Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind is a 2009 animated film directed by Jiro Kanai. This is featured on a bonus disc included in the Collector's Edition of Street Fighter IV for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. This anime is considered to be a tie-in to the game.
Over the past year, famous martial artists who are the top practitioners of their respective martial art have been disappearing. On one hand, there is Cammy of Delta Red suspecting that Shadaloo is up to no good, despite her fellow agents believing that the organization is history. On the other hand, there is Guile teamed with Chun-Li of Interpol investigating the disappearances.
Meanwhile, there is Seth, leader of S.I.N., who is quite interested in Ryu and his Satsui No Hado (殺意の波動, translated as "Surge of Murderous Intent"). Seth is trying to power up a weapon called BLECE, and Ryu's Satsui No Hado is just the thing he needs to power it up. Worse, Ryu's best friend Ken and his wife Eliza also get involved in the whole deal, alongside his #1 fangirl Sakura Kasugano...
This anime provides examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: C. Viper is depicted as being far more callous and ruthless here than she's ever shown to be in Street Fighter IV proper. She all but tortures and threatens to kill Cammy just to goad Ryu into giving in to the Satsui no Hado, before having Ken's innocent wife, Eliza, kidnapped in order to lure Ryu to Seth. If not for her love for her daughter and her nature as The Mole still being present, as well as her ensuring that Eliza remains unharmed and allowing Ken to rescue her with little resistance, she'd be nigh-indistinguishable from much of the series' actual villains.
- Affably Evil: C. Viper, towards Eliza at any rate. Despite kidnapping her to lure Ryu to Seth, she politely offers Eliza a chair to sit on, and actually looks hurt, however briefly, when the understandably pissed off Eliza refuses and expresses anger at being tricked. Towards everyone else she interacts with, though, not so much.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Do not provoke and pressure Ryu enough to have him tap into the Satsui no Hado.
- Big Bad: Seth, as in the game, is the main antagonist of the film.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Seth sports a pair of these.
- Body Horror: It's not shown in graphic detail, but you can make out the parts of exploded animals lying around in the Amazon.
- Breast Attack: During her confrontation with Cammy, C. Viper's manner of electrocuting her involves placing a shock-inducing glove against one of Cammy's breasts.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: At one point, Sakura and Chun-Li take on a huge group of S.I.N. agents. The S.I.N. agents never stood a chance.
- Cooldown Hug: When Ryu almost completely loses himself to the Satui no Hado, a desperate Sakura hugs him and begs him to return to his true self. She succeeds, but barely - Ryu comes back to his senses when he's about to hit her.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Cammy's confrontation with C. Viper results in the former being brutalized and nearly killed.
- Ryu's fight with Seth is this on both ends. Seth is initially delivering, shrugging off Ryu's blows and pulverizing him while not even taking the fight that seriously. Ryu, after his Shut Up, Hannibal!, then dishes it out and swiftly defeats him.
- Dark Action Girl: C. Viper qualifies. She's powerful, ruthless, a Combat Pragmatist and on the side of the bad guys. While she's ultimately acting as The Mole working to take S.I.N. down from within, it certainly doesn't make her any less ruthless.
- Designated Girl Fight: One occurs between Cammy and C. Viper, with it ending up a Curb-Stomp Battle in the latter's favor.
- Empathy Doll Shot: Cruelly subverted. There's no warzone on sight, but there is a lonely doll seen sitting on a fireplace in the Masters family's Big Fancy House... and it appears when Ken learns that his pregnant wife Eliza has been kidnapped by Crimson Viper. For worse, Viper does mention said doll's presence to get even more under Ken's skin. And even more: the doll was bugged, and that's how Viper found out where Ken and Eliza lived.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: C. Viper, for all that she is a Dark Action Girl, has a daughter named Lauren, who she loves very much.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Ryu declares that he seeks power to protect the innocent, and that Seth seeks the opposite power, Seth responds that it's nonsense and that power is power with no real difference.
- Evil Redhead: C. Viper has red hair, and she's working for the villainous Seth and S.I.N. She's not actually evil, being The Mole for the CIA, but she definitely doesn't mind playing the part.
- Gray Rain of Depression: It starts raining when Sakura releases Ryu from the Satsui no Hado with a Cooldown Hug, and he falls in a brief but intense Heroic BSoD. Conversely, when Ryu and Sakura recover from said experience, the rain stops and the sun comes back.
- Greater-Scope Villain: M. Bison, who is behind everything though he never actually makes an appearance here.
- Gone Horribly Right: Turns out Evil Ryu is a tad bit more powerful than C. Viper and S.I.N. were expecting.
- Groin Attack: It's hard to tell, but it looks like C. Viper gives an electrified punch to Cammy there.
- I Have Your Wife: C. Viper calls Ken Masters on the phone to reveal that she got his wife, Eliza, and she wants Ken to exchange Ryu for Eliza. Once he returns from his Heroic BSoD state, Ryu tells Ken to accept the deal because he wants to face his fears and see what's going on.
- Imperiled in Pregnancy: Ken's wife/Guile's sister-in-law Eliza gets unwittingly involved in the bad guys's plans and is kidnapped. All because she couldn't know that Viper wasn't actually the reporter she claimed to be. Worse, she's pregnant and was about to tell that to Ken.
- Inner Monologue: Ryu and Ken engage in this a number of times.
- Karma Houdini: Seth and C. Viper both get away scot-free. Justified, as The Ties That Bind is a prequel to IV, which they are both active in.
- Kick the Dog: An Exploited Trope by C. Viper. Even after already defeating Cammy, she grinds her heel into the downed Cammy's head while threatening to kill her, before knocking her unconscious with an actual (burning) kick, all in order to provoke Ryu into giving in to the Satsui no Hado. It ends up working too well.
- Leotard of Power: Cammy still wears this as part of her Delta Red outfit.
- Lovely Angels: Sakura and Chun-Li prove to be a surprisingly effective pair together.
- The Man Behind the Man: Bison of Shadaloo has been manipulating Seth and S.I.N. from behind the scenes.
- Morality Chain: Sakura seems to act as this for Ryu. So much that it's her Cooldown Hug that brings Ryu back from having momentarily given into the Satsui no Hado.
- Morality Pet: C. Viper's daughter, Lauren, serves as this for the former, with scenes surrounding the latter being among the very few times Viper shows a softer side throughout the film.
- Motive Rant: Seth goes into one while he is beating Ryu about how he seeks power through violence.Seth: I understand, Ryu. I know why we are here. You see, I simply could not resist to test out the legendary power you posses myself. You struggle against the temptation of that power. How? It must be torture! Still, some questions must be asked, some situations faced head on. Surly you, who are most at home in the ring, find this power inside to be a great temptation! And yet you struggle in vain against it even as it seeks to control you utterly! Why do you fight it?! WHY?! Keep it inside and you will die! Your death will garner nothing it would be without meaning! Power only has meaning if it is put into action. It defines you. Power like that is what rules the world! Everyone seeks power; seeks to grow in strength, but this goal is out of reach by ordinary men. The poor seek riches, the ugly; beauty, we compare ourselves to others and seek to cover our own inadequacies to find peace of mind. The mere existence of those who are better than us becomes intolerable. We fight in retaliation! If beauty is not enough, we use money. If money does not work, we resort to violence! This energy is what powers our world! It is essential! All I seek is to help this natural process along! This destructive force begotten from confect! This power that everyone lusts for, I will spread it over the world with but a touch! It is like a well that can never run dry! A precious mineral flowing from an inexhaustible mine! This power will be mine!
- My God, What Have I Done?: The desperate, shocked look on Ryu's face when he realizes that he could have killed Sakura while under the influence of Satsui No Hado strongly indicates this.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The bodies of the dead martial artists Delta Red finds in the Amazon are never shown. Considering that they apparently exploded as part of an experiment, that just makes it sound scarier.
- Oh, Crap!: C. Viper and several S.I.N. agents have this reaction when Ryu gives in to the Satsui No Hado and proves to be more powerful than they thought possible.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Seth is the leader of S.I.N., and he isn't afraid to viciously attack his opponent when the opportunity presents itself.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Ryu gets overtaken by the Satsui No Hado, his eyes glow red. It is strongly inadvisable to fight him when that happens.
- Schrödinger's Canon: While The Ties That Bind is marketed as a canonical prequel to the events of Street Fighter IV, and is focused around the same plot points as the game (S.I.N.'s BLECE Project and the fighters they kidnapped to develop it), its events are oddly disconnected from the narrative of IV itself. For instance, after C. Viper nearly kills Cammy when the latter interferes in the former's attempt to provoke Ryu into unleashing the Satsui no Hado and capture him, you'd think Cammy's Rival Battle against Viper in her Arcade Mode wouldn't play out as if it was their first meeting. The closest to mentions the film's events receive aren't even in the game's original iteration, but rather in Super Street Fighter IV, when Chun-Li states that Seth previously managed to escape in her Arcade Prologue and Cammy's injuries haven't fully healed yet in her Arcade win quote against her.note
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Ryu manages to turn the tables on Seth and give a powerful response to Seth's Motive Rant.Ryu: I'm not though fighting, and I do not run from the power I hold within. I, too seek strength. That's what driven me all this way. And yet, I never truly understood just what power is or what it mean to be strong. Your word did help me to understand one thing. The power I seek is nothing like what you describe. The power humans posses; that is the source of and destination for all of life. The power you're after is the opposite of this. It can only destroy that which is good. To seek it invites your demise. That is why I fight! I fight to rid the world of such diabolical power! I'll show you what true strength is! It is the courage to stand up in the face of evil and emerge victorious!
- Superpowered Evil Side: C. Viper and the S.I.N. agents hope to awaken the Satsui no Hado's power within Ryu. They get to.
- Super-Speed: Ryu moves incredibly fast when he gets overtaken by the Satsui no Hado.
- The Worf Effect: Cammy is definitely a powerful fighter in her own right, so C. Viper utterly crushing her in their confrontation shows how dangerous Viper herself is.
- World of Action Girls: Chun-Li, Cammy, Sakura, and C. Viper all get in on the action at one point or another.
- Would Hit a Girl: Ryu has no problem fighting C. Viper, especially after she provokes the Satsui no Hado within him by brutalizing Cammy. This also applies to Ken when he confronts C. Viper in order to rescue Eliza.
