Street Fighter Round 1- Animated Comic Book

By Mark Rodriguez

Yes, this is the first comic series that started it all for Udon. Based on the first 6 issues which were about the Alpha storyline, I remember owning a few of these issues back in Mexico. Therefore they were in Spanish. Anyways I ran into the animated comic over at Hulu, and while I know animated comic movies have been around for a while, this is the first time I ever actually seen one. What better one to start with than Street Fighter?

Brief Summary


Ryu has nightmares of himself being turned evil due to the power of the Dark Hado. His nightmares have his evil self defeat him. When he wakes up, he hears a scream and finds his master Gouken dead with the Ten symbol painted in his blood. Meanwhile, Charlie Nash is being attacked by Bison, and his disappearance afterwards continued to haunt Guile for the weeks to come. Guile hears that Bison is after a guy named Ryu, the one that defeated Sagat in the last Street Fighter tournament. We have a flashback of that fateful fight as Ryu succumbs to the Dark Hado momentarily which makes him hit Sagat with the infamous Sho Ryu Ken that gave him the scar.

 Ryu meets up with Ken and his fiance Eliza and he tells them the news about Gouken. As they go out to eat, the restaurant is attacked by Birdie and his men, who were working for Shadaloo. Before Ryu can step in, Guile fights Birdie and wins. One of Birdie's men escape but is taken down by Chun Li.

 Guile and Chun Li talk and soon discover that they're both after Bison and Shadaloo for similar reasons. Ryu, Ken and Eliza go to Japan. Meanwhile, Vega is sent to Japan by Bison to find Ryu for his plans. His search for Japan's # 1 leads him to Honda instead. After a short fight between Vega and Honda, the matador figures he's wasting his time and leaves. Sakura, wanting to find a good fighter to train under, overhears Vega's convo about Ryu and decides to find him too.

 Guile gets a picture of Ryu and is pissed to find out it was the same guy they came across when they fought with Birdie. He heads to Japan with Chun Li. Then they both get attacked by Charlie, still alive, brainwashed, and now calling himself Agent Shadow. After a brief fight, Guile is taken down and Shadow leaves. Before he does so, Guile gives him his dog tags and reminds him that his name is Charlie Nash. Vega follows Eliza to her hotel and attacks her. Ken manages to arrive in time and defeats him. Eliza is taken to the hospital.

Sakura's quest for a master leads him to Dan's dojo. Despite Dan Hibiki's boasting about how incredible he is, Sakura mops the floor with him. Sakura and her friend Kei take Dan to the hospital, at the same time that Guile was discharged from said hospital. There Guile and Chun Li run into Eliza, who is Guile's sister-in-law. Eliza is upset at how Guile abandoned his family to look for Charlie and mentioned how she was attacked by Shadaloo and how she knows Ryu. Guile contacts Ken and tells him what's going on and heads over to the shrine Ryu is training at.

 

Ryu has another nightmare about succumbing to his evil self. Ken arrives after this, but then suddenly Sagat shows up as well. After a brief fight, Sagat says he's here to warn Ryu about Shadaloo coming after him. Sagat does want a rematch, but against Ryu's regular self, not a mind controlled puppet. He says they'll meet at the next Street Fighter Tournament and leaves.

Bison decides to take care of Chun Li and Guile himself since Agent Killer Bee isn't available. She was captured by Rose who sees that her soul is dominated by Bison, and wants to help her regain her free will. Bison runs into Chun Li and Guile and defeats them easily. Shadow shows up, now remembering who he is, and fights against Bison. Even though Bison has him shot with a chopper, Bison's own improvement upon Charlie help him survive and continue the fight.
 

During this, Charlie tells Chun Li that he was there when Bison had her father killed. He sent the Shadaloo Dolls after him, and while his father fought them off the best he could, the numbered eventually overcame. The Doll to land the fatal blow was the Killer Bee. The fight continues and Charlie sacrifices himself to defeat Bison. Guile is sad but is glad to see his friend go out as a hero.

Ryu and Ken wait for Guile and Chun Li to arrive, but Akuma gets there first. The fight is finally on as Ryu and Ken fight for revenge, but Akuma quickly takes them down. Sakura is impressed by Ryu and says she'll fight him if it will prove she's worthy of being his pupil. Akuma smacks her down which awakens the darkness with Ryu and he manages to actually land a hit on Akuma. Akuma says he's still not ready and he has to embrace the Dark Hado. He leaves and says they will fight again at the next Street Fighter tournament.
 

Ryu and Ken part ways, but now Ryu has a pupil following him around, Sakura. Elsewhere, Agent Killer Bee wakes up in front of the British Intelligence building, with a note from Rose explaining she has been given a chance at a new life. Her name from now on will be Cammy.

My Opinions 

 I've never seen an animated comic book before, but this was very entertaining. Yes I know this mostly a slide slow, but they do add little things here and there like blinking eyes, reflective eyeglasses, falling leaves and whatnot to keep the interest going. Though I have to say, sometimes Udon's background scenery art looks like anime stills, you expect things to start moving. The music and sound effects are pretty cool, though sometimes the acting could have been better. Mostly Eliza and Birdie. I do miss the voices from the Street Fighter 2 Animated Movie and kinda wish those guys were used here, particularly for Bison. The art is so close to the games (given it's from Udon) that I wish they used either those voices, or the voices from the SF4 series.

The story pretty much follows Alpha. I see they squeezed in the back-up story of Ryu's classic fight against Sagat, where his sudden burst of Killing Intent made him give Sagat the deadly scar. It's very noticeable since the back-up stories usually have different artists and the art style was extremely stylized which clashes with the overall story, but storywise, it works where they put it. I never did like retconning since the Dark Hado stuff started in the Alpha series and Capcom started to throw this in the first Street Fighter game... but it does explain why Ryu (and Ken for that matter) don't leave scars on their opponents every time they used the Sho Ryu Ken.

 
There are a couple of fights just thrown in there here and there, but it does kinda help the narrative. Vega didn't really need to fight Honda, but it did get Sakura involved. Sakura didn't really need to fight Dan, but it did get her in the same hospital to overhear Ryu's location. I did find it kinda rushed and contrived how Eliza, Guile, Chun Li and Sakura were all at the same hospital at the same time which led them to all go to the same place regarding Ryu. There's happy coincidences, but c'mon....

Another minor complaint is Cammy, the Killer Bee. All she did was snoop around on Ryu and Ken and report to Bison.... and kill Chun Li's father, via flashback mind you... and that's it. In this actual story she didn't really do anything. Having Rose somehow subdue her and fight off Bison's influence is ok.... but show more of 'evil Cammy' in action first so that we get to care more about this transformation. Or at least show the fight between Cammy and Rose whenever she did manage to capture her.

 Finally I do want to mention Charlie's role in the story. It's very clever that they went with a hidden character in the Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter game, Shadow and slipped him into the series. I just liked how they were able to cleverly slip that reference in there.

I have to admit, Guile's fight with Shadow reminded me a lot of Captain America and Winter Soldier. However, Street Fighter 5 brought back Charlie, also brainwashed and whatnot thanks to Kolin. I've seen that Udon has brought in SF5 Charlie into the mix, but I wonder if they had the characters (especially Guile) that they've already been through this song and dance before. I guess poor Charlie is always destined to be some undead brainwashed soldier that will never just recover and be Guile's friend again. At least Winter Soldier got better.