30 years of Street Fighter: 30 years of Characters #14

Makoto is a gem in the history of Street Fighter. Originally appearing in Street Fighter III: Third Stike she deserves to be celebrated this anniversary. In the '90s within a few years of each other Capcom created Sakura and Makoto. On paper both seemed identical. They were young Japanese girls, from a small family, tomboyish in appearance, yet also karate savants. The two actually had origins and abilities that were very unique. As I mentioned previously Sakura was a jab at SNK for the character Yuri Sakazaki. Thankfully Sakura wasn't so much as a clone but an evolution of the concept for the Street Fighter series. She mirrored Ryu but with weaker versions of his attacks. Makoto was something else entirely.  

Makoto looked like a karate fighter, but remember up until 1999 all of the karate characters moved and fought a certain way. The sprites, animations and input commands for Ken, Ryu, Sean, Sakura, Dan and Gouki were almost identical. There were a few differences in the damage they did but the characters were more or less the same. Audiences may have assumed that all karate fighters were like that in the Street Fighter universe, but that wasn't the case. Makoto was completely new, she used none of the sprite data from the other karate masters. In fact every move of hers, down to the way she walked, was built from scratch. Her animation was brilliant in 2D and among the best ever rendered in any series. From a technical standpoint Makoto required new strategies, new setups and new understanding of the fighting arts. The team at Capcom reinvented the way players thought about karate. 

The studio gave Makoto a unique origin. She was the daughter of Masaru, the founder of the Rindoukan school of karate. In typical video game fashion this was a made up method. In the Art of Fighting the fictional form was Kyokugenryu, the Utmost Limit style of karate. Dan Hibiki practiced a parody version called Saikyo Style aka the Strongest Style. Makoto was the young master of Rindoukan or the Severe school of karate. When her father passed away she became the new headmaster. In order to keep her dojo alive she needed new students and sought them out in the Street Fighter tournament. Makoto had all the underpinnings of an anime archetype. She was small and very boyish, in fact she was often mistaken for a boy. At the same time she had strikes that were among the most powerful in the series. Her power was a legitimate threat to the toughest fighters. These things would have gone over great in an animated series. She shook up the Street Fighter universe in a good way. I'm grateful that Capcom took a chance with the design and made her work in canon. I look forward to seeing this character evolve when Street Fighter celebrates another milestone. 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!