Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture

Anime Movie Review Time!
By: Mason Klesel

Film: Fatal Fury the Motion Picture (1994)

Directed by: Masami Ôbari

Written by: Yuji Matsumoto, Takashi Yamada

Starring: Peter Wilds, Jason Gray-Stanford, Lisa Ann Beley, Matt Hill, et al…
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Rating: 7 out of 10

Grab your Capri-Sun’s and warm up your pizza rolls in the microwave because where are about to embark on a nostalgia adventure for the ages. Today we will be reviewing a 27-year-old animated feature based on a popular video game with the same name. Some fun facts to include before we dive into our review is that “Fatal Fury the Motion Picture” is not rated. If I were to give it one, I think an “R” rating would suffice. Why you ask? Simply put, there contains gratuitous violence, alcohol consumption, blood, explicit language, and instances of nudity. Hardly a children’s movie am I right?

The next piece of interesting trivia is that upon further investigation, this film should NOT be the first one you view. Apparently, this movie is a part of a 3-film trilogy. Which explains quite a bit of confusion on my part while viewing it. Had I not been an avid fan of the video game, I would have zero indication who some of these are or who they were talking about. Luckily, I had that knowledge at my disposal (whew!). The two films that are required viewing are titled: “Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf” and “Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle”. As I said, I had no idea I needed to watch these prior.

With that being said, let’s jump into the review! Like how other reviewers have noticed, the film’s plot borrows heavily from movies like Indiana Jones and Mortal Kombat (Who knew right!?). The main story beat follows our main man Terry Bogard and his derelict group of compatriots Mai, Joe, and Andy. Sure their friend Kim gets thrown into the mix; however, he is quickly discarded (pay your respects for Kim down below). The reason why I mention Indiana Jones is that Terry and his group must prevent the antagonist Laocorn from collecting an ancient armor set and destroying the world (cue dramatic music). The latter mention of Mortal Kombat should be obvious. There is quite a bit of fighting. Sometimes with special powers (Neat!).

How these characters are thrown into this debacle is pretty unbelievable. They are approached by a beautiful young woman named Sulia who asks for their assistance. Keep in mind that none of these people have ever met. Nor do they have any reason to help this woman. The characters even acknowledge this, but then shrug it off with a lackadaisical attitude. Sulia literally says, “I can’t explain why I need your help right now.” Then everyone suddenly agrees. Makes sense, right?

My next complaint about the film is that the setting takes place all over the world. We are given places like China, Egypt, Switzerland, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, Japan, and Germany. I know I might be missing a few locations. But my point remains. It theoretically should take these characters some time to travel between these places. However, they are required to do so, these people magically get there in no time flat. I know, I know. The movie is doing this to save time. It is just frustrating to see these jump cuts with no mention of travel.

Another issue is that the antagonist Laocorn is somehow able to decern our hero’s locations almost immediately. Somehow his minions know exactly where our heroes are always and what they are doing. The movie tries to explain this away by saying that Sulia is his twin brother and that their connection is so deep that he knows what she is thinking and feeling. So, I guess this translates to a sort of GPS? My last couple criticisms of the film are that the English voice acting is not the best. I know it is 1994. But come on. I know it can be better. There are some pointless scenes sprinkled throughout the movie. One that immediately springs to mind is the inclusion of a previous bad guy named Krauzer Stroheim. I think that is how you spell it? Fatal Fury really did not need to include him or his right-hand man Billy Kane. They did not add anything to drive the story forward. There are others to list. However, I think you get the gist.

Luckily, that is where my critique ends. The aspects of Fatal Fury that elevate it to a passable 7 out of 10 is its animation, comedy, action, and characters. The 90’s esthetic with the nice dark hand-drawn lines is a beautiful art form and is one I sorely miss. Surprisingly, there is a good amount of comedy found within. Mostly with the character Joe Higashi. That does not mean I did not appreciate it. The action was the best part about the motion picture. Each display was carefully crafted and executed to the highest degree. Finally, each character was fleshed out and fairly decent for only having 100 minutes to do so. Overall, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture is not a perfect animated feature but is one you can easily watch and enjoy. My rating? 7 out of 10!

THis is probably the best one of the three movies. Its story is a little better and the fighting scenes are alot better than the predessors. THe fatal fury fans will defintely enjoy this movie alot more than the two first;)

Based on the popular video game series Fatal Fury. Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture is directed by one of anime's most notorious hacks to ever exist, Masami Obari. It also happens to be the third and final installment of the series, and I hope it's the last. The movie was released more than 20 years ago so things are looking very good. The reason I feel this way is because the original barely cracked the ceiling of mediocrity, the second movie was close to average, and this third installment took gigantic leaps backwards. It's actually far worse than the first two even though it was ... given a longer run time and better production values.

It's no secret that video game to anime is meant to appeal to fans of the game, but I just can't understand how some fans accept this, because it doesn't really cater too much to the fans at all. Surprisingly, the fact that it strays completely away from the source material isn't even a gripe for me. I have plenty of other reasons why I consider this an atrocious anime.

In regards to non fans and casual anime fans. The story doesn't require them to have much knowledge of the game or the previous movies. Several things are explained through flashbacks which works towards the light character development.

When looking pass the solid music score, there is almost nothing I find good about this movie. Obari brought his "F" game for sure with this one; such as characters appearing for no reasons other than to display some of their moves list and that's it. The movie revolves around Terry and the gang fighting Laocorns minions, but Geese Howard and Billy Kane make appearances. Why? I understand it was meant to help build up the possible sequel, but valuable time could have been used in adding length to at least one fight scene which ended in a colossal disappointment.

The animation is very near bottom of the barrel. Violence Jack had better animation than this. I may be pushing it but I hope you get the point. Most of the fight scenes are heavily simulated with strokes indicating blows, sloppy choreography, one blow victories, and stills on static backgrounds. I've known people to actually call this great animation.

I have to get this part off my chest. The fans of video game to anime puzzle me quite a bit. They ripped Street Fighter Alpha to shreds because Ryu fought with a nobody instead of Akuma, yet I've seen these exact same folks give this a free pass. No fan can deny they wanted to see Terry Bogard vs. Geese Howard, The Power Geyser vs. The Raising Storm. Instead, we get Terry and the gang versus a skinny weakling in an anorexic Iron Man suit engaged in X-Men/Dragonball Z like combat. Normally, I don't mind if the source material has been ignored, but I do mind the severe identity crisis; had the movie stuck to and delivered martial arts instead of superhero like high energy attacks which looks completely silly with Fatal Fury, then this wouldn't have been a problem for me. To include, Obari even rehashed a scene from the previous movie, along with the characters actions and choice of moves in the exact same sequence from the second movie. There's just no excuse for that.

The movie only gets worse with its cheap fight scenes and I was bored almost the entire time. The drama hits in some areas but it's overplayed in others. If it wasn't for Joe Higashi's comedic antics concerning getting laid, and his fight along with Kim's in the very beginning. I would give this the lowest score. Oh yeah, and for the fan service crowd. You get quite a bit of the big breasted yet incredibly annoying Mai.

I hate this movie on damn near every level. Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture could be one of those "so bad it's good" deals, but since I only believe in "pure bad and hating it". I'll be lying to myself if I ever said I can see this again. It's better off to avoid this.

Highs: Soundtrack, Joe's comedy, maybe two fights

Lows: Very bad choreography, animation, severe identity crisis, very little to no real martial arts