Ryu and Ken hop on a plane bound for Thailand to learn the techniques of the martial art Muay Thai. Trouble hits Ryu before he even gets out of the airport when he's framed for heroin possession and appeals to the better judgment of a dispassionate security chief. Ken makes some calls and secures the help of some US Embassy men to aid him in his search for the man who framed his friend. The situation looks bleak as a sadistic warden and the surly inmates get in line for some Ryu-pounding.

After tangling with his lackeys, Ryu goes head to head with Sagat, a former Muay Thai champion. Sagat is impressed by Ryu's quick grasp of the fighting style, but wants to teach him a lesson about taking the national sport of Thailand so lightly. It's been made abundantly clear in this series that Ryu never stays down and he turns the tables on a surprised Sagat, who declares Ryu one of his worthiest adversaries. The fighting ceases and Sagat relates the sad tale of how he ended up in prison, one painfully similar to Ryu's present predicament. Ken spots the man who framed Ryu getting into an Ashura gang's car. He gives chase and the nefarious villain eludes him, but not without leaving behind a crucial clue. Ryu is released on bail but only has twenty-four hours to prove his innocence.

Police Chief Dorai provides Ryu and Ken with a list of known Ashura gang hangouts and they quickly track down Ryu's framer, an Ashura big shot named Donu. Their sneak attack on the Ashura's headquarters didn't turn out to be so sneaky and they're soon in the clutches of a man with some handy tools and a serious penchant for collecting other people's arms.

After Sagat tells Ryu and Ken about a mystical monk that lives in the village of Ahitchatra in India, the two make this their next destination. When they arrive at Ahitchatra a little girl tells them Dhalsim is waiting for them. The two seek him out on top of a pyramid, only to have Dhalsim tell them he doesn't teach beasts - fighters who attack without thinking of the consequences. However, a bandit assault on a cave that holds golden treasure might win Dhalsim's approval for the youthful fighters.

In reaction to their friends' fate in the cave, the two remaining robbers round up people in a nearby village and hold them at gunpoint, threatening to start shooting unless someone gets the treasure from the cave. When Ken and Ryu advance on the men, Dhalsim chastises them for behaving like beasts again, not thinking of the villagers standing behind them that may get hit. The robbers send Ken and Ryu into the cave in return for the promise not to hurt anyone. Before entering, Dhalsim warns them there is no monster; the cave is but a mirror of one's true self.

While teaching Ryu and Ken about the healing powers of the Hadou ko, Dhalsim accidentally triggers the innate power of the Hadou Ken that resides in Ryu. The power is strong but Ryu's control is lacking and Dhalsim's own expertise is limited to the healing arts. So it's back to the cave for Ryu, where the illusions he sees help him get a handle on the awesome power of the Hadou Ken. Having learned what they came to find, Ryu and Ken head back upriver where a telegram redirects them to Spain.

A teenage Vega, bullfighter extraordinaire and cage fighter for rich socialites, makes his entry in this episode. At one of his bullfights, Vega is struck by Chun Li's beauty. What lengths will Vega go to possess Chun Li as his obsession with her deepens?

This series just keeps getting better as the plot begins to mature and unfold. Not satisfied with mere ass-kicking action (although there's plenty of that as well) director Gisaburo Sugii spins an involving tale of two fighters searching for enlightenment. Several emotionally stirring scenes elevate the dramatic weight of the series - episode eight's fist clenching shots of a powerless Ryu under the prison warden's sadistic whim evokes the kind of exchange found in "Cool Hand Luke" or "The Shawshank Redemption."

The flip side of this series is the many silly, incongruous and inane details, like the contrivance of Ken's handy cell phone through which he can continually ask his father to pull some strings every time a situation gets out of hand. Or those wise spiritual masters willing to impart immaculate wisdom to a couple of cocky, hyper-charged teens. Or how about the fact that anywhere they go in the world, everyone happens to speak their language? Amazing. Not that the series is necessarily any worse for these elements; this unreal quality rests at the heart of many beloved anime.

However beloved implausibility might be, though, the dialogue between these two scrapes the border of poor. Listening to these two adolescent numb skulls lounging around a campfire in a vain attempt to wrap their brains around Dhalsim's words rivals "Kung Fu" episodes in most banal iterations of eastern philosophical principles - fun to watch and armed with an arsenal of action one-liners, these bishounen drown in stretches of extended dialogue. Screenwriter Masuni Hirayanagi would do well to keep it short and sweet when these boys ruminate. Thankfully, other character dialogue avoids the same pitfalls, keeping the series from becoming too slow or stilted.

In addition, art director Junichiro Nishikawa's resplendent backdrops helps buttress slower moving scenes, whether the characters cower within the grim prison walls of a Thailand jail or ride the rivers of India through beautiful terrain. The quality of the character drawings has stayed at the same high level; oozing wounds are painfully realistic, the cold menace of Vega is blatantly apparent and Dhalsim is as iconic a mystic monk as ever there was.

Because this is a TV series, Sugii steers each episode into a gripping cliffhanger, which helps to make this an engaging series. At times tense, funny, bloody, action packed with a dash of spirituality thrown in for good measure, it'll be a tough battle resisting the impulse to watch the entire run at once.