Hokuto

Hokuto (ほくと) is a character who appears exclusively in the Street Fighter EX series by Arika, where she is one of the lead characters.

Appearance
Her costume in the first and third EX games have a very similar color scheme to the Philippine flag.

Personality
Hokuto is shown to be a very calm, noble and mature woman. Despite this, she has quite a temper, shown when Vega started taunting her with his womanizing ways during one of their matches. Because of the sorrow of losing Kairi, Hokuto is not a very open and expressive woman, otherwise she is sensitive of other people's family problems.

Story
Hokuto was born to a branch of the Mizukami (水神) family, which has held a tradition in the art of Kobujutsu. Originally known as "Shirase" (訃) during her childhood, Hokuto was entrusted to the head house at an early age and raised there. After her younger sister Nanase was born, the two trained together rigorously in the martial arts and were closely bonded as sisters. Hokuto trained in the martial arts since an early age, refining them into her personal style, eventually blooming her talent to become the "seiden" (正伝) of the ancient hand-to-hand martial arts of the Mizukami.

On the day Hokuto turned 17, she learned of the existence of elder brother named Kairi from her foster father, who disappeared when Hokuto was still an infant. Her brother was in fact, still alive and walking the path of the Shura (修羅). Hokuto sets off to a journey to stop him, which meant that she would have to face Kairi in a life or death confrontation. Eventually, Hokuto reached the end of her journey, and was reunited with her brother Kairi.

Bloody Hokuto
However, Kairi's presence triggered the Seal of Blood (血の封印) implanted into Hokuto, turning her into an assassin whose only purpose was the erasure of Kairi's existence. Unknown to Hokuto, her true purpose of her mission to locate Kairi was to carry out his elimination. To ensure this, Hokuto was implanted with the Seal of Blood by the elders of the Mizukami clan, which was set to be unleashed whenever Hokuto would come into contact with Kairi.

This 'form', known as Bloody Hokuto (血の封印を解かれたほくと, Chi no Fūin Tokareta Hokuto?, Hokuto Awakened to the Seal of Blood) is an alternate playable version of Hokuto that appears as a hidden character in Street Fighter EX Plus, Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha, and Street Fighter EX3. Bloody Hokuto can be distinguished from her regular counterpart by the red mark on her forehead.

Gameplay
Naginatajutsu is one of the skills taught in kobudo, on which Hokuto's fighting style is based. Hokuto uses the naginata as part of her Meteor Combo, and is seen wielding hand fans as part of one of her Super Combos.

Hokuto's use of the naginata, combined with her noble and calm demeanor, is likely a reference to the concept of the Yamato Nadeshiko noble woman, who were expected to know the art of the weapon in order to defend their families. The naginata was also frequently used as a status symbol.

Hokuto's attacks usually advance towards the opponent before striking, and can duck under mid- and high-aiming attacks; one of her challenges in Trial Mode in Street Fighter EX 2 Plus is to duck under a Hadoken to hit with a Shinkyaku-Geki. She can also cancel these moves to fake out an opponent; her move Shin is a cancel of a lone Shinku-Geki or Shinkyaku-Geki. Her Kiren-Eki can be charged by holding down the punch button used in command input, making it a good move for juggling opponents. Hokuto can also perform short, two-hit combos (i.e. Chugeki-Hoh -> Shougekiha/Shinku-Geki/Shinkyaku-Geki, depending on input) and can counter attacks.

Her Meteor Combo, Shirasegatana, varies in strength depending on how far away she is from her opponent. If the Shirasegatana hits the opponent with the blade, the ground is torn up and the single hit does the most damage possible, making it hard to optimize damage in a close range combo. Her version of Kairi's Kyouja-Renbu is similar in the way that it is a grab attack.

Trivia

 * Her secret alternate costume of her "bloody" form, in the console version of the first EX game, bears strong resemblance to that of the early designs of Reimu Hakurei, from the Touhou Project series of games.
 * The two main composers of the first EX game: Shinji Hosoe and Ayako Sasou (who also do other projects), are noted for their arrangements of various Touhou project songs, under their Sound Sepher label.