<p>In the previous blog I had mentioned that Guile had USA flag tattoos on his shoulders to make him more appealing to Americans. The idea of having each character represent a country was one of the goals for the SF II cast. There was some overlap with countries, but overall the cast was diverse. It was the elements placed on some of them that might be construed as a Stereotype. The tattoos on Guile for example represented an attempt at creating a national identity. However the use of Nationality and Universality should not be confused. Placing a Purpose on a character did not make up for poor design cues like nonsensical Moves or obtuse Technique. In a similar way pandering to a national ideal, or making light of a traditional fighting art made for weaker character design. The worst examples of these things were Stereotype which skirted ignorance and racism. Street Fighter character design was not without its faults. Elephant-headed Dhalsim, Vodka-named Zangief were two such examples. Even toned-down in the final build of the game they were still questionable. T. Hawk with his Native American cues, cross-legged squat and "how" hand gesture, or Dee Jay with his silly grin and maracas. These were other poorly incorporated cues meant to make the characters more colorful. The most recent additions to Street Fighter had been the worst. Crimson Viper was meant for the USA but fell flat as her sexualization didn't convince gamers that she was a fighter. Capcom pushed the El Fuerte cooking gimmick on players at every turn even though they had nothing to do with the fighting tradition. However the biggest offenders to SF IV would turn out to be Rufus and Hakan. Never before have designs so obviously ethnically biased been used in Street Fighter. How do the concepts of Archetype, Color, Costume, Moves, Stance, Suspension of Disbelief, Technique and Timeless Design apply to these two characters? The Color associated to Rufus was a bright yellow with a black stripe for contrast. A decent combination of light and dark elements. The Costume was a jumpsuit that held some of the elements of Bruce Lee's iconic wardrobe from Game of Death. Lee's costume had shown up as an homage in other games and movies over the years. The version that Rufus wore had padding along the side stripe and buckles meant to keep his uniform closed. His sleeves were open to allow freedom of movement and he wore oversized gloves stretching up to his forearm. He also wore biker boots underneath his jumpsuit. The look was a clash of different elements, based on pop culture and modern influences. The look was lacking because it was very contemporary. It would appear dated before long and thus betray the elements of Timeless Design. Rufus had a wide Stance and held his hands up in a pseudo kung-fu pose. He was written as being a self-proclaimed master of his own fighting art, which was why his Technique was unique when compared to the other fighters. His Moves were not based on a particular fighting art but rather a collection of attacks with range and recovery meant to be functional in the game. The range, speed of activation and damage for his moves were well thought-out. It was their application on the character that betrayed the willing Suspension of Disbelief. As C. Viper missed the mark due to marketing cues from Capcom USA, so too was the look of Rufus ill advised. The character went from a young, athletic black man to a morbidly obese white man. The change was gradual but nonsensical. In order to try to make the character appealing to gamers they have him a Purpose, that he would be the #1 rival to Ken. The art director of SF IV, Takashi Kamei, suggested the character be overweight to which Producer Yoshinori Ono agreed. The motive being that adding a "fatty" to the game would be funny, and that he would "freak people out." Citing Blanka as the oddball character and Dan as comedic relief that the SF series welcomed. The plan was for Rufus to be considered an "American Dan" according to Ono. If you recall the previous blogs, the design of Blanka was actually well conceived and executed even better. Dan in form and function was a direct parody of SNK fighters, he was underpowered compared to the rest of the cast and meant to be a bottom tier character in game as well as canon. Capcom gave each their own convincing Technique and visually gave them the cues of Timeless Design. Neither character was really the result of simply wishing an oddball into the series. Capcom did not manage to convince gamers that the Technique was appropriate for the design of Rufus, or that the look was nothing more than a gimmick that had been used by the obese fighter Bob in the Tekken series. Which was an interesting coincidence because Ono had been trying hard to make the SF IV characters memorable by making them appear unlike anything in either Virtua Fighter or Tekken. Yet the comparisons between El Fuerte and El Blaze and Bob and Rufus are the first thing many gamers associate with their appearance. A silly Purpose was applied to those two to make them stand out even more as characters, and stand out even less as fighters. It was the speed of which the character moved, the abilities he had which seemed a perfect list of moves for a fighting game rather than a fighter, These were the elements that SNK put on their characters, a series of unrealistic moves that were meant to balance out other characters with unrealistic moves, rather than make them solid fighting designs. The larger characters in previous SF titles tended to move slower than the average-sized characters; Zangief, T. Hawk and Hugo each moved slower than the last, Rufus, a morbidly obese character with an ugly appearance and terrible personality moved and fought as fast as the fastest characters in the universe. The joke character with no redeeming or realistic visual cues was now a top-tier character. The joke was on the gamers, this was not a new Dan at all. For 18 years the series had done very well in the character design department and suddenly there was a new fighter which broke all of the traditions that Capcom had established and broke the gamer's Suspension of Disbelief by failing to fill an Archetype. An additional level of social commentary could be derived from Rufus. As arrogant and silly as Rufus was, he was painted as a proud American. It did not take long for many gamers to see that his Nationality was being pinned with a strong Stereotype that most nations have about Americans. In short that Americans are obese and relish in it. A real master from the USA would be a loud, arrogant, self righteous, fat bully. This world view, which might have been coincidence, should have alarmed more gamers. Why did Capcom of Japan feel it was appropriate to make Rufus a brash fat man when his original design saw him as a slender athlete? Fat characters were nothing new in Capcom titles. Not in the Final Fight series or in the wrestling series Muscle Bomber, both of those games had memorable and important fat characters. Heavy-set fighter E. Honda set the standard. However Rufus would have required a lot of changes in order to fit within the universe. A fact that in hindsight both producer Ono and designer Daigo Ikeno now admit to. Ono apologized for the reaction to the character at the GDC "sorry about that" and Ikeno said the character was rushed. This was something that could have been avoided if only they had taken a hard look at the elements that made their classic characters successful. These were things that I had mentioned about the character two years ago and am now formalizing as a list of other key elements with this series. The weaker designs of Rufus and C. Viper could have been attributed to the influence of co-devloper DIMPS. They had a fatty fighter and a woman in a suit, Boyd and Beatrice, years before Capcom had decided to pursue those aesthetics as well. The characters made sense in the Rumble Fish, because the design of the characters were based heavily on pop culture and pop anime design. As I had discussed in earlier blogs, the SF look was grounded more in martial arts tradition than the ever shifting pop landscape. In this way the great designs from SF II would be able to withstand the test of time. When did the fatty fighter become en vogue? Was this a trend that made sense in Japan? A cultural joke that gaijin would never understand? Or were these simply silly characters meant to make a fighting game funny? Did these elements really belong in SF? What about Hakan? How did his designs hold up to the concepts of Suspension of Disbelief and Archetype? Did Capcom manage to make another jab at Stereotype while going after a characters Nationality and traditional form of fighting? Apparently they did not learn anything after their treatment of Mexico's beloved lucha libre. Blanka was a yellow skinned wild man with orange hair that delivered electric shocks to opponents that he bit. How was he more believable than a red skinned, blue haired Turk that squeezed people until they popped? If we based the argument on those elements then Capcom would seem to be on the right track for maintaining the extreme elements of SF character history. However there was more to a great character design than a surface understanding of them and the fantastic moves they had. As every detail this series has highlighted, none of the best designs were the result of dumb luck. It took a large staff of designers and artists countless revisions to get each character in SF II perfect. Anything less than a large collaborative effort with an understanding of martial arts, character design, animation, history, cultural tastes and style would cause for a poor showing. The over reliance on a handful of artists and marketing data would reduce new characters to a gimmick. In an attempt to make the character more appealing a Purpose was placed on him, Hakan was written as a rival to E. Honda. Just as Rufus was presented as a rival to Ken. In the long run these characters would not have the appeal or staying power of the classic fighters. Capcom had gone over video of fighting arts from around the world and determined that oil wrestling would be the next cultural fighting art featured in SF. It was a sad admission that they would be basing a character from watching videos. I would be sorely disappointed and at the same time not be surprised if YouTube or Nico Nico Douga was the only resource that Capcom of Japan or Capcom USA referenced when drawing inspiration for a new fighting art. It would explain why they continued designing characters that lacked the elements of the classic lineup. Rather than treat the fighting art with a modicum of dignity, it was ridiculed quite brazenly. The staff at Capcom took the elements of the fighters covering themselves with oil and then grabbing each other, in some instances reaching where other cultures would find inappropriate or homoerotic and made it a joke. Hakan, squeezing people between his thighs before yelling "here I come" and then having them shoot out of his backside? Do I have to ask what the subtext behind that super move was? The idea of grown men covering themselves with oil and then grappling did not sound much like a fighting art meant for SF. It had to be made fantastic and incredibly silly according to current design ideals. It had to feature an over-the-top character whom was obsessed with creating the perfect oil recipe for wrestling. As El Fuerte was given a cooking gimmick to make him more appealing to players, so too did Hakan have a nonsensical reason to prove himself. This was not a caricature of Turkish oil wrestling as much as it was a pardoy of it. The result of watching video from another culture meant that it would be distilled by Japanese sensibilities. It would contain a similar world view that took hard jabs at anything not Japanese. The Japanese culture had a tendency to promote ethnic stereotype in media because they did not see these things as being offensive. They nation did not have a favorable history with regards to discrimination against ethnic minorities including those with shared ancestry, like minorities from islands annexed by Japan (the Ryukyuan of Osaka) or those from a caste system (Burakumin). The 1960's did not see a civil rights movement in Japan, not in the ways that caused national policy to change in the USA with regards to minorities and immigrants. There was and remains a certain amount of animosity between the people and cultures from Korea and China thanks to past conflicts, ideology, oppressions and regimes. To assume that Capcom of Japan would treat a non-Japanese cultural tradition with any respect would be a stretch. The early cues in SF II character design were insensitive but most of the worst elements were left out. Cultural attitudes did not seem to evolve some 18 years later. In the case of the current Street Fighter team Hakan would have the same sense of humor that brought gamers El Fuerte and Rufus. Hakan broke the elements of Archetype as well as Suspension of Disbelief. The Color associated to him was a bright red, his skin an unbelievable hue. It was contrasted by another bright color for his hair. The shape of his hair was nonsensical as a series of nubs stuck out in perfect symmetry all over his scalp. The closest Capcom character design that had similar hair was Yurika from Rival Schools 2. However that game used a great deal of artistic license in creating the various cliques and groups that ran high school. Yurika was an exaggerated version of a dainty musician. Her hair was done in curls so tight that they held onto her scalp like rolled armor. But I digress... Hakan's Costume was probably the best thing in his design. The colors were darker than the skin and the chain brought an element that showed movement and also demonstrated great strength. The look of his Costume had elements of the most powerful wrestlers in SF canon. There was the single shoulder strap and shorts, reminiscent of Mike Haggar, the first wrestler in the SF universe. The gestures and menacing presence from Zangief. The ornamental belt with an animal head was probably based on Darun Mister's elephant belt. The enormous chains were probably inspired by Hugo. Hakan's costume deserved a character that was less parody and more straight-laced like the aforementioned wrestlers. Unfortunately the good costume did not not save the overall appearance of the character. The elements of Timeless Design were undone by poor choices with the choice of color. Hakan's Stance was believable as he kept his feet apart and hands outstretched, ready to grapple with opponents. It was his Moves which completely wasted a good stance. He would slip and slide when trying to run, waving his arms frantically while attempting a grab. His special and super attacks were comedically absurd, even when compared to the other moves from crazy characters. He would slide on the ground to cover distance, grab and roll with a opponents on the ground, bouncing off of invisible walls. Grab opponents in a bear hug and squeeze them until the shot out of his grasp. Have opponents orbit around his torso, magically, and then have them slide off of his shoulders and hit the invisible wall. The worst of which had him spinning on the backs of opponents and squeezing them between his thighs. Again, hitting the invisible wall. I should not have to mention that these moves completely destroyed the willing Suspension of Disbelief. What was worse was that Hakan was not an absurd character that was given a fictional fighting art, like Blanka or Dhalsim. He was instead a character using a real form of wrestling. This was a first for Street Fighter. With El Fuerte the comic elements were understandable as lucha libre can be a bit absurd at times. The impossible set-ups, the pageantry and masks of ritualized combat. However Turkish oil wrestling dated back centuries. It was a legitimate sport and was a respected tradition around the world. It certainly did not deserve the treatment that Capcom gave the art. By pouring oil on himself Hakan gained an advantage over his regular moves. This was the first time that SF introduced a mechanic that extended the range of the fighter and their special moves. All of these gimmicks weakened the Technique and broke the wrestling Archetype. Where did the character come from and why was he proportioned as big and grotesque as he was? I believe some of the influence came from the Red Hulk. A Marvel Ent. character that had become popular over the past few years. If marketing data were deciding what types of character Archetypes Capcom should pursue then it was most likely from the Red Hulk. The interesting thing was that a hue shift from Hakan's regular color revealed a color scheme that matched the classic coloring of the Incredible Hulk, green and purple. Of course these things are most likely coincidental... I hope. The color schemes of Hakan, the weird hairstyle and obsession with oil. The chance to introduce a fighting art from the Near-East, to pander to a Nationality was instead insulted. The Stereotype and world view from the developers were coming into focus. These were cultural missteps that should have been avoided based on the reactions to Rufus and C. Viper. Instead there was a tremendous repetition of trying to solicit a strong reaction to gamers by presenting characters that were bold and silly instead of classic and serious. Have minority characters ever been painted well in a Street Fighter title? Absolutely! How did one of the best minority designs ever avoid Stereotype? We shall discuss this tomorrow. </p>