Shoma Sawamura

Shoma Sawamura (沢村将馬 Sawamura Shōma) is a fighting game character from the Rival Schools 3D fighting games.

Biography[]

Concept[]

In the staff comments of Private Justice Academy School Guide, series director Hideaki Itsuno reveals that he used Shunsuke Aoba and Natsumi Asaoka from The Kabocha Wine as inspiration for Shoma and Natsu.^[2]

Personality[]

Shoma is a quick-tempered and impulsive person who hates losing. Because of this, he often loses track of what has to be done. His membership into Gorin High's baseball team was due to the fact that he causes wild fights during games. He's also highly conscious of his height, which happens to be the subject of ridicule by Natsu, who also happens to be a childhood friend of his, aside from Nagare. This concern of his is almost always the reason of why they argue, and Shoma never seems to win against her in such verbal wars for such an issue, but through all of that, Shoma has a strong sense of justice.

Shoma is also shown to be quite very vengeful after his older brother and fellow baseball player Shuichi was seriously injured and hospitalized by an unknown assailant until his individual ending, where Shoma himself is seen to be a worrywart about Shuichi's condition, which displays his kind and caring side. He is also gullible and naive as well when he had briefly teamed up with Momo Karuizawa during the events of Project Justice until she had revealed her true affiliation with Kurow and Yurika Kirishima from the Darkside Student Congress.

In the School Life Mode of Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2, Shoma is always seen hanging around with both his family and friends, such as playing baseball with Shuichi, competing in a beach volleyball match with Natsu during the Beach Overnight, and taking a swim with Nagare.

Appearance[]

Shoma has short black hair with spike fringes in the center of his head. He wears a white baseball cap and has a bandage in the center of his nose.

His primary outfit is a white short sleeve baseball shirt under a long sleeve black shirt, baseball pants, black socks and baseball shoes.

In the endings of both Rival Schools: United by Fate and Project Justice, Shoma wears the Gorin summer school uniform; a white short sleeved loose collared shirt with a Gorin emblem on the left side, blue jeans and white sneakers. While carrying his large baseball bat, he has a red and black backpack hanging on his bat.

In the School Life Mode of Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2, Shoma wears either his Gorin summer school uniform or his primary outfit. He also has a casual outfit consist of a light green short sleeved shirt with a red trim and both his blue jeans and sneakers from his school uniform.

Story[]

Rival Schools: United by Fate[]

Shoma searches for the perpetrators who are responsible for injuring and hospitalizing his older brother and fellow baseball player Shuichi and eventually joins up with both Natsu and Roberto when he learns and finds out that the two of them are doing similar investigations in their own given time and manner. Though his fate varies on the characters selected in the game, Nagare's ending in Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 reveals that Shoma was captured and brainwashed by Justice High School into being a loyal servant for them before being saved and freed from his brainwashing by Nagare. In his own individual ending, Shoma, Natsu, and Roberto visit Shuichi at the hospital and that Shuichi himself soon notices his young brother's personal feelings towards Natsu. From there, he refers to Natsu as being Shoma's "girlfriend", causing the latter to blush in embarrassment as both he and Roberto soon leave the hospital in due time.

Project Justice[]

Shoma ends up befriending Momo after she is the apparent victim of a bullying attack by Batsu (who is actually Kurow in disguise and under the alias of "Vatsu"). However, Momo's insistence that he help her separates him from his friends Natsu and Roberto. After helping her out in a number of scuffles against some members of the cast, Shoma is then betrayed by Momo and soon finds out that she had used him as a pawn to help cause tension and distrust among the various schools as a part of Kurow's evil plan. He eventually reunites and reconciles with his friends.

After the incident, Shoma had personally wanted to talk and speak with Natsu privately, possibly to finally confess and reveal his own personal feelings to her, only to be shockingly and surprisingly hugged by Momo from behind (who had developed a real crush on him after he had unexpectedly came to her defense and saved her from both Kurow and Demon Hyo), much to Natsu's chagrin who angrily wants to expel her from Gorin for her past actions. From within the comical situation between Shoma, Natsu, and Momo, both Roberto and Nagare comment about the sudden love triangle between the trio themselves.

Gameplay[]

As baseball is his specialty sport, most of Shoma's attacks involve pitching baseballs and using his oversized baseball bat, which can also deflect projectile attacks back to his opponents. A handful of his moves, however, have slow startup and/or recovery delay which the opponent can exploit time and again. Knowing how and when to use certain moves will prove to be a challenge even for adept players.

His Team-up assist is one of the four most damaging Team-Up techniques in the game, tied with Gan's, Wild Daigo's and Momo's in terms of damage rating.

Special Attacks[]

Super Fast Ball (Japanese: 超剛速球 Kyuugou Sokkyuu) - Shoma does a baseball pitch with infinite range. From afar, this can easily be avoided by sidestepping, and has poor recovery delay. This is also usable in the air for keeping approaching opponents at bay. Shoma, however, is vulnerable to counterattack while landing after doing the aerial version.

Batting Rotation (Japanese: 大回転打法 Daikaiten Dappou) - Shoma spins while swinging his baseball bat, dealing two hits of damage. Startup is fast, but not the recovery delay.

Fishing Smash (Japanese: 一本釣り打法 Ippon Zuri Dappou) - This is Shoma's special throw maneuver. He thrusts his baseball bat at waist-level, and if it connects, he raises the bat together with the latter, then throws the opponent in the opposite direction and to some 'invisible' obstacle in the air, which some speculate to be the 'camera'. It has a long range for such attack, but has very bad recovery delay, giving the opponent ample time to do a Tardy Counter.

Niagara Drop (ナイアガラドロップ) - Shoma jumps forward a little, then stomps perpendicularly downwards. If he lands directly above the opponent, this becomes very difficult to block. Because of its fixed range, getting it to hit requires practice; otherwise, it will entirely miss, giving the opponent an opportunity to counterattack.

Splendid Lead (Japanese: 豪快リード Goukai Lead) - While constantly sidestepping, Shoma taunts the opponent with his arms outstretched to either side. From this position, Shoma can then follow with either Splendid Sliding or Splendid Kick, depending on the kick button that will be pressed immediately from this position.

Splendid Sliding (Japanese: 豪快スライディング Goukai Sliding) - From the Splendid Lead position, Shoma does a sliding kick that must be blocked low, and can also be used as an anti-air move.

Splendid Kick (Japanese: 豪快キック Goukai Kick) - From the Splendid Lead position, Shoma does a flying kick aimed at about shoulder- to head-level, depending on the opponent's height.

Burning Vigor Attacks[]

Dividing Magical Ball (Japanese: 分身魔球 Bunshin Makyuu) - Powered version of the Fast Ball, and also has infinite range. It has better recovery delay than the Fast Ball, and is usable in the air as well.

Homerun Hitter (Japanese: ホームラン打法 Homerun Dappou) - Shoma swings his baseball bat for a homerun, setting the opponent aflame. It will deal little damage if done too close or too far from the opponent. Done at the critical distance (approximately one step away from the opponent), it will knock the opponent towards a random obstacle in the field, scoring a bonus hit.

Super Killer Sliding (Japanese: 超殺人スライディング Chou Satsujin Sliding) - Shoma leaps towards the opponent for a dive that must be blocked low. It is of note, however, that a simple punch or kick can entirely foil this attack if timed with the jump sequence before Shoma does the dive that deals the killer slide.

Team-Up Technique[]

Grand Slam (グランドスラム) - The active character tosses the opponent into the air before delivering a volleyball spike that sends the latter to an awaiting Shoma, who then swings his baseball bat aimed at the gut, sending the opponent halfway across the field.

Party-Up Technique[]

Shoma does the Hot-Blooded Giant Wheel.

Comics[]

Shoma appears, along with Hinata and Natsu, in UDON's Street Fighter Legends: Sakura comic.

Trivia[]

In the English-language version United by Fate, Shoma's name was romanized as Syoma, which is also a correct way of romanizing his name as per the Japanese fifty-sound system. This was changed in Project Justice, wherein the romanization of his name reflects the Hepburn way of romanizing Japanese names.

The following details on Shoma's life is as described:
- Shoma lives with his brother, Shuichi, his parents, and his paternal grandfather. Prior to the events of United by Fate, his brother was sent to Baseball Sparta (Yakyuu Sparta in Japanese), a fictional rigid baseball training camp, by their father. Shuichi also appears as one of the instructors in School Life Mode in Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2.
- He excels in physical education, but fares poorly in music and English.^[1]

His official epithet is "Explosive Slugger".^[1]

His birthday coincides with one of Japan's national holidays, the National Sports Day.

He is voiced by Yūji Ueda who previously voiced Urien in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact. Ueda also voices Shoma's older brother, Shuichi during his individual ending of the first game.

In Dead Rising 3, Chuck Greene cosplays as Shoma in downloadable content.

In Tekken 7: Fated Retribution, Panda's Rage Art has a resemblance to Shoma's Grand Slam while Kuma's Rage Art strongly resembles Shoma's Homerun Hitter, but using his large salmon as his baseball bat.

Gallery[]

References[]

↑ ^1.00 ^1.01 ^1.02 ^1.03 ^1.04 ^1.05 ^1.06 ^1.07 ^1.08 ^1.09 ^1.10 Shoma's profile for Rival Schools: United by Fate.
↑ Private Justice Academy School Guide (私立ジャスティス学園スクールガイド)

Rival Schools Characters
Rival Schools: United by Fate	Akira · Batsu · Boman · Daigo · Edge · Gan · Hayato Hideo · Hinata · Hyo · Kyoko · Kyosuke · Natsu Raizo · Roberto · Roy · Sakura · Shoma · Tiffany
Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2	Nagare · Ran
Project Justice	Chairperson · Kurow · Momo · Mugen · Yurika · Zaki

[RS-1] 1.00 ^1.01 ^1.02 ^1.03 ^1.04 ^1.05 ^1.06 ^1.07 ^1.08 ^1.09 ^1.10 Shoma's profile for Rival Schools: United by Fate.

[2] Private Justice Academy School Guide (私立ジャスティス学園スクールガイド)

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