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Sarah Bryant (Virtua Fighter)

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Sarah Bryant
Virtua Fighter character
Sarah Bryant in Virtua Fighter 4
First gameVirtua Fighter (1993)
Created byYu Suzuki[1]
Designed bySeiichi Ishii[2]
Voiced by
In-universe information
OriginSan Francisco, California
NationalityAmerican
Fighting styleJeet Kune Do

Sarah Bryant (Japanese: サラ・ブライアント, Hepburn: Sara Buraianto) is a character in the Virtua Fighter series of fighting games by Sega. She is a college student from San Francisco, California, who debuted in the original Virtua Fighter, brainwashed to try and kill her brother, and later tries to surpass him while seeking to take down the organization responsible. She has appeared in every game in the series including spinoff titles, and made several guest appearances in other games, notably in Tecmo Koei's Dead or Alive 5 as a playable character. In addition, she has been featured in various print media, as well as the Virtua Fighter anime.

Originally voiced by Lynn Harris, she was designed by Seiichi Ishii alongside director Yu Suzuki after a brainstorming session, and inspired by Sarah Connor from the Terminator franchise. Her primary outfit, designed to serve as both combat-ready attire and a distraction for opponents, has remained consistent throughout the series with minimal changes. Sarah has been cited as one of the first Western female characters in Japanese fighting games, receiving much praise for her looks and character, and noted for her influence on the designs of later similar characters in other fighting game franchises. However, discussion and criticism has also arisen around the sexualization of her character done by both Sega themselves and gaming publications utilizing her image.

Conception and design

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Created during a brainstorming session by development team Sega AM2,[7] her initial name was Anego (姉, lit. "Sister"), signifying her role as fellow character Jacky Bryant's sibling who at this point was called Aniki (兄貴, lit. "Big brother").[8] Designed by Seiichi Ishii, he stated she was inspired by the Terminator franchise character Sarah Connor,[2] though series creator Yu Suzuki refused to comment himself when asked if she was based on anyone.[1] He did however label her his favorite character due to her ease of use, due to the fact she "fights aggressively: she does not stand still waiting for the opponent's move, but moves ahead. It fully reflects my personality."[9] When asked what feelings Sarah was meant to invoke in a player, then Vice President of Product Development for Sega Eric Hammond stated it was up to the player, and they could either see her as the "damsel in distress" or the "bad girl" able to take care of herself, the latter of which he felt was a popular character trope in comic books.[7]

Her primary outfit went through several radical changes during the course of development, with notes in Virtua Fighter Maniax stating they tried to keep a "voluptuous charm" to her throughout this process. Her initial design consisted of a purple short halter top, leggings, a ponytail, and pink heels. Most of these themes were kept going forward into the second design pass, with the halter top expanded into a full leotard featuring a sash, fingerless purple gloves, and a short dark brown haircut. The next concept was drastically different, and resembled a wrestling outfit consisting of black gloves, hotpants and bikini top, and pink boots with black thigh highs on her legs. Her hair color was also switched back to long and blonde at this point also. The shorts and bikini top were eventually changed into a black catsuit, with the arms and shoulders exposed and extending up to her collar, and a red jewel on the belt buckle while buttons were visible on the top.[8] Intended to have "a sense of style while also combat-ready", and possibly serve as a "distraction", this finalized design was simplified to lose the buttons and buckle, and with Virtua Fighter 3 shifted to a dark blue color.[7] While she has had a wide variety of secondary outfits as the series progressed, her main design has been used through the series and in promotional material, only seeing minimal change through the years.[10]

Sarah stands about 5'8" (173 cm) tall, and has measurements of 36-23-36" (90-57-90 cm).[11] According to Suzuki, her ponytail in the finalized design was intended to be "practical" in martial arts fighting, due to no hair pulling within the games, while her longer legs were meant to emphasize her reliance on kick-based attacks using Jeet Kune Do. As an easter egg, her earring color changes depending on the fighting stage the player is currently engaged in, a trend continued up to Virtua Fighter 3tb.[7] One of the goals of the series development team was to increase realism by improving the graphics from one entry to the next, with one developer noting for Virtua Fighter 2 "many polygons" were used for her chest on the model.[12] Developer Keiji Okayasu elaborated on this, stating it caused an issue for the home port of the title, as they were unable to reduce the polygon count without drastically altering her proportions.[13]

Appearances

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Sarah Bryant was introduced in the 1993 video game Virtua Fighter as a college student from San Francisco, California, investigating her brother Jacky's car crash in the 1990 Indianapolis 500. While doing so she is kidnapped by the Illuminati-esque group responsible for the crash, Judgement 6, and brainwashed to kill her brother who had entered in their World Martial Arts Tournament. However they were unable to control her completely and she failed, and as a result the group focused on training her to be try again in their second tournament.[14] Jacky instead saved her and broke the brainwashing, however it also caused her to have amnesia, so both entered the third tournament in hopes the environment would help her recover her memories.[15] Successful, it also causes her to recall what she had done while brainwashed. Uncertain if the urge to kill Jacky was due to Judgement 6 or her own desires, she enters the subsequent tournaments in hopes of surpassing him while also taking down Judgement 6.[16] Originally voiced by Lynn Harris, since Virtua Fighter 3 she has been voiced by multiple actresses, sometimes for the same game. These actresses include Colleen Lanki, Claire O'Connor, Lenne Hardt, and Lisle Wilkerson.[4][3][5]

Outside of the main series, she also appears in several other fighting games such as Sega's Virtua Fighter Animation, which utilized 2D sprites,[17] Virtua Fighter Kids, a parody of the franchise featuring the characters as super deformed children with more playful representation of their storylines, and Sega franchise crossover title Fighters Megamix.[18] She was featured in Koei Tecmo's Dead or Alive 5 as a guest character, due to Virtua Fighter's influence on their franchise's development.[19] Outside of fighting games, she has appeared as a non-playable character in the Sega's action role-playing game Virtua Quest,[20] and later in SNK's The King of Fighters All Star as part of a collaboration event.[21] After the release of Digital Dance Mix Vol. 1, Yu Suzuki stated to Sega Saturn Magazine she would be featured in the next volume. However, the game was never released.[22] In 2022, her likeness was used for a skin for the character Nina Williams in Tekken 7.[23]

In other media

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An anime series called Virtua Fighter was also produced, consisting of thirty-minute segments and was directed by Hideki Tonokatsu, with Ryo Tanaka as character designer.[24] Voiced by Maya Okamoto in Japanese and Juliet Cesario in localized releases,[6] she appears in the third episode onward, acting as a grid girl for her brother when he races. In this incarnation she also has a pet flying squirrel named Alexander, which serves as the animal sidekick for the show. After helping series protagonists Akira Yuki and Pai Chan, two other fighters from the games, she fights alongside them with Jacky, and they travel together as a group. Later on she is kidnapped due to her fighting ability and brainwashed with the intention of creating a "pure human weapon with no emotion", attacking the group and beating Jacky severely afterwards. When the control unit giving her commands is broken she goes berserk, but after being knocked out she comes to her senses. However, the data gathered while Sarah was experimented on is used to create a robotic duplicate of her, Dural, which the heroes fight at the end of the series.[25]

A manga series titled Virtua Fighter: Legend of Sarah by Takahal Matsumoto was published in installments within issues of Weekly Playboy and Comic Tetsujin in 1996, which focused on Jacky and Sarah's lives before and after the first tournament.[24] It was later compiled and sold separately as a standalone book and GameWare Vol. 2 for the Sega Saturn.[26][27] An additional manga named Virtua Fighter was also released featuring her; written by Billy Takibana, it acted as a retelling of the anime series.[27] Lastly, a separate one-shot comic was released in 1995 by Marvel Comics written by Mark Paniccia, featuring her in a smaller role and noted as having a more "tongue-in-cheek" storyline.[24]

Promotion and reception

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Sega leaned heavily into the character's sexuality, to both criticism and praise

In an interview for the book From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games in 2000, the then-corporate spokesman for Sega in North America Lee Caraher stated that of their fighting game characters Sarah was picked the most often in her observation, regardless of the player's gender.[28] A variety of merchandise was released to promote the character and series, including a set of playing cards featuring images of moves from the game, pinups, and a CD of 3D rendered images after the release of Virtua Fighter 2, showcasing her in a bikini by a pool.[29]

Sarah was well received since her debut. In an interview with Famitsu, Yosuke Hayashi of game development team Team Ninja called Sarah one of two characters that "carry with them the history of the [Virtua Fighter] series".[19] Sega Saturn Magazine described her as "one of the most brilliant creations in the world of video games", praising her brainwashing plot and more heavily her breast size.[12] Arcade featured her on a two-page spread, praising her appearance but lamenting they knew little about the character's personality from her in-game appearances or Suzuki's statements about her.[30]

She has also been compared to similar characters introduced in later fighting games. Roger Miller of Game On! USA called her a "true original", praising her as one of the first female characters in 3D fighting games and preferring her over later similar characters such as Battle Arena Toshinden's Sofia and Tekken's Nina Williams, the latter of which he called a "clone, right down to the purple clothes". He further noted of the three, "for sheer volume of fan material published, Sarah Bryant is #1".[31] The magazine Total Control was far more critical of the character in their own comparison, citing Virtua Fighter as an example of sexism in video games due to her presence and portrayal in the title. They felt that Tekken as a franchise was more respectful to its female characters, and added that "Sega would be exploiting Sarah Bryant for all she was worth if they could convince anyone she was sexy."[32]

Sarah has also been the subject of academic study regarding sexualization and video games since her introduction.[11] J. C. Hertz in the 1997 book Joystick Nation called her "the reigning queen of 3D polygon fighting game characters", describing her as being "built like an Olympic swimmer. [...] This woman has powerful shoulders and strong legs, and she's tall", further stating she was more realistic than Pamela Anderson. In a note she additionally praised her outfit, calling her modestly attired and "dressed for business, not for show." However, despite these strong aspects he noted her usage in media such as Next Generation magazine focused on her as a sexual element for their young male readers, complete with pull out poster and text akin to a Playboy article, and felt this helped contribute towards a negative view of women by those readers.[33] The 2015 German book Sheroes: Genderspiele im virtuellen Raum cited her multiple times in an examination of the image of feminine power versus conventional women, and argued that the use of martial arts enhanced her sexualization and emphasized the idea that a woman's most powerful weapon is her body.[34]

On the other hand, University of Delaware professor Rachael Hutchinson noted the positive influence of the characters' sexuality, citing her as significant due to being "the first Western woman in a Japanese fighting game" and that her "tall frame, blond hair and jutting breasts formed the template for later, more sexualized figures" such as Ivy Valentine in Soulcalibur and Nina Williams.[35] She further stated her belief that the increased sexualization in Sarah's own design as the Virtua Fighter series progressed was in part response to the aforementioned Ivy, causing "a ‘sexualization race’ among companies who could produce (and get away with) the most outrageous skin exposure and physical forms", eventually leading to the creation of titles such as Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.[36]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Nothing Compares to Yu". Next Generation. No. 11. November 1995. p. 10. ISSN 1078-9693.
  2. ^ a b ビデオゲームの語り部たち 第2部：「バーチャファイター」のプロトタイプに込められた石井精一氏の人生 [Video Game Storytellers Part 2: The Life of Seiichi Ishii and the Prototype of Virtua Fighter]. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Archived from the original on May 26, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Original Resident Evil Cast - Where Are They Now?". NowGamer. September 28, 2012. Archived from the original on November 15, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
  4. ^ a b Doi, Hitoshi. "Search results for "Lenny Hardt" in ALL database". Hitoshi Doi's Seiyuu Database. Archived from the original on December 26, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Dead or Alive 5 Official Site". Tecmo (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  6. ^ a b "Juliet Cesario - Resume". julietcesario.com. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d "A Question of Character". Next Generation. No. 46. October 1998. p. 83. ISSN 1078-9693.
  8. ^ a b Shibuya, Yoichi (August 1994). Virtua Fighter Maniax (in Japanese). Aspect. ISBN 9784893662644.
  9. ^ "3 Domande A...Silenzio, Parla Yu Suzuki" [3 Questions For...Silence, Yu Suzuki Speaks]. EvolutioN (in Italian). No. 4. March 2002. p. 73. ISSN 1593-6171.
  10. ^ Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown Masters Guide (in Japanese). SoftBank. September 2010. ISBN 9784797360875.
  11. ^ a b Lignon, Fanny (2005). "L'Image de la Femme Dans Les Jeux Vidéo de Combat" [The Image of Women in Fighting Video Games]. Sport et Genre XIXe-XXe siècles (in French). 4: 177.
  12. ^ a b "...and Finally Sarah Bryant". Sega Saturn Magazine. No. 26. December 1997. p. 98. ISSN 1360-9424.
  13. ^ "Virtua City". Sega Magazine. No. 22. October 1995. p. 48. ISSN 1360-9424.
  14. ^ Virtua Fighter 2 Instruction Manual. Sega. 1995. p. 25.
  15. ^ Virtua Fighter 3tb Instruction Manual. Sega. 1999. p. 18.
  16. ^ Virtua Fighter 5 Instruction Manual. Sega. 2006. p. 28.
  17. ^ "E3: Virtua Fighter Animation". GamePro. No. 95. August 1996. p. 52. ISSN 1042-8658.
  18. ^ "Fighters MegaMix Cheats, Codes, Unlockables - Saturn". IGN. May 12, 1997. Archived from the original on May 20, 2014. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  19. ^ a b Nakamura, Toshi (June 29, 2012). "How Virtua Fighter Was Dead Or Alive's Daddy". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on May 20, 2014. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  20. ^ Castro, Juan (December 16, 2004). "Virtua Quest: Virtua Souls". IGN. Archived from the original on May 22, 2014. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  21. ^ "5/2 Collaboration Fighter/Battle Card Pick Up Summon Vol.2 [Modified 5/1 at 18:30 (PDT)]". Netmarble. May 1, 2023. Archived from the original on May 3, 2023. Retrieved May 3, 2023.
  22. ^ "Introducing... Digital Dance Mix". Sega Saturn Magazine. No. 18. April 1997. p. 98. ISSN 1360-9424.
  23. ^ McWhertor, Michael (May 31, 2022). "Tekken 7 takes over Virtua Fighter 5 in new collaboration DLC". Polygon. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
  24. ^ a b c "Out of the Arcades". Game On! USA. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1996. p. 7. ISSN 1087-8505.
  25. ^ Virtua Fighter. Episode 3–24. October 2, 1995. TV Tokyo.
  26. ^ Matsumoto, Takahal (1996). Virtua Fighter: Legend of Sarah (in Japanese). Tokuma Shoten. ISBN 4198301190.
  27. ^ a b "The Virtua Fighter Phenomenon". Game On! USA. Vol. 1, no. 6. June 1996. p. 10. ISSN 1087-8505.
  28. ^ Henry Jenkins; Justine Cassell (February 28, 2000). From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. MIT Press. p. 202. ISBN 9780262531689.
  29. ^ "Virtua Fighter Mania!". Saturn+. No. 1. December 1995. pp. 6–7. ISSN 1359-2181.
  30. ^ "Virtually Perfect". Arcade. No. 3. February 1999. pp. 34–35. ISSN 1464-9071.
  31. ^ "Three ROM Blondes". Game On! USA. Vol. 1, no. 2. February 1996. p. 77. ISSN 1087-8505.
  32. ^ "Sex Sexy Sexist: Women In Video Games". Total Control. No. 5. March 1999. p. 44. ISSN 1464-035X.
  33. ^ Hertz, J. C. (1997). Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds. Brown, Little. pp. 179–180. ISBN 9780316360074.
  34. ^ Birgit, Richard (July 2015). Sheroes: Genderspiele im virtuellen Raum [Sheroes: Gender Games in Virtual Space] (in German). transcript Verlag. pp. 39–40, 106–107. ISBN 9783839402313.
  35. ^ Hutchinson, Rachael (December 2020). Japanese Culture Through Video Games. Routledge. pp. 89–90. ISBN 9780367728151.
  36. ^ Hutchinson, Rachael (December 2020). Japanese Culture Through Video Games. Routledge. p. 249. ISBN 9780367728151.
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