Ryu's descent into the Satsui no Hado feels inevitable here, not like a plot point but like watching a man lose himself one calm conversation at a time. The OVA refuses spectacle when you expect it, cutting away from fights to sit with characters in their quiet breaking points. This is Street Fighter stripped of arcade energy, built instead on the weight of what these fighters carry between rounds.

Set after the events of Street Fighter II, this OVA prequel to the Street Fighter IV game opens with martial arts masters vanishing across the globe. Guile and Chun-Li are sent to look into the disappearances, while Cammy and her Delta Red squad probe a strange rupture torn into the Amazon jungle. Sakura and Chun-Li join forces against a gang of thugs, and Crimson Viper clashes with Ryu. As a secret agent trails the elusive Ryu, the heroes uncover a plot to abduct powerful fighters and exploit them to produce deadly biological weapons. Ryu, meanwhile, must face whether he can master the Dark Hadou within him.