Blanka

“	Seeing you in action is a joke!	„
	~ Blanka to defeated opponents in SF2

Blanka, known his birth name as Jimmy, is a supporting character from the Street Fighter series. He is represented as a feral and savage man from Brazilian jungle, with green skin and long orange hair, resembling a monster more than a human and has the ability to use electricity as his power of choice. He is one of the first eight characters featured in the original version of the Street Fighter II games.

He is voiced by the late Unshō Ishizuka in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Takeshi Yamane in the Street Fighter EX series, and Yūji Ueda for the rest of his appearances in the Japanese version, and by Scott McNeil in the Street Fighter animated cartoon, Kevin Seymour in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Taliesin Jaffe from Street Fighter IV up to Street Fighter V and Luis Bermudez in Street Fighter 6 in the English version.

Bio

Blanka is a green ape-like fighter from Brazil. He is considered savage having grown up in the jungle, and his fighting style reflects this. Blanka arrived in the jungle after a plane crash separated him from his mother. Blanka raised himself in the wild, but also has connections to the local village.

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Blanka later faces Zangief as his second mid-boss, and unwittingly prevents Zangief from helping to destroy the Shadaloo criminal organization. He then faces Shadaloo member Balrog before facing M. Bison. After Bison is defeated, Blanka, Dan, and Sakura work together and destroy Bison's Psycho Drive weapon.

He returns in V, looking even wilder than before with much longer and thicker hair. Additionally, he's also grown green hair around his arms and legs, making him almost entirely covered in fur. Despite this, he's now living peacefully with his mother and has integrated himself into society. He was also approached by a suspicious salesman who promised Blanka fame, and made a line of "Blanka-chan" dolls. Unfortunately, they're not selling, and Blanka is now faced with a surplus of dolls he needs to sell.

Blanka returns to the series in 6, becoming a kindhearted defender of nature, as well as an adventure tour guide. He is confident his intimate knowledge of the jungle will serve as a springboard to fame—and a comfortable life for his beloved mother.

To promote his "Adventure Tour" travel company's trip to the Amazon forest. Blanka launched an online advertisement campaign featuring Blanka-chan as an "cryptid sprite" mascot. While the campaign were proven to be a success, albeit generate quite an amusement to those who is familiar with Blanka, a young girl named Lily genuinely believed Blanka-chan to be an actual sprite and decided to travel to Brazil to met the "sprite" in-person.

Back in the Amazon, Blanka in his Blanka-chan costume is guiding and taking pictures with tourists when Lily suddenly appeared from a tree. Attempting to maintain his Blanka-chan persona, Blanka asks if the girl wanted to shake hands, much to Lily's amusement. She then says that her spirit companion Toyno'Ikono wanted to "see more" of Blanka's character, leading a confused Blanka into a fight.

After the battle, Blanka (now taking off his costume) and Lily is seen on a boat cruising along the Amazon river. Blanka apologizes Lily for "lying" about him being a jungle sprite, saying that he wanted to keep his real identity a secret as he fears it would crush children's dreams. Lily then asks what Blanka is apologizing for, as she thinks that it makes no difference whether he wear a costume or not since Blanka already has "the spirit of the jungle" within him. Before she leaves, Lily explains that she felt the power of "all the trees and animals" inside him, and it is the real "sprite" she's looking for.

Being left alone on the boat, Blanka comes to a conclusion that since the "power of the jungle" is real, Blanka-chan is real too, and so is Blanka, the "king of the jungle".

Appearance

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, a color change that eventually became permanent. However, when Street Fighter IIwas brought to the US, 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 skin is yellowish-green, but later versions of the character are bright green. Early Street Fighter II artwork of Blanka showed him having pure green skin, despite the in-game renders showing him with yellowish skin color. Aside from his green skin, Blanka also has vivid orange hair. His appearance in Street Fighter IIbecame his Nostalgia costume in Street Fighter V. Despite his strange appearance however, Blanka is in fact a human.

In Blanka's redesign for Street Fighter V, his hair has grown longer and wild, on his head, limbs and chest. He has additional orange and green hair lining his limbs.

Abilities

Blanka is a talented fighter, having developed his unique feral fighting style. Likewise, the years spent in the jungle made him an expert hunter and granted him knowledge on nature and survivalism. Blanka is strong enough to generate 150,000 volts of lightning. He is highly agile, as he curls himself into a ball shape and rockets toward the opponents while spinning through the air. These abilities would make him an excellent combatant who is able to compete with the best fighters in the world.

Additionally, Blanka has demonstrated good reasoning capabilities since his first contacts with civilization, but he could only express himself through growls. He also has progressively learned how to talk properly, albeit not perfectly, and has a decently-wide vocabulary.

Personality

Despite having the appearance of a wild man, Blanka is generally passive and docile, and is fond of family connections and friendships as well as children. Yet, when angered, Blanka attacks as though he was a wild animal let loose from a cage, ferociously attacking his opponents with predatorial rage.

Due to being forced to survive and later overcome the harsh environment of the Amazon forest since his youth, Blanka has developed his own personal attachment with wildlife. He held the "survival of the fittest" mindset, believing that those who were weak and being unable to adapt would naturally be preyed on by the predator. He cites his survival experience as a proof that humans were able to triumph over anything if they could adapt and respect nature, and doesn't treat his (self-proclaimed) "king of the jungle" title lightly. Blanka also holds great respect to mother nature, saying that it is what made him who he is today, and is against those who are harming nature "for fun" and not for sustaining themselves.

As the series goes on, Blanka, while retaining his usual manner of speech, starts to develop a bit more common sense, which ironically makes him a more cautious-minded foil to the hot-headed Dan Hibiki. His dislike of masked men, as he believes good people shouldn't hide their faces, is also shown in his rival battle with El Fuerte and also with his win quote against Vega.

Other Media

Super Smash Bros.

Blanka's stage theme A and B are soundtracks in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Blanka appears as an advanced-ranked primary shield-type spirit that increases the user's electric attacks. His spirit battle is a stamina battle against Donkey Kong who starts with a screw attack on Jungle Japes with reduced jump.

Gallery

Images

Videos

Trivia

Blanka and Adon share some similarities with each other: they have orange hair, they are both voiced by the same person in English (Taliesen Jaffe), and their 10th alternate colors represent their former color schemes from when they first debuted. Adon first appeared in the original Street Fighter, and Blanka first appeared in Street Fighter II. However, there are differences between them; while Blanka is a good person, Adon is a neutral character.
Blanka once fought Pikachu in an episode of the popular Internet series DEATH BATTLE and won the battle