The American produced Street Fighter: the Series tends to get quite a bit of flack from fans, some going so far as to call it “the worst video game cartoon ever made”. Hey, it wasn’t perfect, but in no universe was it ever as bad as the mid-90’s Mega Man cartoon. But that’s another story.

Street Fighter: the Series was a loose continuation of the live action Street Fighter film starring Jean Claude Van Damme. That sentence alone is enough to frighten most people away from ever watching the show, but bear with me. When I say it is a “loose” continuation, I mean it. There are several differences between the film and the TV series, mostly due to the writers “fixing” a lot of the damage done by the film and making the characters and storyline more closely resemble that of the video games. While by and large the Series took more cues from the video games, a few concepts from the film worked their way into the show. Of all the ones to make it in, easily the most interesting was Blanka’s origin. In the movie, he was a character named Carlos “Charlie” Blanka, who was mutated by the scientist Dhalsim (who was under M. Bison’s conrol). In the series, Blanka deals with his new freakish appearance and learns to cope with what he has become. Meanwhile, the experience of being forced to commit crimes against humanity by Bison drove Dhalsim to the mystic arts, turning him into the guru character from the games. A character exclusive to the movie (and the movie-based fighting game), Colonal Sawada, also appears in the series and is actually a pretty good new-comer with some sweet special moves (he channels his chi through his sword for projectile attacks).

The plot of the series is sort of a bizarre fusion of the live action movie and the video games. The Allied Nations (kinda like the United Nations but not, for some reason) have developed a top secret organization called “Street Fighter”, comprised of the most skilled warriors from across the globe, to challenge the evil terrorist organization of Shadaloo, run by M. Bison.

I know what you’re thinking, “a military organization called Street Fighter? Lame.” And yeah, it *does* sound pretty freakin’ lame. However, the Street Fighter organization basically served the same purpose as Interpol from the various Street Fighter animes. In fact, in the second season, while the organization (run by a British guy named Escher) still functioned, it was down-played considerably.

Additionally, there were a lot of character-driven stories that had nothing to do with the plot of battling terrorism. Ken and Ryu still feature heavily in this series, getting quite a few episodes dedicated to them exclusively. However, since this show was produced in America, Ken tends to take the spotlight more often than the milquetoast Ryu. They adapt a number of Ken and Ryu’s stories from the games, and considering they had to work around the overall plot of the television series, did a decent job working them in. There’s the one about Akuma seeking vengeance on his brother and their master, Gouken. In the games, Akuma kills Gouken using the “Raging Demon”, while in the show he still attacks Gouken with the Raging Demon, but seriously injures him and steals his chi. Ken and Ryu have to defeat Akuma in order to reclaim their master’s lifeforce and save his life. Awkwardly, Ken is the one who defeats Akuma in the episode. They also cover Ryu’s battle with Sagat from the end of the first Street Fighter game. They even show him scarring the bad guy (albeit, bloodlessly). It also sets up Sakura’s story, as she was in the audience, watching the fight, and Ryu’s triumph over all odds drove her to study martial arts.

Guile, Blanka and Chun-Li are the headliners of the show, at least in regards to the good guys. Guile’s story is that, in order to join the Street Fighter organization, he had to be dishonorably discharged from the military. In reality, it was all a ruse to protect the top secret nature of the program, but to the general public, Guile was scum. Guile’s occupation also caused his wife, Cindy, to divorce him. This is another concept brought over from the games, though Guile’s wife is named “Jane” in that continuity. Over the course of the series, Guile eventually wins Cindy back as he reveals the truth about his job to her.

Chun-Li doesn’t get a whole lot of deep characterization, honestly. Her day-time occupation as a television news reporter has been imported from the film, and honestly, I wish it hadn’t. For some reason they always drew her with this ridiculously massive ponytail while in her civilian get-up. The video game origin, about Bison murdering her father, remains intact, though, and is mentioned quite frequently. A few other nods to her game characterization are also thrown in, such as her victory phrase “I’m the strongest woman in the world” and “Yatta!” However, Chun-Li’s voice actress wasn’t too good at pronouncing Japanese, so it came out more like “Yudduh!”

Blanka may have gotten the most attention. Blanka in the series is an interesting fusion of two game characters: Blanka (duh) and Charlie Nash. Though Blanka’s real name in the games was “Billy”, they chose to import his real identity from the movies. Secondly, though his name was Carlos “Charlie” Blanka instead of Charlie Nash, he was shown to actually be Charlie Nash in the episode “Eye of the Beholder”. He was returned to his human form in that episode, and while he still retained a few Hispanic features, his clothing was identical to that of Charlie’s from the video games. The combination of Charlie and Blanka was one of the few ideas from the movie I actually liked, and while the film didn’t do a very good job of presenting it, it was done justice in the television series. Blanka’s story was that he was an outcast from society and things always seemed to be getting worse for him. In the second season he gets doused in more mutagen and is turned even uglier (or, more like his game design) and life for him just sucks. He eventually comes to terms with himself at the end of the series, though.

On the bad guy side you had M. Bison. His organization, Shadaloo, is returned to a terrorist syndicate like in the games, as opposed to the warring nation seen in the movie. The first season of the series is the weaker half, far more cut and dry with less continuity between episodes. Bison was treated more like Cobra Commander in those episodes, than anything. With the second season, Bison had an over-arcing goal and a few devious plots that spanned the entire season. In the beginning of season 2, Bison is injured in battle. He seeks out the the mystical statue of Kali, which replenishes his psycho-power, but also pollutes his mind (more polluted than it already is, anyhow). Bison goes nuts and decides he wants to destroy the planet instead of conquering it, and steals nuclear warhead launch codes from MI5 (England’s top secret government agency).

Season 2 also contains a story arc involving Cammy’s betrayal of the Street Fighter organization. Bison had killed her family when she was a child and brainwashed her into servitude of Shadaloo using his psycho-power. He then brainwashed her again into forgetting all that and sent her to go join MI5’s Delta Red and the Street Fighter organization. He then uses her to get info on all his enemies and at the beginning of season 2 uses a code word to make her remember her Shadaloo loyalty (man, that’s complicated). Season 2 deals mostly with the Street Fighter organization trying to deal with Cammy’s defection, including ordering Delta Red to assassinate her before she can divulge too many military secrets.

Just about every character from Street Fighter II and Street Fighter Alpha are in this series, either as main characters or via cameo appearances. Dee Jay is now a good guy (though he was evil in the movie), E. Honda is there (as the group’s tech guy for some reason), T. Hawk gets a number of appearances, Fei Long stars in a few episodes with his movie star origin intact, Zangief is still a bad guy (though he was shown turning good at the end of the movie), Vega is shown a few times, usually as a nemesis of Blanka and Balrog is now evil (he was a good guy in the movie). Rose gets a spotlight episode, while Dan and a bunch of other Alpha guys get brief cameos (no speaking roles, just shown fighting in a tournament). Delta Red, Cammy’s MI5 crew from the games, feature in quite a few episodes, particularly in the second season. However, for some odd reason, they undergo name changes and slight redesigns. Colonal Wolfman becomes Burke, McCoy becomes Rory and Lita becomes Celia. I have no clue what that was all about.

One advantage Street Fighter the Series had over the Japanese shows is that it made use of Street Fighter’s vast cast of characters much better. Everyone gets in an appearance or two.

Another respectable thing about the series was that it managed a few crossovers or adaptations of other Capcom games. In the aptly named episode “Final Fight”, the story of the first Final Fight video game is told rather well. They have to shoe-horn in Ken and Ryu into the plot and water it down for 30 minutes, but they do an admirable job. Guy and Cody are still there and follow Ken and Ryu as they infiltrate the Mad Gears to rescue Mayor Haggar’s daughter, Jessica. The episode actually progresses in a manner similar to the different levels in the games, from the streets to the subway all the way to the final showdown at the top of the Mad Gears’ office building. Rolento and Sodom show up as “bosses”, nicely, and get a few good fights in (Rolento’s moves are particularly cool). Other Mad Gear thugs from the games show up, including Andore, Edi E., Damnd and Belger. Haggar is ufortunately underused due to the time constraints and doesn’t get to do any fighting (they he does throw furniture and break down doors). One of my favorite episodes.

Then there’s one major oddity, “the Warrior King”, which is a crossover with the game Magic Sword. Seriously. You can tell that the writers for this show played the games, as there are so many details and obscure references to the Street Fighter franchise and other games throughout the course of the series. A shame they never got around to a Ghosts n’ Goblins crossover.

The show is quite odd, but entertaining never-the-less. I don’t think it gets enough credit, mostly because of its ties to the Street Fighter movie. The animation fluctuated wildly in the series. Some episodes were animated by an awful Korean studio, while the best ones were handled by Sunrise studios in Japan, the same people who brought us Cowboy Bebop and a lot of the Gundam shows. When the show wanted to look good, it looked *really* good. I also liked how they handled the characters and their special moves. In the Japanese cartoons, hadoukens and sonic booms are treated like “OMG!” special moments, where-as in the games, you can use them whenever you want. The characters in this series use them frequently, just like in the games, and don’t treat them like glorious kamehamehas.

Street Fighte: the Series is basically the end result of the Street Fighter games having a baby with G.I. Joe (and no, I’m not referring to those G.I. Joe/Street Fighter toys made by Hasbro in the 90’s). Several plots as well as characterizations from the games remain intact, but they’re fused with anti-terrorist Joe vs. Cobra/Street Fighter vs. Shadaloo action, which turns many Street Fighter purists off. Honestly, if it came down to a choice between Street Fighter: the Series and Street Fighter II V, I’d go with the Series. It had even less episodes than II V but managed to fit in three times as many characters and adapt even more plots from the games. If anything, storywise, the Series got more right than II V did. Not that I hate II V, or anything.

You can get the series on DVD in region 1. The first season of 13 episodes is available in a box set titled “Code of Honor”, while season 2 is available in a set called “Soul Power”. These season sets are incredibly cheap; I doubt you’ll have to pay more than $40 for both of them. So, if you’re a Street Fighter fan who has only watched the Japanese cartoons and you are SICK TO DEATH of nothing but Ken and Ryu, then pick these sets up. You get a wide array of characters, some decent stories and animation as well as plenty of Capcom Easter Eggs thrown in by the writers and animators.

I wasn’t fortunate enough to have seen Samurai Pizza Cats when it originally aired. I knew it existed, but I sort of passed it off as yet another anthropomorphic animal action cartoon trying to cash-in on the popularity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (like Street Sharks, Biker Mice from Mars or the COWboys of Moo Mesa). I didn’t give it a fair chance until many years after the initial run, and I have to admit, this show really doesn’t get enough credit.

Samurai Pizza Cats was imported from Japan, “translated” (though I use that term loosely) from the original version called Kyattou Ninden Teyandē, which sort of-kind of translates to “Surprise! Cat Team Ninja Legend…Wha?” There are a bunch of untranslatable Japanese puns and idioms in that title, so don’t take my translation as the gospel. America’s version of the show was more a parody of the original series than an actual proper translation. Supposedly, the translators and script writers were given the raw tapes of the Japanese series, became completely baffled by the shear volume of Japanese-centric puns and gags, and just decided to do a “Mystery Science Theater” parody instead. The result is brilliant.

While “OMG Kitty Klan Ninja Legend WTF” was a pretty straight-forward Children’s anime/glorified toy commercial, the English version was a fair bit more clever. The characters are self-aware that they’re in a cartoon and that nothing is real, and as a result, they break the fourth wall on a frequent basis. They’re constantly making gags about how violent the show is and that they’ll sue the producers over their injuries, or when a cartoon character is acting “sexy” one of the boys will remark at how pretty she looks…for a hand-painted drawing on a sheet of paper. They also toss in boatloads of pop culture references, taking potshots as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rather frequently (in the first episode, a pagoda collapses and, according to the Narrator, demolishes a “Retirement Home for Elderly Ninja Turtles”). They also toss in some references that are bound to go over the heads of a kid’s audience, like jabs at Green Peace or the ineffectiveness of the Vice President.

The plot is like so: In the town of Little Tokyo, Emperor Fred has gone completely insane and thinks he is a scat singer. His head advisor, the Big Cheese, is constantly plotting to overthrow the Royal Family with his army of Ninja Crows, lead by the villainous Badbird. However, the head of the Royal Guard, Al Dente, is on to the Big Cheese and has recruited a trio of super-powered felines to fend of giant robot attacks. They are the Samurai Pizza Cats (named so because they work part time at a pizzeria): Speedy Cerviche, the super-fast leader, Polly Esther, the cute token female with razor sharp claws and hilariously stereotypical pink heart fetish, and Guido Anchovy, the “cool cat” who wields the Parasol of Doom, an umbrella which can kill things. Every episode, when trouble rears its ugly head, they’re launched out of a giant cannon for no good reason, parodying lengthy transformation and launch stock footage from Sentai shows. Incidentally, Saban (the producers of this show) are most well known for bringing Japanese Sentai to America in the form of Power Rangers.

The voice-acting for the show, done in Canada, is both good and bad. This is a self-referential parody, so they’re not trying to be serious, so as a result, the voices are rather goofy all around. I don’t mind Polly and Guido’s voices so much, but Speedy’s can get on your nerves. He sounds kind of like Meowth from Pokemon only a far cry less endearing. The Narrator (who constantly interacts with the characters, which I love) sounds kind of like he’s doing a Gary Owens impression. However, the best voice has to be the dude singing the theme song, Michael Airington, who was also one of the head writers. He does this hilariously flamboyant Mildew Wolf/Sammy Davis Junior-impression. Once you get that theme song stuck in your head you will never, ever forget it.

The good news is that there were a total of 52 shows produced, which means America received almost every episode of the Japanese series. Only two episodes were left behind, both of which were useless clipshows, and I hate that crap. The bad news is that this show is owned by Saban. Why is that bad news? Saban is owned by Disney. What’s so bad about that? Well, Disney has shown little to no interest in releasing many of their classic cartoons on DVD in season sets, let alone shows owned by their acquired studios, like Saban. That’s why we haven’t gotten X-Men, Spider-Man, Power Rangers or Digimon season sets yet, and why we may never get them. Disney has “more important things to do”.

However, you *can* find a few episodes on You Tube, and you’re in luck, as I dug some up for you:

“Stop Dragon my Cat Around” part 1
“Stop Dragon my Cat Around” part 2
“Stop Dragon my Cat Around” part 3

“If you Knew Sushi like I Know Sushi” part 1
“If you Knew Sushi like I Know Sushi” part 2
“If you Knew Sushi like I Know Sushi” part 3

“Underground Underwater Undercooked” part 1
“Underground Underwater Undercooked” part 2
“Underground Underwater Undercooked” part 3

Bionic Six was a series I didn’t get into until the Sci-Fi Channel began rerunning it in the mornings, along with Star Wars: Droids, the New Gigantor and the Transformers. I only enjoyed it in passing, as it wasn’t my favorite of their morning line-up, honestly. I remember thinking Mother-1 was kinda hot, though.

The show was an American-Japanese joint production, with animation by TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha), the same people that brought us Mighty Orbots and tons of other Japanese-animated cartoons. I remember the animation being rather good, particularly the opening sequence. Yeah, the theme song is hilariously lame (“We are a family! I fight for them, they fight for me!”), but the visuals were pleasing. There were two seasons with a total of 65 episodes produced.

As the story goes, the Bennet family became trapped under an avalanche of radioactive snow (which is deadlier than regular snow). A Government-sponsored scientist named Professor Sharp gathered their frozen corpses and rebuilt them with bionic technology, making them better than they were before: better, stronger, faster. This multi-cultural family of the future consisted of Bionic-1, the father who had supervision and super-hearing. Mother-1, his wife who had telekinetic powers allowing her to create mirages and move objects. Sport-1, the blonde all-American son, obsessed with sports, who could move metallic objects like Magneto. Rock-1, the blonde imbecilic 80’s “gag-me-with-a-spoon” stereotype who loved rock music, rebellious haircuts and could fire sonic blasts. IQ, the adopted black son who was super smart and super strong. And finally, Karate-1, because all azn people are obsessed with martial arts. There was also FLUFFI, the inexplicably robotic gorilla who provided all the comic relief, ala Slimer, Snarf or Orko.

They could activate their bionic powers through these computer wristbands and rings they wore. By uniting the two accessories they could go all crazy and trash the villains. The villains, by the way, were Dr. Scarab and his horde of dimwitted thugs. Dr. Scarab was the evil brother of Dr. Sharp, and while Sharp gave bionic powers to a group of good-natured Americans, Scarab imbued a gaggle of mental patients with super abilities (that’s always a recipe for success). Oh, and he was really ugly.

The voice acting was pretty good. You had John Stephenson, one of the greats, as the voice of Bionic-1 and the villain, Klunk. Alan Oppenheimer, another classic voice actor, provided Professor Sharp’s persona. There’s also the king of the voice acting world, Frank Welker, voicing virtually every member of Scarab’s goon squad.

While the plots were a bit predictable and really nothing out of the ordinary for 80’s cartoons, Bionic Six had one thing really going for it: the animation. TMS produced some of the most gorgeous animation in the 80’s, but Bionic Six is the cream of the crop. The character designs are noticeably Western, yet the animation quality is fluid, detailed, smooth and oozes an overall Japanese quality. Karate-1’s martial arts attacks as well as various action sequences all leak hints of Japanese anime, but when fused with the Western cartoon designs and story-telling, the whole thing comes off as eye candy.

Of all of TMS’ work with American animation, Bionic Six remains one of their greatest accomplishments, with animation that outshines productions from the 90’s, like Batman the Animated Series. I’d recommend tracking the series down if you’re really into pretty animation and 80’s cartoon aesthetics. I’ve even found a few for you:

“The Valley of Shadows”

“The Return of Bunji” part 1

“The Return of Bunji” part 2

“The Return of Bunji” part 3

“The Return of Bunji” part 4

I’m afraid I wasn’t one of those kids who got to grow up watching Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, leaving me without a nostalgic fondness for the show. As a result, I tend to view it with a rather critical eye, noticing quite a few flaws and shortcomings. Yet, even as I watch it today, there are a few aspects that I genuinely enjoy.

Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs was released in the United States in 1987, following the trend of popular space Western cartoons like Bravestar and (to an extent) Silverhawks. It was, in reality, a re-dubbed and re-edited version of a Japanese anime called “Seijuushi Bismarck”, which translates to “Star Musketeer Bismarck”. It lasted only one season but there were a total of 52 episodes produced. Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs never quite garnered the popularity of other imported and dubbed Japanese giant robot cartoons from the 80’s, like Robotech, Tranzor Z or most notably, Voltron, and there’s a very good reason for that: Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs is rather forgettable.

The story goes like so: in the distant future, man has spread out all over the solar system creating a new frontier (not to be confused with the final frontier, or Paramount will sue). Cavalry Command is a military organization that keeps the peace, so to speak. Alien creatures from another dimension called Outriders threaten the new frontier. They are vapor beings, meaning that if you shoot them in the skull they’re just evaporate back to their home dimension. It can be very frustrating, since evaporating is but a minor inconvenience for them and they can easily return to our world on a later date. The Outriders, much like Dr. Demon or Lotor, have an armada of giant evil robots that they routinely attack humanity with. In retaliation, the Cavalry Command created a giant robot of their own: Ramrod, who looks like a cowboy.

The characters in this series have some pretty wacky names. There’s the leader of the bunch, Saber Rider, a British fencing champion and high-ranking member of the Cavalry Command. Then there’s the purdy French gal, April Eagle, who is the engineer that designed Ramrod. Next there’s the Japanese racecar driver, Fireball, who eventually hooked up with April. And last but not least is the rowdy American yeehaw round-em-up Cowboy stereotype, Colt. He’s the sharp-shooter of the posse. Ramrod is probably the best character of the cast, mostly because he’s voiced by Peter “Optimus Prime” Cullen. Cullen is known for his John Wayne impression (which he used for Optimus Prime) and he provides it in full force for the robo-cowboy, Ramrod.

Like a lot of Japanese cartoons brought over to America in the 80’s and 90’s, Saber Rider was quite fiercely edited. The funny thing is, it wasn’t only edited for content, but to be more…”American-friendly”. In the Japanese version, can you believe it, the Japanese guy was the main character! Crazy, eh? Well, that wouldn’t fly over here in the US of A, as no red-blooded American child could possibly watch a show where the main character wasn’t Caucasian. So through the use of re-dubbing and re-editing scenes, the British guy, Saber Rider, and the American guy, Colt, became the main characters. This didn’t always work so well, as there would be moments when characters are looking directly at Fireball, talking in his direction, but be dubbed to sound like they’re having a conversation with Saber Rider or Colt.

There were also the standard content edits one would expect. Every saloon on the new frontier is apparently an ice cream parlor, leaving one to think that in the distant future all alcohol has been annihilated. I remember one particular scene where you could just tell some nasty editing had gone on. In the scene, an angry old man with a shotgun tries to kill Colt for doing something to his daughter. Colt replies with dialogue to the effect of “Oh c’mon, it was just a square dance!” Hilariously suggestive.

The Japanese giant robot genre is terribly over-saturated; there are dozens of giant robot cartoons that never even made it to America in the 80’s. I’m afraid that there just isn’t enough about Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs to make it stand out in the crowd. I will give them some credit, though; the theme song was pretty cool.

A 2-disk “Best-of” set was sold earlier this year through Voltron.com and may very well lead to a complete series DVD release. There’s even the remote possibility that the original Star Musketeer Bismarck series might get a subtitled release (hey, they’re doing it with Voltron/Go-Lio and Technoman/Tekkaman Blade). However, I can’t say I’m a fan of the series and in all honesty, it’s pretty much a footnote in the giant robot genre.