Street Fighter is an animated television series produced by InVision Entertainment based on the video game franchise of the same name by Capcom. The series aired as part of the USA Network's Cartoon Express and Action Extreme Team lineups. It lasted two 13-episode seasons which aired from 1995 to 1997, for a total of 26 episodes. The show is closely based on the Street Fighter II series, but also borrows plot elements and characters from the live-action Street Fighter film and the first two Street Fighter Alpha games, as well as other Capcom games such as Saturday Night Slam Masters, Magic Sword, and Final Fight.
Plot
is the leader of the "Street Fighters", an international undercover peacekeeping force composed of martial artists from around the world. They often face off against the ruthless General Bison and his Shadaloo criminal empire. They follow a code of honor involving the keywords "discipline", "justice" and "commitment". All 17 fighters from Super Street Fighter II Turbo appeared in some form throughout the entire series, with Guile, Chun-Li, Blanka, Ryu, Ken and Cammy serving as the show's primary characters, while M. Bison, Sagat, Vega and Zangief serve as primary antagonists. Since the arcade version of was only recently released when the show began airing, most of the new fighters that were introduced in that game only make a cameo in one episode during the first season. The second season would feature the Alpha roster more prominently, with characters such as Rose and Sakura being the focus of certain episodes.
Cast
Main cast
Michael Donovan as William F. Guile, Zangief, The Crimson Crawdad
has released the complete series on Region 1 DVD. The first set, Street Fighter: Code of Honor, was released on April 13, 2003 and contains all the Season 1 episodes; while the second set, Street Fighter: Soul Powers, released on May 13, 2003, and contains all the Season 2 episodes. Both of the DVD sets are now out of print. Discotek Media re-released the TV series in 2015. A 25th Anniversary Collector's Set of games, which includes a Blu-ray Disc of the entire TV series, was released in North America on September 18, 2012. In 2019, all of the Season 1 and Season 2 episodes were available on the japanese VideoMarket website in Japan.
Reception
Despite lasting two seasons—the same amount as and Darkstalkers combined—Street Fighter has suffered from predominantly negative reception. 411Mania included the series in a 2010 feature titled "The 8 Worst Street Fighter Franchise Failures" on the grounds that "the animation was sub-Captain Planet, the story was contrived, and the dialogue was wretched." Nick Chester of Destructoid called the show "an abomination" and "spectacularly awful." 1UP.com labeled the series "really crappy" and added, "hile SF fans love to quote the Street Fighter movie... they are usually less enthusiastic about the Saturday morning cartoon." The site also included the show in their list of the "Top 5 Not-So-Classic Video Game Cartoons" on the basis of the plot. "Do you remember when Guile recruited every character in the game into a secret anti-terrorist paramilitary group? I don't either." While Street Fighter was omitted from GamesRadar's 2010 list of "truly horrendous" video game cartoons, it was still mentioned as "a terrible abomination that would have made our list if Darkstalkers hadn’t knocked it off." Despite its negative reception, the show has become the source of numerous internet memes, most notably a scene in "The Medium is the Message" where M. Bison shouts "Yes! Yes!" as he watches Guile get beaten up by one of his mutant soldiers.
