E. Honda

"It's only natural that a Sumo should become the World's Strongest!"

- E. Honda

"Dosukoi! (どすこい！)"

- E. Honda (Street Fighter IV series)

Edmond Honda (エドモンド本田), more commonly known as E. Honda, is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Street Fighter II. He is an honorable champion Sumo wrestler that values tradition.

Concept
In initial designs for Street Fighter II, Honda was dubbed simply "Sumo", and stated that he would be a character recognizable by Americans and popular in Japan.

Appearance
Edmond Honda is an obese yet very muscular Japanese man, seemingly in his late 30s to early 40s. While not having the same height as T. Hawk, Sagat or Zangief, Honda is notably tall, despite not looking so due to his fighting stance with flexed knees and hunchback. He has black hair in a chonmage hairstyle and wears only a white and light blue mawashi with a striking red fundoshi underneath (the later is rarely seen). His face is painted in the kumadori style of red makeup used in kabuki. As a sumo wrestler he always fights barefoot, though many artworks depict him wearing a pair of geta (traditional Japanese wooden sandals with two "elevated" clogs). His primary appearance in the game became his "Nostalgia" costume in Street Fighter V.

In Street Fighter V, Edmond now wears a traditional mawashi worn by sumos in sumo wrestling as the color of his mawashi is sky blue. It's loincloth of his mawashi has a white mountain design at the center and wore single footwraps on his right feet and armwraps on his left arm.

Personality
E. Honda is an honorable and friendly man who warmly welcomes people he sees as good; he is also ambitious in regards to displaying the strength of sumo to the world, and to that end he always gives his all during his training and fighting regimens. He also enjoys hot steaming baths between training sessions, his favorite spot being Kapukon Yu.

Despite his apparent lack of agility and portrayals in other media as clumsy or silly, Honda is a very powerful sumo grand master. He takes both his sumo art and his "Rikishi" title very seriously, considering it a sacred martial art just like any other; Honda often throws a handful of salt in front of him before he begins to fight, in reference to the real-life sumo ritual, often performed as a means of purification (specifically called "shubatsu").

Hakan
Hakan and E. Honda are very close friends. Though their beliefs in their own respective fighting styles make them more like rivals than friends, they are still on good terms with each other. Hakan is also one of the few people in the series to state E. Honda's first name (in his rival cutscene, he calls him "his old friend, Mr. Honda", as well as "Edmond").

Rufus
Honda is on good terms with Rufus and is the closest thing he has to a friend.

Sodom
Sodom attempted to recruit Honda for his new Mad Gear by defeating him in a match, but failed and was defeated, he did earn Honda's respect though.

Background
In his Street Fighter II back story, E. Honda is mentioned to have began his training as a child, singularly focused on becoming the greatest sumo wrestler of all time. He would eventually achieve the highly-revered titled of "Ōzeki" (in the English localization, he was incorrectly stated as having achieved the title Yokozuna, though his recent appearance states that he's generally considered good enough for that title).

Street Fighter Alpha 2
E. Honda appears here as more of a cameo - though a significant one - in Sodom's storyline and a bit to his own in the next game. Sodom, obsessed with both Japanese culture and trying to revive Mad Gear, attempts to recruit sumo wrestlers, citing them as strong warriors. To achieve this he enters a sumo wrestling competition and faces Fuji-no-miya, who is revealed to be Edmond Honda. Agreeing to join Mad Gear if Sodom wins, Honda gives the match a go and defeats Sodom, though he is impressed by his effort nevertheless, according to their dialogue in Alpha 3.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
His storyline in this game serves more of a prologue to his appearance in Street Fighter II, with him traveling the world looking for strong opponents and to show the strength of sumo wrestling. Along the way, he meets Ryu and has a sparring match with him, and tells Sakura later on where she can find him. About this time, he fights Sodom again in a friendly match as well. His wanderings lead him to Shadaloo's base, where he meets Zangief, and while the actual extent of which is unknown, the two are confirmed to have worked together to help destroy the base. In the aftermath, he took in a few of Bison's Dolls to give them somewhere to stay until they could regain their memories (which ones in particular is never exactly certain, due to Capcom reusing sprites in his ending for the girls).

Street Fighter II
E. Honda became upset that the rest of the world did not view sumo wrestling with the reverence of the Japanese. He entered into the second World Warrior tournament, intent on showing everyone that sumo wrestlers rank among the greatest fighters in the world. Beyond this, he yearns also to improve and prove his own strength, as well as earn the title of Yokuzuna.

His involvement with the second tournament is also part of him investigating the Shadaloo organization in response to sumo wrestlers taking biochemical drugs, and learning of their involvement after capturing some of the dealers. His face painting and dual-nationality name assisted him to an extent with remaining covert during this. This aspect of his character was conceived well before Street Fighter Alpha 3 and his storyline there.

After the tournament and the fall of Shadaloo, Honda returned to Japan where he continued engaging in sumo wrestling and continuing to run his bath house and training his disciples.

Super Street Fighter IV
Honda is not back in Japan for long - he soon joins another international fighting tournament. However his goals have apparently not changed much at all, as he is once again fighting to prove the strength of sumo to the world. During the tournament, he meets up with his old comrade Hakan, but loses his match against him. They later agree to meet again in Japan, but Honda warns him not to expect him to lose. He also encounters El Fuerte, and helps the aspiring chef by telling him about Japanese food.

After the tournament he exclaims "Look out Olympics, here I come!". However, while on a plane, he comes to the conclusion that in order to get sumo into the Olympics, he will have to join the IOC (International Olympic Committee) himself.

Street Fighter V series
During the events of the game, E. Honda is in a gourmet travel with Hakan and is searching for new disciples.

In Alex's character story, holograms of E. Honda and Hakan appear as opponents that attack together.

E. Honda also appears in Ibuki's character story when she remembers all the good people she met.

Having been originally leaked through Twitter on July 2019, E. Honda, along with Final Fight characters Lucia and Poison, was confirmed as a playale fighter in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition.

Capcom vs. SNK series
Honda's appearance in the Capcom vs. SNK games is token at best, continuing his Street Fighter II storyline of proving to the world the strength of sumo. Given that it mentions his disciples in his ending, his story is mostly unchanged from Street Fighter II.

Japan Sumo Cup: Yokozuna vs. Street Fighter
E. Honda was an unlockable playable character.

Cameo appearances
E. Honda makes a cameo in Capcom Fighting Evolution, at the Japanese Street stage, in which he stands on the sidewalk cheering on the fighters.

In the Disney 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph, he had a cameo as one of the portraits in Tappers'.

E. Honda appears as one of the Spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

1994 Live-Action Film
In the 1994 motion picture based on the Street Fighter franchise, the role of Honda is played by Peter "Navy" Tuiasosopo. Honda is portrayed as a close associate of Chun-Li, serving as her news crew technician and aiding her on her quest to avenge her father's death alongside Balrog. Like Balrog, he has a personal grudge against Shadaloo, who ruined his reputation as a sumo (though no details on how are given). In the film's climax he battles Zangief, smashing through Bison's base.

Unlike in the games where Honda is pure Japanese, he is portrayed as a Japanese-American hailing from Hawaii. His personality is rather laid back compared to his video game counterpart, and is shown to have a near immunity to pain when one of Bison's goons attempts to torture him, something he attributes to his discipline in sumo when Balrog asks about it. He does seem to enjoy fighting when he gets a chance to with Zangief, despite the degree of damage that it causes.

This version of Honda appeared in both the arcade and console games based off the film. In his arcade ending, it states that he returned to the world of professional sumo and regained the title of yokuzuna. The console game took this and expanded upon it, stating that he and Zangief had formed a friendship and had practice matches, with Honda only having one win over Zangief. The outcomes of said matches however seem to be just as calamitous as their original bout, resulting in the destruction of five sumo dojos.

1994 Animated Movie
Honda appeared as one of the more prominent characters to appear in the second half of the anime, unlike a majority of the characters that were not heavily involved in the backstory of the game. He is voiced by Daisuke Gōri in the Japanese version, and Richard Epcar in the English dub. His personality is relatively unchanged from that in the games, however his goal is shown to be to fight for cash compared to his in-game goal of proving the strength of sumo to the world. Several aspects of his character appearance here saw usage in the Street Fighter Alpha series much like many other characters, but moreso in the Capcom vs. SNK games, where outright nods (such as his run animation being a direct copy of his attempt to charge into Bison) were included in the game.

He's first seen wrestling with Dhalsim in Calcutta to win prize money. Dhalsim manages to slip away from his grip however, and attempts to mentally subdue Honda. Ryu's presence however distracts Dhalsim enough for Honda to regain control of the match and win due to forfeit. Honda catches up with Ryu, recognizing he helped him win and the fact Ryu is a fellow Japanese fighter, offering him half the prize money (which the latter refuses) as well as a place to stay for a while.

Guile and Bison find Ryu eventually however. While Ryu tries to deal with a brainwashed Ken, Honda charges forward to take on Bison, only for him to teleport out of his path and Ken to send him stumbling forward, straight into Balrog. He and Balrog end up fighting, eventually with both of them falling off a nearby cliff. However Honda seems to recover quickly enough, seen lugging both the unconscious Balrog and Guile back just as Ryu and Ken defeat Bison.

Street Fighter Gaiden
E. Honda appears in the Street Fighter Gaiden manga by Mami Itou in Ken's chapter. He is shown to have a student named Keiko Yanase (梁瀬恵子).

Fighting style
Honda's fighting style, as mentioned above, is based on sumo wrestling, although several of his techniques are either entirely unique additions to his basic sumo training or would be outright prohibited in a formal sumo match, as noted by Dan Hibiki, Rufus and Gouken (who are the only three to bother pointing this out). This undercuts his stated goal of promoting sumo wrestling, though Honda himself seems to be oblivious to his (presumably unintentional) hypocrisy.

Moveset
In his first appearance in the original Street Fighter II, he has two special attacks, the Hundred Hand Slap and the "Super Zutsuki" (commonly referred to as the Flying Headbutt). In Hyper Fighting, Honda gains a third special attack, the Flying Sumo Smash, as well as the ability to move while performing his Hundred Hand Slap. In Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Honda gained a fourth special move, the Smashing Oak Tree Throw.

Honda's overall style revolves around baiting jumps and surprising opponents with sudden attacks; he can also use the Hundred Hand Slap as a keepaway or pinning option. Like Guile, Honda has a solid mix of offense and defense, but lacks agility as his moves are rather slow and difficult to execute, and many are unsafe on block. Despite being able to rush his opponent, he is vulnerable to counterattacks from various projectiles, and his attacks can be avoided with a proper jump.

Super/Ultra Combos
In Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Honda gained the Super Killer Head Ram (also known as the Oni-Mu-Sou), a powered-up version of his Flying Headbutt. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Honda gains two additional Super Combos, the Fuji Drop and the Orochi Crush. In Street Fighter IV, he gains a new Ultra Combo called the Ultimate Killer Head Ram, in which he does a Sumo Headbutt with so much force that he pushes the enemy to the other end of the stage. After the enemy is cornered at the other end of the stage, Honda uses his Hundred Hand Slap many times until he does one final slap against them causes them to crumple.

Quotes
E. Honda/Quotes

Pop Culture
E. Honda/Pop Culture

Trivia

 * E. Honda is the only one of the original World Warriors not to appear as a playable character in the EX series.
 * Honda is also the only one of the eight world warriors to not appear in Street Fighter X Tekken.
 * In fact, Honda has the fewest crossover appearances of the original world warriors.


 * In Street Fighter X Tekken, Jack-X has a Swap Costume that is based on E. Honda's design.


 * He is one of two people in the iPod Touch version of Street Fighter IV, the other person being Sakura, to use their second Ultra Combo instead of the other characters, who have their first one.


 * In UDON's Street Fighter comics series, all of E. Honda's speech is rendered in red text which, against the white speech bubbles, is evocative of the Japanese flag. The idea is to show E. Honda as a fervent patriot, the same idea behind Zangief's yellow text on red bubbles resembling the colors of the Soviet flag.
 * Also, in the aforementioned comics, Zangief nicknames Honda Blue Tsunami, parallel to his own Red Cyclone moniker.


 * As said above, in the live-action movie, he is from Hawaii instead of Japan. This still works in his case as the Japanese population in Hawaii is the second-largest ethnic group of people in Hawaii.


 * The Street Fighter IV series is one of the very few games (or perhaps the only one at all) in which Honda's crouching heavy punch does not have sweeping (i.e. crouching heavy kick) properties.


 * E. Honda has the most sweeping attacks of the Street Fighter II cast.

Gallery
E. Honda/Gallery

Sprites
E. Honda/Sprites