the foreigner in Japanese fighting games, from caricature to weapon of seduction

The planisphere of the character selection screen of “Street Fighter II” remains iconic. CAPCOM

With the release of Tekken 8 (available today on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC, developed by Bandai Namco), Japan continues its great tradition of fighting games with an international cast. Since Street Fighter II : The World Warrior popularized the genre in 1991, players ready to fight choose their champion from a wide selection of colorful fighters from the four corners of the world.

So, in Street Fighter, Honda, the Japanese sumo wrestler can face Sagat, the Thai adept at muay-thai. Or, in games TekkenNina, a blond-haired fighter from Ireland, will be able to compete against King, the Mexican wrestler with the jaguar mask. “These games are a bit like Eurovision, except that you don’t choose the candidates who are supposed to represent you”laughs Sercan Sengun, who teaches the science of games and interactive media at the University of Central Florida.

The question of the accuracy of these representations, however, ended up being asked, particularly online from the 2000s. At the time of the release of Street Fighter IV (2008), Dhalsim, the yogi with the necklace of skulls, is thus criticized by certain observers for his pejorative representation of Indian culture. “Whether in Japan or elsewhere, in the 1990s we did not have as much access to information as todayrecalls Matt Leone, author of The unofficial history of Street Fighter as told by its creators (Third Editions, 2023). The developers’ exaggerations were not necessarily ill-intentioned. »

The fact that fighting games of the 1990s were primarily played on arcade machines, a platform on which playing time is limited, also seems to have had an influence on this representation: in Street Fighter IIyou only have around twenty seconds to choose your character. “We need to convey ideas as quickly as possible. Stereotypes are thus a way of conveying concepts very effectively to the player”adds Mr. Leone.

Dhalsim, the fiery yogi, provoked discussion about his representation of Indian culture. CAPCOM

A caricature not always poorly received

For Sercan Sengun, the characters in fighting games are less of a stereotype than of caricature and exaggeration. In the study Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters (“Contours of virtual caricature among fighting game characters”, untranslated) which he co-signed in 2022, he observes real disparities in the intensity of caricature depending on the fighter. “We found that it is generally possible to predict whether a character’s caricature will arouse admiration, be attractive or appear aggressive to players, simply by observing the color of their skin”, details Mr. Sengun. Indeed, the study describes less favorable treatment for characters with darker skin, unlike, for example, Japanese characters, who are portrayed in a more flattering manner.

These national champions may be caricatures in various ways, but they can nevertheless be welcomed favorably by the nationals of the nations represented. So, when, five months before the release of Tekken 8the publisher of the game revealed Azucena, a Peruvian fighter who swears by coffee, if some deplore the lack of depth of the character, a certain Marco and many others, on YouTube, congratulate themselves on the contrary.

“As a Peruvian, he explains, I never imagined seeing a compatriot arrive in Tekken. Thank you from the heart. » For his part, A Peruvian manPeru’s oldest publication, is delighted to see a female fighter “which has a history that connects it to [sa] culture and [son] pays ».

The first Peruvian to join the fighters of the “Tekken” series, Azucena is above all defined by her immoderate love for coffee. CAPCOM

In 2010, when Capcom, the publisher of Super Street Fighter IVreveals the Turkish fighter Hakan, the reaction is however “more mixed”remembers Mr. Şengün, himself a national of the country. “An interesting character”, practicing a traditional fight requiring coating their body with oil. But if, “on the one hand, people were happy by the simple fact that Turkey was present in Street Fighterthere was also much discussion about the quality of the portrayal” of this stocky, vindictive, slippery character, bouncing across the screen in grotesque fashion.

Hakan from “Super Street Fighter IV” is the first Turkish character to appear in the series. CAPCOM

An economic issue

However, we have come a long way since Dhalsim and his necklace of skulls. “There are more people involved in creating a game today than there were thirty years ago. The studios even have legal departments that come to check that there are no problems with a character., contextualizes Matt Leone. A sign that authenticity is up to date, the latest Tekken now even go so far as to have all its fighters dubbed by actors from their countries of origin.

The world

Beyond the question of sensitivity, there are also, more pragmatically, economic issues. The emergence of new markets in previously neglected parts of the globe also influences the design of fighters.

The recent emergence of the Gulf countries, with Saudi Arabia in the lead, on the international e-sports scene is perhaps not unrelated to the appearance, in recent years, of Saudi figures (Shaheen in 2015 in Tekken 7 ; Rashid in 2016 in Street Fighter V) or more broadly Arab (the Egyptian Menat in Street Fighter V). “These are slow changes, but they are happeningconstate Sercan Sengun. Developers are increasingly consulting local players, especially on social networks, to refine the representation of national characters. »

Shaheen, from the “Tekken” series, but also Rashid (“Street Fighter”), two popular Middle Eastern characters. CAPCOM

“If there’s a big esports scene in a country that doesn’t yet have a representative, then as a developer you’ll probably want to add it to your next titleestimates M. Sengun. And vice versa. »

Thus, the regions where these fighting games are little or not distributed are largely ignored by their creators. While black fighters are common there, they generally come from the United States, or even Brazil, a country with which Japan has a long economic and demographic history. With the exception of Elena in Street Fighter III (1997), on the other hand, it is difficult to identify characters from sub-Saharan Africa. “There are lots of factors, of course, but commercial issues matter”summarizes Mr. Sengun.

If France is not left out in terms of more or less caricatured representatives, it generally gets away with it. Street Fighter III thus met Remy, practicing the slipper, which hides his fine features behind his long hair. Street Fighter IV for its part introduced Abel, whose blond hair, blue eyes and tricolor outfit are among the most common French clichés in Japanese video games. Last year, Street Fighter 6 suggested Manon, a muscular ballerina who incorporates judo techniques into her dance. As for Tekken 8, he has just seen Victor Chevalier arrive, a sort of bodyguard who handles both a saber and a pistol, always wearing haute couture and voiced by Vincent Cassel himself. It’s hard to be more French!

Corentin Benoit-Gonin