Strider Hiryu
Encyclopedia
is a fictional character
jointly owned by Capcom
and Moto Kikaku
.
Although primarily known as a game character
, Hiryu debuted in 1988 as the protagonist
of a manga
published exclusively in Japan
by Kadokawa Shoten
. He made his first video game appearance in the coin-operated video game Strider
, which was followed by the release of an NES video game based on the manga released exclusively in North America
during the same year. Since his debut, Hiryu (飛竜 "Hiryu" usually interpreted to mean "Flying Dragon") has appeared in various video games produced by Capcom.
In most versions of the Strider story, Hiryu is an elite-class member of a group of ninja
-like agents known as the "Striders", who specializes in various kinds of wetworks such as espionage, sabotage, and assassinations. His signature weapon is his "Cypher", a plasma
-generating blade with a tonfa
-like handle.
). Moto Kikaku produced the manga version, while Capcom developed two separate video game versions, a coin-operated video game and a console version for the NES
. All three works share common plot elements, while featuring their differences as well. Because of Moto Kikaku's involvement in the character's creation, their name appears alongside Capcom's in the copyrights byline of the character.
The manga is set in the year 2048 and centers around Hiryu, a young Super A-grade Strider who retired early during his career after he was forced to kill his elder sister Mariya, a Strider who went insane (as shown in the prequel story). The main series begins with Hiryu living peacefully in Mongolia
when his former superior, Vice Director Matic, forces him out of retirement in order to kill his best friend Cain, who has been captured by hostiles in the Kazakh SSR and has become a liability to the rest of the Striders.
With the help of Strider Sheena, Hiryu manage to infiltrate the enemy's lair and extract Cain. However, Cain goes insane after regaining consciousness and attacks the two. Hiryu manage to subdue Cain, but not before Sheena is mortally wounded during the battle and dies. Hiryu uncovers a small device implanted under Cain's neck and learns from a captured enemy officer that Cain has been the subject of a mind-control weapon known codenamed Zain, a tree-shaped computer that plants mind controlling microchips to its victims, and that Hiryu's sister Mariya was under the influence of Zain when she went rogue.
After Cain regains his sense and freewill, he decides to make amends for Sheena's death by teaming up with Hiryu and stop the Zain project from reaching its completion. The two learn that an organization known simply as the "Enterprise" is behind the Zain project and that Vice Director Matic himself was cooperating with Faceas Clay, the Chief of the Enterprise. With the help of Cain, Strider Chief Kuramoto, and a group of other Striders, Hiryu manages to thwart Matic and Clay, and destroy the main Zain terminal.
The Strider arcade game however, follows a completely different storyline, sharing only a few common elements such as Hiryu himself and the use of Kazakh SSR as the game's initial setting. In this game, Hiryu is hired by a rebel organization to assassinate the Grandmaster, an alien dictator who has gained control of all of the world's military. Hiryu's mission takes him not only to Kazakh, but also to Siberia and the Amazons, as well as the Grandmaster's flying battleship "Balrog". Eventually Hiryu travels to the Grandmaster's lair, the "Third Moon" space station, for the final battle against him.
Hiryu would star in a second arcade game titled Strider 2
(released in 1999, almost ten years after the first game). Here the Grandmaster has returned to life and has reconquered the earth. Hiryu must once again fight against the Grandmaster and his minions, as well as Hien, a former Strider and rival.
An earlier Strider sequel was also produced by British game publisher U.S. Gold
years prior to Capcom's version of Strider 2, titled Strider II in Europe and Journey from Darkness: Strider Returns in North America, which was released for various European home computers in 1990 and remade for Sega consoles in 1992. However the main character, while implied to be the same Strider from the original game, is addressed as "Hinjo" in the instruction manual for the Sega Genesis version. In this game, Strider must save a young woman, the leader of planet Magenta (whose name is Lexia according to the console versions), from a terrorist group (led by the Grandmaster himself in the console versions, who originally didn't appear in the game's computer versions). In the documentation for the Sega Master System version, Strider Hiryu's full name is erroneously given as Hiryu Lyons.
version of Hatena Hatena no Daibōken, the arcade quiz game Capcom World 2
, as a spectator in Ken
's home stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2
, in various trading cards in SNK
's Card Fighters series (which SNK co-produced with Capcom), and as a playable character in Namco x Capcom
.
Hiryu also appears in the crossover fighting games Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
as one of the many playable characters representing the Capcom universe; his ending in the first Marvel vs. Capcom is a homage to the ending in the original Strider.
's Top 25 Capcom Characters of All Time ("First introduced in 1989, Strider Hiryu has become an extremely popular character in Capcom's arsenal"). He has been also featured in several lists of top ten video game ninja characters, including ranked as seventh by 1UP.com
in 2004 and as fourth by ScrewAttack
in 2010.
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
jointly owned by Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
and Moto Kikaku
Moto Kikaku
is a group of Japanese manga artists, founded by Hiroshi Motomiya . They're best known in the West for the Strider Hiryu manga , which was developed as a tie-in to Capcom's video game hit Strider...
.
Although primarily known as a game character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
, Hiryu debuted in 1988 as the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
of a manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
published exclusively in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
by Kadokawa Shoten
Kadokawa Shoten
is a well-known Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo, Japan. Kadokawa has published both manga novels and magazines, such as Newtype magazine...
. He made his first video game appearance in the coin-operated video game Strider
Strider (arcade game)
Strider, released in Japan as is a 1989 side-scrolling platform game released for the CP System arcade hardware by Capcom. It became one of Capcom's early hits before Street Fighter II, revered for its innovative gameplay and multilingual voice clips during cutscenes .-Plot: Strider is set in a...
, which was followed by the release of an NES video game based on the manga released exclusively in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
during the same year. Since his debut, Hiryu (飛竜 "Hiryu" usually interpreted to mean "Flying Dragon") has appeared in various video games produced by Capcom.
In most versions of the Strider story, Hiryu is an elite-class member of a group of ninja
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
-like agents known as the "Striders", who specializes in various kinds of wetworks such as espionage, sabotage, and assassinations. His signature weapon is his "Cypher", a plasma
Plasma (physics)
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
-generating blade with a tonfa
Tonfa
The tonfa , also known as tong fa or tuifa, is an Okinawan weapon. It is a stick with a handle, and is about 15-20 inches long. It was traditionally made from red oak and wielded in pairs...
-like handle.
Concept and creation
According to Kouichi Yotsui, the planner the original Strider coin-op game, the Strider Hiryu franchise was conceived as a multimedia collaboration between Capcom and Moto Kikaku (the two companies previously collaborated with each other to work on the video game versions of the manga Tenchi wo KurauTenchi wo Kurau
is the manga authored by Hiroshi Motomiya. The storyline is set at Three Kingdoms period, when Western Shu, Northern Wei and Eastern Wu battled to conquer all China.-Plot:...
). Moto Kikaku produced the manga version, while Capcom developed two separate video game versions, a coin-operated video game and a console version for the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
. All three works share common plot elements, while featuring their differences as well. Because of Moto Kikaku's involvement in the character's creation, their name appears alongside Capcom's in the copyrights byline of the character.
Manga
The Strider Hiryu manga, illustrated by Tatsumi Wada and written by, was serialized in the monthly magazine Comic Computique from May to October 1988, spanning six issues. A single volume collection was later published on November 10, 1989. A short prequel story, titled , was published following the completion of the main series and is not included in the collected edition.The manga is set in the year 2048 and centers around Hiryu, a young Super A-grade Strider who retired early during his career after he was forced to kill his elder sister Mariya, a Strider who went insane (as shown in the prequel story). The main series begins with Hiryu living peacefully in Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
when his former superior, Vice Director Matic, forces him out of retirement in order to kill his best friend Cain, who has been captured by hostiles in the Kazakh SSR and has become a liability to the rest of the Striders.
With the help of Strider Sheena, Hiryu manage to infiltrate the enemy's lair and extract Cain. However, Cain goes insane after regaining consciousness and attacks the two. Hiryu manage to subdue Cain, but not before Sheena is mortally wounded during the battle and dies. Hiryu uncovers a small device implanted under Cain's neck and learns from a captured enemy officer that Cain has been the subject of a mind-control weapon known codenamed Zain, a tree-shaped computer that plants mind controlling microchips to its victims, and that Hiryu's sister Mariya was under the influence of Zain when she went rogue.
After Cain regains his sense and freewill, he decides to make amends for Sheena's death by teaming up with Hiryu and stop the Zain project from reaching its completion. The two learn that an organization known simply as the "Enterprise" is behind the Zain project and that Vice Director Matic himself was cooperating with Faceas Clay, the Chief of the Enterprise. With the help of Cain, Strider Chief Kuramoto, and a group of other Striders, Hiryu manages to thwart Matic and Clay, and destroy the main Zain terminal.
Strider video game series
Two video game versions of Strider were produced following the publication of the manga. The NES version of Strider, released a few months after the arcade version, adapts the storyline of the Strider Hiryu manga, although a few changes were made to the presentation of the plot.The Strider arcade game however, follows a completely different storyline, sharing only a few common elements such as Hiryu himself and the use of Kazakh SSR as the game's initial setting. In this game, Hiryu is hired by a rebel organization to assassinate the Grandmaster, an alien dictator who has gained control of all of the world's military. Hiryu's mission takes him not only to Kazakh, but also to Siberia and the Amazons, as well as the Grandmaster's flying battleship "Balrog". Eventually Hiryu travels to the Grandmaster's lair, the "Third Moon" space station, for the final battle against him.
Hiryu would star in a second arcade game titled Strider 2
Strider 2
Strider 2, released in Japan as , is Capcom's 1999 sequel to the original Strider. The game is actually the second sequel to Strider produced, following the U.S. Gold-produced Strider Returns released in , a game with which Capcom was not directly involved...
(released in 1999, almost ten years after the first game). Here the Grandmaster has returned to life and has reconquered the earth. Hiryu must once again fight against the Grandmaster and his minions, as well as Hien, a former Strider and rival.
An earlier Strider sequel was also produced by British game publisher U.S. Gold
U.S. Gold
U.S. Gold was a British video game publisher and developer from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, producing numerous titles on a variety of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit platforms.-History:...
years prior to Capcom's version of Strider 2, titled Strider II in Europe and Journey from Darkness: Strider Returns in North America, which was released for various European home computers in 1990 and remade for Sega consoles in 1992. However the main character, while implied to be the same Strider from the original game, is addressed as "Hinjo" in the instruction manual for the Sega Genesis version. In this game, Strider must save a young woman, the leader of planet Magenta (whose name is Lexia according to the console versions), from a terrorist group (led by the Grandmaster himself in the console versions, who originally didn't appear in the game's computer versions). In the documentation for the Sega Master System version, Strider Hiryu's full name is erroneously given as Hiryu Lyons.
Guest appearances
Strider Hiryu has made various cameo appearances in other Capcom games following the original arcade game. He has appeared in the Game BoyGame Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
version of Hatena Hatena no Daibōken, the arcade quiz game Capcom World 2
Capcom World 2
is a quiz game released in exclusively in Japan by Capcom in as a coin-operated video game. It was the 20th game released by Capcom for their CP System hardware, as well as Capcom's fifth quiz game for the arcade...
, as a spectator in Ken
Ken Masters
, originally spelled in Japanese as , is a video game character created by Capcom. As a main character, he has appeared in all of the Street Fighter games along with his best friend and rival, Ryu...
's home stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Street Fighter Alpha 2, known as in Japan, Asia and South America, is a fighting game originally released for the CPS II arcade hardware by Capcom. The game is both a sequel and a remake to the previous years Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams, which is itself a prequel to the Street Fighter...
, in various trading cards in SNK
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
's Card Fighters series (which SNK co-produced with Capcom), and as a playable character in Namco x Capcom
Namco x Capcom
is an action RPG/tactical RPG hybrid game for the PlayStation 2 console, developed by Monolith Soft and featuring characters from games produced by companies Namco and Capcom.- Storyline :...
.
Hiryu also appears in the crossover fighting games Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
is a crossover fighting game developed by Capcom. It is an updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. After the events of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disrupted the development schedule for downloadable content for the original game, the additional content was made into a...
as one of the many playable characters representing the Capcom universe; his ending in the first Marvel vs. Capcom is a homage to the ending in the original Strider.
Reception
In 2008, Hiryu was ranked fourth on GameDailyGameDaily
GameDaily was a video game journalism website based in the United States. Launched in 1995 by entrepreneur Mark Friedler under the name Gigex and focused on free game demo downloads, The site changed its business model from a flat fee per download CDN distributed service network to an...
's Top 25 Capcom Characters of All Time ("First introduced in 1989, Strider Hiryu has become an extremely popular character in Capcom's arsenal"). He has been also featured in several lists of top ten video game ninja characters, including ranked as seventh by 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
in 2004 and as fourth by ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack
ScrewAttack . is a video game-related website that showcases original entertainment for an audience of video game enthusiasts. Its content is also shown on GameTrailers and IGN...
in 2010.