Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture

I really like the fresher approach this anime did. It succeeds where the Street Fighter Zero anime fails which also tried to do something different. What they both have in common is that they used completely new villains. The idea of a mad scientist was just way too cliché. Sure Street Fighter II The Animated Movie also somewhat had it with M. Bison, but having the mad scientist as the main villain just doesn’t really make sense. While with the Fatal Fury movie, it takes a mythical figure and putting him in a modern day context in which the Fatal Fury characters can physically confront. ... But Laocorn’s minions on the other hand were just opposite or symbolic mirror images of some of the cast. Like Jamin is more like Terry. He uses a variation to the burn knuckle and the power wave. Hauer is a pretty boy like Andy. And Panni is like Mai. Mai uses fire as her attack, while Panni is water.

Other characters that are also briefly featured are Kim Kaphwan, Jubei Yamada, the Duck King, Richard Meyer, Billy Kane, and Geese Howard.

The quality of the art and animation is more or less like the new battle, the previous OAV, but brought in a more theatrical quality with the resolution of the colors and the finer and more define details of the characters faces. Especially with Andy. Again, the costume designs are still faithful of that to the original gaming series. I think Laocorn’s design is pretty cool. He looks like a youth, but he is menacing looking and his get up really represents his acrobatic and free-flight abilities. Panni’s get up is like a spandex version to Tony’s get up from the 2nd oav. And Jamin looks somewhat like Krauser with his armor and built. And Hauer you can say in terms of personality with how he dresses to protect his good looks is like Vega from Street Fighter II mixed with some of Kefka’s clothing from Final Fantasy. But I know there is an SNK art book out there where the primary character designer, Shinkiro, has his own art work of Laocorn and his villains. My brother may have a copy. I’m sorry I couldn’t show pictures, but if I did, I would have.

Now time to talk about the action and animation. Rather than just being more of an anime being based off a game. With the new villains and original story line, it’s becoming more of an anime itself than just being related to the game. In addition to the story and characters, the presentation of the action itself takes a different approach. The action came across as more DBZ-ish and becomes more of what you see in typical shounen anime though as usual, the characters moves are still presented. But some of the action gets really explosive that isn’t really in the tradition of the games or in most fighting games in general.

The fights are again a bit too short like in the first oav. Though still somewhat exciting but the tactics are too cheap. Some of my favorite fights was when Joe fought Hwa Jai in a kickboxing match. It had some good angles to it and I liked the fast movement and thought it represented Muay Thai very well. It’s just from what I called playing the games, Hwa Jai was one of the bosses and was pretty hard. Then in the anime he was reduced to being a glass jaw villain where you can knock him out with one blow. I liked seeing Kim Kaphwan fighting again and I enjoyed that fight because there were no fire balls or any of that mumbo jumbo. But I thought it was totally cheesy that Kim use a transformation sequence to go from ripping suit to his Tae Kwon Do gi.

Then when Panni fights Lawerence Blood, she just has to result to using her water powers to win. And Terry and Jamin’s 2nd fight was just a power struggle between their burn knuckles. I mean, wasn’t Jamin supposed to be as good of a fighter as Krauser was which was a blow for blow fight in the end? Then when they get to fighting Laocorn, I think it’s cool we get to see Joe, Andy, and Terry fighting together at the same time for once, but this is where it gets really DBZ-ish. The characters are “flying,” and it’s really reliant on their special moves. Though the original oavs did provide the action with the special moves, it didn’t get too excessive that you were watching Dragon Ball Z. You were just watching an anime being faithful to the game it was being based off of. A lot of people may disagree, but that’s how I felt. Sure I thought the explosiveness was cool, but this movie in some of the fights lost the original martial arts element that was more present in the last OAV.

And yes, there is a shower scene with Mai. Apparently back when video game based oavs or anime movies came out. There always had to be a fan service shower scene with a character. Tekken had to have it with Nina. Toshinden had to have it with Sofia. And Street Fighter had to have it with Chun Li. So I hope this makes some of you happy. But I first saw this anime when I was 11, and I must say it was something I was not used to yet.

On one final note, I really liked some of the photography. I really liked the scene where Laocorn first introduces himself to Terry and Sulia on that water tower on the roof top. I liked how the moon was in the background and cast him only as a shadow. It really brought not only a villainous trait in the character, it made him look pretty cool as well symbolizing his strength and his abilities to lets say anticipate where a person may show up.

Before I would to talk about the new features with the voice acting. I would like to point out a couple of things I failed to do in my last two Fatal Fury reviews. The Japanese voice actors of Keiichi Nanba, Andy’s voice actor. And Nobuyuki Hiyama, Joe’s voice actor actually happen to play those roles in the games as well and to this day they continue those roles. So I thought I wanted to point that out. Now time to talk about the finest additions in both the Japanese and English tracks. In the Japanese track, veteran voice actors Miki Shin’ichiro who plays Takumi in Initial D and Mizuki in Naruto is casted as the main villain, Laocorn, while seiyuu veteran Kenji Utsumi who played Raoh in Hokuto no Ken plays his henchman, Jamin. While in the English version, Matt Hill who played Ryo in Ronin Warriors and Kira in Gundam SEED is casted as Laocorn, while Miriam Sirwain (I believe that’s how you say her name) plays Sulia.

Both Miki and Hill are excellent voice actors in bringing this character to life. They each have respective qualities in each country of how to express how maybe a casual teenager or a “cool” teenager may speak. So with a character like Laocorn, that is something they did an excellent job of. In the Japanese version, Laocorn came across more as maniacal and insane, while in the English version, I liked how he came across as scheming and clever. And as usual, the rest of the cast in both Japanese and English version reprise their roles and still do an excellent job.

Some of the dialogue in the English version comes across as very American. Especially in this one airplane scene and approaching Rodos island after Sulia meets the crew. I don’t know how to describe it but when you hear it. It sounds very casual in an American like way and that’s the best way to describe it. It’s a little corny, but felt natural. It has a little more swearing than usual, but it doesn’t suit the characters voices in my opinion. Because of the level of the dialogue in the English version has gone down a little bit, it doesn’t have the same sense of superiority it had over the Japanese version like the oavs had.

The music is what I call an improvement. Some of the background music from the 2nd oav is once again used in the movie. Remember the Eastern like sounding song when Terry fought Kim in the 2nd oav? Well, that song is used again when Kim fights the fat guy wearing the mask. Forgot his name, but I can say he was a playable character in the games. And the remaining soundtrack has a great variety of orchestra, techno, rock, and other eastern like songs. And yes, I really love the ending theme Oh Angel. Both played in Japanese and in English in their respective tracks. The Japanese version is sung by Terry’s voice actor and I don’t know who sung it in English. But they both do an equal job and they bring out the same meaning and feel of emotion.

Well, I thought it was a great conclusion to the trilogy, but leaves a lot open. Like Geese is shown to still be in training and it would have been cool if they made another movie or oav based on the Fatal Fury game also called Real Bout. I thought the new villains were a real great idea. It’s a shame they never made it to the games because I thought they would have worked out. But with the way the action was presented, it would make a total imbalance. I mean, the Fatal Fury games are hard enough already. We don’t need characters that can get the abilities of a god or fight a god itself for God’s sake!!! Despite being 13 years since the anime has been put on a hold, I still hope for future releases. Maybe Terry can meet Blue Mary this time. I don’t get why he was going after a school girl in this one. Man, I am still over shock that there won’t be a sequel to Mark of the Wolves, my favorite of all the Fatal Fury games. I say fans of the Fatal Fury games may not like this anime too much, not because of the new characters, but because of the presentation of the action is not in tradition of the games, but those of you who like general action anime, then this is something to give a shot though the fights are short.

I can easily say that I am not a fan of Masami Obari. For as good as his art can look (at times), his stories are horrible, and while I could write about some of his more detestable work (Voogie's Angels or Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer), I wanted to slice open the fifth seal in God-awful directing, Fatal Fury the Motion Picture.
STORY: Obari just did not try with this franchise. I always thought it would be easy to tell a story about a group of steriod-injected martial artists who fire Hadokens out of their feet and can launch air combos, but it's ... impossibly bad how little this story makes sense or how you can care!! Apperently, having cool villans like Geese Howard and Billy Kane aren't compelling enough to put in our FATAL FURY MOVIE, so their roles are reduced to 30 second cameos as the audience is supposed to care about some stupid armour that grants the wearer AWESOME POWER so Laocorn can take vengence against those that betrayed his ancestors. Trust me, the movie does very little to explain this and it has no ties to our heroes whatsoever.
ART: The art is fairly decent. The backgrounds look good for the most part, given the movie's age, but there isn't too much to look at. The character designs for the villans just don't seem to belong, but I'm sure Mr. Obari has a fetish for skin tight spandex and half shirts. These baddies just look like they're more from Samurai Shodown than Fatal Fury. The Lone Wolves all look good, but they looked much better in A New Battle. The fight scenes are kind of choppy and generic, with the exception of Joe Higashi's fight against Hwa Jai in the beginning, which looks great. But the only art detail anyone will probably wait to see is Mai's breasts constantly defying all laws of physics.
Sound: The music is actually quite good at setting the mood in particular points in the movie. The voices are good, with the exception of Sulia's english dubbed voice. Since her character spends so much time in the movie crying, she sounds like she's going to break into tears at any given moment. I guess it's good for what it is, but it's just so grating that I stopped giving a crap about it. Jason Gray Stafford steals the show as Joe Higashi, and he's so much fun to listen to, and Mark Hildreth (maybe one of the most underused voice actors out there) is again great as Terry.
CHARACTER: Yeeaahh, this is pretty much the Andy, Mai, and Joe show, because Terry is rendered useless with Sulia as a potential love interest and spends most of the movie still brooding over a girl that NEVER existed. As I said eariler, the FF cast is virtually used mostly as cameos like Kim Kaphwan, Big Bear, Duck King, Lawerance Blood, Jubei Yamada, Cheng Sin Zan, Billy Kane, Geese Howard. You know, the CHARACTERS FROM BLEEDING FATAL FURY!!!!!!!!! These people are used to get their asses handed to them buy the most generic group of bad guys that just exist for the point of trying to move this piss poor excuse of a plot. You have Laocorn, the guy who wants to get the armor of Mars to, you guessed it, take over the world. His whiny twin sister Sulia, who of course, wants to stop him.
And then there's Jamin, Hauer, and Panni, who sound more like a Cirque De Solei trio than henchmen. I get why Laocorn and Sulia are there, but who are these three, and why do they follow Laocorn? Who knows Obari doesn't have time to tell you, because Mai's shower scene is coming up. These antagonists are underdeveloped, have no personality, and serve no purpose except to get disposed of by the good guys. Unexceptable, but I did like the cameos buy Nakoruru and her voice actor in the beginning who gave the flowers to Joe. Yeah, cause people will get that reference, thanks for editing it, VIZ!!!
ENJOYMENT: This is just a boring movie. So much time is spent trying to explain this story that Sulia's narration is OVER CHARACTER DIALOUGE WHILE THEY'RE ON A PLANE!!! The fight scenes are bittersweet, because when you finally get some action, the fight is over just as fast as it started. It's hard to care for the original characters because they're just not that ineresting. There's just too much talking and the dialouge doesn't really serve much of a purpose other than a history lesson for the twins, which after all the talking, isn't that deep. They're trying to stop Laocorn and fail at every turn, making any scene completely worthless. And the final battle is just a mess, that's all I have to say.
OVERALL: I HATE THIS MOVIE!! It's a bastardization of anything Fatal Fury!
The plot is stupid, the backstory is poorly fleshed out, the villans are just a box of bad guys, and the love tension between Terry and Sulia is so forced and unbelievable. Watch this movie if you like Mai, Andy, and Joe. Just don't expect them to do anything. I promise I'll try and trim my next review in half. I apologize for the length.

Animation... poor. For an anime such as this I would at least expect some kick ass fighting scenes, and I didn't get them here.

Sound... can't remember any of the music so it can't have been too outstanding. But I do remember something about the character's voices though - they were annoying.

story... nothing spectacular

characters... tries to be deep but at the end of the day is still laughably shallow. You might get a kick from seeing a lot of cameos from the characters of the franchise though, if you're familiar with it that is.

Conclusion... this anime sucks. Yet another one of those action anime that tries ... to be too deep and end up rattling off some senseless mumbo jumbo about life and love and trying to find some pseudo-philosophical justification for why they fighting etc.

There's only one point of interest in this "Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture", and that's the fact that it appears to be a SEQUEL to the "Fatal Fury 2", not the prequel. I was quite confused by the characters talking about what I thought was supposed to be future events that occur in "Fatal Fury 2". And then I found out that "Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture" is indeed the sequel - it comes after the two OVA's "Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf" and "Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle". The first OVA wasn't listed in the database that I checked, and this naturally made me think the movie, as the only other Fatal Fury title, is the prequel to "Fatal Fury 2". So yeah, turns out this isn't such an interesting point after all, sorry to get your hopes up :P As a side comment, "Fatal Fury 2" is actually a lot better than this, as it doesn't make the mistake of trying to appear deep when it's blatently not.

As many people who have watched this can tell you, this is basically one for the hardcore beat-em-up gamers only, and on top of that you probably need to be a fan of the "Fatal Fury" games to have any chance of enjoying this. Compared to other fighting games to anime conversions, this is not even in the same league as the animated street fighter 2 movie, but at least it's better than the Tekken movie, though that's not exactly saying much...

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

It's amazing what growing old can do to your tastes in anime...

Once upon a time, I thought the Fatal Fury OVAs and Motion Picture kicked-a**... I am a little embarrassed to admit that I had a "thing" for Terry Bogard... with his long blonde hair and rippling muscles... I just couldn't resist... then I watched it all over again...

Story: 7/10 - it's an action-packed love story, to say the least... Terry/Sulia and Andy/Mai... brawns and breasts... whoopee! well, not really... it's just an old formula, girl needs help - guy helps girl - they fall in love - girl dies... tragic ain't it? Terry ... better change his nickname to "lonely wolf" then (as mentioned in the movie)...

Art: 7/10 - nothing special about the art/drawing... this is still old-school for me... i noticed that sometimes some of the characters get a weird look on them... especially in the action scenes... out of proportion? contorted? and it does not look good...

Sound: 8/10 - i liked the BG music... i liked the ending theme before and i still like it now... kinda sad, a very fitting theme for the Lone Wolf... Dubbing is also good since i believe the group who dubbed Ranma 1/2 was behind this... i'd recognize Akane's voice anywhere...

Character: 8/10 - basing on all the OVAs + Movie, i'd give it an 8... i was able to see some sort of development... Terry did not get his girl (again!) but at least Mai got her man - the beautiful Andy (i'd hate to say gay but c'mon!)... as for the sweet Sulia, she does not look the part but she got guts... Laocorn is a brainwashed fool but makes a kinda good villain... the supporting cast are uhm just there -- to support...

Enjoyment/Overall: 7/10 - it did not move me the way it did when i first saw it but it still had its good points... it's still sexed up imho... and from a girl's POV, the Mai dance was too much... fan service? oh yeah!

I'd recommend this to people who wants to know how a mere mortal can defeat a God... Ludicrous, i know... but this is anime! ha!

Oh Love and Loneliness, what would we do without you? :P

When it comes to video game adaptations, sticking close to the source material will often times more than not lead to a successful outcome, however, there are some unique cases where some how some way an over reaching story line can ultimately make for a good viewing experience and such is the case with Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture.

The art style for the Fatal Fury anime's were always constant leading up to this final film and I never took an issue with this direction. Character's always managed to stay in line with their original look and to be honest it was nice to see ... them get the anime makeover so to speak.

The animation and fight scenes in this title, while pretty decent, lacked consistency. One minute the attention to detail and movement looked astounding, another minute it looked a bit questionable. I also felt that often times the scenes were over to quickly and things would stop before they even got started.

Fortunately the fight scenes, which I am normally all about, was not the highlight of this film. The story, which ran completely off track of the video game series, was actually not all that bad. A mysterious girl, seeks the help of main protagonist Terry Bogard and friends to find pieces of the infamous armor of mars also sought by her brother the antagonist of the film who is slowly losing himself as he finds each one.

This leads them in a race around the globe as the film tries to entangle historic figures, mythology, and few cheap tie ins from the game to create a progressive story line. It certainly does pain at some points especially if you have a bias towards the source material yet and still some how it managed to keep me interested.

The biggest fault of the film lies with the interest of the villain and his powerful underlings and not with the heroic quartet especially Terry whose ability seems to get down turned at every moment until the end of the film. While the story was a fairly decent one, looking back, you realize that the creators of this film blew a big opportunity to make this a true classic by not focusing the plot on the character that mattered, Geese Howard...what an ending that should have been.

The soundtrack was another stand out part of the film and certainly adds a much needed ambiance to each scene. The music always seemed to cue in at the right time adding some great intensity at certain moments during the film.

Barring any affinity you may have for the films origin, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture was a pretty good watch. It is unfortunate that the OVA did not continue after this as I believe they would have gone back to a more canonical timeline. With all that being said, I still recommend you take a gander. The effort they put into this film shows and that can at least be appreciated.

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;)

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…
...
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!