Street Fighter II V Vol-3 (1996)
Released by: Manga Entertainment
Episodes: 15-21
By Keith "JC" Hayward

Introduction

Street Fighter seems set to take the world by storm this year! Not only does it have a rockin’ comic book, special custom controllers (for the PS2, even though the GCN needs it more!), but just so us fans can create our own characters from scratch and battle it out in a world of our creation, Living Room Games is making a Street Fighter Table-Top RPG that seems slightly based around a d20 system, if not necessarily the d20 system.

With all this popularity brewing once again for the franchise, can yet another anime series be far behind? I did hear something about a Street Fighter Alpha II movie somewhere, I think. Hopefully it’s not just a rumor.

Anyway, we have volume 3 of the V Series on the agenda this day and it makes up completely for the lack of A-List title fights of the previous volume, which was filled to the brim with zen goodness. But enough meditation and honing one’s inner self, we want fights and that’s just what you get in Volume 3. Ken vs Vega, Chun Li vs M. Bison, Cammy vs Chun Li’s dad, Ryu vs. Zangief, and even a brief Ryu vs M. Bison.

The A-Listers of Street Fighter legend have cleared the bench and are all ready for a fight. Let’s go!

Story

“From the sinister back-alleys of Hong Kong to the muddy banks of the Ganges, from Thailand to Span and across lands unknown, Ken and Ryu track-down the very best fighters in the world seeking the secrets of their power. Take to the streets and watch as legendary warriors collide in this amazing martial arts action series!” –back of the box

Review

Finally, Ryu, Ken, and Chun Li feel they’ve earned some rest and relaxation, after surviving crime ridden cities, drug lords, prison, and gun toting treasure thieves; but alas, there’s always more fun, excitement, and trouble to be had for a world traveling Street Fighter and Spain is no exception.

What starts off as a pleasant night out with Ken and Chun Li getting invited to an upscale party and Ryu going off to the ocean shore to practice his new Hadoken technique, turns into the heroes playing right into Shadowlaw’s trap. Moments after Ken and Chun Li arrive at the party, Ken finds himself in a practically three episode long knock down drag out cage match with Vega! The fight is awesome as Ken pulls out all the stops and bleeds a grown man’s body weight of his own blood while facing the razor edged blades of Vega. The winner is pretty obvious and it’s a win that’s wholly earned and very satisfying.

Unfortunately win or lose, Ken and Chun Li found themselves in the clutches of Shadowlaw and Chun Li herself winds up going face to face with the Psycho Powered Commander, M. Bison! While it’s not a long fight and you can already tell who would win, it’s quite a good fight and Chun Li doesn’t back down for a second. She even gets in a well planned and thought out hit that does good damage to ol’ Bison… which only succeeded to really piss him off, but kudos to Street Fighter all-star Chun Li for giving the bad guy of bad guys in the SF Universe a run for his money.

Elsewhere only subtly and occasionally feeling the distress of his friends, Ryu practices diligently the art of summoning his Hadoken in a way that he’s able to control the blast without knocking himself out. His raised power level makes him easy to find, as Bison unleashes Zangief to go and retrieve our focused hero. Having just fired off another exhausting chi blast from his Hadoken, Ryu was hardly a match for the Russian wrestler and winds up also at the mercy of Shadowlaw.

More characters come out of the wood work as even Cammy White enters the game at the behest of Balrog who turns out to be a CIA double agent. Chun Li’s father is hot on Shadowlaw’s heels and Balrog commissions the british assassin Cammy to take him out.

There’s a lot of action and all our heroes wind up on the ropes, captured, beaten to within an inch of their lives and some possibly even dead! Fei Long also makes a return to find all his friends are all either dead or missing. This volume definitely made of for lack of A-List action missing from the previous installment, with one major fight and some honorable mention scuffles between Street Fighter's first string fighters. A minor gripe comes with Cammy looking nothing like her video game counter-part. Where most of the characters in this series at the very least make a first appearance in their trademark costume, Cammy barely has the same hair style and instead wears a Matrix leather number, which, while sexy, just doesn’t show me the Cammy I came to see. Still all in all, it was a good run and being the second to last step in my Street Fighter II V journey it ends just where you want to see your heroes just before the end… beaten, broken, and with absolutely no hope of survival.

DVD Episode List:

Episode 15 – “Clash of the Titans”
Episode 16 – “The Unveiled Ruler”
Episode 17 – “The Despot's Commander”
Episode 18 – “The Beautiful Assassin”
Episode 19 – “Special Orders to the Iron Men”
Episode 20 – “Unknown Explosive Force”
Episode 21- “Compulsion Towards Vengeance”

Final Thoughts

Again, nothing ground breaking and some heroes just don’t resemble their video game art enough. M. Bison, while they got everything else right about his proportions, attitude, association in the SF Universe, they for some reason decided to give him some dark blue costume versus the trademark red we all know and love. Minor gripes, but still. If you’re down with the Street Fighters you don’t need absolute brilliance to just kick it with these guys for a very fulfilling 29 episodes of action, fights, and adventure. I’d say this series was in fact a must for Street Fighter collectors and enthusiast.

Keith "JC" Hayward