A popular and memorable Street Fighter character, Dan has been referenced many times in pop culture ever since his introduction in Street Fighter Alpha. Due to Dan being a parody character of Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia, from rival game company SNK Playmore's Art of Fighting series, any references to the series and his design origin is explained in his character article.
Street Fighter
- Sean from the Street Fighter III series, a student of Ken's who has a very limited mastery of the fighting style, dislikes being compared to Dan. He even has the win quotes: "Don't call me Dan!", "Rule #1: Never give up! Rule #2: Don't fight me! Rule #3: Don't be like Dan!" and "You fight like Dan. You ARE Dan!".
Capcom games
- Ran Hibiki, from the Rival Schools fighting game series, shares the same last name as Dan as well as some few similarities with him and it has been speculated that they are related to each other. A classmate of Ran is Chairperson, who learned to fight from a Saikyō-ryū correspondence course.
- Dan is seen in Sentinel's ending in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, where he is grabbed by a Sentinel for observation.
Other video games
- Annoying Aaron from RoShamBo Fighter bares some resemblance to Dan.
Comics and Manga
Television and Animations
- In a Kamen Rider Decade episode, in which the characters are in Kamen Rider Hibiki's world, Kadoya Tsukasa wears a pink kimono. This may be a reference to Dan, since the world's Rider shares his name with Dan's surname.
Movies
Internet
- On September 30, 2015, Dan appeared in the 53rd episode of the web series Death Battle, where he battled and lost to Mr. Satan/Hercule Satan from the Dragon Ball franchise (Who is considered to be the joke character of that franchise). He was voiced by Brad Venable. They fought at the World Martial Arts tournament where their pathetic demeanor prolonged the fight, though at one point Dan taps into the Satsui no Hado to try and beat Hercule, he ends up tripping on Hercule's jetpack (similar to how he tripped on Sakura's backpack in the comics). The fight ends when Dan accidentally swallows one of Hercule's capsules and his body is blown up by an emerging jukebox.