An official Capcom ranking of the most beloved Street Fighters has been attracting attention – mainly for the yawning and rather embarrassing (though to whom is perhaps open to question) gulf between the preferences of Japanese and Americans, with obscure schoolgirls easily ousting the likes of Ryuken…
America and Europe select a muscular selection of bruisers:
1. Ryu – 15,856 – 30.6%
2. Ken – 13,511 – 26.1%
3. Akuma – 12,685 – 24.5%
4. Chun-li – 9,797 – 18.9%
5. Cammy – 9,260 – 17.9%
6. Sakura – 7,383 – 14.3%
7. Sagat – 7,324 – 14.1%
8. Juri – 7,059 – 13.6%
9. Guile – 6,527 – 12.6%
10. Q – 6,168 – 11.9%
Japan on the other hand…:
1. Karin – 3,348 – 27.4%
2. Ryu – 2,884 – 23.6%
3. Cammy – 2,410 – 19.7%
4. Ingrid- 2,393 – 19.6%
5. Rainbow Mika – 2,254 – 18.5%
6. Sakura – 2,134 – 17.5%
7. Chun-li – 2,125 – 17.4%
8. Juri – 1,656 – 13.6%
9. Ken – 1,547 -12.7%
10. Akuma – 1,516 – 12.4%
Japanese Street Fighter fans have been busily trying to explain away these results:
“Karin is just so cute, it can’t be helped.”
“Take away Japan’s moe culture and there is nothing left!”
“What’s more Karin and Ingrid are total minor characters from the game’s period of decline.”
“Must be something wrong with this lot if they like Mika so much…”
“Looking at their pictures it is hard to comprehend how they got to be ranked so high.”
“I cannot believe Chun-li is only 7th – it was rigged!”
“I think only long-time fans obsessed with the game for years would vote in this, accounting for why all these weird characters are in there.”
“I don’t know any of these girls. Creepy!”
“The American ranking is so much better.”
“Where is Guile!”
“Poor Zangief!”
“Look at the votes for Ryu, Ken and Akuma – are those Yanks all homos or what?”
“Ingrid only appeared in the truly awful Fighting Jam. I can’t believe these results are anything but the result of foul play.”
“I’ve never even heard of Karin.”
“The Yanks just want a simple, easy to use and strong fighter. Somehow it seems the Japanese are looking for something else though…”
“It’s because those characters are regulars in certain thin books…”
US poll not surprising, but karin #1? was pretty much expecting sakura or ibuki considering how much japaneese players play her
as a street fighter player and avid fan since aboutthe time i could walk. this may be the best thing i’ve ever read ever. i rolfmao’d for 14 minutes. jeez japan. i mean jeez america, but jeez japan.
how come we don’t get any pictures for our top 10
Americans chose based on who they liked to fight with… because it was a fighting game.
By the way there is a Kickstarter campaign for a live-action Street Fighter series that look promising
streetfighteraf DOT com is the official site with a kickstarter link for whoever wants to help out
The ranking is more or less even between male and female characters (4 women and 5-6 men). What’s the “homo” about? Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li, Akuma, Cammy, Sagat, and Guile are well liked because they’ve been around for a long time and no matter how cool Juri is, she’s still a newcomer. I’m sure she’ll get more popular.