| “ | Watch in awe as I command the stage. | „ |
| ~ Manon Legrand |
Manon Legrand, also known as the Judoka Ballet Dancer, is the supporting character of the Street Fighter games. She makes her debut as one of the new characters in Street Fighter 6. She is a French judoka fighter, who's also a ballet dancer & model.
She is voiced by Ayaka Fukuhara in the Japanese version, and by Cherami Leigh in the English version.
Overview
Background
Manon Legrand were born as the youngest of the trio sibling of a wealthy French aristocrat family. During her youth, Manon has developed incredible talent in judo, being hailed as a "genius" by those around her. Being the sole daughter, Manon lived a mostly happy childhood with her older brothers whom they shared sibling bonds with. Though during some point of her younger days, Manon's mother has left her (it is implied that she was divorced) but not before assuring Manon that she would be "just fine" without her because she was "strong". These seemingly normal words cut deep into young Manon's heart, as she believes that she was left on her own because of her "strong" prowress and later come to hate the word "strong".
As Manon grew up, she begins to pursue various careers and became greatly successful in all of them. Manon won the gold medal in the world judoka championship, being so proud of this achievement that she wore the medal wherever she goes. Manon has also became a renowned ballerina, super model, and actress. The main drive of Manon in perfecting various careers is to prove her mother's word that she's only "just fine" wrong. Though despite the successes, Manon has also became increasingly aloof and indifference due to her regularly being praised for her achievements, believing that she would also do "just fine" in everything, while also hating how those around her (besides her brothers) were viewing her simply as the "perfect" being and nothing else.
Street Fighter 6
A super model and world champion judoka, Manon is an idealist, forever seeking self-improvement in the pursuit of beauty. She struts the catwalk of street fighting to become the world's strongest model.
Manon reflects on being told she is strong for her entire life. She admits that it has grown to be something she does not adore hearing and does not like to compliment herself with. That all changed one day at the colosseum where Marisa noticed her in a crowd and challenged her to a fight. One of the most direct challenges that had ever been sent her way, but she felt a sense of similarity between them as Marisa declared that Manon was "into exactly the same things" that she was.
Manon emerged victorious from their battle, but before she could fall into her indifference in the result, Marisa's personality and love for their bout caught her off guard. Marisa finding enjoyment in facing someone as strong as she is and her eagerness to improve herself despite the loss affected Manon in ways she did not anticipate. Usually when she had been called strong it cut her like a dagger, but when Marisa says it, it made her happy, as Manon finds that Marisa viewed "strong" prowess as the goal to motivate herself in becoming stronger, not simply viewing anyone as "strong" by their accomplishments like how most people viewed Manon.
Marisa challenged her to a rematch which Manon accepted, embracing the fact that she is strong, not in the ways others had seen it, but in the ways she and Marisa do.
Appearance
Manon Legrand is a French woman with short light pink hair with hime-cut bangs and longer fringes in each side of her hair, reminiscent of a swan. In her default outfit, she wears a royal blue singlet with red, white and blue streaks, and with cutouts around her torso and hips. Embedded on her collar is a gold medal with two abstract figures, with one throwing the other. On top of her singlet, Manon wears a white gi with a turquoise trim, with the sleeves rolled up and the waist tied with a black judo belt. Her matching blue footguards and wristbands have white stripes across them. Her nails are also painted to look like the French flag.
Abilities
Manon has trained in judo and approached world-class competitions since an early age. She collected medals from the beginnings, entered her first global tournament by the time of high-school and eventually became world champion, a title that she has maintained ever since. Although her knowledge in practical ballet is limited to lessons taken during childhood, Manon has efficiently adapted its movements to combat and evolved her judo into a new and unique style. She also made it a recurring practice to challenge other fighting styles (such as savate and fencing), both in regular bouts and street fighting, always coming out on top and improving her skills evermore. A competent teacher, she successfully imparted her fighting style and philosophy into the Player.
Manon has demonstrated to be good at mathematics, holding the knowledge of physics in great value and calculating precisely how much muscle mass she puts in every part of her body during workout. Manon is also a famous model and performer with long-time experience within the industry, having began her career almost as early as she did with judo and establishing herself as the best there too. Moreover, Manon is a confectionary connoisseur and is proud of her ability in making sweets.
Personality
Manon is depicted as being optimistic who seeks herself for her self-improvement in beauty and enjoys street fighting which she wanted to become the world's strongest model by using her main fighting skills. Aside from being idealistic, Manon is also shown to be elitist and prideful and like both Karin Kanzuki and Cody, she loves to fight strong opponents, as seen in her win quotes. Nevertheless, Manon is not without a standard, such as having a strong dislike of people with evil intentions, such as JP.
In her arcade story, Manon also displays her family problems after achieving many sports accomplishments throughout her life. Deep down, she detests being called a "strong" person due to what her mother had said to her younger self before she had left, that Manon would be "just fine" without her because she was "strong". This made Manon become indifferent to any praise and accomplishments and became somewhat aloof, as she believes that it's natural for her to do "just fine" in everything, while deep down Manon hates how people would idolize her "strong" prowess and not caring about her feelings or anyone else's, since Manon believes people treated her as if she would be "just fine" in any situation and viewed her as being perfect and thus unapproachable, resulting into her having trouble of befriending others.
