Summary

One fine day, Ken Masters decided to send a letter to his best friend Ryu over in Japan. All it said was "Come to America," and included were plane tickets and a big wad (!) of cash. Ryu comes to America (SF Bay Area...yeah!) to find that Ken was craving some friendly competition with someone who could actually challenge him. After a night on the town, and some ouchie ouchie fights with Guile, a big ruff 'em tough 'em air force sergeant, the two decide to travel the world looking for and mastering the art of street fighting. There isn't just pointless fighting in this anime of course; there are a bunch of sub-plots to follow, including one that involves the fate of the world! Whoa!

For those interested, Street Fighter II V (The "V" stands for Victory) runs 29 TV episodes, and is mainly about the Street Fighters as teenagers. Ryu and Ken are 17, and Chun Li is 15 during the whole series. 

What I like about this series:

The visuals in this series are just awesome! The animation for all the fight scenes is very fluid, and look almost like a real martial arts film (with the exception of hadokens and stuff!). The character designs are great, and give a whole new look and feel to familiar Street Fighter characters. I especially like what this series did to Ryu. I don't know, spiky hair seems to look good on him :-).

The characters themselves are also a very strong point of this series. They all are very well rounded, and have distinctive personalities. Ryu and Ken's friendship is great too! These people only go out of character when mind control's involved. So in other words, things stay consistent, as they should! Ryu comes across as a big adorable guy, since he's really slow when it comes to certain things (Bird's Nest?....hmm) and he's so cute when he's doing anything else besides fighting! Can you tell who my favorite character in this series is already? :-)

There isn't just fighting all of the time, even though the title of the anime may lead you to believe otherwise. The fighting is great when it happens, but the breaks in between are just as fun to watch. One of my favorites is when Ken takes Chun Li on a shopping spree in Hong Kong! Diamonds are a girl's best friend...ne? These little "in-betweeners" advance the plot well, and makes for times of humor, and sometimes suspense. There's a real story here, folks!

What I don't like about this series:

I said the character designs were great, but the thing is, they don't stay looking great sometimes. What do I mean by this? Well, you see the background picture for this page? Ryu and Ken don't look like big hulking pro-wrestlers do they? That's the way I like them, lean and fast. Sometimes they are drawn this way, and sometimes (in another episode for example) they have the muscles of the aforementioned pro-wrestlers. Yeah, they work out, but too many muscles isn't so attractive looking for the female viewers out there. The female characters don't suffer this kind of problem for obvious reasons, I don't think a muscle bound Chun-Li would sit well with the male audience, a.k.a. video game purists out there! Also, I think that Ryu, Ken, and Chun Li do not look their age (maybe it's the muscles?). They look at least two to three years older than they are portrayed as. 

Repetition, repetition, repetition. I also said that the fighting scenes are great in this series, but in the later episodes, things get very repetitive in terms of combos, attacks and maneuvers. I can see why this was done, (to emphasize just how beat-up someone is getting) but I still think this should have been done in a better way as to not bore the viewer. Personally, I fast-forwarded through most of the repetitive parts.

I wanted Ryu to end up with Chun Li, not Ken! Well, that relationship is pretty much implied, since it never really goes anywhere. How come Ryu never gets the girl? He's so adorable! Maybe it's cause Ken has what a girl wants...$$$ cha-ching! I admit, they are cute together though...

The Ami Rating:

This anime is pretty good! Don't take that the wrong way though, it's not horribly bad! I just feel that even with all of its strong points in mind, Street Fighter II V isn't the "must see" anime series for all anime fans. For anime fans who also happen to be big Street Fighter fans then this anime is totally for you! Dragonball Z and action fans who crave perhaps more realistic martial arts action *and* a  more realistic story line should definitely check this out as well. I enjoyed watching this the first time through, but it has been a while. Time can remove some interest, no da?

Oh, one last note. You know how I keep saying that this anime has realistic martial arts action? I wasn't kidding. Be prepared for lots of blood everywhere! Well, it isn't as gory as Mortal Kombat, say, it's just that when people fight, injuries and blood loss are usually the result. This is not an anime to show in front of the kids, especially with all those sick cracking sort of noises. ewwwww....

Now watch as Ken attempts to drive back home!

Ryu: Bye Everyone!!!! *big goofy looking grin*

Ken: Um...could you get your fingers out of my mouth?