Zangan, a traveling master martial artist and calisthenics instructor, journeys worldwide to train students without accepting payment. His muscular physique defies his age, complemented by grey hair tied in a ponytail. He typically wears an armored vest, gloves, beige pants, and a distinctive red cape marked with flame-like insignias. His appearance merges youthful vitality with elderly wisdom, featuring arms thicker than the hardiest village men.

Zangan's personality blends lightheartedness with disciplined wisdom. He shows empathy and perceptiveness, recognizing Tifa Lockhart’s martial potential during their first meeting at Gunnthra River in Nibelheim after she tries to help him from the water. His strict training methodology centers on self-conquest, believing inner clarity enables sound judgment of others. His philosophy frames controlled anger as strength, not weakness, and uses positive imagination to master techniques—employing vivid imagery like "tremble like newly hatched chocobo chicks" during instruction. His open criticism of Shinra Electric Power Company occasionally leads villagers to mistake him for a corporate spy.

Zangan’s training system distributes five booklets. The first four cover foundational movements and muscle development: Book Two strengthens deltoids and back muscles, while Book Three targets the chest and abdomen. Book Five advances to combat techniques and strikes. He demonstrates extraordinary physical capabilities, performing leaps impossible for ordinary humans.

After observing Tifa’s physical aptitude and kindness, Zangan accepts her as his disciple, providing the booklets sequentially. Upon her reaching Book Five, he arranges sparring sessions with her father Brian and gifts her a leather left arm bracelet, describing its utility as limited only by her imagination. Three days before Tifa’s fifteenth birthday in 0002, he tests her with uncharacteristically harsh taunts during sparring, dodging every attack by tracking her eye movements until she collapses from exhaustion.

During the Nibelheim Incident on October 1, 0002, Zangan aids injured villagers, informs Tifa of her father’s location and Sephiroth’s movement toward the mako reactor, but fails to stop her pursuit. He later encounters Zack Fair, urging him to rescue Tifa while promising assistance. After Sephiroth’s attack, Zangan carries the critically injured Tifa to safety but cannot return for Cloud Strife and Zack before Shinra arrives. He attempts to heal Tifa with the Cure spell unsuccessfully, then transports her for medical care. Distrusting Shinra and considering Tifa’s reaction, he declines their treatment offer and takes her to Dr. Dhamini Oranye in Midgar’s Sector 8 slums, recalling his student Rakesh Oranye.

Five years later, Zangan sends Tifa a letter hidden in her Nibelheim piano. It expresses his inability to jump due to implied injuries, voices suspicions about the reconstructed town’s authenticity, instructs her to continue training, and includes the manual for her ultimate Limit Break technique, Final Heaven. He references rescuing her at Mt. Nibel in this correspondence.

Zangan appears in Last Order’s Nibelheim Incident sequence, aiding wounded villagers and informing Zack of Tifa’s reactor location. Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- features him only as a Training Mode boss opponent. Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- vaguely references him in a Tifa-to-Zack email without a physical appearance. Concept art created for Final Fantasy VII Remake went unused.

Zangan’s ultimate fate after departing Midgar is undisclosed across all media.