Ibuki

"Ibuki! On the scene! (いぶき！見参！)"

- Ibuki (Street Fighter IV series) "I'll finish this in no time!"

- Ibuki (Street Fighter V)

Ibuki (いぶき) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Street Fighter III: New Generation. She is a young ninja-in-training from an ancient clan that would rather live a normal life of a modern Japanese teenager.

Appearance
Ibuki is a young girl from Japan who is raised in a ninja village that is hidden from society's watchful eyes, where she trains in the deadly art of ninjutsu. She has a curvy yet athletic build, and her blackish/brown hair is held back tightly in a topknot that drops well below her waist. Unlike most other female characters in the same genre, Ibuki's outfit is a more traditional type of ninja dogi, consisting of a sleeveless black upper garment, baggy pants, arm guards, and a mask that conceals the lower half of her face. Her footwear consists only of cloth bandages that are wrapped around her shins, ankles, and instep. Her garments are more revealing than normal ninja ones, however.

As seen in one of her win animations in Street Fighter III, Ibuki's normal clothes consist of a white sleeveless loose shirt, blue denim pants, and gray and black sneakers. She also carries a yellow backpack. Her school uniform consist of a light blue sleeveless shirt under a white short sleeve button shirt with a red laced ribbon at the center of her collar, light blue skirt, black panties underneath, white socks, and blue and white sneakers.

In Street Fighter V, her appearance is a combination between her school uniform and her primary outfit; she wears her school uniform and sneakers in battle, similar to Sakura, but also her mask as well as dark brown arm and leg guards with brown straps, matching dark blue long fingerless gloves, knee-high socks beneath the guards and a brown knife holster on her right thigh where she keeps her kunais.

Her first alternate costume is a white sleeveless short dress with a red sling bag at the right side and a matching white lined heels. In her 3rd Strike ending, she was depicted wearing this outfit but the color was salmon pink.

Her second alternate costume consist of a purple sleeveless side-tie dress with light pink flower designs at the left side, a red trim with a matching pink obi, a large ribbon on her back complete with white knee-high leg guards, black ninja arm guards and brown lower heeled sandals. Her hair is dark brown and tied in a high ponytail in a full fringe.

Personality
Even though Ibuki is a well-trained ninja, she is still a normal teenage girl, and states on several occasions that she finds her ninja garments ugly and her daily training strange. She also has a typical interest in boys; in several of her win quotes in Super Street Fighter IV, she evaluates her opponents based on their looks, behavior, and clothing, as well as their fighting performance. She regards Guy in particular as quite a hunk, though she also complains about his non-traditional ninja garb.

In Street Fighter V, Ibuki seems to take her ninja training more seriously (although her Mirror Match quote suggests she still finds it irksome), but still makes mistakes sometimes (almost falling off a cliff while talking on her cellphone, for example). She is also glad to return home when her story mode is completed.

In the Street Fighter III series, Alex is the only "boy" Ibuki has shown anything resembling a hint of attraction to; however, though she calls him a "macho stud" in a win quote, she is mainly expressing her disappointment in his loss of "power instinct".

Guy
Ibuki first met Guy when Ibuki was on her Ninja class, they fought in a training fight, Ibuki was impressed with Guy's Ninjutsu skills and since then the two became some sort of rivals. In her winquotes against Guy she displays fondness to Guy but complains about his looks, telling that his outfit does not look like ninja.

Sakura
Ibuki seems to have begun a friendship with Sakura, based on their rival match in SSFIV and their similar background as high school fighters interested in boys (or at least a particular boy, in Sakura's case). Also, when Ibuki defeats Sakura in a round with a Super Combo Finish, she says "We should totally hang out sometime!", with her match victory quote saying "I never meet anyone cool at my school". In Street Fighter V, they are seen having a conversation via their cellphones.

Karin
When Sakura calls Ibuki to fill in for the event Karin is hosting, Ibuki accepts. Ibuki heads to the Kanzuki Estate and after brawling with Birdie, meets Karin. Karin politely greets Ibuki with a match. After that she greets Ibuki to hot guys. When Ibuki was watching a match between R.Mika and Zangief versus Laura and Alex, Karin's screen goes out. Ibuki helps Karin as she angrily leaves. She eventually hires Ibuki. The next day, Ibuki and Mika go with Karin to the Shadaloo base. After defeating Balrog, they give Karin a piece. Ibuki was last seen with Karin waiting for Ryu, Chun-Li, and Guile to come out of the Shadaloo base.

Background
Ibuki lives in a village entirely composed of ninjas, where she has been training since childhood. After doing the same routine everyday and attending a school for ninjas, she wishes to live like a normal schoolgirl. Her best friend is her classmate, Sarai. Ibuki also has a pet tanuki named Don.

Super Street Fighter IV
Ibuki sneaks away from her clan's summer training camp to compete in S.I.N's tournament, in order to meet cool and handsome guys. When the tournament is over, she realizes that she is going to be late for camp and attempts to sneak back in as if nothing had happened. However, she is caught by one of the camp's instructors.

Street Fighter V
On October 2015, a datamining of Street Fighter V ' s PC beta test revealed fighter data and character meshes of Ibuki, Dhalsim, Juri, Urien, Alex, Guile and Balrog. Ibuki and the rest of the characters (except for Dhalsim, who was confirmed earlier as a default fighter) were confirmed on December 5th, 2015 at the PlayStation Experience.

On May 29th, 2016, Ibuki's official trailer was released.

Story
In her prologue story, Ibuki finally finishes her ninja assignment and was called by Sakura (It is established that she and Sakura became close friends after their previous encounter in Super Street Fighter IV). She informs her about the party invitation sent from her rival Karin Kanzuki. Ibuki replies that she hasn't read it yet while she was getting home to the ninja village before she almost fall into the roof. Sakura tells her to travel to the Kanzuki Estate by plane and she also tells her that she can't come due to conflict schedules before hanging up. Ibuki ponders what she could wear at the party and she never met Karin before. It zooms into a flashback where she was invited to Karin's party

Arriving at the Kanzuki Estate, Ibuki is excited to get through the party only to be ambushed by Birdie which forces her to fight him. After defeating Birdie, Ibuki tells him that she also has an invitation on the party, as Birdie rudely replies that she does not accept her invitation as Karin intervenes and knocks Birdie with a single kick heavily on his butt much to her shock and scolds him for his rudeness to her guest. Karin finally introduces herself to Ibuki who Sakura highly recognizes of her. Ibuki also introduces herself which she recognizes Karin in Sakura's stories as Karin tries to make a blow which she avoids by surprise as she tells her that she will fight her as her introduction. After the fight Karin manages to make a hit point on Ibuki who informs her that she had a talked with the Glade of Ninjas about working with her. Since Karin recognizes Ibuki as Sakura's friend, she let her stay at the party due to her love of handsome guys and gives her the contract which has been approved by the Glade of Ninjas, Ibuki signs it and she happily accepts to enjoy the party.

Ibuki remembers about the party when she meets Guile, E. Honda, Hakan and other characters who are invited at Karin's party and her arguments with R. Mika when she rejects her offer on muscle training until she was called by Sarai who tells her not to get late as Ibuki agrees before hanging up and she happily returns to her home village.

Other Prologue Appearances

Ibuki appears in the end of R. Mika's prologue story, in which she rejects R. Mika's offer in muscle training, stating that she can't learn anything from someone who is overly passionate and bossy. This angers R. Mika, who asks if she had listened to anything she said; Ibuki responds by saying she was shouting too much so she tuned her out. This prompts Mika to tell her step outside, in which Ibuki angrily asks that she leave her alone after she beats her. Mika dubs Ibuki as arrogant, to which Ibuki replies that she isn't arrogant and has been working at Kanzuki Estate longer than Mika has. The argument between the two continues on.

A Shadow Falls
In the main's story, Ibuki is seen with Birdie to watch a tag team match between Zangief and R. Mika against Alex and Laura until the monitor screen was shut down due to the electronagnectic pulse coming from the seven Black Moons created by Shadaloo. Ibuki goes with Karin who angrily decides to travel to New York to find out who is behind the activation of the seven Black Moons.

After the investigation, Ibuki is seen having an argument with R. Mika (the same argument happened between the two in both of their prologue stories) while Karin meets up with Canmy which she enlisted the top fighters to stop Shadaloo and their plans. When Karin and Cammy defeats both Marz and Decapre, the two continues to argue and Karin tells them that fighting each other is not confident to battle their opponents which both are stopped arguing and they won't agree to Karin's words.

During the first infiltration of the Shadaloo base, Ibuki and R. Mika are still arguing until they are confronted by Balrog and Ed who manages to get the chess piece from Zangief. Ibuki is the first person to fight Balrog and her ninjutsu skills are failed enough to beat him leading to R. Mika to face him but her wrestling skills became ineffective. The two teams up when Ed attempts to use his Psycho Power, Ibuki uses her smoke bomb to distract them long enough to get the chess piece. The two sucessfully escape with the chess piece until they reunited with Karin and Shibazaki. When F.A.N.G makes a back up plan for no one to abort Operation C.H.A.I.N.S, Ibuki and R. Mika are seen waiting for the helicopter to arrive until both Chun-Li and Karin arrives in time while they are chased by the brainwashed Abel. Both of them watch Zangief pulverizes Abel with his Spinning Pile Driver making Ibuki became disgusted while R. Mika idolizes him.

In the final assault against Shadaloo, Ibuki is shown to be afraid of heights while Birdie watches them and both are kicked down to the edge by Dhalsim. Ibuki complains why she wasn't catching up to the other fighters. Both Ibuki and R. Mika fights off Shadaloo soldiers and they watch Zangief's fight against Satsuki one of the Dolls. Ibuki becomes worried and tells Zangief to watch out as Satsuki's Murasame is broken in half due to Zangief's large muscles and is unable to slash him much to her surprise. Ibuki is last seen with the other fighters watch Shadaloo's destruction.

2nd Impact
Later in 2nd Impact, Ibuki was sent by her clan to procure documents from Gill's organization. These documents concern the "G-File" project, which was responsible for creating Necro (before he ran away from the organization) and Twelve. Gill voluntarily gave Ibuki the documents after she defeated him, though the project was already underway by that point.

In her ending, Ibuki and Don are laying on the grass, the former thinks about the time she was given the G-Files by Gill. Ibuki suddenly sense someone's presence and throws her kunais at the person, who turns out to be just Sarai, who blocks it with her school bag. Sarai scolds Ibuki for ruining her school bag, Ibuki apologizes.

3rd Strike
In 3rd Strike, Ibuki tracks down Oro to fight him for her ninja graduation exam. She fights well enough to pass, and moves on to go to a university.

In her ending, Ibuki is excited to make it in Sarusuberi University after a lifetime of training. She explores the campuses, meeting new friends as well as the cool upperclassman in college who convinces her to join his club. However, much to her dismay, the club that she joins turns out to be a hard and dangerous ninja training. The upperclassman holds her at kunai-point as he warns Ibuki about her carelessness and laughs at her "love and excitement" of studying Ninjutsu, much to Ibuki's disappointment.

Pocket Fighter
Ibuki appeared as a playable character in Pocket Fighter. Ibuki decides to leave her village for a while, and quietly departs for a trip to a big city, and along the way, she challenges Sakura for the knowledge of the closest ice cream shop. After learning the location of the closest ice cream shop from Sakura after their battle, Ibuki while musing happily about what she wanted to get next, she spots Guy, thinking that he is a spy from another clan, and declares a challenge from him. Guy then tells her to calm down for a second, and gives Ibuki a baked potato. While Ibuki is distracted by the baked potato, Guy tells her that he has errands to run for his master and sneaks away, as Ibuki had now forgotten what she was going to do.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Ibuki was originally planned to be a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, but wasn't included due to time constraints.

Street Fighter X Tekken
Ibuki appeared as a playable character in Street Fighter X Tekken where she is partnered with Rolento, who had sent a request to her village for someone skilled in fighting and infiltration in his search for the Pandora artifact. Due to Rolento's constant orders which she follows reluctantly, Ibuki does not particularly get along well with her new partner, despite the military titles he bestows on her as their story progresses.

The Swap Costume of Tekken character Asuka Kazama is based on Ibuki's design.

Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki
UDON Entertainment released a four-volume mini-series based on Ibuki and her storyline in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, where she is rivals with Makoto. Each volume was also collected into a single book for UDON's Street Fighter Legends series. She appears in volume 3 of this series, preceded by Chun-Li and Sakura.

Gameplay
Likewise as a ninja, Ibuki is skilled in the repertoires of ninjutsu, and specifically its curriculum of martial arts. Unlike Guy however, her style is empathized on a more traditional depiction like that of ninjutsu found in the regions of Iga and Koga, utilizing kicks, grapples, speed, agility and accuracy for a wile and aggressive but deadly approach.

Ibuki's fighting style is characterized by her speed and agility. Several of her special moves are useful in both closing distance and evading her foe and/or their attacks: her Hien, for example, is capable of letting her jump over most projectiles while following up with a vaulting kick, and her Kasumi Gake can allow her to pass through opponents entirely, giving her the potential to set up confusing cross-ups (or the potential to just confuse in general). While she may not be as strong as other characters, Ibuki's attacks hit fast, and like other characters from the Street Fighter III series, she possesses Target Combos which allow her to chain several normal moves in less than seconds.

These combos are really not easy to perform though, especially her punch combos, where she has very low range in. Her speed and agility also often can be rather confusing for the one who actually plays her. Some of her special moves like the Tsuijigoe basically do no damage alone and put the player into situations where she becomes extremely vulnerable, and these moves have very similar input commands as some of her others, but are only good for totally different situations. Other specials also require good timing and aiming to actually hit something, instead of attacks which just go straight forward. This means to play effectively with her, the player really must be able to play very controlled and have very good reflexes, otherwise the player won't have much success with her.

In Street Fighter V, she uses a number of new tools, including (among many others) a sort of kite-based float which she uses for flight, bombs, and what appears to be a counter. She can also teleport to dodge her opponent's attack or to countering them with her moves. Unlike in her previous appearances, she can throw a multiple of five kunais to her opponent rather than a single kunai as her projectile even in mid-air. Therefore, she has a limiter to her kunais when using them and she cannot use this ability again once it is emptied, she restores it for another round. Her Kazekiri now has additional damage during her EX special in which she throws an explosive kunai to blow her opponents after execution. Her V-Skill is the Tenrai which Ibuki builds up a blue energy and blasts her opponent with her left palm. Her V-Trigger is the Isshaku Horokudama which Ibuki throws a bomb with Don's face or a pirate skull similar to one of Doctrine Dark's special attacks which it explodes in seconds. She uses this as her tactic move where she gives her a chance to make a combo once her bomb is briefly delayed in timing to explode or quickly exploded on her opponent. Her Critical Art is the Kachofugetsu as she trips her opponent with a low sweep while launching them in mid air with a straight kick similar to her Hashinsho Ultra Combo as she teleports while doing ninja hand signs to culminate a burst of blue energy on her left palm similar to her Yoroitoshi Super Art to wipe out her opponent's skull in a deadly explosion.

Pop Culture
Ibuki/Pop Culture

Quotes
See: Ibuki/Quotes

Trivia

 * The other ninjas in Ibuki's clan include Sanjou, Enjou, Genda, Raion and Homura Yuuta. Enjou is often mistaken for Geki from the original Street Fighter game.


 * Her ideal occupation would to be a news reporter. Her aim in her college career is to excel in foreign languages, particularly that in English, its linguistic history, and worldwide regional accents, from Southern US to the UK.


 * Ibuki was the first  Street Fighter III  character to appear in another game.


 * In Pocket Fighter, when Ibuki throws her kunai, her outfit changes to that of Rolento from Final Fight, referencing his Stinger. Also, what she throws during her Kasumi Suzaku Super Combo depends on what level it is at. She will throw a kunai (lvl. 1), a shuriken (lvl. 2), or a tanuki statue (lvl. 3).
 * Rolento would go on to become her tag partner in Street Fighter X Tekken.


 * Ibuki's storyline in Super Street Fighter IV appears to be derived from her appearance in Pocket Fighter, where she sneaks away from her ninja training to look for an ice cream shop. She also encounters Sakura in her rival battle and asks for directions.
 * Additionally, she seems to have begun a friendship with Sakura, based on their rival match in SSFIV and their similar background as high school fighters interested in boys (or at least a particular boy, in Sakura's case). Also, when Ibuki defeats Sakura in a round with a Super Combo Finish, she says "We should totally hang out sometime!", with her match victory quote saying "I never meet anyone cool at my school".


 * Ibuki's 2nd alternate costume for Super Street Fighter IV is based on the clothes she wears during a certain win pose in the Street Fighter III games.


 * Ibuki and Hokuto from Street Fighter EX are both voiced by Yuri Amano.
 * In both 2nd Impact and her ending in 3rd Strike, Ibuki's fighting style is mispelled as Ninjitsu but in Super Street Fighter IV and onwards, it spells correctly as Ninjutsu.
 * Her purple side-tie dress from her second alternate costume in Street Fighter V bears a resemblance to Kunimitsu's outfit in Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

Gallery
Ibuki/Gallery

Sprites
Ibuki/Sprites