Ibuki

"Ibuki! On the scene! (いぶき！見参！)"

- Ibuki (Street Fighter IV series) "I'll finish this in no time! (さっさてを終わらせちゃうよ！)"

- 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 has a curvy yet athletic build, and her black/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, 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 matching white lined heels.

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.

In her ending in 3rd Strike, she was depicted wearing an outfit similar to her first alternate costume in Street Fighter V but it was shown as her second casual outfit seen in her arcade ending. She wears a salmon pink sleeveless top, gray denim skirt and her white lined heels. She also carries her yellow backpack from her first casual outfit.

Ibuki tends to have ninja themed accessories in some of her casual outfits. Her 2nd alternate in Street Fighter IV has a chain of miniaturized toy kunais and a shurikien belt buckle, and has added ninja elements to two of her uniforms and her school swimsuit.

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. She has also shown slight interest in others like Blanka and Fei Long. Ibuki is also very conscious about her weight, as mentioned in her Street Fighter × Tekken winquote against Bob and her Arcade mode ending in Street Fighter V.

Ibuki seems to be well in touch with modern pop culture and self awareness. In Street Fighter × Tekken her winquotes against some characters, especially those who come from Tekken, seem to reference memes or even her own faults. She references "Ninjas vs. Pirates" when defeating Jack-X, hints at Naruto when she defeats Lili, saying "Forehead protector? I don't need one of those... Maybe you should stop watching anime...", referencing hairstyles when defeating Paul Phoenix, and lastly references her own low stamina when defeating Marshall Law. Most recently keeping with the trend with her sporty outfit with Sgt. Ashida from th C.R.I. commenting: "Track and field? Lately it seems the minimalist style is in, and of course Ibuki is hip to the latest trends". Ibuki also seems to be familiar with live streaming, as her reaction when defeating G has her more surprised she wasn't told their fight was being streamed rather than the fact that it was streamed itself.

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 (such as almost falling off a cliff while talking on her cellphone, for example) and has many moments of not using her head. 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".

In-universe, it seems she is not taken too seriously as a fighter. Many characters tend to mention how she lacks some attributes. Characters like Chun-Li and Ken saying she needs to focus more, Kolin talks about how not worth remembering her fights are with her, Balrog not taking her seriously pre and post fight, and Kazuya Mishima straight up telling her she is the worst ninja he has ever faced. The only characters who do not verbally accost her are characters who are among the nicer end like Menat, or pre-established friends like Elena and Karin.

Guy
Ibuki first met Guy when she 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 win quotes against Guy, Ibuki displays fondness to Guy but complains about his looks, telling that his outfit does not look like that of a ninja.

Zeku
When Ibuki first meet Zeku, in his younger form, she found him to be handsome. He offers her a chance to to join his group. After fighting Zeku he shows his elderly form, much to Ibuki's disappointment, and she turns down his offer.

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. It is through Sakura that she became acquainted with Karin.

Oro
Ibuki was tasked with fighting Oro as her final task as a ninja. While she was unable to defeat him, she is one of the few to wound him. He even thought she would ask him out on a date.

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 and challenges her to a match. Afterwards, Ibuki watches a match between two teams composed of R.Mika and Zangief and Laura and Alex. During this match 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.

R. Mika
Though they never fought, Mika and Ibuki usually argue when they see each other, as seen in the latter's character story. Mika consider 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.

Rolento
In Street Fighter X Tekken, Ibuki does not get along well with Rolento due to his constant orders, which she follows reluctantly, and the military titles he bestows on her during their story. Rolento also seems to be one of the few people she was not previously antiquated with who has a low opinion of her fighting skill, as even in Street Fighter IV both of their winquotes against each other still suggest the possibility of Ibuki joining his army due to her skills.

Background
Ibuki is a young girl from Japan who lives in a village entirely composed of ninjas, hidden from society's watchful eyes, where she has trained in the deadly art of ninjutsu 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.

Character story
Prologue - 'The World Is My Oyster!'

In her character story, Ibuki has finally finished her ninja assignment and receives a call from Sakura, whom she met and befriended in Super Street Fighter IV. She informs Ibuki of a party invitation sent from her rival, Karin Kanzuki. Ibuki replies that she hasn't read it yet, because she almost fell through a roof while she was getting home to the ninja village, so Sakura tells her to travel to the Kanzuki Estate by plane. Before hanging up, Sakura tells Ibuki that she can't come due to a scheduling conflict. Ibuki reflects on what she should wear to the party and how she's never met Karin before.

After arriving at the Kanzuki Estate, Ibuki is excited to get to the party. However, she is ambushed by Birdie and forced to fight him. After defeating Birdie, Ibuki tells him that she also has an invitation to the party. Karin intervenes and scolds Birdie for his rudeness to her guest. Karin and Ibuki introduce themselves, and both have heard of the other from Sakura's stories. Karin then engages Ibuki in a fight, telling her this will be her introduction. After the fight, Karin informs Ibuki that she is interested in working with Ibuki's ninja clan, and that she had invited her as per the clan's recommendation. Karin states that the contract has already been approved by the Glade of Ninjas, and while Ibuki initially refuses to sign it, she is enticed by Karin's promise that her parties always attract handsome men.

After the party, Ibuki reflects on all the people she has encountered since leaving her village, among them R. Mika. She is seen conversing on the phone with her friend, Sarai, as she returns home to her village, satisfied with her experiences.

Other story appearances:

 * Ibuki appears in the end of R. Mika's character story, in which she rejects R. Mika's offer of "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. Mika says Ibuki is arrogant, and Ibuki refutes this by saying she has worked with the Kanzuki family for longer than Mika. The argument between the two continues as the story ends.
 * In Abigail's character story, Ibuki encounters Abigail and mistakes his car noises for a fart. She is so disgusted that she fights Abigail, though Abigail wins.
 * In Zeku's character story, Ibuki meets Zeku, in his younger form, who is promoting the arts of Bushinryu. Ibuki mistakes Zeku for a salesman, but Zeku corrects her and offers her a chance to to join his group. After being defeated by Zeku, he shows his present form as an elderly ninja, much to Ibuki's disappointment. She turns down his offer.

A Shadow Falls
Ibuki is seen at the Kanzuki Estate with Birdie, watching a tag team match between Zangief and R. Mika against Alex and Laura. The screen suddenly shuts off, a result of the electromagnetic pulse caused by Shadaloo's Black Moons. Karin decides to travel to New York to find out who is responsible for the activation of the Black Moons, and Ibuki goes with her.

After returning to the Kanzuki Estate, Ibuki is seen having an argument with R. Mika, while Karin and Cammy discuss the plan to stop Shadaloo. The estate is suddenly attacked by Shadaloo agents, among them Decapre and Marz. After defeating them, Karin threatens Ibuki and Mika with the same punishment unless they stop fighting.

During the first infiltration of the Shadaloo base, Ibuki and R. Mika continue to argue, until they are confronted by Balrog and Ed, who managed to get one of the chess pieces that control the Black Moons from Zangief. Ibuki is the first to fight Balrog, her ninjutsu skills are not sufficient to beat him. Mika then engages him, but she also fails. The two then team up and succeed in overpowering him. Ed tries to use his Psycho Power to stop them, and Ibuki uses a smoke bomb to distract both of them. She and Mika take the chess piece and escape, finally being reunited with Karin and her butler, Shibasaki. Karin takes the chess piece and goes on ahead, while Ibuki and R. Mika wait for the rescue helicopter to arrive. Karin returns with Chun-Li, and both are being chased by Abel, who has been brainwashed by Bison's Psycho Power. Zangief appears and knocks Abel out with a Spinning Piledriver, then proudly flexes his muscles. Ibuki is disgusted, yet Mika is amazed.

In the final assault against Shadaloo, Ibuki is hesitant about jumping out of a helicopter, as she is afraid of heights. Nevertheless, Dhalsim pushes her out. During the mission, Ibuki and Mika fight off Shadaloo soldiers, and they watch Zangief's fight against Satsuki. Ibuki becomes worried and tells Zangief to watch out for Satsuki's sword, but to her surprise, the blade shatters when it hits Zangief's muscles. Ibuki is last seen with the other fighters, watching 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 club. 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.

Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
Ibuki appeared as a playable character in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (also known as 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.

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. She meets Viper at somepoint after her training with Oro, telling her that Ninjas follow their own way, later she comes across Ryu who told that she still has a long way to go. she appears on Gill's island with Elena and Makoto as they both fight against Gill to foil his plains of world domination with many other fighters.

Fighting style
As a ninja, Ibuki is skilled in ninjutsu; specifically its curriculum of martial arts. Unlike Guy, her style emphasizes a more traditional depiction, like that of ninjutsu found in the regions of Iga and Koga, utilizing kicks, grabs, speed, agility and accuracy for an aggressive and deadly approach.

Ibuki has many mobility options and pre-SFV had many anti projectile options like EX Neckbreaker. She tends to have many multi hitting attacks. While she generally does below average damage a player with good execution can do multiple 1 frame in a combo to match most of the cast. Her Raida tends to have unique properties, being immune to command throws in the IV series, being the only 2 frame non super special in Street Fighter X Tekken, and having anti back technical mechanics of command grabs despite it's hitbox being classified as a strike.

As a tradeoff for her advantages she has been a rather frail character throughout her Street Fighter existance. She is usually around the 900 HP mark, 100 less than average.

Moveset
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 Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, Ibuki retains all of her Street Fighter III moves and some of her special attacks like the Kunai and her Kasumi Suzaku Super Combo when she diguises as Rolento. Her unique special attack is when she smacks her opponent in two kicks. She has the most disguise forms than the rest of the characters with a total of seven disguises (Eg. Kendo student, a Japanese marker where she could paint the opponent in black, a Bushido, Traditional Japanese singer, a Japanese magician to make a tornado spin on her opponents, a penguin suit and cosplaying as Rolento). One of her Mighty Combos has her disguise as a Bushido to slash her opponent in one strike to deal heavy damage. If her opponents are obliterated with this move an ocean wave background will be seen. She also wears her casual outfit from one of her Street Fighter III win animations but it was a short sleeved shirt than a sleeveless shirt from her ending while meeting with Guy.

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 Sarai, Sanjou, Enjou, Genda, Raion and Homura Yuuta. Enjou is often mistaken for Geki from the original Street Fighter game.


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


 * Ibuki's school uniform was well-liked by Capcom producer Hideaki Itsuno; he used the same school uniform design for Rival Schools character Hinata Wakaba.


 * 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.


 * Ibuki was originally planned to be a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (alongside Charlie Nash and M. Bison), but wasn't included due to time constraints.


 * 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.


 * The fifteenth color palette of Ibuki's Story Outfit is based on and inspired by Roll from the Mega Man series.

Gallery
Ibuki/Gallery

Sprites
Ibuki/Sprites