Dhalsim

Lore & Background

Dhalsim is a pacifist who enters the World Warrior tournament against his beliefs to raise money for his poor village. In his Arcade Mode ending in Street Fighter II, he wins the tournament and returns home on his elephant Kodal. Three years later, his son, Datta, discovers a photograph of his father from the tournament. In Super Street Fighter II Turbo, his wife Sally (named Sari in the UDON comic book series) is added alongside Datta. In the Street Fighter Alpha sub-series, which are set prior to the events of Street Fighter II, Dhalsim attempts to hunt down an "evil spirit" (M. Bison) that is threatening the world. His characterization and motivation in the Street Fighter EX sub-series are the same as in the previous Street Fighter game.

In Their Own Story

In the 1993 anime Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Episode 37, a background character resembling Dhalsim does the trademark Yoga Fire move. In Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Dhalsim fights E. Honda in India. Though he gains the upper hand with his telekinetic abilities, he is distracted when he senses another nearby power, long enough for Honda to overpower him. He subsequently withdraws from the fight, giving Honda the victory, and apparently later points Ryu out to Honda, enabling him to give Ryu half the winnings out of gratitude. In the anime series Street Fighter II V, Dhalsim is a monk who lives in a remote village in India. Sagat had earlier instructed Ryu to seek Dhalsim for advice about the Ways of Hadou. Sagat had been turned down years before when he sought Dhalsim's wisdom but figured that Ryu might be found more worthy. Dhalsim is a practitioner of yoga and has some psychic abilities, and although he knows much about Hadou, he was unable to train Ryu to use the Hadouken, which was inadvertently triggered in Ryu's body during a lesson.

Reader's Guide

Dhalsim's fighting style is a Yoga-based style, in which he can stretch his arms, legs, abdomen and even his neck to great lengths, making him a decent long-range hand-to-hand fighter. He also uses many fire-based attacks such as Yoga Fire, Yoga Flame and Yoga Blast, the latter being an anti-air technique. His super move in the Street Fighter EX, Cross Over and later Alpha Series was the Yoga Inferno, which was a multi-hitting flamethrower-style attack that could be directed manually. Dhalsim also uses a teleportation technique known as the Yoga Teleport. In Street Fighter EX3, he gains a tag-team super move when paired with Blanka. In Street Fighter IV he uses the ultra combo move Yoga Catastrophe, as a large fireball which slowly moves toward and deals multi-damage on impact on any opponent, before using a super Yoga Inferno. According to Akiman, Dhalsim's gameplay was meant to tie into the idea of India being "mysterious", and make them feel like totally normal activities within the "mysteries of Yoga."

Did You Know?

• During development, his name was 'Indo' (literally 'India') as a placeholder, then later 'Naradatta' for a time before finally being named 'Dhalsim'.
• The name 'Dhalsim' comes from 'Dhalsima', a martial artist from the Indian subcontinent area, according to game director Akira Nishitani.
• A rumor that the name was based in part on the name of a curry restaurant near Capcom's old offices in Osaka was corroborated by Akiman in 2014.
• The concept for Dhalsim's stretching limbs was based on a technique from the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, specifically the 'Zoom Punch' used by character William A. Zeppeli.
• In the 1994 live-action film Street Fighter, Dhalsim is portrayed by British actor Roshan Seth as an Indian scientist and doctor forced to aid M. Bison.