Like M. Bison and Sagat, Blanka was originally based on a a comicbook character. But that was early in the process:
Name: Anabebe
Age: 18 years old
Height: 230 cm (or 7'6")
Weight: 200 kg (or 441 lbs)
Special Move: "Beastman Attack"
Backstory: Anabebe is a beast-man raised by lions. His manager and tamer, Rothenberger, keeps him shackled in chains. Anabebe is proficient at biting and scratching, but is extremely weak to fire.
Christ.
Anyway, the character inspiration came from Jungle King Tar-Chan, a series that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1988 to 1995. Yes, it was a parody of Tarzan. It spent its first two years as a gag strip, then changed its name to New Jungle King Tar-Chan in 1990 and got a more serious tone and a focus on fighting tournaments. HMMMMM!
Anyway, one of Tar-Chan's rivals was Anabebe, the self-proclaimed Strongest Warrior in Africa, who was a member of the Upopo tribe.
So it's not a stretch to compare that Anabebe to Capcom's Anabebe, but thankfully the entire thing got changed. The character's origin was moved from non-specific-Africa to Brazil, and (as covered in today's review) he was renamed after a local botanical garden.
Okay, but why Brazil?
At that time, in Japan, "Brazil" was seen as something of an exotic fad, similar to how Australia was in the US: Doki Doki Panic (the game that was reprogrammed to become the American Super Mario Bros. 2) was released to promote Dream Factory 87, a big fair celebrating technology and imagination; part of the inspiration behind holding the Dream Factory event in the first place was a trip to Carnival in Brazil, which means that Mario and Blanka are, like, second cousins, at least.
