I thought it was pretty interesting that Abel started off as a girl/trap (don't we all), and while Juri's original design didn't feature any gender-bending functionality, her creation process was pretty cool in itself.

According the latest Super Street Fighter IV development blog, there were about 500 different versions of Juri at one point, including an old woman, an ice skater, and an—ahem—chubbier version of what we have now. The huskier Juri was supposed to be cute, but as she thinned out, she also became more evil. The team had a hard time deciding whether Juri should be associated with Shadaloo or S.I.N. but finally decided to associate her with Seth instead of M. Bison—the reasoning was that, as a new character, Juri would be a better fit for the Street Fighter storyline as a member of the newer organization.

Like that matters.

But anyway, this is what you guys care about: once the team had settled on a "bad and somewhat erotic" character, producer Yoshinori Ono decided that we should be able to see her (ample) sideboob which lead to the creation of her current outfit, which he likened to "a spider."

Here's where I would usually ask you what you thought about the idea of having an ice skater instead of the Juri we know and love, but what's the point? She's already the best thing about Super Street Fighter IV, and that's not even counting the lip-licking.

[Via Andriasang]