NOTE: This blog entry was originally published on 1UP on April 18, 2012.
In the previous blog I had highlighted how Chun Li was the template from which Capcom drew its great female character designs. I wanted to make a special mention of how the context of the character design was important as well. The studio could have and did try to introduce two new female characters in Street Fighter IV. The audience reaction was lukewarm to one and somewhat better for the other. Crimson Viper, the spy in a tight fitting pantsuit was actually a character design based on marketing data. Capcom learned that western audiences were drawn to women that looked like Angelina Jolie. They decided to make a Jolie-like character and put her in the game. Unfortunately most players skipped out on playing her during the first public showings of the game. This was a surprise to everyone working internally. The studio had made the mistake of trying to predict their audience based on trends from outside of the community. Jolie was a popular actress and she might have made for a fun character in a game like Tomb Raider, where running and gunning were the objective, however she had absolutely zero credibility as a martial artist. She was no Angela Mao or or Michelle Yeoh, those were actresses that had made a living by playing fighters on the big screen.
Capcom could not convince audiences that a fighting game character in tight-fitting street clothes with the same features of a size zero Hollywood actress belonged in the Street Fighter universe. The other character, Juri Han, went much further with audiences.
Capcom learned that SF fans were interested more in fighting designs than pop culture caricatures. You would think that they had learned that with the Bruce Lee clone called Fei Long… but I digress. Players were used to seeing multiple layers of detail that supported the character as a fighter. With Juri the details were more apparent. The costumes for the SF cast were story elements that explained who the character was in fighting style and personality to gamers. Juri was like Chun-Li, a variation of a traditional design. However it took Capcom senior designer Daigo Ikeno multiple revisions to find a character that worked.
Like Chun-Li before her the character started off in a more traditional costume. The new character was to be of Korean descent and Capcom wanted audiences to identify her easily as such. She was placed her in a Hanbok or traditional Korean clothing. The oversized dress was an interesting design choice however might have proved nonfunctional in a fight. Juri was to have a majority of kicking attacks to balance out her rival, Chun-Li. Her kicks would have been impossible to make out in the dress. Ikeno went back to the drawing board and kept on revising the character.
There were many revisions made Juri. Some of the design choices were bold while others were nonsensical. In this way Mr. Ikeno was able to demonstrate that during the development process every idea was considered, not solely the traditional choices but the outlandish ones as well. The countless revisions would not end up influencing the final design as much as Chun-Li did.
Visually Juri was almost point-for-point a repeat of the elements featured with Chun-Li. Savvy viewers might notice that some of the clothing options were reversed for the character. Chun-Li had bare arms and legs and Juri had covered arms and legs. Chun-Li wore a wide belt and Juri had a bare midriff.
Both characters had unique elements on their heads. Chun-Li had her hair in buns with long flowing ribbons while Juri sported two outlandish pigtails. Both characters featured a contrasting color on their uniforms, a filigree pattern that outlined their breasts.
Both characters also sported spiked bracelets. Juri's were a little harder to make out and seemed more decorative than functional in a fight.
Both characters relied on kicking moves that were supposedly inspired by their home countries. Chun-Li used a fictional form of kung-fu while Juri relied on fantastic Tae-Kwon Do attacks. Both characters also sported uniforms that were pseudo-authentic. Chun-Li's was a little more believable but it was still completely fabricated. These things were not noticeable until her uniform was compared to actual Chinese martial arts clothing. The cut of Juri's costume was extremely odd. Her top and sleeves were not based on any known martial art or fashion. Her leggings were a take-off of the traditional dobok or tae kwon do uniform. The dobok sported loose fitting pants so practitioners could perform a wide range of kicks. Juri's pants actually hung from her belt and were open on the hips and inner thigh, they were more like chaps that people wore while riding horses. Even her belt was unlike the traditional "dhee" worn on a dobok. Tae Kwon Do belts were styled similar to karate belts and were also colored to show what level of proficiency the fighter had. Instead of a short black belt Juri had an extremely long belt with purple striping which hung low across her waist.
Juri made a bigger impression on players of Street Fighter IV than almost any other character introduced in the series. A big reason for that was because she borrowed tremendously from the design of Chun-Li. Gamers that didn't pay attention to Juri's design influences but enjoyed the character nonetheless were possibly drawn to her at a subconscious level. Daigo Ikeno did a good job at introducing a new female into the SF universe that covered many of the elements that made the other characters memorable. Juri certainly stood apart from the more "traditional" designs explored in the SNK games. SNK had created an entire library of Korean characters starting with Kim Kaphwan, a TKD practitioner from Fatal Fury 2, released in 1992 a year after SF II had come out. The Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series had a unique cross sampling of Korean characters and styles. Capcom was barely exploring this part of Asia some 16 years after SNK.
SNK had at least two female Korean leads in the KOF series. The first was Mae Lee, a character dressed in modern street clothing sporting a strange belt and large scarf. Her design was rooted more in henshin, the Japanese superhero shows than on a classic fighting art. The other was Chae Lim. She was the first female wearing a traditional dobok featured in a videogame. She predated Juri by six years. The bold cut of Juri's uniform and use of contrasting colors black, white and purple made her stand out from the crowd however. Juri was designed to be a non-conformist or a non-traditionalist. It could explain why the character took extreme liberties with the uniform of TKD practitioners. Everything from the hair and colors associated with her were bold. She had shock value going in her favor, more so than even Crimson Viper and her electrified gloves. However was shock value enough to make her fit within the Street Fighter universe?
I would argue that Juri was lacking the elements to make her as timeless as Chun-Li. The character was instantly liked because she borrowed a large number of elements from Chun-Li. However this new character lacked inspiration and originality. Chun-Li went through several revisions before a character emerged that audiences could identify with. The influences from martial arts cinema and Chinese culture were tangible with Chun-Li. With Juri audiences could not readily see or identify any inspirations behind the character other than those of Chun-Li. Juri was a copy of a caricature. She suffered from the same inconsistencies of the other characters placed into SFIV, namely that the designers were not looking to the outside world for inspiration but looking at their own series to fill a slot on the roster.
Juri was a bit too formulaic. Capcom saw the reaction that western audiences had with the new characters and went back to the drawing board for Super SFIV. They went back to basics and tried applying a traditional fighting style on a national representative. Juri represented Korea and TKD and Hakan represented Turkey and their native wrestling. The the decision to reverse the clothing elements featured on Chun-Li helped make sure that Juri was better received than the oily red-colored man. Juri was a better design than C. Viper and certainly leagues ahead of Rufus, however even those two seemed pulled from characters featured in an older DIMPS fighting game.
Perhaps Mr. Ikeno played the design a little too safe. By following the template of Chun-Li so closely he created a character that lacked personality. All of the moves attached to the character were over-the-top, not to mention that she acted out sadistically in her animations. She was like an animé character placed into a fighting game. If the character was indeed a non-traditionalist then Capcom should have ignored trying to give her dobok leggings. The character in only her tights looked more like a cross-between Cammy and Chun-Li and possibly would have been more believable as the super fighter capable of taking on both icons at once. But that's just me speaking as an armchair designer.
I don't believe that Juri was as well designed as she could have been. Capcom wanted to push the envelope but they were not sure how. They had tried to make a dramatic change and failed with C. Viper. They returned to basics and succeeded somewhat with Juri. The differences between the two characters was obvious. One had more fighting elements while the other looked like she was wearing street clothes. Yet the nuances for a memorable female fighting lead were harder to pin down. Cammy was not a reversal of the costume elements of Chun-Li, she was her own person that complimented the designs of the earlier character. Cammy did not move or fight like Chun-Li but had her own special attacks. In Street Fighter EX Blair Dame was also nothing like Chun-Li yet she represented a strong female archetype with her own original style. Juri's pseudo-traditional costume and kick-based attacks were a little too similar to Chun-Li's to be considered completely original. That was my interpretation of the character, what do you think?
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