GAROU DENSETSU: THE MOTION PICTURE

DESCRIPTION

CAST

OVA ActionBattle Fighters Garou Densetsu 2
ONA ActionKOF XV: Special Animated Short

REVIEWS

• 

  MegaTheRealOne

  65/100
  Yep, That Sure Was The Fatal Fury Motion Picture

  (Originally Reviewed on Letterboxd)

  You know, I didn't believe him at first, but it does seem that every woman that tries to get with Terry Bogard ends up dying horribly in some way. That sucks for all parties involved.

  Over half a year ago, seemingly out of nowhere, I decided to watch the two animated Fatal Fury TV specials that aired back in the early 90s, and I had an.... interesting time with them. The first of these specials, Legend of the Hungry Wolf, could've been a decent, albeit cheesy special for the time if it wasn't sabotaged by its 45 minute runtime, along with several other traits that dragged it down, but on the other hand, the second special, The New Battle, was a definite improvement in many ways, being much more fun and exciting, with the runtime allowing the story to be more fully told and fleshed out, even if Terry fucking sucks in the special, but whatever. It has been eight months since I did cover those specials though, and there is one final chapter of this saga that I have been ignoring for quite some time now for no reason, so I figure it is about time we end our time with this franchise with Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture.

  Going into this movie, I was actually somewhat nervous for what I was going to get. On one hand, I figured it was going to be better then the TV specials, given how this is an actual full, theatrical film, but at the same time, I wasn't quite sure if it was gonna fully improve on what had come before it. Not to mention, since it has been so long since I last watched those specials, I was afraid I wasn't gonna end up liking what I saw here because of that. However, thankfully, that didn't end up being too much of a factor here, as I would say that this is a good conclusion to this animated Fatal Fury saga. It does still carry a lot of the same issues the specials had, and it doesn't try to be anything too special, but for what it is, it manages to be entertaining enough for both fans and casual audience members to where I can let it slide.

  The story, this time around, is completely original, not adapting from any game in the Fatal Fury series, and because of that, it ends up being... pretty generic, but I wouldn't say it is entirely bad, so there ya go, the returning characters are pretty much the same as before, so if you liked them in the previous specials, then you will like them here, and the new characters they introduce also fill the role of being extremely generic and unmemorable, but never at all hate-able, the voice acting is still pretty bad, having plenty of instances of rushed and forced dialogue, along with performances that just don't feel like they are putting in any effort whatsoever, the animation is a definite improvement from what we had before, having much more money and effort put into it with the characters designs, the movements, and the environments, but it still can be pretty rough around the edges, which is understandable for the time it came out, the fights are pretty good here, with a good amount of them having plenty of action for those that are looking for it, even if it can be disorienting at times, and the emotional moments, which there are quite a few of, don't really hit you as hard as you would hope they would, but that could be just because of how long it has been since I watched those specials.

  Speaking of which, if there is one problem that I could say this film has, it's that to fully understand every single aspect of it, while also being able to get a full emotional reaction out of it, you need to have watched the TV specials beforehand. That in itself doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but considering that this movie is just called The Motion Picture and not something like Fatal Fury 3, I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking that this was something separate from what came beforehand, and thus, they would go in confused. Aside from that though, the only other real complaint that I would have about this movie is that it just kinda... ends, with no real conclusion to anything. They end up defeating the bad guy, look at the rubble of where they fought, say something along the lines of "Well, that ends that, I guess", and then they leave and it cuts to credits. It is pretty abrupt, even if you don't really need much else from these guys, but it would've been nice to at least get a proper send-off from the crew before it did fade to black. Oh well.

  Overall, despite its abrupt resolution and its requirement to watch the specials that came before it, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture was a decent way to end off this little animated Fatal Fury saga, giving us another action-packed romp with these characters that doesn't do much from what we had before, but it will still entertain fans and general audience members nonetheless. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the previous two specials, as well as those who are big fans of Fatal Fury in general, because while this wouldn't give you everything you want for a big-screen adaptation of these characters, it still feels fun and action-packed enough to where you won't feel disappointed. But anyway, with all of that out of the way, this officially concludes this long wait for me to finally finish this series........ finally feels good to get that off my back. Now I will just wait for the next series that I will eventually start, drop for a year, and come back to randomly. I can't wait!

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• MOVIE

  ActionStreet Fighter II: The Movie
• MOVIE

  AdventureSAMURAI SPIRITS: Haten Gouma no Shou
• OVA

  AdventureBattle Spirits: Ryuuko no Ken
• OVA

  AdventureStreet Fighter ZERO: Generations
• OVA

  ActionChoujin Gakuen Gowcaizer: THE VOLTAGE FIGHTERS
• OVA

  ActionVampire Hunter
• OVA

  ActionToushinden