Hadoken means "surge fist": hado is a surge or wave of energy and ken is a fist. It is the fireball Ryu and Ken throw in Street Fighter, made by gathering ki, a fighter's inner energy, between cupped hands and pushing it out in one burst. The Satsui no Hado, "the surge of murderous intent", is the dark side of that same energy: the drive to win by killing. Akuma has given himself to it. Ryu spends the whole series refusing it.
The Hadoken has been in the series since the first Street Fighter in 1987, and the story around it has grown through Street Fighter II, the Alpha games, IV, V and 6. Where the games tell it differently, this says which one it means. Every design on the Street Fighter shelf comes from somewhere in that story.
What Hadoken, Shoryuken and Tatsumaki mean
Ryu and Ken share the same three special moves, which is why players call any character built like them a "shoto". The Hadoken is the projectile. It is a quarter-circle on the stick, from down to forward, plus punch: the first special move most players ever learn.
The Shoryuken, "rising dragon fist", is a leaping uppercut that carries the fighter straight up, which makes it the classic answer to an opponent jumping in. Ryu's Rising design is named for it. The Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, "tornado whirlwind kick", is a spinning kick that travels forward through the air.
Ryu and Ken trained side by side under the same master, Gouken. Ryu is the quiet wanderer who lives for the fight itself; Ken is his American best friend and rival, and plays the same moves more aggressively, with a Shoryuken that bursts into flame (Shoto Fire). Sakura, a Japanese schoolgirl who first appears in Street Fighter Alpha 2, saw Ryu fight and taught herself his moves by watching; she is the Cherry Blossom of the shelf.
On the shelf
What the Satsui no Hado is
Gouken and his younger brother Gouki learned their martial art from a master named Goutetsu, and it was built to kill. Gouken took the killing intent out of it and taught that cleaner version to Ryu and Ken. Gouki went the other way: he gave himself to the Satsui no Hado, killed Goutetsu, and became Akuma.
The Satsui no Hado is power that feeds on the wish to kill. It makes a fighter stronger and removes any limit on what they will do to win, but it eats the person using it. Ryu carries the seed of it, and it surfaces when he is pushed to the edge.
The games have played with what happens if he lets it in. Evil Ryu, a what-if version who gives in, was first drawn in a manga and became playable in the Alpha games. In Street Fighter IV, Gouken's answer is the Power of Nothingness: a calm, empty mind that gives the dark nothing to hold on to. Street Fighter V takes it further, and the Satsui no Hado splits off from Ryu into a body of its own, called Kage.
Akuma vs Ryu and the Raging Demon
Akuma first appears as a hidden boss in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Japanese releases call him Gouki, "great demon"; akuma simply means demon. He has no interest in ruling anything. He wants a fight to the death with an opponent worth killing.
His signature is the Raging Demon, in Japanese Shun Goku Satsu, roughly "instant hell murder". He glides at his opponent, the screen goes dark, a storm of hits lands unseen, and when the light comes back he stands with his back turned and the character for "heaven" showing on his gi. Raging Demon is that finish; Gouki is the man himself.
He used it on Goutetsu, and later on Gouken, who was taken for dead until Street Fighter IV revealed that he survived by emptying himself of everything the move could destroy, though it left him in a long coma.
Akuma vs Ryu is the series' longest argument. Akuma sees in Ryu the one fighter who could become a worthy opponent, but only if Ryu accepts the Satsui no Hado. Ryu keeps fighting him and keeps saying no.
Shadaloo, M. Bison and Psycho Power
Shadaloo is the criminal organisation behind most of the trouble in Street Fighter II and the Alpha games: drugs, weapons, kidnapping and a plan for world domination. Its leader is M. Bison (Japanese releases call him Vega; the Western versions swapped the names of three of the bosses).
Bison's power is Psycho Power, an energy that feeds on fear, anger and hatred. He also plans to outlive his own body. His Dolls are kidnapped girls brainwashed to serve as his bodyguards and assassins, and Cammy was made by Shadaloo as a possible replacement body for him. She breaks free, loses her memory and ends up in Delta Red, a British special forces unit. Her Cannon Spike is a rising kick that drives up and forward.
Guile, a major in the United States Air Force in Street Fighter II, goes after Bison to avenge his friend Charlie. His Sonic Boom is a charge move: hold back, then push forward and punch to throw a fast projectile.
On the shelf
Chun-Li and the Spinning Bird Kick
Chun-Li is an Interpol officer from China, and the first woman in the Street Fighter II line-up. Her father, a police officer, disappeared while investigating Shadaloo, and she holds Bison responsible, which makes her fight personal in a way most of the cast's is not.
The Spinning Bird Kick is her signature: she flips upside down, legs spread wide, and spins across the screen like a helicopter blade, kicking everything in her path. In Street Fighter II it is a charge move: hold down, then press up and kick.
Her other famous move is the Hyakuretsukyaku, "hundred rending legs", known in English as Lightning Legs: a blur of kicks from one leg, done by tapping kick fast. Hundred Kicks is named for it.
Blanka's origin
Blanka was born Jimmy. As a boy he survived a plane crash in the Brazilian jungle and grew up alone in the wild, where his skin turned green and contact with electric eels gave him the power to generate electricity. The reason for the green depends on the version you read: Japanese material credits chlorophyll from the jungle, while older Western material blamed the lightning storm that brought the plane down.
He fights like an animal: bites, a Rolling Attack that launches him at the opponent curled into a ball, and Electric Thunder, a charge of electricity through his whole body that punishes anyone who touches him.
His ending in Street Fighter II is one of the gentlest in the game. A woman watching the tournament sees the anklet on the wild man's leg, a birthday present she once gave her son, and recognises the boy she lost.
On the shelf
On the back of a tee
The fighters above are on the Street Fighter shelf, drawn from canon reference art. Check the size guide before you pick a size.
Why it works on the back: every special move is a shape you can read from across a room, a fireball, a rising fist, a wheel of kicks, the way an arcade cabinet's attract screen pulled you in from the far side of the arcade.
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