Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is a Japanese movie from 1994, adapted from the video game franchise. It came out around the same time as the live action Jean Claude Van Damme crapfest of a movie, but it is world's better.
It starts with a fight between Ryu and Sagat, with Ryu winning after a long and epic battle. What is unknown to the spectators and combatants is that M. Bison and Shadowlaw (his criminal organization) has a cyborg there recording the fight. Bison is so impressed with Ryu that he decides to recruit Sagat to help capture Ryu.
Years go by and Ryu is roaming Asia, while his old friend and sparring partner Ken roams around Seattle. Ken's unhappy with having a lack of challenging competitors and wishes to find Ryu. Ken gets in a battle and Bison sees it, and takes a sudden interest in Ken. Apparently he plans to use Ken's friendship with Ryu to his advantage.
The thing that stuck out for me was the fact that it fleshed out the characters a bit more than the live action version did, and the action sequences were much better. In fact, a promoter involved with K-1 (a Japanese MMA type group) helped with that. I usually don't get into Anime or Manga much, but the production was pretty well done. The soundtrack for the American version is drastically different than the Japanese version, from what I understand. I saw the American version and felt it was a decent soundtrack, fitting in bands like KMFDM, Alice in Chains, Korn, and a few other grunge and metal acts.
The ending leaves an opening for a sequel, which did happen years later, but that was an apparent crapfest from what I heard.
Basically, if you're familiar at all with the Street Fighter franchise and were let down by the live action one, do yourself a favor and see this one.
