Street Fighter: The Movie/Sawada



Captain Sawada is a character from the 1994 Street Fighter movie. He is also an exclusive character for both the arcade and home console versions of the Street Fighter: The Movie fighting games. Sawada is a soldier with the A.N. (Allied Nations) who served with Guile a few times prior to battling against General Bison in Shadaloo.

He served as Fei Long's replacement in the aforementioned movie and game. Additionally, Sawada's actual role in the film is very minor. He's shown only a few times actually speaking and fighting in the film, and has command of a small amount of ground troops in the assault on Bison's base. Despite the game showing a camaraderie with Guile in the endings, he only speaks once to him during the assault planning, and not since. Despite this he's shown amongst the characters as they take a pose at the very end of the film.

He has the distinction of being the only character exclusive to the film to appear in both versions of the game and the American Street Fighter cartoon series. In the movie and games, Sawada was played by Kenya Sawada.

Story
Sawada was a captain in Allied Nation forces led by Colonel Guile. He aided in the strike against Shadaloo warlord, Gen. Bison, who had captured over sixty hostages. With Bison's dictatorship destroyed by Guile and the hostages saved, Sawada was promoted to commander and he earned the respect of Guile.

Changes between games
Unlike other Street Fighter characters who have several familiar special moves between games, Sawada's special moves were completely altered when Capcom made the console version of Street Fighter: The Movie. In the arcade version, Sawada's fighting style is a hybrid of Guile's and Fei-Long's, based off his status as an Allied Nations soldier and him replacing the latter. As a result, he retains moves akin to Guile's Flash Kick, while keeping martial arts aspects. His special moves rely primarily on his legs for axe kicks and similar attacks, and his energy slash has the ability to reflect projectiles back at the opponent.

The console version of Street Fighter: The Movie however presented a much different game. While this version was modified to be identical to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Sawada was left in, with a modified move list, one that turned him into a bit of a parody fighter akin to Dan Hibiki, as well as making the point that he is actually armed with a katana. In one of his special moves, Gokusatsu-Jibakujin, Sawada uses his katana blade by stabbing himself making a crescent-shaped blood (sometimes flaming blood) barrier, sitting in a pose akin to one committing hara-kiri. His super move, Kamikaze Banzai, involves Sawada standing straight up, putting his hands in the air and sliding into his opponent. During the move, he is invulnerable to projectiles.