Wow, was I disappointed in this movie. I really really wanted to like it, as I am a hardcore Street Fighter fan. This movie had so much potential that it never reaches... I almost feel like the creators made this movie strictly with the thought that it would do well just because of the SF name, and didn't care about the quality.
The artwork and animation is very substandard for an anime, and can't even come close to comparing to SF Alpha the movie. In fact, when I first saw Ryu, I wasn't even sure if it was Ryu that I was looking at. I quickly picked up that it was him based on his actions, but I should be able to tell who Ryu is right away, considering how much I love SF plus he is my favorite character. I don't understand why the animators changed the character design from SF Alpha the movie, especially considering that this is SF ALPHA Generations. SF Alpha the movie had very good character art, and the characters looked nearly identical to their video game counterparts. Akuma* looked much more menacing in Street Fighter Alpha the movie.
Another weakness in this anime is that it revolves nearly exclusively around Ryu and Akuma. The only other Alpha characters that are in this are Sakura and Ken. And even though Ken is a very important character in the SF universe, he has a smaller role than Sakura does... in fact, his role is so small, it might as well just be a glorified cameo appearance.
Not to give away any details, but Ryu is encountered by a mysterious old man who challenges Ryu to a fight. Ryu is defeated rather easily... and only one question comes to mind at this point, "If Ryu can't even defeat this old man, then how in the world is he supposed to take on Akuma, the most powerful character in the SF universe?" Well, Ryu supposedly trains at this old man's house, we get about 1 minute's worth of him training... and I suppose that is supposed to be enough to imply that he got stronger than the old man and can now take on Akuma.
If all else weren't bad enough, the fight between Ryu and Akuma seems mindless. They just seem to blindly throw ki attacks at each other to see who can topple who. There doesn't seem to be any real rationality in why they are doing what they are doing. Did the animators think this would make them appear to be super powerful? If they did, then they failed miserabely. Because at no point in this movie, did either Ryu or Akuma do anything to make me believe they are the two most powerful SF characters, which they are supposed to be.
The voice dubbing is pretty bad... it's not as bad as SF 2 the Animated Movie's was, but it isn't nearly as good as SF Alpha the movie's was. By the way, this anime seems very rush as it is only about 45 minutes long.
All I can say is that this movie and story had so much potential. I almost don't even want to consider it a SF movie... oh by the way, for those of you who have seen SF Alpha the movie, but not this, I want to say that this movie is NOT a continuation of that movie. I bring this up because in SF Alpha the movie, we are left with a seen of Ryu and Akuma meeting face to face, and then they are about to engage in combat before the movie end... this is not where Generations picks up... I wish it were, because anything would be better than this.
So in short: Low quality art/animation, only four Alpha characters, mindless fighting, and bad voice dubbing... and the topper for me, I couldn't even tell you who won the fight between Ryu and Akuma if I wanted to... you'll have to see the movie for yourself to know what I mean about that.
Hopefully the next time a SF anime is made, the creators will actually put in some type of effort to make it a worthwhile purchase.
*In Generations Akuma is called by his Japanese name, "Gouki". I have no idea why the English dubbers kept his Japanese name, instead of changing it to Akuma... you'd think they would since in SF Alpha they called him Akuma. Probably just another piece of evidence that they put absolutely zero thought into this movie.
