Ken Masters

**Ken Masters** is one of the main protagonists of the *Street Fighter* series. He fought Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat in episode 6 of Mini Rumble Season 2.

## Description

When Ken was about 12 years old, his father, a rich hotel tycoon, thought that his son needed to learn about discipline, or his son would become a spoiled brat. In order to do so, the elder Masters sent Ken to Japan to train under his best friend, the mysterious karate master Gouken. He enjoyed the company of Gouken's adopted son, Ryu, since he had a foil to finally pull pranks on, although this got Ken into a lot of trouble. Ryu and Ken would later become best friends and each other's principal rivals.

When they were 23, Gouken decided that both of his pupils had grown up to be fine fighters and decided that their training was over and could now leave the dojo. Ken was finally happy to be going back home to the United States after his years of straining his back for his master, Gouken, and finally learning the meaning of humility. After coming home, Ken competed in many different Martial Arts tournaments held in the United States, winning most of them while meeting his future wife, Eliza.

## Trivia

* As a result of potential lawsuits, Ken was given the last name "Masters" so he would not be confused with Ken Carson from *Barbie*, a *Mattel* owned franchise.

* Ken has been playable in every installment of *Street Fighter*, much like Ryu (a distinction that is unique to them), both main series and spinoff. However, Ken is not playable in a few crossover titles, such as *Capcom Fighting Evolution*, both versions of *Tatsunoko vs. Capcom* and *Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds* and the updated "*Ultimate*" version. He is also not playable in *Super Smash Bros. 4*, as Ryu is the only playable *Street Fighter* character (Ken's theme is able to be selected to play on Ryu's stage). This is likely due to a desire not to take up many spaces in their rosters with overly similar characters. He does, however, appear as an "Echo Fighter" in the sequel.

* Ryu can use Ken's moveset in *Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes* via Mode Change.

* When fought as a CPU opponent in some games, particularly *Street Fighter Alpha* and *Street Fighter EX*, Ken will occasionally do a light Shoryuken, followed by a medium one as soon as he lands, and then a strong one. This AI behavior has remained consistent in most of his appearances.

* Ken is one of the eleven playable *Street Fighter* characters who are married or in a romantic relationship.

* In *Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact*, if Ken defeats Sean, he would say to him "You must defeat Ryu to stand a chance!" This is based on Ryu's infamously mistranslated win quote ("You must defeat my Shoryuken/Sheng Long in order to stand a chance!").

* In the *SFIII* Q&A from Gamest's *SFIII* Fanbook, when asked if he's still entering fighting competitions after having a son and moving to the west coast, Ken confirms that he's not been able to after Mel's birth. But he'll make an exception if Ryu participates.

* When asked if Ken will make Mel into a martial artist, Ken says it's up to Mel. Ken also mentions in the interview that seeing Sean reminds him of himself when he was young.

* In the *Street Fighter III* games, Ken seems to break the fourth wall in one of his quotes against Hugo or Gill in *Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact* ("It's losers like you that make this game boring!").

* Ken's birthday is on St. Valentine's Day.
	+ Ken shares his birthday with Kolin and Natsu Ayuhara.

* Though born in the United States, Ken is actually only one quarter Anglo-American and three quarters Japanese. This is justified as his father was also likely born in the States but is half Japanese.
	+ A misconception seen from western Street Fighter fans is that Ken's Japanese heritage was a retcon in order to dilute his American side. In reality Ken always had a Japanese descent, as evident by the fact his name is spelled in kanji (拳) in the *Street Fighter's* flyer and Ken being listed as Japanese alongside Ryu and Retsu. In *Street Fighter II*, it states that he’s born and raised in Japan and that he’s ¼ American since his maternal grandfather is American. He then moved to the USA to continue his training and that USA is his mother’s homeland. Manabu Takemura confirms that Ken represents a typical young man who likes American culture and wants to become an American. And in *ALL ABOUT Street Fighter III The Characters*, the first sentence under the 家族/family section says 日本出身 (nihon shusshin), suggesting that Capcom was still characterizing Ken as being of Japanese origin from 1987 to 1997 (the time of Street Fighter III's release).
	+ Additionally a lot of Americans in real life have ancestry from other countries with relatively very few of them in fact having ancestry from only the U.S.A.

* Ken's stage in *Street Fighter Alpha 2* has cameos by several other Capcom characters, including those from the *Darkstalkers* series and Captain Commando from the arcade game of the same name.

* In *SNK vs. Capcom: SvC Chaos*, as Violent Ken, his battle stance in his intro is similar to Akuma's and Evil Ryu's; however, he turns clockwise instead of counterclockwise.

* Ken's win quote against Lei Wulong in *Street Fighter × Tekken* is based on Lei resembling Jackie Chan.

* In the original *Street Fighter*, there's unused audio in the game files for a "Fire Kick", along with unused graphics that suggest Ryu and Ken were planned to have a fourth special move. Had that been the case, then the move could have been similar to the Tenmakujinkyaku or Senpukyaku.
	+ Ironically, some of Ken's kick-based moves would later involve fire.

* Ryu & Ken's fighting style have gone through many changes over the course of the series. In the original *Street Fighter*, Ryu & Ken were genius martial artists who learned martial arts from an early age and created their own martial arts style. This would carry over to *SFA3* where Ryu adopts various techniques from karate, jūdō and taekwondo to create his own style.However, in Ryu's *SFIII* bio it states that he uses martial arts based on karate.It wasn't until *SFIV* where Ryu & Ken's fighting style became a "martial art rooted as an art of assassination".

* In *Street Fighter: Resurrection*, Ken's birthyear is mistakenly listed as 1966 while his official (former) birthyear is 1965.

* *Street Fighter II* suggests that Ken is from or around Detroit, Michigan as that location shows up on the map when he is selected as an opponent.

* Some fans have pointed out that Ken's theme sounds similar to the Cheap Trick song "Mighty Wings" from *Top Gun*. *Street Fighter II* composer Yoko Shimomura stated in an interview: *"I have heard people say that and I watched the movie before I composed the song, so I can't deny I may have been inspired subconsciously. But I didn't go into it thinking, 'OK I'm gonna make this song sound like Mighty Wings.'"*.
	+ It was also stated that Ken's theme was originally going to be Guile's. This would make sense, as Guile is in the US Air Force, like the characters in *Top Gun*.

* Ken's first alternate costume in *Street Fighter IV* is the costume for King Cobra, a character that was scrapped in favor of Rufus.

* The part in Ken's *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* reveal trailer where he is seen flirting with Zelda, could be a reference to his *Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix* ending, where Ken was seen flirting with a female character who wasn't Eliza.

* In *Street Fighter V*, Ken has a downloadable costume in the form of Dante's clothes from *Devil May Cry 4*.
	+ Additionally, holding a button combination after equipping Ken in the Dante costume unlocks the Devil Arm Gilgamesh as part of the Dante costume for the match.
	+ Coincidentally, both Ken and Dante are voiced by Reuben Langdon.

### XVX

* Ken is the Street Fighter character to appear in Mini Rumble, after Sean, Rainbow Mika, Charlie Nash, Adon, and Ryu, and with the next ones being Sakura, Juri and Chun-Li.
* Ken is the Street Fighter character to appear in season 2 of Mini Rumble, after Ryu, and with next one being Sakura.