We Ask Yoshinori Ono 30 Years' Worth Of Street Fighter Questions

With Street Fighter’s 30th anniversary being this year, we began thinking about the questions that have bothered us ever since we first began playing Street Fighter. Luckily, Capcom's Yoshinori Ono was at this year’s E3, so we decided to pin him down and get him to answer the most important questions in the Street Fighter universe.

Game Informer: In Street Fighter V, Ken has a very different outfit from his regular clothing. But in Street Fighter III, he has his regular gi. So what happened? Did he just not like that look?

Yoshinori Ono: This entire time Ken’s been in a hurry to change his clothes. It’s pretty smelly.

Is that the same case for Ryu? Has he worn the same gi for the entire Street Fighter story?

Ryu has no issue with the smell of his gi, so he’s been wearing the same outfit for the entire time, and he’s kind of letting himself go with the beard.

Have you ever tried to uppercut a waterfall?

When I created the waterfall for the uppercut, I thought, “I’m going to give it a shot at one point.” But then I realized that it’d probably hurt, so I haven’t done that. Maybe I’ve done it in the shower.

Blanka seems like your favorite character since you carry around that little figure of him everywhere. Have you have you ever lost it?

A lot of people misunderstand that. My favorite character is actually Cammy. I first started using Blanka as an icon for the games about eight or nine years ago, and when I first started using him I had about 30 figures. So as I traveled around I’d put him in various pockets and so I think there are about 25 of them at different places all over the world. I have about five or so left.

What are you going to do when you run out?

I’ll probably call United Airlines.

So In Street Fighter II’s story, Blanka’s mom puts an anklet on him as a kid. But it still fits when you’re playing as Blanka years later, so – was he always the same size?

Blanka has grown like a normal human. But as he grows older he keeps adding water to it and in combination with the love of his mother the anklet keeps getting bigger.

How much have you thought about that answer?

I made it up right now.

How did Ken get Violent?

So Ken’s relationship with his wife wasn’t going so well, and he got pretty pissed off and ended up turning violent as a character.

In one of the backgrounds for Street Fighter IV, there’s a kid in the background who looks like Keiji Inafune of Mega Man game. Is that intentional?

I don’t remember having Inafune anywhere in IV. Where did you get that information?

Is the guy who gets his car wrecked in Street Fighter II the same one as in Final Fight?

No, it’s not a character from Final Fight. It might in fact be the head of Capcom.

Do you know who wins every Street Fighter tournament? Is there a canon order of who wins?

So, in Street Fighter II there are eight different characters, each of which have their own story at the end of the game. So at the end of the day, when you look at each of those specific stories, each character probably thinks “Oh, I’m the champion!” in each of their minds. But when they wake up the next morning they realize none of them really are champion, but they think they should be, so they keep fighting.

How long has Sakura been in school? She was in school in Street Fighter Alpha and as far as I know she’s still in school in V.

Sakura’s mentality is that she wants to wear the schoolgirl outfit forever, so there’s a possibility that she’s failing her exams and that she’s going to be a schoolgirl forever.

What’s her worst subject?

She’s great at P.E. but not at anything else.

Do you think Ryu’s fireball is magic? Is he a wizard?

No, I do not believe it’s magic. In Ultra Street Fighter II there’s a mode called Way of the Hado, which to me is like inspiration for people to learn to throw projectiles. So during the 50th anniversary, tell everyone that if you practice you’ll be able to shoot projectiles.

Do you think Ryu could fight off being possessed by Mario’s hat Cappy in Super Mario Odyssey?

Ryu doesn’t really think about anything, he just reacts to the situation, so if Mario tries to possess him with magic, it’s not going to happen. He’s going to catch it and go, “What is this?”

Have you thought about making it so M. Bison can possess people with his hat?

If Nintendo gives us permission to do that, we’d be happy to do that. We might have Bowser pair up with M. Bison and control people with the Psycho Power.

At the end of real-life Street Fighter tournaments you typically have the crowd do a Shoryuken. Have you thought about doing another move? Can you do a Hurricane Kick?

If people tried to do the Hurricane Kick it would take up too much space. The Shoryuken takes up less space, so anyone can do it. If people could shoot Hadoukens someone could get hurt, so I think the Shoryuken is the safest bet.

I’ve jokingly climbed up on a rope and tried do it there, but I wasn’t successful.

Do you play Street Fighter V? What’s your LP?

When the game comes out, because I already know the controls, I can get a high score. Then I log out. Then I create a separate account, but the score on that one’s really low.

Because the Street Fighter series has been around for so long, a lot of those characters were born in the 60s or 70s. How do they look so young?

Because people in Hollywood are looked at all the time, they keep putting on makeup to look young. You look at Tom Cruise, and he looks much younger than he is. Street Fighter characters are doing the same thing.

So Ryu is putting on makeup before every fight?

Ryu is not, that’s why he has that chiseled look.

Well, I’m basically out of ideas for questions.

Translator: He’s requesting that you write a professional article that’s not terribly written.