UPDATE2: Official blog post is out: http://www.capcom-unity.com/strumslinger/blog/2017/10/16/zeku-the-ever-changing-ninja-infiltrates-street-fighter-v-on-october-24

UPDATE: Capcom put out his move list in addition to a quick write-up on him. Looks like it was pretty much what it said on the box. The fact that his long slashy kick specials are actually called "Gram" lends more credence to the theory that his storyline in SFV is, in fact, his founding of the Striders. Which is nuts. Glad to see he has a way to stance switch in neutral if necessary and not rely on comboing into V-Skill.

Yep, surprising no one, the 6th and final Season 2 character for Street Fighter V is none other than Zeku, Bunshinryu master and teacher of Guy (and Maki?). Lots of wild stuff to unpack in this trailer and with no official blog post out yet it's time for some good ol' speculation.

• In old-man style he seems to have a command-jump with multiple followups, including a kick, a crossup, and a throw
• He has a series of kick specials that seem to be able to reach about 2/3 screen and cover various angles
• His trigger seems to give him access to a teleport-dash
• Long chains like all ninjas
• His V-Skill(?) seems to be a stance-switch, that also is an attack, and it will be interesting to see if he has a safe way to do it in neutral outside of combos
• Other stance is just Guy, also he gets younger
• I have so many questions!

A stance character that has to work to change stances seems very interesting, but who knows what is actually going on here. Hopefully the official blog post will be up soon so we can get some meatier details.

Holy shit he looks rad in every way. 70s mutton chop Strider grandpa.

His theme is out of this world, probably my favorite so far. He gives off such a good retro vibe.

@redhotchilimist: Yeah his music is sooogoooooood

is that strider?

I've been lurking over at Neogaf(cause it's nice to see a thread move a page in an hour instead of in a week), and the speculation there is that Zeku might be retconned into being the founder of the Striders since the youtube description says he's out to start a new Ninja clan. I dunno if that's the case, and I wouldn't guess it to be explicit in any case, but it's as good a reason as any for why he looks so much like Hiryu in his younger form.

I'm also eating my hat if one of those costumes you can earn in Arcade Edition(Like Rashid's Viewtiful Joe) isn't a straight up Strider Hiryu costume for him.

Hot damn that looks good.

I'm newer to 2d fighting games. I'm really interested in different archetypes of characters. Like how Ryu is Shotokan and there is a version of that in every fighting game. Or how Ibuki is a kind of style (Chipp from GG is this kind right?)

What other character's are "Old Man Style"?

@drbroel: Boatloads really. Pretty much every fighting game series has at least one of them.

Gen, Tung Fu Rue, Shun Di, Nicotine Caffeine, Oro, Heihachi Mishima, Jinpachi Mishima, Chin Gentsai, Lau Chan, Gouken, Dhalsim (SFV version), Raizo, Wang Jinrei, Gen Fu, Lee Pai Long, etc.

Holy shit - between Arcade Edition, Menat and now Zeku, I might actually return to SF5 and play more consistently.

@hassun: Old man isn't really a style the way a playstyle like shotos are though. But I agree that it seems every game needs to have one.

I thought about this today because this old dude was coming out: I'm pretty sure the only reason they gave Dhalsim a great white beard and M. Bison white hair was because nobody in the base roster were old. Similarly, there wouldnt have been a black character in Street Fighter Alpha if they hadn't turned Birdie black, and there wouldn't have been a fat character in Street Fighter V's base roster if they hadn't turned Birdie fat.

I guess Birdie lucked out of a white mohawk.

Edit: They did a Zeku post

What a season, what a season. I wouldn't have expected Abigail to be my fav, but he's so much fun.

Good character to round it out on, I really didn't like Kolin through Abigail but Akuma, Menat and Zeku are cool.

Whens the new netcode?

@l1ghtn1n: It looks like the upward version of Gram puts opponent into a juggle state that can combo into V-Skill so I guess we'll need to see how easily he can confirm into that special, if he can use his standard pressure links or if it's only after bigger hits. In the trailer he only does it after ccHK and HP it seems. Hopefully ddPP doesn't have a super long animation.

Now we're talking

So yeah, this guy is definitely Strider.

His theme reminds me of the great opening from the Tenchi Muyo OVA. I dig it.

I always wondered why 'Strider' Hiryu was really suppose to be his canonical name. Always sounded like a nickname or a title to me by virtue of simply being the actual title of the games. Now that all these characters are revealed I can state my Chief Beef with Abigail's design specifically. It's not racist enough, a sentence I almost never say about a Street Fighter character. Then again I don't know how one would design a Canadian character beyond putting them in a Kids In The Hall sketch. Just put Kenny Omega in the game, he certainly plays enough of it.

Striders are just his organization, right? Hiryu is his own name.

Also:

I think the reason Abigail isn't very Canadian-like apart from his maple leaf-shaped hair is just that they didn't decide on it until fairly late. Or at least, it didn't steer the design the way Menat's Egyptian heritage or Kolin's eastern block/Russian heritage does. I still think he fits really well because he's straight out of those early days of Final Fight/SF2 designs, he's just got a butt ugly face. But he might as well have been another American for all that it matters.

I'd suggest they should add some of those Rival Schools character that hang around on the Kanzuki Beach stage, but frankly we've got more than enough characters from Japan and the US in Street Fighter V already without stealing them from other franchises. I'm never getting a Norwegian representative at this rate. But on the other hand, considering how dead most of Capcom's franchises are, I'd be happy to see anyone forgotten get a second life as an SF character in some way.