Taka-Arashi made his debut in Virtua Fighter 3 and is probably most known for the fact he was the first and only character in the Virtua Fighter franchise to ever be "retired". Why was he retired? Well, he was wildly unpopular, for one, but the developers also stated that he was difficult to implement into the games properly because his huge hit box didn't really work with the established Virtua FIghter game mechanics very well. He didn't make another appearance until almost ten years later in Virtua FIghter 5 R, which was released on consoles as Virtua FIghter 5 Final Showdown.
What is most interesting about Taka-Arashi, for sumo fans anyway, is that he is the only one of the big three fighting game rikishi that actually reached the rank of yokozuna. E. Honda's status is best described as intentionally murky, but he's only officially ever been ozeki, and Tekken's Ganryu reached ozeki in record time and then flamed out spectacularly and got kicked out of the sport. Taka-Arashi, on the other hand, is definitely 100% a yokozuna.
Here's the rub when it comes to Taka-Arashi, though - it really seems like the developers were either incredibly ignorant, or simply didn't care, about sumo all that much because his character bio is an absolute mess of minor and major offenses that would have caused him to never reach yokozuna in the first place and definitely get kicked out of the sport. You see, the upper ranks of sumo are governed by the nebulous concept of hinkaku - which means representing the sport with an incredibly high standard of dignity and grace. Taka-Arashi definitely violated hinkaku.
His first offense was getting into a fight at a bar where he beat up a famous underground fight star (I'm picturing someone like Kimbo Slice back in his day). To put it simply, beating up dudes in bars gets you kicked out of sumo - see the 68th yokozuna Asashoryu as a real world example - but somehow he stuck around. Winning this underworld brawl convinced Taka-Arashi that he must be a bad ass MMA fighter and he should enter the third Virtua Fighter tournament - which doing so would definitely violate hinkaku - where he then got obliterated by the other fighters who could easily counter him because all he knew how to do was straight ahead sumo - which would double violate hinkaku since he went out and got embarrassed. So that's, like, three strikes now? On top of that, he informed his stablemaster that he was leaving sumo before he entered the Virtua FIghter tournament, which is a big deal because when you retire in sumo it is permanent - there are no comebacks here. My guess is that his oyakata "forgot" to turn in his retirement papers so it was never official.
Anyway, after his humiliating defeat at the Virtua FIghter tournament, and being away from sumo for an extended period of time - which, again, isn't allowed -, Taka-Arashi returned to sumo ... somehow ... despite all of his obvious violations of hinkaku, and continued annihilating everyone in his path. Once again, however, he suddenly and unexpectedly left the sport - by not showing up on the final day of a basho - to enter the fifth Virtua Fighter tournament. Once again, blatantly violating hinkaku as well as "retiring". Again.
It's for all of these reasons that I think the developers just didn't really care about sumo all that much, or else there wouldn't be so many issues with Taka-Arashi's story. In comparison, Namco and especially Capcom are extremely careful about everything around their rikishi characters - Capcom in particular because they got off to such a poor start with sumo fans basically thinking E. Honda was blasphemous to the sport so they've been incredibly careful ever since. But the folks at SEGA just don't care. Multiple retirements. Multiple blatant violations of hinkaku. Violence against others outside the sport. Entering a vulgar unrefined fighting tournament - and getting his butt kicked. Taka-Arashi would have been gone from real world sumo for just one of these offenses.
Taka-Arashi is fairly true to real world sumo in one way, at least, which is his size. He is listed at 202cm (6'7" or so) and 198kg (436lbs) so he's a big, big boy who is bigger than everyone else. He's Akebono-size (or Hokuseiho if you still count trash jackass morons), which is one reason why he was so dominant in his sumo career.
Like Honda and Ganryu, however, there's an undeniable issue with Taka-Arashi's age. He was born in 1968, which makes him officially old as dirt and well past his prime in sumo, yet he's still somehow competing at an ultra high level and dominating everyone even though he's close to retirement age. Sumo is incredibly hard on rikishi's bodies and even the greatest ones reach a point where they can't physically compete with younger, stronger, faster, healthier opponents. Capcom and SEGA pretending like their old ass rikishi can still not just be competitive, but dominate, is hilarious. Namco gets away with Ganryu being old because he was forced to retire at a young age and isn't still supposedly winning yushos at age 50+.
Fun fact - There is actually a current sumo wrestler named Takaarashi competing today. He's only 18 years old and currently ranked Sandanme 39 as of this video. His heya is Tagonoura.
Taka-Arashi's fighting style is at least pretty true to real sumo. He's clearly a yotso-zumo specialist - so he focuses on grappling and throws - but also has lightning fast tsuppari strikes to grind away at opponents as he moves in for a grab. He's one of the best in the Virtua Fighter series at ring outs, which makes sense since that is a primary way to win in sumo. Of the big three video game sumo wrestlers, Taka-Arashi probably has the most true to sumo fighting style.
In the end, Virtua Fighter's Taka-Arashi is probably the most realistic of the big 3 video game rikishi, but also by far the least respectful to the sport. The folks that came up with his story clearly just don't care at all, which is pretty upsetting as a sumo fan. The whole sport is based on tradition and ceremony and being respectful and they just kinda took a diarrhea dookie all over it with almost everything about Taka-Arashi. I wouldn't mind if he got "retired" again and missed Virtua FIghter 6, whenever that happens, to be honest.
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