Zangief

Zangief
Street Fighter series character
Zangief in Super Street Fighter II. Drawn by Bengus
First game	Street Fighter II
Created by	Akira Yasuda

{{nihongo|Zangief|ザンギエフ|Zangiefu. from Professional Wrestler Viktor Zangiev ) is a fictional character in the Street Fighter series of video games. Created by Akira Yasuda for Capcom, Zangief first appeared in Street Fighter II, later appearing in other games, media, and promotions related to the Street Fighter franchise. It has been rumored that the Zangief character was loosely based upon a friend of Akira Yasuda, Samuel Doe.

Conception and creation

Designed by Akira Yasuda, Zangief was initially conceived as a character named "Vodka Gobalsky", planned to be strong in all attributes but extremely slow. Early designs of the character closely resembled the character's finalized appearance, but with the addition of a black tanktop and anchor tattoo on his upper arms. Later in development, his name was changed to Zangief, with the initial storyline that he was banned from professional wrestling for breaking the rules, currently engaging in underground wrestling. As the game's development progressed his backstory was changed entirely. Zangief might also partly be based on the wrestler Viktor Zangief.

History

Zangief makes his first appearance in the original Street Fighter II as one of the original eight playable characters, appearing in all subsequent revisions of the game as well. In the Street Fighter II games, Zangief was depicted as an intimidating, but good-natured former professional wrestler who participated in the tournament to represent his country under the request of the Soviet President, an unnamed character resembling Mikhail Gorbachev (the actual real life Soviet President at the time). The subsequent home versions takes into account Gorbachev's resignation from office by having Zangief address the character as "Mr. Ex-President", although Zangief still represented the defunct Soviet Union in the games. In the SNES game manual for Street Fighter II his Spinning Clothesline move is said to be inspired by Mike Haggar, the mayor of Metro City and main character of Capcom's other popular arcade series Final Fight, as Haggar's supermove in that series is identical.

Zangief would return in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and its follow-up Street Fighter Alpha 3. In the Alpha series, Zangief is a national Russian hero nicknamed the "Red Cyclone" who becomes acquainted with Gorbachev at the end of Alpha 2 (the Alpha sub-series being set before Street Fighter II) and ends up fighting Shadaloo in Alpha 3.

His ending in Street Fighter IV heavily implies that he won the tournament as it is the only one that mentions its ending. Zangief's photograph holding the beaten Seth (main boss and host of the tournament) in a headlock is then viewed by children who recognized Seth as the "bad guy from the TV". While the tournament is mentioned in the prologues of almost all the characters, only Zangief is shown discussing his win. Zangief is also well known worldwide in Street Fighter IV, as fellow pro wrestler El Fuerte calls Zangief "Tornado Rojo" (the Spanish translation of "Red Cyclone"). In the downloadable costume pack for the wrestler characters, Zangief's alternate costume is again a reference to Final Fight: a pair of olive green pants held up by a belt with a large golden buckle that reads "Mayor" with a leather strap across his chest, Haggar's trademark look in the games.

Zangief has also appeared in many of Capcom's fighting game crossovers with Marvel, including X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. In the two Marvel vs. Capcom games, an alternate version Zangief named "Mech Zangief" appears. Zangief also appears in Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2, as well as in the Street Fighter EX games. He is also a playable character in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix.

Zangief is widely regarded as the strongest and most durable character in the Street Fighter universe. His spinning piledriver was the single most devastating move in the original Street Fighter II until the introduction of T.Hawk who was created to rival Zangief's status as the power character. Street Fighter IV provided enough character gameplay data to back up this status. Zangief has the highest health ranking of 1200 and the highest Stun rating (also 1200) in the game. He also poses the most damaging Focus Attack, the most damaging Super (500), and shares the top spot with Akuma and Blanka for the most damaging Ultra (600). Overall, he is officially stated to be the strongest and most durable fighter in the game.

Portrayal

Various actors have voiced the character in his video game appearances: he is voiced by Wataru Takagi in the Street Fighter Alpha series, Tesshō Genda in the Capcom vs. SNK series and Capcom Fighting Evolution, and Kenta Miyake in Japanese and Anthony Landor in English for Street Fighter IV. In anime, he is voiced in Japanese by Tetsuo Kanao and in English by William Johnson. In the live-action Street Fighter film, the character was portrayed by Andrew Bryniarski, who was dubbed over by Ryūzaburō Ōtomo in the Japanese television dub and by Katsuhisa Hōki in the video and DVD dub.

Film

Zangief appears in almost every Street Fighter movie adaptation to date, although he is not featured in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. In all except one of his appearances, he is presented as an adversary of Ryu, hinting a possible rivalry between Ryu and Zangief.

In Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Zangief appears very briefly during a brutal battle against Blanka to entertain an audience of crime bosses. He is last seen being electrocuted by him in a somewhat comical fashion due to his reaction of the process.

In Street Fighter II V, he is a henchman for Shadaloo, and sent by M. Bison to capture Ryu, whom he had seen displaying talents of Hadou on a beach earlier. Ryu resists, and they fight for a while until Zangief manages to knock him out (although he had kindly asked Ryu to come quietly). As they are leaving, Zangief spots Guile watching them from afar, and later on, while Guile and Nash are infiltrating Bison's base, Zangief corners Guile with the intention of killing him (under Bison's orders). Guile and Zangief fight a long, violent battle which takes its toll on both fighters, until Guile manages to knock Zangief out with a severe blow to the head. He is not seen again after this, and it is implied that he most likely escaped the explosion of Bison's base.

He makes another small appearance in Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie as a competitor in a fighting tournament. He does battle with Shun and begins to ruthlessly beat the boy to within an inch of his life until Ryu intervenes and battles Zangief. Zangief appears to have the upper hand, and Ryu, enraged, almost gives in to the Dark Hadō and fires a lethal dark Hadōken which narrowly misses Zangief but causes the building to collapse. Zangief, stunned by Ryu's power, subsequently falls through the crumbling floor.

He is portrayed by Andrew Bryniarski in the live-action Street Fighter movie, and is once again a lackey of Bison's, only this time, he truly has a good heart and believes that the U.N., and not Bison, are the enemies of world peace and freedom. During the climactic battle, Zangief battles E. Honda, who appears to have the upper hand. After the battle ends, he is told by Dee Jay that Bison, was in fact, the evil one, and had been fooling Zangief the whole time. It's also revealed that he was not paid as he was stunned when Dee Jay revealed "He was paid a freaking fortune." To redeem himself, he helps Ryu and Ken hold the emergency exit door open for the hostages to escape. He is last seen complementing Guile's bravery, and gives him the Shadowloo salute which Guile turns into the thumbs-up when he survives the explosion.

Appearances in other media

Zangief appeared in Masaomi Kanzaki's Street Fighter manga, released in the early 1990s, and was depicted very much like his videogame self. One of his main motivations was to defeat Guile, since, as an American, he represented to Zangief the rival country of his own.

Zangief appears in Masahiko Nakahira's Sakura Ganbaru! manga, in which he is introduced fighting in his exact same stage from Street Fighter Alpha 2. He first defeats Blanka, and then is engaged by Sakura and Cammy, whom he easily overpowered. He was later defeated by the duo and his friendly and good natured personality soon surfaced.

Zangief also shares his name with the Liverpool based Heavy Rock unit of the same name, dedicated in part to his power, underdog status, and single-minded destructive capabilities.

Zangief is "the most feared enemy" in Street Fighter II, according to Ian Hecox from the famous Youtube channel known as Smosh. This is shown in the fourth episode of a segment on their website known as "Ian Is Bored"

Promotion and reception

A Zangief-inspired costume for players to use in Sony's LittleBigPlanet was released on December 12, 2008 as downloadable content for the title.

IGN ranked Zangief at number thirteen in their "Top 25 Street Fighter Characters" article, stating "he's a bit of a stereotype, a hulking lug from Mother Russia, but he plays the type so well, though. Between the Mohawk, the muttonchops, and the all-over bear-wrestling scars, it is hard to imagine a more perfect embodiment of the muscle-bound grappling goon." GameDaily listed Zangief at number three in their "Top 20 Street Fighter Characters of All Time" article, describing his appearance as "menacing" as well as praising the strength of his fighting style. In the January 30, 1997 issue of Gamest magazine in Japan, Zangief ranked at No. 18 on the Top 50 Characters of 1996 poll.