{"id":46991,"date":"2026-07-23T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T04:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/?p=46991"},"modified":"2026-07-23T05:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:14:06","slug":"blanka-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2026\/07\/blanka-origins\/","title":{"rendered":"Blanka: Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like <a href=\"\/blog\/?p=44594\">M. Bison<\/a> and <a href=\"\/blog\/?p=46453\">Sagat<\/a>, Blanka was originally based on a a comicbook character. But that was early in the process:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/jt_sf4bl9.jpg\" width=\"255\" height=\"240\" alt=\"a terribly racist caricature of a black man, with a heavy brow, huge lips, and a chain around his neck\" class=\"alignright size-medium\" \/>Name: Anabebe<br \/>\nAge: 18 years old<br \/>\nHeight: 230 cm (or 7'6\")<br \/>\nWeight: 200 kg (or 441 lbs)<br \/>\nSpecial Move: \"Beastman Attack\"<br \/>\nBackstory: 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.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Christ.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Anyway, the character inspiration came from <i>Jungle King Tar-Chan<\/i>, a series that ran in <i>Weekly Shonen Jump<\/i> 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 <i>New Jungle King Tar-Chan<\/i> in 1990 and got a more serious tone and a focus on fighting tournaments. HMMMMM!<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, one of Tar-Chan's rivals was Anabebe, the self-proclaimed Strongest Warrior in Africa, who was a member of the Upopo tribe.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"425\" height=\"305\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kf4vy1fMrvQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"\/yo\/jt_sf4bl.php\">today's review<\/a>) he was renamed after a local botanical garden.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, but why Brazil?<\/p>\n<p>At that time, in Japan, \"Brazil\" was seen as something of an exotic fad, similar to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nT33T6QTu_E\" target=yt>how Australia was in the US<\/a>: <i>Doki Doki Panic<\/i> (the game that was reprogrammed to become the American <i>Super Mario Bros. 2<\/i>) 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.<\/p>\n<div class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Posts\"><H5>&lt;i&gt;And now, some more OAFEry:&lt;\/i&gt;<\/H5><ul class=\"entry-meta\"><li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"A totally Smashing toy display!!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2019\/02\/a-totally-smashing-toy-display\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">A totally Smashing toy display!!<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Street Fighter: R. Mika addendum\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2008\/11\/street-fighter-r-mika-addendum\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Street Fighter: R. Mika addendum<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"We are important! We control the future!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2007\/04\/we-are-important-we-control-the-future\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">We are important! We control the future!<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Player 1, Player 2, Player 3\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2024\/08\/player-1-player-2-player-3\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Player 1, Player 2, Player 3<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"A Kickstarter for someone who actually kicks\" href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2014\/07\/a-kickstarter-for-someone-who-actually-kicks\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">A Kickstarter for someone who actually kicks<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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: &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2026\/07\/blanka-origins\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,42],"tags":[155],"class_list":["post-46991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addendums","category-videos","tag-street-fighter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46991"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47028,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46991\/revisions\/47028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}