come on, at least the COBRA Commander or even Serpentor in the 1980s G.I. Joe cartoon had more personality. COBRA came out with some interesting personalities. I felt Bison's biggest problem was that he was a poorly-implemented as a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain. People may remember how Skeletor from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe or Hordak (although he answered to his older brother Horde Prime) in She-Ra Princess of Power were entertaining. But Bison? The Cartoon had an identity crisis plus the voice acting was so bad it's terrible. Come on, even a high school theater could do bettert than that! 

In fact, too many times, the show didn't know what to do. Was it going to go on the Status Quo or not? Some shows ran on Status Quo and knew how to work it. However, the American cartoon was so terrible it wasn't worth the rewatch. I mean, it came out the same year as Street Fighter II V (which by the way, isn't TV-7-FV friendly) as another source of royalty revenue. But then, it had no real clear direction unlike Street Fighter II V where it had a more definite conclusion.

I always found the American cartoon's finale so loose. We had an episode where Cammy supposedly betrayed Guile. However, a lot of fillers using Street Fighter Alpha characters (and even Akuma, who already had a lore by then) were all poorly done! The finale felt like Bison throwing a tantrum that writes, "IF I CAN'T HAVE THE WORLD THEN NO ONE WILL!" The finale wasn't even earned because the previous episode was just a filler. It was just a "desperate end" for some crazy reason.

Overall, better watch Street Fighter II V over this mess!