E. Honda


 * "Can't you do better than that?"
 * —E. Honda

Edmond Honda, more commonly known as E. Honda, is a video game character created by Capcom for the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Introduced inStreet Fighter II as part of the starting lineup, he has appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 3 and the Capcom vs. SNK series, as well as several cameos and mentions. His shikona for sumo is mentioned as "Fujinyoma", and he has attained the sumo rank of "Ozeki". He has black hair in a chonmage and wears only a blue yukata. His face is painted in the kumadori style of makeup used in kabuki. Honda's signature move is the "Hyaku Retsu Harite" (lit., "Hundred Violent Sumo Hands"; commonly referred to as the Hundred Hand Slap.

Story
Honda in initial designs for the game was dubbed simply "Sumo", and stated that he would be a character recognizable by Americans and popular in Japan. In his back story, E. Honda is mentioned to have began his training as a child, singularly focused on becoming the greatest sumo wrestler of all time. He would eventually achieve the highly-revered titled of "Ōzeki" (in the English localization, he was incorrectly stated as having achieved the title Yokozuna, though his recent appearance states that he's generally considered good enough for that title). E. Honda became upset that the rest of the world did not view sumo wrestling with the reverence of the Japanese. He entered into the second World Warrior tournament intent on showing everyone that sumo wrestlers rank among the greatest fighters in the world. Beyond this, he yearns also to improve and prove his own strength, as well as earn the title of Yokuzuna.

His involvement with the second tournament is also part of him investigating the Shadaloo organization in response to sumo wrestlers taking biochemical drugs, and learning of their involvement after capturing some of the dealers. His face painting and dual-nationality name assisted him to an extent with remaining covert during this. This aspect of his character was conceived well before Street Fighter Alpha 3 and his storyline there.

After the tournament and the fall of Shadaloo, Honda returned to Japan where he continued engaging in sumo wrestling and continuing to run his bath house and training his disciples.

Honda appears here as more of a cameo, but a significant one to Sodom's storyline and a bit to his own in the next game. Sodom, obsessed with both Japanese culture and trying to revive Mad Gear, attempts to recruit sumo wrestlers, citing them as strong warriors. To achieve this he enters a sumo wrestling competition and faces Fujinyoma, who is revealed to be Edmond Honda. Agreeing to join Mad Gear if Sodom wins, Honda gives the match a go and defeats Sodom, though is impressed by his effort nevertheless according to their dialogue in Alpha 3.

His storyline in this game serves more of a prologue to his appearance in Street Fighter II, with him traveling the world looking for strong opponents and to show the strength of sumo wrestling. It's here he meets Ryu and has a sparring match with him, and tells Sakura later on where she can find him. About this time he fights Sodom again in a friendly match as well. His wanderings lead him to Shadaloo's base where he meets Zangief, and while the actual extent of which is unknown the two are confirmed to have worked together to help destroy the base. In the aftermath he took in a few of Bison's Dolls to give them somewhere to stay until they could regain their memories (which ones in particular is never exactly certain due to Capcom reusing sprites in his ending for the girls).

His appearance here is token at best, continuing his Street Fighter II storyline of proving to the world the strength of sumo. Given that it mentions his disciples in his ending, placing this version of him closer to his SF2 counterpart.

Honda is not back in Japan for long; he soon joins another international fighting tournament. However his goals have apparently not changed much at all, as he is once again fighting to prove the strength of sumo to the world. During the tournament, he meets up with his old friend Hakan, but loses his match against him. He also encounters El Fuerte, and helps the aspiring chef by telling him about Japanese food. After the tournament he exclaims "Look out Olympics, here I come!". However, while on a plane, he comes to the conclusion that in order to get sumo into the Olympics, he will have to join the IOC himself.

Fighting Style and Technique
Honda's fighting style, as already mentioned above, is based on sumo wrestling. In his first appearance in the original Street Fighter II, he has two special attacks, the Hundred Hand Slap and the "Super Zutsuki" (commonly referred to as the Flying Headbutt). In Hyper Fighting, Honda gains a third special attack, the Flying Headbutt, as well as the ability to move while performing his Hundred Hand Slap.

In Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Honda's super combo is the Super Killer Head Ram (also known as the Oni-Mu-Sou), a powered-up version of his Flying Headbutt. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Honda gains two additional super combos, the Fuji Drop, and the Orochi Crush. In Street Fighter IV, he gains a new "Ultra Combo" called the Ultimate Killer Head Ram, in which he does a Sumo Headbutt with so much force that he pushes the enemy to the other end of the stage. After the enemy is cornered at the other end of the stage, Honda uses his Hundred Hand Slap many times until he does one final slap against the end of the stage. Like other Ultra Combos, the move is very powerful.