Ibuki (Street Fighter)

is a character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' series, first appearing in the 1997 fighting game '' Street Fighter III: New Generation''.

Conception and design

During the development of '' Street Fighter III: New Generation'' for Capcom, the development team had implemented legacy character Ryu into the game, and wanted to include a female character, but found a viable concept difficult to come up with. Akira "Akiman" Yasuda, a longtime character designer at Capcom then suggested "Let the girl be a ninja. Ninjas are absolutely cool!" Producer Tomoshi Sadamoto recalled that because they were located in Japan in contrast to other new characters Ibuki was much easier to find reference materials for. As koppojutsu as a martial art was getting attention at the time, Yasuda incorporated elements of it alongside ninjitsu into her character design and movements.

Her initial design was drastically different, consisting of a short haired muscular girl with glasses, wearing an outfit similar to Guy from ''Final Fight'', another character he had developed. However they felt this design looked "more like a martial artist than a high-flying ninja". Another pass was done with a focus on a more traditional ninja, the next drawing giving her a full bodysuit and armor over her hands, ankles and crotch. Her appearance and outfit were refined further, giving her a look he described as cute "even though she looks shabby". Series artist and fellow character designer Kinu Nishimura took that statement to heart and emphasized that cute aspect of her art of Ibuki, as well as designing a school outfit for the character. She was given a long ponytail, which proved a problem for the animation team as it caused her to have "1.2 to 1.3x the character data" of other fighters, requiring several months to complete with Sadamoto himself helping at the end.

Appearances

Ibuki is a young Japanese woman introduced in the 1997 fighting game ''Street Fighter III: New Generation''. A ninja, she is sent by her clan to retrieve a document from an organization ran by the game's antagonist, Gill. She returns for the game's subsequent two sequels, where in ''3rd Strike'' she prepares to graduate from high school hoping to enjoy a normal campus life and find a boyfriend. By the game's conclusion she enters a university which is revealed to be a secret elite ninja training camp.''All About Capcom Head-to-Head Fighting Games 1987-2000'', page 300. She additionally appears in ''Street Fighter IV'', a precursor to ''Street Fighter III'', with a storyline similar to that of ''3rd Strike''.

Ibuki reappears as a playable character in ''Street Fighter V'' as one of the DLC characters released after the game's launch. She was supposed to arrive in May 2016 but was delayed to July. In her prologue story, Ibuki finally finishes her ninja assignment and is informed by her friend Sakura about the party invitation sent from her rival Karin Kanzuki. Arriving at the Kanzuki Estate, Ibuki fights and defeat Birdie and Karin. After the fight, Karin lets her stay at the party with handsome boys and gives her the contract which has been approved by the Shinobi village to work with her. Ibuki also appears in the end of R. Mika's prologue story, rejecting her offer in muscle training which angers R. Mika who beats her in a fight. Ibuki and R. Mika continue to argue and bicker through the course of the game's main story, "A Shadow Falls", which begins when they and Karin travel to the New York City to find out who is behind the activation of the seven Black Moons, eventually finding out it is a Shadaloo plot. During the first infiltration of the Shadaloo base, Ibuki fights Balrog but fails to beat him. She then uses her smoke bomb to distract the enemies and the two successfully escape with it until they reunited with Karin. They witness Zangief beat Abel, Ibuki watching in disgust while R. Mika idolizes him. In the final assault against Shadaloo, Ibuki and R. Mika fight off Shadaloo soldiers. Ibuki is last seen watching Shadaloo's destruction with the other fighters.

A super deformed version of Ibuki is a playable character in the fighting game ''Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix'' / ''Pocket Fighter'' (1997), in which she sneaks off from her ninja training for an ice cream in Tokyo. Ibuki is playable in the mobile puzzle game ''Street Fighter: Puzzle Spirits'' (2014), and appears as a card in the browser-based social game ''Onimusha Soul'' (2012) and in person in ''Street Fighter Battle Combination'' (2015). Her cards also appear in '' SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash'' (1999) and '' SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS'' (2007). She has a cameo in '' Capcom Fighting Evolution'' (2004).

Ibuki is one of the characters representing the ''Street Fighter'' series in the crossover fighting game, '' Street Fighter X Tekken'' (2012), with Rolento as her tag team partner. In it, she is persuaded by her village leaders to accept Rolento's request for a joint mission to the South Pole, serving as his advisor on infiltration.

Ibuki appears in ''Street Fighter'' comic books, including in ''Street Fighter: Unlimited''. Notably she received her own four-issue miniseries '' Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki'', written by Jim Zubkavich and drawn by Omar Dogan. It was published by UDON Entertainment in 2010 to coincide with the release of ''Super Street Fighter IV''.

Promotion and reception

To promote the release of ''New Generation'', several items of merchandise were created featuring Ibuki, including t-shirts, phone cards, and a wall clock. In 2010, a Xbox Live Avatar costume of Ibuki was released for the debut of ''Super Street Fighter IV'', while a PlayStation Network avatar was released to support ''3rd Strike''s Online Edition. In 2015, a figure of her was released by Kotobukiya.

Ibuki was positively received since her debut, with '' Computer and Video Games magazine'' describing her as the most popular and powerful character of ''New Generation''s cast. Martin Robinson of ''AskMen'' stated that while ninjas were a frequent trope in video games, "none are as effortlessly cool as Ibuki" and added that she was one of a handful of characters worth salvaging from ''Street Fighter III''. Game developer Giovanni Simotti, designer of '' Akane the Kunoichi'', based the character's appearance on both Ibuki and SNK's Mai Shiranui as a "small tribute to two of the most famous kunoichi from the history of the videogames". However, gaming publications saw Ibuki as a replacement for series character Chun-Li "albeit a little more punked out" according to '' Next Generation'', and with ''Official UK PlayStation Magazine'' stating that this had caused the character to become despised in the first two ''Street Fighter III'' titles.

Jesse Schedeen of ''IGN'' argued that Ibuki strayed significantly from ninja tropes in gaming in that she was portrayed as "not a musclebound brute, but a young, quirky girl still finding her way in the world", and felt similar to fellow ''Street Fighter'' character Dan Hibiki in that manner. He described her "eclectic nature" as making her a fun character, enjoying that the game portrayed her as both a serious ninja in training but also someone able to relax and partake in social activities. Meanwhile, Gavin Jasper of ''Den of Geek'' praised her as "too fun not to like", noting her complex life specifically and giving additional praise to her role as the straight man to Rolento's eccentric behavior in ''Street Fighter X Tekken''.

The staff of '' Paste'' also voiced praise for Ibuki, and added that her design in terms of aesthetics and as a fighter was strong and helped make her the best ninja of the series by far, despite their voiced disdain for her gameplay in ''Street Fighter IV''. '' Retronauts'' on their podcast discussing ''Street Fighter III'' voiced similar sentiments, considering her one of the best designed characters in ''Street Fighter III'' overall for her gameplay, mobility and aesthetics, and felt she was a character they routinely gravitated to when playing the title. While they felt she was slightly over-engineered in terms of gamplay, they also felt a lot of love went into her character, and observed that very early on in ''New Generation''s life she had developed a large fanbase.MP3 archive
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In a retrospective of the ''Street Fighter'' series, Amanda LaPergola and Becky Chambers of ''The Mary Sue'' praised her status as a ninja, but criticized the emphasis of her story on her story on meeting boys. Their disdain came from seeing it as a perpetuation of the "normal girl" trope, something they felt was too common among younger female characters of the ''Street Fighter'' cast.

See also

* Ninja in popular culture

References

External links

*Official websites
''Street Fighter IV''

{{Street Fighter series

Female characters in video games
Fictional female ninja
Fictional martial artists in video games
Fictional Japanese people in video games
Ninja characters in video games
Street Fighter characters
Teenage characters in video games
Video game characters introduced in 1997
Video game characters who can teleport
Video game characters who can move at superhuman speeds
Characters designed by Akira Yasuda