Virtua Fighter (TV series)


Virtua Fighter is a 35-episode anime series based on the Virtua Fighter series of video games made by Sega-AM2. Targeted towards children aged 6 to 15 years old, it originally aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from October 2, 1995 to June 27, 1996. The episodes take place before the first game in the series, and accordingly portray the characters as slightly younger than they are in the games. A video game based on the series, Virtua Fighter Animation, was released in 1996.

Plot

The series follows Akira Yuki and his quest to see the eight stars of heaven after he had gotten overconfident in his Bajiquan skills from his days training with his grandfather. Initially traveling to figure out how to see those stars again, he learns that Sarah Bryant was kidnapped by robotics scientist Eva Durix as part of Eva's quest to create the "Perfect Soldier." Akira joins up with other characters in his journey such as Pai Chan, Jacky Bryant, Lion Rafale, Kage-Maru and Shun Di to save Sarah.

Characters

Some of the following characters who appear in the show are based on those in Virtua Fighter and Virtua Fighter 2, while some were created solely for the show.
Akira Yuki
Pai Chan
Lau Chan
Jacky Bryant
Sarah Bryant
  • First appears in Episode 3, "The Gorgeous Sibling Fighters"
Kage-Maru
  • First appears in Episode 5, "In Search of the Stars"
Wolf Hawkfield
  • First appears in Episode 13, "Arena of Darkness"
Jeffry McWild
  • First appears in Episode 16, "The Sea Warrior"
Lion Rafale
  • First appears in Episode 17, "Here Comes the Prince"
Shun Di
  • First appears in Episode 21, "A Wizard and a Master"
Liu Kowloon
Oni-Maru
Eva Durix
  • First appears in Episode 5, "In Search of the Stars"
Dural'''

Staff

Licensing

Virtua Fighter had been aired in various television stations in Argentina, Chile, Italy, Mexico, the Philippines and the Arabic part of the Middle East, dubbed in their national languages. The series had been licensed for distribution in North America by Anime Works. Due to falling sales, Anime Works had ended its distribution of the Virtua Fighter anime after dubbing 24 of the 35 episodes, and no other licensor picked up the series.
RetroCrush announced that the anime will be streamed with English subtitles provided.

Reception

Hanami Gumi had praised the Virtua Fighter anime series, calling it "one of the best among those anime series that had fighting-game origins". The review said that the show had a clear, non-confusing plot, along with good characterization and background music. Asian Stuff has praised the series for its plot, saying "the fights don't drag on and that it doesn't resort to repetitive tournament crap".
An EX review had commented highly on Ryo Tanaka's character designs in the series, as they are "simple yet very effective in revealing the nature of the characters."