text: He added that his attire was a bit garish, due to real-life wrestlers only wearing such during ceremonial occasions, but added that his "out-of-place, yet real aspects are emblematic of how Street Fighter treats semiotic markers of race and culture.[...]  E. Honda is 'Japanese' in visage, but simply pop culture in construction—he recalls Japan thought his image and supposed profession but is a product of a hybrid, international popular culture aesthetic." Comic Book Resources briefly cited him as an example of body positivity within the franchise, in light of another series character, Rufus. Paste further elaborated on this point, stating "The joy of Edmund Honda can often be highly personal; he's the one overweight character in the series who doesn't feel like a joke," and added "His moderate size and the way his muscle accentuates his weight instead of undermining it (see Rufus for an example of what we mean) give him an air of respectability." They added he "gives the overweight people among us someone to latch onto amidst all the other examples of overweight characters telling us we should be ashamed of ourselves. 