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Sarai Kurosawa (黒澤 早雷 Kurosawa Sarai?) is a non-playable minor character who appears in some games of the Street Fighter series. She is a teenage girl who is the best friend and classmate of Ibuki who lives in the Glade of Ninjas.

Biography[]

Appearance[]

Sarai is a purple-haired young girl who is usually seen wearing visor-style sunglasses atop her forehead. Her hair is usually seen done up in a short ponytail, and she is either seen wearing a school uniform of the same style as Ibuki's, or a ninja outfit that also resembles Ibuki's own.

It is possible the village elders allow her to go to a public school alongside Ibuki, as she is seen coming out of the same public learning institution as Ibuki, alongside the same uniform in Ibuki's Street Fighter IV story.

Personality[]

Sarai on the phone

Sarai, on the phone with Ibuki

Sarai's personality is not gone into in-depth in the Street Fighter games, though her Shadaloo Combat Research Institute profile states that she dislikes cleaning up and doing homework. She is extremely skilled at tree climbing, taijutsu, and ninjutsu, and enjoys puzzle games.

In the UDON comics, Sarai first appeared to be rather weary, but understanding of Ibuki's lifestyle and status as a ninja. Upon the arrival of Makoto, Sarai showed signs of uncertainty about the girl, and felt that Ibuki was likely to be in danger if she accepted Makoto's challenge to a duel. Sarai was angry that Ibuki never sent her any signs of being alright after their meeting after school, and took this as a sign of being pushed away. Not being a martial artist, she felt that Ibuki was out of her league and needed to be with her kind, thus leaving her for months.

Later on, she explained her jealousy and felt that she was just too normal of be worthy of being friends. She was happy to hear Ibuki explain otherwise, and was especially happy that Ibuki put in a recommendation for her to become a Ninja as well. The two rekindled their friendship ever since.

Story[]

Street Fighter IV series[]

In Ibuki's prologue for Super Street Fighter IV, Sarai is shown along her, walking their way back home from high school while Ibuki complains about what a disappointment the training camp's locations were.

She also appears in Ibuki's Super Street Fighter IV ending, where she is late for her ninja exams and sneaks in by using a camouflage sheet. However, their master manages to see through Ibuki's disguise and throws several kunai at her position, causing her to freak out and duck to avoid them.

Street Fighter V[]

Sarai is seen briefly in the end of Ibuki's character story, calling her on the phone as she returns to the Glade of Ninjas after working for Karin. Sarai has no spoken dialog in this appearance.

Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact[]

Vs181208-055

Sarai confronting Ibuki

Sarai appears in Ibuki's Street Fighter III: New Generation/2nd Impact ending. While Ibuki was seriously focused recalling the dialogue she had with Gill after her victory, then suddenly feeling somebody was approaching and thinking is trying to sneaking up on her, immediately throws several kunais at that direction. Sarai, who shields herself from the attack with her book bag, later gets angry at Ibuki for carelessly attacking her and ruining all her high school's textbooks.

Other appearances[]

Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki[]

Sarai

Sarai as she appears in Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki.

In UDON's Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki, Sarai does not live in the Glade of Ninjas like in the games, and is instead the only student at school who knows Ibuki is a ninja. Later in the comic, Ibuki befriends Makoto and Elena, causing Sarai to become jealous that Ibuki is friends with other warriors. She later reveals that she was jealous of the three warriors and just wanted Ibuki to herself. After this, they make up and become best friends again, and Sarai even travels with Ibuki to challenge Oro in combat. Sarai later becomes a ninja herself.

Street Fighter X Tekken[]

Sarai makes a cameo in Street Fighter X Tekken on the Mishima Estate stage. On the top floor she is shown arguing with Kunimitsu from the Tekken series because she refused to fight Sarai. On the second floor, she is seen chasing Kunimitsu around.

Street Fighter: Back To School Special[]

Sarai Kei

Sarai and Kei Chitose talking to each other about Ibuki and Sakura respectively.

Sarai appears alongside Kei with both girls talking about their best friend both who happen to be fighters at the same time. Kei tells Sarai about Sakura was all about training and Ibuki justified many of her actions with "Ninja Ninja NInja", which Ibuki tells Sarai in Legends to justify her sneaking up on Sarai at school. Seemingly Sarai is still a high school student as she appears in a Gongen High School uniform alongside Makoto and Elena while neither Ibuki or even Kei wear one and Ibuki graduating to University keeping in continuity with the end of Ibuki's Legends comic.

Both girls arrive and see Makoto and Elena excitedly spectating a fight between Street Fighter girls Ibuki, Karin, and Sakura against Rival School representatives Akira, Yurika Kirishima and Zaki. Unlike the fighting spectators it is shown neither Sarai nor Kei enjoy the spectacle and are the first to point out to all the fighters that the very same students they are trying to entice in Makoto and Elena have lost interest and instead now were eying another option all-together.

Trivia[]

  • Her last name is a reference to Linn Kurosawa from the 1994 Alien vs. Predator beat 'em up game developed by Capcom.
    • Sarai having this last name could also be a reference to the fact that Ibuki shares many visual cues with Linn, tying Ibuki further to Linn.
  • Sarai has some similarities to Miharu Hirano from the Tekken series.
    • Both girls are the best friends of a playable female school-age character (Ibuki and Ling Xiaoyu respectivly).
    • Both characters (and their best friends) debuted in the third game of their respective series.
    • Both are known for having goggles.
    • Both have made their most prominent appearances (moreso for Miharu) in a non-canon game (Sarai's background cameo in Street Fighter X Tekken's Mishima Estate and Miharu's playable appearance in Tekken Tag Tournament 2).
    • Both characters live relevantly normal lives while their best friends are usually involved in some conflict (Ibuki working for Karin to stop Shadaloo and later being tasked to steal from the Secret Society, and Xiaoyu being involved in the King Of The Iron Fist Tournament and trying to the conflicts within the Mishima Family).
    • They are both of similar height and stature as their best friend.
  • Sarai's appearance in Street Fighter X Tekken used a lower polygon version of Ibuki's body with a modified head. The biggest indicator is this being the only appearance of Sarai in her ninja outfit where she has the same openings around her hips as Ibuki's own default (her other appearances with the ninja outfit doesn't have them).
  • Sarai's height tends to vary from scene to scene. She is usually portrayed as just as tall as Ibuki. However, in SF Legends: she appears shorter in some scenes. Also, in the III series, Ibuki was stated at 5'3, while Shadaloo states Sarai is half an inch taller. However, Ibuki is stated to be 5'4 in Street Fighter V (whicht can be debatable as Ibuki's character model is actually shorter than the 5'2 stated Sakura and the other 5'4 stated female Karin).
  • A common gag for her main series appearances is that Sarai has to avoid or block objects thrown at her.
  • As Ibuki being a school age fighter replacing Sakura in a way for the III games Sarai herself could be considered the series's equivalent of Kei Chitose.
    • Their similarities were displayed with both talking to each other in Back To School Special comparing how similar their respective fighting friend are.
  • As of Back To School Special in Udon comics Ibuki appears to be older older than Sarai as Ibuki is a University student while Sarai is still in High School, they are seemingly the same age in the games.
  • Despite Ibuki having to keep her ninja identity a secret until she graduates high school in her comic, Sarai while she is still a high school student not only tells Kei openly that Ibuki is a ninja but also states that Sarai herself is a ninja.

Gallery[]

References[]

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