I had concluded my previous excursus about the influence of Shinji Hiramatsu’s works on Capcom saying that Mika drew inspiration from a very specific manga for her. Obviously, as is the case with all SF2 character, there’s never a single source for a character. One of the reasons I said to @Lord_Vega that the rejected characters should deserve a deeper analysis is exactly the fact that these first versions often reveal MORE about the original inspirations than the definitive character we ultimately got. If Blanka was named Anabebe, everyone in Japan would’ve recognised the source. The same if they had kept his second name, Hamablanca, from the eponymous jungle-themed leisure facility in Shirahama. By further shortening his name to “Blanka”, however, no one could’ve possibly identified the inspiration.
Mika received HEAVY input from Yumiki Asuka’s ルチャDOLL舞 Lucha Doll Mai (1993),
whose protagonist Maiko Hidaka comes to Japan after having spent her childhood in Mexico with her luchadora mother Ranko, who also trained Maiko in wrestling and planned her ring debut in Japan. Maiko dreams of a normal schoolgirl life, but Ranko forces her daughter to wrestle in tag team with her; every time with skimpier and skimpier outfits… Much to Maiko’s desperation. She tries to keep her luchadora identity hidden from her classmates and teachers, but obviously that wouldn’t prove so easy: her homeroom teacher is the president of the local female wrestling fan club, and being she so tall her potential similarity with the wrestling newcomer doesn’t go unnoticed.
Ranko and Maiko, in the ring “the Lucha dolls” Ran and Mai (sold as sisters rather than mother and daughter, with Ran pretending to be 22 instead of her actual 32 years old - yes, she had Maiko at 16, got a problem with that?), both contribute to Mika’s attire and moves. Something is also taken from Ranko’s delinquent friend Mari Kitazaki, who finds out Ranko’s secret and becomes enamored with pro-wrestling after having witnessed Ranko’s prowess against a rival gang, then debuting in the ring with the alias “Schoolgirl X”. Mika’s definitive design owes mainly to Mai, with Schoolgirl X’s twintails and moves taken from Mai, Ran, Schoolgirl X and Hiramatsu’s Marylin.
Ran’s starting of a new female wrestling promotion (Japanese Ladies Wrestling) obviously angers the president of the already established Big Japan Women pro Wrestling, who tries his worst to bring down the rivals. At first, the BJWW tries to storm JLW’s dojo by sending five wrestlers… To no avail. Ran knocks down one of them with Mika’s combo Vault/Rainbow Suplex during Sardine Special:
Then the Lucha Dolls fight against the French team Bonjour Lips, composed by OSCAR THE GIANT (obvious female version of Andre the Giant fused with Oscar François de Jarjayes from the manga The Rose of Versailles) and The Petit Cat, a lesbian duo who severely puts the Dolls in trouble. Mai starts her attacks with a Rolling Sobat and a flurry of kicks:
Now, a sobat doesn’t mean anything; after all, it’s an attack so common even GUILE had it… But Ran closes the match wit THIS:
Ladies Thigh Force Lariat (LOL). THAT’S MIKA’S FORWARD JUMP, LITERALLY FRAME BY FRAME. Immediately followed by her Punch Air Grab to boot:
Maiko then must face the niece of the vice-president of the BJJW, the young karate champion Kenka Fudō (拳華 kenka “Flower punch”, with the added meaning that “Kenka” is “brawl”), heir of Fudōkan dōjo. Here comes the REAL surprise: finding the primary source of inspiration for MAKOTO in a wrestling manga. Even Makoto retained the flower motif, because the 竜胆 rindō part in her 竜胆館 Rindōkan karate style name means Japanese gentian.
With the same hair-trigger temper, on top of that. Here Kenka is taking offence because her uncle has just told her Ran said that wrestling is stronger than karate. She didn’t, but a feud is a feud…
The last one, Kenka’s 天昇拳
Tenshōken “Sky Rising Fist” is a clear inspiration for Makoto’s Fukiage, BUT its actual form comes more from Ikki Kajiwara’s
Karate Baka Ichidai, in a famous scene in which Ōyama tries to teach Rikidōzan the true karate chop, and when Rikidōzan strikes a palm tree unwittingly dropping some coconuts, Ōyama intercepts one of them with the same move:
In just four pages we see the source for Makoto’s HP, LP and Fukiage. ALL of Makoto’s normals come from Karate Baka Ichidai, but her specials (except Fukiage) are from Lucha Doll Mai. You can really see how Kenka’s long ponytail has become Makoto’s long yellow hachimaki on her neck; its behaviour in animation is exactly the same.
Also, Maiko’s costume during this match is THE basis for Mika’s definitive costume: the lace frills are already there, and with just a slight modification…
Then, Schoolgirl X finally makes her debut, and…
Complete with “Kono! Kono!” (“(take) This! And this!”),
exactly as Mika did in SFZ3 during her headbutts.
And that Backspin Lariat is Mika’s HP.
Of course there are other inspirations, but I’ll stop here for now. Just to whet your appetite, I’ve found the inspirations for Zangief (all of them), Dhalsim, Blanka’s Electric Attack, T. HAWK, BIRDIE, Adon’s Jaguar Kick (finally!) and Sagat.
