Ibuki (Street Fighter)

Ibuki (いぶき) is a video game character from the Street Fighter fighting game series. She along with Elena were the lone female characters in the Street Fighter III series, until 3rd Strike, where they were joined by Makoto and Chun-Li. Despite her debut in a relatively obscure entry in the series, Ibuki has become one of the most popular Street Fighter female characters.

Character design
She is slim and athletic, her black hair held tightly back in a topknot that drops behind her well beneath her waist. Ibuki's outfit is a traditional type of ninja dogi, consisting of a sleeveless upper garment, baggy pants, arm guards, and a mask that conceals the lower half of her face. Her footwear consists only of cloth bandages wrapped around her shins, ankles, and instep. Ibuki's alternative (everyday) costume is a blue-and-white schoolgirl uniform.

Street Fighter series
Ibuki is a teenage girl from a small mountain village in Japan that is actually the home of an ancient ninja clan. In spite of her training in the deadly arts of ninjutsu, Ibuki is an ordinary high school girl with a fascination for pop idols. Although a bit carefree, she can be strong when she needs to be. She uses a form of ninja taijutsu that combines several ancient martial art styles from Japan.

Ibuki lives in a village composed entirely of ninja. She has been trained from childhood, but resents her lot in life. The other ninja in Ibuki's clan include Sanjou, Enjou, Genda, Raion, and Homura Yuuta. Ibuki also has a pet tanuki named Don. While she is a trained warrior, she also shows a "valley girl"-ish side, stating that she finds her ninja clothes ugly and her daily training strange, and jumping back into her civilian clothing as soon as she wins a bout. In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Ibuki shares a special pre-fight intro with Makoto, showing that the two consider each other as special rivals of sorts.

In the original Street Fighter III and 2nd Impact, Ibuki is sent by her clan to retrieve the mysterious "G file" from Gill's organization. In Ibuki's ending, Gill hands her the file after their battle, as the project was already underway. In 3rd Strike, Ibuki is preparing to graduate from high school and is studying for her college application exams, hoping to move away from home and find a nice boyfriend. As part of her final exam, Ibuki is sent out to find and defeat Oro, who despite his legendary martial arts seems to act quite lecherous around her. In her ending in 3rd Strike, Ibuki gets accepted by Sarusuberi University (私立百日紅大学), which is secretly an elite ninja training camp.

The other members of Ibuki's ninja clan that appears in her stage in the first two Street Fighter III games includes Sanjō (三条), Enjō (円城), Genda (玄田), and Raion (雷音). Her pet tanuki is named Don (どん). Ibuki's friend in her endings in the original game and 2nd Impact is named Sarai Kurosawa (黒澤　早雷), who lives in the same village and attends the same high school. The young boy who is sparring with Ibuki before a CPU match in 3rd Strike is named Yūta Homura (焔　悠蛇). Geki from the original Street Fighter game was rumoured to be her father.

A kunai resembling Ibuki's is seen in Fei Long's ending in Street Fighter IV and a teaser image for Super Street Fighter IV shows one of the characters blocking another. She was later revealed to be playable in SSFIV. Her backstory for the game has her cutting class to have fun and to look for boys to date. She even meets Sakura, whom Ibuki recognizes as a high school student based on her uniform, as she tries to get Sakura to introduce her to a boy.

Other games
Ibuki is also a playable character in the fighting game Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, in which she sneaks off from her ninja training to eat an ice cream in Tokyo, and makes a cameo appearance in Capcom Fighting Jam. In 2011, Ibuki was announced to return as a playable character in the crossover fighting game title Street Fighter X Tekken.

Gameplay
GameSpot called her to be the "most similar" to Cammy and Geki. According to UGO Networks, Ibuki "has the strength and speed to face off against any top-tier character", as she is "quick, somewhat unpredictable and easy to pick up" ("She's just as likely to attack an opponent from the front as she is to dash into the air and rain down kunais. It's this type of diversity in fighting that makes her attractive to players").

Promotion and merchandise
Ibuki has been a favorable character for use in promotional artwork and had several figurines and action figures made in her image, most notably from Megahouse, Sota and Capcom themselves (specifically one designed by Street Fighter III character designer, Kinu Nishimura). She also appeared in several of Street Fighter comic books. To coincide with the release of SSFIV, UDON Entertainment published a special 4-issue mini-series Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki.

Reception
Ibuki was met with a positive critical and fan reception regarding her character design, albeit with some reservations regarding her gameplay issues. In 2002, Ibuki was voted the 12th most popular Street Fighter character in Capcom's own poll for the 15th anniversary of Street Fighter. She also placed 15th in the list of Top 20 Street Fighter Characters of All Time by GameDaily in 2009. In 2004, 1UP.com ranked Ibuki as the sixth overall best video game ninja character, calling her "one of the coolest-looking characters" in Street Fighter III but "also one of the least capable in competition". In 2008, IGN ranked Ibuki as the 22nd top Street Fighter character, stating: "...you only need one ninja, though, as long as it's the right ninja, and Ibuki's a pretty sharp one as far as ninja go," and in 2009 featured her among the character they wanted to appear in Street Fighter IV. GamesRadar also listed her among the characters they would like to see in SSFIV, despite her being "one of the weaker characters" in SFIII, citing her "enduring popularity", "rapid, skill-centric combos and high-flying special moves" and "her costume – which leaves her hips conspicuously bare and devoid of any sign of underpants" to explain their choice. In 2011, an editor for UGO.com featured her on the list of the 25 "foxiest fighting females to ever be pixelated", with a comment saying that Ibuki is "not only super-hot, but she's also a ninja, which is like a 'chocolate in my peanut butter' situation".