BATTLE FIGHTERS GAROU DENSETSU

DESCRIPTION

CAST

OVA ActionBattle Fighters Garou Densetsu 2

REVIEWS

• 

  MegaTheRealOne

  30/100
  Had the Potential, But Not the Runtime

  (Originally reviewed on Letterboxd)

  How did Joe heal from a sniper bullet to the shoulder so quickly? I don't care how strong he is, that would fuck him up quite a bit.

  Out of all the fighting game franchises out there, Fatal Fury seems to be one of the least discussed from what I have seen online. Sure, it may have been the series to launch SNK into the fighting game scene, which they would then proceed to milk for all their worth for many years to come, but it has been outshined since not just by its various competitors like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, but also by SNK themselves, completely replacing it with The King of Fighters after only 8 years. With that being said, for the time it was around, Fatal Fury did have quite the lineup of games under its belt, getting at least one new entry every year or so until 1999, and even now, it is finally being brought back with an all new title, so it is clear that people still care about this series, despite how it has been treated over the years. In addition to all the games though, there have also been plenty of pieces of spin-off media for the series as well, such as manga, soundtrack recordings, drama CDs, and of course, movie adaptations, starting with the 1992 TV special, Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf.

  In terms of my experience with Fatal Fury, I have only played through the first two games in the series, and I do plan on checking out the rest of the series later down the road. For what I have played though, I liked it enough, and I did understand plenty about the characters, as well as what was going on, so since this special was based on the first of these games, I was able to go in knowing fully well as to what I would probably get. So, after checking it out, I can say that I... kinda like it, but it isn't really all that good. For what we did get here, it is good enough, and would probably satisfy fans of the original game, but this was begging to have a little more meat on its bones, and you can clearly see that when you watch it.

  The story pretty much is the same as the original game, except with a little more depth given, which is nice to see, the characters, again, mostly stem from the game, and in this film, they are portrayed as you would expect, with them having no distinct personalities amongst each other, except one guy is evil and another guy is old, and as for the original characters, they are... fine, I guess, but they also don't really have any unique traits about them, the voice acting is hilariously awful, with there being plenty of that anime cheese to be seen here, as well as plenty pieces of line delivery that had me laughing rather then what was originally intended, the animation is... fine, with it looking impressive in places, but also looking pretty cheap in other places, and there are plenty of points where you can't quite tell what is going on, the fighting is alright, but there definitely felt like there should've been more in there, and it ends on the kind of note you would expect this to end on.

  Undeniably, the biggest issue this special carries is its runtime. This special only lasts for 45 minutes, and in this 45 minutes, they try to squeeze in the entirety of the plot of the original game, along with some extra stuff, and as you can tell, it doesn't work out well at all. Granted, the plot isn't all that complicated, and for what we got here, it certainly could've been a lot worse, but again, you can tell this special is BEGGING for more meat on its bones, as there is little time to develop any of the characters, and you feel no impact at all from anything that happens here. Thankfully, with the later specials and movies to come from this series, they do extend the runtime quite a bit, so this doesn't become an issue for later installments, but here, it completely ruins what could have been an otherwise good romp in this long-forgotten series from SNK.

  Overall, despite some good animation here and there, as well as enough being there to please die-hard fans of the original game, this is a pretty rushed and generic attempt at trying to cash in on the success of the original Fatal Fury, and it doesn't warrant watching whatsoever unless you wanna see these characters in action in an anime. I would recommend it for die-hard fans of Fatal Fury, as they would probably like it more then others, but for casual fans like myself, or for those who don't know the series whatsoever, then there is no reason to take the time out of your day to watch it. But then again, it is still just 45 minutes, so who knows, maybe you can take the time out of your day to watch it. Not like you have anything better to do.

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