Mai Shiranui

Mai Shiranui

Part of a series on The King of Fighters. [View Related Entries]

Updated Jan 11, 2021 at 05:43PM EST by Matt.

Added Nov 07, 2019 at 12:46PM EST by Adam.

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About

Mai Shiranui is a playable character from the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series. Usually presented in scant clothing throughout the series, she became a fan favorite, leading to a bevy of fan art. She became the subject of memes following a 2019 Nintendo Direct hosted by Super Smash Brothers creator Masahiro Sakurai in which he stated the character would not make a cameo in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate alongside Terry Bogard, another character from Fatal Fury and King of Fighters who was recently added to the Ultimate roster, because the Smash games are "for good boys and girls," implying Shiranui was too scantily clad to be in the game.

Origin

Mai Shiranui debuted as a fighter in Fatal Fury 2, which released December 10th, 1992.[1] Throughout the series, she has a deep crush on fellow fighter Andy Bogard. She was modeled after famous Japanese idols of the early 90s.



Spread

Shiranui went on to be in dozens of King of Fighters and Fatal Fury games and spinoffs. In later games, animators gave her jiggling breast physics which helped further her popularity with fans. Her beauty and popularity with fans led to her becoming the female mascot of the games throughout the series' history. According to the character's Wiki, Shiranui placed #4 in Gamespy's Top Ten Babes In Games list. She also appeared in Agree Or Die's Hottest Girls Of the 16 Bit Era list.[2]

Sakurai Presentation

On November 6th, 2019, Masahiro Sakurai, director of Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, held a Nintendo Direct in which he discussed the addition of Terry Bogard to the cast of the game. Several other Fatal Fury and King of Fighters characters make cameo appearances in the game, but Sakurai stated that Shiranui would not because Smash games are "for good boys and girls."



The statement led to a surge of jokes about Shiranui's snub from the game. Twitter user @EXDragonith posted a No Way Fag parody about the snub, gaining over 1,900 retweets and 5,900 likes (shown below, left). @Aevanko posted a Drakeposting parody about how Bayonetta was in the game despite being a sexualized character, gaining over 100 retweets (shown below, right). Jokes about the snub were covered by Kotaku.[3]


HEY SAKURAI, CAN I BE IN SUPER SMASH BROS.: ULTIMATE? I1-06-19 SUPER SMASH BROS.: ULTIMATE IS FOR GOOD BOYS AND GIRLS ONLY FIRTAL KIRBY blipe *blip* SWNDO We are good boys and girls


Various Examples


Smash fans: "Why is Mai not in Smash?" Sakurai: P--- After announcement that Terry Bogard will be in Smash Ultimate Somebody: It should have been Mai! Other somebody: Tell me why? Somebody: Easy! Other somebody: Other than you want to see her body and all her fanservice Somebody: ANING THE GANE S0 OBAMICON ME MAI WAIFU

Search Interest

External References

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Top Comments

Nedhitis
Nedhitis

Small correction: Sakurai was not the one who said the "for good boys and girls" bit. His translator for the English stream said that, whereas people are reporting that Sakurai himself worded it less cryptic and directly referenced the rating boards (in Japan) as the reason why he could not add Mai as a stage cameo. Presumably, the English translation was changed since him referencing rating boards would have made people mistakenly think he was talking about the ESRB, when he is actually talking about CERO.

This also correlates with his words on the matter about 3 years ago:

And, assuming he has not changed his mind about this, the take here is basically that he more than likely tried to add Mai, but CERO said "okay, then give us your current A rating for your game and we'll let it be", which was obviously a bad trade for just a stage cameo.

Sakurai may be able to do the unthinkable and make Banjo fight Cloud on the Miitopia stage with MEGALOVANIA jamming on the background, but even he has his hands tied when it comes to CERO's ridiculous standards of game ratings.

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