Let’s be frank - no conversation about hilariously ill-advised characters should start in any place except for the dojo of Saikyo. Dan Hibiki has become a fighting game legend since his first appearance in Street Fighter Alpha, where he went face-to-face with the King of Muay Thai himself, Sagat, to avenge the death of his father. From a technical standpoint, Dan was created as a shot at the main characters of SNK’s Art of Fighting series Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia, who Capcom saw as a ripoff of Ryu and Ken. The behind-the-scenes details of his conception doomed Dan to being the “joke” character of Capcom games and as such he was an underpowered character throughout nearly all of his appearances in games.

Despite the overwhelming odds against him, Dan has become a beloved Street Fighter character and has developed a following of players who have embraced Saikyo and choose to do battle with alongside Dan. At first glance and for the uninitiated, he might look like an attractive character to choose. He oozes confidence, often seen with a determined look in earlier games and a bright smile in later appearances. His confidence is aided by his trademark pink gi, as any martial artist wearing pink in public must be confident and secure in himself. He speaks often of his own style of martial arts called “Saikyo-Ryu” style, which translates quite boastfully to “strongest style.”

However, actually getting to know Dan reveals the truth - he’s a complete loser. His confidence is revealed to be delusion. He has his own martial art, but no students. It’s probably better he has no followers, since he often finds himself getting defeated in combat. His pink gi looks faded in areas, probably because washing a white gi with red clothes allowed the dye bleed onto the uniform.

Dan’s moves match his personality (and status as a joke) well. He boasts the pitiful “Gadouken” - a ripoff of Ryu and Ken’s signature “Hadouken” that barely travels past Dan’s extended palm and another joke at the expense of Art of Fighting’s Ryo Sakazaki and his similarly delivered “Ko'ou Ken” fireball. His “Koryuken” is a left-handed version of the “Shoryuken” and while Dan can’t manage to properly perform the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku (Hurricane Kick,) he has his signature “Dankukyaku” (affectionately known as the ‘Dan Kicks,) which look an awful lot like Ryo Sakazaki’s “Hien Shippu Kyaku.” In older games, Dan is even shown signing photos of himself and throwing them at his opponents.

Dan’s other signature moves actually do no damage - well, physical damage. His wide variety of taunts are just as important to the Dan experience as his moves and can lead to some serious psyche-outs of your opponents, like the unfortunate souls who ran into the Dan player in YouTube user Cosmopanda’s video below.

Dan’s appearance in Street Fighter IV is probably his strongest showing yet, where he was surprisingly viable for once. Finally, Dan loyalists had a version of their favorite character that was competitively handy and some players even took him to a level we’ve never seen Dan before. Pro players like Ixion were prolific for finding the right formula as rare Dan Hibiki mains in the Street Fighter IV pro circuits, as you can see from his impressive, if not mildly mocking, wins below.

My first encounter with Dan was in Street Fighter Alpha 3, where after beating the game with Ryu countless times, I decided to check out some other characters. I saw Dan, who I thought looked a lot like Ryu, and decided to give him a shot. Young Jeff thought Dan was a goofy little character that added an additional layer of fun to the game. Dan’s subsequent appearances in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Capcom vs. SNK 2 provided me even more exposure to one of my new favorite characters, now with the added bonus of allowing me to play him alongside some of my favorite fighting game characters of all time. Dan was even a major character in the promotional art for CVS2, which made me love the game even more than I already did (and still do.)

Street Fighter IV was the first fighting game I ended up taking super seriously, and I was pleasantly surprised that Dan won a fan vote to be featured in the game from launch. I was even happier to hear that so many other players enjoyed Dan as much as I did. Dan was constantly in my character rotation, to the point where I even used him in local tournaments a few times. No matter who I was playing against, whether it was friends, randoms online, tournament opponents, or even my fiercest of rivals, they all saw my Dan at least once and knew it was something to fear.

I’m hoping Dan will make a playable appearance in Street Fighter V, as I think the combat system would fit him well. SFV is all about meaties, throws, and counter hits (we’ll get into those terms eventually) which is Dan’s primary means of offense. He already has official artwork (as does pretty much everyone in the Street Fighter universe) and would be a welcome addition along with the other rumoured Street Fighter Alpha characters.

So, what do you think? Do you have any Dan stories of your own? Are you a Dan lover, or a Dan hater? Let us know!