30 years of Street Fighter: 30 years of Characters #12

Akira Kazama is probably not a name that you know off the top of your head. She's also a character that you've probably never played as. Hundreds of characters exist in the Street Fighter universe, of those a few dozens are main characters and the rest are supporting players. Akira is a very interesting because of her role in the Rival Schools series. The game was a high school mystery featuring fighting game archetypes. They were in essence like the next generation of Street Fighter characters. In the game a Gedo High School senior and gang leader named Daigo Kazama began ordering his crew to begin attacking other schools. It was out of character for him as he mostly kept the peace at his own school. Daigo represented the classic bancho, or tough-guy gang leader that was popularized in film and manga. Most people in society wouldn't have cared that he was acting strangely, after all, wasn't fighting the only thing delinquents did? 

His friends, fellow gang members and especially his family knew something was wrong. Daigo had gone missing for a short while before he returned and began orchestrating attacks on rival schools. His sister Akira was trying to find out what had happened to him and if there were other forces at play. When the game debuted audiences didn't know that Akira and Daigo were related. In fact audiences did not know that Akira was a girl until the end of the game. Capcom created a prototypical fighting badass and did a great job at hiding her gender. Akira was a neutral name and her costume of heavy motorcycle padding was androgynous. The skull motif, chains and spiked padding made her very menacing. It wasn't hard for most to assume that this gang member was just another guy.

Akira was a shining example of the Street Fighter school of design. When we looked at the lineup in a Street Fighter universe game we could right away tell that they were meant for fighting. The costumes, the colors, the details all said they were people you didn't want to mess with. None did it better than Akira. At the same time characters in the Street Fighter universe came from every walk of life. I had previously mentioned that pro wrestlers, circus acrobats, boxers, mercenaries and even demons worked within Street Fighter continuity. Akira was a schoolgirl with a heart of gold, but anime schoolgirls were a tired trope. She had to undergo a transformation so that audiences would believe that she was serious business. Anime schoolgirls were becoming a tired trope, that was why Akira looked like somebody else entirely. This motorcycle riding badass was a great brawler and could swing a mean chain. After 30 years there wasn't anyone in the series that had such a great reveal until the end of the game. That was one of the reasons why we should celebrate Akira and characters like her every time they appear. Did you enjoy the Rival Schools series? If so I'd like to hear about it in the comments. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!