Ryu

Ryu first showed up in 1987’s Street Fighter. He and Ken are the only selectable characters with player 1 being Ryu and player 2 being Ken. They play exactly the same, and while they have their iconic special attacks (the Hadoken, Shoryuken, and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku) at their disposal, the game doesn’t let you know. All three attacks are secrets that players have to discover on their own.

In their first outing, Ryu or Ken blaze through a fighting tournament and take on a bunch of generic opponents, such as “shirtless white guy” and “dude with Mohawk.” In the end, they face Sagat, a 7-foot-tall Muay Thai master with one eye. In terms of canon, Ryu wins the final battle and tears Sagat’s chest open with a Shoryuken.

At the time, that was all there was to it. Generic karate guy won a generic fighting tournament and the game congratulated you for winning. There was no lore.

Then came Street Fighter II in 1991. No longer a game with two playable characters who fought exactly the same, Ryu and Ken are joined by a memorable cast that included Chun-Li, Guile, Blanka, Zangief, E. Honda, and Dhalsim. They face four unplayable bosses, one of which is Sagat, bent on revenge over the nasty Shoryuken scar over his chest. It’s basically the coolest hook they could have come up with to build on such a generic predecessor.

With more personality in the game, we also got more of an idea of who Ryu and Ken are, especially in relation to each other. They grew up and trained together under the same master, which is why their outfits and fighting styles are exactly the same outside of the colors. Also, one of Ken’s throws is slightly different. Otherwise, there were virtually no differences at the time, although that would change in the following decades.

While they fought the same, their identities were established to be very different. Ken is a rich, flashy guy with a girlfriend on the side. Ryu, on the other hand, is just a wanderer who wanted nothing more than to fight. Even in his ending, when they hold a ceremony to celebrate his win, Ryu is long gone, walking barefoot on a path to find more worthy opponents. That set the tone for the next 25 years, as he’d face all sorts of crazy opponents from his own world and many others.

But for real, it was probably for the best that Ryu didn’t show up. Bison and Sagat were there and that probably wouldn’t have ended well.

One of the more memorable pieces of trivia from this game is the English win quote where Ryu claims, “You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.” It was a mistranslation and was supposed to be about his Dragon Punch. People scratched their heads over this one and Electronic Gaming Monthly famously stoked the flames by claiming, in their first ever April Fools’ Day prank, that Sheng Long was the name of Ryu and Ken’s master and that you could face him by playing as Ryu, winning with nothing but perfect rounds, and going several rounds against Bison without ever taking damage.

Japan gave us a couple attempts at Street Fighter cartoons in the mid-90s. First came 1994’s Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, which is basically the inspiration for Street Fighter Alpha. It takes place sometime after Ryu defeated and horribly scarred Sagat, with that win putting him on top of M. Bison’s list. Bison wants to make an army of mind-controlled soldiers and someone like Ryu would be a keen choice. Guile and Chun-Li know that Ryu’s a person of interest, so they try to catch up with him first.

In America, the Street Fighter movie hit theaters in 1994 and Ryu’s depiction by Byron Mann is quite a bit off the mark. Ryu and Ken are slimy swindlers who try to scam people on both sides. Even though they earn spots in Shadaloo, they ultimately turn on them and help the other heroes, leading to Ryu and Ken fighting and defeating Vega and Sagat. In the fighting game based on the movie, Ryu chooses to leave fighting behind in order to help rebuild Shadaloo City.

The movie was spun off into a Saturday morning cartoon and as a fan of Street Fighter, it’s truly a trip to watch. It lasted two seasons, but with a noticeable shift. See, the first season was a GI Joe knockoff that took after the movie. Guile, Blanka, and Chun-Li were the main characters while Ryu, Ken, Cammy, and the rest were given supporting roles. After all, not only was Guile the main hero of the movie, but Blanka was incredibly popular with American audiences.

Coincidentally, in Iron Fist’s ending, he puts together a brand new version of Heroes for Hire, featuring Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Ryu, Chun-Li, and Rival Schools’ Batsu. Suddenly, I’m mad that Marvel never made any comics for their Capcom crossovers.

Shifting gears, Ryu starred in 2000’s Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation. It was a decent, though not exceptional, anime movie about a boy named Shun, who claims to be Ryu’s long-lost brother. There’s a whole thing where Shun suggests that Akuma is their father, but Akuma outright rejects the notion and Shun turns out to be a fraud regardless. Still, a lot of people held onto the idea that Akuma was Ryu’s father, which I guess fits into the whole Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker thing people love.

Back to the games, 1997 gave us the beginning of the Street Fighter III series. Those games ended up becoming the canon finale to the franchise, mainly because Capcom decided to scrub the entire roster except for Ryu and Ken. Even then, those two weren’t originally going to be in there. The upgrades (Second Impact and Third Strike) brought in Akuma and Chun-Li. The whole revamp didn’t go over too well with fans of the classic characters, so all the games released after have taken place prior to Street Fighter III as a way to bridge everything.

As of Street Fighter III, Ryu’s seemingly conquered the Dark Hadou completely. Now he’s just focusing on mastering his art and being the best that he can be. While he’s no longer the main hero of the series, he’s become a bit of a legend. The new protagonist, Alex, ends up becoming inspired by him, and the elderly and mighty Oro recognizes that in a few decades, Ryu may be the best ever.

Going from a great adaptation to a crap adaptation, 2009 gave us the live-action Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. While Ryu isn’t even in it, he’s namedropped at the end of the movie by Gen, who acts like a sequel is in the works. Come on, man.

Ryu returned to form in Street Fighter IV. He remained his usual self with not much new to talk about. Hell, the big thing going on in his backstory is the reveal that Gouken isn’t so dead after all. Otherwise, Ryu just Hadokens a waterfall in his intro and a big computer thing in his ending. No big deal.

The game spun-off into Street Fighter X Tekken, where Ryu and Ken journey together to investigate the mysterious, cosmic device in the Antarctic known only as Pandora. On the way, they face off against Tekken characters Kazuya Mishima and Nina Williams, who are painted as their rivals. Mainly because Ryu and Kazuya are the main characters, and Kazuya’s “Devil” form is kind of like the Dark Hadou.