Blanka

General CVG character
name=Blanka


caption=Blanka in "Super Street Fighter II". Drawn by Bengus.
series="Street Fighter" series
firstgame="Street Fighter II"
artist=
liveactor = Robert Mammone (film)
voiceactor= Tom Carlton ("SFII" movie), Scott McNeil (U.S. cartoon series)
japanactor= Yūji Ueda ("Street Fighter Alpha 3", "Street Fighter IV")
inuniverse=Street Fighter character
birthplace =
fightingstyle = Savage fighting
flagicon|Brazil Raised in Brazil
specialskill = Hunting, Electrical discharge
likes = Tropical Fruit, Arapaima
dislikes = Army Antsnihongo|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 "Street Fighter II" games.

Character history

Blanka's first appearance in the "Street Fighter" series was in "Street Fighter II". 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. This crash caused him to grow up in the wild, although he has connections to a local village. Ever since the crash, Blanka/Jimmy had been separated from his mother.

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 ate a melon 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.cite web|title=Street Fighter Alpha 3 Dialogue Guide|url=http://www.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/game/564869.html|author=RIu|publisher=GameFAQs|accessmonthday=September 11 |accessyear=2006] After Bison is defeated, Blanka, Dan, and Sakura work together and destroy Bison's psycho drive weapon.

Blanka made appearances in several spin-off titles. 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 "" 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.

Blanka also appears in "Street Fighter IV", which was released in 2008. [ [http://www.capcom-fc.com/sf4/ STREET FIGHTER IV（ストリートファイターIV）公式ブログ ] ] cite web |url=http://ruliweb.empas.com/ruliboard/read.htm?table=game_ps04&page=1&num=38274&main=ps&find=&ftext= |title=Ruliweb - Street Fighter IV Scans]

Appearances in films

treet Fighter II animated movie

Blanka makes a brief appearance in a hotel where a luxurious convention is held. Blanka appears in the evening entertainment where he is lowered from a cage to fight Zangief. Blanka uses his Rolling Attack and Electric Shock when fighting. He was voiced by Unshō Ishizuka in Japanese and Tom Carlton in English.

treet Fighter motion picture

The 1994 live-action "Street Fighter" film combined Blanka and the unrelated supporting character Charlie (Guile's deceased war buddy in the original game) into a single character. Kim Repia plays the role of the mutated Blanka, with Robert Mammone as the human Carlos. At the beginning of the film, Guile's close friend Carlos "Charlie" Blanka is taken captive by Bison (Raúl Juliá) who subjects him to genetic testing to create the perfect soldier.

The film was made prior to Charlie's introduction as a playable character in the "Street Fighter Alpha" games.

treet Fighter cartoon series

He was voiced by Scott McNeil. In the cartoon, Blanka was portrayed as the protector of a small Brazilian village who eventually "rejoined" the Street Fighter team. Blanka appears as one of the more recurrent characters in the U.S. cartoon, acting as a scout gathering information for Guile and his friends on various missions.

Characteristics

Blanka's most 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"; however the Japanese consonant corresponding to 'r' sounds very similar to the English 'l'. 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 coloring 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; however, the English language manual of "Street Fighter II" for the SNES listed Blanka's fighting style as Capoiera.

In "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter", Blanka appears in the ending of another green-skinned powerhouse, The Incredible Hulk. In the ending, Bruce Banner theorizes that gamma radiation caused Blanka's mutations, as they did his.Cite web|title=Mamend: Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter endings|url=http://www.vazcomics.org/mamend/M/mshvsf_2.htm|accessdate=September 13|accessyear=2006]

While Blanka's in-game vocalizations are exclusively limited to feral yells and growls, some iterations of the series feature post-fight screens that depict Blanka declaring victory with actual words.

Promotion and reception

IGN ranked Blanka at number seven in their "Top 25 Street Fighter Characters" article, noting his unique characteristics and uniqueness amongst characters in the series. [ [http://stars.ign.com/articles/895/895029p4.html Top 25 Street Fighter Characters - Day IV] . IGN. Retrieved on 2008-08-15]

References