This page explains in detail the interactions between the Rival Schools series and the Street Fighter series.
The page also includes one interaction between the Rival Schools series and the Dino Crisis series (Shiritsu Justice Gakuen: Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 section), Minna to Series (Street Fighter × All Capcom section), Power Stone series (Project Justice: Rival Schools 2 section) and Fortnite series (Fortnite section),
Rival Schools: United by Fate[]
Sakura's official art from Rival Schools
November 1997
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
Rival Schools: United by Fate features several references to the Street Fighter series, the most important being the inclusion of Sakura from Street Fighter Alpha 2 as one of its playable characters.
Sakura Kasugano[]
Rival Schools features Sakura Kasugano as a guest character. coming from Street Fighter Alpha. Sakura is roughly unchanged from her Alpha appearances in design, moveset and story. Sakura is established to be the only character in-game to attend Tamagawa Minami High School and has been childhood friends with both Hinata Wakaba and Natsu Ayuhara, details created for Rival Schools. She's not really involved in the story, joining only to support her friends while on the lookout for a good fight. Sakura's bio references her desire to meet Ryu (although he's never named) and how she learned her fighting style through imitating his techniques. Ryu also makes a brief cameo in her best ending as an image in the sky while Sakura briefly wonders if he's also fighting for something important like she just did. Ryu's image appears in the same pose as the photo Sakura takes of him in her ending in Street Fighter Alpha 2, implying this happens after that event.
One notable contradiction with Street Fighter canon is that Sakura's blood type is listed as O when in her home series she's always been listed as an A type.
Sakura's movelist is transplanted entirely from her appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and 3 with no omission, and she gains one new technique in the Tengyo Hadouken, a projectile shot at an 45º angle. Her Team-Up Technique is called "Shun Goku Satsu" in a nod to Akuma's iconic Super Combo, although with the first Kanji changed so it translates into "Spring Prison Murder" instead of "Flash Prison Murder". The move has the player's 2nd character hold the enemy down while Sakura administers a beat down behind a black screen, imitating the style of the original move.
Other references[]
Hinata and Ibuki, side-by-side
Hinata Wakaba's uniform is based on the school uniform used by Ibuki in her ending from Street Fighter III: The New Generation. According to an interview with Rival Schools creator Hideaki Itsuno, he liked the uniform and asked for permission to use it and state the two characters go to the same school, and that this and Sakura were both contingency plans to help boost sales of the game. Hinata's fighting style resembles Sakura as well and in-game she learned it through a correspondence course.
Another character, Hideo Shimazu, has a fighting style entirely inspired in the basic moveset used by Ryu and Ken (and many others after them). His moveset includes a projectile fireball (Seihaken) identical in motion to the Hadouken, a rising uppercut (Jicchokuken) identical to the Shoryuken and a spinning kick move (Shienkyaku) that's a no-flying version of the Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku. The three techniques are also performed using the same commands as the moves they are based on. Hideo's fighting style is officially known as the "Shimazu-Style Karate" and has no known official ties to Ryu and Ken's style.
The stage "Drive-in Theater" features a Street Fighter reference as well: several images appear on the theater screen in the background, showing an ad for the Street Fighter Zero and Street Fighter: Sakura Ganbaru! manga, both by Masahiko Nakahira. The images on the screen include artworks of Ryu, Dan Hibiki and Sakura from both manga, as well as the logos for Shinseisha and Gamest (who were publishing them).
This reference was removed in the home console ports, changed to an ad for the Isao Bitoh album release of the Rival Schools intro theme, Atsuki Kodou.
Street Fighter Alpha 3[]
June 29, 1998
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
One of Sakura's win quotes from Street Fighter Alpha 3 makes a reference to the Rival Schools series and Sakura's appearance in the first game:
- "I like street fighting better than sparring in rival schools!"
Shiritsu Justice Gakuen: Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2[]
June 24, 1999
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
The PlayStation port of Rival Schools includes an extra "Evolution Disc" with several mini-games and a whole new mode titled "Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki" or school life simulator mode, a dating simulator where players create their own character and go through a school year while developing a friendship with any of the game's characters. Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 expanded on the original mode and included new story paths, mini-games and the inclusion of "extra curricular activities", where the player chooses one activity/mentor to receive stat increases at certain points of the mode. This mode has a number of Street Fighter references in some of the character's paths:
The player's choice between "Ken Masters Martial Arts" and "Saikyou Ryu Martial Arts"
Hinata's original profile for the Arcade version stated that she learned her fighting style through a "correspondence course", but in the simulator mode it is revealed those courses were for "Ken Masters Martial Arts". This is a nod to side materials from Street Fighter III: New Generation which establishes the existance of a video-based martial arts mail course produced and sold by Ken.
In the same scene another character only known as the Chairperson (Iinchou) states that she found a lot of documents about a fighting style in the communications room, and offers the player to train using the "Saikyou Ryu Martial Arts", the fighting style used by Dan Hibiki of the Street Fighter Alpha series. Chairperson is also the "mentor" of the free activity option, but choosing this activity will grant random stat raising instead, often times decreasing stats even, making her choice a very unreliable and risky one. This mirrors Dan's status as a joke character and his ineptitude at fighting when compared to the rest of the cast.
Another nod to the series is given early in the game when the characters go to an amusement park where there's an attraction called "Roller Coaster: Vega" which is said to be equipped with the dreaded "Psycho Drive". This is a nod to M. Bison (Vega in Japan) and the Psycho Drive, a machine of his that features prominently in Street Fighter Alpha 3. In another moment during the mode, the player can visit an Arcade with Edge, who reveals he's an Alex player that's known as "Gedo Alex", and when asked about this he clarifies that he's speaking of Alex, the main protagonist of Street Fighter 3. This is given a nod in one of Akira's win quotes in Street Fighter V.
Other[]
Dino Crisis
Rival Schools
The stage "Drive-in Theather" was changed once again, and now features two logos in its background screen: those of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and Dino Crisis. The two appear intermintently during gameplay in a sepia tone.
This upgrade also introduced two new characters, one of which was Ran Hibiki, a school reporter looking for a scoop. The character's name is suspiciously similar to Dan Hibiki and fans have theorized the two characters are related in some way. No official word has been given about any sort of connection between them, however.
Project Justice: Rival Schools 2[]
December 17, 2000
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
Project Justice did not include Sakura in its roster, but most of her moveset is still available. The Japanese original includes a mode called "Nekketsu Nikki", a board-styled simulator where players can create a character and go through events and fights, building up a moveset consisting of moves mixed up from all characters in the game as well as unique ones. Through this mode the player can obtain most of Sakura's special moves and Burning Vigors from Rival Schools as part of their created character's movelist. The pool of moves available also includes Zangief's Double Lariat, Screw Piledriver and Double Screw Piledriver, Chun-Li's Hyakuretsu Kyaku and Senretsu Kyaku as well as Ryu's Denjin Hadouken (first introduced in Street Fighter III).
The English version of the game removed this feature entirely and instead included a bunch of generic characters created in the mode that can be unlocked for play, each with a moveset of mixed moves already assigned. All the Street Fighter moves are used by atleast one of these characters, with one of them (a Seijyun schoolgirl named Hilary) using Sakura's entire moveset.
Other references[]
Power Stones
Rival Schools
Project Justice features three ads from Capcom games in the background of the stage Gorin Dome.
Gorin Dome is a large sports arena with a scoreboard on its background and several Japanese signs seen on its walls. An ad for Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyo-ryu Dojo (The Japanese name of the Dreamcast port of Alpha 3) can be seen in the background. The ad is of a simple design, showing the game's logo in a greenish background.
This ad appears in the scoreboard, being shown intermitently with the ads for Power Stone 2 (showing part of the game's key artwork) and Capcom vs. SNK (showing its logo and mugshots of Ryu and Kyo). The latter one can also be spotted on signs around the arena.
Capcom Summer Special 2004[]
Shoma, Natsu and Hinata as they appear in Street Fighter Legends: Sakura
August 01, 2004
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
Capcom Summer Special 2004 is a special comic book issue part of UDON Studios' Street Fighter comic book line, featuring three separate and unconnected short stories: "Pa Pa's Gift" is centered on Street Fighter's Chun-li, "The Eye of Belial" focus on Morrigan's father Belial Aensland from the Darkstalkers series, and "Junior High" features the cast of Rival Schools. "Junior High" is UDON's first work introducing the Rival Schools characters into their series.
The cast of Rival Schools would go on to feature prominently in other issues in UDON's Street Fighter line, primarily in ones related to Sakura such as the Street Fighter Legends: Sakura 4-issue mini-series started on August 16, 2006, and the wrestling-related comic book released on Free Comic Book Day 2017. The comics depict Sakura's friendship with Hinata and Natsu as established in the games, with Shoma introduced as another close friend of hers.
Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation[]
July 09, 2008
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation was a little spin-off title in the series whose main gimmick was that the player controled characters with the mouse. The game featured a number of guest characters from Chinese novels and anime, as well as two Rival Schools characters: Batsu Ichimonji and Akira Kazama. As the game has no known story, however, their appearance is not truly explained.
Both Rival Schools characters were transplanted identically to their debut appearance in Rival Schools, with Akira taking on her regular look without wearing the biker costume or helmet. Their movesets are lifted straight from their debut as well, albeit they only have access to a smaller number of moves and two super moves due to the game's smaller scope.
Street Fighter × All Capcom[]
November 19, 2013
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
Rival Schools
Minna to
Rival Schools was one of the 24 series chosen to represent Capcom's 30 years of history in the RPG/fighting card game Street Fighter × All Capcom, featuring 12 characters represented in a total of 31 cards. The characters representing the series are Batsu Ichimonji (5 cards), Hinata Wakaba (4 cards), Kyosuke Kagami (3 cards), Tiffany Lords (3 cards), Kyoko Minazuki (3 cards), Akira Kazama (3 cards), Hyo Imawano (3 cards), Edge, Roberto Niura, Nagare Namikawa, Ran Hibiki, Hideo Shimazu and Momo Karuizawa. Some characters are also represented with alternate forms: Akira has one card where she's wearing her full biker costume (a separate character in Rival Schools, a costume she used to hide her gender and be able to attend the boys-only Gedo High), one of Batsu's cards features him in his Burning Batsu form and one of Hyo's cards has him in his Demon Hyo form, both separate characters in Project Justice. All characters with more than one card have an alternate colored card, showing them in their P2 colors from Rival Schools.
Besides characters, the game's training/story mode "Street Fight" features "Taiyou HS Classroom", one of the stages from Rival School, as the stage of one of its courses.
Street Fighter V Patch ver.1.04[]
Hinata and Tiffany
July 01, 2016
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
This Street Fighter V patch introduced a new stage to the game titled "Kanzuki Beach", set in a beach shore owned by Karin. The stage features cameos of several characters, including two from Rival Schools: Hinata Wakaba and Tiffany Lords.
The two characters appear at the left side of the stage, cheering on the two players fighting in the foreground. Given the stage's theme, they are seen wearing swimsuits instead of their usual costumes: Hinata wears a one-piece blue swimsuit with a towel over her shoulders and sandals, but retains the yellow gloves and headband. Tiffany wears a two-piece bikini with her standard costume's red-blue-white American flag design and sandals, but retains her boxing gloves and blue handkerchief. Tiffany's swimsuit is based on the one she wears during beach/pool scenes in the school simulator mode, while Hinata's appears to be based on a blue one-piece he wears in one piece of artwork (the one in school sim is also a one-piece, but stripped and colored light blue and white instead).
The two characters can be seen cheering up the fighters and reacting when a character hits the ground hard, by flipping backwards and jumping around. When a round is over, they perform their winning animations from Rival Schools.
Street Fighter V Patch ver.02.030[]
June 26, 2017
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
Street Fighter V brought a set of school-themed costumes for Nash, Ibuki and R.Mika. Nash's costume in particular is a full-on white uniform that makes him highly reminiscent of Kyosuke Kagami from Rival Schools. To further the reference, using the Easter Egg code (hold LP+MP+HP+LK and up before a match begins) makes the jacket on Nash's costume to be open in the same way Kyosuke uses his uniform's jacket.
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition[]
January 16, 2018
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
Sakura was brought back as the first character of Season 3 in the release of the update Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. In this version she's given the Tengyo Hadouken move that was exclusively used by her in Rival Schools.
Street Fighter V: Champion Edition Season 5[]
August 16, 2021
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
Akira Kazama was revealed to be the 4th character in the Season 5 lineup. This marks the first time a Rival Schools character has been included as a playable character in a mainline Street Fighter title, and this also confirms Rival Schools is firmly set in the same universe as Street Fighter (a fact the producer and director made very clear during the character's reveal).
Akira[]
Akira Kazama appears in her non-biker uniform design with virtually no change from her appearance in Rival Schools and Project Justice. Her story mode sees her meeting Sakura, an old acquaintance of her (in a nod to Sakura's own guest appearance in the first Rival Schools), and having a tea party with her, Karin and Ibuki. She first arrives in her full biker costume, making Ibuki think she was a boy, with Akira later briefly summarising her story from Rival Schools (she wore the costume to enter the boy-only Gedo High in order to search for her missing brother Daigo). She also reveals she met Sakura at the time, seeking her to train and become stronger. This scene showing Sakura sparring with Akira appears to reference Sakura's role in the school sim mode from Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2, in which the player has to defeat Sakura in a 1-round battle at the end of each school period in order to gain stat increases for their created character. At the very end of the story mode Sakura mentions how Akira has got over her aquaphobia, a detail revealed in school sim mode.
Moveset[]
Akira calls up Daigo to assist her
Akira's moveset is a very faithful adaptation of her moveset in both Rival Schools and Project Justice. A quick recap of how her moves are referenced:
- Her basic punches and kicks are identical in animation or pose, or sometimes very close, to those in her origin games. A notable difference between Rival School and Street Fighter is that the former is a 4 button fighter (2 punches and 2 kicks) whereas Street Fighter is a 6 button fighter (adding a set of medium-strength punches and kicks), so Akira's medium attacks are either brand new attacks or take poses and animations from other basic attacks in Rival Schools. Intro and ending animation, as well as throws, are fully original.
- Akira's special moves are a combination between her normal and "Powered" form, with all returning moves retaining their Japanese name instead of using translated names as in Rival Schools: Senshubu (Cyclone Dance) is an universal move used by both Akiras, while she retains the Gairimon (Elbow Gate) and Fuugekishuu (Leaping Smash) from regular Akira, and the Haten no Kamae (Fractured Heaven Stance) and Urarimon (Reverse Inside Gate) from Powered Akira. She also has Kikou Kai (Energy Focus Cluster), which originally was a super move ("Burning Vigor") in her series. All these moves have altered properties and animations to better fit them into Street Fighter's fighting style. All other moves are original attacks created for Street Fighter V.
Her V System techniques all references different aspects of Rival Schools:
- Akira's V-Skill I (Kiko Rensei) upgrades Kiko Kai to work closer to its original status as a Burning Vigor super attack.
- Akira's V-Skill II (Tsutenda) recreates the Air Burst mechanic from her origin series, allowing Akira to launch enemies into mid-air and follow them up to score aerial chain combos. The move is based on one of Akira's original moves, Releasing Dance, which worked the same way.
- Akira's V-Trigger I (Otoko no Senaka) involves bringing in her brother Daigo for an assist attack: Daigo comes from above performing one of his moves (Earth Stab, a ground pound), then turns his back and releases a powerful fire aura (his Burning Vigor Super Phoenix Fire) to strike the enemy, then waves at Akira and leaves. The technique references Rival Schools' tag mechanic, with Daigo's interaction referencing Daigo's specific team technique (Indestructible Wall), where he'd come to aid his partner and then leave by waving as they bow down respectfully in gratitude for the assist.
- Akira's V-Trigger II (Haten no Kamae) is based on one of the stance techniques used by Powered Akira. Instead of allowing her a number of extra moves, this version allows her to chain together her origin series' Burning Vigors Ha no Sougeki (Destructive Pair Attack), Ha no Rengu (Destructive Barrage) and Ten no Renbu (Heaven's Barrage).
- Akira's V-Reversal is the Gutsy Counter, referencing Rival Schools' counter mechanic known as Tardy Counter (Guts Counter in Japan), which allows players to cancel a blocked move into any attack. The V-Reversal uses a similar glass-shattering effect as in the original when performed, and Akira's reversal is a modified version of Releasing Dance.
- Akira's Critical Art (Kyoso Kiko Kai) has her and Daigo attack the opponent together with a series of punches and kicks, finishing off with a double Kiko Kai. The move is similar to one of Daigo's Burning Vigors (Phoenix Fury) where he performs similar attacks, and both moves start with their users cracking their fists. This move also references the Team-Up Techniques (a special move where the two characters attack the opponent in unison) and specifically normal Akira's own Team-Up Technique (Synchronized Kick Chain) where the two characters perform a combination of attacks in complete synchrony.
Additionally, all moves that feature Daigo have an unique animation where Akira is surrounded by bright yellow kanji, an identical recreation of the effect that appears when activating a Team-Up Technique.
Stage[]
Akira came with her own home stage, Rival Riverside, set on the side of a river at noon, facing a large highway bridge. The area is a recreation of the Gedo High stage "Embankment on the Yamato River" from Project Justice, and as such also features a remix of the stage theme as Akira's theme. When either player reaches critical health on this stage, the music switches to a karaoke remix of Atsuki Kodou, the cinematic intro theme from the console ports of Rival Schools.
The stage also features cameo appearances of two Rival Schools characters: Edge and Gan, Akira's Gedo High partners, who observe the battle from the background.
Costumes[]
All of Akira's costumes and original reference
As most other elements, Akira's costume selection also harkens back to her origin series. Her story costume is her Powered Akira form, where she wears her full biker getup and face-concealling helmet with a skull motif. Her battle costume is her Seijyun High school uniform she's seen wearing in Project Justice, an all-girls school she transfered from Gedo High after the events of the first game. Her Nostalgia costume has her don a maid uniform in reference to school sim mode in the first game, where she appears in this costume during the school's Fair Day. Her Swimsuit costume is a two-piece purple swimsuit based on the one she is seen wearing in school sim mode for swimming day, with the addition of the white open hoodie she wears during a second beach event. Performing the Easter Egg code (hold LP+MP+HP+LK and up before a match begins) on this costume removes the hoodie, making the costume properly resemble her first swimsuit.
Akira's Story Costume has two different Easter Egg codes: doing the normal one removes her helmet, but holding Low Punch and Mid Kick before a match will lift her helmet's visor up. This exact same special code was first featured in Project Justice.
Win quotes[]
References to Rival Schools characters in Akira's win quotes. Note that she references her brother Daigo many times, and her exchange with Ken brings up the Masters' martial arts course which Hinata trains under.
- (win against Alex): "My friend is a huge fan. Do you think I could get your autograph?"
- This refers to her friend Edge and the Arcade scene described above.
- (win against Birdie): "I know someone who's way better with a chain than you. She could teach you a thing or two."
- Akira is talking about Zaki, her friend from Project Justice who uses chains in some of her moves.
- (win against Ibuki): "Wait, where have I seen that uniform before...?"
- A nod to the origin of Hinata's school uniform, being based off Ibuki's.
- (win against Karin): "So is it a hard-and-fast rule that all high-class ladies like you have that hairstyle?"
- A reference to her other friend from Project Justice, Yurika, and her similar hairstyle.
- (win against Rose): "If my brother goes running off somewhere again, please use your powers to tell me where he is!"
- (Rose's win quote): "Ahaha. It seems your brother is more interested in another training excursion."
- Akira's win quote refers to the story in Rival School, when Daigo went missing. Rose's quote, on the other hand, references Daigo's plans in Project Justice to leave on a training journey.
Other references[]
- It was established in the story that Akira knows and is an old friend of Sakura, but this was not the case in Rival Schools where the two characters didn't interact and Sakura was instead stated to be friends with Hinata and Natsu.
- In the backstory of Rival Schools it is stated that Sakura, Hinata and Natsu hang out at a cafe shop called "Delfonne". In Akira's story mode in Street Fighter V, it is revealed Karin bought a majority stake at the company and now owns Delfonne, inviting the other girls to a tea party with pastries from them.
- The final image in her story mode shows Tiffany and Hinata joining the other girls at Karin's private beach, as they appear as background NPCs in the playable stage. Hinata's swimsuit is different from the one in the actual stage: a light blue and white stripped one-piece, which is her normal swimsuit for beach events in school sim mode.
- Akira's ending image shows her sitting on a bench outside Seijyun High with her two schoolmates Zaki and Yurika. The image is based on art from the Seijyun High ending in Project Justice.
- The text boxes in Akira's story mode are different from those of the other character stories, being identical to the text boxes from school sim mode in Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2. She is the only character in-game with unique text boxes.
- There are two special artworks in the gallery related to Rival Schools: The first (unlocked by winning Akira's Arcade Path) has her in the Kanzuki Beach together with Sakura, Hinata and Tiffany; while her brother Daigo, Edge and Gan can be seen in the background in their beach swimsuits. The second (unlocked by winning without losing a single round) features Ryu and Chun-Li about to fight against Akira and Hayato, Rival Schools' P.E. teacher.
Fortnite[]
UNDIRECT LINK: April 29, 2022
Rival Schools
Street Fighter
Blanka's selectable style included with him in Fortnite is known as "Blanka Delgado", and has him wear a gray full tuxedo with dark shades and his hair tied into a high ponytail. The costume is actually inspired by the one wore by Boman Delgado in Rival Schools, albeit gray instead of Boman's blue top and white pants. Besides the name of the skin, another give away of the reference is in Blanka's official art for the skin, which is based on Boman's pose from his official art in Rival Schools.
This is listed as an undirect link since elements from both series interact within a third, unrelated one.
License[]
Copyrights for both series are held by Capcom.