Q&A with Itabashi Zangief

Itabashi Zangief is one of the most dominant players in both the Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter scenes. He's won multiple championships in Virtua Fighter in both single and team play, with hi s most recent major victory being at SBO2008 with his partners Fuudo and Joe. While he has yet to win a major in Street Fighter, he is always in contention with his smart and patient Zangief play. Debates still rage on about who is the best Zangief player between Itabashi, Zangitan and Cantona, but there is no question that Itabashi is a player who brings out the absolute best from his characters.

Itabashi, along with players such as Fuudo, Nuki and Tokido are part of an elite group of players that excel at high levels whether they're playing 2D or 3D fighting games. How does he accomplish this? He thinks the answer is simple: he knows everything.

Being the friendly guy that he is, Itazan answered some questions that I had for him regarding both titles as well as a bunch of other random things I wanted to ask him, so if you're interested in what he has to say about his infamous encounter with Chofu KK Sara and who he thinks the best players are, keep on reading!

Note: Although I sent questions to Itazan in Japanese, he was courteous enough to answer in full English. For the most part I have left his original answers intact, save for clearing out any spelling or punctuation mistakes.

What do you like about Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter?

I like some points about SF and VF.

Especially, I like Yomi about VF.
It's really great that SF has many kinds of different characters.

I played Street Fighter 2 about 20 years ago, and then some fighting games have attracted me.

How are you able to switch between Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter so easily?

It's because I understand the important aspects of each game.


Many overseas players believe that Japanese gamers do not trash talk. Do you think that's true?

Most good players never do trash talk. But sadly some don't have good manners.


Who do you think the strongest players in Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter currently are?

I think the best Virtua Fighter player is Fuudo, and the best Street Fighter players are Umehara, Iyo, Kindevu and Makoto.

You're thought of as one of the best fighting game players, but compared to other players like Mago, Umehara, etc., you haven't been to many overseas tournaments. Is there a reason for that?

Right now I have no sponsor to help me travel. I merely belong to a talent agency in Japan, so I mainly work there promoting games. But I would love to have a sponsor! ^-^

Is there anything in either Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter that you would like to see improved?

There are some areas that I would like to see improved, but overall I'm pleased with both games!

When forming teams for a team tournament, what is something that you think about before creating your team?

For me it depends. I mainly team with good friends, but sometimes I team with great players in order to win. You need to understand your motivation first!


During the semi-finals of Kakutou Shinseki III, you had an interesting "mic performance" with Chofu KK Sarah. Some people believe that there may have been some bad blood between the two of you, so could you clear the air on the situation? (Note: The mic performance can be seen here.)

There was no fight between us ^-^

Choufu was playing the heel at that time, so I said something like "I never want to let him win the tornament, so I have to beat him" ^-^

and he responded something like "I'll never lose to that fuckin character" ^-^

You're considered one of the strongest fighting game players. Do you play games that are not fighting games?

I actually like many kinds of games, especially puzzle games!

What games are you looking forward to right now?

I'm looking forward to Ocarina of Time on the 3DS.

Even in Japan console games are way more popular than arcade games. But is there anything that arcades can do to stay relevant?

I think it's really difficult for arcades to survive these days...

But we need many places in Japan where we can play games, like arcades.

Some countries have like arcades where we can play PC games and console games,right? Maybe Japan should follow that pattern.


You live in Tokyo, where there's a healthy cultural mix. Outside of games, is there anything international players should do while in Japan?

Foreign players should play games, eat japanese food, do sightseeing... it might be too busy for them though. ^-^

I recommend eating some ramen at a famous place, especially.


What do you like to do other than games?

I like music. I was a vocal singer, so I also like karaoke!

Any skills outside of being awesome at fighting games?

I'm a software engineer, so I'm good at proposing and designing applications like on the iPhone application. Someone get me a job please. ^-^


Okay, imagine you're going to karaoke with your friends. What's the first and last song you pick?

I like Mr. Children very much, so I'd choose one of their songs for the first and last song I sing last.

You seem to communicate with international gamers quite often! Have you studied overseas before? If not, do you want to?

I haven't studied abroad, but after 2007 Evo, I travelled around the states for 2 months.

It was a really good memory that I had.

 

thank you reno & itazan for the interview,

Myke, tell us about your fight with Itazan!

 

I think if he were to reply in Japanese the discussion would have been longer. But he wanted to reply English so that's why the answers were so short I believe.

 

Adam and I took him to karaoke when he was here in NYC back in 2007. He can definitely belt it out!

 

what does "playing the heel"?

 

It's wrestling term, basically boils down to pretending to be the bad guy in order to get the audience to root for the good guy.

For more info consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heel_(professional_wrestling)

 

Thanks for the interview Reno

 

The best of best player! Thanks for the interview Reno~

 

I'd like to know how difficult he found it to transition back to VF5 from FS, comparisons between the 2 and which version he actually likes the best.

 

Q&A?

More like "Q & generalised response"... woo, witty.

 

^-^

CUTE! n.n

 

Reno, if you ask him any more questions, I'd really like to hear his response to:

"As a competitive fighting game player who's traveled the world & plays games with an international following and competition (like SF), what do you think about Sega's decision to make VF a game that's now only for Japanese players?"

I'm not being a smartass

 

thanks myke!

Everyone knows it's not coming to console, I was hoping more he'd address the issue of how a game that's based on the idea of a "World Fighting Tournament" is now limited to the people just in one country.

And, being a player of games that thrive on competition from around the world, how does it effect the interest of the VF scene in Japan if there's no international comp? Do they care that players like yourself, Shinz, Ryan Hart etc literally CANNOT participate at the competitive level anymore, short of moving to Japan? Are the Japanese players content just playing Japanese players?

kinda a tough question, but I guess my point was more theoretical.

If anyone looks at "avoidingthepuddle", there's an interesting interview there between Aris, Harada and a translator about why TTT2 actually isn't coming to arcades in the US (about a 97% chance).

 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">how does it effect the interest of the VF scene in Japan if there's no international comp? </div></div>

well, with players of the caliber of Fuudo, Itazan, Koedo and Homestay, just to name a few, it seems to me that the west needs Japanese competition more than the other way around.


hey maybe we should get in touch with the North Korean mafia in Japan to get Hajime Satomi to release the game in the west.