Boomstick: And for kicking the crap out of the other people! Like with Ryu, the wandering world warrior of Street Fighter.
Wiz: And Jin Kazama, the power-hungry martial arts master of Tekken.
Battle number eight of Death Battle's fifth season distills the concept of the series to its purest form. Two dark-haired Japanese martial artists, both driven by quests of vengeance against those who wronged their parents, both champions of martial arts tournaments who discovered their hidden super-powerful dark sides at the peaks thereof, competing in their respective arts. A master of Ansatsuken versus a master of Kazama and Mishima arts. No matchup could be more appropriate for a death battle.
Taking the spotlight first is Ryu, the Wandering Warrior whose name means "prosperous" and "plentiful". As a young orphan, he was adopted by Gouken, a martial arts master who trained Ryu (and Ken Masters, but that's another Death Battle) in the art of Ansatsuken, the Assassination Fist. This schooling came to an abrupt end when Ryu and Ken returned to the dojo and found Gouken seemingly dead by the hands of his brother, Akuma. The vengeful Ryu swore to wander the earth and refine his abilities until he could avenge his master. Eventually he joined the World Warrior tournament, fought his way to the top, and faced Sagat, who promptly clobbered him... only for Ryu to unleash his Satsui no Hado for the first time and almost kill Sagat in retaliation, winning the tournament. With this and other victories under his belt, he finally took his revenge on Akuma.
Although the specific variant of Ansatsuken that Ryu learned from Gouken was mostly nonlethal, being inspired by karate and judo, it still makes him an incredibly formidable opponent up close. Among other techniques, he can perform a powerful uppercut with the Shoryuken, hit repeatedly with the Hurricane Kick, shoot off energy balls with the Hadouken, and parry attacks precisely with the Mind's Eye. His Satsui no Hado berserker form causes him to lose control of himself, but in exchange it heavily boosts his physical and spiritual capabilities and grants him teleportation and the Shun Goku Satsu (a lethal attack which directly targets the victim's soul with the weight of their past sins). Conversely, his Mu no Ken form brings out his light side, which is just as powerful if not more. He can even combine the two!
Ryu has dodged bullets, destroyed a skyscraper, and withstood Balrog's Gigaton Blow (which, as they've established before, is strong enough to kill an elephant in one punch). He's also survived getting impaled clean through the chest, and is Immune to Bullets in berserker mode. He has even lifted a humongous boulder estimated to weigh at least thirty-six tons... plus Oro, the man sitting on it... plus the boulder HE was lifting! To say that Ryu is no pushover would probably be the understatement of the year.
Ryu: (flexing his hand) This power is not to defeat. (looks up) This is the power to push forward!
The Street Fighter's introduction done, Wiz and Boomstick move on to his opponent, Jin Kazama. Completely unassuming as a child, Jin was in fact raised by his single mother, who taught him the Kazama martial arts after his father disappeared. Sensing a great evil approaching, Jin's mother told him to seek out his grandfather, Heihachi, should anything happen to her... such as an ogre knocking Jin out and disappearing with her, as happened shortly after. Heihachi happened to be the super-rich owner of a multi-national conglomerate empire that boasted, among other things, a martial arts tournament, the King of Iron Fist 3. He found himself right up against his mother's kidnapper in the tournament, and killed him in combat... only for Heihachi to step in and gun his poor grandson down. It wasn't over, though: discovering the Devil Gene within him, Jin got back up and turned the tables on his grandfather.
Under Heihachi, Jin learned the Mishima Ryu fighting style, and combining that with the Kazama traditional arts, he can pack a punch. The Flash Punch Combo, the electrically-charged Lightning Screw Uppercut, the Mishima 10-Hit Combo, and the Dragon Uppercut are all part of his Kazama repertoire. When the Devil Gene takes effect, Jin enters a powerful Devil Form, which causes some loss of control but gives him flight, burning lasers, and telekinesis, among other things.
Jin is powerful. In Devil Form, he's thrown people through walls, exerting over ten tons of PSI in the process; on another occasion, he flew into orbit AND fell back down, surviving both. He can dodge AND tank bullets, punch at over Mach 1, and his father Kazuya tanked an orbital laser equivalent to about 3.7 megatons of TNT, so he can probably do the same. If there's anyone worthy of the title of Child of Destiny, it's him.
Jin Kazama: (clenching his fist) It will end with this bloodline. And that is why I fight.
The combatants have received their due. One Blue Apron commercial later, it's time for a death battle!
Death Battle's iron doors open on an unknown Japanese dojo. Under a grayscale color filter, Ryu, champion of the World Warrior tournaments, deals blow after blow to a training dummy before sending it flying with a kick. The scene abruptly turns to color as the punching bag lands, sparking with red lightning, before Jin Kazama, three-time King of Iron Fist champion, reveals himself behind it. Casually tossing the dummy into the opposite wall, Jin approaches Ryu, both of them exchanging words and taking their fighting stances with the seeming awareness that combat was inevitable from the beginning.
FIGHT!
Both martial artists' hands fly as they strike each other again and again, Jin managing to grab Ryu and punch him in the face before the scuffle continues. Jin nails Ryu in the face with a flying kick, causing him to back up and slump down, but he gets up in time to rejoin the fight. The advantage shifts as Ryu knocks Jin down with his own flying kick, but shifts back as Jin does the same to Ryu. The monotony is broken as Jin suddenly leaps high up into the air, his hand sparking with red lightning, aiming to pulverize his opponent— but Ryu rolls out of the way and gets up just in time. Ryu uses his Mind's Eye to parry Jin's blows for a moment, then blocks a blow from Jin before countering with a Hadouken. His arms now crackling with yellow energy, Ryu leaps in and starts dealing powerful blows, ending with a Hurricane Kick and a Shoryuken.
The grandson of Heihachi is sent flying to the opposite wall, but isn't out of the battle even after Ryu lands home with a supercharged Hadouken. Now in Devil Form, Jin gets to his feet, ready to continue the fight. Zooming around the room, Jin deals blow after blow to Ryu before hauling him into the air and piledriving him into the floor. The two martial artists crash through the floor into a cavern beneath, where Jin stomps Ryu's head into the ground— but the master of the Assassination Fist initiates Satsui no Hado and gets to his feet, evening the playing field. Debris falls as Ryu launches repeated energy blasts in Jin's direction, the carrier of the Devil Gene having to stay on the move. The two trade long-distance attacks before getting in close and hitting each other directly, but there is no clear winner even after Ryu kicks Jin into a falling rock, shattering it to bits. A few more blows, and a mutual punch sends both combatants flying to opposite ends of the cave.
Jin pushes himself to his feet and approaches Ryu, who is struggling to do the same as his berserker aura fades. The King of the Iron Fist lifts the World Warrior up by the head, red lightning sparkling around the latter's body, before blasting him at point-blank with a red laser. The crimson energies are strong enough to be seen from afar, but Ken's adoptive brother has one more surprise in store for his opponent. In a flash of blue light, Ryu enters his Mu no Ken state before knocking Jin back with an open palm and launching an intense laser of nothingness that sends his opponent to the ground with a hole in his chest, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.
K.O.!
The fight is over, but it wasn't easy to decide by any means, considering the impressive feats both combatants had, very few of which actually showcased their upper limits. Both could move about as fast and lift about as much in their base forms, but Ryu had more control than Jin did in their respective ultimate forms (and how canon it is on Jin's end is very unclear). Jin's fall from orbit is hard to quantify, but taken literally it's about 18 tons of force. However, it's their limits that matter, and they had to be scaled to comparable characters for their limits to be estimated with any accuracy. Jin's father Kazuya took a 3.7 megaton laser blast, but had to be in Devil form to do so, while his own laser blast was capable of causing a volcanic eruption, which is probably not as potent as the 100 megatons of TNT it was highballed as. Ryu, on the other hand, was scaled to Akuma, who has very similar abilities, but was capable of punching an island to pieces with one punch, which based on estimations, had to have taken equivalent force of 415 megatons of TNT. Admittedly Jin still had the speed advantage, but Ryu was so much stronger and more durable that it didn't make much difference, and in the end, Ryu's strength and control were just too far out of Jin's league.
...Oh, and the Gun-Jack robot with a later model that destroyed a meteor? Jin could've been scaled to that, but even if it was supported by canon, Akuma's destroyed an even bigger meteor, so the outcome's the same.
Wiz: The winner is Ryu.
Ryu vs. Jin Kazama contains examples of:
- Awesome Mc Cool Name: Discussed when Boomstick suggests naming his hypothetical children Satsui no Hadotranslation and Shun Goku Satsutranslation , after Ryu's Superpowered Evil Side and its Signature Move.
- Back from the Dead: Ryu, having died to Scorpion in season two, puts him as one of the few Death Battle losers to come back for another round.
- Battle Rapping: The soundtrack for the fight, "Fight Like a Devil" is a song detailing Ryu and Jin boasting about their abilities and fighting skill and telling the other they stand no chance against them.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: After a losing streak lasting six battles over three seasons and six years' time, Ryu's victory over Jin marks the end of Street Fighter's failures in the Death Battle arena.
- Call-Back: Balrog's elephant-killing Gigaton Blow is brought up to highlight Ryu's durability. Incidentally, it's not the first time a Street Fighter contestant has survived it.
- Mythology Gag: The second half of the fight takes place in what some will recognize as the Spring Maiden chamber from RWBY. To make the reference clearer, Raven Branwen and Cinder Fall, who originally fought in the chamber, carried on fighting atop falling stalagmites, which Ryu and Jin recreate in this match. (Remember that both Death Battle and RWBY are made by Rooster Teeth.)
- According to Word of God, they wanted to push the RWBY references further by having Yang make a cameo only to go against it later.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Both combatants take a turn before the match begins:Jin: There's no way I can lose.
Ryu: Talk is cheap. The answer lies in the heart of battle. - Shout-Out:
- When Jin's rundown mentions how his mother was kidnapped by the pseudo-Aztec war god Ogre, Boomstick nicknames him after as another, more infamous ogre.
- Also in Jin's bio, Kazuya's Devil Form is said to survive satellite laser blasts comparable to those from Independence Day. For a meta example, the episode premiered on Independence Day (July 4th).
- Superpowered Evil Side: One trait the fighters have in common; Ryu has his Satsui no Hado, whereas Jin has his Devil Form.
- Super Mode: In addition to the above-mentioned Satsui no Hado, Ryu also has the Power of Nothingness, which is stronger still.
- White-and-Grey Morality: Ryu is a disciplined and benevolent fighter who believes in hardwork and self-improvement to succeed. His opponent Jin is dedicated in destroying the Mishima family and ending the Devil Gene's influence, which leads him to indulge in morally ambiguous endeavors, such as starting World War III (kind of a dick move, in Boomstick's opinion).
