Zeku

"Let's party! If you think you can keep up."

- Zeku (Street Fighter V)

Master Zeku (是空師匠 / ゼクウししょう) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Street Fighter Alpha 2 as a non-playable character before making his playable debut as the final fighter of the second DLC season of Street Fighter V. Zeku was formerly the 38th grandmaster of the school of Bushinryu Ninjutsu, after being succeeded by his pupil Guy, he set out on a journey of self-discovery.

Appearance
Zeku has long white/gray (brown in his younger form) hair with full fringes covering his eyes. In the Alpha series, his hair is depicted as brown and his outfit is identical to Guy's, only green. In the UDON comics, Zeku is portrayed with a moustache.

In Street Fighter V, Zeku wears a traditional yellow vest with a dark blue long sleeved ninja garb which is tied in a yellow obi, matching dark blue traditional pants and open-toed boots. In his younger alternate self, he wears a dark blue ninja suit with half sleeves and wears a red ninja scarf to cover his mouth. He also has a red sash which is tied into a obi as the sash in each side are hanging loose.

In his first alternate costume, Zeku wears a modern type of outfit consisting of a yellow orange long sleeve button shirt with the black cloud design while his sleeves folded into cuffs, and a blue and light blue striped neck tie on the collar, indigo pants and brown shoes. He also gains a dark blue arm wraps on both of his arms which is tucked into the sleeves of his button shirt and has a silver watch on his left wrist. His younger form wears the same outfit with a formal suit jacket within it.

His second alternate costume is a blue ninja suit worn by with a large bowl hat. His younger form wears the same but with a kanji at the left side.

His third alternate costume is his outfit in the Alpha series.

Personality
While Zeku can be seen as just a simple serious and stern teacher, he does have a youthful, cheerful, upbeat and a well mannered attitude as well as a strong sense of justice. His past experiences with sparring his former master, Genryuusai, was influenced through his former disciple turned successor, Guy. He has a odd mannerism in which he likes to talk with himself, normally in his young form.

Concept
Zeku's appearance in Street Fighter V shares many resemblances with Hiryu from Capcom's Strider series of action platformer games.
 * His younger form bears strong physical resemblance to Hiryu, notably being his wavy red scarf, messy brown hair, and blue garb with red kanji located on the breast. This is even more noticeable in his battle costume.
 * His theme contains musical cues taken from the opening theme of Strider.
 * During his intro, Zeku flies into the stage using a parachute-kite, similiar to Hiryu's glider entrances.
 * His Critical Art closely resembles Hiryu's Hyper Combo in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, Ragnarok.
 * Zeku's special moves Sankaku Tobi and Hassou Tobi parrallel Hiryu's moves Triangle Jump and Hassou Jump respectively.
 * His forward jump is exactly the same as Hiryu's.
 * During Zeku's special kicks, the same slicing sound that Hiryu uses in some of his moves such as Bushin Gram can be heard.
 * He mentions the name Striders (as one of the possible new names for his "evolved" fighting style art) in his character story.
 * "Original Strider" is the name of a title that one can unlock by playing Zeku.

Its currently officialy unconfirmed whether these connections mean that the Strider series exists within the same shared universe as the Street Fighter series or that they are just homages and references.

Background
Zeku was the 38th Successor of the Bushinryu Ninjutsu school. He became the Grandmaster after defeating his former teacher Genryusai, but refused to kill him as the Bushinryu commandments deemed because he saw him as a father. Although Genryusai had focused primarily on Ninjutsu, Zeku had improved the style by incorporating a variety of Taijutsu techniques on it.

Upon his later age, Zeku soon came across the time to find a successor to Bushinryu. During a patrol in an undisclosed American city, Zeku spotted a young man caught up in a gang fight. Seeing that the young man fought wildly, but with intense spirit, he then intervened and defeated the gang who had ambushed him. Telling him that he saw great potential, and with the boy greatly awed by Zeku's displays of lightning fast skill and power, Zeku then lent his hand in invitation to teach him the ways of Bushinryu. Introducing himself, that boy would let him know his name was Guy, and since then Zeku had taken him under as the next successor of Bushinryu.

Street Fighter Alpha 2
Zeku taught the young Japanese-American ninja all he knew. Eventually he and his student would battle to see if Guy was worthy of being the 39th Successor of the Bushinryu school. Guy won, and allowed Zeku to go on his own path after passing on the grandmaster title, like how Zeku before him refused to kill Genryusai. Zeku was proud of his disciple and ordained him the 39th Successor of Bushinryu Ninpo. He then disappeared.

Street Fighter V
Zeku's character story begins with a brief history on the 600-year art of Bushinryu, but after teaching the art to Guy, Zeku is ready to branch out and craft a new style of martial art. His search for disciples in the new art leads him to the Kanzuki Estate, where he (in his young form) is first greeted by Ibuki; the two fight, with Zeku afterward extending an offer to Ibuki to join his new order, but Ibuki doesn't even consider the offer, disappointed at Zeku's true age.

Zeku eventually finds Karin and extends an offer of his services; after initially turning down the offer, Zeku insists on hiring her, naming numerous services that he can perform as a ninja "in these globalized times". Karin asks for a demonstration while she considers, and when she loses the fight, she is left impressed by his skill. Zeku leaves, assuring Karin that she can contact him when he is needed.

Zeku is later seen contemplating his evolved art's possible contributions to modern society. He concludes a name is needed for his new art, but after considering the name "Shin Bushinryu", he decides the name should be English to better suit the modern era. The story ends with him being beside himself on the art's new name, giving consideration to the name "Striders" among others.

Fighting style
Zeku fights using Bushinryu Ninjutsu. As the noteworthy 38th successor of Bushinryu, Zeku is a very proficient and adept ninja master whose career has been considered to have revived Bushinryu back to its former glory since the languishing days of the Meiji Restoration; along with having incorporated integral aspects such as Taijutsu and close quarters combat to recreate the school's very own martial arts, he is extremely well versed and studied in his fighting style's dynamics and techniques to where he is equipped for many situations and encounters.

Moveset
As a "traditional" ninja, Zeku's moves are similar to that of fellow ninjas like Guy and Ibuki. He is also able to transform to his younger self using his V-Skill or a down-down motion.

Pop Culture
Zeku/Pop Culture

Quotes
Zeku/Quotes

Trivia

 * Despite his connection to Guy and the Bushinryu style, Zeku never actually appeared in the Final Fight series.


 * Of all the playable characters in the franchise, Zeku has the biggest moveset (41 in total), rivaling Dante's available moveset in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (and its Ultimate update), and Infinite iteration.


 * The way he transforms to his younger self is similar to Genkai in the manga and anime series, Yu Yu Hakusho and Silva from the manga and anime series, Jibaku-kun.


 * All of Zeku's win quotes are haikus, Japanese poems that follow a 5-7-5 syllable pattern.


 * Zeku is the only Season 2 DLC character whose voice actor (David Wald) is based in the Texas region. The other DLC characters were voiced by Los Angeles-based voice actors.

Gallery
Zeku/Gallery