Street Fighter movie director explained why his film has so many 90s-style anime inserts

Anyone who caught the Street Fighter movie this weekend may have gotten a blast from the past. The opening sequence is done in a classic hand-drawn anime style and covers the events of the first World Warrior Tournament.

Titmouse, the studio behind Star Trek: Lower Decks and DC's upcoming Mister Miracle, handled the animation. The hand-drawn footage doesn't stop after the intro, either – it's scattered throughout the film. Anime sequences cover the tragic backstory of Ken and Ryu as well as the history of Akuma. The post-credits scene is animated too, and teases a possible sequel.

Director Kitao Sakurai explained that he wasn't simply hopping on the anime hype train. According to him, the animated scenes were part of a "bold approach" to the movie and helped sidestep the usual pitfalls of flashbacks.

Usually, in a traditional movie to illustrate backstory, you'll have to de-age actors, or cast child actors, and none of that was feeling right.

Sakurai added that the idea came about during pre-production.

So, during pre-production, we were like, what if we actually honor, not just the game, but also the legacy of [1994's Street Fighter 2 – The Animated movie] and anime in general – the kind of things that I grew up on, like Ghost in the Shell, Akira and Dragon Ball Z. That just felt more fun.

The choice of studio mattered just as much. Sakurai insisted on recreating the hand-drawn look of the '90s rather than imitating it with digital tools.

I felt very strongly about working with an animation studio that did everything by hand, like in the classic '90s way. You feel that kind of '90s love and intensity in those scenes.

Street Fighter is now in cinemas.