Game series Fatal Fury series
The King of Fighters series
SNK Vs. series
First game Fatal Fury 2
Voiced by (English) Sarah Sawatsky (anime)
Lisa Ann Beley (movie)
Sheryl Stanley (Maximum Impact)
Voiced by (Japanese) Akoya Sogi
Kotono Mitsuishi (OVAs and motion picture)
Megumi Hayashibara (Dengeki Bunko drama CD)
InformationBirthplace JapanBlood type B
Fighting style Ninja Arts of the Shiranui style (不知火流忍術, Shiranui-ryū Ninjutsu?)
Weapon Kachōsen ("Butterfly-Fan")
Mai Shiranui (不知火 舞, Shiranui Mai?) is a character from both the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series of fighting games by SNK (now SNK Playmore). In her mind, Andy Bogard is her fiancé who studied Ninjutsu with her grandfather, Hanzo. The relationship between the two is often unclear and subliminal, usually on Andy's part, who at times seems to suppress his feelings for her in favor of treating her like a little sister. She typically wears exceptionally low-cut blouses, dresses, and clothing to maximize the exposure of her cleavage, and most fight scenes involving Mai include several shots that focus especially on her breasts and buttocks.
Conception and creationMai was originally not planned to included in the Fatal Fury series; her fighting style was intended to be used for a different male ninja. When the SNK staff changed their focus to including an idol character into the series, they decided to scrap the Shiranui man for Mai. Her characteristic "bounce" was loosely modified from a kunoichi (female ninja) method of assassination: to be sensual to their unassuming prey before they strike.
According to a publication of Neo Geo Freak, her breasts were modeled after Fumie Hosokawa and her butt is modeled after Ai Iijima; both women were famous idols at the time.
During the development from The King of Fighters '94 the designer for Mai asked if it was all right to increase Mai's pause actions, and because the powers that be thought there was enough remaining memory for the game. When the completed pose was presented, it knocked people flat. Due to the pose's potency, however, Mai's eye-popping motions were stilled in the KOF '94 international home version.
KOF: Maximum Impact producer, Falcoon, stated that designing Mai's alternate design that appears in the Maximum Impact series was one of the ones he felt "unforgivable", as he felt unsure of fans' reaction to the change. Shinkiro, an illustrator from The King of Fighters, commented that Mai was the most difficult to draw since he "thought she was going to burst out of her costume", making the series less recommended for children.
AppearancesIn video gamesMai Shiranui is the granddaughter of Hanzo Shiranui, master of Ninjitsu and Koppo-ken. Mai learned from her father the secrets of Ninjitsu, and became an expert in stealth and other sneaky tricks. Although her beauty has brought her many suitors, she rejects all who propose to her, considering them "weak." However, one day she became obsessed with a young boy by the name of Andy Bogard.
However, Andy paid little attention to Mai, too absorbed in his training. Mai, on the other hand, had even made plans as to when Andy would marry her. After they grew up, Andy decided to travel back to the United States and reunite with his brother Terry Bogard to exact revenge on Geese Howard, the man who killed their father.
Mai was infuriated by this desertion, but had no choice but to stay and keep training. Not much time later, Andy returned to Japan in order to continue his training. He found out that his fighting in Southtown had been for the wrong reasons; not for the real sense of fighting, but for personal vengeance. Mai did not care for any of this, she just wanted Andy to be close to her again. So, when Wolfgang Krauser decided to go out in search of worthy fighters, she followed Andy to fight Krauser. After the journey, Mai felt even closer to Andy, and thought it was the time to wrap things up.
The new King of Fighters tournament was announced around this period. The fights would take place between teams of three persons each. Mai felt it was a sure bet to make a team with Andy, but he thought otherwise: he would team up with Terry and his friend, Joe Higashi. Once she found out that the Southtown bouncer King had received an invitation as well, and had no assembled team, Mai immediately proposed herself as a team member, along with her friend Yuri Sakazaki.
However, by 1996, Yuri was obliged to take her father's place in the Kyokugenryu Team, Kasumi Todoh, became new third member of the team.
Once more, the Gorgeous Team was back in action; but by next year, King and Mai were in trouble again, as Kasumi was still looking for her father. They resigned themselves to losing the tournament that year. King had to take care of her brother, Jan, anyway. However, Chizuru Kagura intervened, and told Mai and King that she would gladly be the third team member, and that she would take care that Jan would go with them.
Mai insisted in that next time, she would team up with Andy, which he took more as a joke. However, a stroke of luck enabled Mai to finally accomplish her wish: an invitation for another King of Fighters tournament, with a new four team member rule. Mai lost no time in joining along with Andy.
Mai decided to abandon the Lonely Wolves team. Mai and Yuri decide to team up once again, since they miss the fun times way back when the King of Fighters tournament was just beginning to grow. They also decided to accept Kasumi along as well, but this left one gap in their four person team.
The final member appeared soon enough, during an audition in Japan, where they saw a peculiar little girl named Hinako Shijou. Hinako Shijou also fought in the next tournament with Mai, but Yuri decided to return to the Kyokugenryu Team because of Robert Garcia being in distress, so Li Xiangfei would take Yuri's place.
In The King of Fighters: KYO, an RPG game centered on Kyo Kusanagi and settled right in between KoF'96 and KoF'97, Mai is not a playable character, but she and other fighters provide Kyo with info and help during his trials, specially when his girlfriend Yuki is kidnapped and taken abroads. Mai is also present in one of Kyo and Yuki's dates after the incident, when she treats them to a tea ceremony.
In anime filmsMai makes her first anime appearance in Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle, where she attacks Andy and knocks him down for coming to Japan and not telling her. When a message comes along to Andy about Terry being defeated by Wolfgang Krauser and going underground, she follows Andy on his travels to find Krauser in Germany, where she is approached and later attacked by Laurence Blood. Unfortunately for Blood, the sight of Mai bound drives Andy into a frenzy and he is easily beaten.
In the feature-length Fatal Fury anime movie, Mai is present with Terry, Andy and Joe when the quest to find the Armor of Mars and stop the would-be conqueror Laocorn Gaudeamus is given to them by Sulia, Laocorn's sister. As usual, she tags along not so much to help save the world but more as an excuse to spend time with Andy.
Despite the severity of the situation, she is able the time to have fun in a dance party held by Duck King, which is later crashed by Hauer, one of Laocorn's henchmen. Hauer lifts his mask to reveal his face to Mai, maybe to win her favor. The kunoichi considers Hauer handsome and very attractive but not at the same level of Andy. Afterwards, Mai is captured by Hauer, who tries to steal a kiss from her in front of Andy. Enraged, Andy attacks, only to be stopped dead in his tracks when Mai is put in the path of his blow. Using Mai as a shield, Hauer gives Andy a severe beating. Afterwards as they all regroup and recover, Mai bonds with Sulia, who has a crush on Terry.
Both girls promise to work hard to win the hearts of their respective men. An attack by Hauer and Panni, another of Laocorn's servants, leads to a fierce battle. Mai defeats Panni using her super technique, and Andy, fresh from some training, easily eliminates Hauer. The two share an intimate moment afterwards. In the final battle with Laocorn, Mai helps Terry, Andy and Joe stop Laocorn and later an incarnation of the god Mars.
Appearance and costumesMai's basic look changes only slightly through most of the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters games. She has long brown hair (however, in some official arts she has red) with long bangs framing the sides of her face, tied up in a thick, long ponytail which flows behind her back.
Her costume is usually a sleeveless, skimpy red outfit or tunic. The costume is held at her waist by a decorative waistband, often with long, trailing decorative tails, leading down to a loin cloth with a thong underneath (or mini-shorts in the US version).
Her footwear for Fatal Fury 2, Fatal Fury Special and The King of Fighters games is a pair of soft-soled ninja tabi. From Fatal Fury 3 onwards into the Real Bout Fatal Fury games, she wears instep guards that leave her heels and the front parts of her feet exposed. In Fatal Fury 3, she also wore a red vest, which was abandoned later on. She also wears heavier eyeshadow.
In the US versions of KOF 2002, Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special, Mai's famous breast bouncing animation is removed.
In KOF: Maximum Impact, her alternate costumes portray her with very short, boyish hair and ninja outfits that resemble that of Kasumi from the Dead or Alive games. In KOF: Maximum Impact 2, one of Mai's second outfit color schemes is exactly Andy's standard palette, even giving Mai blonde hair. Also, another of her outfits bears a resemblance to Lum Invader from Urusei Yatsura (long green hair, clothes sporting tiger prints, and her hairpin even makes it look like she had small horns). This costume is also considered to be a cosplay of Cham Cham from SNK's Samurai Showdown series.
Video game appearancesMai was first introduced in Fatal Fury 2 and appeared in every Fatal Fury game afterwards. In addition, she has been a playable fighter in nearly every The King of Fighters game, the sole exception being the arcade version of The King of Fighters XI. She is also in every SNK vs. Capcom game as a rival to Street Fighter's Chun-Li, SNK Gals' Fighters, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, the mobile games Neo Geo Tennis Coliseum, SNK Beach Volley～GAL'S ATTACK～ and in the dating simulation series Days of Memories.
She also has been known to make cameo appearances in character endings for both the Samurai Shodown and Art of Fighting 2 games. In the US release of the Art of Fighting game, it is implied that Eiji Kisaragi has feelings for her. The original Japanese version contains nothing of the sort canon-wise. It is unknown whether the translators were unaware of the difference in time frames or simply ignored it, but for quite some time, many Western players took the ending seriously.
ReceptionMai has a number of cards in the Universal Fighting System card game, including a starter deck. Actress Misa Nishida also released a cosplay homage video to her entitled, Queen of Fighters 2005.
She also has several figurines, hardcast or otherwise, made in her image by Aizu Project, Max Factory, Daiki, and more. Recently a third-party company has made a custom Neo Geo joystick controller designed to play for playstation consoles. It has been decorated with character-related imagery.
Since her first appearance in Fatal Fury 2, she has been converted and recognized as the main sex symbol of SNK. She was awarded Hottest Game Babe of 1994 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. Mai was rated fourth in GameSpy.com's "Top Ten Babes in Games" feature and fifth in Game Informer's "Top Ten Hottest Girls of the 16-Bit era."
UGO.com ranked her sixth in their "Top 50 Videogame Hotties" article, calling her the "Chun-Li of the SNK universe", but stating a preference for her over the Capcom character; they additionally cited her as one of the "Top 11" girls of gaming at number seven, describing her as "an unapologetic sex symbol" and a mascot for both the King of Fighters series and SNK as a whole.
GameDaily placed her sixth on their "Top 50 Hottest Game Babes" list.
She was also featured twice in their "Babe of the Week" series, and mentioned in another article discussing breasts in gaming which stated "When it comes to 2-D breasts, no character tops Mai Shiranui".
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