Part 5: Dragonball, Dr. Slump, Fist Of The North Star

Here are all Street Fighter and related characters based on or influenced by characters from Akira Toriyama's Dragonball and Arale Chan/Dr. Slump and Tetsuo Hara's Hokuto No Ken/Fist Of The North Star:

Let me know if you have something to add or correct.

Dragonball/Dragonball Z characters

Blanka and Super Android 13

Blanka's SFII'CE color (or his Player 2 color) is blue skin with bright orange hair. With these colors, he looks a lot like Super Android from Dragonball Z. However you can still see the similarity when Blanka has his usual green look as shown below.

(left: Blanka from an old SFII Manga by Masaomi Kanzaki; right: Super Android 13 from Dragonball Z)

Thanks to Nathan for sending this one in!

Oro and Muten Roshi

Oro of SFIII known as "The Sennin" seems to be based on "Muten Roshi/Roshii/Roushi" aka "Kamesennin" of the popular Dragonball series.

(Muten Roshi, the lord of the turtles from Dragonball)

They're both very old (very very very old) and are very good and experienced fighters.
Muten Roshi is Son Goku's teacher and Oro of SFIII seems to become Ryu's (main character like Son Goku) teacher.

Both live with a turtle (symbol for a long long live). I have not found any official info on Oro's turtle, such as its name, but it shows up in Oro's winning poses sometimes. Of course it doesn't talk like the turtle in Dragonball.

(left: Oro and his turtle; right: Muten Roshi riding on his turtle)

There seems to be a connection between Oro and Ibuki or at least from the old man to teenager Ibuki. This could be a hint to the Japanese stereotype of old men being perverts. Muten Roshi defenitely is an old pervert who constanlty gets smacked by young girls for his behaviour.
There are many of those old pervert characters in other mangas and animes for example in Ranma.

Another similarity is that they're both ill-bred. Oro is defenitely the most disgusting Street Fighter ever. He pulls projectiles out of his nose like boogers and when he sleeps he has the Dragonball like bubbles coming out his nose. Muten Roshi is the same type of character, he likes to fart a lot and is not very well reared either. In addition to the booging Oro just looks like a weirdo who hasn't had a wash in quite some time.

Dhalsim and Nam of Dragonball

Dhalsim and Nam are both Indians who fight to raise money for their village. Dhalsim sometimes wears a turban just like Nam. They both are yogis.

(left: early design sketch of SFII; right: TV screenshot of Dragonball)

Genda and Krillin of Dragonball

Genda is the small guy in Ibuki's SFIII NG stage. Like Krillin (or Kulilin/Kurinrin) he has a bald head and dots on it (monk look), is very small and well they just look the same, especially when Genda wears his orange ninja outfit.

(left: Genda; right: Krillin)
(Thanks to Neal for the Screenshot!)

Old man in Yun's SFIII NG stage and Muten Roshi

Same beard, same head, same pants, same type of shirt, shoes and stance. Not sure if Muten Roshi has such a fan but the rest is the same. Maybe the woman yelling at him is based on someone popular, too?

Chubby man inYang's SFIII NG stage/statue and King Kai/Monkey King

Yun's twin brother Yang has a Dragonball background appearance, too. The upset way the guy moves and his chubby look, the sun glasses and the clothing makes me think that he is based on King Kai of the Dragonball universe.

In the same stage you can also find a Monkey figure inside of a stone that is revealed when fighting. It looks like the main character of Journey To The West, an old Chinese story that was the main influence for characters from Dragonball and Capcom's SonSon.

From Big Mex' blog on 1UP.com:

Zhu and the "Monkey King" Sun Wukong were featured in many moral pieces and turn up again and again in animation and pop culture. Even Street Fighter has played an homage to the mythological heroes in their legacy. The monkey king, once imprisoned in stone, was actually a detail in Yun and Yang's level in Street Fighter III.

(f.l.t.r.:  Sun Wukong from Yang's SFIIING stage;  Sun Wukong (Journey To The West);  Son Goku from DB;  SonSon from Capcom's classic game SonSon;  female SonSon remake from Marvel VS Capcom 2)

Arale Chan/Dr. Slump characters

Area and Arale

Area of Street Fighter EX3 is probably based on Arale Norimaki from Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump/Arale Chan mangas and anime shows.

Besides the similar names and looks there are other similarities. Arale Norimaki is a robot, invented by Senbei Norimaki a brilliant scientist who is like a father to her. Area's father is a scientist, too and builds robotic body parts and other inventions, that Area uses when fighting.

From Wikipedia:
"Area believes that fighters are battle robots."

Vega's dolls and Dr. Mashirito's dolls

In one or several episodes of the '97 Dr. Slump anime show (first digital anime tv show), Dr. Mashirito (the evil professor who builds giant robots named "Caramelmen") had a crew of girls, that had different skin and hair colors but all wore the same purple uniforms and hats.

(left: Udon comic; right: TV anime screenshot)
(Thanks a lot to Neal for the Dr. Slump anime screenshots!)

It's possible that the episodes are based on the later mangas, that were not released in the Western World and only appeared in Shonen Jump (in color).

(left: Dr. Mashirito in Dr. Slump the manga; right: the girls in a TV episode)

I believe, that the girls were an inspiration for Vega's "Shadaloo Dolls" of Street Fighter Zero/Alpha 3 including Shadaloo Cammy who first appeared in SFZ2 Alpha/SFA2 Gold. Actually I think it's pretty obvious. If you know anything about them, maybe their names or something, let me know. More on the Dolls on page 2.

Hokuto No Ken/Fist Of The North Star

General similarities

Before going into details about each character, it should be mentioned that HNK has had a big impact on manga and anime especially Martial Arts related ones. Both Dragonball and Street Fighter (official games as well as non canon movies and mangas) have elements of HNK such as the fireballs and other special moves.

Just like in SF there are two guys , the main character (Kenshiro) has dark hair and big dark eyebrows like Ryu and his partner (Shin) has long blond hair like Ken and is also less serious and more laid back. Also the syllables "Shin", "Ryu" and "Ken" appear in both series in character, fighting style and move names. Kenshiro is also called "Ken" but I'll call him Kenshiro to make things clearer. They also named one female character of Street Fighter EX "Hokuto" (North Star).

They were drawn by Japanese manga artist Tetsuo Hara who also drew the art for the Capcom game Muscle Bomber/Slam Masters that looks quite similar.

The series takes place after a nuclear escalation like the movie Mad Max. Kenshiro also wears a suite that looks a bit like Mel Gibson's in Mad Max with one shoulder pad (see Ace on RipOff page 1).

(Early design sketch by Capcom; shoulder pad and drawing style like HNK)

In the early designs of SFIIWW (above) you can see how the designers emulate Tetsuo Hara's style.

Ryu and Kenshiro

(left: Ryu; right: Kenshiro)

Both are the main characters, can channel energy to shoot projectiles, do hurricane kicks and tend to wander towards the sunset. Both were orphans and were adopted by a martial arts masters who tought them.

(left: Ryu in SFII, SFIIT, SSFII; right: Kenshiro)

Eventhough Street Fighter and Ryu never had anything to do with the desert, Capcom decided to let Ryu walk through the desert in their Street Fighter II commercial (YouTube video). HNK happens to play in the desert and Kenshiro wears a similar headpiece.

Zangief and Gouda

Hokuto No Ken's Gouda has the same beard and irokese haircut as SFII's Zangief.

Zangief loves to wrestle Siberian bears and Gouda fights like a bear. Again the similarities are striking.

(thanks to Evan Jacobson for the scans)

Check out the bear at the beginning of the fight, right behind Gouda: YouTube video NEW

(thanks to Mario for the link)

Gill/Urien and Various characters of HNK

In HNK men wear these diapers when taking a bath. In case you wonder where Gill and his brother Urien have hat look from, one example would be Yuda/Yudah/Judah/Judas (or whatever you call him).

So besides the characters mentioned on Rip Off page 3, there are even more Gill look a likes, that's how unoriginal his design is.

Birdie and about every second HNK villain/Mr. Heart's gang

At the time HNK came out, the punk irokese haircut was very popular and remained popular for villains in mangas, comics and cartoons (ie Rocksteady of the Tenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

(left: Birdie of SFI, click to view larger version; right: a gang from the HNK anime movie)

For HNK villains it's almos unusual not to be tall, muscular, to wear a vest and to have that hairtyle. While some characters had letters on their forehead, others had playing card symbols such as heart and spade. So does Birdie in his Street Fighter Zero/Alpha comeback look, where Capcom made him black for some reason.

(left: Birdie of SFA anime movie; middle: Mr. Heart from HNK anime movie; right: one of his thugs)

Balrog and Yuda/Rei/Club/Shura

A common type of character in Japanese mangas and animes is the "Bishonen", a beautiful feminin looking man. Balrog is one of them and so is Rei of HNK. Both Balrog and Rei have the voice actor Kaneto Shiozowa in anime movies.

(thanks to sano for this info)

For Yuda of HNK beauty is essential and he can't fight Rei because of his beauty. Balrog is obsessed with everything beautiful in the same way. In SFIIWW he doesn't want to fight Chun-Li because she's so beautiful.

(thanks to vasili10 for this one)

(click screenshot to view YouTube video)

Kenshiro's brother Jagi hides his face, because Kenshiro wrecked it in a fight. He freaks out when he realizes that others are scared of it and he hates Kenshiro for ruining it. In SFIIAM Balrog too freaks out when Chun-Li kicks him in the face (more on this soon).

Balrog has claws like Club and other HNK characters and a mask to protect his face like Shura.