Fatal Fury: Legend Of The Hungry Wolf |
 | Summary:First OAV follows the redemption and onslaught of the "Lone-Wolf", "Bogard"; as he attempts heated battle with his father's murderer. Fairly straightforward action film appeals to mainstream anime fans of hard-hitting narratives; revenge stories of individual surmounts. |
| Title Aka: | N/A |
| Company/Distributors: | Fuji Animation;Viz;Pioneer Entertainment |
| Year: | 1992 |
| Length: | 45 Minutes |
| Rating: |  |
| Genres: | Action, Martial Arts |
| Format: | 1 Part OAV |
| Content Level: |
|
| Comments: | N/A |
|
Synopsis:
Terry and Andy Bogard are two idealistic young brothers whom train themselves in the skills of martial arts. Left upon them by their father Jeff Bogard, who was murdered in front of them by a ruthless martial arts master and criminal named "Geese". A young flower girl by the name of "Lily" was abducted by "Geese" after also witnessing the murder of Terry and Andy's father. Now wishing to take revenge upon the man who took their father's life, Terry and Andy now train themselves to be ready to recieve the "Ultimate Martial Arts Technique"; which will be left to them by their fathers former master. But will Andy and Terry be stong enough to halt the evil motives of Geese, whom is hosting a martial arts tournament of the most sinister kind. Terry and Andy return after ten years to recieve the training by their father's master; but will it be enough to bring Geese to his knees?
Review:
Breezy, substandard and cliche are only some of the words which could fully describe this near reminiscent of farce martial arts feature. Though "Fatal Fury: Legend Of The Hungry Wolf", or so it's called referring to the main hero of the story; (The "Lone-Wolf" Bogard) is something It's the extremely impetuous nature of these elements that also never cease to bother me about the Fatal Fury movies. They tend to try to concentrate so hard on the character development that it starts to loose it's sense of structure. Despite the mere fact of being rather enjoyable at any rate, Fatal Fury is simply too rampant and impetuous to be impressive; right down to all it's choppy action sequences which are often a joke to witness. I never said that Fatal Fury was any street fighter, but frankly I didn't expect much from this film in the first place. In following the many animes failing to deliver decent storyline development due to rampant pacing like "Battle Angel" and "Blue Submarine No. 6", Fatal Fury: The Legend Of Hungry Wolf takes it to the next level; along with rushed dialouge scenes added to some disappointing action sequences. Which would in fact be alot better if they actually contained any martial arts. It often amazes me in animes such as this and the likes of "Samurai Shodown", that the fight scenes contain only the use of special powers and no actual quality choreographed fight sequences. The result is something totally forced through by only the plot and the revenge and redemption aspects, used to death with this genre; which fails to impress me time and time again. Even the realitively light-hearted kinky romance in this flick cannot save the obvious blunder that it is indeed only short of an hour long. Which can be effective if done the right way. If you are indeed a huge fan of this game I highly suggest you check out the motion picture and pass for now on this film. Legend Of The Hungry Wolf can't often compare to the technical aspects of the film, and it's thoughtful intent cannot even help itself from it's already lacking in so many ways. At least it was a little better than "Fatal Fury 2". But for now I think I'll leave that one alone. Don't expect too much, however you probably won't be utterly disappointed. Click Here To See Overview! |
you'd probably expect coming right out of the worn "fighting-game" realm in the anime genre. First and formost relating to mere plot elements and storyline structure, this is probably about as generic as they come in the anime realm. This is the basic revenge and redemption story that never ceases to appear in this all too used up genre of "fighting-game" premises. But what truly never fails to amaze me about the Fatal Fury animes is that they try so hard to be anything but pertaining to the typical action fare. There's always a high risk of aim pertaining to character interaction and surprizing depth, those not usually found in action based anime fare. Fatal Fury has always contained it's share of decent character development and interesting plot elements, it's what makes characters like Andy and Terry Bogard almost as likable as any found in the anime universe.