R. Mika

"The superstar of the ring... That's what I wanna be!"

- R. Mika

"I'll kick your ass! All right! Let's begiiiiin!!! (かましたれえ！！ おっしやいいいくそぉぉぉ！！！)"

- R. Mika (Street Fighter V)

Rainbow Mika (レインボー・ミカ), real name Mika Nanakawa (七川 美華), also known as R. Mika, is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Street Fighter Alpha 3. She is a Japanese professional wrestler from the Iwashigahama Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling organization, trained by the domineering Yoko Harmageddon.

Appearance
Mika has long, blonde hair with bangs that is tied in two geometrical pigtails. Her attire is a revealing blue and white leotard with ruffles around the collar, sleeves, and the leg holes, meant to be flamboyant, so she can stand out from the more experienced wrestling pools and circles. On her chest are blue hearts, one on each breast. Being a Japanese blonde has its way of hiding her devotion and sincerity to her sport, as does her mask, and she possibly aims for making her arm joints less constricted due to the exposed portions of her uniform around her elbows and shoulders. She also wears tall, white, lace-up boots with white stockings.

R. Mika's outfit is considered one of the most revealing among all the playable Street Fighter characters as it shows not only her bare back but also her cleavage, small leg holes, and most importantly her outfit notably shows her bare buttocks entirely.

In Street Fighter V, her appearance remains largely the same, except the blue hearts on her chest were removed. Because of the shift from sprites to 3D models, her pigtails are animated more realistically.

She has two alternate costumes in the game; the first is a blue wrestling suit with a single long sleeve identical to Zangief's first alternate costume, and the other is her primary outfit modified in a phoenix motif with different shades of red and phoenix feathered design on her wrestling mask.

Personality
Mika is a sprightly, beautiful girl who prides herself on going all out and wowing the crowds with her wrestling moves. Her performances can be a little rough around the edges, but she definitely has the potential to enter the pro circuit. She idolizes Zangief and considers his way of fighting as the ideal route for herself. The mask she wears around her eyes can sometimes make it difficult to tell what Mika is thinking or feeling, but she is very open about her emotions and speaks in a distinctive manner.

Concept
Mika was created to introduce a "tricky and technical character" into the series, though she was not a female wrestler in the beginning. After her development, the team introduced Karin to provide a contrast to her.

Karin
Mika and Karin first met in Alpha 3. After Mika defeated her in a match, Karin told Mika if she became a first-class wrestler, she will be her sponsor. This promise was fullfilled as seen in Street Fighter V.

Zangief
Mika idolizes and looks up to Zangief. She is very respectful to him and they have also been close friends since Alpha 3. They usually team up with each other on several occasions. Zangief and Mika cooperated to destroy the Psycho Drive in Alpha 3. In SFV, Mika and Zangief, along with others, team up to destroy Shadaloo. In the story mode, he and Mika team up together in a tag-team match against Laura and Alex. When Mika sees Zangief fight, she usually makes nice remarks about him.

Yamato Nadeshiko
Yamato Nadeshiko works for the same wrestling organization as R. Mika and is also her former tag-team partner. In Street Fighter V, Yamato is part of R. Mika's moveset.

Ibuki
Though they never fought, Mika and Ibuki usually argue when they see each other, as seen in the story mode in Street Fighter V. Mika considers Ibuki to be rude for not listening to her "wonderful" speech about "muscle spirit". On the other hand, Ibuki considers Mika to be bossy because what she says is demanding and boring. In SFV, after they argue again for supposedly getting lost, Ibuki saves Mika from an attacking soldier, and Mika saves Ibuki from Balrog and escapes. Whenever Ibuki sees Mika bragging about how awesome Zangief is she thinks that it is gross. They seem to share a sister-like bonding since they are mostly conversing and arguing most of the time.

Laura
Laura and Mika met in Mika's story mode after Zangief introduced them to each other (due to Laura being one of Zangief's grapple friends), they both respect each other for their fighting skill, style, and purpose.

Dhalsim
Mika saw the way Dhalsim blew fire and wanted to do it,  so she offered him a match. After he defeats her, he tells her that she can learn how to blow fire overtime. They also work together in the SFV story mode.

Birdie
After seeing him steal donuts, Mika tries to impress Zangief by fighting Birdie and telling him what he's doing is wrong. After she defeats him, he somehow escapes. They later work with each other in the SFV story mode.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
After graduation from a local junior high school, a woman by the name of Nanakawa Mika begins her plans to become a female wrestler as the pupil of Harmageddon Youko. By way of a several year-interval training period, Rainbow Mika was ready to make her debut as a pro wrestler. She thought of the perfect marketing gimmick to promote her name-- traveling the world and engaging in random matches with street fighters. Through this publicity journey, R. Mika meets the great Zangief and cooperates in some way with his mission to destroy the Psycho Drive, though they end up rescuing people with E. Honda as well (specially noted in AAC). Afterwards, Mika continues to train as a pro wrestler so that she can finally meet him (Zangief) again later on.

At some point in the story, Mika meets Karin, and the two fight. Karin is so impressed with Mika’s fighting ability that she promised that the Kanzuki Zaibatsu would become her sponsor if/when she becomes a first-class wrestler. Six months after the Psycho Drive was destroyed, Zangief finally met R. Mika at her home stage for a public bout. In just under 20 minutes, Zangief finally trounces Mika with a Final Atomic Buster; despite the devastating loss, she still has nothing but respect for him afterwards. Zangief remarks that she's got a high wall to climb, but she is well underway.

Karin's sponsoring R. Mika is confirmed in Street Fighter Eternal, since Mika did later on become a reputable pro wrestler.

Street Fighter V
R. Mika returns in Street Fighter V, making her first playable appearance since her debut in Alpha 3. By her quotes, it is confirmed that Karin is still her sponsor.

Story


R. Mika met with Zangief in London, much to her excitement, and the two fought to show each other's progress; as she expressed her admiration towards the Russian fighter, he, praising her skills, suggested that she follows him in his quest around the world to find "Muscle Spirit". She didn't know what that is but eagerly accepted. During a pause in India, Mika found Birdie stealing donuts, and stopped him. After overpowering the thug, she told him he wasn't nearly Zangief's equal and he had no Muscle Spirit; when he said he didn't understand what she was talking about, Mika realized to her confusion she didn't really know either, and Birdie took advantage of it to slip away, much to her irritation.

In Russia, Zangief got Mika to fight Laura, then he stepped in for a match of his own. Mika looked on with admiration, but after a while, she realized that the bear had gotten loose; not wanting him to spoil the fight, and wishing to protect her idol for a change, she stepped in and grappled with him. As she was at the end of her rope, Zangief came to help and dispatched the beast, to which she felt that she was more distant than ever from her objective. Mika told the Russian wrestler that she felt that she hadn't advanced yet enough, but Zangief disagreed, saying that by fearlessly facing the bear she showed Muscle Spirit - the fusion between the physical effort and the passion of the spirit. He then told her that by following in his quest she had earned the right to be his partner and fight by his side, much to her happiness.

After that, Mika met Ibuki at the Kanzuki Estate; the meeting, however, degenerated as Mika found Ibuki arrogant and not even willing to listen to her offer of "helping her build some muscle", and Ibuki calling Mika bossy and finding her overexcited, and as a result, they prepared to fight.

A Shadow Falls
In the game's main story, R. Mika teams up with her idol Zangief against Laura and Alex until the match is suspended due to the activation of the seven Black Moons created by Shadaloo. R. Mika later seen in the Kanzuki Estate having arguments with Ibuki (the same scene happened in the end of her prologue story). When Karin defeats Marz, she tells them that she will confidently join their fray in satisfactory if they continue to argue causing both to stop arguing and they diasgree stating that they are satisfied.

During the infiltration, both continues to argue until they are confronted by Balrog and Ed. Ibuki tries her best to beat Balrog with ninjutsu skills but failed as R. Mika does the same but to no effect. When Ed attempts to use Psycho Powers, Ibuki uses a smoke bomb to distract him long enough to get the chess piece as her and R. Mika to be reunited with Karin and Shibazaki. When both are now escaping, they watched Zangief pulverizes a brainwashed Abel with his Spinning Pile Driver as R. Mika idolizes him while Ibuki was disgusted on his acts.

In the final assault against Shadaloo, both R. Mika and Ibuki watch Zangief who manages to take down Satsuki one of the Dolls controlled by F.A.N.G after surviving Satsuki's sword slash from her Murasame. R. Mika is last seen with the other fighters watch Shadaloo's destruction.

Mika is also in Dhalsim's story mode.

UDON comics
R. Mika also appeared in UDON's Street Fighter II: Turbo comic, Street Fighter Legends: Sakura comic, Street Fighter IV comic and in Super Street Fighter: New Generations comics.

El Fuerte is also shown to be a huge fan of R. Mika in the comics. In the Street Fighter IV comic, one of her matches is being shown on TV at a restaurant. T. Hawk, watching, requests that the channel be changed, since he can't stand pro wrestling. After hearing T. Hawk badmouth both pro wrestling and R. Mika, El Fuerte bursts from the kitchen and yells at T. Hawk. R. Mika's image adorns every piece of El Fuerte's cooking attire.

Later on, El Fuerte befriends Sakura while they are in the backstage of a game show in Japan, after she mentions that she's a personal friend of R. Mika (something that was shown in Street Fighter Legends: Sakura), and at the end of the Street Fighter IV mini-series, Sakura brings R. Mika in person to El Fuerte's restaurant in Mexico, much to his amazement.

She was supposed to fight Hugo, but he quits and she fights Poison instead and wins.

Other Appearances
R. Mika made an appearance in Capcom's Japan-only 2001 adventure game Startling Adventures.

Cameos
R. Mika made a cameo appearance in Felicia's Capcom Fighting Evolution ending.

Fighting style
R. Mika fights using professional wrestling.

Moveset
Mika is primarily a grappling character, whose main weapons are high-priority command throws. Unlike most grapplers in the Street Fighter series (and fighting games in general), who are slow and heavy, Mika is fast and agile. She has a fairly high and quick jump, and walks quite swiftly. Mika's normal attacks are diverse and useful, but aside from two command throws, her specials are none too impressive, so they must be used as a vital part of play strategy.

Like Dan, some of Mika's special attacks are rather comical. In her Flying Peach and Shooting Peach specials, she flings herself into her opponent buttocks-first, and mostly falls on it and has to rub it due to recoil. For her opening taunt and Beach Special Super Combo, she uses the top turnbuckle of a wrestling ring that appears from the side of the screen. The sudden appearance of a turnbuckle is amusingly redundant when Mika is fighting on her own stage at a beachside wrestling ring.

In Street Fighter V, Mika gains more wrestling moves such as a Frankensteiner, a Stunner, and a Giant Swing. Her V-Trigger enables her to be aided by her tag-team partner Yamato Nadeshiko as seen in some of her special attacks and her Critical Art.

Quotes

 * See R. Mika/Quotes.

Trivia

 * Nanakawa in kanji means "seven rivers," and her first name Mika means roughly "beautiful blossom".


 * In Japan, R. Mika ends most of her sentences with "-ssu".


 * R. Mika is the only playable female wrestler in the Street Fighter series.


 * The All About Street Fighter Zero 3 guidebook states that R. Mika's hobbies are running on sandy beaches, push-ups, and wrestler's bridge. It also states that her special skill is gluttony.


 * R. Mika shares the same birthday with Sakura.


 * R. Mika's attire appears as a Swap Costume for Tekken character Kuma in Street Fighter X Tekken.


 * Junko Takeuchi, R. Mika's voice actress in Street Fighter Alpha 3, is known for voicing the protagonist Naruto Uzumaki in the original Japanese language version of the Naruto and Shippuden anime, even though her role as R. Mika predates it.


 * Mika's blue eyes are likely due to contact lenses. In her alternate colors, her eyes always match the color of her outfit.


 * According to Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono, he really wanted R. Mika in Street Fighter IV but his boss wouldn't let him, saying that she "won't fit" in the game.


 * R. Mika's Holiday DLC costume has a little resemblance to WWE Divas Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox's outfits when they competed in a wrestling ring.


 * Despite Street Fighter V already having a wrestling ring stage, (Ring of Destiny, from Capcom's 2016 Pro Tour tournament), R. Mika apparently has an unused wrestling level shown within her own official character artwork. This stage can also be seen briefly in the A Shadow Falls story mode, albeit only for a few cutscenes with Mika, Zangief, Laura, and Alex making small entrances. But other than a few segways, it cannot be used or seen anywhere else. It's also noted it is in fact a different stage than the Ring of Destiny itself, as the overall structure of Mika's version is smaller in scale, and her name is held along signs all throughout the arena.
 * Don Sauvage also makes a cameo in the unknown ring stage during the story mode.

Gallery
R. Mika/Gallery

Sprites
R. Mika/Sprites