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Montreal-based artist and owner of personal blog Novamesh Arman Akopian (perhaps better known by his DeviantArt tag of GUYJIN) is causing quite the stir here in Japan today with a series of illustrations depicting the cast of Capcom’s genre-defining fighting game series Street Fighter years after the events of the game’s martial arts tournament.

Tremendously dark but expertly drawn and with detailed character descriptions alongside each illustration, we learn that things are not looking good for the majority of the Street Fighter crew, with Blanka struggling with alcoholism, Guile’s “sonic boom” attack eventually causing him to go deaf, and Chun-Li… well, Chun-Li is still looking as flexible and muscular as ever.

It’s not easy being a former street fighter. Stay in school, kids!

▼ Beer-bellied Guile’s days of sonic booming have caught up with him.

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▼ Ryu, it seems, has completely lost his mind…

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▼ Ryu’s old nemesis Sagat, however, is simply angry that he’ll never get to challenge him again.

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▼ Cammy’s showing her age a little, but we still wouldn’t mess with her.

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▼And unless we’re very much mistaken, Chun-Li has had a slight breast augmentation and collagen implants.

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▼ Bruce Lee-a-like Fei Long is apparently back from a three-year hiatus and tougher than ever.

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▼ While Vega (or Balrog in Japan) is now a cyborg hell-bent on revenge against Ryu.

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▼ Following the tournament, E. Honda is now Japan’s premier Yakuza boss, vowing to take on the criminal organization, Shadaloo, in his own country.

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▼ And Zangief, well Zangief “found God” and now lives in the Siberian wilds. Huh. Never saw that one coming.

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Superb work, Arman! We can’t wait to see what you come up with next.

Images: deviantART, NOVAMESH
[ Read in Japanese ]