From Game Novice to Tournament Competitor: The Idol Who Got Hooked on Street Fighter 6 and Why

I want to do Street Fighter cosplay!

This comment made FRIDAY’s gravure editor raise an eyebrow when he met with “Nippon Wachachacha” idol Mob. No matter how much she says she likes games, there is the issue of copyrights. ……

If by any chance we get the OK, let’s do it.

A few months later, a unique collaboration with “Street Fighter 6” was realized in the October 31 issue of “FRIDAY.

This project was actually made possible by the fact that Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama and Suzuki Mob. were acquaintances. The creator of a blockbuster game that has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide and a maverick idol who gets a lot of buzz – what was it about these two creative individuals that resonated with each other (see Part 1 of the interview)?

Video of Mob. kneading a white ball while weeping

Nakayama：I first became aware of Mob. when I saw a video of him on YouTube in which he was making white balls while crying. I usually watch videos of ruins or eating in exotic places, but it suddenly came up in my recommendations.

Suzuki: I took this video when I had just moved to Tokyo and was feeling homesick. My parents owned a shiratama shop, so I made a video of me kneading and eating shiratama while saying, “I want to go home. ……

*Click here for “Membre woman making shiratama dango while crying – moon viewing while being sick.

Nakayama：It ‘s a great idea (laughs). I was intrigued by that video and went to the signing event first. The meeting place happened to be close to the venue, and I thought that if I went there now, there would be a “person making shiratama” there.

I arrived early, so I sat down and waited, and then I found Mr. Mob. He was late, or so I thought, and Mr. Ipp (the office president) was getting angry with him. When he awkwardly went to the backyard, I passed him and he bailed me out, and I remember thinking, “He is a very nice person.

Suzuki: I remember when Mr. Nakayama followed me on SNS, I thought, “Who is this famous old man? Actually, I was not familiar with games, and when he mentioned CAPCOM, it didn’t ring a bell.

Later, I started receiving game goods. The characters were all cute, so I secretly bought Street Fighter 6 without telling Mr. Nakayama. I’ve never been good at games, but the world was well-developed and the characters were fascinating and the backgrounds were detailed. I found myself hooked.

-What was your first encounter with Street Fighter?

Nakayama：My original experience was Street Fighter II. When I was in elementary school, a transfer student came from the next town over, and we became friends because of Street Fighter. I used to pedal my bicycle to the distant candy store where the cabinet was located.

Mob.: I hardly played video games, so I didn’t think I would get into it. But there was an adventure element before the fighting game, so I got into it from there. The story was interesting, and as you progressed through the game, you came closer to “what is a fighting game” and “what is strength”. Before I knew it, I myself had come to face the game as a gaming experience.

Nakayama: (As the creator,) that was exactly what I was aiming for. This year marks the 37th anniversary of Street Fighter, but when we were playing it, it was just a game to play against each other. It was fun to play, but there was no process to get to that point. From the perspective of today’s customers, it was a game that was difficult to understand how to enjoy, so we created a mode to get people to like the characters before playing against them.

Mob: I like Gouki the best. Gouki is the only one who can win.

Nakayama: I don’t know what part of the game stuck with me from the perspective of the people who made it. When we started pushing Gouki, I thought, “Why?　I thought, “Why?

I want you to like the character.

Mob.: First of all, the visuals are my type, cool. I like men with big bodies, men who look super strong!　Even the hair looks completely like our cat, Potee-chan.

Nakayama: They look alike. The color of their fur is also very similar.

Mob.: He is also a type of man and looks like a cat. And although he is strong and overwhelmingly powerful, he also has the delicacy of making his own rice balls. Such a gap is endearing. There is also the charm of his high firepower, which makes it easy to win in the beginning.

Nakayama: He is a character who moves fast but is weak when hit.

Mob.: He lacks physical strength, just like me. I’m overlapping with myself (laughs).

Nakayama：When we created the World Tour, we wanted people to like the characters themselves. Up until now, Gouki has been a “strong old man whose true identity is unknown,” but in fact, there was only a picture of him selling fruit to a child. We thought about how we could make the character more multifaceted and make people like him from various perspectives.

For example, making onigiri (rice balls) yourself gives a sense of life, doesn’t it? People have a hard time getting attached to characters that have no connection to them. They will only like a character when they have a connection with him or her. If an alien suddenly appears, you don’t want to be friends with him, but if the alien is holding an onigiri (rice ball), you will not want to be friends with him. ……

Mob.: Cute!

Nakayama:To make it easier for people to understand the characters, we went through a lot of trial and error with various teams, including the scenario writers.

Mob.: We did as Mr. Nakayama wanted (laughs).

Nakayama: I’m a grateful customer (laughs).

-Who is your favorite character?

Nakayama：The Street Fighter II game I played in elementary school had only eight characters, so we couldn’t play against the same characters. I joined the group later, so I couldn’t use the characters used by others. I could only choose Dhalsim or Guile, and my friend who joined the group with me and I had to fight for it, and I won in rock-paper-scissors-scissors and chose Guile.

Mob.: So if you had lost the game of rock-paper-scissors, you would have chosen Dhalsim?

Nakayama: Actually, Guile and Dhalsim were strong characters, so I was often told, “You’re cheating by using only strong characters. I would say, “No, I just stayed with them. I didn’t choose them because I liked them.

I also used Mariza in Street Fighter 6. She is the “cool girl” character that I wanted to create from the previous game. There is also a gap in that her day job is as a jewelry designer.

Mob.: She’s very strong, but she also puts hearts on the faces of the people she hits. It’s really cute!

Click here for the second installment of this special dialogue.