Japanese ST Player Report Up

Thanks for listening. I didn’t realize anyone actually played ST anymore. I would have posted long ago if I thought this game was still played at all in the US.

Tanaka Ryu: Oh my god, you know about Tanaka’s old ryu! This is just awesome, I didn’t think anyone else actually knew him.

Tanaka played all the time at Namiki. I actually made fun of him a little bit, because he used jump roundhouse so much. We called him “Dai jump kick ryu” (jump RH ryu). He never used the DP, just jump RH.

I actually liked playing Tanaka, because he was a great person to play against. I would pick O. Ryu or O. Hawk, and it felt like super again. I never talked to him but I liked playing against him, since his style was very safe. The worst thing that would happen to you playing against Tanaka was that you’d just eat a jump RH :). I don’t think I ever said a word to Tanaka, he probably has no idea who I am, but I was always glad to have him as an opponent.

Tanaka won one of the namiki weekly tournaments once when I was there. I have to say I was a little suprised, because he’s not top tier (normally Tama-chan [Tamashima’s nickname], Akishima, or someone like that would win). On the other hand, if this hairy uncouth barbarian can win it, Tanaka certain can.

There was another player at Namiki that maybe you’ll know. We called him SenretsuChun. I don’t know his real name, but I’m sure you can guess what he did. Jump forward, lightning kick. That’s it! That’s all he EVER did. He was easy to beat, but every so often he’d kill someone that thought he might try something else. So the game would go something like this.

SenretsuChun: Jump forward
Player: (Thinks: hmm, he’s done lightning kicks the past 499 times in this situation. Maybe he’s going to try to throw?). Tries counter throw
SenretsuChun: Lighning kick
Player: GODDAMMIT. AGAIN!!!

I would always get a chuckle whenever that guy won a game. Obviously he’s not one of the top tier players.

Ken-O/Gian: Yes, of course I know Ken-O. He’s a great guy. I think I may have talked to him all of five times, but he’s a really nice guy. Before I left Japan we had a large street fighter “nomikai” for me where a ton of Tokyo area ST players came to drink and say goodbye. I felt very touched. Anyways, Ken-O, whom I had played for years and never really talked to, started talking to me, and suggested we go out together. He also said hi when I came back to Japan in 2004 to visit.

That said, Ken’s dhalsim is top notch. According to Kuni, Ken-O won the all-japan CE tournament with his dhalsim. I wouldn’t be suprised. I beat almost every dhalsim I ever met with Claw or Chun, but not Ken-O’s dhalsim. I would be suprised if it took more than the fingers on one hand to count the number of games I ever took from him

Takiba Dhalsim: Are you talking about T. Akiba? He usually played new Ken. If not, I don’t know who that Takiba is. There was KKY, Ken-O, and another regular at Shibuya Kaikan, he had a beard (pretty unique in Japan), and was a professional pachinko guide writer.

Bonus Blanka: Don’t know who that is. I did play once against Komoda, and he was very good, but in my (humble gaijin) opinion, Harahi is the best. Harahi was simply inspiring. Harahi disappeared sometime around 2000, and I never saw him again. Does he still play? Do you have a link to his Blanka web page?

Hamaki Honda: Again, I don’t know. There were honda players at Namiki, and Makoto (see above post) would pull out honda every so often. I personally always hated honda as a character. He just seemed like he brutalizes anyone without a FB (except Boxer), and dies to anyone with one. Bob Painter showed us all the power of Honda at the first Vegas ST tournament by winning the whole thing with the sumo (Great quote from that tournament: “I can’t believe I lost to fucking BOB PAINTER” – Mike Watson). But I never liked Honda, and perhaps my dislike of the character prevented me from really noticing good players. I did learn some very fun (for me) and very annoying (for him) anti honda tricks with Boxer and Chun.

Are you living in Tokyo now? I did play against Harahi a lot… Kuni knew him, but as I said, he disappeared around 2000. What I would suggest is (cue A Team music): If you have a Blanka problem, if no one else can help you, and if you can find him, maybe you can get Harahi’s help. :lovin: I played Harahi quite a few times with Boxer. I can win it, but I’d have to play perfectly. You screw up once and you’re dead. What I can do ist list some of the things I remember him doing (this is like 8 years ago).

  • hop past you, cr forward, cr forward, ball, which dizzies.
  • short ball into either bite or electricity.
  • repeated crossovers with jump forward. Really annoying on boxer because he leans so far back, he’s easy to cross up that way.
  • very very precise with his combos. Jump fierce, low forw, stand strong, ball every time, never missed it.
  • good use of straight jump fierce as anti air.
  • his own version of the new ken “mix up”. Jump forward as you are getting up, then low forward. Then either bite, or low foward + ball combo. Repeat.

As for Claw, yes I did play him against Harahi. I think he pretty much raped me straight up and down.

I wish…

Thanks for letting me ramble :sweat:

Julien

:lovin: Your posts are wonderful! :lovin:

its sad to hear that characters are frowned upon because they are too “easy” to use.

one important thing i learned from mvc2 was if its in the game and it isnt game breaking, its legit. no honor code BS, anything goes. back then, cable used to be the ultimate easy mode character. nowadays, you cant even pay some people to use him.

Yeah, zass, I could read your ramblings all day. Don’t appologize because they’re too long, appologize because they’re too short! Any other cool tactics some of these guys were notable for(with ANY character!) I’d love to hear, and I don’t think anyone in here would disagree! :slight_smile:

Agreed. These stories from the land of the rising sun have been a blast to read!

Ditto, hope you’re not getting tired of hearing this, zass, but it bears repeating that your stuff is awesome. Thanks so much for sharing it. :tup:

zass -

Here are some videos from X-Mania I (August 2000) featuring some of the Namiki crew – getting worked by Inro – that you might enjoy:

http://www.wikiupload.com/download_page.php?id=134237

Takiba=T.Akiba. I don’t know when he switched from Ken to Dhalsim. Lately he mostly uses Blanka. Trying to fill the gap that Harahi left?

I think it’s remarkable how Good-foot Tanaka (current game name: Ashitana) plays such a staid old character in such a funky way.

Nah, he quit arcade ST. Too bad… Harahi-Komoda seems like it could have been one of the great East-West rivalries a la Tama-Tsuji, Pony-Gunze, Mattsun-Aniken, etc.

http://www.harahi.net/

Dude did take up AE on X-Box:

I’m sure Harahi made this look easy, but Boxer is much skinnier than he looks! Getting a cross up opportunity but sailing past him and getting grabbed is one of the worst moments for a Blanka player. Right behind looking at the life bars and seeing that you’re at a big health deficit to Honda. heh

I think Chris F. (yep) might still play in Vancouver sometimes. Not sure. Dunno how far that is for you.

awesome posts zass, keep em comming, i wish i could go to Japan and play some ST, btw did you play in any X-Mania?

zass, your posts are awesome! Nice to hear the perspectice of someone who actually fought against all these Japanese players …

Akishima or otochun?

Akishima was the red Chun-Li player who beat Otochun’s Chun in the SBO 2003 final.

zass, first off, awesome posts. Secondly, you chose the right time to come back, ST is definitely enjoying a nice resurgance as of late, what with all the remakes and such.

I’ve answered your question in a new thread here, since I don’t want to hijack nohoho’s anymore :slight_smile:

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?p=3852928#post3852928

Any vids on that Club Sega tourney that happened last weekend?

variety of players

That’s an interesting project, to compile the names and bios of the best players… but I imagine it would be very difficult to do, at least to any accurrate length because there are so many pockets of such strong players all over the place.

XSPR

Congrats Fred for making the Capcom-unity homepage.

I’ve got some semi-exclusive content to post thanks to you dude.

special guests visit

Not sure where the other thread is where I wrote about “other Japanese players” I’ve come across in Japan, and these forums can get unwieldy so I’ll just post this here.

I just got word that we’ll have some famous visitors to our local area at Shirone CHANCE arcade in Niigata prefecture:

“KOMODA-BLANKA, PONY-ZANGIEF, M-tsun-KEN, KKY-DHALSIM and so on.”

I wonder if this is some kind of a tour? I was very disappointed to also find out that our local Blanka master Shinryu probably won’t be there, which really sucks. Anyway the guys listed above will be here tomorrow night and on Saturday for the next tournament, I’ll try to catch them both nights.

David Boudreau
XSPR on xbox live

updated list

here’s an updated list for this weekend (format: player@character):

KOMODA@BLANKA
M-tsun@KEN
PONY@ZANGIEF
Tsunoppi@GUILE
KKY@DHALSIM
ni~a^@HONDA
OJII@RYU
Yoshio@GUILE

The following might also come:
GIAN@DHALSIM
Nagata-Syogatsu@SUPER HONDA
JENETY@Chun-Li

http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/432574/

Cool pictures! The event looked like it was fun. And that Alien table is dope!