Orochinagi: The King of Fighters

This isn’t in English but you’ll get the gist of the story: Kyo gets blackmailed into going after Terry.  What sets this apart from the other fakeshot mugen-esque movies is that it is really polished.  Dialogues have been created using a range of cinematic transition effects, with portraits from KOF 96 to SVCC, with obvious (to the veteran) but really well done fakeshotting.  Click more to see part two of the movie.

The fighting is where the movie really shines.  Yes, we’ve seen mugen super moves before, but what’s really good here is that it’s not the usual throw-super-moves-at-each-other-until-one-dies-but-not-really-and-deploys-last-super-desperation-move-that-obliterates-everything *rises from the rubble pant pant torn clothes and scratched up face but now can save the girl* type.  No it’s not. Let’s take a breather here.

Phew.  So, even if that is probably the formula for a winning fight, as with every fight sequence in a movie, anime or manga, this movie does it well, in terms of fakeshotting, because it’s not just throwing big moves, it’s throwing combos.  And not just comboes, but actual fight sequences.  God knows how long this must have taken to animate.

Kicks and punches are thrown, dodged, rolled, just defended and even teleported through.  Then the director gets creative with the moveset: Kyo can end his aragami chains with RED kick, adding some OTF damage with his fireball, and then send in his clones!   Terry can rising tackle vertically!  OTF Fire kick inflicts wire counter setting up for… you get the idea.

There are also especially neat touches like the homages to the Bruce Lee X ray broken bones shot and Fatal Fury-esque jumping between levels.  But then… there are the things that stink of a Hollywood director’s influence.  Without spoiling it, I’ll mention the shurikens, the phoenix, Joe’s tornados?  Eh?  SNK fans will raise an eyebrow at this point while the average popcorn munching idiot will go “ooooooooh”.

It’s at this point you start thinking, okay, this is all very nice, can you end it now?  In the world of fast and furious entertainment, this article is far too long already, but it’s not aimed at idiots, and you’d know that by managing to read this far, so kudos to you!  The movie starts to drag on a bit at 10 minutes, and of course follows the formula mentioned above, with no great surprises.

Do we get a clear victor?  Will we get a sequel?  Does the plot even tie up at the end?  Did I mention the interdimensional hyper cannon?  This is definitely suited for hollywood, and I recommend this director go work there.  There are great fakeshots and good fighting, but pretty images of violence does not a good story make.  Then again, when did fighting movies/games/anime have a great story?

Thanks to Wolfie for posting the video!