Dee Jay

Dee Jay (ディージェイ) is a character from Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. He is a Jamaican kickboxer who also works as a recording artist and breakdancer. He wears boxing pants with the word "MAXIMUM" emblazoned on the sides (originally "MANTIS"), a word which was chosen specifically because all of its letters are symmetrical, and thus would still look correct when the sprite was flipped between facing right and left. He was designed by James Goddard, and is the only character at the time to be designed by an American. He was based on kickboxer Billy Blanks. His most recent appearance was in Super Street Fighter IV. In it, he is voiced by Kenji Hamada in the Japanese version and Chris Cain in the English version.

Appearances
Dee Jay made his debut in Super Street Fighter II (1993) as one of the four new characters introduced in the game in addition to the original twelve character roster from previous Street Fighter II games. He enters the World Warrior tournament, seeking inspiration to develop a new musical sound. Dee Jay reappears as a playable character in the console versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 (1998) and in the console version of Street Fighter: The Movie. The game is set before the World Warrior tournament and depicts Dee Jay before he began his professional music career. While he was not included in Street Fighter IV, development of his character for its sequel, Super Street Fighter IV, had commenced during the former game's development. Audio files of the announcer from Street Fighter IV announcing Dee Jay were found amongst the game's audio files. He was revealed along with T. Hawk, who also originated from Super Street Fighter II, and Juri, a character created for Street Fighter IV.

In other media
Dee Jay plays a minor role in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Here, he beats up a few punks causing trouble at a nightclub before being warned by Guile and Chun-Li that he is being monitored by Shadaloo, which he does not believe until Chun-Li destroys one of their cyborgs in front of him. He was voiced by the late Ginzo Matsuo in Japanese and Beau Billingslea (credited as John Hammond) in English.

In the 1994 live-action film version of Street Fighter, Dee Jay was portrayed by Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as one of the primary antagonists. He is depicted as a hacker and engineer working for General Bison. At the film's climax, Dee Jay plays the coward and flees from Bison's base with a trunk of Bison's money rather than stand and fight, but gets his comeuppance when he sees the trunk is full of the useless "Bison Dollars". This version of Dee Jay appears in the console version of the Street Fighter: The Movie game.

UDON's line of Street Fighter comics gives Dee Jay a minor role as a brainwashed agent of Shadaloo who breaks into MI5's Delta Red headquarters (along with other Doll agents) and frees a captured Doll agent from their custody. He's captured during the raid and his mind is restored with the help of Delta Red.

Character design
Dee Jay was conceived for Super Street Fighter II by American designer James Goddard, and is one of three characters in the series to have been conceived by an American, along with Blade and Captain Sawada. While Super Street Fighter II was going to feature Cammy, T. Hawk, and two brothers who had the same design save for a head swap, Goddard felt that it would be redundant to have another pair of characters with the same fighting style. As a result, Capcom added Dee Jay in place of one of the brothers, while the other evolved into Fei-Long. The Japanese team asked Goddard for anymore ideas for Dee Jay, which Goddard replied by suggesting kickboxer Billy Blanks. He commented that "a really kick-ass black character would be awesome, instead of someone who was more negative, which is what you tended to see from the Japanese back in those days." In spite of the fact that Blanks is a bad guy in the film which he saw him in, The King of the Kickboxers, he states "his build and look, I just thought that it would make a great character --high-flying, crazy kicks... I mean, you have to remember, this was Billy Blanks pre-'Tae Bo.' He was so bad-ass." He began designing Dee Jay by drawing a sketch of him and sending it to the Japanese team. He sent the film The King of the Kickboxers by copying a VHS tape and sending it through Fed Ex. He designed him as a "positive, fun character," implementing elements such as him being Jamaican, a "fun-loving guy," and a person who is trying to "jump-start his music career while kicking a lot of ass." While the design on his pants originally said "MANTIS," it was changed to say "MAXIMUM." Lettering was previously used in the same way, with kickboxer Kwon, in the unofficial spinoff game Human Killing Machine.

In Super Street Fighter II, Dee Jay has a manager named Rick, while in Street Fighter Alpha 3 he has an agent named Bob.

Critical reception
Since appearing in Super Street Fighter II, Dee Jay has received mixed reception. Rocky Mountain News described Dee Jay as "a flashy rapper-type, and probably the best of the new four" characters introduced in Super Street Fighter II. GameDaily listed him at number seventeen on their "Top 20 Street Fighter Characters of All Time" article, noting the strength of his fighting style in game. In discussing the final character reveals of Street Fighter IV, Crave Online commented that they would have preferred Dee Jay. Allgame editor Matthew House described Dee Jay as "widely missed." IGN editor Jesse Schedeen criticized his inclusion in the film, stating that he "seemed included merely for comic relief." Editor Brian Shirk included Dee Jay in his analysis of racial stereotypes, commenting that his appearance "immediately brings to mind the word "savage."" Professional Street Fighter player Justin Wong stated that Dee Jay "impressed me as a character more than Juri because they actually gave him a lot of tools in this game to make him really good." He commented that while he didn't like him in Super Street Fighter II, he liked him in Super Street Fighter IV "because the style he had in the other game was as a Street Fighter IV character." Fellow professional Street Fighter player listed him as his second favourite Street Fighter character. He praised his Super Street Fighter II Turbo incarnation, while also praising him for being "a really positive, happy character." IGN UK editor Martin Robinson, in discussing the Dee Jay, T. Hawk, and Juri, stated that "all three of which we've played and all three of which we're already in love with." 1UP.com criticized Super Street Fighter II, commenting that Capcom had overestimated demand for such a game. They described Dee Jay as a "loser." In discussing Super Street Fighter II, Giant Bomb editor Jeff Gerstmann commented that "I did my best to basically pretend he didn't exist," stating that the "real stars" of the game were Fei-Long and Cammy.

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