LXXXVIII: "Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind"

I was taken in when I got my hands on the Street Fighter IV series. It played similar to Street Fighter II, while adding some unique things. Even as of now, a company has worked on the animated story scenes for the games, up to it's latest installment, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. However, this is not what this post is about, well, not entirely. This post regards the OAV animation dealing with the series, titled Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind. Released as part of the game's Collectors Edition, this feature was created by Studio 4°C, the same people behind the prologue and ending animations for the characters' Arcade story.

The Ties That Bind pretty much gives you an insight of the new villain, Seth, and the subsidiary of Shadowlaw he runs, named S.I.N. This has drawn the attention of many fighters, especially Delta Red's Cammy White, Interpol's Chun-li and U.S. Military's Guile. Ken Masters is involved because of the kidnapping of his wife Eliza (married after Street Fighter II) As for Ryu, well, trouble finds him, as Seth is interested with his Satsui no Hadou (the same power Akuma tries to awaken within him.) To this end, another newcomer, named Crimson Viper, tails him and tries to coax Ryu into unleashing it, even going as far to dismantle Cammy, who intervenes.

There isn't really much to say about the feature, while it does have characters from the game it's based from. Canon wise, it's hard to call, though it is safe to say that, according to Capcom, this series and the feature was after Street Fighter II, and precedes Street Fighter III. Four familiar names are seen as the English voices for the cast, both in the feature as well as in-game. First we have Kyle Hebert (the voice of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT's adult Son Gohan) as Ryu. The next two are names we should all be familiar with by now: Laura Bailey (voice of Pokemon's Ash Ketchum and Kodocha's Sana Kurata) as Chun-Li, and Michelle Ruff (voice of Arcuied Brunestud of Type Moon's Lunar Legend Tsukihime) as C. Viper. Our last familiar name is Reuben Langdon (who is known for the role of Dante of Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, as well as the games DMC3 and DMC4) as Ken Masters. The last voice role I will cover, because I don't think I've mentioned this guy at all before, is Michael McConnohie. He voiced Michael Seebach/ Schwartzwald in The Big O, and in this feature and the game, he voices the antagonist Seth. While this was never televised, it is licensed officially by Capcom, and while Studio 4°C was the primary credited studio, others, such as GONZO and Tatsunoko Productions were also involved for the in-between animation.

Good luck finding the copies now, but if you managed to grab that disc on either DVD or Blu-Ray with the according game, thumbs up to you. I thought it was pretty decent myself (in a good way), so Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind scores an 7.8 of 10