The Games-To-Anime Database

It should be common knowledge to most anime viewers that there tend to be anime adaptions of popular games from time to time. I've always enjoyed them myself, especially if done well. The first Street Fighter II animated movie still remains my favorite anime adaption (plus it even outdoes Advent Children in terms of fanservice. not counting chun-li's shower scene).

But it's hard to keep track of all the game-to-anime adaptions out there, especially the ones that haven't been released outside of Japan. That's why I've decided to make this topic. Post any or all of the game-to-anime adaptions you can find. That includes manga, too. Give any thoughts you might have, whether the anime remained faithful to the source material, but even more importantly, provide a torrent link if you can find one.

I'll get the ball rolling. Here's the details of a Super Mario Bros. anime.

http://smbis.nescentral.com/commentary/marioanime.htm







Right off the bat you can tell there are some changes. Luigi has blue colors instead of green, and Bowser is the size of a T-Rex (but then again, he always has been shifting sizes each game).

There's also a few Mario OVAs.

http://smbis.nescentral.com/commentary/marioanime2.htm

The art style is a lot closer to the games, although there's a few scenes that I'm sure Nintendo wouldn't approve of.





:eyebrow:

Regardless, I'd love to watch these episodes. Anyone who has a torrent handy, do share.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

They have that tape for rent at my local Blockbuster, but I heard it was pretty boring.

For the manga side, here are two notable game-to-manga adaptions.

1. Rival Schools

This is the only site where I've managed to find scans.

http://www.rivalschoolsnetwork.com/

And sadly, most of them are in french. But the art in this book is fantastic (especially compared to the awful art found in U-Don's latest series. God, what happened?). The stories also make me pine for an RS anime. Nothing beats a bunch of punky high school students beating the crap out of each other.

Also, it gives lots of exposure to the already awesome Akira. If anyone finds english scans please post them here.

2. Street Fighter: Sakura Ganbare

Another manga series I've been interested in. I remember finding some english scans of the first chapter off some fansite, but I've long lost the address. The only pics I can find now are from cammyfan.com.

http://www.cammyfan.com/Cammy/comic2...am-comic17.gif

http://www.cammyfan.com/Cammy/comic2...m-comic17b.gif

http://www.cammyfan.com/Cammy/comic2...m-comic17c.gif (I don't know what's more disturbing; Sakura thinking she could actually take Zangief on, or Zangief having no scruples about bodyslamming a teenage girl mercilessly. )

http://www.cammyfan.com/Cammy/comic2...m-comic17d.gif

http://www.cammyfan.com/Cammy/comic2...m-comic17e.gif

http://www.cammyfan.com/Cammy/comic2...m-comic17f.gif

Even though the U-Don series does a great job with the SF universe, I still want to check this series out, solely for the fact that it features a full fledged fight between Sakura and Karin (this manga is where she made her first appearance, predating SFA 3).

How ya doing, buddy?

Quote:

Should we list Disgaea right away as an example of how NOT to do a game to anime adaptation? Not only were the character designs horrible, the animation saturday morning cartoon quality, but the series also did away with pretty much every story detail that was so appealing in the game and I gave up after the first two episodes. I'm guessing if I had not enjoyed the game so much the anime might have been slightly more entertaining.

I've been wanting to ask about that. Is the series even still going? I wouldn't know based on how no one is talking about it? How many episodes have been shown so far, and has the series improved at all?

I'm too depressed to even think about this show. I honestly cannot believe they could screw up something like Disgaea. The game is so deeply rooted in anime rules and style that it should've been a perfect fit.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Other way around, Mega Man ends up in the kid's world, and starts learning about Japanese culture. It's half educational and half anime action, but it's all fun.

Here's the intro to the OVA series.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=b9nn1UO0-...%20man%20anime

Now for the tragic story behind the US cartoon. The OVA was originally a test of sorts to see if the same animation would work for the cartoon series. Unfortunately, Capcom USA rejected it, saying that Mega Man didn't look "cool enough". So they ditch the beautiful (and may I remind you, accurate) animation in favor of an american company, and you know how the end result turned out.

The worst part is that the commercials preceding the premiere of the US cartoon gave you the illusion that the series was anime-drawn. I have found the misleading commercial here.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NsjkfYWqw...%20man%20anime

You'll notice it features some gorgeous looking footage that never made it to the finished series (namely the army of Robot Masters, shoving each other just to get a shot at MM). Well the same company behind the OVA was hired to produce the stock animation that would repeat during the US cartoon. In other words, all the good looking parts, including the kickass intro.

When I first saw this intro, I was hopping up and down my bed, proclaiming this as the best cartoon ever.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VISRMhodb...%20man%20intro

But then the actual show started, and I was instead treated to a lame rehash of James Bond Jr, complete with a Rush that talked like Scooby Doo.

It's also sad to note that Mega Man X has never had an anime series, although it's enjoyed some awesome anime-made footage for the games. Here's the original Japanese intro for X4.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zExPsHLvz...%20man%20anime

I'll admit though that I prefer the USA opening, as the music meshes better with the footage.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Cns4ybFpC...%20man%20intro

And just for amusement, here's a well made fan commercial showing X4 as a series for Toonami.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8ScVyO5RQ...%20man%20anime

To complete the package, here are the commercials for the Mega Man Zero series. Beautiful animation that complements the beautiful character designs (and I still don't know who was in charge of the designs).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=I56JrVvNM...o%20commercial

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FhYodn6Ko...o%20commercial

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TOxJu-34k...o%20commercial

http://youtube.com/watch?v=M4I5JX21M...o%20commercial

And that's all for now.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Those are some nice books there (even if the Sakura covers sort of make it look like a hentai doujin), and the art definetely delivers, but don't sell U-DON's series so short. Even though the writing is a bit on the stale side, the artwork in the US comic series is fantastic, perfectly emulating the best of Street Fighter's official artwork. I still haven't checked out their Darkstalkers series, so I'm not sure if delivers the same kind of quality (I'm also curious if they've kept any of Morrigan and Lilith's raunchier innuendos).

But in this entry, I want to talk about the newest release of the first SF Anime movie.

http://dvd.ign.com/articles/716/716256p1.html

I purchased this from Best Buy the other day (a steal at 12 bucks), and gave the original Japanese version a look (having seen the english dub countless times).

First, the packaging. The outer box is alright, although I don't know why they put Ken on the front, as if he was the main lead. The inner cover also puts him on the front, but is a bit better since it tosses everyone else in for a group shot. However, the top left and right has uh, young Ryu and Chun-Li facing one another. Okay...

There's a short U-DON comic included, involving a quick story with Chun-Li and the Monitor Cyborgs that serves as a prequel to the movie. It creates a bit of a continuity error though, as it implies that Bison knew about Chun-Li's involvement early on, while the movie shows him being somewhat surprised later on.

Well despite the photoshopped cover and mildly interesting comic, the slick menu makes up for the packaging; a recreation of a classic player select screen, complete with an INSERT COIN message. Very slick, and it makes me smile every time it starts up.

The english and japanese versions of the movie are on seperate sides of the disc. While I normally prefer two discs rather than a flipside disc, it doesn't bother me too much. So I gave the Japanese version a look, to see if the original soundtrack and voices were better than the dub. While the voice acting is no better nor worse than the steallar english dub, two things stood out; Fei Long's Bruce Lee inpersonation was more convincing in the japanese version, and Blanka is played by a VA that does his own growls. This isn't a good thing, as it makes Blanka appear more as a wild monkey man than...well okay, that's techincally what he is, but it just made him less fearsome as a result.

The music definetely changed the feel of the movie, sounding more like music from the game (and some of it is, including Chun-Li's theme, Zangief's, the ending credits, and probably some more that I missed), and it made some of the quieter moments more poignant (the Ryu/Ken flashbacks). Still, there were some instances where I preferred the english soundtrack over the japanese one, namely the Chun-Li/Vega fight. The original music felt more like a thriller where the psycho killer tries to eviscerate the half-naked chick, but the KMFDM version made the whole fight kick more ass. Also, some of the vocal songs were typical J-Pop cheesiness, but the final song played during Ryu and Ken's fight with Bison definetely rocked.

Also, as promised, the Japanese version is indeed 100% uncut. Yes, you finally see Chun-Li's sexy (albeit muscular) rack and caboose, which is pretty surprising, as I thought Capcom USA was completely against the NA distribution of the complete shower scene. But it's here, and the anime sure did a good job in building up the moment. Also, oddly enough, the US side of the disc also keeps Chun-Li's boobs, but not her butt. I don't get it. But forget about the nudity, Ryu actually drops an F-bomb in the japanese dub!

Speaking of the dialogue, Manga keeps the original names for Vega, Bison and Balrog. Some of the original dialogue also puts more things in perspective and makes some scenes less cheesy (they cut down on Guile's patrionism, and Ken's line in the first flashback leans more towards him and Ryu having a real battle, rather than the dub where he urges Ryu that they'll one day have to use their skills to defend themsevles). The plot to use Ken to assasinate the US president is also made much clearer in the original dialogue, although you still don't know who Jaha is (was he the martial artist brainwashed to kill the old guy, or was he the target?). Another interesting change in dialogue is Vega/Balrog's fate; in the english dub, they made his fate after the Chun-Li battle uncertain, while the japanese dub confirms that he was put in custody, and facing the death penalty. I do wish there was an option to watch the movie with text subtitles but not the song subtitles. The combination of the two takes up a bit of the action.

The Japanese version also has a few extra frames that were cut from the US version, for reasons unknown (small bits like Bison and Balrog entering the plane for the final battle, etc), but both are presented in widescreen, making it that much easier to spot Akuma in Calcutta.

So while all is said and done, does the movie still hold up? Absolutely. I don't think there has been a single anime that I have watched more times than the original Street Fighter 2 movie. The movie has been one of the most influential properties for both the anime (a host of videogame knockoffs following it) and videogame medium (Street Fighter Alpha would've never existed without this movie). It has succeeded where other adaptions (including recent disappointments like the latest Alpha OVA) failed; it doesn't try to get too preachy or pull off any original bullshit; it gets right to the point and unloads all the SF characters available and puts them in one kickass fight after another.

It's almost impossible to pick a favorite moment; the bloody Shoryuken, the recreation of Super SF2's opening, the badass debut of all 4 Shadowloo masters at once, Ryu catching Fei Long's foot with his elbow and knee, Ryu then breaking Fei Long's arm, Honda's sumownage, the origin of Ryu's headband, the buckles in Bison's fancy shoes, Ken's ridiculously hot fiance, Ryu kicking (barefoot!) through a car windshield, Zangief pointing (wreslter style) to Balrog, Balrog's reaction, Dee Jay's '90s gangsta attitude, Chun-Li hitting Vega with a lamp AND a couch, Chun-Li messing up Vega's face, Chun-Li's lightning kicking Vega right through a wall, Bison's anime-overlord moves, Balrog's cross eyes, Bison's enormous grin, Ryu landing (in slick slow motion) a series of punishing blows on Bison, and the final Double Hadoken that finally closes the movie. Oh, and the utterly ridiculous scene that shortly follows the credits (even funnier in the Japanese version. "Teaser!").

In short, the SF anime movie isn't just the best videogame-to-anime there is, it's one of the best martial arts movies of all time.

Oh, and make sure you watch the original japanese credits all the way to the end. The final message will either crack you up or horrify you with as a message of impeding doom. I can't imagine how the Japanese felt after experiencing such an awesome movie, than being subjected to that atrocity the following Spring.

Hooray, Hooray for the Street Fighter.


How ya doing, buddy?