Juri in Street Fighter 6, how her design got better with time

Today we talk about the best character introduced to the Street Fighter universe in the past 10+ years. Juri Han first appeared in Super Street Fighter IV in 2010. Can you believe the game came out that long ago? When she debuted the fan response was almost immediate. Abel, C. Viper, Rufus, Hakan, and El Fuerte took a back seat to the new femme fatale. A lot of people online think my ideas on character design posts are garbage because they think I hate Juri. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I was hyper critical of her design, and said that Capcom could have done better. From a story perspective she seemed overpowered. She was hyper sadistic in the game animations, and written to be god-like compared to Cammy, and Chun-Li. I thought that was a bit much, and disrespectful to established fighters. The biggest gripe I had was because Juri’s final design was closely based on Chun-Li. I was sure that the studio could have introduced a Tae Kwon-Do villain, without poaching Chun-Li’s design almost point for point. As time went on it was rumored that the studio had created some 400+ designs, and costumes for the character before settling on the one that appeared in the game. Several of her earlier concept designs, especially the tight skin suits, eventually became alternate costume DLC for the character.

I think that the most recent version of Juri is much better than her debut. Her look, and costume look similar to her first appearance, but the changes made to them were subtle, but numerous. Let’s start with her dobok, the uniform worn by tae kwon-do practitioners. The colors are almost reversed from the original. Her leggings were white, and her pants were black, with fuchsia, and aqua accents. Not only that but they were shorter so we could see the contrasting colors on her feet, and ankles. The zipper on the inside leg makes the cut look very fashionable. White pants work okay for Ryu, but by going with much darker primary colors it really helps Juri stand out in the lineup.  Also a bit of trivia for you. Some of the costume colors assigned to the cast were based on the flags of their respective nations. Juri represented South Korea, their flag is colored red, blue, white, and black. So if you mix the colors blue, and red you end up with purple, the primary color of Juri. It would have been in poor taste for a Japanese studio to outright paint a villain with the flag of South Korea. The two nations have a lot of bad blood, especially for the numerous war crimes the Japanese perpetuated in Asia.  

The skull on Juri's belt was replaced with a yin yang symbol. This detail could be related to her chi abilities, or Tanden engine-accelerated powers. Her top reflects her evil origins. When Daigo Ikeno was working on the character the team nicknamed her the Spider. She was like a poisonous black widow that killed her mates. The spider logo appeared on the back of her top in her debut. This time it was put front, and center, like a sexy Spider-Man outfit. Although one of the spider legs covers her nipple Street Fighter designer Yusuke Hashimoto knew better than just leave most of her boobs dangling there. He covered her breasts with a split-open hanbok. He took the shape, and color of what would have been a traditional dress, and turned it basically into a lingerie top. Also her spiked bracelet was finally given some contrasting colors. The aqua on her pants was reflected on her fingernails, toenails, belt buckle, and more importantly, the spikes themselves. By adding the spiked bracelet to her ankles it was the type of nod to Chun-Li without just poaching the look. I think this addition may be the most inspired update to her costume.

The next major change to Juri would be the cut of her hair. Her conical braids made a quick impression with fans, and became her trademark style. The studio observed the unique hair styles of other SF females. Chun-Li had buns, Cammy had braids, C. Viper had a pompadour with ponytail, Rose had purple hair, etc. Juri still had the cones, but now they were curved upwards in a more obvious devil horn fashion. Her bangs also changed shape, they were diagonal now, and extended over part of her face. Not only that but she had a fuchsia streak that lined up over her left eye. Juri had an artificial left eye fitted with the powerful Tanden, or Feng Shuei engine. When she is at full power the eye glows, in one of her alternate costumes she wore a patch over it. This new haircut keeps her face slightly obscured, and mysterious like C. Jack, but it also helps mask the eye. It was a very smart update to her look. Sadly I don’t think that Mr. Hashimoto realized that the colored hair streak was considered an Asian stereotype in the US. Glamour magazine said it best “It's Time to Retire the 'Hairstreak Asian' Trope”. I think the hair streak makes sense in context, but I understand why people are over designing Asian leads with similar hairstyles.

All in all I think that Juri’s redesign for Street Fighter 6 is her strongest look yet. I’m still more partial to her skin suit, but if you were to design an evil Chun-Li then you couldn’t do anything better. I don’t think I would have been as critical of the character if she looked more like this when she debuted in SFIV. Capcom may have created some 400+ looks for her in the early days, and they were very close to perfection. It took and additional 12 years, and a handful of changes to get her just right. What do you think about the updated look for Juri? Are you eager to try the returning characters, or the new characters? I’d like to hear your thoughts in the comments section. If you 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!