Street Fighter II V: Cammy's Introduction and Bison Going Full Evil (Episodes 17-19)

 

Street Fighter II V came out before the Street Fighter Alpha series came out. Yes, that means Cammy's status as a female clone of M. Bison (which freaking doesn't make sense even for sci-fi IMHO wasn't established yet. Cammy was established to be part of MI6 British Intelligence (like in the games) but becomes a freelance assassin. Another casting mistake IMHO, was Kylie Minogue as Cammy. Here, Cammy looks more like Brigitte Wilson who played as Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat (1995) movie. But be forewarned -- Cammy can trigger the Hentai No Hadou in several scenes throughout the series!

Balrog ends up as a shrewd henchman. Balrog was supposedly hyped to be a brutal boxer. However, Balrog's final role was an Interpol mole. Balrog was practically taking over Dee Jay's role from the Street Fighter (1994) film where Balrog was a good guy and Dee Jay a villain. It's like Dee Jay was Adapted Out not just because Crayon Shin Chan beat the Street Fighter II V Anime via Hentai No Hadou. It's also because Balrog took over that role instead. Interestingly, E. Honda was Adapted Out. I mean, E. Honda could've made a cameo as Ryu's village friend of sorts before moving to America!

Balrog frames up Dorai as a "secret druglord". This is a very clever move. Use Cammy to destroy Dorai and frame Dorai for crimes he never committed. After all, Ashura was demolished and Shadaloo had lost some power. Balrog said that Dorai set up "new drug fronts" for every drug front that was busted. Cammy uses that dangerous string. 

Spoilers is that Dorai manages to survive. The game canon killed Dorai before the series even began. I found the survival rather unrealistic TBH. 

Chun Li's encounter with Bison 

What truly disturbs me is how Bison finally introduces himself. We don't know what happened to Vega after the cage match. All we know is that Bison had Ken aned Vega for treatment. Bison faced Chun Li. Bison ordered Dorai's death and for some reason -- Group TAC chose to spare Dorai. Chun Li tries to fight Bison who has a rape face that's just disturbing. However, Bison also goes on with several monologues like Dr. Blofeld in James Bond 007 or Dr. Evil in Austin Powers.

Raul Julia had already died by the time the episode was seen. However, the scene plays full Street Fighter movie energy. Bison makes a lot of monologues like the Movie Bison. Heck, there was a scnee where Chun Li attempts to kill Bison in the movie. Here, Bison goes full ham and full evil. The Anime version has Bison like what if Julia's portrayal had Psycho Powers instead of just an electronagnetic suit (a plot convenience that allowed Guile to save the day). The late Kenji Utsumi put his all in making the Anime Bison as theatrically sadistic as possible. 

It's disheartening to see Ken having ran out of blood. Chun Li tries to defend herself but fail. Even more, we do have a bit of Bison being a Bond Villain when he finally sends a message to Ken's father, demanding a billion dollars in exchange fro Ken's life. I'm probably disappointed because I felt Bison could've kidnappedmore than just Ken. In this case, it's more of a tit-for-tat since Ken was partly responsible for bustling the Ashura lines.

Guile shows up again but so far, I felt he was sidelined too much for a guy who focuses on rescue

This is where a bit of disappointment sits in. I thought Guile should've showed up at India! Instead, Guile's return was in order to rescue Ken. Charlie also looks nothing like the video game counterpart that came out months later. Street Fighter Alpha presented a Charlie that was a blonde hair, blue eyed guy. Here? Charlie looks like he was based on Carlos Blanka from the Street Fighter film.

I was wondering was this the reason why Blanka was adapted out? I have a feeling if the series went longer -- Charlie would've probably been turned into Blanka and die tragically Instead, Charlie's death in the series shows out rather differently. The game established Charlie died before Street Fighter II. That detail was later written into the Street Fighter Alpha series.

Bison also shows he's practically meant to be a Bond Villain. Bison doesn't hesitate to contact Ken's father asking for USD one billion. This was advised by Zoltar to cut the losses caused by Dorai's operation. Bison really knows how do psychological torture.Sure, the Street Fighter movie plot where the hostages are was intense. However, Group TAC may have thought of a "more personal route".

IMHO, Guile and Charlie showing up should be like this. Nash says, "Knew these guys?" Guile said, "I met them in America and again in India. Honestly, Shadaloo's targetting them for some reason when they're just reckless youths I defeated back then!" 

Both Charlie and Guile prepare to go to Spain, to rescue Ken and Ryu. They were prepared to fight a madman but not a a man with god complex!

Zangief's role as an unwitting Shadaloo enforcer feels off

Zangief is introduced as a Shadaloo agent like in Street Fighter (1994) movie than a good guy. The arcade had Zangief introduced as part of the eight protagonists. However, it seemed that this was most likely a result of the cold war. In fact, this Zangief is still described as a Minion with an F in Evil. Zangief's just used to do dummy work by Shadaloo dummies. Oh, there's even a truck in this scene. TBH, i kinda wish this scene happened...

I felt this was another missed opportunity. I mean, I thought of it'd be funny if Zangief said in the Anime series, "Quick! Change the channel!" It was practically meant to be a joke since cartoon villains tend to have low common sense. Bison is highly intelligent but low common sense. Zangief has low intelligence and low common sense. 

Zangief was portrayed to be a feral, polite fellow. I guess Bison knew how to manipulate Zangief too.