Poison (Final Fight)

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Poison
Final Fight and Street Fighter character
Poison from Final Fight.
First gameFinal Fight (1989)
Created byAkira "Akiman" Yasuda[1]
Designed byAkira "Akiman" Yasuda[1]
Trent Kaniuga (Streetwise)[2]
Takayuki Nakamura (SFV)[3]
Voiced by
  • Kaoru Fujino (Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact)
  • Atsuko Tanaka (Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Street Fighter X Tekken, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition)[4]
  • Masae Yumi (SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos)[4]
In-universe information
OriginLos Angeles, California[5]
NationalityAmerican

Poison (

Hugo as his wrestling manager. Since her introduction several other designers have contributed to her designs and outfits, including Jun Ikawa, Trent Kaniuga, and Takayuki Nakamura. She is voiced by Atsuko Tanaka since the Street Fighter III series and Masae Yumi in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.[6][7]

Originally intended as athletic fast characters for players to encounter, due to concerns during Final Fight's development about reactions from North American audiences to fighting women led to both Poison and Roxy being re-imagined as "

trans women
. However, Nintendo of America did not consider this satisfactory and both Poison and her palette swap Roxy were replaced by the male characters "Billy" and "Sid" and have been for every subsequent North American port of the title on Nintendo consoles and handhelds. This, coupled with several conflicting statements over the years has led to her gender being questioned, though some statements imply that Poison is transgender, while Roxy is cisgender. Most recently, Capcom has taken the stance that Poison's gender is open to viewer interpretation.

The character's sex appeal has led to her being highly regarded, though often with acknowledgment of her gender status. The early ambiguity regarding this subject has led to much discussion and debate amongst fans of the character, and while it has been acknowledged that the original circumstances were less than ideal she is regarded as one of the earliest and most popular examples of a transgender character in video games.

Design history

Poison's first appearance in

riding crop. Final Fight Revenge features her also possessing a whip used in attacks, an element of her design brought back later with Street Fighter X Tekken.[13] Poison stands about 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) tall and has bust/waist/hip measurements of 35-25-35" (88-66-89 cm).[14]

Poison was given a secondary outfit for Capcom Fighting All-Stars alongside her primary classic attire. Made of shiny, silvery material it consisted of boots that extended halfway up her thighs and a combined sleeveless shirt/short skirt with a plunging neckline. Gloves and a small hairband were also added, as well as a belt, with the handcuffs hanging off of it. Her arm straps were removed, though the strap around her neck remained.[15] This design was originally created by Street Fighter III character designer Jun Ikawa as a possible outfit for her appearance in the series.[16] It was included as her secondary outfit Street Fighter IV, changed to green with a matching military cap and long gloves.[17]

Though not appearing in Final Fight: Streetwise, the concept art section of the promotional comic for the game showcases an unused Poison redesign by Trent Kaniuga. The design features red hair, a red micro skirt showing a hint of underwear, a jacket, a button-up white shirt showing some of her abdomen, black high-heeled boots, a gold belt, and a wool cap.[18] In August 2006, Kaniuga revealed three additional alternate designs on ConceptArt.org's internet forum; one being the classic look; another being a white button-up shirt with red pants, high-heels, and short hair; and the third keeping the high-heels and pants, but adding shades, returning her hair to full length and swapping the shirt for a jacket with deep cleavage. All four designs use the same color scheme, belt, and handcuffs.[2] In a later video, Kaniuga stated he was concerned he had made her skirt too short, but laughingly noted "there wasn't too much resistance from the team on that though."[19]

When designing her character model for Street Fighter x Tekken, production studio

sex appeal. While the studio was quite pleased with the results, calling her the most glamorous character in the title, the Effects Designer for the game was "horribly embarrassed" whenever he had to check the character's visual effects frame by frame.[10] For Street Fighter V, several redesigns were considered for the character, including a green flowing jacket with a exposed black bra held together by a ring, a red tailed jacket with zebra striped pants, and a black and pink dress with long gloves, stockings and a pink hat.[20] Producer Takayuki Nakamura kept her final design close to the original but added multiple elements, giving her a full glove on her right arm, a stocking on her left leg, garters, and made her whip consistently visible. The whip in turn was intended to give her movements a more "flashy" and unique appearance, while her hair was shortened and frilled outward to better draw attention to the whip while also giving her a "clean, uncluttered look."[3]

Gender

According to the book All About Capcom Head to Head Fighting Games and Final Fight director

trans women) after the game's release,[21][22] due to the suggestion that "hitting women was considered rude" in America and the concern that feminist groups would sue.[8][14] However, concept artwork included in the 2005 compilation Capcom Classics Collection of the pair specifically uses the kana for 'newhalf' (ニューハーフ), contradicting the statement the change occurred post-release.[23] In 2007 Nishitani stated that he supposed the character "could be male", but added it was up to the viewer to decide.[8] He later clarified in a discussion on Twitter that in his personal view Poison was a woman.[24] Yasuda himself commented that as far as her gender, he considers her transgender in North American localizations, but cis in Japan.[10]

A later appearance by Poison as a playable character in

cross-dresser, while addressing Roxy as a "she" who dislikes Poison's cross-dressing.[25]

post-op transsexual woman. But in Japan, she simply tucks her business away to look female."[26] He later emphasized it again when asked about what female characters could be included in the game Street Fighter IV, stating that it would be too confusing to include her due to the region-specific gender.[27] However, in a 2011 interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly at the Tokyo Game Show, he stated that Capcom "doesn't have a stance technically", and while they wouldn't give an official answer, felt it was up to the viewer to decide. He added that his intent was to please all fans and that the mystery behind her gender was the core of the character. During the same interview, a Capcom representative further added that they worked closely with GLAAD, an organization concerned with the portrayal of LGBT people in media, to ensure "anything that might be offensive has been very tailored to not be" for Poison's portrayal in Street Fighter X Tekken.[28]

Appearances

Introduced in the original

rock band theme in her character ending.[33] In Street Fighter V, Poison returns to Metro City after Hugo and she have a falling-out, searching for a new partner she can make a star to little success. Ultimately, she and Hugo reconcile and become partners once again.[34]

Poison was also planned to appear both in

roleplaying game Street Fighter: Duel, the latter of which also features an alternate version called "Street Poison" in a stylized police uniform.[40]

Gameplay

In the original

Shinryūken styled attacks, respectively), and can be used to steal a weapon from the opponent. Additionally, her handcuffs can be thrown as a horizontal projectile move to immobilize the opponent for a short time.[13]

One particular

Ultra Street Fighter IV, her Poison Kiss follows up with several slaps and a groin kick when it hits the opponent, similar to her Cross Art move from Street Fighter X Tekken.[46]

As for the Street Fighter series, starting from Street Fighter X Tekken, Poison has a unique moveset of her own that mixes agile pro wrestling techniques and her own streetfighting abilities. Poison's standard throws include a multi-hitting slap and a Frankensteiner, Aeolus Edge and Kissed By a Goddess which are the names of her Fireball and Shoryuken-like moves, and Whip of Love which is a multi-hitting whip attack and is done in a similar fashion to

Fei Long's Rekkas. Her famous flip kick from the original Final Fight games appears as a special called Love Me Tender. After the flipping axe-kick, Poison can follow this move up with a reverse Frankensteiner (Poison-Rana). In addition, Poison's Super Art is called Love Storm, and starts with her charging a large version of Aeolus Edge. Once it hits, she flips into the air and lands with a hard hitting axe kick that stuns the opponent in a prone position. Afterwards, she repeatedly smacks the opponent with her horsewhip and delivers a final blow that knocks them into the air. Poison also retained her signature backflip from the original game.[47][48] For Street Fighter V, her gameplay was changed to emphasize a long-range moveset, with a key focus being to set her apart from similar characters in the game by incorporating her whip into combos and standing attacks.[3]

Censorship

When Final Fight was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, an American playtester working for Capcom reviewed the content during the localization process with one of the Japanese designers and objected to the protagonist hitting women. While Akira Yasuda pointed out that the characters had already been made into trans women, believing this to be an acceptable compromise, Poison and Roxy were replaced with regular male punks named "Billy" and "Sid" in the English localization despite his objections.[1][49] This change has been repeated with every English port to Nintendo consoles, including the Game Boy Advance version Final Fight One and the Wii's Virtual Console.[50][51] English versions of the Sega CD port censored the characters in a different manner, redrawing both of them with longer shirts and shorts and covering the under-cleavage shown when the characters were struck.[43]

In other media

In print media, Poison is also featured frequently in

Gill's fighting tournament, skeptical of his self-proclaimed god.[56] After Gill reveals himself to be a villain, she fights alongside the other participants to take him down.[57]

In

Sagat.[59] She also briefly appears in issue 74.5 of the manga series Kengan Ashura, as one of the fighters representing the "Capcom Association" present to watch Ryu fight the protagonist Ohma Tokita.[60] The event is later suggested to be a dream that Ohma had.[61]

Promotion and reception

Despite starting as a minor enemy in Final Fight, Poison has been very popular since the game's release

Poison has been featured in various promotional Street Fighter related artworks,

Final Fight: Double Impact, a pink hair spray was included in tribute to the character, with the text describing it as "For men, women, and everything in between."[67] Capcom later featured her as one of the characters for their Capcom Girls 2011 calendar.[68]

In February 1991, Gamest magazine named her one of the top fifty characters in video games of 1990, placing her twenty-sixth on their list.

Complex complained about her portrayal, stating since Final Fight she was reinvisioned as "just a slutty girl whose main fighting technique borderlines on pimp slapping your opponent and shaking your breasts".[72] In contrast Joystiq named her their favorite character of the Final Fight series, stating that her "hypersexualized appearance and random flipping" made the character memorable, and that the controversy over her gender made the character even more so.[73] Maddy Myers in an article for Paste stated she felt a kinship for Poison despite her controversies, enjoying the domme aspects of the character and adding that detractors focusing on an male gaze emphasis "would be clutching their pearls past the breaking point to see how Ultra Street Fighter 4 lovingly lingers on Poison’s backside."[74]

As the exact nature of Poison's status as

gender-variant has been left deliberately ambiguous by Capcom,[28] the topic has remained a popular subject for debate among fans and gaming media alike.[75][76] Electronic Gaming Monthly's Eric L. Patterson described her as being a significant character to the trans community, and a perfect example of how it is "so awkward when it comes to knowing how to deal with characters who aren't white, male, and heterosexual" in video games.[28] Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek described Capcom's intended workaround to get past Nintendo censors as "pretty fucked up", though added praise for how she was presented since, stating "Capcom actually did right by not making that a punchline. Poison continued to show up in stuff, and they let her have an identity that stepped away from all of that."[77] GamesRadar in turn commented "Poison holds a distinction as one of gaming’s first trans characters, which began as a strange choice in localization but has become a part of the character that she wears with pride. If you take issue with it, that’s your problem, not hers. It's that kind of confidence that makes her so appealing."[78] In an article examining every Street Fighter character Paste acknowledged the controversy, but instead focused on her character, stating "Capcom might not be able to ever set the record on her story, but the only one that needs telling is that Poison is a powerful and compelling character in every appearance she's made."[79]

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External links