Crunchyroll\u2019s Anime Effect hosts say the FGC\u2019s \u2018dream\u2019 fighting game is already here CrunchyrollWe sat down with the hosts of Crunchyroll\u2019s \u2018The Anime Effect\u2019 podcast at EVO 2024, where they opened up about their love of fighting games and what the FGC\u2019s \u201cdream\u201d anime fighter would be. EVO 2024 cemented itself as the largest open-bracket esports tournament in the world, bringing together over 10,000 registered players together in the Las Vegas Convention Center to duke it out in their favorite fighting games like Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, and more. This year, Crunchyroll partnered with EVO for a special anime night, where they showed a screening of the classic Street Fighter II animated movie. The hosts of Crunchyroll\u2019s official podcast, The Anime Effect, were also in attendance, who spoke with us about their experience at this year\u2019s event. Nicholas Friedman and LeAlec Murray said they had a blast when we talked on Sunday, referencing how \u201caccessible\u201d the fighting game community has become over the years and how intertwined the FGC and anime fans really are. \u201cWhen we were recording yesterday, the thing that was evident was that you don\u2019t have to really get up to speed with anyone,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cIt\u2019s like you can start immediately talking about shows and we all get it, and we\u2019re all part of that same community. Just hearing their stories of how completely intertwined their fighting game journey has been with their anime journey \u2014 that\u2019s the thing that we\u2019re seeing. Honestly, it\u2019s the reason why we were really excited to come out is to be around like-minded anime fans.\u201d With an eye-popping number of anime series in the world, it stands to reason that fighting games fans might want to see their favorite shows realized in a 2D fighter. But after speaking with members of the community over the weekend, the two hosts realized that many players\u2019 \u2018dream\u2019 anime fighting game had already come to fruition years ago. \u201cI\u2019m somebody who grew up playing fighting games, and when I started playing Street Fighter II, I also started watching the original Dragon Ball,\u201d Murray said. \u201cAs my love for the fighting game community grew, my love for anime was growing alongside it. The culmination of that was when Dragon Ball FighterZ came out. Of course, there\u2019d been anime fighting games before that, but it felt like the fully realized version of, \u2018Oh hey, there really is like a full crossover.\u2019 \u201cEveryone we talked to yesterday was saying that it was the dream, because we asked the question: \u2018If you could pick any anime, or if you could have a dream fighting game, what would it be?\u2019 And they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, that exists. That\u2019s Dragon Ball. It\u2019s already there. We got it,\u201d Friedman added. Of course, that doesn\u2019t mean that there isn\u2019t more room for dreaming about what anime would make an amazing fighting game. Murray and Friedman bounced back and forth with several big ideas, one of the major ones being a My Hero Academia-based fighter. \u201cYou gotta account for all the quirks that are going on. I feel like seeing how those would interact, the archetypes\u2026 I can already see it, like if you use too much of All Might\u2019s power, you have an automatic debuff, and he just throws really weak punches or something,\u201d Murray said excitedly. For Friedman, a Capcom-style 2D Digimon fighting game would be the best thing since sliced bread. \u201cIt\u2019d be very cool,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou\u2019d start out as Rookie, and if you get stun-locked, you go down to Baby form. But as you power up, you can Digivolve. Your move set slightly changes. \u2026especially in the way that you can use meters in games, I think they could do it.\u201d While this was Friedman\u2019s first real foray into the fighting game community, Murray has been a diehard fighting game fan for many years. He let us into the moments in his childhood that solidified his love for the genre, saying that both his father and a stranger at an arcade introduced him to the scene. \u201cMy dad was a really big driver for me playing fighting games,\u201d he said. \u201cHe used to go to the arcade with me, and he would just feed me quarters, like playing Tekken. He would just sit there and watch. And I\u2019d be like, \u2018We can go play something else.\u2019 And he was like, \u2018Nope. Just keep doing what you\u2019re doing.’\u201d \u201cThe reason I fell in love with tag fighters is, I walked into the arcade and I was like, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. And I just happened to be standing in front of the huge, MVC machines that they used to have. And there\u2019s this guy sitting there, he had to be like maybe in his twenties. And he was like, \u2018Hey, you want to play?\u2019 I\u2019m like, yeah. And he kind of walked me through arcade etiquette and like all this stuff. \u201cAnd he was like, \u2018Alright, let\u2019s run some matches.\u2019 Beats my ass. \u2018Thank you.\u2019 Just just runs the fade and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, okay,\u2019 but he was like, \u2018This is how you learn. Keep playing and you\u2019ll get better. And I kept going back.\u201d Murray\u2019s experience echoes that of many other players in the FGC. While this was Friedman\u2019s first real rodeo in the scene, he got to witness the pure, unadulterated passion of the community \u2014 and it\u2019s safe to say that he\u2019s a fan. The intersection between anime and fighting games is absolutely real, and with titles like Guilty Gear Strive getting a series in 2025, there\u2019s more of a crossover between the two mediums than ever before. Thanks to our conversation with Crunchyroll, we got to see for ourselves just how close the anime fandom and the FGC really are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Crunchyroll\u2019s Anime Effect hosts say the FGC\u2019s \u2018dream\u2019 fighting game is already here CrunchyrollWe sat down with the hosts of Crunchyroll\u2019s \u2018The Anime Effect\u2019 podcast at EVO 2024, where they opened up about their love of fighting games and what the FGC\u2019s \u201cdream\u201d anime fighter would be. EVO 2024 cemented itself as the largest open-bracket […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}