Rainbow Mika and the draftiest of wrestler outfits!
Another redesign I did solo was Street Fighter’s Rainbow Mika, a “wrestling” costume made approximately 80% out of holes.
Biggest challenge was figuring out how the hell those breasts are supposed to look when actually contained by fabric – nothing about how they interacted with it in the original made any sort of sense, so the chest area got basically repainted from scratch, with an attempt to recreate white pattern concealed under the balloon boobs as a sort of chest emblem shape.
While there’s nothing wrong with the costume having some tasteful cutouts, the original’s were so awkwardly placed, massive and physics-defying that I decided it was easier to change them to white fabric, while leaving in some smaller holes oh her shoulders and elbows. I’d probably leave something on her legs, if the image shown Mika from another angle.
A small, but significant touch was making the shapes on her sides rounder, so they’re not pointing at her crotch anymore. Also got rid of the pantyline frills, which made her look as if fancy lingerie was peaking from beneath her leotard. Left the frills on her collar and wrists be. Also didn’t do anything to the boots, as they’re perfectly nice and likely the only legitimate wrestling element in her original attire.
Final touches was giving Rainbow more secure hairstyle for a fighter (while stylized Sailor Moon-like hair isn’t much of an issue to me, it just didn’t match the more practical costume anymore) and a knocked-out tooth, to communicate the inherent danger of being a wrestler/fighting game heroine. Also, sometime after finishing the stream, I made her facial features slightly bit less generically pretty, following many watchers’ advice.
Surprisingly enough, criticizing R. Mika is one of the most “controversial” things we ever did on this blog.
To this day, our bingo of her outfit from Street Fighter V tends to periodically resurface among the Status Quo Warriors enraged at us for talking smack about that costume. Their “arguments”?
1. This is totally very legitimate female professional wrestler outfit! OF COURSE that’s exactly how women in that field of sport and entertainment dress, just look:
True, those wrestlers, due to double standards imposed by the industry, tend to show off their cleavages and bellies… which sooo definitely is the same as a video game character’s suit denying all laws of physics and geometry for the sake of showing maximum flesh surface! </sarcasm>
According to them, occasional low-cut v-neck or belly window = giant hole where the back, each breast, thigh and buttcheek is.
2. This is not an armor! That outfit this fighting game character wears to beat the shit out of other fighting game characters shouldn’t be criticized as a fighting outfit, because it’s not a literal suit of armor.
3. Male Street Fighter characters are treated in exactly the same way! Just look at Zangief’s hairy chest and minuscule speedo! After all, big muscles and no shirt = male sexualization, right?
Needless to say, exactly the sort of easily debunkable “logic” we’d expect from the people who outcried “censorship!” when this character’s butt slap animation was removed by the developer.
~Ozzie