Fighting game champion’s rise to top-tier status
Many gamers, fight-fans or not, are aware of Daigo Umehara. Typified by his unshakeable mental status, never-say-die attitude, and uncanny predictive skills, the affectionately titled ‘Beast’ has been a prominent face within the FGC for nearly 20 years, wherein he has won multiple Street Fighter championships.
Since 2014, Umehara’s journey to becoming Japan’s first-ever pro-gamer has been told in a six-volume manga. Today, publisher Udon Entertainment announced that Daigo The Beast is finally being translated for Western release. The series blends fact and fiction to give insight into the background of Umehara and his rise to prominence within the competitive fighting game scene.
Although I am a competitive fighting game player myself, I personally have no real interest in reading a manga about the legendary FGC champion. Then again, I just went 0-2 in two different games at my latest tournament, so I guess it’s just the wretched salt talking.
Scheduled for general release in December, advance copies of volume one, Umerhara Fighting Gamers!, will be available for sale at EVO when the tournament returns to Las Vegas on July 14
