Interest
Manga Chronicles Rise of Legendary Pro-Gamer Daigo Umehara
posted on by Carlos Cadorniga
This downright-fierce gamer's life is hitting the shelves.
The second volume of Umehara: Fighting Gamers! is set to be released on Friday. Drawn by Kengorō Nishide and published by Kadokawa, this manga depicts the early teenage years of Daigo Umehara, a Japanese gamer and a marvel in the fighting game community. A promotional video was posted on Wednesday.
In the video, Umehara states that he's "wanted to read about the childhood friends that loved fighting games along with him."
The first volume of the manga was released on December 26.
Known as the "God of 2D fighting games" in Japan with his reputation known internationally, Umehara's specialty is the Street Fighter franchise, having recently won Stunfest 2015 in France playing Ultra Street Fighter IV as Evil Ryu.
Perhaps his most historic moment came from the U.S. competition EVO in 2004 when playing Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike as Ken against fellow fighting game pro Justin Wong playing as Chun-Li. Here, Daigo made an unprecedented comeback against Wong by parrying each hit of Chun-Li's special move and following up with a K.O., all while being one hit away from losing the match.
Umehara has been depicted in manga before as the star of a mahjong manga.
