Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf is a TV movie anime that is based on the first Fatal Fury video game by SNK, made in 1991. The movie was made in 1992, a year after the game's release, and was directed by Hiroshi Fukutomi. Now before I tell you my review of this movie as well as it's sequels which I will be reviewing, I need to tell you on how the Fatal Fury series got started. So, get ready for a history lesson.
Fatal Fury was the first fighting game franchise created by SNK in 1991 on their system, the SNK NeoGeo. But that wasn't the first game that SNK put into that system and nor, it didn't start off very strong when it first came out in 1990. It first started out with crappy games like Blue's Journey and Ninja Combat. So you were probably thinking that SNK was going to give up hope on their system, well think again. It all started when a company called Capcom released the classic Street Fighter II in 1991. That game change everything on how previous fighting games were like before as well as games in general. Because of the success of Street Fighter II, tons of gaming companies wanted to join the wagon of fighting games so that they could rival against Capcom. That's when Fatal Fury was born. It was successful for it's time, because it beat out a lot of the most of the terrible games that were on their system. But it still remains a cult classic to most hardcore gamers, because both the series and the system didn't really brought out to the masses, unlike other 16bit systems like the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. But since the first game was getting a little bit of a popularity, a studio called NAS decided to make an anime version of the first game and this is where my review starts.
The movie starts off when young Terry Bogard and his brother Andy were out with their father, Jeff Bogard and their master, Tung Fu Rue. Jeff was distracted by homeless kids and a pretty flower girl named Lily, who was part of an attempt on his life by four attackers that work with the main villian of the series, Geese Howard. So, Jeff beats out 3 of those men, but one of them stabbed Jeff in the chest with a knife. So, he is confronted with Geese himself, but Jeff lost the battle and Geese ends up murdering him. Now, Tung has made a promise to both Bogards that they would become stronger men to Punish Geese in ten years. So ten years have past and we have seen Terry all grown up ( and so does Andy, but you won't encounter him until around the middle length of the flim.) Terry was on his way to a local bar in the city of Southtown, when he encounters the flower girl Lily, who was in the scene of the murder ot Terry and Andy's father. After a fight scene, Terry mets the other main character of both this movie and the first game, Joe Higashi, a champion Muay Thai kickboxer and friend and rival of Andy. Joe has arrived from Southtown to enter a tournament called the King of Fighters tournament and Terry decides to join because he feels he is going to meet Andy in the tournament. I can't give too much away from the story because I will end up spoiling the entire flim. But on how I feel about the game's plot transfered into an anime, I think it's very well done. I think it's ranked up with Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and Street Fighter II: V, as having an anime that either sticks very well to the original plot of the actual game. The one thing I didn't like in terms of how the plot is set up in the movie, I wasn't really impressed of the final showdown between Geese and Terry at the end of the movie. It was very short and it didn't bring a lot of excitement to the final battle.
You will encounter characters in this anime that were in the first game. Besides Terry Bogard, Andy, Joe, Geese and Tung Fu Rue. You will also encounter Billy Kane, Raiden, Richard Meyer, Duck King and Hwa Jai. The main characters are portrayed very well in this movie. I have a minor issue with Andy though. The people that made this anime really messed up on his hair. He is a blonde in the first game, while he is gray in this movie. I have mixed reactions on the supporting characters that were in the first game. Their appearances in this movie are messed up, compared to how they look in the games. For example, Duck King wears a yellow basketball shirt with purple baggy pants and has a yellow afro in the first game. In the anime version however, he wears a yellow shirt just in the game, but the anime version is a bit darker. He wears brown baggy pants and has a red-oranger type afro. Another example is Richard Meyer. In the game, Richard Meyer has a brown beard and brown hair. And his pants were light blue with a little bit of red and green. In the anime, his pants are black and white and despite his appearance, he looks like an old man. Raiden, Geese, Tung Fu Rue and Hwa Jai also has messed up appearances, but I'm not going to compare their appearances in this movie and the game, because I only wanted to bring in 2 examples. What I can say however is they got Billy Kane's appearance right in the anime. He does look a lot like on how he was in the games. And I also have a minor issue with Geese Howard and that's his Renpuken. Now, the Renpuken is an attack of his where he launches blue waves from the floor and will go straight at you. In the game, the way he activates his Renpuken is when he moves his arm back and then moves it forward fast enough, in order to unleash his attack. In the anime, he activates his Renpuken by opening his hand. That's it. I don't understand why the developers of this movie didn't put his original move for his attack, but it really bothers on how he launches the Renpuken by opening his hand. I really can't get over it. But with those issues aside, many of the characters are portrayed very well and half of the character's appearances do fit well in the anime just like how they were in the first game.
The artstyle is pretty good, for an anime released in the early 90's. The animation is great. It never gets messed up during the action scenes and overall, it's pretty good in the movie. I watched the english dub version and the english voice acting. Terry Bogard is voiced by Mark Hildreth, who might know him as Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing and Eric from the anime ova, The Humanoid. Billy Kane is voiced by Paul Dobson, who might know him in a lot of animes like as Mr. Willy in Mega Man NT Warrior, Shion from Please Save My Earth, Happosai from Ranma 1/2 and Richard Vincent in the Soultaker. Raiden is voiced by Robert O. Smith, who does Sagat in the american Street Fighter cartoon show and Dr. Watson in the Humanoid. Geese Howard is voiced by Ward Perry, who voiced as Ryu Jose in Mobile Suit Gundam and Governor Proud in The Humanoid. Lily is voiced by Willow Johnson, who does Ruby Moon in Cardcaptor Sakura, Kikyo in Inuyasha, Lalah Sune in Mobile Suit Gundam and Kasumi Tendo in Ranma 1/2. And I also recognized the actor that plays young Terry and that's Christopher Turner, who did Rin Kobayashi in Please Save My Earth. The music is good in this movie, although it's not entirely memorable. It still won't keep you bored in this movie.
Overall, Legend of the Hungry Wolf is a great anime movie that's fans of the first game would really enjoy. It does have problems, but those problems don't really kill this movie. But as I said, the first Fatal Fury is worth checking out if you are a diehard fan of Fatal Fury. Even if you are not familiar with Fatal Fury, I would still check this anime out.
8.5 out of 10
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