Why is Ryu a wolf in the upcoming Ultra Street Fighter IV DLC?

It’s not for the reason you might think

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The Misfits have a song called Demonmania (pronounced Deh-EE-Mono-Mee-Ah). In the song, Glenn Danzig clearly sings the words “Look upon me, I am a bee… My mother was a wolf… My father was a wolf.” That’s what it sounds like anyway. As a teen, I never understood how two wolves got together and made a bee baby. Just lucky I guess. 

Weirdly enough, the topic of bees and wolves is currently a hot-button issue with the developers of Ultra Street Fighter IV. Ryu’s name is commonly thought to mean “Dragon” in Japanese, and yet, he doesn’t look anything like a dragon in the game’s upcoming animal-themed costume pack. Instead, he looks like a gosh darn wolf! Similarly, Cammy is dressed up as a classy, scarf-in-her-cleavage fox lady. Why isn’t she wearing a killer bee costume? Isn’t that what her clone friends call her? Why is she defying her clone-given nickname?

EventHubs recently got to the bottom of this mystery through a brief interview with Capcom’s Tomoaki Ayano. According to Ayano, “…the meaning behind Ryu’s name, when translated in English, is not ‘Dragon’ … The ‘Ryu’ Kanji (隆) used for his name means ‘to rise.’ To rise to the occasion. To rise from defeat.” Whoa.

While that doesn’t exactly explain why he’s dressed as a wolf, it’s still a pretty neat fact. Ayano went on to confirm a dragon-clad reveal for a later date, stating “…as opposed to Ryu, there’s somebody else who’s more suited for the dragon motif. There will definitely be a character whose costume motif is that of the dragon. So it’s probably ‘that character.’ Although I can’t tell you whom just yet.”

As for why Cammy isn’t dressed like a bee, Ayano seems dead set against bugs in general, stating “We wanted to go with only animals in the pack — no insects.” Darn it. Tropes Vs. Insects in Videogames strikes again. 

 


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Jonathan Holmes
Destructoid Contributor - Jonathan Holmes has been a media star since the Road Rules days, and spends his time covering oddities and indies for Destructoid, with over a decade of industry experience "Where do dreams end and reality begin? Videogames, I suppose."- Gainax, FLCL Vol. 1 "The beach, the trees, even the clouds in the sky... everything is build from little tiny pieces of stuff. Just like in a Gameboy game... a nice tight little world... and all its inhabitants... made out of little building blocks... Why can't these little pixels be the building blocks for love..? For loss... for understanding"- James Kochalka, Reinventing Everything part 1 "I wonder if James Kolchalka has played Mother 3 yet?" Jonathan Holmes