Blanka

Blanka (ブランカ) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Blanka has green skin and long orange hair, resembling a monster more than a human. He is one of the original eight characters featured in the first version of the Street Fighter II games.

History
Blanka's first appearance in the Street Fighter series was in Street Fighter II. His prototypical name was "Big Dean Caves." Blanka was originally going to look more like a caveman and there are rumors that the design for King Rasta Mon from Saturday Night Slam Masters was one of the early Blanka character models.

In his Street Fighter II ending, he reunites with his mother who recognizes him from the anklets he wears. She reveals that Blanka was once known as Jimmy, before he was in a plane crash as a little boy. This crash caused him to grow up in the wild, although he has connections to a local village. Ever since the crash, Blanka/Jimmy had been separated from his mother.

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, his character design was again changed to make him look less ferocious-looking. His in-game story, just like the in-game stories of the other characters in the series, serves as a precursor to the events of Street Fighter II. The game tells a tale of how Blanka ate a melon on a poacher's truck and traveled to civilization for the first time. Playing the game as Blanka, the player eventually faces Dan Hibiki as one of Blanka's mid-bosses. It is then revealed through in-game dialogue that the two know each other and that Blanka had once saved Dan's life. Blanka faces Zangief as his second mid-boss and unwittingly prevents Zangief from helping to destroy the Shadaloo criminal organization. He then faces Shadaloo member Balrog before facing M. Bison.[1] After Bison is defeated, Blanka, Dan, and Sakura work together and destroy Bison's psycho drive weapon.

In Street Fighter IV, Blanka leaves his mother because people stare at him, and goes to Hong-Kong with Dan. His ending reveals that his mother went looking for him and they are reunited. He also appears in Dan's ending where he is wandering through S.I.N.'s HQ. There he bumps into Dan only to see flames heading towards them. The flames die before they can reach them, however, as they are extinguished by Sakura's and Ryu's Hadokens.

Blanka has also made appearances in several spin-off titles. Blanka is available as a playable character in the later games of the Street Fighter EX series, Street Fighter EX 2 and Street Fighter EX 3. He also made appearances as a playable character in Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2. According to his ending in Capcom vs. SNK 2, he thought he was flown home, but when he got off the plane, he ends up in a zoo instead.

Street Fighter II animated movie
Blanka makes a brief appearance when Ryu eats a Pickle that has Blanka's face on it.

Street Fighter motion picture
The 1994 live-action Street Fighter film combined Charlie and Blanka into a single character. Robert Mammone plays the role of Blanka. At the beginning of the film, Guile's close friend Carlos Blanka (Charlie) is taken captive by Bison (Raúl Juliá) who subjects him to genetic testing to create the perfect soldier.

The film was made prior to Charlie's introduction as a playable character in the Street Fighter Alpha games.

Street Figher II cartoon series
He was voiced by Scott McNeil. In the cartoon, Blanka was portrayed as the protector of a small Brazilian village who eventually "rejoined" the Street Fighter team. Blanka appears as one of the more recurrent characters in the U.S. cartoon, acting as a scout gathering information for Guile and his friends on various missions. It is referenced in one episode that Arabs and Israelis would even unite to face Blanka if prompted.

Characteristics
Blanka's most apparent characteristic is his green color. His in-game storyline states that he was once extremely pale and was once known locally as the hombre blanco (white man) and adapted the blanco into his name Blanka. This is a strange storyline point because the language spoken in Brazil is not Spanish but Portuguese (in which that expression would be homem branco). His green skin color in the games is attributed to his constant use of chlorophyll from plants to better blend in with the jungle environment, a color change that eventually became permanent. His coloring changed in later games, making him bright green with vivid orange hair as opposed to the yellowish green skin he had in Street Fighter II. Blanka's style of fighting in the games is a self-taught savage fighting style; however, Capcom's USA division depicted it as a Capoeira technique.

In the non-canon Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Blanka appears in the ending of another green-skinned powerhouse, The Incredible Hulk. In the ending, Bruce Banner theorizes that gamma radiation caused Blanka's mutations, as they did his. He is also seen in the background of one stage, sitting in front of a campfire, in a crouch and face affixed in a snarl, across from The Beast, who mirrors his expression.

Video
Blanka vs Crimson Viper in Street Fighter IV