Street Fighter Masters- Game Gals

 By Mark Rodriguez

Street Fighter Masters is a fun series that puts the spotlight on one or two Street Fighters. We've gotten some on characters like Chun Li, Cammy, Kimberly and one about Akuma VS Ryu. This time the title is Game Gals, so I'm guessing we're going to see several of the Street Fighter women take center stage. Let's check it out.

"Street Fooder" opens in a cafe in Seoul Korea. A fight named Shin gets his order of Jjapaguri when some people show up mentioning 'the famous Taekwondo Fighter'. Shin thinks they're talking about him and he says he always available to give photos and autographs to fans. The fan apologize and say they were talking about Juri, who is currently eating some noodles.

Juri gets up and says she enjoyed her meal but wants something she can sink her teeth into. She says Shin looks like he's in good shape and challenges him to a fight. Shin says the cafe isn't a good place to fight, and Juri says they can take it outside as she grabs and throws him through the wall.

Shin gets mad and throws out a kick he calls 'Shinku-Geri' which shoots out an energy slash. Juri leaps in the air to avoid it, saying she's not impressed. She lands a diving kick to his face. Juri hits him with her Kaisen Dankai Raku kicks and sends him falling to the ground. Juri lifts his face up with her foot and says he's another boy who came up short. She grabs some food and leaves.

"The Gauntlet" starts out at the Wadkura Fountain Park in Tokyo Japan as Ran Hibiki takes a picture of Hinata, Tiffany, Natsu, Manon, Poison and Laura posing together in swimsuits. These photos are for the school calendar. Hinata says that Tifanny and Natsu don't go to Taiyo University and then asks if Laura and Poison even go to school. Tifanny and Poison pretty much shove their boobs in Hinata's face, saying that Ran just wanted the photoshoot to be more 'well-rounded'. This causes Hinata to start a fight, which Ran takes pictures of.

Suddenly Sakura leaps onto the scene. She quickly says hi to Hinata and Natsu and then runs off. Elena and Ibuki also show up and chase after Sakura. Hinata tells Natsu that they should help Sakura. Natsu reminds Hinata that they're still in their swimsuits. Hinata covers up and says Sakura can probably handle this on her own.

Sakura keeps running saying there's no way 'she's going back there'. Makoto shows up, which helps Elena and Ibuki surround Sakura. Ibuki and Elena say they're taking Sakura back, even if it's kicking and screaming. Elena tells everyone to stop and reminds everyone that they're all friends. She says if they can just talk this out, she's sure Sakura will agree with them. Sakura takes this chance to grab Elena and throw her into Ibuki and Makoto.

Sakura runs off, saying she's done talking. Ibuki leaps in front of her and says she agrees. Elena, Makoto and Ibuki all try to take Sakura down at once, but she dodges all their attacks. Sakura legsweeps Makoto, making her almost fall off the side of a bridge and into the water below. Elena and Ibuki manage to grab her and pull her to safety. The woman then see Sakura charging up a fireball. Sakura blasts the railing with a Shinkuu Hadoken, sending all three women into the water. Sakura gets away but Ibuki says the others will succeed where she failed.

Sakura tries to focus on putting as much distance between her and the others, but notices a Crepes stand and just has to get one. As she snacks on the delicious pastry, Rainbow Mika shows up and grabs her for a suplex. Thinking Sakura is down and out, Mika calls the others and tells them she got her. Sakura gets up and realizes that she's facing off against Mika. Mika bodyslams her and hits her with an elbow drop. Mika tells Sakura to stop since she's too roughed up. Sakura mentions out loud that she's with the famous Rainbow Mika, which grabs the attention of the crowd. Mika is surrounded by her fans, which gives Sakura time to get away.

Sakura figures she can blend in with the crowd if she makes it to Akihabara. She realizes that her face is being broadcast all over the news thanks to Karin. Sakura is worn out and needs time to catch her breath. Suddenly Juri arrives and says she was looking for her next pay day and is lucky enough to have run into 'Tokyo's most wanted arcade rat'. Sakura tells Juri this is all a big misunderstanding. Juri pretends to understand, but the kicks her while Sakura lets her guard down.

Sakura falls down and Juri says Karin never mentioned she wanted her brought back alive. Juri hits Sakura with one of her super moves, but is surprised that Sakura blocked the attack. Juri is surprised that Sakura survived the attack. Sakura says she's not going back flips Juri back, making the Taekwondo fighter crash into a nearby catgirl themed maid cafe.

Sakura unleashes her own super move, hitting Juri with a series of Shoryukens. Juri says she was only kidding about kill her, even though she was still going to. Sakura knocks her back with one last Shoryuken, knocking her out onto a pile of merchandise. Sakura gives one of the maids enough money to treat Juri to a meow-meow parfait when she wakes up, saying it's the least she can do and runs off.

Sakura tries to get some rest, laying up against the street corner when someone else arrives. Chun Li tells Sakura to come back with her since it's for her own good. Sakura refuses. She says she ran through a gauntlet of fighters to avoid this fate, and she will do everything to avoid it, even if it means fighting against the strongest woman in the world. Sakura lunges towards Chun Li. Sakura tries her best but she is quickly taken out by Chun Li's legendary Lightning Legs attack.

Later on at the Kanzuki Mansion, Karin tells the group that Sakura was running from a math exam. Karin explains her future depended on it. Ibuki says it makes sense Sakura would run since she never liked math. Karin says Sakura is taking the test as they speak, with Mika and Chun Li watching over her. Karin also sent off a hefty donation towards Sakura's university to make sure her exam is graded straight away.

Karin's butler Ishizaki, informs her that Sakura has returned. Natsu asks how things went and Tiffany asks if she passed. Ran takes a photo of the women as Sakura shows she passed her math exam with a C+. 

"Eye to Eye" is a short strip as Juri faces off against Sagat in Dhalsim's classic Street Fighter 2 stage. Juri and Sagat do their special moves while they're both too far from each other to connect. Since both Juri and Sagat had eye patches, they realize they both have bad depth perception. Sagat admits he always lets the opponents come to him. Juri asks how they can settle their match. Later on we see Sagat and Juri settle their fight over a round of Street Fighter 5.

My Thoughts-

I love the main story as we got to see Sakura fight her way through a lot of the female cast of the series as try to find out exactly what she was running from. It's always cool to see the Udon series continue to bring in characters from Rival Schools or previous Street Fighter games that aren't in the current games. You get an interesting mix of looks and costumes, as Sakura and Karin are sporting their Street Fighter 5 looks, Ibuki and Elena have their Street Fighter 3/4 looks and Juri is sporting her current Street Fighter 6 attire. 

I also liked the part where Natsu asks if Laura and Poison go to school. Laura points out she did when she was younger, since she's old enough to be done with school. Poison on the other hand, scoffs at the comment, either because she's also clearly too old to be in school, or she because might have been a high school or college dropout during her Mad Gear days. I love the attention to detail of things like that.

Speaking of Juri, sheesh, she happened to catch Karin's broadcast and was willing to kill Sakura. Regardless the reason, I seriously doubt Karin actually put a hit on her. How awkward would that have been if Sakura was killed over a math test. I do think this is the first comic I have seen those two square off, since Sakura and Juri are both in Street Fighter 4 and 5. Udon has such a vast collection of series and one-shots, it's hard to keep track. 

The first story was kind of... weird and pointless. Juri just challenges a random dude and wrecks him while spouting innuendos... just because. I get that it's a very Juri thing to do... but it would have probably been more satisfying if Shin actually started messing with her first and he got his comeuppance. Maybe they could have made him get jealous that Juri was more popular than him and he would have started talking trash or something. Also with a rando like Shin tossing out energy waves, just how many people in the Street Fighter universe have weird videogame-ish attacks? Maybe Shin was some sort of Kim Kaphwan stand in? Now that's a match I'd like to see if they ever did a crossover.

Finally the one-page strip was fun, and I kinda forgot that both Sagat and Juri wear eyepatches. Or at least Juri wore one in Street Fighter 5, so that joke only works during that time period. 

Fun comic overall, though I didn't see the point of the first story. I did find a pic of Jjapaguri and it looks delicious. It's also known as Ram-don.