7/22/2008 - Street Fighter IV anime clip

It's funny... I'm so anticipating the release of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (let's call it Street Fighter II HD from now on), is Street Fighter IV itself. The thing is, even though IV will be so much more technically advanced than II, having 3D graphics and all, I'm still looking forward to SF2HD more because it's a game I'm so familiar with having played it for years. And now with the ability of playing others online to see if my old school skills are still up to snuff makes me want to develop my thumb callous all over again before the game's release.

I mean it's GREAT that SF4 will still have somewhat of a nostalgia feel in that the gameplay will still be in 2D and the inclusion of the original 12 World Warriors helps too. See, Capcom is definitely catering to us old school gamers with the Street Fighter and Mega Man franchises. I mean, the fact that they would make a Mega Man 9 with 8-bit graphics is basically a love letter to me... and I'm ready with the roses and champagne.

Even though I'm looking forward to SF2HD more, Capcom released something a few weeks ago that brought SF4 back to my attention. It's a little anime cutscene that will be included in the home versions of the game. It depicts a fight between Akuma and Ryu, and of course it is epic. It's not something totally different than the excellent Street Fighter II Movie (anime), but the inclusion of Ryu's stage music made me drool... literally:



You know what's sad, though? Given the recent news that there will be no Ryu or Ken in the next Street Fighter live-action movie, this little anime clip is guaranteed to be better than the upcoming movie. It's also light years ahead of the 1994 Van Damme embarrassment of a movie.

6/17/2008 - Viral Anime Extravaganza

It's not surprising that the Japanese are not immune to the effects of viral videos. In what is perhaps the most wide-ranging mashup of viral videos of all-time, this video is not just a compendium of popular videos found on YouTube, but they are all videos originating from Japan that became popular on YouTube. I've featured at least three such videos on this blog and I'd be interested to see why some others became popular (hey, I need some more material here anyway).



It's hard to imagine anything topping this, but there is one I have lined up for tomorrow. Avid readers of this blog will probably figure out what it is.

9/7/2007 - Chun-Li VS Vega

Rated R for animated nudity

If you have never watched the Street Fighter II Animated Movie, do yourself a favor and buy it or rent it now, even if you have to get it from an eBay auction. This is how you make a Street Fighter movie. Forget about that cheesy Van-Damme movie that's only worth watching to see how bad it is. Also, don't confuse this with that awful American
Street Fighter cartoon that was based on the Van-Damme movie. The Japanese SF2 movie is simply the best animated movie based on a video game ever.

What makes it so special? Well, what sets it apart for me was how it respected all the characters. They portrayed their personalities and the histories CORRECTLY. You've got Ryu on his quest for perfecting the martial arts; Ken's friendship and rivalry with Ryu; Chun-Li attempting to avenge her father's murder; Guile's gung-ho cockiness. Most of the other interpretations of the Street Fighter series played fast and loose with the characters, even the anime series Street Fighter II V. See, even if the movie is well made, if there are any discrepancies with what's onscreen and what we know about the series from playing the videogames, it brings us out of that fantasy world and makes us wonder why those changes were made. This is especially true of comic book movies.

The second best feature of the SF2 Movie has to be its fight choreography. After playing a countless number of games on the arcade, if the fights on the screen did not outdo what you were playing, you might as well skip the movie and pop in another quarter into the machine. Well, I guarantee you that outside of the sometimes overly staged CG martial arts fighting you see in "modern" computer animated movies, the SF2 Movie has the greatest one-on-one (and one two-on-one) animated battles you'll ever see. The highlight has to be the battle between Chun-Li and Vega (known as Balrog in Japan):



I never get tired of watching this scene. It's even better than the climactic Bison-Ryu/Ken fight at the end! What's cool about it is that it doesn't rely on some of the flashier special movies like fireballs. They made Vega so arrogant in this scene that you really want to see him get beat. That's why it's so satisfying to see Chun-Li stomp on his face and give him the lightning kick out the building.

I've posted the Japanese version of the movie here mainly because it has better music than the English dubbed version which had a punk rock/heavy metal soundtrack. I did watch the Japanese version of the movie first, so I may be biased, but the original soundtrack was tailored to suit the movie (and it actually turned me on to J-Pop). This scene in particular shows that... Chun-Li and Vega are aerial fighters known for their gracefulness and the music here matches that gracefulness. Also, the Japanese version shows the fan-service goodness that is Chun-Li's shower scene. ;)

6/21/2007 - Moon Revenge

Is it wrong for a grown man to admit that he's watched Sailor Moon? Well, if Jedite can do it, so will I. Here was the situation: back in the mid-90's there was a serious lack of quality animation on the airwaves. Aside from the Marvel and DC cartoons, there was mainly kiddie stuff like the cartoons produced by Disney. Being a big fan of Robotech, I was intrigued by the stuff coming out of Japan. I had watched some anime movies like Akira and Fist of the North Star, but I was really hungering for an anime series I could get into.

Enter DIC, a U.S.-based animation company that saw its heyday in the late eighties. Apparently, they saw that there was a vast untapped demographic that they could appeal to: young girls or "tweens" as we call them today. Instead of coming up with their own cartoon, they decided to take the semi-lazy route and translate an already existing cartoon from overseas and put in English-dubbing. The cartoon they picked was Sailor Moon.

Without knowing the original Japanese source material, I had thought that the English dub that DIC did was pretty good. I know they had to have changed the names, but I thought that made sense. I mean, do you think American girls would identify with a girl named Usagi? Some of the finer plot points seemed weird, but I was too caught up in the action and the great animation to really nitpick it.

It turns out, though, that DIC did a horrible translating job. They censored a lot from the original source material, mostly cartoon violence and some implied homosexuality. Sailor Moon in Japan was really geared more to the adult crowd, so a lot of this risqué stuff was the norm over there. That was DIC's real mistake... trying to aim for a demographic using material never meant for that audience.

So if you're going to watch Sailor Moon, your best bet is to watch the original Japanese version. The voice acting is a lot better, there's no censorship, and the music is GREAT. Just take a look at this clip, for example. They way they synchronize the action of the animation to the background music is something you definitely won't see in American cartoons. They even have different "singers" sing as the different Sailor Scouts recall their memories with Sailor Moon. That's just awesome.

Past Favorite - X-Men TAS Anime

The 90's X-Men animated series was probably the best Marvel cartoon series ever made. The only other series rivaling it was the 90's Spider-Man animated series, but to me, the later seasons were too serialized (how many parts were there to Sins of the Father?) The X-Men storylines were VERY faithful to the comics, and the core team they used were a pretty balanced group (I don't know why they made up the Morph character, though). I loved how they broadcasted the Dark Phoenix Saga as a 5-part primetime special during the summer. That ruled!

The only real complaint I had was the animation. It just wasn't anything special. The characters were probably drawn too realistically... I would have preferred something more stylized like Batman: The Animated Series. I was disappointed because I was expecting something along the lines of the Pryde of the X-Men pilot that aired a few years back. When the series was brought to Japan, they decided to improve the animation of the opening credits and did it anime style! They completely changed the theme song, however, and put in Japanese lyrics. While it's not bad, I preferred the American theme music.

Apparently, so did DeathsHead2 of YouTube, and thus this mashup was created. I really admire the job that was done here. Everything is synchronized down to the SNIKT of Wolverine's claws!

Past Favorites - Hare Hare Yukai (2 Videos)

Yeah, I remember the good old days when American cartoons didn't suck. Anime has taken over the States and with good reason. With few exceptions, their animators are top-notch, dedicated, and show consistent quality. Take this next video, for example. This is the ending of an episode of Suzumiya Haruhi. The song (and now the dance) is called Hare Hare Yukai:



You just don't get such choreography in American animation. The fact that this was storyboarded and not rotoscoped makes it all the more amazing. The video has become quite the hit on the YouTube stage and has led to a couple of great parodies (actually, they're more like dedications). Here we have Mega Man (Rockman) doing the Hare Hare Yukai:



Now isn't that just awesome? It just astounds me the way they were able to manipulate the Mega Man sprites to match the actions of the anime characters. It doesn't look unnatural at all. I also like the way they incorporated an 8-bit musical rendition into it. Nice touch!