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"The superstar of the ring... That's what I wanna be!"
—R. Mika
"I'll kick your ass! All right! Let's begin!
(かましたれえ!! おっしやいいいくそぉぉぉ!!! Kama shitaree!! Osshi yai ī kusoooo!!!?)
"
—R. Mika (Street Fighter V)

Rainbow Mika (レインボー・ミカ Reinbō Mika?) (shortened as R. Mika), birth name Mika Nanakawa (七川 美華 Nanakawa Mika?), is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first appearing in Street Fighter Alpha 3. She is a Japanese professional wrestler from the Iwashigahama Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling organization, trained by the domineering Yoko Harmageddon.

Biography

Appearance

Mika has long, blonde hair with bangs that are tied in two geometrical pigtails and blue eyes. Her attire is a blue and white lingerié-like legless leotard with ruffles around areas such as the collar, the sleeves, and the leg-holes, wrestling boots with white stockings and a white bustier with blue hearts on both bosoms. This is stark contrast to many of the Japanese characters of Street Fighter who often tend to have black and/brown hair and eyes respectively (with the exception of Karin Kanzuki).

Her attire is meant to be flamboyant, so she can stand out from the more experienced wrestling pools and circles. She possibly aims for making her arm joints less constricted due to the exposed portions of her uniform around her elbows, shoulders, breasts and buttocks. Her outfit is considered to be one of the most revealing designs of all the series' playable female characters.

In Street Fighter V, her appearance remains largely the same, with minor modifications to her outfit. She has notably matured, having a bigger bust and bulking up in muscle considerably, She retains the same colors except the blue hearts on her chest were removed with a new white, heart-shaped bustier. Because of the shift from sprites to 3D models, her pigtails are animated more realistically.

She has two alternate costumes in the game; the first is a blue wrestling suit with a single long sleeve identical to Zangief's first alternate costume, and the other is her primary outfit modified in a phoenix motif with different shades of red and phoenix feathered design on her wrestling mask.

Her premium swimsuit costume is a one piece covered by a hoodie. The one piece swimsuit has a white heart design on the chest and white stripes on the sides. Mika also wears blue "MIKA" named bracelets on both arms. She also wears blue open toed flip-flop sandals. The hidden variation of her swimsuit removes her hoodie, just leaving the one piece.

Personality

Mika is a sprightly, beautiful, and tomboyish girl who prides herself on going all out and wowing the crowds with her wrestling moves. Her performances can be a little rough around the edges, but she definitely has the potential to enter the pro circuit. She idolizes Zangief and considers his way of fighting as the ideal route for herself. The mask she wears around her eyes can sometimes make it difficult to tell what Mika is thinking or feeling, but she is very open about her emotions and speaks in a distinctive manner. While being a little stubborn, she is a very courageous person who often faces opponents head on even saying bold things like "I'll kick your ass" before the match; Mika also won't hesitate to protect her friends, she was able to take a punch from Balrog when defending Ibuki. R.Mika has a good relationship with her fellow Iwashigahama pro-wrestlers as well often sparring with them with good sportsmanship.

Concept

Mika was created to introduce a "tricky and technical character" into the series, though she was not a female wrestler in the beginning. After her development, the team introduced Karin to provide a contrast to her.[8] R. Mika likely draws inspiration from the protagonist of Lucha Doll Mai (ルチャDOLL舞), a manga Akiman is already aware of.[9][10] Her color scheme was inspired by Lisa Kusanami from Sega fighting game Last Bronx[citation needed] and her mask is similar to that of Yatterman-2 from Tatsunoko's Yatterman anime.

According to Akiman, Mika's signature heart attire was inspired by Michiru Saotome from Getter Robo.

Character Relationships

Karin

Mika and Karin first met in Alpha 3. After Mika defeated her in a match, Karin told Mika if she became a first-class wrestler, she will be her sponsor. This promise was fulfilled as seen in Street Fighter V.

Zangief

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Mika idolizes and looks up to Zangief. She is very respectful to him and they have also been close friends since Alpha 3. They usually team up with each other on several occasions. Zangief and Mika cooperated to destroy the Psycho Drive in Alpha 3. In SFV, Mika and Zangief, along with others, team up to destroy Shadaloo. In the story mode, he and Mika team up together in a tag-team match against Laura and Alex. When Mika sees Zangief fight, she usually makes nice and complimentary remarks about him. She also sees Zangief as a handsome man as shown in her character story where Zangief is covered in light whenever he looks at her.[11] Overall their relationship is similar to Ryu and Sakura.

Yamato Nadeshiko

Yamato Nadeshiko works for the same wrestling organization as R. Mika and is also her former tag-team partner. In Street Fighter V, Yamato is part of R. Mika's moveset.

Ibuki

Screenshot 20180130-073336

Though they never fought, Mika and Ibuki usually argue when they see each other, as seen in the story mode in Street Fighter V. Mika considers 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. Despite this, the two girls never hesitate to have each other's back when support is needed. This is shown in A Shadow Falls, 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. They seem to share a sister-like bonding since they are mostly conversing and arguing most of the time. Ibuki's SFV arcade mode ending even has them partaking in a hotdog eating contest out of competition.

Laura

Laura and Mika met in Mika's story mode after Zangief introduced them to each other (due to Laura being one of Zangief's grapple friends), they both respect each other for their fighting skill, style, and purpose.

Dhalsim

Mika saw the way Dhalsim blew fire and wanted to do it, so she offered him a match. After he defeats her, he tells her that she can learn how to blow fire overtime. They also work together in A Shadow Falls.

Birdie

After seeing him steal donuts, Mika tries to impress Zangief by fighting Birdie and telling him what he's doing is wrong. After she defeats him, he somehow escapes. They later worked with each other in the SFV story mode.

Story

Background

Since childhood, Mika Nanakawa dreamed of becoming a star in Japanese professional wrestling and started training at a young age to fulfill her dreams. After graduation from a local junior high school, Mika began her plans to become a female wrestler as the pupil of Yoko Harmageddon. By way of a several year-interval training periods, Rainbow Mika was ready to make her debut as a pro wrestler. She thought of the perfect marketing gimmick to promote her name-- traveling the world and engaging in random matches with street fighters.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

Through this publicity journey, R. Mika meets the great Zangief and cooperates in some way with his mission to destroy the Psycho Drive, though they end up rescuing people with E. Honda as well (especially noted in AAC). Afterwards, Mika continues to train as a pro wrestler so that she can finally meet him (Zangief) again later on.

At some point in the story, Mika meets Karin, and the two fight. Karin is so impressed with Mika’s fighting ability that she promised that the Kanzuki Zaibatsu would become her sponsor if/when she becomes a first-class wrestler.

Six months after the Psycho Drive was destroyed, Zangief finally met R. Mika at her home stage for a public bout. In just under 20 minutes, Zangief finally trounces Mika with a Final Atomic Buster; despite the devastating loss, she still has nothing but respect for him afterward. Zangief remarks that she's got a high wall to climb, but she is well underway.

Karin's sponsoring R. Mika is confirmed in Street Fighter Eternal, since Mika did later on become a reputable pro wrestler.

Street Fighter V

R. Mika returns in Street Fighter V, making her first playable appearance since her debut in Alpha 3.[12] By her quotes, it is confirmed that Karin is still her sponsor.

Character Story

Prologue: Kindred Muscle Spirit

Maxresdefau (1)

Mika confronting Birdie.

R. Mika met with Zangief in London, much to her excitement, and the two fought to show each other's progress; as she expressed her admiration towards the Russian fighter, he, praising her skills, suggested that she follows him in his quest around the world to find "Muscle Spirit". She didn't know what that is but eagerly accepted. During a pause in India, Mika found Birdie stealing donuts, and stopped him. After overpowering the thug, she told him he wasn't nearly Zangief's equal and he had no Muscle Spirit; when he said he didn't understand what she was talking about, Mika realized to her confusion she didn't really know either, and Birdie took advantage of it to slip away, much to her irritation.

In Russia, Zangief got Mika to fight Laura, then he stepped in for a match of his own. Mika looked on with admiration, but after a while, she realized that the bear had gotten loose; not wanting him to spoil the fight, and wishing to protect her idol for a change, she stepped in and grappled with him. As she was at the end of her rope, Zangief came to help and dispatched the beast, to which she felt that she was more distant than ever from her objective. Mika told the Russian wrestler that she felt that she hadn't advanced yet enough, but Zangief disagreed, saying that by fearlessly facing the bear she showed Muscle Spirit - the fusion between the physical effort and the passion of the spirit. He then told her that by following in his quest she had earned the right to be his partner and fight by his side, much to her happiness.

After that, Mika met Ibuki at the Kanzuki Estate; the meeting, however, degenerated as Mika found Ibuki arrogant and not even willing to listen to her offer of " building some muscle", and Ibuki calling Mika bossy and finding her overexcited, and as a result, they prepared to fight.

A Shadow Falls

In the game's main story, R. Mika teams up with her idol Zangief against Laura and Alex until the match is suspended due to the activation of the seven Black Moons created by Shadaloo. R. Mika later seen in the Kanzuki Estate having arguments with Ibuki (the same scene happened in the end of her prologue story). When Karin defeats Marz, she tells them that she will confidently join their fray in satisfactory if they continue to argue causing both to stop arguing and they disagree stating that they are satisfied.

Mikaaaa

Mika to Balrog

During the infiltration, both continue to argue until they are confronted by Balrog and Ed. Ibuki tries her best to beat Balrog with ninjutsu skills but failed as R. Mika does the same but to no effect. When Ed attempts to use Psycho Powers, Ibuki uses a smoke bomb to distract him long enough to get the chess piece as her and R. Mika to be reunited with Karin and Shibazaki. When both are now escaping, they watched Zangief pulverizes a brainwashed Abel with his Spinning Pile Driver as R. Mika idolizes him while Ibuki was disgusted on his acts.

In the final assault against Shadaloo, both R. Mika and Ibuki watch Zangief who manages to take down Satsuki one of the Dolls controlled by F.A.N.G after surviving Satsuki's sword slash from her Murasame. R. Mika is last seen with the other fighters watch Shadaloo's destruction.

Mika is also in Dhalsim's character story.

Comics

UDON comics

Rainbow Mika also appeared in UDON's Street Fighter II: Turbo comic, Street Fighter Legends: Sakura comic, Street Fighter IV comic and in Super Street Fighter: New Generations comics.

El Fuerte is also shown to be a huge fan of R. Mika in the comics. In the Street Fighter IV comic, one of her matches is being shown on TV at a restaurant. Thunder Hawk, watching, requests that the channel is changed since he can't stand pro wrestling. After hearing T. Hawk badmouth both pro wrestling and R. Mika, El Fuerte bursts from the kitchen and yells at T. Hawk. Mika's image adorns every piece of El Fuerte's cooking attire.

Later on, El Fuerte befriends Sakura while they are in the backstage of a game show in Japan, after she mentions that she's a personal friend of Mika (since Street Fighter Legends: Sakura), and at the end of the Street Fighter IV mini-series, Sakura brings Mika in person to El Fuerte's restaurant in Mexico, much to his amazement.

R. Mika was supposed to fight Hugo, but after he quit she fought Poison instead and won.

Crossover appearances

Startling Adventures

R. Mika made an appearance in Capcom's Japan-only 2001 adventure game Startling Adventures, specifically in one of the three stories, Space Rescue Joe.

Cameos

R. Mika made a cameo appearance in Felicia's Capcom Fighting Evolution ending.

One of the stages in Street Fighter X Tekken and Ultra Street Fighter IV has a picture of R. Mika on a billboard alongside Mike Haggar to the far right of the background. In the former game, R. Mika's attire appears as a Swap Costume for Tekken character Kuma.[13]

Gameplay

Fighting style

R. Mika fights using professional wrestling.

Moveset

Mika is primarily a grappling character, whose main weapons are high-priority command throws. Unlike most grapplers in the Street Fighter series (and fighting games in general), who are slow and heavy, Mika is fast and agile. She has a fairly high and quick jump and walks quite swiftly. Mika's normal attacks are diverse and useful, but aside from two command throws, her specials are none too impressive, so they must be used as a vital part of play strategy.

Sfv-rmika-criticalart-750

R.Mika using her Critical Art with her partner

Like Dan, some of Mika's special attacks are rather comical. In her Flying Peach and Shooting Peach specials, she flings herself into her opponent buttocks-first, and mostly falls on it and has to rub it due to recoil. For her opening taunt and Beach Special Super Combo, she uses the top turnbuckle of a wrestling ring that appears from the side of the screen. The sudden appearance of a turnbuckle is amusingly redundant when Mika is fighting on her own stage at a beachside wrestling ring.

In Street Fighter V, Mika gains more wrestling moves such as a Frankensteiner, a Stunner, and a Giant Swing. Her first V-Trigger, C'mon, Nadeshiko, enables her to be aided by her tag-team partner Yamato Nadeshiko. Depending on the direction pressed during activation, Nadeshiko will appear either in front or behind the opponent with a drop kick which sends their opponent airborne or above with a body slam, adding an additional hit. Nadeshiko can be delayed if the V-Trigger buttons are held, rather than pressed. In her second V-Trigger, Steel Chair, depending on whether the buttons are pressed or held, Nadeshiko will run onscreen with a steel chair and will either throw it at the opponent if pressed, or will run to the opponent and bash them with the chair twice it if the buttons are held.

Subpages

Quotes

R. Mika/Quotes

Gallery

R. Mika/Gallery

Sprites

R. Mika/Sprites

Trivia

  • Nanakawa in kanji means "seven rivers," and her first name Mika means roughly "beautiful blossom".
  • In Japan, R. Mika ends most of her sentences with "-ssu".
  • R. Mika is the only playable female wrestler in the Street Fighter series.
  • The All About Street Fighter Zero 3 guidebook states that R. Mika's hobbies are running on sandy beaches, push-ups, and wrestler's bridge. It also states that her special skill is gluttony.
  • R. Mika shares the same birthday with Sakura.
  • Junko Takeuchi, R. Mika's voice actress in Street Fighter Alpha 3, is known for voicing the main protagonist Naruto Uzumaki in the original Japanese language version of both the original Naruto and Shippūden anime series respectively.
  • Mika's blue eyes are likely due to contact lenses. In her alternate colors, her eyes always match the color of her outfit.
  • Street Fighter series producer Yoshinori Ono has said that he wanted R. Mika to appear in Street Fighter IV and repeatedly asked the game's director to include her, though his requests were not followed up on.[14]
  • Despite Street Fighter V already having a wrestling ring stage, (Ring of Destiny, from Capcom's 2016 Pro Tour tournament), R. Mika apparently has an unused wrestling level shown within her own official character artwork. This stage can also be seen briefly in the A Shadow Falls story mode, albeit only for a few cutscenes with Mika, Zangief, Laura, and Alex making small entrances. But other than a few segues, it cannot be used or seen anywhere else. It's also noted it is, in fact, a different stage than the Ring of Destiny itself, as the overall structure of Mika's version is smaller in scale, and her name is held along signs all throughout the arena.
    • Don Sauvage also makes a cameo in the unknown ring stage during the story mode.
  • R. Mika's "Professional" costume (aka Pom-Poms) in Street Fighter V is banned from competitive play.[15] This may be due to the fact the Pom-Poms themselves could be considered both a physical distraction and a gameplay modifier (being able to obscure the range of attacks and the character box).
  • Before the release of Street Fighter V, one of R. Mika’s moves was censored. During the activation of her Critical Art, the camera would zoom in on Mika’s buttocks as she spanked herself. In the final release of the game, the camera is moved up to her face (though the slap can still be heard). This was done presumably in order to maintain sensitivity for televised competitions, where censorship standards are more strict.
  • In Street Fighter V, if Mika successfully performs her entire speech during her first V-Skill, her next throw will deal 100% damage, becoming a literal fingerpoke of doom.

Stage Theme

Like some other Alpha 3 characters, Mika's theme received pretty big changes from her old theme. However, parts of her old theme come in at the twenty six second mark.

References

  1. http://game.capcom.com/cfn/sfv/column-130514.html
  2. Street Fighter V: A Visionary Book
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Street Fighter World Warrior Encyclopedia
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Street Fighter V
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Street Fighter V Stat Card
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Street Fighter V Character Encyclopedia: Rainbow Mika
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 All About Street Fighter ZERO3 page 192
  8. Staff (February 1999). "An Interview with Noritaka Funamizu". Game Informer (70).
  9. Post from shoryuken.com archived from the original.
  10. Akiman's Twitter
  11. "Thank you. As you may have noticed, Mika's Zangief is a handsome guy because he is looking at Mika." (ありがとうございます。お気づきかもしれませんがミカ編のザンギエフ様はミカ目線なのでイケメンなのです。)
    from Takayuki Nakayama Twitter.
  12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAMjim8R2-U
  13. http://addicted-gamers.com/2011/11/17/street-fighter-x-tekken-alternate-costumes-screenshots/
  14. https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2010/mar/29/ono-really-wanted-r-mika-ssf4/
  15. https://web.archive.org/web/20191119184842/https://capcomprotour.com/rules/
Street Fighter series Playable Characters
Main Series
SF Logo Ken · Ryu
Street-fighter-ii-logo The World Warrior Blanka · Chun-Li · Dhalsim · E. Honda · Guile · Zangief
Champion Edition Balrog · M. Bison · Sagat · Vega
Super Cammy · Dee Jay · Fei Long · T. Hawk
Super Turbo Akuma
Ultra Violent Ken
SFAlogo Alpha Adon · Birdie · Charlie Nash · Dan · Guy · Rose · Sodom
Alpha 2 Evil Ryu · Gen · Rolento · Sakura · Shin Akuma
Alpha 3 Cody · Juli · Juni · Karin · R. Mika
Alpha 3 Upper Eagle · Maki
Alpha 3 MAX Ingrid
Street fighter iii logo New Generation Alex · Dudley · Elena · Ibuki
Necro · Oro · Sean · Yang · Yun
2nd Impact Gill · Hugo · Urien
3rd Strike Makoto · Q · Remy · Twelve
Street fighter iv logo IV Abel · C. Viper · El Fuerte · Gouken · Rufus · Seth
Super Hakan · Juri
Arcade Edition Oni
Ultra Decapre · Poison
SFV-Logo-R-3 V F.A.N.G · Laura · Necalli · Rashid
Season 2 Abigail · Ed · Kolin · Menat · Zeku
Season 3 Falke · G
Season 4 Kage · Lucia
Season 5 Akira · Eleven · Luke
Street fighter 6 logo 6 Jamie · JP · Kimberly · Lily · Manon · Marisa
Year 1 A.K.I.
Year 2 Mai (Guest) · Terry (Guest)
Spin-offs
Street Fighter The Movie Logo Arkane · Blade · F7 · Khyber · Sawada
Street-fighter-ii--the-animated-movie Cyborg
Sfexlogo EX Allen · Blair · C. Jack · Darun · D. Dark
Hokuto · Kairi · Pullum · Skullomania
EX Plus Bloody Hokuto · Cycloid-β · Cycloid-γ · Garuda
EX2 Hayate · Nanase · Shadowgeist · Sharon
EX2 Plus Area · V. Rosso
EX3 Ace · Bison II
Marvel vs. Capcom Logo MSHvSF Cyber-Akuma · Dark Sakura · Mech-Zangief · Shadow
MvC Shadow Lady
SFO Shin
Street Fighter Alpha Characters
Alpha Adon · Akuma · Birdie · Charlie · Chun-Li · Dan · Guy
Ken · M. Bison · Rose · Ryu · Sagat · Sodom
Alpha 2 Original Dhalsim · Evil Ryu · Gen · Rolento · Sakura · Zangief
Console Shin Akuma
Gold Cammy
Alpha 3 Original Balrog · Blanka · Cody · E. Honda · Juli · Juni · Karin · R. Mika · Vega
Console Dee Jay · Fei Long · Guile · T. Hawk
Upper Eagle · Maki · Yun
MAX Ingrid
Street Fighter V Characters
Original Birdie · Cammy · Chun-Li · Dhalsim · F.A.N.G · Karin · Ken · Laura
M. Bison · Nash · Necalli · R. Mika · Rashid · Ryu · Vega · Zangief
Season 1 Alex · Balrog · Guile · Ibuki · Juri · Urien
Season 2 Abigail · Akuma · Ed · Kolin · Menat · Zeku
Season 3 Blanka · Cody · Falke · G · Sagat · Sakura
Season 4 E. Honda · Gill · Kage · Lucia · Poison · Seth
Season 5 Akira · Dan · Eleven · Luke · Oro · Rose
CPU Only AS · Aprile · Decapre · Enero · Février · Juli · März · Peter
Phantom Bison · Santamu · Satsuki · Shadow · Shadow Lady · Two P


See also

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