Free Comic Book Day 2021- Street Fighter V- Afterschool Special

By Mark Rodriguez

We had a lot of fun this year at Free Comic Book Day. Johnny swung by to visit so it was the first time we both checked it out together. Even when we lived together for a while our jobs made it impossible to check out the comic shops at the same time. This year the two main comics I was looking for were the one for Street Fighter that featured Rival Schools character Akira, as she joins the Street Fighter 5 cast, and one based on Life is Strange. Here's the Street Fighter one. 

The story opens with Rufus telling Maki about a fight he had in which he actually died during the fight. Effie and Necro are there too and Effie confirmed they had to use Necro's powers to jumpstart Rufus back to life. Rufus said the guy he fought, Adon, was fighting dirty. Maki says fighting dirty is just another way to get the job done. Just then a biker with a skull on her helmet drives past them. Maki calls the biker hardcore, which leads to Rufus now wanting to tell them about the time he fought Ken Masters. Necro says 'not this again...'

Meanwhile in Atago Gongen High School, Makoto and Elena are having a wrestling match in which Makoto defeats her with a headlock. As the bells rings, Elena stands back up, which due to the massive height difference leaves Makoto, still grabbing her in a headlock, about a foot off the ground. The courtyard has a college fair, and despite Elena wanting to go to college back in Kenya, she still wants to see the options Japan has to offer. Makoto wonders if some of them will have a good karate club so she can be an instructor. 

Just then Karin is announcing sign ups for her Kanzuki School of Business, 99.7% of their students get job offers before they even graduate and a lucky few can even work directly for the Kanzuki Zaibatsu. 

Makoto thinks some business sense can help turn the Rindo-Kan dojo around, while Elena thinks negotiation sense can help her if she's ever put in charge of her village's affairs. Makoto and Elena recognize Karin.

Just then Sakura announces her own school, the Tamagawa Kita College that deals with athletic training, sports medicine and game theorists. Elena considers getting to represent her country on a world stage will bring more attention to Kenya while Makoto says winning a few gold medals would look nice for her dojo. Just then they also recognize Sakura and wonder if any other booth is also being held by a fighter they know.

Ibuki is also there, promoting her own Sarusubere University which deals with Japanese literature, philosophy and has a lot of cute guys. Makoto and Elena already know this means there's a secret ninja club as well, which Ibuki tells them to keep secret. Makoto would love to add ninja skills to her Rindo-Kan martial art style, while Elena loves the idea of getting to wear stylish ninja outfits. 

Makoto and Elena can't decide which school they wish to go to. Just then Ibuki gets smacked in the face by a note. It talks about the Seijyun Girls University. A ninja woman tells them that it produces the toughest graduates, while a more elegant woman says it also produces the most cultured graduates. 

The ninja tells Makoto she'll be envied as the toughest girl in her field, while the cultured woman tells Elena she'll be envied internationally for her academic accomplishments. Sakura, Karin and Ibuki are angry these two are plastering their flyers all over their booths. Sakura says they're fine passing out flyers, but keep them off their individual booths. The ninja asks if they want to throw down over this.

Just then the biker arrives and asks Yurika (the classy one) and Zaki (the ninja one) if there's a problem. Sakura recognizes this biker as Akira Kazama from her buddies at Gorin High. Akira used to go to Gedo High. Ibuki says Gedo High is where the bad boys go so she wonders if Akira is handsome without the biker helmet. Karin asks when Ibuki got so boy-crazy.

Akira removes the helmet to show that she is indeed a girl. Ibuki asks why all the cool guys always turn out to not be guys... which makes Karin wonder how often this happens to her. Sakura and Akira are about to fight but Elena gets in between them and tells them that they're all here to celebrate the value of education. They should set aside their tension in the spirit of mutual respect. 

Kei and Sarai walk towards the job fair discussing their ordeals with their fight-crazed friends, Sakura and Ibuki. They both mention that their new focus on colleges have shifted their thoughts from always being about martial arts or being a ninja. They see Elena and Makoto and ask what's going on and they comment on how everybody is showing each other mutual respect. Kei, Sarai, Elena and Makoto watch as Sakura, Karin and Ibuki leap into battle against Akira, Zaki and Yurika.

Ibuki changes into her ninja outfit and rains kunai blades down on Zaki, who bats them away with her chain. Ibuki lands near her and hits her with a Kazekiri kick. Karin and Yurika discuss how sometimes they still have to 'get down and get dirty' despite being classy and elegant. Yurika hits Karin with her violin bow, knocking her airborne with her Abyss Minuet attack.

Sakura and Akira charge up their fireballs and the resulting clash knocks them both back. Kei calls out to everyone and says their friends stopped caring about the fight 'ages ago'. Sakura, Akira and the rest see what's going on and say 'oh shoot'. 

Dan is there, representing the CWA Wrestling Trainee Program. Makoto and Elena are very interested. Ibuki tells them not to go, Sakura feels torn because she also loves wrestling, and Karin considers just buying out the CWA. 

Elsewhere Akira and her friends are discussing their fight. Akira says they overdid it since they didn't get a single recruit for their school. Yurika says they might have to balance strength with cordiality next time and Zaki says they're both getting soft. Just then Maki, Rufus, Necro and Effie run into them and invite Akira to ride with them towards the next stop. Yurika and Zaki encourage Akira to go.

As the bikers ride off, Maki asks Akira who's the strongest guy she knows. Akira says she always looked up to her older brother, but she also thinks Ken Masters is hardcore. Rufus blurts out 'WHAT?!' which makes the others laugh. 

My Review

It's been a while since I've entered Udon's world of Street Fighter. I love how they keep things current but also bring in cameos from other characters. In this case, Akira was recently released alongside Oro for Street Fighter 5, so this comic was perfect timing, lining up the Saturday before she joined the game the following Monday. 

I like seeing all the character interactions, especially Kei and Sarai finally meeting up and discussing their crazy friends. Both have been the straightwomen to Sakura and Ibuki's antics for years, it was only natural they'd eventually meet and compare notes.

I also liked the fact that the comic made a mini biker gang of all the biker characters in the Street Fighter series. It's a little known fact that Maki is indeed a biker in her free time so that's Udon really doing their homework. 

The art was great as always, though I feel sometimes the faces could have been done a little better. 

The fighting was aight, though pretty short from what we actually saw. The rest of the comic had a few pages of extra ads for other Udon SF comics and whatnot, I wouldn't have minded 2 extra pages of fighting, mainly focusing on Sakura and Akira. I was expecting more of an Akira showcase, but I'm sure Rival School fans would love the appearances and fighting styles of both Zaki and Yurika.

Interesting ad, but I would have liked an extra page of Sakura fighting Akira instead. 

Pretty good comic and a pretty good read. Udon has done a cool job of creating their own little canon where a lot of the Street Fighter and Rival Schools and even Final Fight characters co-exist, even if said characters aren't in the latest games. I like the attention to detail of Dan representing the CWA due to the last wrestling comic that had him encounter them. That was a fun callback to an earlier story. Dan wins again.