THE STORY OF SAIKYO!a.k.a Dan's Appearances Dan made his Streetfighting debut in Street Fighter Alpha, as seen above! If playing as a character who faced Sagat as a final boss (e.g Ryu) then upon the match starting you would be greeted by the sight of Sagat throwing the master of Saikyo off the edge of the screen. Quite why Dan is dressed in orange and wearing geta (thanks to Eddy Williams for putting me right on this one ^-^) is discussed a little further below! Dan was also a playable (albeit secret) character In Alpha 1. However he was a far cry from the legend he would become. (Thanks to Mercury Crusader for the pic).  Perhaps the most notable thing about Dan's appearance in Alpha 1 is that his sprite is the closest to looking like Robert Garcia (see below for more details) that ever appeared in a Capcom games. (Capcom would later be trumped by SNK in SvC: Chaos, when SNK virtually recycled an old Robert Garcia sprite, recolouring it to turn into Dan...). Although Dan's basic moves are in place he lacks many of his more distinguishing features (not least his legendary taunts). At this stage Dan truly was a huge Capcom 'in-joke' against SNK.   Dan was a fully fledged player character for the first time in Street Fighter Alpha 2, throwing an impressive flying kick in the intro sequence (see above) and being selectable immediately. Dan's sprite had also been subtly reworked from his Alpha 1 incarnation. Although still bearing a definite resemblance to Robert and Ryo (see below) he now a more obvious 'look' of his own. His entry in the manual for Alpha 2 "Dan has suffered from the same dream for 10 years since his father perished at the feet of Sagat. A fighter of his own style, Dan has trained vehemently to avenge his father's death. He rises to his feet, filled with incredible power. He unloads his most potent attack, exploding his training sandbag into chunks of leather and sprays of sand. Dan raises his fist, proclaiming his fear is anger and anxiety is hatred. He fears Sagat no more."  Dan made an encore in Streetfighter Alpha 3, having defeated Sagat in the previous game. (although having do so in a somewhat dubious manner.... but it's the thought that counts!) The "revenge" aspect to his character was played down somewhat and instead his arrogance and weakness were played up. His portrayal in this game has set the tone for all his subsequent appearances (Of which there have been four - Streetfigher vs. Marvel, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK 2 and Capcom vs. SNK: Chaps). It is the Alpha 3 version of Dan with which most Dan fans identify. Dan's OriginsThe character we know and love as Dan originated from an illustration drawn in 1993 by one of Capcom's artists. The drawing depicts Sagat holding a beaten "Dan" by the head, and would appear in animated form in SF Alpha. (You can see the picture a litte further below here) The story behind this picture is something of an epic in itself, as the figure that Sagat is holding is a parody of the heroes of the game Art of Fighting, a arcade game produce by rival video game giant SNK.SNK spent most of the early to mid-1990s trying to design a Streetfighter beating
(pun intended) beat em up with games like King of the Fighters, Samurai Showdown, World Heroes
and Art of Fighting. (Some of which were really good, to be fair). However, their first major fighting game, Art of Fighting is not only spectacularly bad but also quite a blatant rip off of the first Streetfighter game, featuring two heroes in the form of Ryo and Robert, who had a set of special moves amazingly similar to Ryu and Ken. Dan is heavily based around these two guys.
Examples include:
Who is Go Hibiki?Go Hibiki is something of an enigma within Dan's background. Let's chart exactly what we can be sure of with Go Hibiki:
Go Hibiki has apparently appeared twice in game form - in Pocket Fighter and then on the "Bopper" Card in Card Fighters Clash.....
There have also been quite a vareity of interpretations of Go by other Dan fans. Street Fighter mythology suggests that there is an official picture of Go as a Muay Thai fighter, lying defeated at the feet of a young Sagat. Supporters of this theory point to the fact Sagat has a slighty wonky left eye (Go blinded Sagat in one eye during their final fight). On the other hand, Go looks extremely small and young for a man who has fathered and raised a child. Anyhow, now you can make your own mind up courtesy of Ramsey, witness the pic:-  Other versions of Go have seen him as the orange clad guy who Sagat hurls off the screen in SF Alpha, although this is impossible within storyline terms - Go was killed before Ryu scarred Sagat, but the image of Sagat holding the guy in orange clearly has a large scar running down his chest. Anyway, the whole "orange gi" thing is explained above, so go read it again if you're curious. In fact, the real origins of Go Hibiki's portrayal in SF come back to our old favourite, Art of Fighting. The final boss in Art of Fighting was a cheeky chappy by the name of "Mr. Karate", who was wearing a Tengu mask to disguise himself - the same mask that Go is wearing in the above pics. If you beat Mr. Karate then it was revealed that underneath the mask he was actually a brain washed Takuma, father of AOF hero Ryo. (The ending to AOF got its own individual parody in Dan's end game sequence in Streetfighter vs. Marvel, see the End Gallery for more details!) Basically, Go's appearance is another sly dig at AOF. To confirm this, the recent Snk vs. Capcom: Chaos game has a reference to this when Dan faces off against Mr. Karate... (thanks to Ramsey for the pic)
Of course, there's all sorts of rumours about Go Hibiki too. Saikyo student Icecavex has brought to my attention a rumour that Go Hibiki and Gouki are the same person. Gouki could be a shortened version of Go Hibiki, and perhaps he emerged after Go's death at the hands of Sagat. Gouki and Dan Hibiki are positioned as "opposites" in Street Fighter Alpha 1, both on the character select screen and also in levels of power. Gouken was training Dan ( he could have done it for his blood relation) and that Gouken expelled Dan when he remembered him too much of his father. Both Gouki and Dan share a similar distinctive move - Instant Hell Murder vs. Path of Man - that has no comparisons anywhere else within the game. It's all speculation, but hey, it's fun to speculate. ^__^ Dan's StudentsSince the "revenge" storyline got played down in SF Alpha 3, one of Dan's main themes now is his quest to acquire Saikyo-ryu students! This first surfaced in Pocket Fighter, when Dan's story was that he needed someone weaker than him to be his first student - and decided on Sakura! Completing the game as Dan meant that Sakura became the first ever pupil of Saikyo-ryu - without ideal results for Dan! (For more details, see the End Gallery )
Dan's Sister?The subject of if Dan has a sister is a burning one - it's certainly one of the most commonly asked questions in my e-mail - but as with many Capcom related stories, all we can do is speculate on this one. A 'sister' of Dan does appear in his end gaIme sequence for Marvel vs. Streetfighter (For more details, see the End Gallery ) but seeing as the whole sequence is an Art of Fighting spoof, that can't really be taken too seriously. A much more likely candidate for Dan's sister is the character of Ran Hibiki from the Capcom games Rival Schools United by Fate and Project Justice.
 What makes it likely that Ran is Dan's sister? Let's take a look...
Speculative evidence? Most definately. But does it get any clearer with Capcom? Nope. Rival Schools has a fanbase as hardcore as Street Fighter, and having taken the question of Ran/Dan to a number of RS forums, I've found that in general the fans of that particular franchise are in agreement that Ran and Dan are connected. Unfortunately, niether SF or RS have had an 'official' new release in years, so any possibility of the story being expanded on seems unlikely. That's said, it makes a change to have an aspect of Dan's story that isn't a dig at Art of Fighting.... A few people have asked if Dan's Yuri-esque sister at the end of Marvel vs. Streetfighter is connected to Ran Hibiki. I'd say the simple answer is no - the Marvel v. SF ending is another straight up AoF parody. Pure speculation suggests that it could perhaps be a second sister of Dan's, or maybe Ran when she was younger, but hey, with Capcom you just never know. Odd Bits of Dan Background Finally, the rather excellent Dan site Saikyo.com has found an
obscure picture of Dan lying KO'd at the feet of his old master Retsu --->  SleazyChu has informed me that Retsu ties into the Streetfighter series by virtue of him being the first Japanese opponent in the original Streetfighter series, not through the appearance of a smiliarly named character in Final Fight 2. Retsu was basically a warm up opponent in that game, having the similar moves to Ryu/Ken, without the specials, and not being too much of a struggle to defeat. The fact he's clearly given Dan a beat down here doesn't seem to be much of a vote of confidence for the Saikyo Master! Well, that's about as far as Dan's story has come at the time of writing, but all you really need to know is this: Dan is arrogant but basically useless! And that is main part of Dan's story!
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It didn't just end in Pocket Fighter, though. In SF Alpha 3, Dan and Sakura shared a special introduction. Normally Sakura sprints onto the screen, late for the fight, but against Dan she stands there scratching her head while Dan rolls on with a loud taunt. Oddly, if you finished the game as Blanka, then Dan and Sakura appeared in the end sequence to help destroy the Shadowlaw Base. In the process Dan refers to Sakura as his "Number One Disciple" and Sakura referred to him as "Master Hibiki"!
If Sakura is Dan's first pupil, then if anyone is going to be his second, then it's going to be Blanka. If you finish SF Alpha 3 as Dan, then Dan takes over Bison's base and starts teaching Blanka the finer arts of Saikyo-ryu! In the process he also refers to him as "Jimmy", which is of course, Blanka's real name. If you play through as Blanka, then Dan is the mid-boss, and both characters recognise each other as childhood friends! Supposedly the explanation for this is that Blanka saved Dan after Dan had crashed into the rainforest. At the same time, Dan taught Blanka English. This is odd, because the only time Blanka speaks English is in the older SF games (his win quote was "seeing you in action is a joke!") while in the Alpha games he just grunts and growls. More dodgy Capcom writing, by the looks of things!
There is also a third student of Saikyo-ryu who many Streetfighter fans will have missed. That student is Iincyo of the Rival Schools series of games. According to her backstory Iincyo's chose to learn her fighting style via a Saikyo-ryu correspondance course! Apparently she is something of a joke character in Rival Schools, and let's be honest here - any character who sports a quiff the size of hers has got to be some sort of Saikyo stylist! In the game, she teams up with Ran - who may be Dan's sister - which further adds to her Saikyo credentials.