Takuma Sakazaki
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| Takuma Sakazaki / Mr. Karate | |
|---|---|
 Takuma Sakazaki in King of Fighters: Neo Wave |
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| Game series | Art of Fighting series King of Fighters series SNK Vs. series |
| First game | Art of Fighting |
| In-Universe Information | |
| Birthplace | Japan |
| Blood type | O |
| Fighting style | Kyokugenryu Karate |
| Likes | Kyokugenryu Karate, his children, and his students |
| Dislikes | Snakes |
Takuma Sakazaki (タクマ・サカザキ?) is a character from both the Art of Fighting and King of Fighters fighting game series. His distinguishing feature is an X-shaped scar on his right pectoral. He is also somewhat eccentric, donning his tengu mask and insisting he's Mr. Karate, and delivering speeches that are supposed to rally morale, but often make him look silly. Takuma is the most established known Kyokugenryu Karate practitioner, and he is the only one in the discipline who can make full use of the discipline's most difficult moves (namely the Shoran Kyaku), available only in the Shoran principle of Kyokugenryu Karate. Takuma is voiced by Eiji Tsuda in many of the games he appears in.
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[edit] Background
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[edit] Art of Fighting
[edit] Takuma's Beginnings
Takuma learned Kyokugen from his father. Upon being named the heir of Kyokugen, Takuma married an American woman named Ronnet, and they moved to the then-peaceful Southtown to raise a family. Both Takuma and Ronnet became parents of Ryo and Yuri, who were born respectively four years apart. Shortly after the birth of Yuri, Ronnet fell ill and died. This tragedy filled Takuma with grief, but he resolved to make his children the best fighters in the world.
Takuma trained Ryo exclusively at the beginning, as he felt Yuri was too young and that Ryo was to be the heir to the title of Kyokugenryu Master. A friend of his, Alberto Garcia, sent his son Robert to Takuma for training in discipline. Takuma swore that he would teach Kyokugen not only to his children and Robert, but to as many as he could - his heavy training programs, however, are so intensive that most students drop out early on, and even his children and Robert tend to complain.
[edit] The Rise of Crime in Southtown
In the midst of Takuma's aim to spread the Kyokugenryu discipline, crime started infesting Southtown, and Geese Howard made himself the de facto boss of the city. Unwilling to live with it, Takuma fought his way through lackeys and stooges and confronted Geese himself, demanding that he put an end to the tyranny. Geese replied with threats against Takuma's children, knowing that they meant the world to him. Now with Takuma dancing at his fingertips, Geese forced him to work for him. In order to preserve his honor, Takuma donned a tengu mask and formed another persona: "Mr. Karate."
While Geese was out on business, Mr. Big was in charge. In order to keep Takuma firmly under his control, Mr. Big had Yuri kidnapped. Unfortunately, that move caused Ryo and Robert to tear up Southtown in search of her and Takuma. When Robert got to Mr. Big and defeated him, Big called for Mr. Karate, and he came out to battle Ryo by Robert's favor because he was already exhausted. Although Ryo won, he threatened to kill Mr. Karate if he didn't tell him where Takuma and Yuri were. Yuri stopped Ryo from killing their father, and they had a joyous reunion.
[edit] The King of Fighters
Takuma led Ryo and Robert as a team in the new King of Fighters for two years, until he retired and brought in Yuri as a replacement. He remained on the sideline until 1999, when he rejoined the team as their fourth man. In 2000, Takuma welcomed King onto the team, knowing that she and Ryo have a "special something" together. Unfortunately, King of Fighters 2000 climaxed with the Zero Cannon wiping out most of Southtown, including the Kyokugenryu dojo. He couldn't use the Garcia fortune to rebuild with, as a world financial crisis had virtually wiped it out. He entered the team into the 2001 tournament to win the prize money. At the end of King of Fighters 2003 he is attacked by an unseen assilant. He apparently recognizes him but passes out before he telling anyone. It is rumored that his assailent may either be Yamazaki or Eiji Kisaragi.
[edit] Honki Ni Natta Mr. Karate (or "Becoming Serious Mr. Karate")
In SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom there is a boss character (selectable by code), Serious Mr. Karate (Honki Ni Natta Mr. Karate (本気になったMr.カラテ?)). He plays similarly to Mr. Karate, but is faster, more powerful, has a nearly instant and invisible Ko-Ou Ken attack (a larger version of the one available to Takuma in KoF 2002), has a different stance, has some abilities and attacks from the original Art of Fighting (and his power charging ability derived from this can also be used to nullify most projectile attacks before they reach him), can use the game's regular Mr. Karate's super moves as specials (apparently in exchange for his Mouko Burai Gan and Shoran Kyaku, although he gets to use the Shin Kishin Geki super from KoF as a special too). He wears a darker gi, and his tengu mask sports longer hair and nose, complete with glowing eyes. How Mr. Karate attains this "form" or status is unknown, and it may not even be canon. It is speculated this may be when he reaches his full potential or when encountering an outside power (similar to Shin Akuma). He is, however, certainly less playful and preachy than his other form in the game, and it may be worthy of interest to notice the difference in the mask used in this form and in others in the same game and KOF where the character is sillier, but the mask is also comparatively underdeveloped.
[edit] Trivia
- As a running gag not only in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, but also in the SNK universe as a whole, Mr. Karate is in ironclad denial of his true identity as Takuma, instead calling himself the "Karate Goblin" when conversing with his King of Fighters acquaintances, especially Kasumi Todoh, daughter of Ryuhaku Todoh and disciple of Todoh-Ryuu Kobojutsu, the rival of Kyokugenryu Karate. He, however, obviously does not deny this fact to his son, Ryo. Obviously, most everyone from Team SNK knows it's him, even though he keeps on denying (as it can be seen by the Kyokugen Team's endings in the '96 and '97 editions). It is interesting to note that even though he denies being Takuma, he still refers his opponents to the Kyokugen dojo, saying it's "all the rage".
- Takuma is most likely based on the famous Korean martial artist Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin-kai (Kyokugen, Takuma's style, is obviously a play on it).
- Some have translated Serious Mr. Karate to actually mean something akin to "Seriously, I'm Mr. Karate." This is somewhat plausible, as it would mean SNK/Playmore is taking a jab at Shin Akuma ("True Akuma").
- In King of Fighters '98, Takuma appeared in a "Master's Team", along with Saisyu Kusanagi (the father of Kyo Kusanagi, and Heidern (mentor to Ralf Jones and Clark Steel, and adoptive father of Leona).
- In Takuma's most recent KOF appearance, King of Fighters '02, Takuma has evidently been growing weaker in recent years, losing his ability to throw his famed Ko oh Ken and Haoh Sho Ko Ken fireballs. Instead, they were replaced with standing punch versions without the projectiles, despite this, they can still seem to mysteriously hit when they seem out of range... especially the Ko Oh Ken.
- Takuma's KoF 2002 version could be homage to Ryo/Mr. Karate in Buriki One for the Hyper Neo Geo 64.
- In the Kyokugen team ending of King of Fighters '03, Takuma is attacked and severely beaten by a mysterious attacker sometime during the tournament's progression while his students are away participating. It is currently unknown who attacked him, and whether or not he will be able to pull through. In the story for the Kyokugen team for KOFXI it states he was injured during the last tournament, but doesn't refer to being attacked, it states the main reason he was hospitalized was a relapse of the scar on his back.
- In the ending of the SNES version of Art of Fighting, Takuma's hair was grey instead of brown.
[edit] External links
| Characters |
|---|
| Eiji Kisaragi - Geese Howard - Kasumi Todoh - King - Mr. Big - Mr. Karate - Robert Garcia - Ryo Sakazaki - Ryuhaku Todoh - Yuri Sakazaki - Jack Turner - Lee Pai Long - Jin Fuha - Mickey Rogers - John Crawley - Karman Cole - Roddy Birts - Lenny Creston - Wang Koh San - Wyler |
