’90s Virtua Fighter anime headed to Blu-ray this year

SD-BD to feature all 35 episodes

Double headlines for Virtua Fighter fans today. Following on from the news that Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown will be receiving its Tekken crossover DLC tomorrow, separate news sees publisher Discotek Media announce plans to release the long-forgotten ’90s anime adaptation of Sega’s fighting franchise.

Speaking on Twitter, Discotek Media revealed that all 35 episodes of the Virtua Fighter anime, which first premiered way back in 1996, will be released on Blu-ray at an undisclosed point in 2022. It should be noted, immediately, that the release is SD-BD, and thus the anime will, sadly, not be remastered in high definition. While no reason is offered for this, it is often a common practice when the source material is simply not of a decent enough quality to offer remaster potential.

A good number of us at Discotek love fighting games, and this one has been gone for a very long time…

Virtua Fighter!

Just look at that font. 20 years ago it was the future, and it still stokes the mind of those who played Virtua Fighter. pic.twitter.com/iTTM53UBFh

— 💿Discotek Media (@discotekmedia) May 28, 2022

On a more positive note, the new release will feature all 35 episodes of the anime, meaning fans who are still waiting on an official edition of the final 11 episodes, previously unreleased by Anime Works, will finally be able to add them to your collection. All 35 episodes will feature English subtitles, and the original English dub for the first 24 episodes is also in the mix. More extras are to be revealed in the future.

While I won’t deny the lack of an HD remaster or a full, fresh series dub for the entire series is disappointing, it’s nice to see the forgotten anime finally make a home video comeback in its entirety. The Virtua Fighter Blu-ray will no doubt find a pride of place alongside Discotek’s other video game anime rerelease, which include SNK’s Fatal Fury and Capcom’s Darkstalkers.