Ken Masters
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Ken Masters (ケン・マスターズ) is a video game character created by Capcom. He is one of the main characters from the Street Fighter series of fighting games alongside Ryu.
Character History
When Ken was about 12 years old, his father, a rich hotel tycoon, thought that his son needed to learn about discipline, lest his son become a spoiled brat all of his life and try to leech onto the Masters family fortune. In order to do so, the elder Masters sent Ken to Japan to train under his best friend, the mysterious karate master Gouken. At first Ken was very hesitant to learn from Gouken, wanting to go back to the United States at first, but later began to respect his master. He even enjoyed the company of Gouken's adopted son, Ryu, since he had a foil to finally pull pranks on, although this got Ken into a lot of trouble.
When Ryu was 18, Gouken decided that both of his pupils have grown up to be fine fighters and decided that their training was over and could now leave the dojo. Ryu decided to travel the world in order to continue his training, whereas Ken was finally happy to be going back home to the United States after his years of straining his back for master Gouken and finally learning the meaning of humility. After coming home, Ken competed in many different Martial Arts tournaments held in the United States, winning most of them.
Ken did not participate in the first Street Fighter tournament; instead, he fought in (and won) the premiere U.S. Martial Arts tournament that had been previously won by Charlie, as well as meeting a very attractive girl named Eliza, who became his girlfriend.
After winning the U.S. martial arts tournament, Ken returned to his training ground to tell his master Gouken the good news, he witnessed his master's death at the hands of Akuma, and tried to fight him, but was defeated.
He began wandering the world in search of Akuma, and his friend and fellow student Ryu. He wanted to tell Ryu what happened to their master and also hoped to win a match against him. Along the way he fought and defeated Dan, who had unwisely taunted him with copying Saikyo-style moves. He eventually finds Ryu in seclusion. Ryu is dejected upon seeing his long-time friend, but Ken makes him go try out a spar anyway. Over the next few days Ken realizes how stressed out his best friend is since his fight with Sagat. Ryu explains to Ken that deep within him there is a burning rage. A power trying to overcome him. Giving Ryu his red headband, Ken tells him to stay focused, which greatly cheers Ryu up. Ken returns home and begins training harder. Knowing even with his recent feelings, that Ryu is always stronger than he looks.
Ken begins to wonder about his own life. Ryu seemed to be on the right track again, but what of him? Along the way to prove himself again, he encounters Karin who tells him she has followed his career and is trying to best her rival Sakura's to prove she is superior. Ken advises her it's good to have a rival but not for supremecy but to keep one training harder and focusing. With this Ken finds himself again and is focused once more. Going off to meet up with Sakura, they too have a friendly match and Ken finally realizes that Ryu has the right idea all along. Both he and Sakura begin to travel to find Ryu, but find out that he's being brainwashed by the dictator M. Bison. Ken and Sakura both take Bison on together to distract him as Sagat (who had come along to also find Ryu struggling against Bison) took Ryu under control. Ryu eventually came to and slammed Bison away with the help of Ken, then talked to each of his friends -- he told Ken to wait for his rematch, noting he still had much to learn. Ken himself promised to train harder.
Ken received an invitation to the second Street Fighter tournament, but since his last U.S. Martial Arts tournament, he has let himself spend too much time with his girlfriend and not training. Only when Ryu challenges him rekindles Ken's fighting spirit and causes him to enter the tournament. Ken fought Ryu in the second World Warrior tournament. Because Ken had stated that he would only marry Eliza after winning a decisive fight against Ryu (after Street Fighter II, Ken and Eliza are married, his victory against Ryu is confirmed.
Ken then entered the third Street Fighter tournament. By this time, a Brazilian teenager named Sean had been pestering him to become his student, and Ken reluctantly accepted, beginning to train him. He fought Sean and won against him in the tournament; and though this time he lost to Ryu, he was now also beginning to train his son Mel in rudimentary fighting techniques. He also told Sean to go find Ryu and challenge him, giving him some free time with Eliza.
Though bored, Ken hears about a mysterious organization and goes to investigate, and may have confronted Urien. He does win his third straight U.S. Martial Arts tournament victory, which is a new record, and offers the trophy to Sean, although his student says he wishes to earn it for himself. He also learned that Ryu had sought him out and traveled all the way to New York from Oakland for their long-awaited rematch. Tossing some friendly jabs at each other, both have a good fight that Ryu wins. Since then, Ken has continued to train Sean and Mel, handle his family and business, and keep up with his old friend Ryu.
Differences between Ken and Ryu
While Ryu and Ken have the same martial arts discipline, as the Street Fighter series evolved, the differences between the two characters were portrayed by their special moves — Ken opted for stylish fast unpredictability, while Ryu focused on technique.
Ken's Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku does not allow him to dodge projectiles at the start of the spin, but spins faster, allows him to hit his opponent up to five times. Ken's Hadouken attacks are less concentrated than Ryu's, but Ken's Shoryuken is more powerful. Ken's super moves consist of the Shouryuu Reppa (Rising Dragon Whirlwind), in which Ken does two or three Shoryukens; the Shinryuken (Dragon God Fist), a spinning vertical Shoryuken (dedicated to his late master Gouken) that lacks range, but does greater damage and more hits, especially if the kick buttons are pressed rapidly; and the most recent addition to his movelist since Street Fighter Alpha 3 — the Shippuu-Jinrai Kyaku (Hurricane Thunderclap Leg), which Ken does a flurry of kicks before ending with a vertical Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku.
Ken mainly focuses on the Shoryuken move, to the point where his Shoryukens set the opponent on fire. Ken's Shoryukens are best done against a standing opponent. Ken took extra care to ensure that his Shoryuken would not immolate nor kill an opponent on contact—even with his aggressiveness and unpredictability Ken made sure that his moves, like Ryu's, do not result in lethal force.
Gameplay & Techniques
In the original Street Fighter, Ken was identical to Ryu, in terms of gameplay. In Street Fighter II, Ken's character was modified to be faster than Ryu, though his animations and other attacks were still very similar to Ryu's, as Ken's sprite is always a head swap of Ryu. In the original version of this game, the only way to effectively have two characters with similar abilities fight each other was to have one player play as Ryu and the other play as Ken.
With the advent of "mirror matches" (same character vs.) in Street Fighter II': Champion Edition, Capcom needed to vary the "Uppercut Brothers" playing styles a bit. Ryu was given a stronger, faster Hadouken and a one-hit knockdown Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku, while Ken was given a wider arcing Shoryuken and a multi-hit Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku. In Super Street Fighter II, Ken began deviating from Ryu further being given a multi-hit flaming Shoryuken. In the next SFII installment: Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Ken was given the super combo Shouryuu Reppa (which was simply Ken's Jab and Strong Dragon Punches chained together) and a number of different command kicks, plus a new jumping Forward and a Knee Bash hold. These command kicks would be incorporated as the standard movelist in the Street Fighter Alpha series, but remain commands in all others.
By Street Fighter III, Ken has two Shoryuken Super Arts (Shouryuu Reppa and Shinryuken) and Shippu Jinrai Kyaku from the Street Fighter Alpha series although the priority and strength has been altered (Shippu Jinrai Kyaku was a 3-level super move in Street Fighter Alpha 3 while it is his weakest super art in Street Fighter III), and in Street Fighter EX 3, he has a meteor combo (a Level 3 super combo) called Kuzuuryu Reppa, a mix of his other three Super Arts. Kuzuuryu Reppa would be seen again in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom with it being one of Violent Ken's supers this time.
Actors
While his original voice was a re-use of the Ryu audio samples, from Super Street Fighter II on Ken's voice was performed by Kenji Haga. Tetsuya Iwanaga did Ken's voice in the Street Fighter Alpha series, and Koji Tobe did Ken's voice in the Street Fighter III games. In other media, Damian Chapa portrayed Ken in the 1994 Street Fighter movie, and by Scott McNeil in the Street Fighter animated series. He was voiced by David Lucas in the Street Fighter Alpha movie.
Trivia
- Ken goes from a flashy, devil-may-care glory fighter to a more mature warrior throughout the course of the Street Fighter series. He has not only learned that fighting for its own sake and to discipline oneself is a noble goal, but he also begins to raise a family and train a student. His ego hasn't diminished, however.
- There is artwork that implies that Ken knows Terry Bogard and his son Mel knows young Rock Howard, playing together as kids and teasing Sean. It's questionable how official this is, since it's still up in the air if (and if so which of) SNK and Capcom's franchises coexist in the same reality.
- Ken's girlfriend and later wife Eliza and Guile's wife Jane (Julia in the comics as well as Japan) are sisters, making Ken and Guile brothers-in-law. Ken and Guile are uncomfortable with this and don't like to acknowledge the fact. Ken thinks of Guile as nothing more than a shellshocked military grunt.
- His family owns a series of famous and expensive hotels, which explains his family's great wealth. They also know Karin's family, who is also very wealthy.
- During the release of the first Street Fighter, Ken's name was spelled in Japanese with the kanji character 拳 (lit. fist). This implies that Ken was originally intended to be Japanese (or at least of Japanese heritage) right from the start.
- Ken originally had no last name. He was given the last name Masters, due to his action figure being made during Street Fighter II's initial bout of popularity. Mattel threatened to sue due to the fact his name was the exact same as their famous doll Ken.[citation needed]
- In the original Street Fighter, Ken was the second playable character and could be used in a two player matchup, although storywise he wasn't in the first tournament.
- He's known as the "Flaming Dragon", due to his mastery of a flaming Shoryuken.
- Ken's father and Gouken were friends, hence why Ken trained under Gouken.
- One of Ken's win quotes in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is, "I wish you good luck!" This is a reference to the original Street Fighter. This is spoken by the loser of a versus match.
- Ken's Masters Foundation is one of the two sponsors of Capcom vs. SNK tournaments.
- In the non-canon game SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, Ken has a form called Violent Ken. It is unknown whether this version is based off of being brainwashed by Bison, the Satsui no Hadou or the Orochi Power. Sagat explains during his intro against Violent Ken, that Ken became that way because of his thirst for power.
- It is assumed by most fans that Ken's residence is in San Francisco as he resided there in the UDON comic and his stage in Street Fighter Alpha 3 is set there. However, in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, he lived in Seattle. Conversely since his family owns a hotel chain, he could reasonably live very well anywhere in the world.
- Ken is 3/4 Japanese (on his mother's side who is pure Japanese, and also on his father's who is half-Japanese and half-Caucasian) and 1/4 Caucasian (on his father's side).
- Ken actually has dark hair, but he dyes it blonde, explaining his dark eyebrows
- Ryu and Ken are perfect rivals and are considered almost equal in skill and ability. In the number of canon spars they've had, they are at a draw:
- Ryu defeated Ken in a spar before they parted ways where Ryu went onto the World Warrior tournament and Ken went onto the U.S. Martial Arts tournament.
- Ken defeated Ryu in Street Fighter Alpha 2.
- Ken fought Ryu in the second World Warrior tournament. It is believed by many that Ken defeated Ryu, because Ken had stated that he would only marry Eliza after winning a decisive fight against Ryu (after Street Fighter II, Ken and Eliza are married).
- Ryu defeated Ken in the a sparring match after the Street Fighter III tournament.
- During the production of Mortal Kombat: Deception, a character named Kobra was jokingly called Ken Masters by the production team. When a German magazine received a playable copy of Deception they identified the character as Ken in a preview, leading to speculation that Ken Masters may have been a guest character at the time. This was all of course a misunderstanding. Despite of this, Kobra still clearly resembles Ken.
- The US story for Street Fighter 2010 had the protagonist changed to Ken, but in reality it's actually a completely separate character called Kevin Striker. Capcom USA had the name and story changed to cash in more on a known character, which has to this day caused tons of confusion.