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DVD Review: Fatal Fury : Legend of the Hungry Wolf |
Many of you might have read my previous reviews concerning the legendary Fatal Fury fighting game series. I didn’t give them particularly high scores, but I’ve always had a profound respect for it in general due to the characters. The games are more iconic than anything else, and thats why I think most of us enjoyed them. For the most part, the games were really about playing with these outrageous characters, that with time became more and more adept at fighting. Or, to just cut the foreplay and just say it, SNK became better at crafting the genre they were placed in (in my opinion, Fatal Fury 3 was when the series finally became “good” in terms of playability). These characters were just so well conceived that they survived a rocky beginning, and lived on to see their franchise finally become something worthy.
So if Terry, Andy, Joe and Geese were powerful enough to survive through that thanks to the sheer originality of their design, then what stood next? The obvious would be a movie.
This anime is “Fatal Fury : Legend of the Hungry Wolf”. An OAV (Original Animated Video) that would span two sequels. Thankfully, Viz Video has the first two OVAs featured on one DVD entitled Fatal Fury Double Impact (SF3!!!!1). So now that all two of you who never heard of Fatal Fury have been introduced, let me tell you in an extremely biased manner about how great this movie is, despite being the weakest of the trilogy.
It starts off with a couple of hardcore ninjas stealing the sacred scrolls of Hakkyokuseiken, a powerful martial art for the benefit of Geese Howard, Southtown crime lord and all around evil guy. Flash to Jeff Bogard, father to Terry and Andy (though not by blood, they’re adopted) taking a stroll in a park. A green haired girl called Lily diverts his attention by selling him flowers and assorted crap in a basket, while a bunch of Blues Brothers goons stab him the back (how Dan Ackroyd could have influenced the Japanese that much I’ll never know). This is just essentially the setup to the Fatal Fury story. In fact if you compare this with the intro to Fatal Fury Wild Ambition, the origins are pretty similar, so it is as faithful as it gets. Anyway, these goons were sent by a young Geese Howard, out of lust for revenge since Jeff was chosen to learn the secrets of ‘’Hakkyokuseiken'’ rather than him, because Geese was ruled by his emotions. So Geese gets his pie and eats it too.
After the burial, Tung Fu Rue sends the Bogard brothers on a journey of self-training and self-discovery, so that they may reunite at their Father’s tomb ten years later, so that one of them may learn the secret maneuvers of the Hakkyokuseiken style. Terry Bogard meets the incredible human noise-maker along the way, the incorrigible and absolutely best thing about the trilogy, Joe Higashi. Their introduction to each other? “I’m Joe, I’ve got some whiskey back at my place.” He’s the best thing I’ve ever seen animated, and as the series progresses, the crap that spews forth from his mouth is way up there with stuff that Bruce Campbell could have said. Together they form a trio of fighting fury intent on stopping Geese Howard. To do so, they enter a tournament called The King of Fighters (which is the closest we’ll ever come to seeing a KOF anime, sadly). But Terry has fallen in love with a grown up Lily, and Geese kills her simply to tick off Terry. That’s just how badass Geese is, and more proof that he is indeed one of the best villains ever to grace the legacy of video game history. The movie itself then proceeds to a few choice battles against Fatal Fury characters such as Raiden, Billy Kane and Richard Meyer. When an attempt at assasinating Terry and Andy goes awry at the tourny thanks to jittery Joe, the Lone Wolves escape, but not without Tung Fu Rue getting mortally injured by Billy Kane’s fake English accent.
Tung Fu Rue decides before he dies to give Terry the secret of the Hakkyokuseiken Hurricane punch, a move I don’t recall seeing in any version of the games. An intriguing comment is made as to why Andy wasn’t chosen : Tung Fu Rue insinuates that Andy, much like Geese, is ruled by his emotions, and is unfit to be revealed the secrets. But the mind doesn’t wander for long as any blood connections between Geese and Andy (or Terry for that matter) are just far-fetched horse shit. Besides, they gave Andy blue hair in this anime for some reason, but in the sequels and even the cover, he has blonde hair. I blame this on sabotage, probably a rogue Capcom ninja operative.
However, this first chapter comes to a rather short-lived climax. The final battle between Terry and Geese is over in the blink of an eye. The vigilant viewer will notice Geese fights while wearing a rolex. What a badass with class.
Technically speaking, the animation is the bare minimum. You don’t get any flamboyant special effects or anything, and the style might not be to everyone’s liking. Director and character designer Masami Obari brought this anime to life, and though everyone looks “bishonen” (really pretty men in that girly Japanese macho way) it could be said that SNK always designed their characters like that in the first place (Iori plz). Action scenes show great exuberance and energy though, so it works out all right. The music is surprisingly decent, though I’d love to get my hands on the soundtrack itself to give it a more in depth listening. I also love the fact that it has a very J-Pop-ish ending song, with some really neat animation of Terry on a boat leaving Southtown. It all ends with a “To be continued!” message at the end, and you can of course expect me to follow up my investigation of the Fatal Fury trilogy.
Special features include English and Japanese dubs, which I’d like to comment on. Many of you purists (fags) insist that anything but the Japanese tracks must be listened to. I’m calling you meatheads out. All those unwashed masses of the Love Hina School of Japanese Dubbing Superiority listen carefully : Japanese dubs can sometimes be worthless trash. This OVA is a perfect example. Alot of characters’ voices are mismatched, often making it a horrible ordeal to listen to in Nipponese. Joe for example has this overly stern voice, when we all know he’s a screeching howler monkey! In english dubbing, he may not have a screeching voice, but its alot more suitable. Besides, the piss-poor translation crew has inavertedly created some truly inspired dialogue. Once again, I quote the infallible Joe Higashi (commenting here on Terry’s stance) : “Solid… like a tree or something”. Joe Higashi is indeed a being of higher intellectual capacity. We just don’t know it yet.
Also included on this disc are character profiles, which is some sketch book art, which contains a small easter egg leading to some scene with Raiden that was left out for some reason. I think I saw it some time ago, but I really can’t remember anymore how I accessed it nor can I find the pertinent info on the net. Why am I mentioning this? Because the road to the backspace button is a long and hard one. (Haha).
Now, I don’t know if I’ve done more harm then good describing this OVA, so I’ll just recap to be sure I’ve gotten some kind of point or moral out of this thing. This first OVA gets it right in my opinion. It gives us the Bogard backstory with all the fat trimmed out. Its the bare essentials that we need to know. Unfortunetely, that means that Geese’s presence gets severly diminished, and that the action is a lot more condensed. But the way I see it, its as good a way of sparking your interest as any. If it was long and flawed, they would have risked putting off people from wanting to see more. But in this case, its short enough to leave you wanting more, so the sequels are a welcome continuation of a great ongoing story.
This just in! Thanks to : http://www.gamewinners.com/ To access the deleted scene I was talking about just : Select the “Extras” option at the main menu. Highlight Terry’s eye and press Enter to view a scene featuring Joe Higashi fighting Big Bear.
