Ibuki

"Ibuki! On the scene! (いぶき！見参！)"

- Ibuki (Street Fighter IV series)

Ibuki (いぶき) is a kunoichi (female ninja) in the Street Fighter series. She first appeared in Street Fighter III, and is voiced by Yuri Amano in all three games in the series. Ayumi Fujimura voices her in Super Street Fighter IV.

Appearance
Ibuki is a young girl from Japan who is raised in a ninja village that is hidden from society's watchful eyes, where she trains in the deadly art of ninjutsu. She has a curvy yet athletic build and her blackish/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.

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, light blue skirt, white socks and black shoes.

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.

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".

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".

Background
Ibuki lives in a village entirely composed of ninjas, where she has been training 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 III: 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.

Street Fighter III: 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. While there, she joins a club which, to her dismay, turns out to be run by her ninja clan as an additional training method - and she clues in just as an upperclassman holds her at kunai-point.

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. Dhalsim was later confirmed as a returning character and it was reasonably believed that Ibuki and the rest would be the first six additional DLC characters. Ibuki and the rest of the characters were confirmed on December 5th, 2015 at the PlayStation Experience.

Pocket Fighter
Ibuki appeared as a playable character in 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 doing to do.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Ibuki was originally planned to be a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, but wasn't included due to time constraints.

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.

Gameplay
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.

Pop Culture
Ibuki/Pop Culture

Quotes
See: Ibuki/Quotes

Trivia

 * The other ninjas in Ibuki's clan include Sanjou, Enjou, Genda, Raion and Homura Yuuta. Enjou is often mistaken for Geki from the original Street Fighter game.


 * Her ideal occupation would to be a news reporter.


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


 * 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.
 * Additionally, she 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".


 * 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.

Gallery
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Street Fighter III series
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Street Fighter IV series
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SNK vs. Capcom series
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Namco's X series
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