Blanka

Lore & Background

Blanka was born as a boy named Jimmy who was involved in a plane crash in the Amazon rainforest. Although in the initial games Blanka's mother says the plane crashed when he was "a little boy", the manual for Street Fighter IV says it happened when he was a baby. After the crash, he was exposed to electric eels, triggering the mutation which changed his appearance and gave him electric powers. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, a prequel to Street Fighter II, Blanka rides on a truck to civilization for the first time. After defeating Zangief, Balrog and the leader of the Shadaloo criminal organization M. Bison, Blanka joins old friend Dan Hibiki and Sakura (Dan's pupil) to destroy Bison's "psycho drive" weapon. Blanka then returns to the jungle. In Street Fighter IV, whose events are set after Street Fighter II, Blanka, living in a town, feels out of place and decides to travel the world. At the end of the game, Dan helps his mother find him in Hong Kong. In Super Street Fighter IV, Blanka enters a worldwide tournament to be recognized by people so his mother will be proud of him. When he returns home, the townspeople visit him and he plays games with the local children. Blanka returns as a playable character in the third season of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, with a character story where he attempts to sell plush toys of his own likeness named Blanka-chan (Blanka-chan was also available as a skin for the character). In Street Fighter 6, Blanka has become a tour guide in the Amazon, working to support his mother. He also dons a Blanka-chan costume to make visitors believe that Blanka-chan is a jungle sprite that visits the area.

In Their Own Story

Blanka first appears in Street Fighter II, when he sees his mother (who tells his backstory) after he competes in the World Warrior tournament. According to the story, Blanka was born as a boy named Jimmy who was involved in a plane crash in the Amazon rainforest. After the crash, he was exposed to electric eels, triggering the mutation which changed his appearance and gave him electric powers. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, a prequel to Street Fighter II, Blanka rides on a truck to civilization for the first time. After defeating Zangief, Balrog and the leader of the Shadaloo criminal organization M. Bison, Blanka joins old friend Dan Hibiki and Sakura (Dan's pupil) to destroy Bison's "psycho drive" weapon. Blanka then returns to the jungle. In Street Fighter IV, whose events are set after Street Fighter II, Blanka, living in a town, feels out of place and decides to travel the world. At the end of the game, Dan helps his mother find him in Hong Kong. In Super Street Fighter IV, Blanka enters a worldwide tournament to be recognized by people so his mother will be proud of him. When he returns home, the townspeople visit him and he plays games with the local children. Blanka returns as a playable character in the third season of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, with a character story where he attempts to sell plush toys of his own likeness named Blanka-chan. In Street Fighter 6, Blanka has become a tour guide in the Amazon, working to support his mother. He also dons a Blanka-chan costume to make visitors believe that Blanka-chan is a jungle sprite that visits the area.

Reader's Guide

Blanka fights in a self-taught, animalistic style. In several of his special moves, he rolls into a ball, launching himself at an opponent. In Blanka's signature attack, he crouches and emits an electric current shocking anything it touches. Although Blanka growls in combat, he usually speaks with words in cutscenes, except for Street Fighter Alpha 3. Blanka's most prominent physical characteristic is his green color, initially attributed to his consumption of chlorophyll from plants to blend into his jungle environment. However, when Street Fighter was brought to the U.S., Blanka's coloring was attributed to his being struck by lightning during the electrical storm in which his plane crashed. In Street Fighter II, Blanka's default skin is yellowish-green; later versions of the character give the character bright green skin.

Did You Know?

• Blanka was originally designed with pink skin, which designer Akira 'Akiman' Yasuda considered 'disgusting,' leading him to change the color to green.
• The concept behind Blanka emerged in an early 1988 pitch design as an African man named Anabebe who was raised by a lion.
• Blanka's design was chosen via rock paper scissors among the design team; the 'beast' concept was the last option and was assigned to 'Pigmon-san'.
• In the live-action Street Fighter film, Blanka and Charlie were combined into one character Carlos 'Charlie' Blanka, played by Robert Mammone.
• Blanka ranked third (after Gisele Bündchen and Pelé) when the Brazilian program Custe o Que Custar asked people in Spain who the best-known Brazilians were.