Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 15

In the previous blog I talked about how Capcom was revising old character designs, and trying to make them more palatable to modern audiences. Every popular character was getting a redo. In the early stages of SFII Blanka had started off as an ugly Black brute in chains. He was turned into a green mutant, a wild man from the jungle. For SF6 this wild man was dressed in overalls. He was turned into a businessman starting up his own jungle tourism company. In the Street Fighter II concept art Dhalsim had started off as the Great Tiger, an Indian mystic wearing a Ganesh Balinese costume. He was turned into a stretchy limbed yoga master. Some of his more offensive costuming choices, specifically the child skull necklace was removed, and replaced with a necklace depicting the mudras. He would become a yogi, and instructor of yoga at a temple.

You would think that following the success of SFII the designers at Capcom would be more mindful of their international audience. For the most part the studio was able to create characters around a certain form of fighting. Whether they represented kung-fu, karate, wrestling, Muay Thai, or MMA. Those fighters had a look that reflected their style. The problem was when trying to create a design for a new fighter that didn’t represent a certain style. Blanka, and Dhalsim were examples of that. They fought in an unorthodox fashion, and thus had an unorthodox look to them. Before starting on a new game the designers would throw out all sorts of ideas, and see which ones stuck. For example one of the ideas for a SFIII character was simply titled “Rollerblade.” This character had some odd armor, and a helmet / hairstyle.

Designing an entire fighting style around a person that could inline skate didn’t go anywhere. Instead the studio took the skating, and made it a hobby for one of the kung-fu twins they were working on. The older of the two Yun, would be a skateboarder, inspired by Ken Lieu an actual skate legend. Yang was more than likely based on the Yasutoko Brothers, Takeshi, and Eito. Both of them were aggressive inline world champs. I would argue however that at least the spiky helmet in the concept sketch was turned into spiky hair for the younger twin. Not every design was as neutral. Some designs were right on the edge of offensive. What might have been meant as an homage to a certain archetype could be seen a stereotype to another person.

Let’s take a look at how the studio had been trying to incorporate a Middle Eastern character in the franchise for over 25 years. Some of the oldest drafts in Street Fighter III had a mysterious Indian assassin character. This fighter was dressed in classic Arabian fashion. I mean these costumes might have worked in a storybook, or Disney cartoon. That concept was fairly mild compared to the Witch of Islam. An enormous musclebound character that could be mistaken for a djinn, or genie. If you don’t think the design could be considered problematic then I wouldn’t know what to tell you. The Street Fighter 6 team didn't seem to be able to let some of their older designs go, no matter how far out of step they were with representation. 

In Street Fighter V there was an NPC named Azam that was the attendant / bodyguard to Rashid. The duo represented a lost kingdom in the desert. Azam wore costuming that made sense in one of the classic tales of Sindbad. You could easily imagine the musclebound character in a fight with a cyclops, pirate, or sea monster. He looked nothing like a modern person from the Middle East. He was reminiscent of the Witch of Islam concept. Capcom thankfully thought better than making him a main character. The studio still had to develop somebody whose look spoke to Middle Eastern culture. I would argue that they leaned heavily into orientalism when presenting Rashid in Street Fighter V. The studio didn’t lighten their approach to Azam when updating him for SF6, Rashid was another story. 

The developers didn’t second guess using a font that imitated the Arabic language, and script when announcing his return. It was a clever design choice, and I'm certain that Capcom had tremendous love, and respect for the people of the Middle East. This did not mean that some of their choices were not rooted in outdated ideas. Orientalism was the representation of Asia, especially the Middle East, in a stereotyped way that is regarded as embodying a colonialist attitude. This was something that had always been a part of character design from Japanese studios. I'm talking about magic, harems, genies, and inflatable characters! I created a series exploring the origins of these tropes. If you have some time please visit the following links; The Middle Eastern fighter, pt. 1, The Middle Eastern fighter, pt. 2, The Middle Eastern fighter, pt. 3, and The Middle Eastern fighter, pt. 4 (is where I talk about Rashid).

I would say that the newest version of Rashid was greatly improved over the previous. Let’s take a look at the differences between the designs in SFV, and SF6. One of the biggest problems I saw with the original look was the plain color scheme assigned to Rashid. Street Fighter II set a standard for character costumes, one of the reasons they worked was by sheer coincidence. The hardware that Capcom developed on was powerful for its time, but still had a limited sprite size, number of animations, and particularly limited palette of colors. The designers made sure that each character was given a strong primary color, and a complimentary second color. They would be easy to pick out of a crowd. If you think about Ken, and Ryu the colors that come to mind are red, and white. When you think of Chun-Li the color is blue. When I mention Blanka the color is green. You get the idea. For Rashid the color was primarily white, with a black belt. Something was lost when his costume was very similar to Ryu’s.

Designer Yusuke Hashimoto gave Rashid a makeover without losing too many elements from his original look. The first thing he did was expand the the secondary color black to cover the top half of his costume, and added orange as an accent color to separate him from Ryu. He also shortened the beard into something more realistic. He also did away with the overt technology the fighter relied on. Rashid was an expert at parkour, he was exceptionally quick, agile, and athletic. These things did not necessarily make him a dangerous fighter. He supplemented his strikes through technology. Hidden in his boots, and costume were tiny engines that created whirlwinds. In his original look he wore a large backpack to power these devices. The new costume got rid of these things.

His keffiyeh, the traditional headscarf was previously large, and puffy. This was swapped out to a visor head wrap with a long orange headband. His green viewfinder was ditched, as he was not a Sayan from Dragon Ball Z. His shoulders were now covered, there was no sign of the straps that had randomly criss crossed his arms. His smart devices were now integrated into his gloves. His sandals used to be plain looking, but were now stylized more like sneakers with electronics. Mr. Hashimoto pulled Rashid’s design into the 21st century, tried to leave the fairy tale elements out, while still making it unlike any traditional Arab costume. It followed the rules that went into the costumes of the other classic characters. After all Ryu, Chun-Li, and Guile’s costumes looked authentic, but only pulled a few cues from actual uniforms. His work should be studied in greater depth by anyone looking to create, or update a library of fighters.

Street Fighter 6 was evolving with the times, and pushing for a more diverse cast, without losing their unique eye. The Mysterious Assassin, and the Witch of Islam may have been the inspiration behind Rashid, and Azam, however they more directly influenced the creation of F.A.N.G. in SFV, and A.K.I. in SF6. We will look at how in the next blog. I hope to see you back for the next entry. If you are a long time fan of Final Fight, or Street Fighter then I would like to hear your impressions of SF6. If you have never played any game previously then tell me your experiences in the comments section please. As always 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!

Ed, and Rashid. A look at two Street Fighter V stars in Street Fighter 6

Today is going to be a two-for-one special. We are going to look at Ed, and Rashid’s redesign in Street Fighter 6. The reason for this is because the two characters are relatively new. I’ve already done a deep dive on the origins of their look, especially in the case of Rashid. I covered Ed when he made his debut in Street Fighter V. In case you missed it, Ed is a punch-based fighter. Not quite a pure boxer as his mentor M. Bison/Boxer. He also has some psychic / psycho powers like Vega / Dictator from Shadowlaw. He was designed, and literally programmed to be a high-ranking Shadowlaw officer, but broke away from command with the help of Falke. His appearance in SF6 is similar to a few other characters. His look is more casual than before. His tights, and boxing gloves have given way to pants, and a jacket. Ed represents the new direction of how the fighting arts show up in the franchise. In one sense it’s much more realistic, but in another it steers us away from the things that make Street Fighter, well, look like a Street Fighter game. 

The series was never one about making the most realistic fighting game. Instead it took archetypes of the martial arts, caricatures essentially, and put them in different settings. This meant that karate guys walked around in karate gis, soldiers in their camouflage fatigues, boxers with punching gloves, and trunks. You get the idea. You could almost instantly tell two things just by looking at the character, what their nationality was, and what fighting style they represented. If you look at E. Honda you could probably figure out he was a Japanese sumo wrestler. If you look at Chun-Li you can guess she's a Chinese kung-fu practitioner. Most of the characters in SF6 wear costumes that make a little more sense in a casual setting. The trade off means they are more conservative in some regards. I think part of the appeal of the earlier fighters was their ability to reflect a country of origin, and legendary fighting arts. Ed is a shirtless pretty-boy with his hands wrapped in red athletic tape. Would you care to guess what country he is supposed to represent? If you didn't know he was German, you might have guessed a dozen other countries. I mean he has almost the same colors, and outfit as Ken. Maybe he was going to be Mel in the planning stages? We get he’s ready to fight, but with the blonde-haired Luke already the new punching star of the game what purpose does Ed serve? Or is he a redundant character?

Rashid's design was a lot more classic. It was easy to figure out that he was from the Middle East. He was Saudi Arabian, but it would be understandable if you thought he was from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, or Quatar. He was previously covered in a four-part series. I was glad to see his return. I always applaud any character of color returning to the franchise. The changes made to his costume are subtle, but help him stand out from the lineup even more. Rashid’s original design in SFV was a little bit lacking. His all-white outfit, with parts of black for contrast was kind of bland. Not to mention that Ryu pretty much had that color scheme for the previous 30 years. The studio realized that the he was lacking a third contrasting color. Ryu had red in his headband, and gloves. Rashid was given splashes of orange on his sandals, belt, backpack, sleeves, and bands of his keffiyeh. Now his look is much more distinct thanks to the use of an accent color. If there is one thing that makes both Ed, and Rashid’s updates work are the colors assigned to their costumes. They are solid colors that are well balanced, and help them stand out from the colors assigned to the other characters. With Ed having a burgundy, and deep blue combination that were not the shades of blue featured on characters like Guile, or Chun-Li. They were actually complimentary to the colors, and outfit of Ken.

What do you think about the return of Ed, and Rashid? Did you enjoy the two in Street Fighter V? Would you have rather seen another returning character, or a new character instead? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. In case you missed it here are the other entries related to Rashid. Middle Eastern series, Part 1. Middle Eastern series, Part 2. Middle Eastern series, Part 3. 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!

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!

What is going on with the Street Fighter V character designs? Part 2, where did F.A.N.G come from?

I'm not going to backpedal, F.A.N.G. is a character that has no redeeming factors. He is an ugly character, a mockery of Chinese martial arts systems. He doesn't really belong in the Street Fighter series but the powers that be have decided to give him a go anyway. It doesn't really matter what I say or what I think about the character. It doesn't matter how offensive or nonsensical I think his design is. The reality is that Western writers, artists, actors, directors and producers have been doing a greater disservice to Asian characters than any Japanese developer ever could. It is the ugly truth. Audiences from the west fail to acknowledge what we have done culturally to Asians over the past century.

Think about how Asians, especially the Chinese, were parodied, if not outright vilified in Western pop culture. Sometimes it was subtle, the way the Chinese or Japanese pronounced English was often exaggerated in comics and films. Sometimes it was very overt, with characters presented with bright yellow skin and narrow eyes. This trend goes back to 1929 when the British writer Sax Rohmer created a villain named Dr. Fu Manchu. At the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th the "Orient" was seen as a place of mysticism, where ancient magics were real and closely guarded. The British colonists and Western Culture by contrast were always the shining example of civility and modern science. Minorities were very often subservient if not outright villains in many pulp stories. Dr. Manchu was bent on global domination using a combination of science and magic. The terms used to describe the character were more demonic than human. It was something to consider that Fu Manchu was almost as old as Mickey Mouse, and almost as well recognized in that era. He had been used to perpetuate some ugly stereotypes or decades, not solely in book form but in film as well. This character would become a template for evil Asians that would be used again and again. Although he was an alien Ming the Merciless, ruler of the Planet Mongo (yep they went there!) was very much an Asian stereotype. The character first appeared in the 1934 Flash Gordon comic strips by Alex Raymond. Ming could be considered the tyrant that Fu Manchu would become if he had conquered the Earth.

 

A few decades later, in 1964 to be precise, Marvel comics introduced the world to the Mandarin. The villain featured in Tales of Suspense would become the greatest rival to Iron Man. The Mandarin had acquired magical rings, which were actually alien artifacts. They allowed him to do various things, from shooting bolts of electricity to controlling minds. His design and purpose was not very far removed from Fu Manchu. This was odd considering that Marvel was a very progressive company, they featured minorities in several comics and presented some main character with different religious beliefs as well. Unfortunately the design of the Mandarin relied on trope, he was so obsessed with domination that it diminished his presence. It was unique however that the hero that used the most advanced robotics would have to do battle with mystical elements. It helped make Iron Man stand out from his contemporaries in the end.

 The USA did a lot of changing following the civil rights era. Minorities began turning up as recurring characters in television shows and were presented in a favorable light in film. Eventually writers and comic artists grew tired of the stereotypes that had been placed on Asian characters. Director John Carpenter created an immortal wizard named Lo Pan in his 1986 cult-hit Big Trouble in Little China. The character was every absurd element from Fu Manchu, Ming and the Mandarin all rolled into one. The film placed the classic martial artists in the modern world. It was a send up some kung-fu tropes, the fantastic details remained with evil fighters who could shoot lightning from their fingertips and even fly. Many Asian actors were used as both the heroes and villains in the movie. This film was such a refreshing change of pace that it went on to influence the creation of Mortal Kombat. Yet the progressive view that John Carpenter had was the exception rather than the rule.



Producers and network executives had little to no faith that a minority actor could carry a role. This went back to the days of black and white film. The producers were afraid that the western audiences would never watch a film or TV show that didn't feature a white actor. Because of this many characters were recast, rewritten or completely ignored. In the ugliest instances a white actor wore blackface, or in the case of Fu Manchu or the detective Charlie Chan they wore "yellow face." Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who played Charlie Chan in several movies. The makeup department would tape down his eyelid to make him look "Asiatic." The features that revolved around the heroic minority would often cast actual Asian actors to play supporting roles. For example Keye Luke, a Chinese born American actor, played "number one son" Henry Oswald Lee Chan in the Charlie Chan films. By casting minorities the producers hoped to lend some sort of credibility to the lead actors as well as the stories they were telling. The downside was that the actual minority was never trusted to carry a leading role. It was a pattern that followed Hispanic and native characters as well. Canadian actor Jay Silverheels played Tonto, opposite Clayton Moore's Lone Ranger. He was a great character, a positive minority and one of the pioneering actors on network television. Yet neither he nor Keye Luke would ever be called to be the star of their own series. I wish I could say that things changed over the years but entering 2016 there was still very little minority representation on television. The shows featuring minority actors were almost all segregated into their own sitcoms. Things had not progressed very far in the century following the invention of film and television.

In fact things have not changed very much on the video game front either. The youngest of the major entertainment mediums has a lot of catching up to do. I could get upset all I want about F.A.N.G., Rufus, Birdie or any of the other Street Fighter characters and it wouldn't make a bit of difference. Why should I take Capcom to task when the western-produced games had very little representation, or diversity? How many games could you name that had a minority lead? How many could you name with a white character? How many franchises have been built around minority characters? How many around white characters? Stop and think about that for a moment. Go back through your mental index of game characters, of franchise characters and see how many you can name. Of those how many are male and how many are female? Of those how many are Asian, Hispanic, Black or Native?

I would argue that the fighting game has the most diversity of all the genres. Minority characters do have a leading role in many fighting games, and are usually presented in classical martial arts uniforms. Granted most leads are Japanese but those games are often produced in Japan. Just as most white leads in games are from western-produced titles. The diversity of characters and fighting styles is one of the things that keeps audiences coming back to the genre. Street Fighter has, or at the very least had, some of the most positive and influential minority casts ever created. These characters weren't perfect in their first incarnation but they did get better with revisions. If I have one complaint about the most recent additions to the Street Fighter lineup it would be how little they seem to be revised before they are added to the lineup. Many of the new characters in the game are forgettable, I would go so far as to say they are throw away designs. They are added to give the lineup a feeling of diversity but end up being nothing more than a gimmick character from a particular country. F.A.N.G. is no exception, he is just one more character that will have his 15 minutes and then fade away while Ryu, Chun-Li and the rest of the original World Warriors remain. So what is it that F.A.N.G. lacks when compared to the earlier designs?



The new characters lack roots. In fact most of the new characters added in SF IV and SF V lack an understanding of the fighting arts that they represent, and in many instances, the actual martial artists that shaped history. The first Street Fighter was based very much on the life and times of Mas Oyama and Yoshiji Soeno. The rivals in the game were inspired in part by actual martial artists and martial arts movie characters. Even the gigantic Sagat was based on actual muay thai fighters, Sagat Petchyindee and Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn. The fighting arts Sagat and Ryu used were exaggerated versions of real forms. These amazing abilities looked great in comics and cartoons and turned out to be perfect for a video game. The second generation of Street Fighter characters expanded on the same principal. A burly sailor would become Zangief, his previous name of Vodka Gobalsky was deemed inappropriate. A new name was pulled from an actual wrestler that the Capcom designers would watch on television. The most racially insensitive characters, Dhalsim and Blanka, were greatly toned down and ended up including details from actual history as well as cinema. What F.A.N.G. is missing, and for the most part many of his contemporaries is that connection to the martial arts and actual fighters.

 

F.A.N.G. is the latest kung-fu master inserted into the canon of Street Fighter. He comes on the heels of some of the greatest Chinese characters in the genre. People like Gen and Chun-Li were pulled form legend. They were given moves and back stories that were worthy of cinema. Yet F.A.N.G. is in a completely different category. He doesn't have a pin that you can attach the design to. Just as you cannot point to the reference used for Rufus or Hakan, two of the saddest character designs ever featured in a Street Fighter game. F.A.N.G. gets to replace Sagat in the story. You would think he would be an intimidating character as one of the new Shadowlaw / Shadaloo Generals. Except that he isn't. You would think that his moves would be based on some ancient brutal Chinese system, but they aren't. F.A.N.G. exists for the same reason that Rufus exists. This is a character that the Producer finds value in. Like George Lucas saying that Jar Jar Binks was his favorite character, I'm sure Yoshinori Ono thinks F.A.N.G. fits right in as well despite what the audience reaction has been. But there is a catch to his design, a different way of looking at him just like any design. Some retouching, some refinement can save any character. Look at the roots of the franchise designs and see what you can learn.

 

The way F.A.N.G. behaves before or after matches means little, and does not necessarily make or break the character. It is absolutely okay to have a flamboyant, or even effeminate character in a fighting game. While the look of F.A.N.G. may be closer to the harpist assassins from the film Kung-Fu Hustle, the character should have had the presence of Fairy, the tailor. In the film veteran actor Chiu Chi Ling played the character. Mr. Ling was an actual master of Hung Gar, one of the hardest striking forms of kung-fu. Yet Fairy was presented in a very soft and almost dainty manner, which made his role all the more interesting. The character he played was living a normal life in a small town. People did not know that the unassuming tailor was actually a powerful martial artist. This was masterful storytelling. The character was really brought to life in the action scenes. Fairy would become a one-man wrecking crew and any semblance to his effeminate personality disappeared as he destroyed mobsters with his bare hands. Yet Mr. Ling was not the first Chinese martial artist who played a dual role well.

 

The unassuming Chinese character was portrayed well by Bruce Lee in the Chinese Connection aka Fists of Fury. To infiltrate the bad guy's hideout he played a mousey telephone repairman. It was his fighting ability and not his appearance that did all of the talking. Some of the most unassuming fighters have been villains. The character actors that play them do such a good job that you can't wait for the good guy to beat them up. This could be seen in the character Boss Wah, played by another martial arts veteran Yuen Wah, in the film Dragons Forever. Boss Wah looked and acted like an absolute weasel, choosing to strike Jackie Chan and his friends when their backs were turned. He was a cigar smoking crime lord, skinny and unassuming. He surrounded himself with some dangerous bodyguards, including former kickboxing world champ Benny "the Jet" Urquidez. At first glance you would think the character in the suit was a wimp. However despite his appearance and mannerisms he was an amazing fighter and capable of holding his own against the rest of the cast. Yuen had actually appeared in several Bruce Lee films and even served as Lee's double on some of the stunts. F.A.N.G. by comparison did not quite sell himself as a fighter. Or rather the designers at Capcom did not really sell the character as a fighter. He was lanky and overconfident in himself, saying that he would beat his opponent in two minutes and then striking an absurd victory pose if he did win. The character was flamboyant but not endearing like Fairy, he was a weasel without the vicious attacks of Boss Wah. F.A.N.G. threw poison balls from his sleeves and flew by flapping his arms. These weren't really moves or abilities that could be attached to any real system or any fighter living or dead. Capcom simply did not convince me that this character was right for the game and the series.

 

The entertainment industry has been whitewashing history for some time. The real world is much more diverse and interesting than any video game, movie or book could ever be. Think back about the ugly caricature that was Fu. Manchu, or how Charlie Chan stereotyped a population. How was F.A.N.G. any different from these representations? Think back about what a great hero the Lone Ranger was, according to history modeled after Texas Ranger Captain John R. Hughes. What a fantastic role model he turned out to be to several generations of mostly white children. Now imagine that if minority children had been exposed to something different, something that was closer to reality. What if they learned that the author Earl Derr Biggers based Charlie Chan on an Chinese-Hawaiian Detective named Chang Apana. He would have been a great minority and mixed-ethnicity role model. Or consider that the Lone Ranger may have been based on an escaped-slave-turned Deputy US Marshall Bass Reeves. Bass actually wore disguises and had Native American friends that helped him capture criminals in the old west. How amazing the films and television shows would have been to the minorities growing up here as well. They deserved to have heroes and villains modeled on reality rather than fantasy. This is what Capcom sometimes forgets. Mas Oyama may have been the basis for Ryu but let us not forget that he was Korean and not Japanese. He was such an amazing karate fighter that he influenced a nation that was and continues to be very biased against Koreans.

This is why I will always push back on Capcom when I think they are doing a disservice to the series. They have a chance to review and revise each and every character before introducing them. Trying to make changes after the fact is impossible. Capcom needs to think about how they are representing minority characters. Just because Street Fighter V is introducing a new Chinese, adding a Brazilian female (Laura) or Arab male (Rashid) into the lineup doesn't mean the studio is being more inclusive. If the woman is there primarily because she is sexy, or if the Arab is there just to fill a Middle-Eastern quota then why should we care? A lot of people in Mexico were happy that a masked wrestler was included in SF IV. They overlooked his silly moves and mannerisms because there was finally some representation in the game. It didn't matter if the representation was positive or negative as long as it existed. These fans, just like fans from around the world, are desperate to be represented in the series. They will accept stereotype, trope or sexism as long as they get a character in the game. Capcom needs to look internally and see what they can do to make better characters and a better game in the process. If they worked a little bit harder and tried to present positive representation they might create something profound. What do you think about F.A.N.G. and the other new characters? I would like to read 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!