Not gonna finish this drawing...
Added 2016-01-14 21:47:51 +0000 UTCI wanted to but I probably won't. I really like Street Fighter merchandise, and characters. I like the game too. But I know I'll never play enough of it to get the most out of the game. It's usually the best game of it's type, and I enjoying fighting games quite a bit when I can play them at a decent level with someone. Street Fighter has far and away the most iconic and fun characters of the games I've played. And well, Chun-Li is a long time favorite.
One of the weird things about Street Fighter is just how... "racist" some of their imagery is. And yet it's kinda a good kinda positive racist. If that could ever be a thing, it's in how Street Fighter characters (both face and heel characters) are ways to exemplifying strength and celebrating a certain nation. Zangeif is a ridiculous character, but is one of strength and tenacity and boldness that feels perfectly at home facing off against the All American Guile.
Some characters, especially recent ones, are less reliant on weird re-purposed cultural imagery than they used to be. It's probably unlikely that Juri Han represents anything about Korea, her imagery more about creepy spiders and purple glowy eyes. But the tradition of kinda taking broad generalizations about cultures and regions, making them badguys or good guys, and turning them into cartoon caricatures, rarely ever feels mean in Street Fighter's context. It's often celebratory and fun in spirit.
Comments
I love Street Fighter to death and am pretty forgiving of its foibles, but I think some of it goes too far - T. Hawk and El Fuerte are probably good examples of what I'm talking about. T. Hawk doubly so, really. Elena also is an example of "good intentions, bad interpretation". But supposedly E. Honda is disliked by most Japanese fans. So it goes. Also, Dhalsim, what the hell? I learned recently that Zangief is loosely based on a Russian wrestlers that was in New Japan Wrestling (Victor Zangiev), so that was amusing to go back to see the guy he was based on. He actually stands out in that most of the wrestling characters in Japanese games around that time were often based off of WWF stars like Hogan or Andre, though Andre would eventually show up in Street Fighter anyway, even if he's inexplicably German...
ARBco
2016-01-14 23:11:06 +0000 UTC
