Dan Hibiki
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 each game he is featured in.
English speakers often pronounce the name as though it were short for "Daniel", rather than its proper pronunciation which sounds more like "Dahn". He is widely considered to be the comic relief of the series because of his over-the-top poses and battle cries.
Dan's father, Go Hibiki, was a rival of
Sagat. Go put 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 (misinterpereted in America as
Shotokan) merged with
Muay Thai elements and called Saikyou-ryuu, or, ironically, "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.
After the release and success of
Street Fighter II , rival video game company
SNK created a game known in English as
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. When Capcom developed
Street Figher Alpha, Ryo continued to be recreated in the
King of Fighters game series. Therefore, in
Street Fighter Alpha, Dan was created as a
parody of Ryo and
Robert Garcia, another character from
AoF and
KoF. His fireball style 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.
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
Pocket Fighter, Dan can call on the ghost of his father, who wears the same tengu mask as Mr. Karate.
Dan has a similar outfit to
Ryu and
Ken; but is not a headswap. 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 unusual orange outfit in
Art of Fighting.
In
Street Fighter Alpha 2, when Dan became a regular playable character, his head was redrawn to look less like Robert. It should be noted that in
Street Fighter Alpha 3, Dan's knees bend the most in his stance out of the Ansatsuken practicioners (Ryu, Ken, Akuma).
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.
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 as it is sometimes called); both reminiscent of attacks in
Art of Fighting. Also borrowed from
AoF is his ability to taunt infinitely. In some of the Capcom fighting 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). In Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, for example, 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.
Dan also possesses a dragon punch with very little horizontal range, during which he sometimes flashes and becomes invincible (
Koryuken). In some games, he will flash for every eighth Koryuken he does, but usually it is random.
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 (Sagat being the other). Overall, he has two. They are:
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 perfoming 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.
Dan is a childhood friend of
Blanka, and is the only character to recognize Blanka as a man named Jimmy, rather than a beast. He seems to understand Blanka and may have actually taught him English.
Dan briefly served as an instructor to
Sakura as shown in the
Udon Street Fighter comic book series and
Pocket Fighter. When Sakura's training with Dan in Pocket Fighter was over, she wrote him a letter telling him that she was not going to be using Saikyo ever again because the style was "retarded as well as being completely useless in a fight."
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.
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!"
*The three Japanese characters in the name "Hibiki Dan" literally translate to "fire", "minus", and "bullet", referring to his inability to produce a full-sized, full-ranged fireball.
*Dan was first seen in illustration of Sagat, who was seen holding the limp body of a fighter who had the body of
Ryo Sakazaki and the head of
Robert Garcia, the two protagonists of SNK's
Art of Fighting series. Later in
Street Fighter Alpha, there is an animated sequence of Sagat holding and tossing aside a character who resembles the Ryo/Robert combination.
*Dan himself appears a
secret character, and can either be selected as the player's character or fought as a CPU fighter.
*Originally, Dan was supposed to die when he fought Sagat in
Street Fighter Alpha. However, Dan was very popular, and was brought back as a regular character.
*In his ending in
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Sakura's girlfriend from school appears as an unnamed sister of Dan, parodying the ending of the original
Art of Fighting.
*Go Hibiki appears in
Pocket Fighter and
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash, with a face that has a long nose, looking like a
Tengu, a parody of
Mr. Karate from
Art of Fighting, who wears a Tengu mask and was actually
Takuma Sakazaki, the father of Ryo. In
SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, Dan momentarily confuses Takuma (under his Mr. Karate disguise) as his own father, but realizes very soon that it is not and lashes out at Takuma for trying to mess with his "damaged psyche."
*Another mention about the fact Dan's father is a mock of Mr. Karate is seen in Dan's ending in
SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium, when he says: "What's so special about Ryo?! His dad wears a demon mask, my father is a demon!" (Implying that in the ending of
Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter where Akuma is revealed to be Dan's father.).
*Dan, along with
Chun-Li, was considered for making an appearance in
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, but only Chun-Li made the cut.
*In
SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, he is often mistaken for Robert by most of the SNK characters, as well as Dan himself.
*Dan borrowed
Yuri Sakazaki's "Yoyuushi!" win pose, in which he bends over slightly and gives a thumbs-up. In
Capcom vs. SNK 2, if the two are pitted against each other, they both perform the winpose before starting the match.
*Dan also appears as a secret character in
Puzzle Fighter as the worst character in the game because of his gem attacks. If a player was to ever pick Dan against an opponent, it would be because either he is trying to insult the opponent or to test their skill. Dan's Gem Counter is nothing but red blocks. However, it should be noted that Dan drops around 1.5 times more blocks than others.
*In SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium, Dan's Level 2 Shinkuu Gadoken becomes a Gadoken-range version of the
Haoh Sho Koh Ken called the
Gadou Sho Ko Ken -a trademark Kyokugen super move. 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 hurts his hand during the punch.
*In
Power Instinct Legends, the new boss for the game is a parody of Dan named
Chuck.
*Although Dan was introduced in the original
Street Fighter Alpha, some aspects of his goofy personality weren't introduced until
Street Fighter Alpha 2. For example, he had very little audio dialogue, and his taunting wasn't nearly as exaggerated as it is in later games.
*Despite his often shortcomings in tournaments, he supposedly won the
Millennium Fight 2000 tournament alongside SNK comedy relief character
Joe Higashi, who, ironically enough, say the same exclamation of "Yosha!" (I did it!) in their winquotes.
*In
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Dan has a move called the Premium Sign, where he signs autographed pictures of himself and throws them at the opponent, showing his great arrogance.
*
Robert Garcia*
Ryo Sakazaki*
Sagat*
Blanka*
Sakura Kasugano*
Ran Hibiki*
Iincyo*
Sean Matsuda*
Art of Fighting*
Marvel vs. Capcom series*
SNK vs. series*
Street Fighter*
Dan's Super Dojo*
Saikyo Crusher
