For a skilled martial artist like Ryu, nothing is more important than becoming stronger. But strength comes at a price, as Ryu finds out when the evil presense of Akuma, his eternal rival, awakens within him a great and vile power, the "Dark Hadou." As a mysterious scientist emerges with plans to harness the power of the world's strongest fighters, Ryu must confront and destroy this new enemy before all of mankind is enslaved. With the lives of his friends hanging in the balance, can Ryu overcome the evil power within, before it completely consumes him?
Following the disaster wrought upon the world by a mysterious being called ‘Akira’, Neo Tokyo is now in social and economic turmoil. In such a decaying city, feisty Kaneda and his shy friend Tetsuo survive by running around in a biker gang, chasing local rivals and generally evading the police. Everything changes, however, when Tetsuo crashes into a strange-looking boy during a bike chase and the military ends up taking him away. When he eventually returns to his friends, he’s no longer the same weak little boy they always knew – in fact, a military experiment has turned him into something beyond human imagination. While the military is intent on reclaiming its specimen at any cost, Tetsuo is sick of being bullied around and is about to show everyone, including his friend Kaneda, exactly who is boss.
This classical movie ends in an epic fight with a mighty monster that gets beaten not without the help of creatures of his kind. The theme of similarities and differences between Akuma and Ryu can also be observed in Akira and the Espers.
Akira is much more serious, so if you watched the movie only as a relaxing action, don't follow this recommendation. However, there are some awesome night city scenes and chopper action there.
Aikawa Maki, a high school student (with a reputation of being an exceptional street fighter), is known on the streets as Air Master. Standing at seven feet tall, she has the ability to seemingly fly through the air. Trying to attain the highest level of excitement and tension, she searches for stronger opponents. Will she find them or will they find her first, as they fight it out in the aerial arena?
It might be a tiny bit spoilerish, but in the end these two anime are about the limits a fighter can reach and overcome, and about the ultimate unbeatable opponent waiting at the end of the line. The Eternal in Air Master and Akuma in Street Fighter Alpha are shown in exactly the same manner: almost unpersonalised, rock-solid entities that exist beyond time and space only as a stopping wall for all the others.
The Mishima corporation is one of the richest conglomerates on the planet, and its owner, the legendary fighter Heihachi Mishima, is now sponsoring a martial arts competition – whoever can best the other competitors and finally defeat Heihachi himself will be awarded both wealth and the title of King of Iron Fist. But money and fame are not the only factors drawing fighters to the competition, as Heihachi has made many enemies over time – his son Kazuya being one of them.
The evil Bison has returned with sinister plans to take over the world using Shadow Law, his nefarious crime syndicate! His cyborg goons are searching the globe to take out any martial artist who might stand in Bison's way -- brainwashing and recruiting those who they defeat. But when Ryu manages to kill one of Bison's prime fighters, Bison discovers Ryu's potential and wants it for his own. Now, with the help of allies who are out for revenge, can Ryu defeat this all-powerful fighting machine before Bison enslaves him as well?
A giant mistake caused the soul-filtering machine in the Netherworld to break down, which resulted in the release of the giant demon known as Janemba. His powers merge the dimensions together, causing dead people to return to life. Meanwhile, on Earth, the Z-Fighters are facing all kinds of foes. Goku and Pikuhan are sent to take care of Janemba, but their powers are no match for the monster. When all hope seems to be lost, however, Vegeta suddenly appears to aid Goku in the struggle, giving Goku the solution to taking down this mighty opponent!
DBZ is apparently much more flashy and glorious than any anime series or movie inspired by console games, yet this particular movie is also about heroes joining in the effort of fighting an insanely strong guy who represents all the evil in the world.
If you prefer shounen over gaming, you'll find Janenba more fun than Akuma.