Gouken

CHARACTERISTICS

HEIGHT 6'1" (185 cm)[2][1] WEIGHT 198½ lbs (90 kg)[2][1] EYE COLOR Brown HAIR COLOR White Black (at a young age) BLOOD TYPE Unknown[2] MEASUREMENTS B125/W95/H90[2]

PERSONAL

FIRST GAME Street Fighter Alpha Street Fighter IV (Playable debut) BIRTHDATE Unknown[1] BIRTHPLACE Japan[2][1] FIGHTING STYLE Martial arts rooted in Ansatsuken[2][1] LIKES Dango (Japanese dumpling)[2][1], his former students DISLIKES Mosquitoes[2][1] OCCUPATION Martial artist (master) RIVAL(S) Ryu (friendly), Akuma, Ken (friendly), Evil Ryu, Oni, M. Bison SKILLS Fishing[2][1] MOVESET Gohadoken, Tatsumaki Gorasen, Senkugoshoha, Kuuchuu Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, Kongoshin, Fudoshin, Forbidden Shoryuken, Shin Shoryuken, Denjin Hadoken ALIGNMENT Good STATUS Alive RELATIONSHIP Akuma (younger brother/fellow apprentice) Goutetsu (master) Ryu (apprentice)[3] Ken Masters (apprentice)[3]

Gouken (ゴウケン (剛拳), Gōken?, "Constitutionality", "Strong Fist") is a character from the Street Fighter series who was originally featured in the 1993 manga Street Fighter II: Ryu before eventually appearing as a playable fighter in Street Fighter IV. He is a master martial artist and mentor to Ryu and Ken, as well as the older brother of Akuma.

Appearance

Gouken is most often depicted as an elderly yet very well-built man with a white beard and prayer beads around his neck. In his most recent Street Fighter IV appearance, Gouken wears a single sleeved, gray-colored karate gi and sports a long, white braid of hair adorned with a single prayer bead. Alternate Costumes Gouken's first alternate costume has his gi top removed; he now sports bandages on his forearms and a rope on his back, extremely similar to the one found on Akuma's first alternate costume. Gouken's second alternate costume is an altered gi with a conical hat similar to those once worn by ashigaru, foot soldiers employed by the samurai of feudal Japan. Gouken's third alternate costume is an outfit worn by the Yamabushi, who are Japanese mountain ascetic monks who followed the Shugendō doctrine. Gouken's fourth alternate costume has him imagined as Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Gouken's fifth alternate costume has him wearing a red leisurely haori with black pants and a drum hanging off the belt, while accessorized with black wrist guards and brown leather body straps similar to those of the aforementioned yamabushi with wings on the back and a tengu mask. Gouken's Horror themed costume has him imagined as an "evil" counterpart; he wears but a brown loincloth and shorts, with chains bound on his right arm and left leg. On his chest is branded his symbolic kanji of "mu".

Personality

Gouken's personality is naturally that of the archetypical "master elder", which is common within general media related to martial arts; the "elder" personality type is evident in the same type of media (as well as Western media characters such as Pai Mei); despite this, he does have many aspects that do have him stand out as a character. As stern and serious as he can be, Gouken is nonetheless enthusiastic in the nature of competition, being a spirited and modest good sport at heart. His approach is silent and calm, evocative of "zen" principles and he often shares insightful (if not also blunt and critical) advice and wisdoms to that effect. For example, he tells Dan that anger will not help him (fearing it would lead him to a dark place) and he informs Dee Jay that if he is silent, he would be surprised at what he learns. He is on good terms with people like Rose and Dhalsim, who share similar ideals and beliefs. Gouken detests his younger brother Akuma for killing their master, Goutetsu, and embracing the darkness that resides within their arts instead of seeking a more pure form of strength, specifically the Power of Nothingness. He also despises Bison for his use of Psycho Power, believing he endangered the world. It is implied that he also has knowledge or at least familiar with other known combat forms, as he states the E. Honda's sumo techniques would be considered "sacrilegious" (in the former's own words) against the sumo traditions, making him one of three characters (including his former apprentice Dan and Rufus) to point this out.

Concept

While the earliest Street Fighter games made references to Ryu and Ken's master, Gouken made his first illustrated appearance in Street Fighter II: Ryu, Masaomi Kanzaki's manga adaptation of Street Fighter II. Since then, Gouken has appeared in several Street Fighter movies and comics, including UDON's Street Fighter line of comics, Akuma's ending in Street Fighter Alpha and the Street Fighter Alpha: Generations movie, as cameos. Before his illustration in Street Fighter Alpha, Gouken's appearance would differ vastly between media. Gouken himself was based off Sheng Long, a character that originated from the infamous English mistranslation of Ryu's win quote from the early versions of the Street Fighter II series ("You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance"), which many speculated was referring to Ryu's master; it was intended to say "You must defeat my Shoryuken to stand a chance", while home console western releases of the later versions such as Super Street Fighter II say "You must defeat my Dragon Punch to stand a chance". April Fools jokes created by EGM in 1992 and 1997 actually provided an appearance for Sheng Long, which in turn directly influenced Gouken's current appearance. It should be noted that, prior to Street Fighter IV, Sheng Long was actually used as Gouken's western name in some media, similar to how his more notorious brother is referred to as either Akuma or Gouki depending on the region.

Gouken was finally introduced as a playable character in Street Fighter IV in response to fans demanding Sheng Long for years. One of his obtainable player titles states "AKA Sheng Long", and one of his win quotes even references the original quote ("You must defeat me to stand a chance"). His appearance is similar to the Shinto Kunitsukami deity Sarutahiko, who is considered the oldest of the patron gods of the martial arts in Japan, representative of purification, strength, courage, and is the guardian of the bridge that connects the earth to the heavens. His personality may also be reflective of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido and spiritualist who found enlightenment and spiritual harmony in his later years. On March 2017, 25 years after the EGM article was published, Sheng Long was given a "joke" profile in the Shadaloo Combat Research Institute part of the Capcom Fighters Network website. The profile satirizes the Sheng Long rumor, stating that he became a living legend, he appears after consecutive draw games, his moves are impossible to counterattack and always register as counter hits and that anyone that sees him will die after 24 hours. After 32 years of being known as a rumor since Street Fighter II, Sheng Long finally makes his offical Street Fighter canon debut in Street Fighter 6 by Capcom as an NPC character you can meet in World Tour.

Allies

Ryu Ryu is Gouken's first disciple and adopted son. Gouken inspired him to be a martial artist and views him as a son, but soon no longer views him as a student, but as a rival, as he has gone far in his journey and is skilled enough to learn his own techniques. He also helped him overcome the Satsui no Hado in Street Fighter IV. Ken Ken is Gouken's second disciple and the son of his best friend. Gouken trained Ken when he was young, but no longer trains him currently, as, like Ryu, he is already skilled and views him as a rival due to this. Dan Gouken has little respect for his former disciple, kicking him out of the dojo once he realized that Dan's motivation was revenge on Sagat, fearing that it would lead him to a dark path. Gouken intended to stop Dan from ever fighting by sealing his fist but he couldn't bring himself to harm him and instead verbally told him to stop fighting.[4] In spite of this, Gouken would leave bits of advice to Dan whenever they encounter one another, as seen in his win quotes. Retsu Retsu is mentioned to be a friend of his.

Enemies

Akuma Akuma is Gouken's younger brother and archnemesis. Gouken greatly despises him for embracing the Satsui no Hado and murdering their master Goutetsu in a mortal duel. Because of this, he does all he can to protect his former students Ryu and Ken from him, to the point where he willingly fought Akuma in a battle to the death so that he won't come after them. Oni Oni is the only being that has ever intimidated him, due to the demi-demon wielding fearsome power beyond imagination. It is implied Gouken knows very well this was what Akuma would become. By this time, Gouken considers his younger brother - or what he sees as formerly his brother, dead. M. Bison Gouken had fought against M. Bison in the past.[5][6] While Gouken may not be as familiar with the evil dictator compared to Ryu, Gouken is well aware of the dangers and influence that M. Bison poses to the world.

Story

According to Capcom's official account of Akuma's backstory, Gouken and his younger brother Akuma were once students of Goutetsu, a practitioner of an art that was originally developed with the intention of killing an opponent, the origins of which are rooted back to Japan's feudal age. Goutetsu taught his skills to Gouken and Akuma. Eventually, the two men began to completely differ in the methods and usage of their fighting style. Akuma became bent on completely mastering the killing and dark aspect of the art, and embraced it to the point of succumbing to the Satsui no Hado, or the "Surge of Murderous Intent" and wanted to further embrace it to his fullest extent to become more powerful. Gouken, on the other hand, developed his own style of the art and wanted to embrace the peaceful and spiritual aspect of the art, the Power of Nothingness, by removing the Satsui no Hado: turning fatal techniques such as the Hadoken and Shoryuken into tools for self-defense, removing their killing potential. After fully succumbing to the Satsui no Hado, Akuma fought and killed Goutetsu in a duel for not embracing it to his fullest extent and left behind both his master's dojo and his older brother in order to train by himself to grow even more powerful. Sometime before Goutetsu's death, Gouken found an abandoned orphan child, Ryu, and took him under his wing.[7] Gouken would later take Dan Hibiki as his first pupil.[8] However, Gouken learned that the reason Dan wanted to learn this martial art was for revenge, and Gouken rejected him for his motives, fearing that his anger would lead him down a dark path.[9] Later during the summer, Ken Masters, who was sent from his father, a good friend of Gouken's, in order to learn humility and respect for a bright future.[10]

After Gouken began to train the two boys, Akuma made a sudden appearance at Gouken's dojo. There, Akuma challenged Gouken to a fight.[11] Akuma was soundly defeated by his brother, but Gouken spared his life even after Akuma's insistence that Gouken should kill him. After Akuma's arrival and departure, Gouken continued to train the two boys once more.[12] Eventually, time would pass, and as his students matured, Gouken found his two students graduating from his tutelage, adept enough to leave the dojo and travel the world to continue their studies to become better people. One night during his Zazen meditation session, M. Bison arrives at his dojo in order to find the heir to Ansatsuken.[5][13] Gouken expected that M. Bison would eventually come to him. However, he faced M. Bison with only his fists, not relying on moves such as Hadoken and Shoryuken, which resulted in himself losing to the dictator.[5][14] M. Bison noticed this and curses at Gouken for not showing his true power. He then comments on his two students - Ryu and Ken, being more willing to show Ansatsuken's true power and leaves.[5][15]Afterwards, Akuma reappeared at Gouken's dojo again and challenged his brother to a rematch. This time, Akuma ended up as the victor, supposedly killing him with the Shun Goku Satsu. However, because Gouken used a technique similar to Gen's and luckily emptied his soul of emotions, saving his life, and he was merely left in a deep coma. Due to his bloodied body and because he was unconscious for an extended period of time, Ryu and Ken believed their master to be dead, and put his body in a graveyard.

Super Street Fighter IV

After awakening two years later and rising out of his grave, Gouken leaves his dojo and tailed his students, pleased that they have come so far. However, he was not satisfied with just watching them and he decided to enter the new S.I.N. tournament in order to test their strength himself. Gouken successfully finds Ryu after Seth's defeat, and managed to seal the Satsui no Hado so he would never have to suffer with this power again. Akuma appeared afterwards, furious at Gouken for completing this task; Akuma felt that he would no longer have a chance to kill Ryu in battle (or vise versa). Akuma realizes the power Gouken used to seal it was nothing ordinary, but the Power of Nothingness. The two brothers then face off in another rematch, with control of Ryu's fate as the prize, with Gen witnessing the beginning of the fight in awe. The exact outcome of this fight is unknown, though it is known that both brothers survived and that Ryu does not go to Akuma, so it could possibly be implied that Gouken may have ultimately won. Afterwards, Ryu and Ken ask Gouken to stay with them for a while, but Gouken tells them that they are both grown men and no longer need a master.[16]

Street Fighter V

In Ryu's character story, Gouken fights Ryu in a sparring match, training him to control the Satsui no Hado within him. The two of them are later confronted by Rashid and his servant, Azam, as the former wants to challenge Ryu to test his mettle. Gouken gives Ryu some advice as he silently accepts Rashid's challenge. After Ryu's victory, Gouken tells Ryu to meet Ken, who has been concerned about him.

Street Fighter 6

Ryu talks about Gouken in World Tour. He gave Ryu a matching set of prayer beads but Ryu himself doesn't wear them as it affects his mobility.[17]

Fighting Style

As the preceding master of the martial art that Ryu and Ken practice and wield in the series, Gouken is nonetheless the originator and peerless practitioner of the toned-down assassination martial art taught by Goutetsu. As seen in his moveset, Gouken has mastered the martial art to the point that he has grown to create techniques that better suit his own dynamics and philosophies, one that follows the use of both the Hado no Chikara and the Power of Nothingness for an effective and powerful form of self-defense, rather than the violent and destructive form of the martial art that his brother wields with the Satsui no Hado. This is most significant in his repertoire's spelling and dynamics; many of their kanji are those with more benevolent and less wrathful interpretations than ones seen in Akuma's, and they are performed in such ways where they are intended for knockout stopping force than maiming and severe injury. Moveset Gameplay-wise, Gouken's playstyle is representative of the martial arts concept of katsujinken (lit "fist/sword that gives life"), focusing on reading the opponent, being able to react and counter accordingly to their actions, and to react appropriately to an opponent's openings to unleash powerful attacks to the victory of the battle, and the application of the moral philosophies of mottainai and kaizen, being to "waste not, want not" and to be extremely frugal and efficient with one's movement and energy within battle to not only give one's all, but to make the most out of every advantage and go the distance to unleash big damage when the time and opportunity presents itself.

Compared in metagame to Ryu and Ken, Gouken's playstyle is rather unorthodox when it comes to Shotokan style characters, lacking punishing anti-airs and combo-ability; while a defensive character, many of his moves instead involve around controlling the flow of battle, enacting "mindgames" and goading the opponent to attack, countering incoming attacks, unique normals that can strike into hitboxes intended for specific attacks like Makoto, special attacks that have extremely specific uses for utility but can make for many uses and openings, creating openings for combos and crossups at irregular and uncommon but effective openings and hit confirms, effectively resetting constantly the neutral game to outright halt the opponent mentally, and to use his strength as hard-hitting punishment for these openings to stun and making up for his rigid mobility. In turn, Gouken is extremely reliant on meter to unleash his best attacks and potential.

While a character of advanced and rigid disposition who demands investment and dedication to play as; including extensive memorization, study, and training of his entire moveset to fully understand his weaknesses, strengths, and openings, awareness of his rather rigid speed, the use of spacing and tactical positioning, strategic awareness of the opponent and literal street fighting awareness to psychologically read movement and action, some manner of creativity, utilizing at full all game central mechanics to their advanced level, even a good mindset and training of the mind to rightfully engage in "flow" to play him at his optimal performance, even moreso than other characters, and at best requires a lot of experience with Street Fighter to play, he is nevertheless a powerful adversary in the hands of one who knows and can react quickly to the ins and outs of the game and with tools to immediately turn the tide back to their favor. In turn, much like Oro, he can be considered a much more advanced "Ryu" to play as, and it is best to also study and play as his graduate student to understand his more complex aspects.

Gouken is powerful enough to be capable of performing a Gohadoken with only one hand, is able to perform a similar Ashura Senku move, but with an offensive twist, the Senkugoshoha, has perfected an anti-aerial vertical Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, the Tatsumaki Gorasen, and has a powerful counter move, Kongoshin, that is able to counter nearly any attack with lightning-fast oppressive force. Furthermore, he shares the Airborne Tatsumaki Senpukyaku of his students from the Street Fighter II series and the Hyakkishu of his brother with a different variation, and shares his brother's Tenmakujinkyaku. His throw, Ama no Oroshi, is a simple subduing hug before Gouken tosses them into the air, and is useful for starting up aerial juggles. As the master of the toned-down assassination art, Gouken appears to have specialized in the usage of the Shoryuken, to the point that they are only available as Super Combos and Ultra Combos, in the forms of the Forbidden Shoryuken, while his first Ultra Combo is the Shin Shoryuken, and the Hadoken, as using both hands allows him to perform the Denjin Hadoken with a greater deal of power.

As a Boss

His boss counterpart in Super Street Fighter IV, has powered up special moves quite similar to that of playable Gouken's EX moves and sports a light blue-green gi. Gouken's EX Senkugoshoha travels further, faster, and has Super Armor. The Gohadoken projectiles are immediately and fully charged, which means they always land two hits. The Kongoshin can react to both high and low hits, eliminating the need to guess. The Denjin Hadoken is also fully charged upon activation. Finally, while stronger due to being in boss character mode, his Shin Shoryuken has been upped to deal around 2/3rds of damage to a player's health.

Animations

Street Fighter TV series Gouken also appeared in the Street Fighter episode "The World's Greatest Warrior", with his character design being similar to that in prior Street Fighter manga. Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation Gouken makes a cameo appearance in Ryu's flashback. Street Fighter Alpha: Generations Gouken and Akuma are training together under Goutetsu's teachings, at some point, Akuma had turned to the dark side to grow in power and throwing away his humanity for the Dark Hado after murdering Goutetsu, this event causes the two brothers' relationship to strain. At some point, he takes in Ryu as a pupil along with Ken, and teaches them the art of Ansatsuken, he is eventually murdered by Akuma in front of Ryu who tried to help Gouken. Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind Gouken is seen in Ryu's flashbacks.

Live-action series

Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist Gouken appears along with Ryu and Ken in Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist portrayed by Akira Koieyama, and Shogen as young Gouken.

Udon Comics

Although not exactly canon the comics have been influenced by the games and vice versa. Gouken's role in the UDON series is much the same as his in-game story as he teaches Ryu and Ken in the ways of Ansatsuken. During his younger days, Gouken committed himself to training after seeing his father murdered. The assailants were people who had a hatred for his father, who used the Dark Hado to murder his fellow former students of Goutestsu which included the leader of the bandit gang's father. Gouken came to Goutetsu's dojo some years after seeing his mother's life fade away from an unknown sickness, Goutetsu agreed to teach him after hearing his reasons for learning Ansatsuken. After passing many trials and tests from Goutetsu's teachings, his final trial was to stay in the mountains with no food or water for days as a mental endurance test. Retsu reveals himself to Gouken and mentions another student of Goutetsu that had stayed in the mountains for the same ammount of time and tells Gouken that he has been in the mountains for ten days and thus, has reached enlightenment. He takes Gouken outside of his cave and shows him the village of the bandits that murdered his father. Gouken, having no desire for revenge, did not go after them. He asked Retsu about the other student who was in the mountains with that lasted as long as he did. Retsu told him that it was his brother, Gouki, and tha he had come to an awakening of his own. Gouken quickly made his way to the village, only to find that Gouki had killed almost everybody on it and set it in flames, Gouken found a woman with an infant in the burning bar. He saved the baby from the place before it burned to the ground. Gouken then raised the boy as his son and named him Ryu.

He teaches Ryu positive aspects of the art, sparing him from the darkness that would come from teaching him it's full arsenal of killing techniques (the side that embraces the Satsui no Hadō, or "Dark Hado"). He would also train the son of an American businessman, Ken Masters, much in the same way. At some point, he was visited by Retsu who told him the stories of what became of his brother. He told him that Gouki had casted away his humanity and became Akuma. Many villagers and fighters feared Akuma and thought of him as a demon that was cast down from the heavens to destroy everything. After hearing about the place Akuma now lived, Gouken sets out on a personal journey to find him on the mountains near the waterfall, only to find that his brother had truly become a demon after all. Gouken offered Akuma some food, clothes and blankets, he implored his brother to come home with him, Akuma laughed it off instead, joking that their mother would still be alive had her being with Akuma instead, Gouken is enraged by Akuma and engages him in combat. After an attack with a Shin Shoryuken, Akuma falls near a waterfall, but holds off in the ledge, Gouken rushed to try pull him up, but Akuma denies his help, recites his father's old saying and lets go of the edge. He survives fall and climbs out of the river, promising to someday become something new.

Gouken maintains a different philosophy then that of his brother, his brother believing that the only true path to mastery and perfection can only be gained by throwing away humanity, love, loyality, and compassion. Gouken believes that true mastery can be achive through goodness, peace, and honor, and this eventually leads the brothers to argue over the future of Ryu's destiny. Sometime after that event, Gouken was visited in the middle of the night at his dojo by another unwelcome visitor, whose aura was akin to that of a pure, threatening, empty shadow. Though he did not introduce himself, that entity was that of a younger M. Bison, and he demanded Gouken to show to him the techniques of Ansatsuken, having heard of its reputation through rumors and word of mouth. Forced to duel with the threatening figure, Gouken ultimately lost the fight, but won the battle, having held back and refusing to show Bison any of his techniques. However, Bison made word that he would one day encounter his two students, and ultimately reveal to him the secrets of Ansatsuken and its principles of Hadou; though beaten badly and fallen unconscious shortly afterwards, as if the events were nothing but a bad dream, Gouken knew irrevocably that his students would not be able to resist that fate of encountering Bison, and was driven to teach them to the best of his abilities in turn

During Ryu's absence from the dojo to attend the first Street Fighter tournament, Akuma murders Gouken by using the Raging Demon, unaware that Gouken used the Power of Nothingness to protect his soul. As Akuma seeks to have Ryu embrace the Dark Hado for the remainder of the comic series, Gouken remained absent. Ryu forces himself to not show the hatred that wells up within him, adhering to his master's precepts of humanity and respect for one's opponent. However, Ryu also yearns to avenge Gouken's death and honor, and will seek out Akuma at any cost. This all comes to a head at the end of the Shadaloo tournment that Ryu is attending. Akuma intervenes before the final battle of the tournament between Ryu and Bison and destroys Bison's body so he may fight Ryu. The two clash but Akuma still overpowers Ryu. Before he can land the final blow, Gouken (using the Power of Nothingness) returns in time to save Ryu, expressing his pride, and engages a shocked Akuma. The two warriors battle to an unseen conclusion. Gouken told Akuma to give up his pursuit on Ryu as he has shown that he is above the Dark Hado's evil. Akuma responds, stating that Ryu is not as pure as Gouken thinks. Akuma teleports next to Sakura to "prove" his point. Shocked that Akuma would go this far to get to Ryu, Gouken told him to keep her out of this. Akuma then teleports away, leaving Gouken in the snow.

Street Fighter: The Novel Where Strength Lies

After surviving Akuma’s Shun Goku Satsu, Gouken heard about Ryu attacking other fighters and waits at the Old Temple. Since this was where Gouken trained Ryu and Ken, he knew Ryu would return to this spot one day, even if his mind is clouded by the Satsui no Hado. Evil Ryu shows up and was at first stunned to see his master alive, but the Satsui no Hado prevented any more emotion to surface as that’s secondary to defeating Gouken. During the fight, Evil Ryu lands a Shun Goku Satsu, but Gouken survives and continues to fight with the injuries. The damage limited Gouken’s attack options, so he resorted to Shin Shoryuken instead which K.O’s Evil Ryu. Even though Evil Ryu was down, the Satsui no Hado forced the body to continue to fight, and was about to land the finishing blow on Gouken until Ryu overcomes the Satsui no Hado and reverts back to his normal self. The scene ends with a teary-eyed reunion with his master.

Trivia

In Gouken's win quote against the boss form of Oni, he doesn't give advice but instead says "Goodbye, brother". This implies that (he believes) his brother Akuma is gone or deceased since he finally became a full demon. Conversely, Oni says nothing after defeating Gouken in arcade mode and even explicitly states that he holds no human bonds to him, implying that (like his humanity) Oni estrange his former brother. The kanji 無 (mu, "negative") on the back of Gouken's costume represents the Buddhist concept of emptiness, and is often associated with Gouken himself. His current Japanese voice actor, Toru Okawa, previously voiced Ryu in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Fittingly, Gouken's two Ultra Combos and Focus Attack originally appeared in the Street Fighter III series as two of Ryu's Super Arts and a new special move. Although Gouken did not make an actual appearance in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, he is hinted in Ryu and Ken's flashbacks during their days as his students. He is referred to as "Goutetsu" in the closing credits for the film, probably because the movie was made before the names "Gouken" and "Goutetsu" were incorporated into the games. Before the Alpha series, Gouken's death was portrayed in some materials to have been at the hands of Sagat or M. Bison. This was later changed in Alpha to him being "killed" by Akuma, and in IV, to be merely a duel that nearly killed him, but survived. Gouken's death was never officially shown by Capcom. His death (and grave) was only shown in non-canon material. In SFA3, it's revealed that Ryu visits Gouken's grave once a year, however there's no scene of Ryu visiting the grave instead he's training in the same area he trained when he was young.[18]

There's speculations of Gouken having a biological, but unnamed, daughter. Her first appearance was in a short manga page from Gamest 013 (October 1987) where she pleads Ryu to stay with her instead of leaving with Ken to avenge his masters death.[19] This was created by former Gamest writer without the permission of Capcom.[20] Her last appearance was in the 1994 STREET FIGHTER II Memorial Movie Official Fan Book.[21] Capcom never denied nor confirmed any information about Gouken having a biological daughter, although none of these adaptations are considered to be canonical to the Street Fighter universe. One of these speculations came from a old licensed Street Fighter manhwa (Chinese comic) which presents a woman called "Ojou" (which is more likely to be the term "Ojou-San", a polite way to call a young and beautiful girl in Japan), who was revealed to be Gouken's daughter. Another speculation is towards a character called Fuka from Street Fighter Alpha Generations who has a strong resemblance of Gouken at his younger days. Fuuka also reveals that her biological father has died in a violent battle against a unknown opponent (which was possibly Gouken's fight against Akuma and the former's first near-death experience).