Battle Spirits: Ryuuko no Ken

Battle Spirits: Ryuuko no Ken is an animated spin-off based in the universe of the classic 90's arcade game "Art of Fighting". It has some good parts and some not quite as good parts, but I enjoyed it overall. Let's go over the different aspects of this OVA.


Story: 6/10

The story is a pretty standard buddy cop action movie tale. The two main characters, Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia get themselves into a jam when they're mistakenly accused of taking a gem from a crimelord named Mr. Big, despite being entirely innocent. Luckily, they both know martial arts, so they're able to fight their way out, ... but things soon get more complicated and they have to face off against the gang some more. The story is mostly an excuse for the action to happen, but I didn't really mind it that much. It tells a simple tale, but it's not a bad one by any means. There are some well presented scenes, and some pretty decent humor mixed in there, to really give it that classic 80's action movie feel.


Art: 7/10 (Art Style: 8/10, Animation: 7/10)

The artstyle is pretty decent, but feels a bit dated considering the time period this came out in. It looks about on par with late 80's TV anime, but this came out as an OVA in 1993, making it much less impressive. Still, I didn't hate the look of it, and it fit the story and the characters pretty well.

The animation itself is a mixed bag. Consisting mostly of low budget shots that look like they were made for TV. However, there are a few moments here & there that I thought looked really cool, and there was a noticeable improvement in quality during these shots. The animation isn't horrible, but I'm guessing it would have likely felt a bit dated, even in 1993.


Sound 8/10 (Music: 7/10, SFX: 6/10, Voice: 9/10)

The music isn't anything special, but it does a good job of setting the tone for each of the scenes. It's a pretty basic soundtrack, but I didn't have any problems with it. The ending theme bumps my score for the music up a bit, as that was pretty great, and really nailed that classic 80's action movie vibe.

The sound effects were fine. Nothing special or incredible, but not noticeably bad or dated, everything was mixed pretty well.

Voice acting was pretty great. I watched it in Japanese, and the actors all portrayed their characters perfectly. Some of the acting might sound a bit cheesy here and there, but I feel like that is somewhat intentional and adds to the fun of the film, and the fun of the characters.


Characters: 7/10

Speaking of the characters, I feel like they're well represented. We have a handful of the roster from Art of Fighting, and their personalities really shine through well. The two main characters are fun to watch, and they riff on each other pretty well throughout. The supporting cast is perhaps a bit weaker, but I still thought they were all pretty decent. King and Ryuhaku Todou are probably the two standout characters in the supporting cast; however, in King's case, I feel even though she's interesting, they tend to not really do much with her. Still, though... definitely a solid, if somewhat simplistic cast of characters.


Overall, I really enjoyed this. It's got a handful of flaws, but I feel like it's positive elements tend to outweigh them, making them rather easy to ignore. If you're a fan of classic 80's action movies, or a fan of Art of Fighting or even KoF, I'd recommend you check out this OVA. It'll be time well spent, for sure.