Hailing from the depths of the rainforest, Blanka represents Brazil. However, I think I have found the explanation that makes sense - or at least holds more water than the two most popular folk etymologies popularized by English-language message boards and wikis. This post does not provide an official, definitive answer given by a Capcom representative, because I don’t think one has ever been given, unless I’m mistaken. I didn’t know much about Blanka, however, and most glaringly I couldn’t explain the question in this post’s title: Why the hell is he named something that seems like it should mean “white” if the most prominent thing about him is that he’s green? Having read every piece of Street Fighter II-related material I could get my hands on since I was a kid, I had a decent working knowledge of the origins of the other original Street Fighter II characters. But even though Blanka is representative of this trend in western kids’ entertainment, I’ve always suspected there was a deeper story behind how this character came to be. He looked like a freaky, Green Goblinish monster during the age of Ninja Turtles and other mutated freaks. As someone who was nine when Street Fighter II debuted in arcades, I can tell you that he was the character most little boys gravitated to first. Hakan? Necro? Skullomania? You have Blanka to thank for paving the way in weirdness.īlanka was also a magnet for the attention of younger players. However, because Blanka has been part of the core cast ever since the original Street Fighter II, he’s the precedent that has let Capcom stock future incarnations of this series with wackadoo fighters who might otherwise break the reality of what is, at heart, a story about an international martial arts competition. Beyond the fact that he has green skin, Blanka stands apart because he doesn’t seem to be as much as a national stereotype as the rest of the cast, which includes a super serious American military dude, a beefy Russian in a Speedo who wrestles bears and an Indian yogi who, at least in early localizations of the game, gets fire-breathing powers from eating spicy curry. Īs far as the original Street Fighter II characters go, Blanka is… well, wild - literally, because he was raised by animals in the Brazilian rainforest, but also figuratively because he’s the exception to the rest of the World Warriors. I’ve also made a video explainer for this post that you can watch here.

This one mostly stands on its own, but it does build on some ideas introduced in part one, which details the origins for every character aside from Blanka. This is part two in a series on the origins of Street Fighter II character names.

Blanka for street fighter 5