Saturday Night Showcase: Virtua Fighter (the anime)

I was going to go with an indie production for this week’s Showcase but I was so confused what was going on I couldn’t even finish it. So instead I went back to TMS’s official anime channel on YouTube for one my favorite anime I never see mentioned, even when I look for it on fan sites for the game. Virtua Fighter is an arcade fighting game series created by SEGA. Fighting games usually don’t have a lot of story besides the backstory so it’s open territory for making a story around. In the past I used it for a Friday Night Fight and it’s another comic I could have sworn I reviewed for “Yesterday’s” Comic but apparently I haven’t. It’s a good comic and I wish it had gotten to full series.

However, finding information on the Virtua Fighter anime in the past has been a struggle just to see it discussed. Not only is it a really good game (I have the PC port of the first game, the anime featuring characters from the first game and later cameos from the second) but it’s a TMS production. You’d think more people would have heard of it. Especially since it’s just a lot of fun.

The series follows Akira Yuki, who in this incarnation basically has Goku’s personality, and his friends as they deal with an international gang of martial arts bad guys. Akira searches for the eight stars, a symbol that shows his dedication to the martial arts. His quest for fame cost him this vision and now he’s on a quest to reclaim it. In our opening episodes he is drawn into Pai and her war with her father, and later episodes also add Jacky Bryant and his sister Sarah. If you know the game we see her before being brainwashed as well as her capture and alteration by the villain organization of the franchise. I’m also including the second episode because I want to make sure you guys see this show. Enjoy.

If you liked what you saw here then check out the full series. Here’s the playlist for the full 24 episodes. I have an incomplete collection of the series on VHS so I’m happy now I get to see how this series ends…if they dubbed the full series. I wonder why this isn’t discussed more often? Did they look at Akira’s picture in the game and picture a different personality? I don’t know, but I really like the show.

BONUS: I found out that while the theme music is the same the words may be different in Japanese. Unless the translation is wrong.