Dan (Street Fighter)

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Dan
Dan from Capcom vs. SNK 2 Capcom Groove
Game series	Street Fighter series
First game	Street Fighter Alpha
In-Universe Information
Birthplace	Hong Kong
Blood type	O
Fighting style	Saikyo-ryuu Style Karate
Likes	Taunting
Dislikes	Seaweed, small-time crooks, and pretentious people
Special skill	Tile breaking, karaoke

Dan Hibiki (火引弾 Hibiki Dan) is a character from Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. Dan is consistently portrayed as an arrogant, overconfident, yet utterly weak character in many of the games he is featured in. English speakers often pronounce the name as though it were short for "Daniel", rather than its proper pronunciation ("Dah-n"). He is widely considered to be the comic relief of the series because of his over-the-top poses and battle cries.

1 Story
2 Dan as a parody
3 Appearance
4 Gameplay
- 4.1 Techniques
5 Connections with other games
6 Quotes
7 Fighting game appearances
- 7.1 Non-fighting game appearances
8 Related characters
9 See also
10 External links

[edit] Story

Dan's father, Go Hibiki, was a rival of Sagat. Go gouged out Sagat's eye and Sagat beat him to death in retaliation. Because of this, Dan sought revenge on Sagat, training to become a fighter, but was expelled from Gouken's dojo when his motivations were learned. Dan thus developed his own style of Ansatsuken merged with Muay Thai elements and called Saikyou-ryuu, "The Strongest Style", despite the weakness of his techniques.

After the events of Street Fighter Alpha 3, Dan believed he had achieved his revenge by defeating Sagat (who had actually thrown the fight), and his motivation switched to promoting and expanding his Saikyou-ryuu school, even to the point of offering exercise videos and correspondence courses. He has seemingly had some limited success promoting saikyo-style.

In SFA3, he was Sakura Kasugano's supposed sensei, who followed him around in order to meet Ryu. He's also good friends with Blanka too, since Blanka saved Dan when he was young.

[edit] Dan as a parody

After the release and success of Street Fighter II, rival video game company SNK created their own fighting game Art of Fighting. The principal character of this series, Ryo Sakazaki, bore a striking resemblance in appearance, fighting style, and name to Ryu of Street Fighter.

Dan was first seen in an illustration of Sagat, who was seen holding the limp body of a fighter who had the body of Ryo and the head of Robert Garcia, the two protagonists of SNK's Art of Fighting series.

When developing Street Fighter Alpha, Capcom included Dan as a secret character. His fireball is telling: instead of using both hands to unleash the fireball (as Ryu, Ken, and even Sakura do), he propels it with one hand, like Ryo, Robert and Yuri do. Dan can also taunt infinitely like the Art of Fighting games, unlike his fellow Street Fighter characters.

In Dan's ending in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Dan's sister appears to prevent him finishing off Akuma saying "Don't you know who he is? He's our...", parodying the ending of the original Art of Fighting where Ryo was about to kill Mr. Karate before being told he is their father by Yuri.[1]

One of Dan's win quotes in Street Fighter Alpha 3 is "I hate the art of fighting, but I want to be the king of fighters!". This was a direct reference to Art of Fighting and The King of Fighters series by SNK.

Also Dan's fighting style, the Saikyo-ryuu, is a parody of Kyokugen-ryuu, the fighting style used by Ryo and Robert. To further the parody, Saikyo-ryuu means "Strongest style" while Kyokugen-ryuu means "Extreme Style."

In the SNK vs. series, there is a running gag where Dan is often mistaken for Ryo or Robert. In these games, Dan parodies even more of Ryo's attacks. He also mistook Mr. Karate for his father's ghost. In Ryo Sakazaki's ending for Capcom vs. SNK 2, it is hinted that Dan came to the Sakazkis' Kyokugenryu Karate school to sign up. In Pocket Fighter, Dan can call on the ghost of his father, who wears the same tengu mask as Mr. Karate.

[edit] Appearance

Dan is beaten by Retsu, a character from the original Street Fighter

Dan has a similar outfit to Ryu and Ken, wearing a traditional Karategi. Dan also wears a black undershirt. His head and face closely resembles Robert from Art of Fighting, while his outfit is bright pink, reminicient of Ryo's orange outfit in Art of Fighting.

Though his fighting stance is similar to Ken and Ryu's, it is more "loose" and animated.

[edit] Gameplay

Due to his weak moves, Dan is widely regarded as a joke character, not to be used for any serious competition. He is also popular as a handicap to skilled players, as his weakness makes winning matches more difficult. As such, selecting Dan can in itself be seen as a taunt, since doing so implies high confidence that a player is superior in skill to his or her opponent.

However, in some games such as Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Dan is more balanced and less of a "joke" character (although still noticeably less playable than most other characters): Dan retains his incredibly limited range and weak defense, but is given a couple of particularly strong/effective hyper combos; one of which has a "vacuum effect", sucking the opponent in, and one of which is the most powerful special move in the entire game.

[edit] Techniques

In the games he appears in, Dan is distinguished from Ryu and Ken by his ineffective special moves, such as a fireball with a comically short range (Gadoken) and a triple-hitting flying kick that is easy to block (Dankukyaku or Gale Kick); both reminiscent of attacks in Art of Fighting. Dan also possesses Koryuken, a dragon punch with very little horizontal range, during which he sometimes flashes and becomes invincible. He can also perform Premium Sign, where he autographs a portrait and flings it at the opponent.

Dan has a move known as the Hisshou Buraiken, which is a parody of Ryo's Desperation move, the Ryuuko Ranbu. Dan also possesses a "Shoryu Reppa" type move called the Koryu Rekka, which was borrowed from the double uppercut at the end of Ryo's MAX Ryuuko Ranbu (He even imitates Ryo's "Kyokugen-ryuu Ougi!"/"Kyokugen-style secret!" yell that is used at the beginning of Ryuuko Ranbu, instead declaring "Saikyo-ryuu Ougi!"). Both moves have little to no range at all, and leave Dan wide open for attack if the moves are blocked.

Dan is one of only two characters in the Street Fighter series that has a super taunt, along with Sagat: Chouhatsu Densetsu (Legendary Taunt) and Chouhatsu Shinwa (Mythical Taunt).

Dan has a move known as the Otoko Michi which parodies Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu. The Otoko Michi is performed by doing the command for the Shun Goku Satsu in reverse. However, unlike the Shun Goku Satsu, which can take off more than half of the opponent's lifebar, the Otoko Michi takes off a minimal amount of life from the opponent, but leaves Dan with only 1% of life. This move, unlike the Shun Goku Satsu, is considered highly unreliable and only used for humiliating an opponent. However, in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, it is the strongest single Hyper Combo in the game, and in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, it not only does considerable amount of damage when used, but he loses no life from performing it: this is due to the fact that it is his Exceed attack, all of which need a low amount of life remaining to become usable to begin with.

Ironically, Dan parodies even more Kyokugen-style attacks in the SNK-produced games of the SNK vs. series. He gains the Gadou Sho Ko Ken (a Gadoken-ranged version of the Haoh Sho Koh Ken) in both SNK-produced games (as a Level 2 version of Shinkuu Gadoken in Match of the Millenium, and a regular special move in SVC Chaos). Also, in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, he is able to use the above move as a normal special move, and he also gains a parody version of Ryo's Tenchi Haou Ken called Kyuukyoku Tenchi Gadou Zuki that is able to block any attack during the chargeup perioid, even normally unblockable moves, but does not do much damage and has an extremely long recovery time since Dan punches the opponent so hard that he breaks the bones in his hand, and needs some time to tend to it.

[edit] Connections with other games

Ran Hibiki from the fighting game series Rival Schools shares a number of similarities with Dan and it is implied that the two are related. A classmate of Ran is Chairperson, who learned to fight from a Saikyou-Ryuu correspondence course.
Sean Matsuda from the Street Fighter III series, an Ansatsuken student under Ken Masters who has a very limited mastery of the fighting style, has the win quote, "Don't call me Dan!"

[edit] Quotes

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Dan (Street Fighter)

Match of The Millennium

[vs. Ryo or Yuri] "Kyokugen? I wrote the book!"

Capcom vs. SNK 2

"Little girls tie bows, real men Saikyo!"

SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom

"I am Dan Hibiki? Dan Hibiki! Dan Hibiki! That's Dan Hibiki! Got it!"

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter

"The only master I need is myself!"

Pocket Fighter

"You'll never defeat me because I'm a master in my own mind!"

[edit] Fighting game appearances

Street Fighter Alpha (1995) - secret character
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (1996)
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997)
Pocket Fighter (1997)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (1998)
SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium (1999)
Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 (2000) - non-playable, appears alongside SNK comedy relief character Joe Higashi as winner of tournament
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (2000) - joke character
Street Fighter EX 3 (2000)
Capcom vs. SNK Pro (2001)
Capcom vs. SNK 2 (2001)
SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (2004)

Dan, along with Chun-Li, was considered for making an appearance in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, but only Chun-Li made the cut. ^{[citation needed]}