Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture is the third and final anime movie that is based on the Fatal Fury series. This movie was released in 1994 and was directed by Masami Obari. Unlike the last two movies, this movie does not follow the plot of any particular game in the series. This movie has a original plot that works extremely well in this movie. It's kinda like Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, but better. The story starts off when one of the characters of the series, Cheng Sinzan, discovered a piece of an armour in Alexandria, Egypt that is part of the Armour of Mars. However, three powerful beings attacked Cheng, but Cheng escaped from them. Then, that was Cheng encounter the leader that the 3 beings work for, Laocorn.
We then moved to from Egypt to Japan, where we see Joe Higashi doing a celebration of his victory against Hwa Jai. Terry Bogard, his brother Andy and Mai entered the party to celebrate Joe's victory. At the same time, a girl named Sulia is being chased by Cyber men that work for Laocorn. One of the cyber men, who turns out to be Cheng, enters the party and was defeated by Kim Kaphwan. So, Sulia introduces herself to Terry, Andy, Joe and Mai and she explains on what's going on. Apparently, Sulia is Laocron's sister and both of them are linked. Laocorn is on a search to find all 6 pieces of the armour. If he finds all of them, he becomes a god. Sulia askes our 4 heroes to see if they could help Sulia to stop her brother before things go bad. The 4 fighters accepted it and were on a search to find the last 3 pieces of the armour, since Laocorn found the first 3 pieces.
This is, in my opinion, the best Fatal Fury movie ever. I think the original plot worked so well in this movie. It's not too cliche or anything. It's something new and original that hasn't been done in most animes that's based on a video game franchise. I love the story a lot and it's really one of the highlights. A couple of flaws I have with this movie is there are some fan service that gets in the way of the movie. You will see Mai's boobs giggle one or two times and there is a scene where Mai wears her panties and even seeing Joe's own underwear as a bathing suit. And also, I felt the short scene where they show Geese Howard was pretty useless because Geese doesn't play any major role in this movie. I just think that little scene of him was so pointless.
Some characters from the last 2 movies are back and there are a couple of newer ones added in for good measure. I already mentioned Terry, Andy, Joe, Mai, Geese, Hwa Jai and Kim Kaphwan as returning characters for the movie. But there are more characters that returned from the last 2 movies. Billy Kane, Duck King, Jubei Yamada, Richard Meyer and Laurence Blood also have returned to this movie. There are only 2 new people added in this move that were in the games and that's as mentioned Cheng Sinzan and Big Bear. All the characters from the games are portrayed very well, once again. I was also happy on how they changed the appearacne of Richard Meyer in this movie and made him look him on how he was in the original game, since I complained that he looked like an old man in the first movie. I like Sulia and Laocorn. I think those 2 characters are very likeable, just by how they are. So, all the characters are all great in this movie.
The artstyle of this movie looks a bit cleaner and shiner then how it was in the last 2 movies and it looks really good. The animation is also great. Nothing really special, because it's the same type of animation you have been seeing in the last 2 movies. So, it's still pretty good. Like the last 2 movies, I watch this particualr movie in english and the english voice acting is really good, once again. The voice actors that play Terry, Andy and Joe have returned in this movie. Sarah Sawatsky , the original voice actress for Mai that was in the second movie, has been replaced by Lisa Ann Beley, who did Relena Peacecraft in Gundam Wing, Chi-Chi in Dragonball Z and Cammy in the american Street Fighter cartoon. The actors that voice Geese Howard, Billy Kane, Kim Kaphwan, Laurence Blood and Jubei Yamada has also returned in this movie. Laocorn is voiced by Matt Hill, who voiced Ed in Ed, Edd and Eddy. (The first Ed, not double D.) He was also Kira Yamato in Gundam SEED and Claude C. Kenni in Star Ocean EX. The music is also really good. The ending theme, performed by canadian singer by Warren Stanyer, is really good.
In the end, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture is an awesome movie that reallys make a good satisfying end to the trilogy. I really love the execution of the original plot of this movie and it will really keep you entertain for the entire movie. If you love the first 2 Fatal Fury movies, you'll going to love this movie. Even if you never watched any of the pervious movies, I would still suggest you check this movie out because it's really that good for a movie that's based on a video game.
9 out of 10
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