Once more, like in the previous post, Capcom has a knack for building much publicity over their products. Not taking jabs at Yoshinori Ono, the producer of the Street Fighter IV series and soon to come Street Fighter X Tekken, but this is clearly what people think in regards to spinoff games, OVAs and stuff. Despite this, they continue with Super Street Fighter IV, and much like in post 87 covering Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind, there was, to my surprise, an OVA attached to the upgrade as well.
Shorter in length as the sibling OVA before it, you would expect that it lacks any key additions. Well, a bit of a heads up before we get into that. Between Street Fighter IV to Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (the latest entry), the story changed quite a bit, with the addition of new and returning characters from the franchise: some significant, others just to be there, I guess. Canon-wise, it's hard to say if SSFIV really means anything. I mean, SFIV is the preceding chapter to the Street Fighter III series, and even with the inclusion of characters Yun, Yang, Ibuki, Dudley (all from SFIII: New Generation), and Makoto (from SFIII Third Strike: Fight for the Future), it's very doubtful that their placement in SFIV bears any significance storywise, and somewhat doesn't show in the SFIII games.
That said, along with the game's story, the OVA has a different tale to tell also. While the mainstay antagonists are Shadowloo's S.I.N. Organization and it's leader Seth, there appears a new antagonist, who makes her debut in the game as well. Carrying a Feng Shui Engine in her left eye (akin to Seth's Tanden engine in his torso) the Korean fighter Juri Han causes torment for her former allies, who defected from S.I.N. Doing so, however, endangered the lives of many, all to display the power of the small engine, which was still in the prototype stage. Encountering her was Chun-Li, who didn't last too long against her, and would have been killed, had Juri not spotted Cammy White and Guile approaching. After seeing the damage Chun-Li sustained, the two set out to the conglomerate Sonsa, Juri's next target. Under orders from Seth, she proceeds to beat the pulp out of Bison's brainwashed dolls (remember Juli and Juni from Street Fighter Alpha, anyone?), which upsets the former Killer Bee Cammy, having been one of them herself, and Guile gets in on the action as well. Just who is this Juri Han? Is she merely a pawn of Seth's, or is she hiding other motives like that eye of hers?
The animation itself isn't very long. Someone who voiced their thought on the matter called it a 30+ minute animation with what looks as if merely 10 minutes of work was placed on it. To add to this, it had fewer characters involved, with Ryu, Sakura, and Ken Masters in particular being absent. That aside, the team that created The Ties That Bind, and the animated/still cutscenes for each character in all 3 games worked on this title and this was the last animation that bore Keiji Inafune's name as the executive producer, due to him leaving Capcom afterwards. Studio 4°C and Tatsunoko were absent from this OVA, with production done by Capcom and Gonzo Studio, who did titles like Basilisk and New Fist of the North Star. Officially, it doesn't bear a surname like it's sibling OVA, and wasn't released officially for the US, at least not to my knowledge. I could only assume that in regions like Asia, it was another bonus downloadable that came with SSFIV Collector's Edition, as opposed to a separate disc when SFIV was first released here in the states. Given that bit of info, it's safe to say that the cast of the Japanese language of the game took part, with additional voices for various characters, among which Juli and Juni being voiced by Sachiko Kojima and Haruka Kimura respectively. Needless to say, there was no English VAs for this piece at all, since it wasn't released for here, let alone dubbed.
While it is short, it served its purpose just like its sibling: as a backstory to the game's plot, though essentially there isn't THAT much of a difference in transition between the games. I'll say a 6 or 7 of 10, since it was made as a teaser to the game, save for it being shorter than the former.
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