Despite being over 30 years old now, Street Fighter 2 remains one of the most influential video games of all time, and we still see its spirit live on through even other types of media like this.
The new Ranma 1/2 anime from Mappa just included a full short sequence dedicated to Street Fighter 2 references.
With the fourth episode of the new adaptation for the classic martial arts / romantic comedy manga dropping today, fighting game fans were treated to some surprise fun.
This particular episode kicks off with a recap of the prior events, but not of the usual variety.
Instead, the Ranma story thus far is quickly covered through the presentation of SF2 with a VS screen for Ranma and Genma Saotome done up with pixel art portraits.
On top of that, they even made a faux fighting game recreation of Ranma hitting his panda dad with a Shoryuken and striking Ryu’s win pose complete with the health bars.
The animators didn’t stop there either considering they did the same for Tatewaki Kuno vs. Akane Tendo with the young lady jumping up and down like Chun-Li after landing a grab too.
They continue to play with the format more and have some fun by showing Ranma and Akane arguing in the VS screen before the protagonist is splashed with water in the portrait window, revealing the secret that he can transform into a girl.
A new game / continue screen ends the segment with art of the other girls checking out Ranma’s now expanded chest size.
The latest episode of the ongoing Ranma 1/2 remake has a recap that depicts the current cast members in a fighting game format. pic.twitter.com/YxSLIHhRu8
— Fighting Game Anniversaries (@FGAnniversaries) October 26, 2024
This is pretty cool to see with the effort put in here for what is essentially just a short recap gag that doesn’t even last a full minute.
It’s also a bit funny because this would have technically taken place presumably years before SF2 ever released since the manga began in 1987 with the setting seemingly placed around the same time too.
Ranma is no stranger to fighting games already, however, with a multitude of titles dating back to shortly after SF2 kicked off the genre craze in 1992.
The first of which, Ranma 1/2: Neighborhood Combat Chapter, was even localized for the Super Nintendo as Street Combat funnily enough with swapped out characters and music.
Whether or not the animators had any of these extra layers in mind when creating this sequence can’t be known for certain, but we wouldn’t be surprised either way.
Mentioned by Punchsplosion.