The Chun-Li template, don't follow it too closely! A 1UP classic...

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?

The Middle Eastern fighter, building a legacy, final part.

"Rashid of the Turbulent Wind, remember the name well." That was the promise made in the official character reveal. Was Rashid the great savior of Street Fighter V or was he another half-cooked idea rushed into the game? I mean on the surface level was he that far removed from those Arab characters that came before him? Visually he had a few things in common with characters like Siba and Shaeen, respectively from Virtua Fighter and Tekken. He had the same facial hair, sported the same baggy pants, sash belt, sandals and keffiyeh. He was not off to a great start.



Yet at the same time there was something different about the character. He was not fat and bloated like Avu, Maherl or Karnov. He did not have curly-toed boots or shiny pants. He did not fight with a scimitar. His costume was more unique than the earlier 2D Arab characters. To make him more in tune with his Street Fighter co-stars he was assigned a primary color for his costume. All Street Fighter characters could be identified with a few primary colors. Ken wore red, Chun-Li wore blue, Guile wore green, etc. White was the color that had been associated with Ryu, the main character in the series, since it debuted 30 years ago. Was it risky to assign the new guy the same color or was this a practical decision? Traditional clothing in the Middle East was often white because it reflected the sun and kept people cool. Rashid's costume, like that of Ryu's was supposed to look traditional. And just like Ryu's there was something special about the costume that made it non-traditional at the same time. In the case of Ryu his gi had torn sleeves and ragged pants. A traditional karate practitioner would never allow his uniform to become as worn and faded as Ryu's. They would have instead purchased a new uniform. Ryu lived like a hermit and didn't have much in the sense of material possessions, especially not a second gi. Rashid's costume had a traditional cut at first glance but upon further inspection there were some differences. He didn't wear a thawb, the traditional long robe with long sleeves. He wore pants and his shirt had open armholes. Bare arms were not usually seen in Arab fashion, even mid-length sleeves were seen more often than short sleeves, or no sleeves. This was a practical choice, it provided the fighter a range of motion, it also showed off his muscles which just happened to be interlaced with dark rubber straps. The costume as it turned out was wired with all sorts of hidden technology.

 

This was one of the unique elements of the character. Rashid was using technology to enhance his fighting skills. Specifically his costume was packed with devices that allowed him to project powerful gusts of wind. He wore a power source or generator for these devices like a backpack. His ranged attacks appeared like small tornadoes that he could direct to throw his opponents off balance and more powerful blasts that could knock them down. The suit even allowed him to use super attacks that created enormous vortexes that would suck an opponent high into the air and send them flying. The costume also allowed him to be blasted across the screen for powerful diving kicks or to slip under an opponents attack. These things worked within the context of Street Fighter. Not every character had the martial arts training that allowed them to tap into their "chi" and summon the fireball-like energy blasts. For example the Dictator relied on steroids and science to give him "Psycho" powers to dominate the greatest martial artists. Magic attacks, psychic attacks and metaphysical attacks were all possible in the Street Fighter universe. Rashid was using technology to balance out his opponents special abilities.



Was this reliance on technology something that made the character less interesting? Not really. His special attacks only counted for a small portion of the moves he could perform. Without the technology Rashid was still a good fighter. His punches, kicks and throws were somewhat acrobatic but looked like they carried some force, they looked believable. But you certainly needed to be more than a good fighter if you wanted to hang with the best. Technology could be seen as a cheap device to level the playing field in canon as well as by audiences. Yet technology had also been a part of Street Fighter continuity for a long time. Two characters actually had special attacks that consisted of the weapons they hid in their uniforms. Audiences may remember Crimson Viper from Street Fighter IV, the hit from 2008. The secret agent hid rockets in her boots and struck with electrified punching gloves. Her design and weapons were based on a character called Beatrice that DIMPS, the developers behind Street Fighter IV, had featured in The Rumble Fish 2, a game from 2005. Yet before Beatrice and C. Viper there was another character that used a high tech uniform. Her name was Area and she appeared in Street Fighter EX 3, a game from 2000. The girl was the daughter of a genius inventor and entered the Street Fighter EX tournament in order to test out his devices. She had rocket powered inline skates so she could run over opponents. Her main weapon was a bionic arm attachment which allowed her to trade blows with even the biggest heavy-hitters like Zangief and Darun Mister.

 

When Rashid debuted the thing that caught the attention of most Street Fighter fans was his eyepiece. Rashid was using a green, sunglasses-like, display over one eye. Perhaps it was used to find weakness in opponents or to control his gadgets. Most fans of anime saw this as a shout-out to the scanners worn by the aliens in Dragon Ball Z. The devices could tell bad guys how powerful their opponents were and even point out their weaknesses. Every character had a battle ranking, a power index, and the most powerful in canon could not even be measured by the device. Similar technology had been featured in the Street Fighter II anime movie and Alpha animated film as well.

 

The big question remains, is Rashid a good character design or a bad one? He does break a lot of new ground. He is unlike the 2D or 3D characters that came before him. I would say he was more progressive than even Pullum Purna and Darun Mister from the Street Fighter EX games. Rashid doesn't fight with a scimitar, his costume is not dated to the fantasy stories of Arabia and he doesn't breathe fire, swell into a balloon or summon genies. It's a great start for any Middle Eastern character. He uses technology instead of magic as the source of his special "Turbulent Wind" attacks. While they can sometimes come off as cheesy the moves have to be taken in context. Street Fighter has always featured impossible attacks but the more recent entries have gone out of their way to make these attacks very cartoonish and over-the-top. This is something that the developers of Street Fighter have to be very careful of. Because they are adding a few seconds of intro animations and voices to the moves the audience is now paying even more attention to the intent of the developers. The way in which developers show off the personality of a fighter can be interpreted a number of different ways. What a Japanese developer thinks is funny might be offensive to another culture. Are we supposed to be in awe of a character or are we supposed to think the moves are silly? The way Capcom shows us these things can tell us if the character is supposed to be taken serious or funny.

Even the voice actors that Capcom hires has a lot to say about how they really feel about the different nationalities. Did the studio really think that masked Mexican wrestlers really sounded high-pitched and crazy like El Fuerte? Or in this version, do they really think that Arab characters sound like Rashid? Did they just tell a random voice actor to do their best Middle Eastern impersonation when they recorded him? I believe that Rashid is a very good design, not a great design but certainly one of better ones going all the way back to Street Fighter IV. Rashid seems to have more effort and planning into his look, moves and purpose than many of the other new or returning characters. He is presented in pre-game cinemas as confident rather than arrogant in his abilities. He is a positive reflection of a culture. He could never be mistaken for a joke character like F.A.N.G., Rufus or Hakan. At the same time he was not a parody of a fighting art, like El Fuerte was for lucha libre or R. Mika was to female wrestling. Rashid could have used some more work on his costume, color selection, headdress and overall appearance but what was released was not bad. He may not be what the Arab youth idealize but he came out much better than I could have predicted. What are your thoughts on the character and other Middle Eastern fighters? Is there something the designers at Capcom should work harder on? I'd like to hear all about it. 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!