Street Fighter Alpha/Ken

For more information about Ken, please see his Street Fighter II entry.

Ken, like his friend and rival Ryu, first appeared in the original Street Fighter. However, despite this appearance, Ken did not officially participate in the first Street Fighter tournament; instead, he fought in (and won) the premiere U.S. Martial Arts tournament that had been previously won by Charlie, as well as meeting a girl named Eliza, who became his girlfriend. After winning the U.S. martial arts tournament, Ken returned to his training ground to tell his master Gouken the good news. There he witnessed his master's death at the hands of Akuma. Enraged and grief stricken, he attacked Akuma, only to be defeated.

He began wandering the world in search of Akuma, and his friend and fellow student Ryu. He wanted to tell Ryu what happened to their master and also hoped to win a match against him. He eventually finds Ryu in seclusion. Ryu is dejected upon seeing his long-time friend, but Ken makes him go try out a spar anyway. Over the next few days, Ken realizes how stressed out his best friend is since his fight with Sagat. Ryu explains to Ken that deep within him there is a burning rage- a power trying to overcome him. Giving Ryu his red headband, Ken tells him to stay focused, which greatly cheers Ryu up. Ken returns home and begins training harder. Knowing even with his recent feelings, that Ryu is always stronger than he looks.

Ken begins to wonder about his own life. Ryu seemed to be on the right track again, but what of him? Along the way to prove himself again, he encounters Karin who tells him she has followed his career and is trying to best her rival Sakura to prove she is superior. Ken advises her it's good to have a rival, but not for supremacy, but to keep on training harder and focusing. With this, Ken finds himself again and is focused once more. Going off to meet up with Sakura, they too have a friendly match and Ken finally realizes that Ryu has the right idea all along. Both he and Sakura begin to travel to find Ryu, but find out that he's being brainwashed by the dictator M. Bison. Ken and Sakura both take Bison on together to distract him as Sagat (who had come along to also find Ryu struggling against Bison) took Ryu under control. Ryu eventually came to and slammed Bison away with the help of Ken, then talked to each of his friends — he told Ken to wait for his rematch, noting he still had much to learn. Ken himself promised to train harder.