Blanka

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blanka
Blanka in Capcom vs. SNK 2.
Game series	Street Fighter series
First game	Street Fighter II
Voice actor(s)	Yuji Ueda
In-Universe Information
Birthplace	Brazil
Blood type	B
Fighting style	Savage fighting
Likes	Tropical Fruit, Arapaima
Dislikes	Army Ants
Special skill	Hunting, Electrical discharge

Blanka (ブランカ, Buranka^?) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Blanka has green skin and long orange hair, resembling a monster more than a human. He is one of the original eight characters featured in the first version of the extremely popular Street Fighter II games.

1 Character history
2 Appearances in films
3 Characteristics
4 Related Characters
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Character history

Blanka's first appearance in the Street Fighter series was in Street Fighter II. His prototypical name was "Hamablanka." Blanka was originally going to look more like a caveman and there are rumors that the design for King Rasta Mon from Saturday Night Slam Masters was one of the early Blanka character models. However, the design was changed to make him look more beastly. In later games in the Street Fighter II series, Capcom made him look more ferocious because they thought he was too "cuddly."

In his Street Fighter II ending, he reunites with his mother who recognizes him from the anklets he wears. She reveals that Blanka was once known as Jimmy, before he was in a plane crash as a little boy. Ever since the crash, she had been separated from her son.

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, his character design was again changed to make him look less ferocious-looking. His in-game story, just like the in-game stories of the other characters in the series, serves as a precursor to the events of Street Fighter II. The game tells a tale of how Blanka hitched a ride on a poacher's truck and traveled to civilization for the first time. Playing the game as Blanka, the player eventually faces Dan Hibiki as one of Blanka's mid-bosses. It is then revealed through in-game dialogue that the two know each other and that Blanka had once saved Dan's life. Blanka faces Zangief as his second mid-boss and unwittingly prevents Zangief from helping to destroy the Shadaloo criminal organization. He then faces Shadaloo member Balrog before facing M. Bison.^[1] After Bison is defeated, Blanka, Dan and Sakura work together and destroy Bison's psycho drive weapon.

Although Blanka's appearance in Street Fighter Alpha 3 was his last appearance in the Street Fighter series, he made appearances in several spin-off titles. In the non-canon Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Blanka appears in the ending of another green-skinned powerhouse, The Incredible Hulk. In the ending, The Hulk theorizes that gamma radiation caused Blanka's mutations, as they did his.^[2]

Blanka is available as a playable character in the later games of the Street Fighter EX series, Street Fighter EX 2 and Street Fighter EX 3. He also made appearances as a playable character in Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2. According to his ending in Capcom vs. SNK 2, he thought he was flown home, but when he got off the plane, he ends up in a zoo instead.

[edit] Appearances in films

In Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Blanka makes a brief appearance in a club/hotel where many crime bosses connected to Shadoloo are holding a convention/party. Balrog is there to check up on drug shipments for M. Bison. Blanka appears in the evening entertainment where he is lowered from a cage to fight Zangief and uses his Rolling Attack, Biting Grapple, and Electric Thunder moves.

Charlie and Blanka are not one and the same, but the 1994 live-action Street Fighter film combined the two characters into one. The film was made prior to Charlie's introduction as playable character in the Street Fighter Alpha games.

[edit] Characteristics

Blanka's most readily apparent characteristic is his green color. His in-game storyline states that he was once extremely pale and was once known locally as the hombre blanco (white man) and adapted the blanco into his name Blanka. This is a strange storyline point because the language spoken in Brazil is not Spanish but Portuguese (in which that expression would be homem branco). His green skin color in the games is attributed to his constant use of chlorophyll from plants to better blend in with the jungle environment, a color change that eventually became permanent. His colouring changed in later games, making him bright green with vivid orange hair as opposed to the yellowish green skin he had in Street Fighter II.

Blanka's style of fighting in the games is a self-taught savage fighting style, not capoeira as originally stated by Capcom's USA division. His original attacks in the first version of Street Fighter II were the electric thunder attack, an electrokinetic attack that is explained as being learned from electrical eels and the Rolling Attack, a projectile attack where Blanka flies across the screen, curled up as a rolling ball. Successive revisions of the game added more rolling attacks, including his Vertical Rolling attack and a Backstep Rolling attack. His original super combo, from Super Street Fighter II: Turbo was the Ground Shave Rolling attack, a powerful ground-based rolling attack. Street Fighter Alpha 3 added his "Tropical Hazard" attack, an unusual attack that involves him shaking fruit from trees and diving into the enemy for a great amount of damage. Once he reaches the ground again, he can kick the watermelons at the opponent, with different attacks causing them to fly in different angles.^[3]

Despite being human, Blanka is characterized in Street Fighter Alpha 3 as only being able to speak in growling noises that could only be interpreted by certain people like his friend Dan Hibiki. However, in Street Fighter 2 he is able to speak English, as is evident in his English winning and ending quotes, having already grasped much of the English language thanks to Dan.