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The many faces of Bruce in Popular Culture

*If somebody comes up to me and talks to me about Bruce Lee’s death, I would say to them, Bruce Lee is dead?... Because to me, Bruce Lee will never die, his spirit lives on. Bruce Lee's legacy will live on forever as seen through pop culture. How often do you hear people mentioning the name, Bruce Lee whenever their talking about martial arts? Quite often I bet. Today, Bruce's face is still everywhere. His movies, documentaries, and biographies are still airing on television; his books containing his writings, teachings and philosophy are still sold in bookstores. His one of a kind character is appearing more and more in today’s media. Numerous of fictional characters are based solely on Bruce Lee. This includes distinctive characters from the works of anime (Japanese animations), manga (graphic novels), videogames, and movies. He has his own line of clothing, his own action figures, nunchakus, posters…etc. He even has restaurants named after him. As a tribute to the master, memorial statues of Bruce are located around the world

Bruce Lee and popular culture_

*Anime and manga---------------------------------------------------------

Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter on the anime TV series Cowboy Bebop, is highly skilled in Jeet Kune Do. He uses the quote "be like water" in the Cowboy Bebop episode Waltz for Venus when teaching Jeet Kune Do to the student, Roco. Spike Spiegel also fights in a fashion similar to the way Lee fights in his movies. Spike uses the nunchaku as Lee does and shares similar fighting stances. Cowboy Bebop incorporates many elements of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do philosophy as the theme. Spike's innate fighting abilities and martial arts style were borrowed from Bruce Lee, whose influence is seen many times in the series. The name of the bounty in the second episode is Abdul Hakim, borrowed from the Bruce Lee film Game of Death that co-starred Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who played a character called "Hakim". On two other separate occasions, Spike also makes mention of both Enter the Dragon and Way of the Dragon, two more Bruce Lee films and Spike is seen using nunchaku in the episode Stray Dog Strut. The creator of Cowboy Bebop stated that Cowboy Bebop was a tribute to Bruce Lee.

Rock Lee from Naruto, resembles and is a tribute to Bruce Lee (as does his teacher Gai). In the anime and manga, the character is a martial arts master with a similar fighting style as Bruce Lee. Rock Lee is a very spirited taijutsu specialist who is the paragon of hard work and his hobby is hard work. Rock Lee also shares Bruce Lee's birthday of November 27. However, he seems to emulate Jackie Chan as well because he fights more effectively when he's drunk (i.e. Drunken Master)

The Pokémon Hitmonlee was named after Bruce Lee and uses primarily kicks. Similarly the Pokémon Hitmonchan was named after Jackie Chan and uses primarily punches.

Kenshiro from the manga and anime Fist of the North Star has the same famous "cat screech" noise and "atatatah" battle cry as Lee whenever Kenshiro is punching his enemies. The creator Tetsuo Hara admits that he is a big fan of Lee's movies and his character Kenshiro is a tribute to Lee.

Lee Bailong (Lee Pai-Long) in the anime and manga Shaman King, especially the manga resembles Bruce Lee, not only in appearance, but had a similar role in life as an influential martial artist and movie star. The character was killed so that his body could be made into a Jiang Shi in service to the Tao family.

In the anime Tenjho Tenge, there is a minor character named Dan Inosanto (borrowing the name from one of Bruce Lee's students and friends). He not only resembled Bruce Lee, but his attire is a "reverse color" of Lee's "Game Of Death" jumpsuit (black with yellow stripes), and he is seen using nunchaku as well as Bruce's trademark battle cries.

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*Video games ---------------------------------------------------------

Lee is one of the very few actors to have commercially released computer and console videogames named after themselves, not after a character they played. These include:

Bruce Lee, by Datasoft, for Commodore 64, PC Booter, and Apple II. (1984)
Bruce Lee, by Ocean Software, for ZX Spectrum. (1984)
Bruce Lee Lives: The Fall of Hong Kong Palace, by The Software Toolworks, for DOS. (1989)
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, by Acclaim Entertainment, for SNES and Game Gear (1993)
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, by Atari Corporation, for Jaguar. (1994)
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, by Acclaim, for Sega Master System. (1995)
Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon, by Universal Interactive Studios, for Xbox. (2002)
Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend, by Vivendi Universal Games, for Game Boy Advance (2003). Lee plays a revenge-seeking character called Hai Feng.

In addition, many fighting games have characters based on Bruce Lee, enough that it has become an archetype within the fighting game genre. Notable examples include:

Fei Long in the Street Fighter series, strongly resembles Bruce Lee as do his movements and fighting style. This Bruce Lee tribute has been featured in several movies and games.

Marshall Law and his son Forest in the Tekken series. In the early Tekken games, one of Marshall's outfits was a yellow tracksuit from the Game of Death. In addition, the sounds Marshall Law makes when he attacks are like the whoops and shouts Lee is famous for. The player can equip him in Tekken 5 with the nunchaku seen in Game of Death. He can also be equipped with the black mask and chauffeur hat to make him resemble the character Kato, which Bruce Lee acted as in his early career.

Maxi from the Soul Calibur series of fighting games is based on Bruce Lee. Maxi uses Bruce Lee's style of nunchakus and is seen to have a similar fighting stance to Bruce Lee. Maxi also yells and screams like Lee. Many of his moves are fast and showy.

Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat series. In the game Mortal Kombat: Deception he fights with the style Jun Fan. Also he uses nunchakus as his weapon. Even his screams resemble Lee's. Some referred to his yells as " turkey calls."

Jann Lee in the Dead or Alive series shares many similarities with and is closely modeled after martial artist Bruce Lee. The character have the same body type as his real-life counterpart; that is, "steely" abdominal muscles. In fact, their personas and attires are almost identical. Also, Jann Lee often yells and whoops in a Bruce Lee-like high pitched voice. The most obvious connection is their actual fighting style. "Light feet" play heavily, with neither staying motionless for more than a second a time. Jann Lee is one of the fastest striking characters in the Dead or Alive video game, with quick, intricate, string combos as well as sudden, hard hitting, jab moves. In Dead or Alive 4, Jann Lee has the yellow track suit with the a dragon on the back as well as the Kanji for it in refernce to Bruce's nick name little dragon.

Jacky Bryant in Virtua Fighter has Jeet Kune Do, listed as his fighting style. Many of the moves resemble Lee's. One move includes a grapple, known as the one inch punch.

K' (K Dash) and Kula Diamond from King of Fighters 2000/2001, the characters use Bruce Lee's fighting stance and even have a move that imitates Bruce Lee's One Inch Punch, the move is named One Inch.

In Double Dragon, Billy and Jimmy Lee are a tribute to Bruce Lee (the surname Lee is a big give away). In the remake Double Dragon Advance, there are Bruce Lee posters during the China Town level and in the cutscenes Billy and Jimmy looks similar to Lee when angry.

Super Punch-Out!! and Super Punch-Out!! (SNES version). Appearing in the Major Circuit as the second opponent, Dragon Chan is a fighter with Bruce Lee's physique and often yelps like him.

Mallow, from the SNES Squaresoft game "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars" says the line "...who do you think you are? Bruce Lee" while stopping Mario from rushing to attack Bowyer.

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