Classic Anime Review #1: And. . .FIGHT!

The ’90s. Just writing those words makes me think of Pogs and Final Fantasy VII. Zoog Disney, arcades, hugging people – you know? The bygone relics of the ‘before time’.

Hey kids! Remember STUFF? (Image Courtesy USGamer.net) Something else that the ’90s saw, was the meteoric rise of anime in the United States. For many a nerd, a black nerd especially, anime was a touchstone on our journey like no other. The decade also brought us the greatest genre of fighting ‘vidya’ games in the world: the ‘Vs.’ fighters. On the surface, these two things seem to only be related in their relative Japanesity (My spellcheck didn’t correct that word so I’m going with it). In addition to that Japanesity factor, though, these seemingly disparate forms of media cross over in an absolute glut of anime movies and OVAs based on these games – and I’m going to take three and give you the lowdown: just how Japanese is it, should you watch it, and should you even play the game it’s based on? In today’s classic anime review, we talk about anime adaptations of Vs. fighting games. That sounded A LOT less specific in my head.

Battle Arena Toshinden (Game: 1995, Adapted: 1996)

Fun fact: due to my father’s thick panhandle accent, I thought this game was called “Ballerina Toshinden” until 1997. Anyway. The Game: Battle Arena Toshinden is a weapons-based fighter made by Takara. Essentially, it is a street fighter clone where every fighter has some kind of armament in addition to fireballs and grabs. The sto…