Street Fighter Gaiden Volume 2

Street Fighter Gaiden #2

by Itou Mami

Itou Mami brings the classic Street Fighter cast to life in this never-before-translated manga series! Street Fighter Gaiden features exciting short stories from across the Street Fighter universe. In this volume, Cammy butts heads with Vega, Ken takes on sumo wrestler E.Honda, plus appearances from Ryu, Fei Long, Chun-li, and more of your favorite fighters!

170 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ozan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this second volume too. There were two stories in this volume. First Ken and Ryu's first fight against Akuma which was started with a Ken mini story where Ken came to Japan to visit his master's grave cause it's the anniversary of the death of his master, Gouken. And at the end of the mini first part, Ken found his master's grave stone broken when he came to his master's grave next to the temple where he and Ryu trained under their master Gauken and Ken totally outraged by the insident then came the 2 part Cammy story where Cammy fought against Vega, a Shadaloo organization member from Cammy's unknown past and then 1 part Cammy, Chun Li and Fei Long story where Chun and Cammy were bodyguard for the movie star Fei Long. Fei long got attacked but Chun and Cammy easly defeated the attackers only to find out that Fei Long wanted them in his next movie and all this attack was a set up to show how skillful they were to his director. Cammy and Chun beated Fei Long when they found out that... and then Cammy got really attacked by an mysterious sniper... sniper missed and Cammy imidiatly got the sniper guy. then we came back to Ryu and Ken vs Akuma for the first time fight two part. Ken looked around the Temple for Ryu and felt this chi coming from Akuma, and found Akuma instead. They started to fight after changing some words, Akuma was like you should totally kill people, that's the way of the fist and Ken was like no way. Ryu felt that ken was in danger when Akuma and Ken started to fight so Ryu imidiatly started to look for them after falling from a tree that he was sleeping on... when Ryu came where Ken and Akuma fight, Akuma already totally kicked Ken's butt. then Ryu came and Akuma and Ryu started to fight and Akuma totally kicked Ryu's butt too wispering to Ryu at the end of the fight ''as long as you are a martial artist our paths will cross again.'' then Akume left. Ken and Ryu helped each other get up and checked each other out to see if they were ok and then they were like Akuma just left... well lets get better at fighting and kick his butt next time we meet ! (that's the spirit lol) as you can see, it's pretty much light hearted fun (except that one part where Vega sliced open a guy's throat with his claw... That wasn't light hearted lol) and i don't know why Akuma just didn't kill Ken and Ryu like he killed their master Gouken in this version of the story. It was better explained in the graphic novel: Street Fighter Classic: Hadoken and that was Akuma saw potential in Ryu to be a rival to himself so let him live and become an exceptinal fighter like himself till the next Street Fighter tournament... but there was no such an explanation in this manga but it was fun overall. :D

[Sadifura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mami Itou blows it out of the park once again! She's one of the Street Fighter semi-canon yet non-canon authors I like that's rocketed up to the godly Masahiko Nakahira's level; they're right at the same level now of skill if we're talking semi-canon yet non-canon Capcom works in general (Mayumi Azuma is probably around second place for having my favorite portrayal of Lilith, and her more mature, responsible Morrigan is fun to see, and third place being whoever wrote the Capcom vs SNK Manhua for their super accurate portrayal of Dan, their well written portrayal of Hugo and Poison's unique friendship, and a funny portrayal of Chun Li acting like my mom in the car, out of character though it is). From Ken's adventures fighting E. Honda in front of Keiko Yanase, a female judo fighter who may have inspired Sakura Kasugano and Rainbow Mika both, to Cammy's extremely relatable portrayal and her relatable portrayal of trauma but still trying to be a normal eighteen year old girl (iirc, Cammy at the time of Street Fighter II is 18 according to lore) with the introduction of Vega interrupting that, to Chun Li's fun older sister vibes that almost seem like a lighter, more femme portrayal of Poison (who in her best portrayals is always butch, whether girlprince, girlpirate, or a mix of both), to Fei Long's brashness, and to even Akuma scolding Ken for not living up to the potential of Ansatsuken and Ryu realizing Akuma will keep searching for him as long as he continues on with his fist, this is the closest to canon a non-canon/semi-canon work will get without some adoption from the source material (like Masahiko Nakahira's manga). Mami Itou's greatest skill in writing this manga is the characterizations, whether with dry fatherly E. Honda, flirty, cocky, yet worried playboy Ken, the almost Sakura Kasugano-like characterization of Keiko Yanase, the portrayals of Delta Red, especially the Colonel and Lita Luwanda, Chun Li's cheerful, flirty, femme older sister personality with a lot of seriousness, Fei Long's chattiness and manipulativeness, Vega's suaveness and terrifying demeanor behind it (he's a professional assassin, after all), Ryu's fresh nature and desire to get stronger, Akuma's otherworldliness, and the standout characterization of Cammy, with her complex, layered personality at once cheerful and sheltered, moody and unstable, and fierce and terrifying like a storm, Itou excels in writing the characters in the game and making them feel real while sticking to their canon personalities and lore. I really wish she got to do an Alpha 3 story, or a III story, so I could see how she wrote Dan, Sakura, Karin, Ibuki, Rainbow Mika, Poison, Elena, Sean, Hugo, Necro, and Effie.