Ken Honda Popular Books

Ken Honda Biography & Facts

Edmond Honda (Japanese: エドモンド 本田, Hepburn: Edomondo Honda), more commonly known as E. Honda, is a fictional character created by Capcom for the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Introduced in Street Fighter II as part of the starting lineup, he has appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter IV and the Capcom vs. SNK series, as well as several cameos. Honda is a professional sumo wrestler and sentō proprietor. He is one of the original eight playable characters in Street Fighter II, representing Japan alongside Ryu. Conception and design Conceived by Akira "Akiman" Yasuda, Honda was designed by Eri Nakamura, with oversight by Akiman due to how new she was at the company. Initially named "Sumo", they wanted to give him a Japanese sounding name, considering "Suzuki" or "Tanaka" before settling on Honda, which they felt would be more familiar to Western audiences. The development team held a rock paper scissors match to pick who would work on which character with Nakamura coming in second and choosing him over "the Beast", a character that would later become Blanka. The character was meant to have above average strength, but below average speed, and intended to be popular in Japan but to also make Japanese fighting styles appeal to foreigners. When creating his design and others for Street Fighter II, Akiman leaned heavily into the concepts of caricature and stereotypes to emphasize the contrast between the characters but also make them instantly recognizable, stating in an interview with Steve Hendershot "subconsciously, I was adding elements with the idea that they could go viral. I wanted a reaction, and perfect things don't instigate many reactions,” an idea partially influenced by his reaction to Mickey Rooney's depiction of an Asian character in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. To differentiate Honda from returning character Ryu, with design notes on the character stating "We made him more 'Japan' than necessary to make it clear to foreigners." Akiman additionally described him as "a character I knew would create misunderstandings about Japan. And that's exactly how I wanted to make him." Standing 185 cm (6 ft 1 in) tall, early designs turned in resembled a regular sumo wrestler too closely and producer Akira Nishitani suggested they make him look more "oriental", resulting in the additions of his yukata and kabuki face paint. Nakamura chose the latter in response to Akiman stating that his "face was lacking", feeling the makeup would illustrate his pride for Japan, and even considered making him "a hero for justice" when fleshing out the concept. However, this caused some controversy after the game was released, as some outlets banned imagery of Honda due to some organizers feeling his facepaint was "sacrilege to the Japanese national sport." Meanwhile, the yukata was intended to give him more of a distinctive look over just a traditional sumo wrestler's belt, a detail Nakamura attributed to Akiman's suggestion. While he has had a wide variety of secondary outfits in the later installments of the series, his appearance from Street Fighter II has served as the basis for his primary outfit in each title, with only occasional minimal changes. Akiman's idea for Honda's gameplay revolved around the idea of him rushing at his opponent, stating, "I wanted the fat characters like Honda to come charging at you—for some reason. I feel that fat characters have a duty to charge." Nakamura took this concept and gave him his horizontal flying headbutt attack. Named "Super Zutsuki" in the notes she was given, she considered what made it super, and reasoned he had to fly. The concept completely surprised both Akiman and Nishanti, who saw it for the first time in game. Other attacks such as his Hundred Hand Slap, in which he attacks with a rapid flow of palm strikes, were fleshed out by the pixel artists on the team, and then drawn on paper by Nakamura. Appearances As introduced in Street Fighter II, Honda is focused on becoming the greatest sumo wrestler of all time, and teaches sumo to several students. However, upon learning that the world outside of Japan did not consider sumo a true sport, he left his dojo and entered the martial arts tournament to prove that sumo wrestlers rank among the greatest fighters in the world. Honda makes a cameo appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 2, during Sodom's storyline. Sodom, obsessed with both Japanese culture and trying to revive Mad Gear, attempts to recruit sumo wrestlers, citing them as strong warriors. To achieve this, he enters a sumo wrestling competition and faces "Fujinoyama", who is revealed to be Honda. Agreeing to the match, Honda defeats Sodom but is impressed by his effort nevertheless according to their dialogue in Alpha 3. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, his storyline in this game serves more of a prologue to his appearance in Street Fighter II, with him traveling the world looking for strong opponents and to show the strength of sumo wrestling. Here he meets Ryu and has a sparring match with him and tells Sakura later on where she can find him. About this time he fights Sodom again in a friendly match as well. His wanderings lead him to Shadaloo's base where he meets Zangief and while the actual extent of which is unknown the two are confirmed to have worked together to help destroy the base. In the aftermath he took in a few of Bison's Dolls to give them somewhere to stay until they could regain their memories (which ones in particular is never exactly certain due to Capcom reusing sprites in his ending for the Dolls). According to this game's ending and supported by his card profile in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS he may additionally have given them training in sumo during their stay, though none of his pupils in other games are female leaving this definitely up to question. Honda returns for Street Fighter IV, which is set shortly after the events of the second World Warrior Tournament. His goals have not changed, as his bio states that he is fighting to promote the technique of sumo. To this end, he goes on a world tour. It is revealed that he is a haridashi-yokozuna (effectively meaning that he is of yokozuna level skill and achievement, but has yet to be officially promoted). His rival fight is against El Fuerte, after which the two share a meal. Honda returns in the fourth season of Street Fighter V, having reopened the Honda Sento bathhouse and working to keep its guests happy. In Street Fighter 6, Honda opens a sumo-themed chanko restaurant called Chanko House Edomon in Metro City, which proves to be successful, thanks to Manon's suggestion. Prior to open his restaurant outside Japan, Honda had a small friendly sumo match with Ryu, and have since been keeping in touch with him. In other media In the 1994 motion picture based on the Street Fighter franchise, the role of Honda is played by Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo. In the movie, Honda is portrayed as a close associate of Chun Li, serving as her news c.... Discover the Ken Honda popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ken Honda books.