Street Fighter Alpha/Sodom



Sodom (also known as Katana) was a top member of the original Mad Gear gang. A caucasian male born in the United States, Sodom is obsessed with Japanese culture. He is well-versed in many elements of Japanese culture, though his usage of the language is somewhat dubious.

In the original Final Fight, Sodom controlled the Mad Gear gang from the Metro City Subway. He was undefeated in underground pro wrestling, albeit due to his use of "foreign objects" (such as swords), until he met Guy, as well as Cody and Haggar. At first Sodom was honored to face a true ninja of Japanese descent like Guy, but this honor would turn into deep shame as Guy and his allies beat him. From then on, Sodom hated Guy for not only being one of the people to rid Metro City of his gang, but for destroying his undefeated streak which proved in his mind he was no match for a true Japanese fighter. The incident also cost him a lot of respect amongst his fellow gang members.

Final Fight Revenge showed Sodom's determination to resurrect Mad Gear (this gang actually seems to be the same Mad Gear in Final Fight 2) and his decision to go to Japan to find strong warriors for the new organization. The new crime syndicate was established all about the world and was held together by a powerful second-in-command-a Japanese kabuki named Retu. Rolento, Sodom's proclaimed blood brother was also being part of the criminal organization. Guy's fiancée Rena and her father Genryusai were kidnapped by them as part of a revenge plot, but this Mad Gear fell at the hands of Haggar, Maki and Carlos, three acquaintances of Guy. Mad Gear was defeated permanently.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 reveals why Sodom wasn't seen in FF2. He was attempting to find more strong warriors for the gang. He had an argument with Rolento over how the militant man had lost sight of their gang's ideals, to which Rolento snapped back that he had never lost sight, was simply trying to find a successful way to implement them. The two fought, and Sodom lost. Sodom had also attempted to recruit E. Honda and fought him in a sumo match, but failed to win the match and his objective.

After possibly fighting Honda in a friendly rematch, the Japanese aficionado met Rolento again in Street Fighter Alpha 3, where he once again lost to Rolento in another fight over their values. Despite losing, he tracked Rolento down to Shadoloo's base containing the Psycho Drive, and finds Rolento decrying it as a poor attempt to control people. Sodom realizes that Rolento did not lose sight of Mad Gear's ideals, and the two reconcile their differences. They decided to work together toward making a great utopian nation.

In combat, Sodom wears tabi and geta, samurai gauntlets, blue jeans, body armor, and a samurai kabuto with a mask. He is never seen fighting without a pair of jutte or katana blades, making him one of the few characters to appear in the Street Fighter series to use weaponry. In the English version of Final Fight, both katana are named Masamune, and Muramasa in the Japanese version. Sodom is the only character in Street Fighter Alpha 3 whose weapons depend on what Ism is used. If using X-Ism fighting style, he'll use his katanas; otherwise, in the A-Ism and V-Ism styles, he will use his jitte. This is because his X-Ism visage is based on his Final Fight appearance.

Use of Japanese Language
Since Sodom is an American character trying to speak Japanese, he is a comedic object of ridicule in his failed attempts at the language. In the Japanese version of Street Fighter Alpha, Sodom's inability to speak fluent Japanese is portrayed in his win quotes by having him use English words that are pronounced similarly to whatever Japanese words he's trying to say with a Japanese translation below. For example, his attempt to call his opponent "truly pathetic" in Japanese is rendered to "SHOW SEA SEND BANG", which is somewhat close to what he's trying to actually say (Shoushi senban): this can be somewhat likened to a reverse version of ateji. American releases, however, show Sodom's misheard wordings of Japanese words, but with loose romanizations of what he was trying to say.

On the front of his outfit, Sodom has scrawled the Japanese kanji shi (死), meaning death. However, this kanji is not written properly, and actually has no meaning. Sodom's failed attempt at Japanese calligraphy emblazoned across his chest at all times is meant to be humorous. In his Street Fighter Alpha ending, Sodom unfurls a scroll that is meant to read "Mad Gear", using Japanese script. However, the humor lies that Sodom failed to write the scroll in katakana, and instead used the kanji "魔"-(ma), "奴"-(do), "義"-(gi) (miswritten) and "亜"-(a) to phonetically spell out Mado Gia (Mad Gear). Because each kanji has meaning, this appears to the Japanese reader to be a nonsensical coupling of characters: "devil", "guy", "honor", and "to come after" as in a rank or position. "亜" can also mean "Asia" or "mute."