The Ultra Inevitable Street Fighter V Story Thread

[Lord_Vega]

It’s been awhile. Lemme answer a few things that were left behind…

About the stage names:

@Midgardsorm

It does, thank you! Although I’m still under the impression they simply reused the fan translation on the Net… Oh well, who cares anyway.

I don’t know about that. What I noticed is that the Zero/Alpha 2 stage names have small differences from the SFA2 Official Strategy Guide by Versus Books (I’ll scan the pages later, there’s a lot of cool art on those guides):
Ryu: Suzakujo, Japan
Rose: Genova City Port, Italy
Ken: San Francisco Bay, USA
Chun-Li: Beijing, China
Sagat: Ayuthaya Temple Ruins, Thailand
Nash/Charlie: Detroit Highway, USA
Adon: Bank of the Chaopraya, Thailand
Birdie: W.C. in the London Underground, England
Guy: Metro City, USA
Katana/Sodom: Arizona Desert, USA
Vega/M. Bison: Atop the VTOL, Brazil
Gouki/Akuma: Gokuento, Japan
Dan: Temple Street, Hong Kong
Sakura: Setagaya-ku, 2-Chome, Tokyo, Japan
Dhalsim: Bank of the Ganges, India
Zangief: Bilsk Steelworks, Russia
Gen: Shanghai, China
Rolento: New York, USA

The guide didn’t provide the name for the 2 secret stages.

@Cestus_II

In Raoh’s defense, he did’nt had an Hitlah poster in his palace LOL

The Hitler picture was edited out from that artwork after Eternal Challenge.

@TazyryLipo

Found this on Twitter. Don’t know what it’s for. I’m guessing it’s probably some miscellaneous sketches since Maki doesn’t have her CVS2 look and the other FF characters look a bit different.

According to SF25: The Art of Street Fighter (UDON), those are reference art for Final Fight Revenge.

@Cestus_II

sold better the idea of him being an american/western counterpart to Ryu (despite being mostly japanese lol)
I remember read somewhere also a designer’s note on their body built differences, with Ken having longer legs and more V shape torso.
I remember while saying that he pointed at Ken being part western as the reason, while Ryu got what he defined a more japanese built, with thick strong torso

I was looking at the old guide sometime ago, and there, it seems that All About SFIII actually mentions that Ken was born (and raised) in Japan.
It also mentions (without the source) that Ken started to dye his hair during middle school, more or less when his parents got divorced. I wonder if, when his father took him to Gouken, his hair was already dyed.

@Midgardsorm

Let’s get started.
First of all, a thing that everyone in the FGC could already know… Although I suspect no one bothered to actually check it.

Man, that was simply… awesome!

@Midgardsorm

Interesting but almost unusable due to the scans having their resolution too low. Luckily @Lord_Vega has supplied us with better scans.

You’re welcome. A pity that I don’t hvae anymore Secret Files. At least not for now…

@Midgardsorm

It is possible, but Bison’s Double Knee Press was stated in Street Fighter II Complete File as being stolen from Adon . Basically Capcom reused Adon’s Jaguar Kick from SF1 (so they had to redesign it for the Alpha series, thinking about it…).

Just a small correction… that statement was first published in a SF2WW characters relation chart on GAMEST no 61.

@Spoonman

Old internal Capcom USA SF2 book, I found the personalized logos for each of the 12 characters a nice curiosity.

Those logos were used by White Wolf in their RPG version of SF back in 1994.

@BootyWarrior

Nah, in Street Fighter II Complete File released in 1992 they confirm that Ryu was the one to kill M. Bison. All that’s left of M. Bison was his hat just like in SFV which repeated the cycle.

@Mattchaos

In the same doc we learn that Guile is considered by many ‘the strongest man in the world’ and that Dhalsim won the tournament, so I wouldn’t read too much into it. It is as much canon as the different endings, and certainly supposed to offer as much insight.
Also the artist being this one is SHOEI who wasn’t lead designer in SF2, but was in charge of Ryu’s design, there’s no surprise in him favoring Ryu.

The Complete File gave us a hint that Capcom wanted Ryu to have won the tournament. It also added Dhalsim as the winner by placing Vega/Bison and Sagat in 2nd and 3rd places while in SFII WW there’s just 2 random guys with Dhalsim at the podium.
The most clear piece of information that Ryu might have won the SF2 tournament came from Akira Nishitani in 2016. When Nakayama mentions the story about Hokuto and Kairi, he says that the official story is in the SFEX CD Drama. In this CD we have a track where Ken remembers Ryu fighting several SF2 fighters (Honda, Guile, Dhalsim…), and then, there’s a flashback of when Ryu fought, and defeated, Vega. After his defeat, Vega mentions that now, Ryu can have all the riches and fame, which Ryu mentions he’s not interested in any of it. So, if now the SFEX Drama is canon, so is Ryu defeating Vega with a Shoryuken against the Psycho Crusher.

@Midgardsorm

Ok, I’ve read the article Ryoredcyclone wrote about Chun-Li’s EIGHT DIVERSE FATHERS in various interpretations of the canon, and in this novel Chun-Li’s father is named 火龍 Huǒ Lóng (“Fire Dragon”).

Interesting to note that he didn’t mention (at least I couldn’t spot it using Google translator) Chun-Li’s family name, Chung, published in the SF2’CE GAMEST number 77 (red rectangle below). Unless the translator got it wrong

Also, the SFII CD drama with Chun-Li and Ryu on the cover gave us how Chun-Li’s father got killed by Vega/Bison… right in front of her eyes.

Whew! That was a lot!

[Magegg]

Guys, anyone watched the Street Fighter II: V anime? Did you like any of it?

[Spoonman]

Honestly, I did not like it that much, it has its moments but it is too much of a departure in terms of story and character design, and this comes from someone who doesn’t think an adaptation needs to stick to canon 100%, but IMO the divergence was just too much, didnt feel enough like SF for me…its also a bit plodding and slow at times.

[Midgardsorm]

@Lord_Vega

About the stage names:

@Midgardsorm

It does, thank you! Although I’m still under the impression they simply reused the fan translation on the Net… Oh well, who cares anyway.

I don’t know about that. What I noticed is that the Zero/Alpha 2 stage names have small differences from the SFA2 Official Strategy Guide by Versus Books (I’ll scan the pages later, there’s a lot of cool art on those guides):
Ryu: Suzakujo, Japan
Rose: Genova City Port, Italy
Ken: San Francisco Bay, USA
Chun-Li: Beijing, China
Sagat: Ayuthaya Temple Ruins, Thailand
Nash/Charlie: Detroit Highway, USA
Adon: Bank of the Chaopraya, Thailand
Birdie: W.C. in the London Underground, England
Guy: Metro City, USA
Katana/Sodom: Arizona Desert, USA
Vega/M. Bison: Atop the VTOL, Brazil
Gouki/Akuma: Gokuento, Japan
Dan: Temple Street, Hong Kong
Sakura: Setagaya-ku, 2-Chome, Tokyo, Japan
Dhalsim: Bank of the Ganges, India
Zangief: Bilsk Steelworks, Russia
Gen: Shanghai, China
Rolento: New York, USA

The correct versions are those in the game.
Suzaku Castle is correct, as jō is only the on reading of 城 shiro, “castle”.
Ayutthaya and Chao Phraya are the correct spellings.
Ni-Chōme is still 2-Chōme. Ni is only the Japanese pronunciation of 2.

@Lord_Vega

@Cestus_II

In Raoh’s defense, he did’nt had an Hitlah poster in his palace LOL

The Hitler picture was edited out from that artwork after Eternal Challenge.

That was a direct reference to Riki-Oh’s Washizaki, who admired Hitler and whose actions were directly inspired by him.

@Lord_Vega

Just a small correction… that statement was first published in a SF2WW characters relation chart on GAMEST no 61.

Thank you for that. Since I don’t own anything, my only reference was the Japanese Wikipedia.
That chart is HILARIOUS, by the way. Do you already have the translation for it or…?

@Lord_Vega

Interesting to note that he didn’t mention (at least I couldn’t spot it using Google translator) Chun-Li’s family name, Chung, published in the SF2’CE GAMEST number 77 (red rectangle below). Unless the translator got it wrong

ROTFL. That was the single instance when they mistakenly treated 春 Chūn as if it were her surname. It’s Chūn, not Chung. That means they thought her name was simply 麗 Lì.
Even the Japanese Wiki records that. Chun-Li has historically had as surnames 楓 Fēng (the novel Street Fighter Zero Chun Li); 王 Wáng (CD Drama Sf Zero Gaiden - Chun-Li tabidachi no shō); 臧 Zāng (the Hollywood Movie) and 黄 Huáng (Legend of Chun-Li, never explicitly called but it was the surname on her father’s gravestone). Additionally, in her X-Men vs Street Fighter’s ending she was called “miss Li”. So they alternately treated both Chun and Li as surnames.

[Daemos]

It had its epic moments but ultimately the Eagle head and Bison being an environmentalist ruined it for me. Still the best English VA in Bison history.

[Pertho]

You cosplay story mode nerds doing alright?

read all the MvC stuff about tone.

Well I’m out.

[Cestus_II]

@Lord_Vega

Rose: Genova City Port, Italy

Fun thing that stage was mostly Venezia (Venice), on opposite side of north Italy and they used to be epic rival cities

@Lord_Vega

It also mentions (without the source) that Ken started to dye his hair during middle school, more or less when his parents got divorced. I wonder if, when his father took him to Gouken, his hair was already dyed.

I’m going full wild guess here… but considering iirc in japanese teen (80s/90s?) culture dye hair is seen as a “rebel” move, is possible that the sequence has been

Ken’s parents divorced
v
Ken became problematic/scrappy/rebel (dye his hair blond here)
v
Ken’s dad thought he needed to be disciplined*, so dropped him at Gouken’s dojo

Writing that i noticed that this sequence can add depth to Ken’s character and the importance he give to Eliza/Mel

*(everybody know that real reason is him wanting to embrace coke-hooker-coke lifestyle of a just-divorced millionaire, but this is another story)

@Magegg

Guys, anyone watched the Street Fighter II: V anime? Did you like any of it?

I liked most of it, what i did’nt liked was that they changed lot of design for no reason and in large majority of cases their version was worse than the original
It had it’s great moments though

Guile vs Ryu bar fight

- YouTube

Epic Vega intro

Street fighter Iv - love at first sight

[Magegg]

What I liked the most was some music.

I wonder if Capcom has the rights to use any of this in the games.

[TazyryLipo]

@Magegg

anyone watched the Street Fighter II: V anime?

Unlocked old childhood memories. Every Ramadan they’d show the subbed version of SF2V in the animation channel. But it was weird because the company that licensed it also dubbed the US cartoon so I guess they didn’t people to confuse the two series.

The fight scenes were good but the whole thing was just bizarre. It’s really a product of the limbo between SF2 and Alpha. SF2AM is still the definitive animated adaptation.

[DarthEnder]

@Magegg

Guys, anyone watched the Street Fighter II: V anime? Did you like any of it?

It’s not as good as the anime movie.

[Darc_Requiem]

Street Fighter II: V starts off well enough but quickly goes down the crapper.

[Lord_Vega]

@Midgardsorm

Thank you for that. Since I don’t own anything, my only reference was the Japanese Wikipedia.
That chart is HILARIOUS, by the way. Do you already have the translation for it or…?

Actually, I do.

NOTE: Post edited after @Midgardsorm’s corrections.

1-2: Now, the red string of fate will become even more evident!
3: Bombastic!
4-5: Street Fighter II - Correlation Diagram
6-7: Fighters united by the string/web of fate!
8: Mother
9: Samantha
10: Real Name: Jimmy
11: A plane crashes (to “wipe out ” a minister/cabinet member from a certain country)
13-12: Hates the wire-netting because once he got caught in a cage
14-15: Is he the secret boss of the huge evil organization Shadaloo?
16-17: There is a rumor he is the president/chairman/leader of an association that is harming the whole world
18: When they had a draw, had his kick plagiarized
19: Adon
20: Will come back as a robot in SFIII?
21: Disciple
22: Rival
23: You will take responsibility for that, won’t you?
24: Whoopsie!¹
25: Eliza
26: You waste your time getting infatuated with women
27: Actually, sisters
28: Wants him to return the Northern territories₂
29: Important figure
30: Gives the impression that wants to “knock that guy down no matter what”
31: An obstacle to Perestroika
32: Think he plagiarized the Super Zutsuki
33: Killed her father?
34: Does not take into account
35: Hates the idiot
36: Due to the fact he bought up all the spicy condiments, was unable to eat curry rice for half a year
37: Although his deadly technique was associated with killing bulls, it killed his father
38: Elephant
39: Kodal
40: Friend (means of transport)
41: Curry rice
42: Likes
43: Son
44: Datta
45: Kabuki make up rival
46: Geki (SFI)
47: Kakizome³
48: Jealous of her beauty
49: Gen
50: Father
51: Narcotics Investigation Department
52: Friend’s murderer
53: Wants to lovingly rub his beard
54: Underworld wrestler
55: A veteran at the Wrestling Club
56: Gorbachev
57: Helicopter
58: Pajitnov⁴
59: Member of the Science Academy⁵
60: Actually, it’s a spy dog
61: Julia
62: Married couple
63: Chris
64: Daughter
65: Sabu₆
66: Pet (dog)
67: Friend
68: Shiro
69: (Dog, from Final Fight)
70: Likes her thighs
71: Want to show his love through Hyakuretsu Harite
72: He despises him, because he no longer can put whale meat in the chanko₇
73: Nishi-no-Fuji
74: Maru-no-Umi
75: Yasuhanada
76: Tatsuyama
77: “We want to stop wearing the red loin cloth” - the 4 often wear this garment
78: Pen pals
79: What happened to the Street Fighters, afterwards

NOTES:
1: The old gag that “you touched the woman, so you must marry her”. Old as dirt, seen even in Dragon Ball (remember Chichi and Goku?). Here, it’s heavily implied Ken impregnated Eliza, so… Shotgun wedding, my dear Ken!
2: “Northern territories” are the Southern Kuril Islands. There’s an old dispute between Japan and Russia regarding the four southernmost islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai. What’s really hilarious is picturing RYU fussing about the issue, as if anything else than training and fighting ever actually mattered to him.
3: Kakizome is a Japanese term for the first calligraphy written at the beginning of a year
4: Probably refers to Alexey Pajitnov
5: Referring to the former Soviet (now Russian) Academy of Sciences
6: Some places is Safu. Capcom Fighters Network translated it was Sub.
7: Funny political stance, Honda hating Guile because Japan couldn’t fish whales anymore because of US meddling. Always funny to blame the entire population of a country for something its government or a single group did.

I also have the SF2 Complete File chart translation. I’ll post it during the weekend.

[PVL_93_RU]

@DarthEnder

The tone of Capcom’s various franchises has always been wildly varied. Which means, if you’re going to put all those characters into one game, you can EITHER, have a coherent tone for the game, OR you can have respect for the characters.

You CAN’T do both. If you’re going to put Viewtiful Joe and Chris Redfield in the same game, you’re either going to have to let Joe be goofy and Chris be serious, OR you can have a coherent tone, by having one of those characters act out-of-character.

So we’re gonna ignore how Marvel 3 handled its characters?
They literally had the goofballs like Deadpool and Viewtiful Joe, and the seriousness of Dormammu, Wesker, Vergil, Super Skrull
All of them were done very faithfully and neither acted OOC

[DarthEnder]

@PVL_93_RU

So we’re gonna ignore how Marvel 3 handled its characters?
They literally had the goofballs like Deadpool and Viewtiful Joe, and the seriousness of Dormammu, Wesker, Vergil, Super Skrull
All of them were done very faithfully and neither acted OOC

And how is that doing both? I said you can be true to the characters, or you can have a consistant tone.

MvC3 clearly chose the former. And so you have Phoenix Wright goofily battling Dr. Doom.

They made the right choice. They did not do both.

[Spoonman]

Did you forget about that time when Wynona Rider cosplayed as Chun Li? I did too.

Any other examples of Shinkiro using real people as inspiration?

[TazyryLipo]

@Spoonman

Any other examples of Shinkiro using real people as inspiration?

I remember reading that he based some characters off Hong-Kong celebrity Aaron Kwok.

There’s also the “George Clooney” face meme but that’s not related.

[Midgardsorm]

@Lord_Vega

11: A plane crashes (to “wipe out ” a minister/cabinet member from his country)1
[…]
NOTES:
1: not sure if it’s a minister from Jimmy’s country or Shadaloo’s.

Actually, it’s a certain, not his. It’s unspecified and it could be any country. It’s not important.

@Lord_Vega

2: originally, the translator though that Vega stole “Kelly” from Adon. Then I remember that you (or was @bakfromon? Sorry, I don’t remember.) mentioned that kick here was written in a old form and that could confuse whoever tried to translate it. I think that the word could be confused with a bird too, wasn’t it?

Not an old form, nor could it be confused with a bird; it’s simply written in katakana, and as such it could be confused with a foreign name. Anyway, it’s the Jaguar Kick that Vega stole and remade into his Scissor Kick.

@Lord_Vega

23: Be responsible/careful.
24: Babe!

That’s actually a more direct banter between Ken and Eliza.
23: You will take responsibility for that, won’t you?
24: Whoopsie!¹
The old gag that “you touched the woman, so you must marry her”. Old as dirt, seen even in Dragon Ball (remember Chichi and Goku?). Here, it’s heavily implied Ken impregnated Eliza, so… Shotgun wedding, my dear Ken!

@Lord_Vega

26: Gets infatuated with women, among other things

That’s a far more judgemental statement, actually: it’s Ryu saying to Ken “you waste your time getting infatuated with women” (rather than training and sparring with me, it’s the implied meaning…)

@Lord_Vega

28: Wants him to return the Northern territories

“Northern territories” are the Southern Kuril Islands. There’s an old dispute between Japan and Russia regarding the four southernmost islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai. What’s really hilarious is picturing RYU fussing about the issue, as if anything else than training and fighting ever actually mattered to him. This apparently forced political stance doesn’t surprise me, though, as it shows the influence of the typical protagonists of THAT AUTHOR (@bakfromon and @LOVECYCLONE know whom I’m talking about), absolutely not shy to shoehorn his political opinions into his own mangas. We’ll get to him, don’t worry. Of course, it’s not to be taken seriously HERE.

@Lord_Vega

36: Due to the fact he bought spicy condiments, was unable to eat curry rice for half a year

“He bought UP all the spices”. Basically Vega hates Dhalsim because Dhalsim wanted all the curry for himself and monopolised the spices (LOL).

@Lord_Vega

37: Although his deadly technique was associated with killing cattle, it killed his father

“killing bulls”. It’s a reference to Ikki Kajiwara’s Karate Baka Ichidai, where the protagonist Mas Ōyama was regularly fighting bulls; but when he tried to boast that to the cunning promoter Todd Wakamatsu, Todd retorted that it was nothing new, as the former world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson already fought and KILLED A BULL WITH A SINGLE PUNCH WHILE IN SPAIN. Basically Kajiwara created a tall tale about Johnson, where the former champ, despised and impoverished because he was black (true), fled to Spain (true) and was forced to do various gigs to survive, even bullfighting (still true). Once a bull disarmed him, so Johnson fought him barehanded… and won (totally made up). And here we have the birth of the “boxer who kills bulls with a punch” story. And maybe even the idea of the torero costume for Claw…

It should be noted that Kajiwara’s exaggerated stories about wrestlers and martial artists were, and sometimes STILL ARE, widely believed in Japan. It’s not surprising that Street Fighter just took the same stories and exaggerated them further.

@Lord_Vega

53: Wants to lovingly rub his beard4
[…]
4: On Chun-Li? LOL!

LOL. That’s most likely a reference to Zangief’s Bite grab (medium distance f + HP), that when done on Chun-Li resembled more Zangief scrubbing his bearded chin on Chun-Li’s head than a bite:

@Lord_Vega

65: Sub

Sabu, Guile’s dog.

@Lord_Vega

72: He is suffering, because he no longer can put whale meat in the chanko

He despises him. Another funny political stance, Honda hating Guile because Japan couldn’t fish whales anymore because of US meddling. Always funny to blame the entire population of a country for something its government or a single group did.

¹ がちょーん Gachōn was an old nonsensical gag of comedian Kei Tani, where he uttered the (made-up) onomatopoeia “gachōn” while retreating his hand that had seemingly grabbed something it shouldn’t have grabbed. The motion is demonstrated here, completely out of context:

谷啓さん・ガチョーン１０連発

Obviously, it’s a word without a proper translation, that should vary depending on the situation. It also shows the chart was made in the first Nineties, as it’s unlikely any Japanese younger than 50 would remember that gag.

[Great_Dark_Hero]

Ken: “Well. Sense there may be an EVO2020, I think we all know who the true winner of this tournament will be! I have mastered a power that goes far beyond anything related to the Satsui no Hadou, Mushin, Psycho Power, Soul Power, Bushin-Ryu, Orochi-Blood, Devil Gene, DOATEC Alpha Projects, Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, and beyond!”

Ken: “Online Wifi Netplay!”

https://twitter.com/gcyoshi13/status/1256370328634224640?s=20

[ruthless_nash]

I cant believe zangief had that bite grab lol. He must be looking back at with a huge facepalm

[Lord_Vega]

Man! That was awesome! Thanks!

@Midgardsorm

Actually, it’s a certain , not his . It’s unspecified and it could be any country. It’s not important.

I see. so the correct line is “11: A plane crashes (to “wipe out ” a minister/cabinet member from a certain country)”

@Midgardsorm

Not an old form, nor could it be confused with a bird; it’s simply written in katakana, and as such it could be confused with a foreign name. Anyway, it’s the Jaguar Kick that Vega stole and remade into his Scissor Kick.

Yeah, Vega’s first hit sprite resemble a lot one of Adon’s kick in SFI (I don’t think it had a name at the time).

@Midgardsorm

That’s actually a more direct banter between Ken and Eliza.
23: You will take responsibility for that, won’t you?
24: Whoopsie!¹
The old gag that “you touched the woman, so you must marry her”. Old as dirt, seen even in Dragon Ball (remember Chichi and Goku?). Here, it’s heavily implied Ken impregnated Eliza, so… Shotgun wedding, my dear Ken!

Lol! I never thought it could be like that!

@Midgardsorm

That’s a far more judgemental statement, actually: it’s Ryu saying to Ken “you waste your time getting infatuated with women” (rather than training and sparring with me, it’s the implied meaning…)

Huuum… I sense jealousy coming from you, Ryu?

@Midgardsorm

“He bought UP all the spices”. Basically Vega hates Dhalsim because Dhalsim wanted all the curry for himself and monopolised the spices (LOL).

I see. I really thought the other way round, that Vega bought all the spices for himself and couldn’t eat any of it for half a year. But it makes sense, since there’s an affirmation that Dhalsim loves curry rice.
So the correct line is: “36: Due to the fact he bought up all the spicy condiments, was unable to eat curry rice for half a year”

@Midgardsorm

“killing bulls ”.

“37: Although his deadly technique was associated with killing bulls, it killed his father”
Thanks for the explanation from where that came from.

@Midgardsorm

Sabu, Guile’s dog.

Ok.
I’ve seen it romanized as Safu. But CFN and Vasili also had it translated as Sub.

@Midgardsorm

He despises him . Another funny political stance, Honda hating Guile because Japan couldn’t fish whales anymore because of US meddling. Always funny to blame the entire population of a country for something its government or a single group did.

Yeah, that happens a lot.
Correct line is: “72: He despises him, because he no longer can put whale meat in the chanko”

If everything is correct, I’ll update the post.

BTW, I have 2 questions:
1: What’s up with the colored arrows (green and purple)?
2: Are the names of Honda’s students correct (73, 74, 75, 76)?

Thanks a lot for everything.
I might post the Complete File chart tomorrow.