Gather round kids! It's time for some fun facts about the Street Fighter character Dan!
Dan made his first appearance as a secret/joke character in Street Fighter Zero/Alpha pt 1 (1995).
(a thread...)
#SFVSummerUpdate #SFV新キャラ予想会
However, Dan's roots can be traced years earlier to this official illustration of Sagat from Street Fighter 2 (1991) by Akiman! See that limp goon in Sagat's grip? The pink gi? Ponytail? The tight black undershirt? That's Dan!
#SFVSummerUpdate #SFV新キャラ予想会
From the start it was clear that Dan Hibiki was a parody of Ryo and Robert from SNK's rival fighting game series, Art of Fighting. The unnamed, utterly defeated. throwaway fighter from the Sagat illustration grew into the character we know and love today!
#SFVSummerUpdate
The parody goes even further. Dan's father, Go Hibiki is clearly a parody of Ryo Sazaki's father, Takuma Sazaki aka "Mr. Karate!"
Go Hibiki made his first official appearance in Pocket Fighter (1997) where his ghost appears to help his son Dan out in some of his moves.
Dan's father, Go Hibiki is canonically the reason Sagat is missing an eye. I always interpreted this as conveying that Go was a dirty fighter (eye gouging is illegal in most combat sports and generally looked down upon). Sagat beat him to death as a result of his foul play.
Poor Sagat, losing an eye to Go Hibiki's dirty fighting tactics. Then later losing to Ryu sucker punched him (while using the dark hadou!) after Sagat had already bested him in a fair fight!
Anyway back to Dan! There's more to his connection to SNK! It's not quite fair to say that Art of Fighting was simply a Street Fighter rip off. In fact, the creator of Art of Fighting Hiroshi Matsumoto (松本 裕司) was the main planner on the very first Street Fighter!
#SFV
Hiroshi Matsumoto (松本 裕司) went on to found Dimps, who developed both Street Fighter IV and V for Capcom, bringing everything full circle! In a way, Dan is the perfect mascot for the 3D mainline Street Fighter games!
#SFVSummerUpdate #SFV新キャラ予想会
Thanks for reading everyone! Follow me for more ADHD Hyper-focus driven threads on Street Fighter (and more!)!! ✌️✨
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.