Charlie (Street Fighter)

Charlie, known in Japan as Nash (ナッシュ), full name Charlie Nash, is a video game character from Capcom's Street Fighter fighting game series and media franchise. He was introduced as a playable character in the original Street Fighter Alpha, but was already part of the series' backstory since Street Fighter II.

In video games
Charlie is first mentioned by name in Street Fighter II and its subsequent revisions, in which he is the military comrade, close friend and mentor of Guile, one of the selectable characters. Guile's motive for entering the Street Fighter II tournament is to avenge the death of Charlie, who was killed by the tournament's host M. Bison sometime before the events of the game. Charlie was made into a playable character in Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams.

In the Alpha series, Charlie is a first lieutenant in the United States Air Force (USAF), assigned to track down Bison and uncover corruption within the American military. In his endings in the first two Alpha games, Charlie is killed by Bison and his men. He is first struck by Bison from behind in the first game, and in the second game he is shot in the back by his own men and thrown down a waterfall in Venezuela, however, Guile's ending in the American version of Street Fighter II adds the location of Charlie's death as Cambodia. The console version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 introduces Guile as a playable character in the Alpha series, and his mission is to "find Commander Charlie". In Guile's ending, he and Charlie infiltrate Bison's base to blow up the Psycho Drive, and Guile escapes while Charlie stays behind to hold off Bison. Charlie is presumed dead after the explosion.

Charlie and other Street Fighter Alpha characters also appear in the crossover fighting game X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Charlie was also one of the characters scheduled to appear in Capcom's unreleased 3D fighting game Capcom Fighting All-Stars. He also has a cameo appearance in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, in two stages, in one of which he appears with Guile. Apart from fighting games, Charlie appears as a playable character in the shoot 'em up game Cannon Spike, with a fellow Street Fighter character Cammy.

Design and gameplay
Charlie's moves are based on Guile's, making him as a similar figure as Ken to Ryu, and his "Flash Kick" (Charlie uses both of Guile's special moves, albeit with altered animations) is more powerful than Guile's. Since the Street Fighter Alpha series Charlie has been depicted as a military operative who wears green cargo pants and a yellow jacket, as well as a pair of glasses which he takes off before a fight. He has a hairstyle consisting of a large forelock of blond hair. Charlie has been depicted with drastically different character designs in his appearances in licensed Street Fighter media prior to his official Alpha debut.

Shadow
An alternate version of Charlie named Shadow appears as a hidden character in the crossover game, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Shadow's sprite is the same as Charlie's, but with almost his entire body blacked out and a white eye shining behind his glasses. He has all Charlie's moves, but his attacks set his opponent alight with blue Psycho Power flames. Shadow also appears in Marvel vs. Capcom as a "helper" (a character that can assist the player in combat) and in Chun-Li's ending, rescuing her from Bison.

Other appearances
In Masaomi Kanzaki's manga adaptation of Street Fighter II, Guile is directly responsible for Charlie's death. Years before the events of the manga, Bison uses Charlie and other members of Guile's unit as guinea pigs for a mind-controlling substance. Charlie went insane during a mission and began attacking unarmed villagers, causing Guile to kill him. Charlie is shown in the manga as a silhouette with an insane smile.

In the 1994 film adaptation Street Fighter, Charlie Nash is combined with the character of Blanka to form the character Carlos "Charlie" Blanka, a friend of Colonel Guile and a soldier in his unit, who is taken prisoner in Bison's Shadaloo compound. His hair is changed to black for this film. When Bison discovers the friendship between Charlie and Guile through one of Guile's threats, he sends Charlie to be brainwashed and mutated by Dr. Dhalsim (Bison's unwilling scientist in this film) to become the green-skinned, red-haired killing machine known simply as Blanka. Dhalsim, however, secretly changes Blanka's mental programming to prevent him from becoming a killer, in return for which he helps Dhalsim to fight Bison's soldiers at the film's climax. He chooses to remain behind and perish with Dhalsim in the explosion of Bison's base, but it is revealed in the follow-up animated series that they both survive.

The 1995 anime TV series Street Fighter II V, Nash first appears in episode 19, when he and Guile are hired by Ken's father to rescue him from Bison. Nash is later killed off in episode 26. This version of Nash is depicted with slicked black hair and a beard. In the English dub of the series, he retains his original Japanese name, although at one point Guile calls him "Charlie."

The American animated Street Fighter TV series, which aired from 1995 to 1997, adapts Blanka's origins from the live-action film into the series, thus merging Blanka and Charlie's characters into one as well. The episode "Eye of the Beholder" features Blanka reverting to his human form and he is given clothing similar to the ones Charlie wears in the Alpha games, but with Blanka's color scheme (a green vest and brown cargo pants). However, Charlie still retains Blanka's height and voice, and he's a lot slender than Blanka. In addition, Charlie is originally blond and blue-eyed in the original video game series. In the animated series, he has medium brown skin, black hair, and dark brown eyes.

Charlie Nash is played by Chris Klein in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, where he is portrayed as a member of Interpol.

In the American Street Fighter comic book series, Charlie's Japanese name is made into his surname, giving him the full name of Charlie Nash (the name "Charlie Nash" would later be used again in Street Fighter IV, where it can be seen on his dogtag in Guile's opening movie). The comic goes on to include that it was in fact Charlie who taught Guile how to use the "Sonic Boom" technique, and indeed how to fight. Udon would also include Shadow as part of the comic's storyline: Bison captures Charlie, turns him into Shadow, using him as an agent. He tries to have Shadow kill Guile and Chun Li in Japan, but Charlie regains his memory in the fight and runs off. He later attempts to rejoin his friends, but is gunned down by Bison's helicopter. With the last of his strength, Charlie sacrifices himself by using his Somersault Justice to destroy the cliff on which they were fighting, sending both Bison and himself plunging into the sea.

In Ariga Hitoshi's manga series Rockman Remix and Rockman Megamix, set in the Mega Man universe, features Charlie as a newscaster in several chapters. The character is referred by his overseas name instead of "Nash".

Reception
The character was well received by critics and fans of the series. In 2008, D. F. Smith of IGN ranked Charlie as 16th on their list of top Street Fighter fighters. He was ranked as 26th top Street Fighter character by Paul Furfari of UGO in 2010. That same year, European Street Fighter champion Ryan Hart ranked Charlie as the tenth best Street Fighter character. Heavy.com included him among top ten characters they wanted in Ultra Street Fighter IV, adding that he "has been a constant fan request for a while now." In the official poll by Namco, Charlie has been the 21st most requested Street Fighter side character to be added to the roster of Tekken X Street Fighter, as of August 2012 raking up 5.20% of votes.