Zangief

Conception and creation

Designed by Akira Yasuda, Zangief was initially conceived for Street Fighter II as a character named "Vodka Gobalsky", planned to be a very strong but extremely slow character to play as. Early designs of the character closely resembled the character's finalized appearance, but with the addition of a black tanktop and anchor tattoo on his upper arms. His name was later changed to "Zangief" from professional wrestler Victor Zangiev. In an interview with Game On!, Capcom Research and Development head Noritaka Funamizu stated that of the series' characters, Zangief was one of the most popular characters with American audiences, alongside Ryu and Guile.

Zangief appears as a tall, muscular man clad in red wrestling tights and boots, a studded gold belt, and red/gold wristbands. His brown hair is cut in a short Mohawk style, and he has a beard/mustache and a large amount of hair on his chest. His arms and legs are covered with scars.

Portrayal

Various actors have voiced the character in his video game appearances: he is voiced by Wataru Takagi in the Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter EX series, Tesshō Genda in the Capcom vs. SNK series and Capcom Fighting Evolution, and Kenta Miyake in Japanese and Peter Beckman in English for Street Fighter IV. In anime, he is voiced in Japanese by Tetsuo Kanao and in English by William Johnson. In the live-action Street Fighter film, the character was portrayed by Andrew Bryniarski, who was dubbed over by Ryūzaburō Ōtomo in the Japanese television dub and by Katsuhisa Hōki in the video and DVD dub. In the film Wreck-It Ralph, he was voiced by director Rich Moore. Zangief also appears as a playable character in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix.

Appearances in other media

Zangief appeared in Masaomi Kanzaki's Street Fighter manga, which was released in the early 1990s. In his depiction in the comic, he was depicted very much like his video game self. One of his main motivations was to defeat Guile, who as an American, represented the rival country of Zangief's homeland, but found himself coming up short in their battles. In more recent adaptations, Zangief is shown to have a rivalry with Ryu, and his win quotes in Street Fighter IV imply that it was Ryu who knocked him out of the second tournament. Zangief appears in Masahiko Nakahira's Sakura Ganbaru! manga, in which he is introduced fighting in his exact same stage from Street Fighter Alpha 2. He first defeats Blanka, and then is engaged by Sakura and Cammy, whom he easily overpowered. He was later defeated by the duo and his friendly and good natured personality soon surfaced. He appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting Street Fighter X Tekken, with his official tag partner, Rufus.

Film and anime

Zangief appears in almost every Street Fighter movie adaptation to date, save for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

In Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Zangief appears very briefly during a brutal battle against Blanka to entertain an audience of crime bosses, where he is comically electrocuted by him.

In Street Fighter II V, he is a henchman for Shadaloo, and sent by M. Bison to capture Ryu, whom he had seen displaying talents of Hadou on a beach earlier. Ryu resists, and they fight for a while until Zangief manages to knock him out. As they are leaving, Zangief spots Guile watching them from afar, and later on, while Guile and Nash are infiltrating Bison's base, Zangief corners Guile with the intention of killing him under Bison's orders. Guile and Zangief fight until Guile manages to knock Zangief out with a severe blow to the head. He is not seen again after for the rest of the anime.

In Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, he appears as a competitor in a fighting tournament. He does battle with Shun, Ryu's little brother, and begins to ruthlessly beat the boy to within an inch of his life until Ryu intervenes and battles Zangief. Zangief appears to have the upper hand, but Ryu, enraged, almost gives in to the Dark Hadō and fires a lethal dark Hadōken which narrowly misses Zangief but causes the building to collapse. Zangief, stunned by Ryu's power, subsequently falls through the crumbling floor.

In the live-action Street Fighter movie, he is once again a lackey of Bison's, only this time he truly has a good heart and believes that the A.N., and not Bison, are the enemies of world peace and freedom. Zangief gives Ryu and Ken their signature white and red gis, which are actually uniforms for Bison's men. During the climactic battle, Zangief battles E. Honda. After the battle ends, he is told by Dee Jay that Bison was in fact the enemy and had been fooling Zangief the whole time. To redeem himself, he helps Ryu and Ken hold the emergency exit door open for the hostages to escape. He is last seen complementing Guile's bravery, and gives him the Bison salute which Guile turns into the thumbs-up when he survives the explosion.

Zangief makes an appearance in the 2012 Walt Disney film Wreck-It Ralph, voiced by the film's director Rich Moore. He and M. Bison are among the game characters present at a meeting of "Bad-Anon", a villain support group, when Wreck-It Ralph decides to attend. Ralph later finds a pair of Zangief's tights in the lost-and-found box at Tapper's bar and reacts with disgust.

Other

Zangief was featured in ScrewAttack's internet series Death Battle. He fought Mike Haggar from Final Fight in a hypothetical match and won thanks to his greater size and youth as well as the animals he usually spars with which are brown bears where as his opponents spars with bull sharks that are considered less dangerous.

Reception

Zangief placed 18th in the Top 50 Characters of 1996 poll in the Gamest magazine in Japan. IGN ranked Zangief at 13th place in their list of top Street Fighter characters, stating "he's a bit of a stereotype, a hulking lug from Mother Russia, but he plays the type so well, though. Between the Mohawk, the muttonchops, and the all-over bear-wrestling scars, it is hard to imagine a more perfect embodiment of the muscle-bound grappling goon." GameDaily listed Zangief at number three in their list of top Street Fighter characters, describing his appearance as "menacing" as well as praising the strength of his fighting style. UGO Networks placed Zangief at number five on their list of top Street Fighter characters, stating "Zangief can be an intimidating character to play because he is far slower than other competitors, however he makes up for that in his ability to close range quickly and bypass and counter projectiles from his opponents." WhatCulture ranked him first on its list of top 10 Street Fighter characters of all-time due to his "chest bigger than the sun and a beard to make Chuck Norris jealous."

GameDaily included him on their lists of the hairiest chests in gaming and characters with scars; they listed him as the buffest video game character, stating that readers "cannot deny his awesome." GameDaily also called him one of Russia's greatest patriots in video games, stating that he is "by far the most successful" Russian character. Complex named him as the most "badass" Russian character in video games, as well as "by far the most popular and lovable Russian badass to ever appear in a video game."