is a

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

series written and illustrated by

Masahiko Nakahira is a manga artist from Kōchi City, Japan. He is best known for his numerous manga adaptations of the popular fighting game series ''Street Fighter''. Two of Nakahira's original concepts for his ''Street Fighter'' manga, the character of Evil ...

. The story follows

Sakura Kasugano is a fictional character in the Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' series. The fourth female fighter of the series, she made her first appearance in ''Street Fighter Alpha 2'' in 1996. She is a young Japanese girl fighter who idolizes Ryu, by whom sh ...

in her quest to become a street fighter and meet Ryu.

Characters

; :The main character of this story. Introduced in Nakahira's ''Street Fighter Alpha'' Vol. 2, Sakura becomes obsessed with the world of

street fighting Street fighting is hand-to-hand combat in public places, between individuals or groups of people. The venue is usually a public place (e.g. a street) and the fight sometimes results in serious injury or occasionally even death. Some street fig ...

as well as becoming Ryu's self-proclaimed "No. 1 fan". While young and inexperienced at fighting, Sakura displays great physical ability as well as a strong aptitude for learning fighting techniques, recreating Ryu's '' hadōken'', '' shōryūken'', and '' tatsumaki-senpūkyaku'' after only seeing them a few times (albeit Sakura's versions are highly modified and arguably weaker). ; :Sakura's grouchy and irritable younger brother. Tsukushi is obsessed with playing video games and is seen playing ''

Final Fight ''Final Fight'' is a series of beat 'em up video games by Capcom, which began with the arcade release of '' Final Fight'' in 1989. Set in the fictional Metro City, the games focus on a group of heroic vigilantes who fights against the control ...

'' and ''

Street Fighter II is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991. It is the second installment in the '' Street Fighter'' series and the sequel to 1987's '' Street Fighter''. It is Capcom's fourteenth game to use the CP Sys ...

'' (against none other than Blanka himself) in the story. Sakura makes her street fighting debut against a very large student who stole Tsukushi's friend's copy of ''Final Fight''. He can also be seen in the background of Sakura's stage in ''

Street Fighter Alpha 2 ''Street Fighter Alpha 2'', known as in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 1996 fighting game originally released for the CPS II arcade hardware by Capcom. The game is a remake to the previous year's '' Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior ...

'' playing video games inside the house. ; :Sakura's best friend. While she is your average schoolgirl (into boys and clothes while utterly opposed to Sakura's hobby of street fighting), she (reluctantly) accompanies Sakura on her quest to become the greatest street fighter. ; :Sakura's self-proclaimed teacher. While still a comical blowhard, Dan is actually depicted to be a capable fighter in this manga, although he can still be easily defeated by more intimidating fighters such as Balrog or Zangief. After Sakura's meeting with Sagat, he stays behind as she moves on, challenging Sagat and declaring that he's there to avenge his father. The fight is never seen, and the outcome remains unknown. ; :Karin is the heir to the super-rich Kanzuki family (whose compound stretches across 200 miles), yet attends the local high school to "observe the lifestyles of the less fortunate". Following her family's code, "In all things, be victorious", Karin challenges Sakura to a match and loses, thus leading Karin to instigate a fighting tournament across the prefecture of

Setagaya is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood and administrative district within the ward. The ward calls itself Setagaya City in English. Its official bird is the azure-winged magpie, its flower is the fringed orc ...

. ''Sakura Ganbaru!'' is actually Karin's first appearance in any ''Street Fighter'' media, later becoming a playable character in ''

Street Fighter Alpha 3 ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'', released as in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 2D fighting game originally released by Capcom for the arcade in 1998 in video gaming, 1998. It is the third and final installment in the ''Street Fighter# ...

''. ; :An employee of the Kanzuki family, and Karin's personal steward. He drives her to and from school, arranges her meals (she won't eat school cafeteria food), does background research on anyone she takes interest in (even straying into the TMI territory), and other odd jobs. While concerned for her welfare, especially in regards to her interest in street fighting, he is nonetheless in awe of her abilities as a martial artist and as the heir of the Kanzuki zaibatsu. ; :Secretly entering the tournament under the alias of a young girl by the name of "Aoki" (each tournament participant carries a badge which sends tracking information to the Kanzuki ''

zaibatsu is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertically integrated business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period unt ...

'', Ken supplied false data). Ken Masters makes short work of his opponents, defeating many including Dan and Karin. His final opponent is Sakura, who, much to everyone's surprise (especially Ken's), gives him a very tough fight. However he defeats her and wins the tournament. ; :Sakura's idol. After rescuing Sakura from

Bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North ...

in Volume 2 of the ''Street Fighter Alpha'' manga, Sakura is determined to meet Ryu to have a match with him. Towards the end of the Volume 2, Sakura finally finds him and challenges him to a fight, the end of which is never seen, though its implied that either Ryu won or it was a draw, though the former is most likely. At the very end, he and Ken appear before an older Sakura, now a gym teacher (which Ken comments as being "so like her"), and the two begin to spar.

Volumes

''Sakura Ganbaru!'' has been released in

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or m ...

and kanzenban formats. ;Tankōbon # (Released in February 1997) # (Released in August 1997) The kanzenban () was published by

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

in January 2004. It was followed by a larger-format re-edition in April 2007 (). ''Sakura Ganbaru!'' was also released in English by

Udon Entertainment Udon Entertainment Corp. is a Canadian art studio and publisher. The company publishes original and translated comic books, graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often ...

in a translation of the tankōbon edition, released in September 2007. These editions had slightly edited covers, altering Sakura's skirt so that her

bloomers Bloomers, also called the bloomer, the Turkish dress, the American dress, or simply reform dress, are divided women's garments for the lower body. They were developed in the 19th century as a healthful and comfortable alternative to the heavy, ...

were no longer visible, as they were on the Japanese editions.

External links

* {{Street Fighter series Sakura Ganbaru! 1996 manga