mikefrails
Banned
Beauty standards are universal in most major markets though.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
SFV R. Mika default costume was deemed too revealing by ESPN
- Thread starter miku
- Start date
Beauty standards are universal in most major markets though.
vanguardian1
poor, homeless and tasteless
Crud, I was gonna check this out just for the sake of seeing it, but forgot about it completely. Is there any youtube clips of it or with ESPN itself?
Exactly. So why bother adhering to just one market?
That's what diversity and inclusion is about. If you want a game to sell big on the world stage, why would you adhere to one culture's idea of beauty? It makes no sense, especially considering the last 5 years of gaming and the gaming community.
Totally agree. Seeing the model swap videos -- what really stood out to me was how cool it looked to see a female character with more serious animations. I can't find the Cammy one, but this Laura one is ok too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGyNWMlmNys
Necali at 7:20 or so
Nash at 9:52 or so
Or even just Ryu at 3:55 or so
Seems so easy to make a bad ass female character, but it is so rare. Necali and Nash animations look so destructive and violent -- gives a sense of scary power that you almost never see in female characters. Ryu's animations show so much intent and a sense of expertise in fighting. Then pay attention to the animations for female characters, which look more like dancing or something (more apparent when a male character is mapped to them). I think that's why Makoto was so cool to see.
edit: I think it also makes the lack of diversity pretty apparent when all the women can be mapped to each other's animations with relatively few oddities, while that's not at all true for the male cast.
Damn, I love the look of Laura with Nash animations. A serious female character with a violent moveset like that would be amazing.
Right? Some serious KOF vibes there.
mikefrails
Banned
When has a game sold poorly because the characters were too pretty?
I doubt Lara Croft or Tomb Raider would be popular or exist as a franchise today if she looked more like Susan Boyle than Angelina Jolie.
That's just the way it is.
That's just the way it is.
When has a game sold poorly because the characters were too ugly? Even Loadout, which has probably the most extreme female design on the market, had it's payday.
Sure, if you want to go back 20 years ago. But the conversation is about gaming now, not gaming on it's 3rd dimensional infancy.
Is your solution really: "It worked 20 years ago, so of course it'll work now?"
mikefrails
Banned
Would an out of shape person be doing all the actiony stuff we see in video games?
I get where you're coming from, but through this all I can't get behind the idea that most people playing games look to see themselves reflected in the material. I've never felt this way, no one I know feels this way, and I think there's a lot of assuming going on as far as what characters should look like and why.
Why not? It's a video game. The fat guys are doing it, why not fat girls? Or super spindely girls? Or tall girls? It's all fantasy, there's precedent for literally anything.
While I can understand you feeling that way, every person I've ever talked to about a game like skyrim or fallout does, at some point, try and reflect themselves in this fantasy world. So it's not outlandish for there to be a demand for a little bit more inclusion, especially when, as we've seen, the women on a pure design standpoint are all basically the same with certain features altered on a slider.
There's no reason not to, the powers that be simply aren't trying in the case of women. They're certainly trying when it comes to men though. Oro is a character that happened. Rufus was one of the most popular SF4 characters for a hot minute. Junkrat and Roadhog are prominant characters that get tons of use.
Why not at least TRY doing the same thing for women? If it doesn't work out, at least we'll have something to point back at and say "this didn't work, men didn't like it, women dind't like it, so we won't do it again". I doubt that'll happen though.
TL
R - The Legend of Zelda: Telma's Tavern Simulator. Fund it.chaobreaker
Member
Agreed. KoF has given some of the most brutal fighting styles and animations to female characters like Mature, Vice, Leona, and (to an extent) Vanessa.
Speaking of KoF, There's only a handful of questionably designed female characters throughout the series history and most of them are legacy characters. SNK has been mostly hitting it out of the park with all the cool, sexy, badass and tasteful female character designs they've been pumping out for the past 25+ years of them making fighting games.
The only particular sour point in the series I can think of at the top of my head was KoF 12 and 13 bringing back the clothing damage King and Yuri used to suffer in the Art of Fighting series and KoF 94 and 95. The series also has a similar level of body diversity issues that Street Fighter has.
again creators generally create characters they think look cool/hot/whatever because thats what they are into.
You aren't going to find many fat or ugly protagonists period. And when you do there is generally a reason for their looks.
The idea of beauty will simply need to change to see this on a large scale really. For all the recent uproar, I think it has. You have started to see a slow but still active change from stripper costumes being the norm as it was seemingly 10 years ago. But its probably never going to get to the point in which there are a bunch of ugly women in games.
You aren't going to find many fat or ugly protagonists period. And when you do there is generally a reason for their looks.
The idea of beauty will simply need to change to see this on a large scale really. For all the recent uproar, I think it has. You have started to see a slow but still active change from stripper costumes being the norm as it was seemingly 10 years ago. But its probably never going to get to the point in which there are a bunch of ugly women in games.
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
FWIW, I don't think characters like Birdie or Rufus are highly regarded when it comes to design.
Cindi Mayweather
Member
The problem with your argument is that it extends to practically all fighting games.
Name a fat female character in a fighter. Do it right fucking now.
Name a weird female fighting game character. The best I've got are Arc Sys games and Skullgirls and those fit within their universes as weird weird games. Even then, Millia is totally less weird than Faust. And in XRD, there's a characters whose boobs get prominent play the second her intro starts. The girls getting pretty standard characters and the dudes getting cool or weird shit is pretty standard in fighters and why I'm so excited for Tekken 7 and need Master Raven NOW.
Every single franchise has their female characters showing skin except KOF and even KOF has most fan service in area of Mai and a few other characters. But it's still far and away more classy than other fighters.
It's a genre wide problem.
Also for what it's worth, as a Laura player, I think she's cool as fuck. Cool female characters exist. Chun is cool. Laura is cool. Cammy's cool. Vanessa from VF is the coolest though.
But that never stopped them from being used. That's my point. Someone will like them. People aren't lashing out against their inclusion. They're just something different. There's nothing wrong with something different.
And it's weird that different has to be exclusively male.
Rufus was highly used because he was really really good. No one is crying about him not being in SFV. I think Bob is cool but his own reveal was used as a "really...Bob? come on Harada" joke (Bob also was pretty OP).
Being overused has very little to do with people liking or being fine with the design.
Hell part of the "rumored" reason SF3 failed was because it had too many weirdos and not enough cool people....
people tend to prefer to play characters they think look good.
Being overused has very little to do with people liking or being fine with the design.
Hell part of the "rumored" reason SF3 failed was because it had too many weirdos and not enough cool people....
people tend to prefer to play characters they think look good.
SolidSnakex
Member
The original take on Rufus was very different, but is much preferred by fans than what Rufus would eventually become
I believe he was codenamed "King Cobra", but you can see that his design falls more in line with Ryu or Ken than with Rufus.
Fess
Member
It depends what you consider fat but Mary in Tobal is at least a bit chubbier than the rest.
Edit: But your point is still vaild. Women in fighting games are far far too generic, DOA is even accused of using the same base model for all women with just color swaps for the eyes and hair etc, there are bigger differences between the womens looks if you compare one female character in two different DOA games than if you compare all female characters in one single game.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Horrible excuse, SF already has multiple overweight characters:
Not to mention characters like Wario. It's absolutely possible to have an out of shape character doing stuff in video games. Just like it's possible to play as old characters. We should be given the option to play as old women and overweight women as well.
Considering how there is a push for games to be more inclusive, there absolutely is a bigger audience looking for representation. No one is assuming anything, there absolutely should be more variety when it comes to the body types of women in fighting games instead of everyone boiling down to hourglass. Otherwise we'd be stuck with the status quo.
I didn't even know SF3 was a thing until years after its' release, and when I saw it, it barely looked like the Street Fighter I knew, even with character I knew looking just like they did in SF2. Q, Necro, Twelve and that ilk was like 'wtf happened?'
Cindi Mayweather
Member
Juri looks cool as fuck. Where is this "female characters are rarely cool" thing coming from?
scoobidoo112
Member
Violence is okay, but human bodies are not. Either that concept has been drilled into your head as a child, or you have no fucking clue why people think that way.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Notice how no one has an issue with shirtless Ryu or Zangief. Because their character design is not specifically meant for titillation. I'm so tired of this "b-b-b-but violence" rhetoric. This game is barely more violent than a looney toon short. No one has an issue with human body.
You saying that makes me want a powerhouse female character like Kong in SF.
Pic for reference:
NinjaCoachZ
Member
Forgive me if this has been mentioned earlier, but UDON artist Omar Dogan (always one of my favourite artists from the SF comic), drew this on his Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIEyIbLhdYu/?taken-by=omar.dogan.5
...and he himself lamented that SFV has taken its female characters in a more crass direction, and he missed the sense of playfulness that used to be present in the series artwork.
SF has never been perfect in how it represented its women, but I always loved how there was soooo much official artwork from artbooks and such, portraying the characters in down-to-earth or even comical situations.
Chun-Li/Cammy's endings in SSFII:
Some art from artbooks:
...and it's just an atmosphere that SFIV and SFV don't seem to have, y'know? We don't ever get to see those kinds of ordinary, everyday character moments in the recent storylines or artwork. I dunno, I just feel like it's such a waste.
With Cammy especially, while the thong leotard started in Alpha and some of its victory poses, it was only SFIV that applied it to her Delta Red outfit. In SFII it had more coverage, but then IV decided to take that away and make the buttshots into a bigger focus (e.g. that infamous intro, her SSFIV artwork...).
R. Mika wasn't a blatantly sexual character in Alpha 3. She was goofy, over-designed, and provided a lot of comedy with her silly animations. But then V comes around, and it feels like all the fun and sincerity is gone and replaced with lewdness. I almost wish she was never brought back because of how much I hate how shameless the dialogue around her and her portrayal (her artwork is a damn boobs-and-butt pose) has become.
I definitely see where he's coming from and it was fascinating to see that coming from someone so involved in the series. I dunno, this is probably kind of a mess, but I think Omar really nailed why I'm bothered so much by how the classic characters and ESPECIALLY the female ones are portrayed in IV and V. There's an element of playfulness to the characters that just seems to have been lost, and some of what's replaced it comes off as pretty tasteless.
(Maybe it's just Ono's SF in general I don't care for. I hate how it feels like under him, the humourous aspects of the characters have become less subtle and more beating-you-over-the-head with them. Birdie being turned into a doughnut-loving glutton is the worst example of this to me.)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIEyIbLhdYu/?taken-by=omar.dogan.5
...and he himself lamented that SFV has taken its female characters in a more crass direction, and he missed the sense of playfulness that used to be present in the series artwork.
SF has never been perfect in how it represented its women, but I always loved how there was soooo much official artwork from artbooks and such, portraying the characters in down-to-earth or even comical situations.
Chun-Li/Cammy's endings in SSFII:
Some art from artbooks:
...and it's just an atmosphere that SFIV and SFV don't seem to have, y'know? We don't ever get to see those kinds of ordinary, everyday character moments in the recent storylines or artwork. I dunno, I just feel like it's such a waste.
With Cammy especially, while the thong leotard started in Alpha and some of its victory poses, it was only SFIV that applied it to her Delta Red outfit. In SFII it had more coverage, but then IV decided to take that away and make the buttshots into a bigger focus (e.g. that infamous intro, her SSFIV artwork...).
R. Mika wasn't a blatantly sexual character in Alpha 3. She was goofy, over-designed, and provided a lot of comedy with her silly animations. But then V comes around, and it feels like all the fun and sincerity is gone and replaced with lewdness. I almost wish she was never brought back because of how much I hate how shameless the dialogue around her and her portrayal (her artwork is a damn boobs-and-butt pose) has become.
I definitely see where he's coming from and it was fascinating to see that coming from someone so involved in the series. I dunno, this is probably kind of a mess, but I think Omar really nailed why I'm bothered so much by how the classic characters and ESPECIALLY the female ones are portrayed in IV and V. There's an element of playfulness to the characters that just seems to have been lost, and some of what's replaced it comes off as pretty tasteless.
(Maybe it's just Ono's SF in general I don't care for. I hate how it feels like under him, the humourous aspects of the characters have become less subtle and more beating-you-over-the-head with them. Birdie being turned into a doughnut-loving glutton is the worst example of this to me.)
The Qu are genderless, though I'm not sure if that makes Quina a better or worse example.
And he is right. SF feminine cast feels more DoA than ever.
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
BreezyLimbo
Banned
This comment struck out to me
If only because Hollywood is still stuck in the same fallings(Rarely do you see a perceived 'ugly' person in a main role) as gaming is, and Hollywood has been around for more or less, 100 years.
Truth is, Gaming is still in its infancy in many things.
To be clear, I never said it was only a SFV issue and I agree it's a wider issue (I even referenced Overwatch).
NinjaCoachZ
Member
I know you're probably being facetious and maybe a bit self-deprecatory, so this isn't directed at you personally, don't worry, but I thought I'd clarify that "fun and sincere" thing.
I just feel like the character portrayals in Street Fighter have gradually become more immature since SFIV, and R. Mika is one of the worst/most blatant examples of it.
SFIV was kind of shallow in its writing, but whatever, it was the first game in the series in a longtime, it's probably just laying groundwork for the future and I'm happy to see all these characters again. The character portrayals in SF X Tekken and Street Fighter V though... It all just felt very sophomoric.
Ever since the IV era, I thought it'd be cool if Mika came back because she was a funny character in Alpha 3 who added a nice element of comedy to the game's large roster. She was a fun addition both because I liked her playstyle, and because of the style of her character complementing the game in an unusual way, without dragging it down. Yeah, she was kind of eyeroll-worthy, but it was in a lighthearted way, y'know? Okay, she falls down and then rubs her butt when she misses, but that was played for laughs, not for titillation. Like a female Dan, almost.
In V though, it feels like they've just turned her into this... It just feels like she exists to be cheesecake first, a fun character probably not even second. Stuff like the buttslap and the whole "controversy" that ensued, as well as certain crowds using her as some kind of symbol for "censorship in gaming!!", was some of the most juvenile nonsense I've ever seen in gaming and made me genuinely embarrassed to be a Street Fighter fan.
In II, Alpha, III and everything surrounding them, the characters were all portrayed in a very low-key way. They had their quirks and humourous aspects, but they managed to be pronounced in their subtlety, almost. Like, the series always had a very lighthearted tone, and that's because the artwork, dialogue, and animations always seemed to suggest a tongue in-cheek nature. The series never went too far into the "super-serious" or "super-pulpy" direction, but never too far into the "outright comedy" zone. It managed to be very balanced, adopted a "less is more" approach to making its characters seem likable, with just enough lore and art/dialogue/action-based worldbuilding to make them feel like people - and thus it had a very genuine atmosphere. That's the kind of charm that made me fall in love with the series's characters, and nothing since IV has really captured that same playful spirit, sadly.
Garrett Hawke
Member
Thanks for posting, I see what you mean in reference to the art. I feel like the Japanese industry in general has doubled down on the sexiness though, I don't get why. Maybe because the West is moving away from it?Forgive me if this has been mentioned earlier, but UDON artist Omar Dogan (always one of my favourite artists from the SF comic), drew this on his Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIEyIbLhdYu/?taken-by=omar.dogan.5
...and he himself lamented that SFV has taken its female characters in a more crass direction, and he missed the sense of playfulness that used to be present in the series artwork.
SF has never been perfect in how it represented its women, but I always loved how there was soooo much official artwork from artbooks and such, portraying the characters in down-to-earth or even comical situations.
Chun-Li/Cammy's endings in SSFII:
Some art from artbooks:
...and it's just an atmosphere that SFIV and SFV don't seem to have, y'know? We don't ever get to see those kinds of ordinary, everyday character moments in the recent storylines or artwork. I dunno, I just feel like it's such a waste.
With Cammy especially, while the thong leotard started in Alpha and some of its victory poses, it was only SFIV that applied it to her Delta Red outfit. In SFII it had more coverage, but then IV decided to take that away and make the buttshots into a bigger focus (e.g. that infamous intro, her SSFIV artwork...).
R. Mika wasn't a blatantly sexual character in Alpha 3. She was goofy, over-designed, and provided a lot of comedy with her silly animations. But then V comes around, and it feels like all the fun and sincerity is gone and replaced with lewdness. I almost wish she was never brought back because of how much I hate how shameless the dialogue around her and her portrayal (her artwork is a damn boobs-and-butt pose) has become.
I definitely see where he's coming from and it was fascinating to see that coming from someone so involved in the series. I dunno, this is probably kind of a mess, but I think Omar really nailed why I'm bothered so much by how the classic characters and ESPECIALLY the female ones are portrayed in IV and V. There's an element of playfulness to the characters that just seems to have been lost, and some of what's replaced it comes off as pretty tasteless.
(Maybe it's just Ono's SF in general I don't care for. I hate how it feels like under him, the humourous aspects of the characters have become less subtle and more beating-you-over-the-head with them. Birdie being turned into a doughnut-loving glutton is the worst example of this to me.)
Still, now I want a pijama pack for SFV.
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Absolutely nothing about muscle power is insincere.
Forgive me if this has been mentioned earlier, but UDON artist Omar Dogan (always one of my favourite artists from the SF comic), drew this on his Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIEyIbLhdYu/?taken-by=omar.dogan.5
...and he himself lamented that SFV has taken its female characters in a more crass direction, and he missed the sense of playfulness that used to be present in the series artwork.
SF has never been perfect in how it represented its women, but I always loved how there was soooo much official artwork from artbooks and such, portraying the characters in down-to-earth or even comical situations.
Chun-Li/Cammy's endings in SSFII:
Some art from artbooks:
...and it's just an atmosphere that SFIV and SFV don't seem to have, y'know? We don't ever get to see those kinds of ordinary, everyday character moments in the recent storylines or artwork. I dunno, I just feel like it's such a waste.
With Cammy especially, while the thong leotard started in Alpha and some of its victory poses, it was only SFIV that applied it to her Delta Red outfit. In SFII it had more coverage, but then IV decided to take that away and make the buttshots into a bigger focus (e.g. that infamous intro, her SSFIV artwork...).
R. Mika wasn't a blatantly sexual character in Alpha 3. She was goofy, over-designed, and provided a lot of comedy with her silly animations. But then V comes around, and it feels like all the fun and sincerity is gone and replaced with lewdness. I almost wish she was never brought back because of how much I hate how shameless the dialogue around her and her portrayal (her artwork is a damn boobs-and-butt pose) has become.
I definitely see where he's coming from and it was fascinating to see that coming from someone so involved in the series. I dunno, this is probably kind of a mess, but I think Omar really nailed why I'm bothered so much by how the classic characters and ESPECIALLY the female ones are portrayed in IV and V. There's an element of playfulness to the characters that just seems to have been lost, and some of what's replaced it comes off as pretty tasteless.
(Maybe it's just Ono's SF in general I don't care for. I hate how it feels like under him, the humourous aspects of the characters have become less subtle and more beating-you-over-the-head with them. Birdie being turned into a doughnut-loving glutton is the worst example of this to me.)
++
edit: I went through an art book I have to see if there was anything like that -- it's all fan-art, so I wasn't expecting much. But I had to post this.
Not really related to current conversation, but I thought it was great haha.
Mr. Poolman
Member
Forgive me if this has been mentioned earlier, but UDON artist Omar Dogan (always one of my favourite artists from the SF comic), drew this on his Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIEyIbLhdYu/?taken-by=omar.dogan.5
...and he himself lamented that SFV has taken its female characters in a more crass direction, and he missed the sense of playfulness that used to be present in the series artwork.
SF has never been perfect in how it represented its women, but I always loved how there was soooo much official artwork from artbooks and such, portraying the characters in down-to-earth or even comical situations.
Chun-Li/Cammy's endings in SSFII:
Some art from artbooks:
...and it's just an atmosphere that SFIV and SFV don't seem to have, y'know? We don't ever get to see those kinds of ordinary, everyday character moments in the recent storylines or artwork. I dunno, I just feel like it's such a waste.
With Cammy especially, while the thong leotard started in Alpha and some of its victory poses, it was only SFIV that applied it to her Delta Red outfit. In SFII it had more coverage, but then IV decided to take that away and make the buttshots into a bigger focus (e.g. that infamous intro, her SSFIV artwork...).
R. Mika wasn't a blatantly sexual character in Alpha 3. She was goofy, over-designed, and provided a lot of comedy with her silly animations. But then V comes around, and it feels like all the fun and sincerity is gone and replaced with lewdness. I almost wish she was never brought back because of how much I hate how shameless the dialogue around her and her portrayal (her artwork is a damn boobs-and-butt pose) has become.
I definitely see where he's coming from and it was fascinating to see that coming from someone so involved in the series. I dunno, this is probably kind of a mess, but I think Omar really nailed why I'm bothered so much by how the classic characters and ESPECIALLY the female ones are portrayed in IV and V. There's an element of playfulness to the characters that just seems to have been lost, and some of what's replaced it comes off as pretty tasteless.
(Maybe it's just Ono's SF in general I don't care for. I hate how it feels like under him, the humourous aspects of the characters have become less subtle and more beating-you-over-the-head with them. Birdie being turned into a doughnut-loving glutton is the worst example of this to me.)
You have my sword.
It'd be fun if it was more than 1 set of dialog and was actually useful.
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
She even rubs her ass in fewer of her moves in SF5 compared to SFA3. :V
Good Job Bob
Member
I disagree that R. Mika is any more sexualized in this game than she was in SFA3. Not sure what NinjaCoachZ is seeing.
SolidSnakex
Member
It just seems like you're willing ot excuse her sexualization in Alpha but not in SFV. This is her hip rush in Alpha
It's not a coincidence that the freeze happens when her butt is turned toward the screen. Here's one of her win poses from SFV
How's that not playful and goofy? And here's what she can do if you let her use her V-Skill (which is her literally doing a promo during the fight)
That promo takes 20s to complete. But you're saying she's somehow not goofy or lighthearted anymore.
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
No, I really don't.
He can find the T&A upgrade to be distasteful, but saying that that's all the character is is a case of some pretty selective vision.
These kind of comments are always so confusing. Are you being serious? I'm not really a fan of her design in either game but she's clearly been amped up sexually.
Official Alpha3 artwork:
Official SFV artwork:
Not to mention her boob window went from seeing cleavage to basically showing as much boob as possible.
NinjaCoachZ
Member
First off, this is a logical fallacy. You are criticizing me for "holding her alpha design in some high honor" (at best an exaggeration of my points, as I never described her design as some perfection or masterpiece of character design) despite that "many" (i.e. other people) would disagree. Evidently the people you are seeing who describe her as "nothing more than a fanservice character" are not the same as the person holding her design in high honour.
R. Mika has been interpreted lewdly by the fanbase for a long time, that's true. But before SFV, she was a relatively obscure character. The lewd interpretations were generally not in line with the game and due to their own obscurity, came off as more of a fringe that was ignored. Now that she's back in the limelight, not only does it seem the fanbase is making the lewdness a central issue, but things like the buttslap (later removed) seem to indicate Capcom is doing their job for them.
It just seems like you're willing ot excuse her sexualization in Alpha but not in SFV. This is her hip rush in Alpha
It's not a coincidence that the freeze happens when her butt is turned toward the screen.
Yeah, that's true. Though on the other hand:
- it's not as if the camera zooms in on the butt and makes it front-and-center (as the buttslap did in original versions of the game; before Capcom made the right call and removed it)
- it's also worth noting that the attack is a turn-around punch, kind of like Cammy's spin knuckle. The animation is freezing in the frames juuust before she punches the enemy, which also happens to be when she's turned around.
Basically, is the butt there? Yes. But it's not the important part of the animation. Like I said, it's about the portrayal. The fact that something is present is one thing - it's what they do with it that leaves the impression. Also worth noting is that while it's not exactly full-coverage, it's also not a thong like in SFV.
Maybe I misspoke. Is all the fun gone from the character? No. But I'd say the sincerity part holds up. To me, the fact that the character has become more crass makes the humour seem more hollow, and that makes it hard for me to perceive it in the same way.
e.g. If there's a game where a female character is normally portrayed in a respectable way, and there's a volleyball minigame where she does something clumsy, it's funny as a catch-you-off-guard, out-of-character moment. If there was an Xtreme Beach Volleyball game where she's undressed and missing most of her agency, the "humourous" or klutzy moments take on a different context. Not saying this is 100% analogous to R. Mika or how I feel about her. But this should give an idea of where I'm coming from.
And for the record, like I've said earlier (using Birdie as an example), SFV's humour in general has a similar sort of hollow or unnatural feeling to it.
R. Mika's key artwork in SFA3. Her doing a basic pose, front-first on the ground. Looks almost like she's walking into the ring for her next matchup.
R. Mika's key artwork in SFV. Physically impossible and accentuates boobs and thong-clad butt for maximum titillation. This would make Rob Liefeld proud. What is this pose even supposed to represent?
See what I mean? She always wore a pretty skimpy outfit and IIRC some supplemental material made a point of noting her bust size, but V practically displays it as the focal point. Also note the leotard being changed to a thong, and the bandeau now having less coverage.
lol compare that withIt just seems like you're willing ot excuse her sexualization in Alpha but not in SFV. This is her hip rush in Alpha
It's not a coincidence that the freeze happens when her butt is turned toward the screen.
Not only did they make it more of a thong, a freeze frame on a tiny sprite on your screen is not really comparable to zooming in to her butt to see her slap it and watch it jiggle.
Cindi Mayweather
Member
R Mika has always been a trash character and should have never been in V without a considerable design change.
NinjaCoachZ
Member
Her design in SFA3 definitely wasn't perfect and was probably made bearable by the fact that she was just one in a big roster, but V was pretty handily a step down.
I'd have no problem with them starting fresh and giving her a new design entirely. Karin got a pretty good changeup with her appearance.
The screen moves because they have the ability to do so now thanks to it being in 3d. This kinda comes with the advancement of technology.
"well they didn't do it back then" is a shit defense. No shit they didn't do back then...they couldn't.
I'm not even arguing that Mika's lewdness has been amped up...but to act like that never was apart of the character is just silly.
A lot of things you could get away with in 2D don't always translate. Mika become more lewd is a product of that.
But to say there is no fun in the character and that she is all about sex appeal is disingenuous as fuck or shows that you aren't paying as much attention as you may think. Butt Slap and CA aside, Mika is very rarely about TnA character wise. Its actually not brought up at all silly as that may be (walking around a secret base in a wrestling costume is silly shit lol) in universe. AFAIK, she doesn't even have many provactive poses (i.e taunts and win poses) as one may think she would. And her personality is that of a loud mouth, kinda stupid, ....and just very similar to Gief overall. Yeah the design is meant for cheesecake...will not deny that. Nor do I even hold it against ESPN for their rule. Nor do I not get why some may find it to be too much. But I also think people are selling the character a bit short here...especially if the "better" version is supposed to be Alpha.
"well they didn't do it back then" is a shit defense. No shit they didn't do back then...they couldn't.
I'm not even arguing that Mika's lewdness has been amped up...but to act like that never was apart of the character is just silly.
A lot of things you could get away with in 2D don't always translate. Mika become more lewd is a product of that.
But to say there is no fun in the character and that she is all about sex appeal is disingenuous as fuck or shows that you aren't paying as much attention as you may think. Butt Slap and CA aside, Mika is very rarely about TnA character wise. Its actually not brought up at all silly as that may be (walking around a secret base in a wrestling costume is silly shit lol) in universe. AFAIK, she doesn't even have many provactive poses (i.e taunts and win poses) as one may think she would. And her personality is that of a loud mouth, kinda stupid, ....and just very similar to Gief overall. Yeah the design is meant for cheesecake...will not deny that. Nor do I even hold it against ESPN for their rule. Nor do I not get why some may find it to be too much. But I also think people are selling the character a bit short here...especially if the "better" version is supposed to be Alpha.