Street Fighter: The Later Years Part Two

Update on Street Fighter: The Later Years

The previous blog left off talking about Street Fighter: The Later Years and the pros and cons of the series. I'm happy to say the final episode is out and it was done well. For those who need a refresher, this is a strictly online show that has been broadcasting over the past few months. It takes the events that happened in an old video game and treated them like real life. The series meets the characters ten years later, and has them interact with each other in hopes of reliving some of the events that occurred in the video game. The game it chose was Street Fighter II. The previous blog left it out in the open because the series wasn't complete and it could have been another game if different moves were revealed. Now that the series is over and Chun-Li hasn't revealed her kikoken (her fireball) the answer is clear. The series is full of comical moments with classical characters. Although, it can be offensive at times, but any lover of Street Fighter II or any fighting game genre buff, will find the series enjoyable.

The Final Episode

The previous episode left the viewer with a presumably dead Chun-Li, a vengeful Ken who just took out Blanka, and Ryu about to face off with a skinny E.Honda. (If you see the previous blog all these characters are explained.) The final episode follows E. Honda as he runs from Ryu until they face off on a roof-top (Ryu wears the white gi and E. Honda wears the Red one). The battle starts of with a fierce hadoken (literally translates to "Surge Fist") from both E.Honda and Ryu. The two characters are pushed back by the shock wave crated by the collision of their fireballs. After some quick blows are exchanged, Ryu shows himself as the better fighter by unleashing his shoryuken (literally translates to "rising dragon punch", an uppercut attack. This move is actually one of the most powerful attacks in a real martial arts style of Shotokan Karate, and it knocks E. Honda right out of the ring. He chases him into a dinner where there's a food fight, Sagat makes a brief appearance to help his master, E. Honda, but is quickly dispelled by Vega (who apparently has switched to the good side). Ryu corners his enemy and another rising dragon punch knocks his opponent to the roof. Ryu performs another dragon punch and flies to the rooftop. E. Honda attempted to trap Ryu by performing his hundred hand slap while Dhalsim and Zangief comes to the rescue and Ryu finishes him with the classic Hadoken!

The Good

Like always, the good guy beats the bad guy although this defeat is a little unconventional. (you have to watch it to see it) This was a good old-fashioned street fighter brawl that brings back memories to those who are familiar with it, and entertaining enough to those who have never heard of it. There is a little humor in this episode too! Ken is crying over Chun-Li's "dead" body and she promptly awakes and says: "Don't cry, you look like a little b*&#!". This could be offensive to some, but I feel the creators only meant it to be funny. Another potentially offensive scene is when E. Honda goes through a quick speech when he says "how much happier he is" since he lost the weight.

The Bad

While this was a good final episode, there were some minor issues with it. Fans may not like the fact that the shoryuken is more like a realistic uppercut versus the flying uppercut move he does in the game. The picture on the right is of Ryu performing the shoryuken. I think the producers were running short on time too because they show us Ryu Chasing E.Honda out of the arena and it is nighttime, but in the very next frame it is daytime. You also don't get to see all of the characters that the series worked so hard to produce. It seemed like they wanted to wrap things up. The characters you primarily see are Ryu and E. Honda, all the others are seen briefly. And during the final fight, it appears that E. Honda has cornered Ryu, but in the next frame he isn't. Not sure if this was just bad cutting or if the camera was supposed to show us the characters changing position.


The conclusion

If you don't see any of the other episodes except for this one, that would be fine. The other shows are worth seeing but this episode was the most action packed. It has love, violence, explosions, and jokes. Plus the final line made by M. Bison is absolutely worth it for your true fighting gamer. He completely minimizes Ryu's victory by making a reference to the game. "Yea, Yea, why don't you try a harder difficulty level next time!"