Sakura

"Training is fun if you set your mind to a specific goal to work toward!"

- Sakura

Sakura Kasugano (春日野 さくら) is a character in the Street Fighter series. She is a Japanese schoolgirl who has an intense fascination with Ryu. She has managed to copy and learn some of Ryu's techniques, but really wants him to train her personally. She is the fourth female fighter in the series (after Chun-Li, Cammy and Rose). She has a friend named Kei Chitose, who attends the same high school and sometimes goes along with Sakura on her street fight tour.

Appearance
Sakura typically fights in her school's uniform, a short-skirted sailor fuku (seifuku) with the collar popped and red bloomers underneath. She also wears red Converse-esque shoes, a red top under her uniform, red boxing gloves, a yellow bola tie, and a white headband (given by Ryu before Street Fighter Alpha 2). She has short brown hair.

Personality
In many aspects, Sakura is very outgoing and respectful in personality, as she is most of the time happy, energetic, cheerful, positive, hard-working and focused in combat. She has a noble spirit and a very determined attitude, either in studies or in martial arts training. She sees Ryu as an idol and teacher, rather than an opponent, since she always watches him fight and mirrors herself on his philosophies in battle. Although her techniques may seem somewhat "rustic" in comparison to Ryu and Ken, she manages to balance her school work with her trainings in hopes of being accepted as Ryu's student and prove herself by fighting worthy adversaries. In a clean match, Sakura is a very patient and disciplined warrior. She is the embodiment of innocence, and is acknowledged by many fighters to have great potential that may one day match Ryu and Ken in strength when she gets older.

Pre-Street Fighter
Chronologically, Sakura first appeared in Rival Schools, where she had begun to participate in street fighting after watching Ryu win the first World Warrior tournament. Sakura was involved in various adventures within her school and various others in Aohura City. Fighting in it, she realized how much it meant to her to protect something she cared about.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
At age 16, she was still fighting, and decided to travel the world to find Ryu. She started off in her native Japan and fought the sumo wrestler E. Honda, who mentioned Ryu was going off to such places as India and Thailand. She also fought a rematch with her rival Karin Kanzuki, and though Karin won the fight, she admitted Sakura was better and she had learned winning was not everything. Thereafter traveling with her sensei, Dan, she met his friend Blanka along the way and was promised a match with him.

She continued to search the world for Ryu, eventually ditching Dan and finding Ryu's friend and rival Ken. She commented to him how she loved to fight to better herself, and finding inspiration in those words himself, Ken and Sakura eventually found Ryu in Thailand, where he was actually being brainwashed by M. Bison. Sagat had come by this time to find the scene as well, and as Sagat took on Ryu, both Ken and Sakura took on Bison. A combination of Sakura screaming for Ryu and Sagat's urgings finally snapped Ryu out of the mind control and he defeated Bison, destroying him temporarily. He told Sakura then he was not ready to train her and fight a rematch with her yet, and walked off, with Sakura watching him go. She then realized that there was something really special about Ryu, but she didn't know what.

Super Street Fighter IV
Sakura returns to fight again, still searching for Ryu. This time, it is heavily implied that her admiration toward Ryu has developed into a full-on crush. Her win quote against Sagat has her admitting that she understands his obsession with Ryu, adding "Isn't he just dreamy?". Some time after the end of the second World Warrior tournament, she confronts Dan about whether he knows anything about where Ryu might be. Dan, not wanting to appear out of the loop, says that a new tournament is rumored to be about to start, and that Ken will be participating, speculating that Ryu will also be there. Ecstatic, Sakura immediately runs off to enter. She, Dan and Blanka depart on a cruise ship on which she endures a grueling self-imposed training regime.

During the tournament, she actively seeks out Ryu, eventually finding him in the S.I.N. building in the midst of destroying the BLECE project. The force of the struggle knocks Sakura unconscious, and she awakes to see a triumphant Ryu standing over her. The two escape from the S.I.N. building in the midst of explosions - which were probably Vega's doing - and run into Dan and Blanka along the way. After the tournament, Sakura and Ryu exchange goodbyes and she leaves for home on the ship, she also realizes that it was love that she felt for Ryu. In her ending, a slightly older-looking Sakura is shown walking with her dog in an area near the Overpass when she sees Ryu approaching.

Marvel vs. Capcom series
Sakura appeared as a playable character in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
Sakura appeared as a playable character in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix.

Capcom Fighting Evolution
Sakura appeared as a playable character in Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Street Fighter X Tekken
Sakura appears as one of the DLC characters in Street Fighter X Tekken, with Blanka as her tag partner. Sakura and Blanka hear the news about Pandora located in the South Pole. A few months pass, leaving Sakura and Blanka to wonder where Dan has gone ever since he left and never came back, so Sakura and Blanka head out to the South Pole to find Dan and check out the Pandora Box.

Continuing their journey to the South Pole, Sakura and Blanka run into Lars and Alisa thinking that Lars is a TV star known as Red Warrior Bakori Man, to which Blanka agrees. Lars gets confused as to who this TV star is, and Alisa explains to him, after which Sakura and Blanka challenge them to a fight.

After defeating Ogre, Sakura and Blanka feel excited, as they got to fight many fighters searching for Pandora. Soon, they remember that Dan is missing, so Sakura calls out his name. Afterwards, Pandora opens, prompting them to check inside. Looking inside, they find Dan freezing and beaten up, prompting Sakura and Blanka to help Dan out of the box.

UDON comics
Sakura appeared in UDON's Street Fighter comics and in the Street Fighter Legends: Sakura comic, the latter in which she is the main protagonist.

Fighting style and gameplay
Sakura fights using an emulated version of Ryu's fighting style. She can successfully manipulate ki, and is subsequently able to perform the Hadoken energy attack; however, due to her lack of training, she cannot throw it the full length of the arena like Ken or Ryu can. Unlike Ryu and other fighters from the same style, however, she can control the size of her Hadoken and throw larger Hadoken projectiles that sacrifice range and execution speed for size and power (up to 3 times larger). In the Marvel vs. Capcom series, she throws her Hadokens diagonally upwards, though her "Hiyakeshita" (literally "Sunburned") version still throws them horizontally. In Capcom vs. SNK, she is given an energy spark instead of a traditional projectile (called the "Hadoushou") that hits 3 times, but is limited to the area in front of her hands (though her EX version lets her use her special version of the Hadoken).

Her other attacks include "Shunpukyaku", a short version of the "Tatsumaki Senpukyaku" attack that, instead of sailing through the air, rises and falls in an arcing pattern and traditionally only goes about 60% of the screen at its longest range; and "Shouoken", a version of the "Shoryuken". She performs it by running and throwing body blows ending the combination with an uppercut.

Her Super Combos include her own interpretations of the Shinku Hadoken (which, like her regular projectile, will not cover the full length of the screen) and Shoryureppa ("Midare Zakura"). Her third Super Combo is a ground-based spinning leg attack (called the "Haru Ichiban", literally translated as "first one of the spring") that ends with a side kick that knocks her opponent away. In the Marvel vs. Capcom series, the Street Fighter EX series and Rival Schools, she also gains the Raging Demon in her sunburned form, although it has no canonical reference on the Street Fighter series.

In her appearance in Street Fighter EX3, she gains two unique Meteor Combos: first is the "Nekketsu Hadoken", in which she fires a massive, pink Hadoken, which is several times her size, exceptionally fast, and does more damage than any other projectile attack in the game; the second is "Genki Ichiban", which can deal about 80% damage to an opponent but is widely telegraphed (she tiptoes toward her opponent and points & laughs; the pointing is unblockable and causes a great deal of knockback).

Quotes
See: Sakura/Quotes

Trivia

 * Sakura is one of two fighters who learned their fighting styles from two of the main characters in the Street Fighter series, Ryu and Ken. The other is Sean.
 * She remains as the only Street Fighter character with a vocal theme song "I Just Want You to Know". It is first found in the arrange soundtrack of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. The melody is emulated in her theme song of Street Fighter IV.
 * Sakura is the only female to have used the Satsui no Hado (as Dark Sakura/Sunburnt Sakura), although it has no canonical reference on the Street Fighter series.
 * Cammy and Sakura may have likely met and fought in the past, based on their quotes in Super Street Fighter IV (especially in Cammy's quote), this could be a reference to the Sakura Ganbaru! manga, where she and Cammy formed a friendship.
 * In the non-canonical game of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Sakura is seen as an adult and as a mother with a son in her ending.
 * Sakura's winquote towards Evil Ryu in the Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter IV is a reference to the animated movie, Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind, when he almost kills her for getting in his way from killing an S.I.N. agent.
 * Ling Xiaoyu from the Tekken series share some similarities with Sakura, namely in their attraction to the main characters (i.e. Jin and Ryu). They are also the first "schoolgirl" characters to be introduced in their respective series.
 * Asuka Kazama (also from the Tekken series) is similar and often compared to Sakura and vice-versa. Sakura has also Asuka's school outfit as her Swap Costume in Street Fighter X Tekken.
 * In the Street Fighter manga Sakura Ganbaru! (Fight on, Sakura!), Sakura's potential, contradictory to her usual status as low-tier, was believed to be so immense that if properly trained, she would be able to match Ryu blow for blow.
 * In the same series, Ken also mistakes her for being either Ryu's daughter or sister.
 * SNK's Shingo Yabuki is often compared with Sakura for both trying to emulate their respective master's move. Shingo, however, gets less respect from his idol, unlike Sakura.
 * The character of Black Widow (from Capcom's Slam Masters series) was stated to be one of the inspirations behind Sakura.