Dhalsim

Dhalsim, as he appears in the Street Fighter IV series.

Characteristics

Height

5'9"^[4] (176 cm) (variable)^[1]^[2]

Weight

106 lbs^[4] (48 kg) (variable)^[1]^[2]

Eye color

White

Blood type

O^[1]^[2]

Personal

First Game

Street Fighter II

Birthdate

November 22^[1]^[2], 1952^[3]

Birthplace

India^[1]

Fighting style

Yoga^[1]^[2]

Likes

Meditation, curry^[1]^[2], elephants protecting his village and loved ones (wife Sally and son Datta)

Dislikes

Sweets, meat^[1]^[2], violence, corrupted powers

Rival(s)

Rufus (SF4), Rose (SFA3), Birdie (SFA3), Cammy (SFA3)

Skills

Preaching, selflessness^[1]^[2], mind reading

Moveset

Yoga Fire, Yoga Flame, Yoga Blast, Yoga Teleport, Yoga Escape, EX Yoga Teleport^Ω, Yoga Bringer^Ω, Yoga Legend^Ω¹, Yoga Smash (MvC2), Yoga Floating (MvC series), Yoga Strike, Yoga Stream, Yoga Tempest, Yoga Inferno, Yoga Volcano, Yoga Drill Zutsuki (SvC: Chaos), Yoga Drill Kick (SvC:Chaos), Yoga Catastrophe, Yoga Shangri-La

Behind-The-Scene

Japanese voice actor(s)

Yukimasa Kishino (Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie)
Shozo Iizuka (Street Fighter II V)
Yoshiharu Yamada (Street Fighter Alpha series, Street Fighter EX series, Marvel vs. Capcom series, Capcom vs. SNK series)
Eiji Yano (SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos)
Daisuke Egawa (Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken)

English voice actor(s)

Garry Chalk (Street Fighter animated series)
Michael Sorich (Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie)
Steve Blum (Street Fighter II V (Animaze dub))
Christopher Bevins (Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken)

Live action actor(s)

Roshan Seth

"I will meditate, and then destroy you."

—Dhalsim

"Today, I shall win again. (私は今日も勝って帰る…, Watashi wa kyou mo katte kaeru...^?)"

—Dhalsim (Street Fighter IV series)

Dhalsim (ダルシム, Darushimu^?) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Dhalsim is famous throughout the Street Fighter series for his stretchy, lanky body and fire attacks.

Biography

Appearance

Dhalsim is often depicted with pupil-less white eyes. His build is that of a normal man who exercises and weight trains regularly, except for his abdomen and waist, which appear much out of proportion and emaciated. His arms are also quite extraordinary in length, and he uses this to create an advantage over his opponents during fights, usually opting to wear them down from the outside. He wears torn yellow saffron shorts, held tied around his waist by a piece of rope, as his only clothing attire, as well as yellow saffron wristbands and anklebands. He has three red stripes adorning his head, hoop earrings, and metallic bracelets, sometimes also anklets. In the Street Fighter Alpha series, he wears a turban that he removes before battle, while in the Marvel vs. Capcom series he removes what appears to be a one-shoulder shirt. The skulls he wears around his neck are those of village children that died during a plague.

Dhalsim's minimal clothing and necklace of skulls are reminiscent of the Hindu ascetics known as Kapalikas ("skull-bearers") who were often associated macabre practices such as cannibalism and meditating on top of rotting corpses. Like Blanka and Urien, Dhalsim's alternate costumes change his skin color, usually a shade of grey or yellow like the ash that Hindu holymen cover their bodies in.

Personality

Dhalsim is quite stoic, serious, self-disciplined, humble, and also very stern when needed. Being a pacifist, he will never hurt a person more than necessary, or kill an adversary, even the most evil ones such as M. Bison. His pacifistic beliefs also allow him to be a greatly loving father and husband towards his family.

As an extremely altruistic man, Dhalsim fights mostly for the poor and oppressed, as he constantly tries his best to raise money for his poverty-stricken people. Dhalsim is aware that if he uses his power to harm, he may become evil, and frequently questions his decisions to use his powers for fighting. Furthermore, all forms of yoga are meant to aid a personal journey towards enlightenment, and not to harm others. Therefore, Dhalsim is constantly concerned about his fighting style overwhelming his own principles of non-violence.

In contrast with Ryu's youngster (but still serious and self-focused) type, Dhalsim has a more "mature" and less "enthusiastic" nature, as he regularly relies on his traditional yoga meditation rites to expand his spirituality, and keep his inner neutrality off any emotional involvement that may prejudice his discipline.

Dhalsim always remains calm and serene. When he fights, he is always in a constant state of meditation so he can focus on the opponent. He rarely speaks to his opponents outside of calling his attacks, and when he does, his words are riddles that leave the foe confused about his or her own being.

Family

Dhalsim has a wife, Sally, and a son named Datta.

Concept

During the development of Street Fighter II, Dhalsim's original design was originally a man with an head of a elephant and multiple limbs.^{[citation needed]}

Story

Street Fighter Alpha 2

During Street Fighter Alpha 2, Dhalsim raises money to save his village, and gains the respect of villagers; some call him "Great Yoga Master Dhalsim".^[5] He questions what good could come from his damaging powers.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, he sets out to destroy the evil M. Bison. He travels around the world and meets Rose and Birdie, and uses his mind control powers to get his answers. He is responsible for making Cammy White self-aware, thus freeing her from Bison's control. He later confronts Bison and destroys the Shadaloo base, but this is not considered canon.^[6]

Street Fighter II

Dhalsim enters the tournament to raise money for his village, but realizes that it contradicts his pacifist beliefs. Dhalsim retires from fighting after the second World Warrior tournament, and continues to roam the world helping those in need.

Super Street Fighter IV

Dhalsim makes his return in the Street Fighter IV series, this time to free the flow of water to his village after S.I.N. builds a dam upstream. His son, Datta, is a penpal of Amy, Guile's daughter. When Datta informs Dhalsim that his penpal's father is away on a mission to investigate said dam, Dhalsim recognizes that the situation is even more serious than he thought. He is reluctant to use his powers for self-serving purposes, but feels compelled to save his village.

Dhalsim goes to participate in the tournament S.I.N. was organizing. When the dam base is destroyed at the end of the game, the water returns to the village. Although Dhalsim believes that Shadaloo represents an evil in the heart of humanity that will never truly be defeated, he also recognizes that "the goodness in mankind's heart is also endless".^[7]

Crossover appearances

Street Fighter EX series

Dhalsim is one of the playable characters in the Street Fighter EX series.

Capcom vs. SNK series

Dhalsim is playable in Millennium Fight 2000, Mark of the Millennium 2001/EO and SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.

Marvel vs. Capcom series

Dhalsim is also playable in X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Street Fighter X Tekken

Dhalsim is a playable character in Street Fighter X Tekken, his tag partner is Sagat.

Animations

Street Fighter cartoon

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In the American animated series, Dhalsim is shown to be like his movie adaptation.

Street Fighter II V

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Wreck-It-Ralph

Dhalsim has a small cameo in Disney's video game-themed film Wreck-It-Ralph as one of the portraits in Tapper's.

Comics and Manga

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Please assist the Street Fighter Wiki,
and complete the section if you can.

UDON comics

In the UDON comic book series, Dhalsim is a wise and powerful mystic who aids Ryu in his quest to become stronger in order to avenge his master without being taking over by the Satsui no Hado.

Fighting style

Dhalsim is the original long-range fighter of fighting games; his intense training has given him the ability to contort and extend his limbs into forms physically impossible for a normal human. He can project his arms and legs outward in order to deliver attacks that would be out of the range of normal limbs, and teleporting to maintain the distance.

Dhalsim also has the ability to breathe fire in various ways. In earlier releases, Capcom USA claimed that Dhalsim's ability to breathe fire stemmed from his consumption of curry, but Capcom of Japan changed this to a blessing from Agni, Hindu god of fire, and a later English manual of Super Street Fighter II for the Super Nintendo states that the flames stem from his mastery over fully unleashing his latent kundalini energies in his training.^{[citation needed]} In Super Street Fighter IV, however, Gouken theorizes that it might be an energy-based ability instead. This may also explain Seth's ability to use some of Dhalsim's moves, though it is just as likely that he is more directly mimicking Bison's teleport.

In the UDON comics, Dhalsim says that his fire is actually an illusion that won't hurt a person if they believe that they won't be burned; he proves it via engulfing Adon in flames, and as he recoils and notices he's not getting burned, taking advantage of Adon's confusion to knock him out. Also, in Super Street Fighter IV, he calms Hakan after defeating him by mentioning that his fire is only an illusion that won't burn his oil. Furthermore, when defeating Dhalsim, Zangief boasts that Dhalsim's imaginary flames have no chance against his own real muscles.

Dhalsim's overall style revolves around attacking from a distance, and mid-air attacks on grounded opponents while taking advantage of impatient opponents. Dhalsim has a long airtime when he jumps so he could easily avoid projectiles and rushes, but is prone to light jump attacks, but he is very slow both on the ground and in the air, which can leave him vulnerable to a patient opponent. Dhalsim however, can create many ambiguous setups to confuse the opponent, and attack through with ease.

Origin

Dhalsim's abilities also resemble those of an Indian fighter in the 1976 motion picture Master of the Flying Guillotine starring Jimmy Wang Yu. Like Dhalsim, the fighter in the movie used a yoga-based fighting style, and had the ability to extend his limbs to attack.

Dhalsim's fighting style is generally given as Yoga, as in the form of exercise. Oddly enough, the manuals for the SNES and Genesis versions of Street Fighter II identified Dhalsim's fighting style as Kabaddi, which is actually an Indian sport.

Gameplay

Dhalsim's gameplay style involves keeping the opponent at bay with distance attacks and projectiles, only getting close to strike with a surprise aerial attack or sliding kick. Dhalsim has both very low offense and defense, making it vital for him to avoid sustaining too many blows from a strong fighter.

Dhalsim's sprite, while standing, is actually quite a small target, due to the total number of pixels it occupies while not attacking; he becomes a much larger target while attacking. As of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the player can make Dhalsim perform only short range attacks by holding back on the joystick.

In addition to his fire-breathing and stretching, Dhalsim has a "slow-motion" floating jump that allows him to surprise foes with midair attacks. He can also utilize his teleport in midair to throw off opponents who attempt to knock him out of the air.

His Super Combos commonly include powerful flames attack, the most common of which is known as the Yoga Inferno. Some games also allow him to aim the Inferno upwards instead; this variant is known as the Yoga Volcano. Another relative common Super Combo is the Yoga Strike; Dhalsim uses his stretching limbs to grab a faraway foe and slam them into the ground.

In the Street Fighter IV games, Dhalsim's new Ultra Combos continue this trend. His first Ultra Combo is the Yoga Catastrophe, which is similar to the Metsu Hadoken, but recovers almost immediately, allowing for a plethora of cross-up combo opportunities. His second Ultra Combo, Yoga Shangri-La, is a midair grab that targets an earthbound foe; if successful, he headbutts them repeatedly using the momentum granted by his stretching limbs. Dhalsim also has the most reach with his Focus Attack, and has one of the few Personal Actions that actually have an effect on gameplay.

Stage Theme

Street Fighter 2 World Warrior OST Theme of Dhalsim

Hyper Street Fighter II Music - Dhalsim Stage

Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold Theme of Dhalsim

Street Fighter Alpha 3 OST Praying (Theme of Dhalsim)

Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter Dhalsim theme

Street Fighter EX Plus @ OST Heat Wind (Theme of Dhalsim)

Super Street Fighter IV OST Theme of Dhalsim

Trivia

Dhalsim got his name from an Indian restaurant in Osaka near Capcom's office (Dhal is lentils, shim is Hyacinth beans).

Dhalsim is one of the eleven playable Street Fighter characters who are married or in a romantic relationship.

Despite having the same rival as he did in Street Fighter IV, Dhalsim's rival fight stage has been changed in Super Street Fighter IV. It was the Crowded Downtown stage before, but then got changed to the Exciting Street Scene stage. This was due to the fact that the Exciting Street Scene stage is located in India (which is Dhalsim's home country), and thus suits him better.

Dhalsim makes a small cameo at the end of the Sakura Ganbaru manga along with his wife and Rolento, complaining about their lack of appearance. Rolento and Dhalsim were the only members of the cast of SFA2 to not appear at all in the Street Fighter Alpha manga or Sakura Ganbaru.^{[citation needed]}

Dhalsim holds a grudge against Balrog who killed one of his elephants, practicing his Gigaton Blow.

Quotes

Main Article: Dhalsim/Quotes

Popular Culture

Dhalsim/Pop Culture

Gallery

Street Fighter II series