Street Fighter II V (Japan)

Rating: *

Divided into twenty-nine installments.

Sorely disappointing, especially coming on the heels of the spectacular "Street Fighter II" (1994) animated movie. It should have been called "Street Fighter Kids," since all of the main players aren't even eighteen years old yet. Weak character designs, poor characterizations, sloppy animation, lame scripting, no coherent story line, and juvenile humor plague the series, which is downright offensive for the first five episodes (Ken and Ryu just beat up everyone they meet). The final insult is seeing Chun Li portrayed as a helpless wide-eyed giggling fifteen year-old Hong Kong tour guide. (!) Fortunately, things finally start getting a little more interesting in episode six when a plot finally begins to form, the characters mature slightly, and Chun Li gets a chance to beat someone up gloriously. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough stamina to finish watching the series, so I don't know how it ends.