Our deep dive into Street Fighter film history has finally brought us to the year 2009, a very big year for the fighting game series. Street Fighter IV made its arcade debut In the summer of 2008, reviving the series with its first new entry in almost a decade. And this set the stage for a truly momentous home release in February 2009. Not only that, but a live-action movie would also be released in February 2009, titled Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. But this post isn’t about the infamous Legend of Chun-Li movie…that’s coming later.

When Street Fighter IV was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2009, there was a Collector's Edition that included some superfluous goodies. Having purchased the PS3 Collector's Edition myself, I distinctly remember receiving an incredibly ugly Ryu figurine and a Blu-ray disc for a new SF anime called Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind. And I still have those trinkets to this day! So before we get to more live-action SF cinema, we have one more anime to cover.

SFIV: The Ties That Bind is a 65-minute animated film that serves as a sort of prequel to the events of the game. It’s a Street Fighter amuse-bouche, if you will. The story focuses on Ryu and Ken again, with Chun-Li, Guile, Cammy, and Sakura in supporting roles. It also introduces two new characters from SFIV, Crimson Viper and Seth, the game’s final boss. Seth is a white android-looking dude with a yinyang belly, and he runs an organization named “S.I.N.” which—you’re gonna believe this—is involved in all sorts of nefarious activities.

Maybe calling your evil criminal organization “SIN” was a little too on the nose.

The animation in this film is decent enough, although it looks a bit cheap. It was apparently handled by Studio 4°C, but this is obviously no Tekkon Kinkreet. The visual style is very clean and sterile, with lineart my resembling Steamboy than any other SF adaptation, and generally lacking the punch of the previous SF animes. Music seems to be provided by Hideyuki Fukasawa, composer for the SFIV video game. So it would seem that this film is just using the game’s soundtrack for its score, which is actually not a bad move.

The actual plot of The Ties That Bind involves fighters from around the world being kidnapped and experimented on. Ryu becomes the primary target of this evil enterprise because of his potential power, and Ken Masters is targeted at one point as the best way to get to his friend. In the end, Ryu has to battle the evil mastermind of the conspiracy who came out to clash with him personally. And yes, if you’re thinking that sounds like the plot of SF2: The Animated Movie, you’d be right. This is basically a budget rehash of that movie.

And I say “budget rehash” because this anime is severely lacking in action. The first real fight of the movie doesn’t happen until 30+ minutes in, meaning the whole first half has almost no action at all. The fights we do get are not only few and far between, but also very short. Most of this movie is characters talking, with plenty of weirdly zoomed-in closeups. So if you like to see the camera zero in on anime eyes then you might actually enjoy this movie quite a bit.

It seems like the main reason for this movie to exist is to introduce the game’s new characters, and C.Viper definitely gets a good deal of screentime. Seth and S.I.N. are introduced as well, but they are so extremely similar to M. Bison and Shadaloo plotwise that their inclusions feel perfunctory. It’s funny to realize that SFIV introduced five new characters though—six, if you count Gouken—and only two are involved in the events of this movie. Technically Abel appears too, but it is the briefest of cameos at the every end, a closing tease. Chun-Li sees Abel walking towards her and Guile and…well, nothing. He has no dialogue or anything; you just see him for a second.

When C.Viper is on screen, the atmosphere is electric. (Sorry…I’ll show myself out.)

Now, I can’t really blame Capcom for only showcasing two of their new fighters in this prequel anime when the characters debuting in the game were so bad. Instead of a cool Mexican luchador, El Fuerte was made into a joke character; a man more interested in becoming a gourmet chef than a champion wrestler. Abel was a French grappler so bland and forgettable, Capcom immediately forgot he was supposed to be the new game’s protagonist character. And then there was Rufus, probably the single worst character design Capcom has ever rolled with in a fighting game. The less said about him, the better. Luckily neither El Fuerte or Rufus are anywhere to be seen in this movie.

Sakura appears in The Ties That Bind, presumably because she’s a fan favorite, but her inclusion is just unnecessary in my opinion. She doesn’t serve any function in the story that Cammy wouldn’t have sufficed for. In fact, it probably would have made more sense for C.Viper to beat up Sakura in order to upset Ryu than for her to injure Cammy—Ryu should have a closer relationship to Sakura, after all.

And it really bugs me that Sakura is still depicted as a high school student at this point. Look, I understand the sliding timescale used by comic books and the like. But Sakura was a high schooler in SFA, which takes place before SF2, and high school in Japan is only three years. So by the time of SFIV, she is either the oldest student in her school by far, or she graduated long ago and still wears the schoolgirl uniform. Timewise, it just doesn’t make sense that she could still be in high school.

Speaking of the fight with C.Viper and Cammy, Viper’s attacks on Cammy were weirdly suggestive. When Viper catches Cammy by the leg, I thought she was about to punch the British fighter in a very unsporting place. Then—after at least not slamming her in the fanny—Viper literally grabs Cammy’s breast to deliver an electric shock. Come on now folks, there’s no reason for that.

This movie actually gives us more screentime for Eliza, Ken’s girlfriend in SF2, now his wife. Ken is working all the time and there seems to be a rift growing between them. In fact, there’s a scene where Eliza tells Ken that he’s become a different person than the man she married. At that moment, it seemed like she came pretty close to telling Ken that he is actually in love with Ryu. However, she doesn’t quite say that part out loud.

We do find out by the end of the film that Eliza is pregnant. Ken and Eliza of course have a son in the games. His name is Mel and he shows up in SFIII and SFV. Apparently his first appearance was actually in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, which doesn’t make sense timewise, since it is the younger, SFA version Ken in that game. Man, Capcom really loves messing up a timeline! And, call me a softie, but I really liked Ken’s line about discovering the power in fighting for those you love. He says how he doesn’t need the Satsui no Hadou or anything else. That’s beautiful.

Speaking of good lines, I thought Seth’s villainous monologue about competition and the pursuit of power was pretty entertaining. I mean, it was abstract and melodramatic nonsense, but still good fun.

Ryu’s response was even better, where he once again explains why he fights. (Man, Ryu must be sick of answering this question over and over.) I especially liked the line “I’ll show you what true strength is! It is the courage to stand up in the face of evil and emerge victorious.”

And then, instead of using the Satsui no Hadou to defeat Seth, Ryu activates the Avatar state. It would seem that even Capcom watched Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Seth isn’t just a generic bad guy, he’s ugly too.

Some random thoughts:

M. Bison’s criminal organization is mentioned multiple times, and this time they properly call it “Shadaloo”, not “Shadowlaw” like in SF2: The Animated Movie.
Ryu’s connection to the Dark Hadou is once again a main plot point. However, this movie uses the malevolent force’s proper Japanese name instead, calling it the “Satsui no Hadou” (殺意の波動). This roughly translates to “wave of murderous intent”.
At one point Ryu appears to collapse from exhaustion in the middle of nowhere. A wolf…or maybe coyote…walks up to him, but seeing he isn’t dead yet, just waits. The next scene Ryu is waking up and discovering that the wolf has died, seemingly from starvation, having waited by Ryu for too long. It’s, uh, a very strange moment.
The climax of the movie takes place on a cruise ship, which is a fairly unique/weird venue for this kind of thing. SFIV does have a cruise ship stage, which I suppose is a connection to this movie.
A surprise cameo by Vega and Balrog draws a direct connection between S.I.N. and Shadaloo. Not that we needed it of course, given that this movie’s plot is just SF2: The Animated Movie once again with the serial numbers scratched off.
In the final scene, Ryu and Ken lean in and touch their foreheads together. At that point, I genuinely thought for a moment that they might kiss. Another opportunity missed.

The *Satsui no Hadou* ruins yet another seaside summer vacation.

In conclusion, I’m not sure how one should assess the merits of this anime. As a standalone OVA, Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind would be incredibly disappointing. It lacks much action, the story feels super derivative and inconsequential, and it doesn’t even give us much of the cinematic flavor of the video games. However, this animation was a bonus included in the game’s Collector’s Edition, not released as a standalone movie. It isn’t great, but I wouldn’t call it terrible.

Sure, I’ve only watched this anime twice now in the past 17 years, but I didn’t hate it. I just completely forgot it existed.