Nobody is watching this for the Street Fighter gameplay. This is a field trip disguised as fan service, where historical tourism matters more than whether Ryu can hadoken his way through feudal Japan. You're there for the surreal energy of watching Ken explain pottery while E. Honda nods along, characters designed for arcade combat now functioning as tour guides through actual history. The disconnect between what these characters are and what they're being asked to do is the whole joke. It's weird enough to stay with you specifically because it shouldn't work at all.

Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and E. Honda travel back in time and talk about history in this one-episode educational OVA from 1995. The subject is Fujiwara-kyou, which served as Japan's imperial capital from 694 to 710 and was the first Japanese capital planned on a grid. Despite the Street Fighter name, the short contains no fighting at all. It was released only in Japan and came soon after The Animated Movie, with a similar but rougher art style.