Poison

Poison
Poison from Final Fight.
Game series	Street Fighter series, Final Fight series
First game	Final Fight
Designed by	Akira Yasuda
Voiced by	Atsuko Tanaka (Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike)[1] Masae Yumi (SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos)[2]
Information
Birthplace	Los Angeles, USA[3]
Fighting style	Self-taught martial arts

Poison (ポイズン, Poizun^?) is a character from the Final Fight video game series, created by Akira Yasuda for Capcom. Introduced in the first Final Fight (along with similar character Roxy), she has appeared in later artworks and games in a cameo role, and is one of the few characters from the series to move on to a minor role in the main Street Fighter series. She was voiced by Atsuko Tanaka in the Street Fighter III series,^[1] and Masae Yumi in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.^[2]

Beyond the Final Fight series, Poison has appeared alongside Hugo in Street Fighter III and his subsequent appearances as his manager. She was planned to appear in Capcom Fighting All-Stars,^[4] but the game was canceled. She was also slated to appear in Final Fight: Streetwise, but, along with Sodom, was cut from the final game.^[5]

Conception and history

Poison's first appearance in Final Fight featured her and a palette-swap character named Roxy as recurring minor enemies for the player to fight. She was designed to contrast against the bigger characters in the game and move about randomly.^[6] According to the book All About Capcom Head to Head Fighting Games, the characters were originally planned to be female, but were changed to male transvestites (or more specifically "newhalfs")^[7] due to the suggestion that "hitting women was considered rude" in America.^[8]

A later appearance by Poison as playable character in Final Fight Revenge, an American-produced 3D fighting game spinoff of Final Fight, portrayed the character in a highly feminine manner and had her romantically interested at Final Fight hero Cody. Commentary about her ending in the game in All About Capcom suggested that the character might have gotten a sex change.^[8] The Final Fight-related character profiles featured in the 2005 compilation Capcom Classics Collection acknowledges Poison's transvestite characterization, while addressing Roxy as a "she" who dislikes Poison's cross-dressing.^[9]

The discrepancy regarding Poison was addressed in an interview featured in the January 2008 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly with Street Fighter IV's producer Yoshinori Ono. When asked about the matter he stated "Let's set the record straight: In North America, Poison is officially a post-op transsexual. But in Japan, she simply tucks her business away to look female."^[10]

Poison's alternate outfit for Capcom Fighting All-Stars.

Designs

Poison is shown to be a Caucasian female with long pink, somewhat rugged, hair. She wears a black cap, blue cutoff shorts, red high heels, and a tanktop cut just below her breasts. In Final Fight Revenge and some artworks, her hair is shown to be purple instead.^[11] She wears several armbands around her right arm and neck, and has chains and a pair of handcuffs suspended off her shorts. Final Fight Revenge features her also possessing a whip used in attacks, though the character has not been shown with one in other titles or artwork.^[12] Poison stands about 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) tall and has three sizes of 34-25-35" (88-66-89 cm).^[8]

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.^[13]

The concept art section of the promotional comic for Final Fight: Streetwise showcased concept art by designer Trent Kaniuga for the game, including a re-imagined Poison. The design features red hair, a red micro skirt showing a hint of underwear, jacket, button-up white shirt showing some of her abdomen, black high-heeled boots, gold belt, and a wool cap.^[5] In August 2006, Kaniuga revealed three additional alternate designs on ConceptArt.org's internet forum;^[14] 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.^[15]

In video games

Introduced in the original Final Fight, Poison is an orphan who grew up to be a transvestite. She enjoys fighting and uses it as a means to stay in shape,^[3] making use of her ties with the original Mad Gear gang to keep her out of prison.^[16] In Final Fight Revenge, her behavior was represented as womanly and sultry, ranging from flirtatious comments to pole dancing. She frames Cody for her assault crimes and gets him arrested by Edi E., though later visits him in jail having developed romantic feelings for him.^[17] In the Street Fighter III series, she reappears working as a wrestling manager for her friend Hugo, who couldn't find a tag team partner due to his immense strength. From here their plots would focus on the two searching for a tag partner or starting their own wrestling association, echoed in their SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos appearance.^[18]

Poison was also planned to appear both in Capcom Fighting All-Stars and Final Fight Streetwise, though the first game was canceled and she was cut from the second. In Mighty Final Fight, a super deformed parody of the character named "Poison Kiss" appears as a generic enemy, a corrupt cop and characterized as her younger sister.^[19] Poison has also appeared based on her role as Hugo's manager on cards for SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash and the game's Nintendo DS sequel, as well as the related printed trading card game.^[20]

Gameplay

Images shown during the "Poison Kiss" attack present a very feminine Poison

In the original Final Fight, Poison and Roxy both utilized standing and acrobatic flip kicks to attack the player.^[21] As one of the fighters in Final Fight Revenge, her moveset was expanded heavily, and she was armed with a whip. The whip is used primarily in her Cat Claw and Thunder Whip attacks (which are comparable to shoryuken/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.^[12]

One particular attack, Poison Kiss, has her blow a large heart-shaped kiss at the opponent that travels in a sine wave path. If it connects, a quick peep show of Poison in several erotic poses is displayed, and afterwards the opponent is shown stunned with hearts dancing over their head.^[22] Defeating an opponent with this attack results in Poison doing a pole dance for her winpose, with her whip serving as the pole.^[23] Though not playable in the beta test of Capcom Fighting All Stars,^[24] promotional material released by Capcom for the title show that this move would have been retained for her gameplay.^[25]

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 females. Akira Yasuda pointed that the "female" enemies were actually transvestites, and despite his objections,^[6] Poison and Roxy were replaced with regular male punks named "Billy" and "Sid" in the English localization.^[26] 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.^[27][28] English versions of the Sega CD port censored the characters in a different manner, redrawing both with longer shirts and shorts, and covering the under-cleavage shown when the characters were struck.^[23]

Promotion and reception

Poison has been featured in various promotional Street Fighter related artworks,^[29] as early as Street Fighter II.^[30] Additionally she has been used as a cameo character three times in the Street Fighter Alpha series. In terms of merchandise, an immovable model was being made for the 2008 Capcom Girls Collection line of figurines by Mitsumasa Yoshizawa, using her Final Fight attire and at 1/6th height, standing nearly 11 inches tall.^[31] A similar model was released by REFLECT later on, identical to the previous figurine except with her giving a thumbs down gesture and darker colors.^[32]

Because of uncertainty regarding her gender, there has been constant debate whether she is technically male or female on several fronts.^[33][4] Gamest magazine named her one of the top fifty characters in video games as of February 1991, placing her twenty-sixth on their list.^[34] UGO.com ranked her thirtieth on their "Top 50 Videogame Hotties" list, citing her as "one of the most controversial video game characters to date."^[35] Wataru Maruyama cited her design as an example of how an outfit is worn compared to its complexity can make a character memorable and stand out, stating "to use a phrase I don’t particularly like to use, she totally worked it."^[36] She has also been a subject drawn by non-Capcom artists, such as Falcoon.^[37] IGN listed Poison as one of the most memorable "traps" in video games, stating "Final Fight Poison isn't a trap in a gameplay sense, but proved to be a psychological, Crying-Game mental twist for gamers."^[38] GameDaily ranked her twenty-third on their "Top 25" list of their favorite Capcom characters, stating "The Mad Gear gang is a feisty bunch, and we could've picked anyone from the list...Instead, we selected Poison".^[39]

References