Sean Akizuki's Fantasy Critic

It's no secret that Liu Kang is indeed a Bruce Lee-inspired character. It was said that Jason Scott Lee (no relation to Bruce Lee) was Bruce Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and was offered the part of Liu Kang and turned it down. The part of Liu Kang eventually went to Robin Shou (for the 1995 film) while the current film will have Ludi Lin (from that failed Power Rangers film). The character of Lee from Enter the Dragon was obviously given tribute in later films and games. There was the arcade game Yi Ar Kung Fu which had its main protagonist Lee fighting off deadly opponents. The concept also made it into Liu Kang when the low-budget hit Mortal Kombat was created.  The first game featured Liu Kang in a very Bruce Lee type of attire. Who can remember the way that Liu Kang was in the first game where he wore black pants and kung fu shoes? Lee's trademark appearance was made into Liu Kang and put into a bloody game. Interestingly, Liu Kang had nunchucks (which is obviously ac...

  Can you believe that it's been ten years since Mortal Kombat (2011) or Mortal Kombat 9 has been released? Yup, and it means that it's also five years since Mortal Kombat X was released on the 20th anniversary of the Mortal Kombat Hollywood movie. Think about it 2011 would be the 25th anniversary or the silver anniversary year. MKX clearly had references to the film for its upcoming 20th anniversary, but do we forget that MK (2011) also had references to the movie as well aside from being heavily influenced by Mortal Kombat II ?  The most obvious one is Shang Tsung's catchphrase is used in the game Before Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa reprised his role for the video game --it turned out that he was supposed to voice the sorcerer for the 2011 game. The design of Shang Tsung was really (and partly) inspired by Kabai Singh from The Phantom . The sorcerer's intro should have him say "YOUR SOUL IS MINE!" done by Andrew Kishino. Sure, Tagawa wasn't around but Andrew Kis...

  I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, Power Rangers  may have had it coming due to how people behind it have been mishandling it. Do you remember when Saban sold the franchise to Disney, Saban bought it back, and now Hasbro has it? Things have been getting from bad to worse like Disney's rushed seasons and Nickelodeon's unnecessary season split . I guess this may be a good reason why Power Rangers is leaving Netflix. It may no longer have the popularity like it used to be back when it was still hot. The digital age is pretty much the age where "Either your show does something or you're out!" Netflix has so many shows that if it sucks -- don't expect Netflix to renew their contract with you. Shows disappear from Netflix when the contract is over and the streaming services don't want to air it. The question I asked during late 2017 was whether or not Power Rangers was really going to die any time soon . It had to do with how AWFULLY STUPID Power Rangers N...

Who can remember the first time Ryu and Ken appeared? My first remembrance of them was in the  Street Fighter II series where the two characters played very much alike. They had their three basic moves namely the Hadoken, Shoryuken, and the Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku with very little difference. The Street Fighter II series had me picking Ken (at first) though over time - I was more tuned in to Ryu himself. It was probably due to Ken being ore cocky. Over time, the Street Fighter II series started to evolve in both arcades and consoles. There was Super Street Fighter II and later Super Street Fighter II Turbo which started to differentiate them even more. The differences were spelled out even further in the prequel trilogy called the Street Fighter Alpha series - games that took place before Street Fighter II came to light. So, how did the differences take place? Ken was made master and more juggle-friendly. Ryu was made to be more of that heavy hitter. Ryu eventually had his focus on ...

The adaptation will never be canon to the source material, right? Street Fighter II V is an Anime series that had deviated greatly from the video games. It was a 1995 cartoon that came in way before Cammy's rather bizarre original as a modified clone of M. Bison in Street Fighter Alpha 3 - a game that came AFTER this series. Amazing was that the American Street Fighter cartoon was also aired in 1995 with Guile as the protagonist. This was one series that de-aged the main protagonists Ryu and Ken to just teenagers, Chun Li isn't even a detective (yet) and is still a struggling reporter. Other non-canon elements include a Ken and Chun Li shipping all the while the former is married to Eliza (Guile's sister-in-law) in the games. You don't see the Hadouken used UNTIL the series end.  What's the whole point of having ONE SEASON before the Hadouken was used? Granted, this isn't game canon. Notice that many of the projectile-based characters here DO NOT use their proje...

The variations between the adaptation (or remake) vs. the video games really do differ a lot, right? A good example is how Zangief who's a HERO in canon ends up becoming a villain in non-canon Street Fighter media. How he appeared as a villain varied from adaptation to adaptation. The failed Street Fighter movie which made Guile the protagonist over Ryu made him a naive villain. He had no idea that M. Bison was REALLY a bad guy. He had his funny moment when he said, "Quick! Change the channel!" when a truck was about to hit their base. He had no idea that Shadaloo was a villain organization. Ironically, Balrog who is a VILLAIN in the games was a good guy in the movies.  After the failed movie - two more series followed. One was the Street Fighter II V cartoon and the American-exclusive Street Fighter cartoon. Zangief played as a dumb muscle antagonist in both versions - something he doesn't become in the Anime movies.  Why did this happen? There hasn't been a clea...

While General Bison happens to be Street Fighter's recurring antagonist - one can't forget that Akuma is indeed the series' beloved menace of a villain. The name Akuma means demon. You may notice that the name Akuma has been used in other franchises such as Kamen Rider where the final antagonist of Kamen Rider Super-1 is known as Admiral Akuma or Grand Marshall Demon. Gouki (his Japanese name) means Grand Ogre with the characters 豪鬼 depicting it. He's true that Grand Ogre would continue to be one of the most popular villains in the franchise. The character first appeared in Super Street Fighter II Turbo as a hidden character. You could use him (but he didn't have a super move back then but he had very DAMAGING moves) and would also be that bonus final boss IF you met the really ridiculous requirements. I mean, the CPU of SSFIIT is really that ridiculous so getting to fight Akuma is really a chore. He was probably created in response to the Sheng Long rumor. Sheng Lo...