You probably already know that I'm a huge fighting game fan, but I'm also a huge anime fan. While most of us have watched anime in some form (Transformers anyone?), my first true taste of anime was Dragon Ball Z well over a decade ago. I watched what little had been localized for the American market and quickly found a rental store with the entire series available on fan subbed VHS tapes. The quality was less than stellar and the subtitles weren't always 100% accurate, but it got the point across and I got to watch DBZ before it got mega popular in the US.

As my taste in both videogames and anime evolved, I soon found a new favorite anime, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. I owned the original US VHS version way back in the day, and purchased the DVD of the same version a few years later. Now, Manga Video has released a new version of the movie on DVD dubbed Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie - Uncut, Uncensored, Unleashed.

The new version of the movie is very similar to the old version that most US fans are familiar with. However, this is the first time that the original Japanese version that was seen in theaters in the Land of the Rising Sun has graced US shores. The main difference between the two versions are a few extra scenes in the Japanese version (it has a run time of two minutes longer than the English version), as well as an extended version of the Chun Li shower scene. The shower scene now shows a frontal shot of Chun Li that has only been present in the Japanese version of the movie up until this release.

It's been awhile since I watched the US version of the movie, and I've never had the pleasure of watching the movie in Japanese before this release. I first checked out the movie in English, and it's pretty much the same as you'll remember it. The additional scenes don't add a significant amount to the film, but it's nice to have them included nonetheless. However, watching the movie in Japanese has a completely different tone. The English version has a soundtrack featuring music by KMFDM which gives each fight a high level of intensity. Watching the Japanese version without the updated soundtrack, the fights are much more on the mellow side.

While the vocals and the script in the Japanese version offer more emotion than the English voiceover, the movie on the whole is far less intense than the English version. I normally like watching anime in its native language (generally Japanese), but this is one of the few times that I prefer the English version. I also watch a lot of fan subs, not because I don't want to shell out the dough for the professional DVD, but because professional subtitles almost always have large, ugly, yellow text. It takes away from the overall feel of the movie and unfortunately, these same subtitles are present in SF2.

Both the US and Japanese dubs are featured in 2.0 stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. You won't see much of a difference between the stereo tracks, but there is a significant difference between the two 5.1 tracks. Watching on my THX 7.1 surround system, I noticed a big difference between the stereo and 5.1 tracks on the English side. The fights filled the entire room instead of simply taking place in front of me. However, when I switched over to the Japanese 5.1 track, it felt as though I was still listening in stereo. The soundtrack is already much more mellow than the English version, but it just didn't feel like the effort that was put into the English 5.1 track was put into the Japanese 5.1 offering.

My only other gripe with Uncut, Uncensored, Unleashed is the fact that the film was not cleaned up for modern TVs. A lot of older movies are remastered to look better on modern HDTVs, but Street Fighter looked quite dated on my HDTV. My TV is widescreen, and while the movie is presented in widescreen, it's not anamorphic widescreen. This means that the film will not fill up the entire screen unless you use the zoom feature on your TV or DVD player. The problem with this is if you want to watch the movie in its highest quality you'll have to deal with bars all the way around the picture if you own a widescreen TV. If you zoom in the picture will lose even more quality, and since it already looks dated on an HDTV, losing quality is not recommended.

Aside from the minor issues with the Japanese 5.1 track and the widescreen presentation, Uncut, Uncensored, Unleashed is the definitive version of the Street Fighter II animated movie. If you already own the first DVD release, unless you really want the small additions to the Japanese track or the full Chun Li shower scene, you may want to hold off on another purchase. However, if you don't own this movie on DVD and you're a fan of Street Fighter II, this should be a definite purchase.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.0