Ryu is a timeless icon among fighting game characters and one of the most recognizable protagonists/heroes in video game history. He has been referenced countless times in pop culture ever since his introduction in the original Street Fighter.
Ryu had a cameo appearance in the vertical scrolling shooter game Varth: Operation Thunderstorm. In the fourth level, by a section of grass and pipes on the satellite's lower-right section, Ryu will appear and perform a Shoryuken. Continuing to fire on Ryu until he disappears will yield a large amount of power-ups.
Ryu's likeness appears in Capcom's golf game, We Love Golf!, as an unlockable cosplay outfit for Tony.
In the science fiction action-adventure game Crimson Tears, after completing certain conditions, the player can unlock character skins of Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile, and Sakura.
Ryu, alongside with Sakura, makes a collaboration appearance in Monster Hunter: World.
Dr. Light appears to wear Ryu's iconic attire in Mega Man X along with its remake.
Other video games[]
In The Simpsons Game, Ryu appears as an enemy, with Ken's gi as a color swap, in the stage "Game Over".
In Double Dragon (Neo-Geo), one of the playable characters, Rebecca Brielle wears a red headband and her aikido uniform is based on Ryu's white gi. Her fighting style however is a mixture between Ryu and Chun-Li's and she also wields two tonfas in battle.
Jin Kazama from Bandai Namco's Tekken series has been compared to Ryu and has some similar personality traits and fighting prowess. In Street Fighter V, Ryu's premium school costume resembles one of Jin's customized outfits in both Tekken 6 and Tekken 7, but without the bandages on the hands and chest. Ryu's classic gi and his red headband became two of the generic customizations in Tekken 8 as Jin resembles Ryu while wearing the two customizations as mentioned above, but his hair remained spiky and the devil tattoo was exposed.
Hanzo Hattori from ADK's World Heroes series bore a very striking resemblance to Ryu. Hanzo's hairstyle and padded outfit were devised to give his design its own uniqueness.
Several incarnations of the PokémonBlack Belt trainer class resemble Ryu.
Ryu's School Uniform costume in Street Fighter V, particularly the jacketless variant, heavily resembles Makoto Mizoguchi from Data East's Fighter's History fighting game series. The official SFV site acknowledges the resemblance, joking that Ryu might be able to throw a Tiger Bazooka (Mizoguchi's special move) if he wears it.[3]
Ryu, along with Chun-Li, appears as the collaboration costumes in Fortnite. He also has the Battle Costume, a reference to his Battle Outfit 1 from Street Fighter V.
In some few other media of the series (such as Street Fighter Gaiden), Ryu has some similar personality traits to many other Shounen manga characters such as Son Goku, the main protagonist of the Dragon Ball series; some of these traits were preserved in later portrayals.
Baio Nishizawa from Keroro Gunso not only dresses like Ryu when he was younger but also shares Ryu's height (175 cm) and weight (68kg). He's married to Oka Nishizawa, who's based on Chun-Li.
On the 9th volume cover for Ore Monogatari, the main protagonist Takeo Gouda can be seen wearing Ryu's outfit.
Television and Animations[]
In season five of the Totally Spies cartoon series, the villain Sushi Bob is dressed in Ryu's design from the original Street Fighter.
Ryu makes three cameo appearances in Disney's 52nd animated film, Wreck-It Ralph where Kyle Hebert reprises his voice role in the film. First, a 16-bit Ryu and Ken notice that the arcade is closed and decide to take a break and head off to the Tapper bar. Later, a computer-animated Ryu can be spotted as one of the customers the Root Beer Tapper has to serve. Then, Ryu can be seen passing by Ralph for a couple of seconds as Ralph is looking for a medal. Finally, he is seen in the credits in the car-breaking bonus stage alongside Wreck-It Ralph.
Ryu and Ken's cameo appearances in Wreck-It Ralph.
Ironically, in the Japanese version of the movie, he is voiced by Taketora, the current Japanese voice actor of Akuma.
In F-Zero: GP Legend, Ryu Suzaku's design and name were partially inspired by Ryu, his Japanese voice actor is also Toshiyuki Morikawa. His last name is also a reference to Ryu's home stage Suzaku Castle. Near the end of the anime, he is seen in a waterfall while wearing a white dogi with a black belt.
In the twenty-second episode of Miraculous Ladybug, there were a number of Street Fighter references during the battle against Gamer.
Ladybug's and Cat Noir's robot (right) has the same fight stance as Ryu's.
The giant robot controlled by Ladybug and Cat Noir begins the fight scene with a stance that bears a resemblance to Ryu's appearance in Street Fighter II.
The first attack the robot used is an Axe Kick, similar to Ryu's attack.
When the robot unleashes its projectile called Catouken, the animation is similar to Ryu's Metsu Hadoken from Street Fighter IV.
One of the robot's attack, Tatsu-Lady, is a reference to Ryu's Tatsumaki.
One of the robot's attack is called Shoryubug, which is a reference to Ryu's Shoryuken.
In the fourteenth episode of Food Wars, the intermission card features parodies of the some characters dressed as Street Fighter characters. The main character, Sōma Yukihira, is dressed as Ryu but with Evil Ryu's gi color.
This is also featured in the manga's title page of the twenty-ninth chapter.
In the second episode of Kakegurui, Runa Yomozuki defeats Aoi Mibuomi in a game visually similar to Street Fighter IV. Runa plays as Ryu and performs a Shinku Hadoken to defeat Aoi's character, Ken.
Ryu then appeared in the Death Battle spinoff series One Minute Melee, where he had once again fought against Jin Kazama and that their fight had ended in a tie when they knocked each other out, in their Evil Ryu and Devil Jin forms respectively, with a punch to the face.
He also appeared in the other Death Battle spinoff series, "DBX" where he fought Lucario from the Pokémon series and ended up defeating him by decapitation via his Shin Shoryuken and then caught him on his Pokémon GO app on his phone. He later returned to battle Liu Kang from the Mortal Kombat series and prevailed after hitting Kang with the Raging Demon.
From the same series, it has been jokingly mentioned that Ryu "has eyebrows so epic that they cannot be contained by his headband", while also stating that he "probably has some foot fungus" (referencing the fact that he generally walks bare-footed and tends to not wear shoes).
Ryu is featured in the 15th episode of Bat In The Sun's Super Power Beat Down, where Tommy Oliver of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers accepts his challenge. Evil Ryu also appears as he delivers a Metsu Hadoken at Tommy, only for him to absorb the attack with the Sword of Darkness and at the same time breaking his helmet. The battle ends where Tommy impales Evil Ryu on the chest with the said sword in a similar vein with a Fatality from the Mortal Kombat games, with Tommy saying "Welcome to my nightmare."
In the alternate ending, the fight ends when Evil Ryu fires a Shakunetsu Hadoken at full power until he reverts back to his normal self, with Tommy being unable to withstand the Hadoken. At the end, another fighter calls out Ryu for a challenge. This unnamed fighter is portrayed by Johnny Yong Bosch, who plays Adam Park from the second season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Power Rangers in Space, and reprising his role in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive. At the same time, Bosch also provides the English voice for Yang in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.
