How Virtua Fighter fumbled on Vanessa Lewis | Colourism in video games

[@fragmentedpixels]

Any insulting or insensitive comments will be removed-as usual.

[@falconeshield]

Justice for Buff Storm dammit

[@thisisdray6927]

Words can’t explain how glad I am that someone is actually talking about it, especially in video games. I’m only three minutes in but I’m already enjoying myself. I always found it weird that when I was a kid my family and friends would always pick Vanessa in virtua fighter 4 and now I couldn’t even recognize her in the later games

[@fragmentedpixels]

No problem. This is a complex topic, but it has to be talked about! IDK what was wrong with how she looked before?? It bothered me, so I just had to talk about it! And it made sense for Vanessa to be muscular-she has a militaristic background!! smh.

[@thisisdray6927]

@@liu3chan not necessarily but, sometimes (and not all) when you have certain characters (especially during the PlayStation 2, XBox, GameCube era when there really weren’t any) that reflect you or your background/remind you of yourself, you might gravitate towards them. That’s what my family and friends did but, Vanessa wasn’t the only character played.

[@jbbelenkokoro2673]

I kept on thinking I was the only one who thought Vanessa’s VF5 look was very sus. I hope that in a future VF title will give Vanessa back her melanin. I’m glad that someone actually talked about this as colorism is a big issue in media.❤

[@fragmentedpixels]

No problem! You’re definitely not the only one who thought that. As doubtful as I am about them reverting the design, IDK what was wrong with her complexion or look? And definitely. You see a lot of that in the media, when it comes to things like dating, criminal justice… etc.

[@jbbelenkokoro2673]

@@fragmentedpixels I don’t want to even think about their thought process over changing Vanessa’s design. She’s so beautiful and unique compared to the other female/femme presenting characters who are more lighter skinned. This is something I’ve seen in DOA were they demoted the scientist character, Lisa Hamilton who is darker skinned with a lighter skinned (and younger looking) girl named NiCO. They also demoted Kasumi and Ayane for younger looking girls such as Honoka and Marie Rose, so there’s an ageism aspect in play as well. DOA has a lot of problems that I’ve noticed even though I love the series as another great 3D Fighter.

[@fragmentedpixels]

⁠@@jbbelenkokoro2673I agree. She was unique compared to the other characters in VF4. And it’s not like there aren’t Black women that are muscular and toned in real life. So…IDK. AM2 are weird for that. I just looked into those. That is weird? It’s like if you’re gonna do that, just don’t have any dark skinned characters…smh. Yeah, ageism is also a problem in Japanese games… unsurprisingly. I see this discourse when it comes to Tekken. I agree, but some will deny or just like to intentionally miss the point when someone brings it up and impose their own ageist ideas about women. It’s like 1) congrats… you proved that point and 2) can you not critique a game you like? LOL. Criticism isn’t hate.

[@jbbelenkokoro2673]

@@fragmentedpixels I totally agree. I like DOA, Tekken, Soulcalibur, and Virtua Fighter. However, they are not free of any criticism especially if it is something that it problematic and harmful to people.

[@RarutoUchiha2]

And not just her melanin, but her muscle mass too. And also give back some that melanin that was taken from her hair, it used to be shinier.

[@AM-in7cs]

i completely agree! love ur channel! please never abandon your looks ranking for video game characters. i don’t see that kind of content often. also i’d love for you to rank tekken lilis looks🤭

[@fragmentedpixels]

thanks!! and don’t worry, more of those will be on the way😌

[@HadesHatredEdge]

My favorite 3D fighting game woman.. Love her being able to switch fighting styles and her brutal strikes are amazing. The changes with VF5 was a disgrace.

[@TheSeventhForce]

So immensely happy that someone is finally talking about this. Virtua Fighter 5 is an incredible fighting game but the way it whitewashed Vanessa never sat right with me. Hopefully this video gets more eyes on it, it's well worth discussing.

[@fragmentedpixels]

Thanks! Exactly, this has bothered me a lot and I’m surprised there aren’t much videos on this topic. It’s inexcusable, tbh.

[@neonthunder3261]

Oh sick, Seventhforce! Both you and Fragmentedpixels make TOP-NOTCH videos

[@fragmentedpixels]

Thanks!! 😊

[@jasonelbow3807]

Yeah.. I remember when VF5 vanilla dropped and we in the VF community were pretty pissed when they "lightened" her skin. I didn't even play her and I didn't like it.

[@fragmentedpixels]

Smh. It sucks! Guess we’ll never * really* know what Sega were thinking with that nonsensical decision. 🥴

[@jasonelbow3807]

@@fragmentedpixels there was article where it was speculated originally, the skin changed was gonna be explained that Vanessa was recaptured by J6 and experimented on. And that's why her skin was lighter in 5 than in 4. She was captured in 4's lore, same as Sarah was in 2. But that story was scrapped.

[@MastermindAtWork]

I main Vanessa in VF5 Final Showdown. I was lowkey hurt when I found out that they took her melanin away from VF4 to VF5

[@fragmentedpixels]

Yeah, it’s just not it. Very random as well… 🥴 Like if a character was negatively received (IDK if that was the case here), then changing skin-tone and/or features should never be the solution in a final design.

[@BremboT]

Wow! Vanessa got gentrified. How tragic. There's a Black WWE wrestler who looks just like her, Jade Cargill. Look her up! If they made a movie, she would be one of the only true looking characters. Well, used to.

[@fragmentedpixels]

It sucks, smh. Oh wow, I see it! That’d be cool.

[@stephen2624]

I should've realised the implications when I first saw Vanessa's original design in VF4 after I seen in VF5 but yeah, that's pretty fucked up. Don't know how compatible this is, but it reminds me how Tina Armstrong used to have abs in the early DOA games, but she ended up looking more homogeneous in DOA5. Suddenly, I think Tidus from Final Fantasy X would be a better example because he had darker skin but got paler in the remasters and spinoffs. If Zone of the Enders comes back, I hope Dingo Egrets doesn't get colourised. :/

[@fragmentedpixels]

Yeah, very messed up. I looked into those and yes, those are certainly comparable. Not cool! The fact they whitewashed Vanessa, then realised they fucked up… then made said character’s *skin tone* a customisation item. Like… what the actual f??? How about they never did that in the first place? 😑

[@Itsn8z]

With a new VF in works, I really hope they fix this issue for once. I love Vanessa a lot since 4 & I'm not happy about them nerfing everything she had from her debut. Masculine, Skin, All that.

[@fragmentedpixels]

same!! have to see what happens…

[@sohanicridland9116]

I’m glad you made a video about this. And about America thinking her original outfit is too sexy might have something to do with the fact that Black female characters generally are designed more masculine (especially darkskin female characters) in American video games when compared to their lighter and especially white peers. Just look at games like mortal kombat, uncharted, and apex legends for example.

[@fragmentedpixels]

Interesting. Yeah, I’ve noticed that. I find that odd they box characters in…because Black women can be masculine, feminine or both. I mean-presenting in a certain way doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is, let’s say, has a brash personality. but sadly that’s where the stereotyping comes in. It sucks, though. It’s funny because, to refer to my video, she’s now light skinned and has a different body type and is more busty-but that’s not considered ‘too sexy’.

[@LaneKeys]

That's just Sega of America for you. They were always a little nonsensical in the changes they pushed. Just look at Streets of Rage 3.

[@MagicalCaveman]

Vanessa was one of my favorite characters in VF4, I always thought she was just an all around awesome character. I didn't play much VF5, so I guess I didn't notice at the time, but you make some good points here. Such an unnecessary change to a character who was perfect how she was. Whenever people bring up the topic of guest characters for Tekken 8, I'd always mention Vanessa being perfect for a guest spot(even though Akira is the face of the series, I thought Vanessa was more interesting) and when I went to bring up an image to show people who I was talking about, I did think something was off about her. I figured I had just misremembered how she looked, but now having seen your video, I definitely was not misremembering.

[@fragmentedpixels]

Right. To add, It’s as if she’s a completely different character! There’s nothing wrong with her look and character. And to top it off, the excuse Sega made for the character’s initial VF4 design (‘too sexy’) is weird too. Hate to be that person, but I’ll be uninterested in a new VF game if they don’t revert Vanessa skin-tone and look. I don’t think we’ll ever get answer as to why Sega did that… so odd!

[@VariantNYC]

well, they are trying to sell a product to people that are openly racist and are unashamed to complain about a dark skinned character, so…..

[@fragmentedpixels]

true. smh!

[@glossedi]

The same thing happened to Tanya in mk it just seemed like the developers didn't know what they wanted her design to look like. And there was so much hate on her newest design when they finally made her look black passing,

[@fragmentedpixels]

Yeah, that was really odd. I think that was with MKX, right? Right, I saw that also. people, mostly men, I saw were being really misogynistic about it saying that she looked ugly and how all the women’s faces in the game are “ugly”… when they’re literally based on REAL people. that irked me.

[@PeerlessUtopian]

@@fragmentedpixels No, it was mostly people who assumed that she didn't look attractive in 1. I blame NRS for that, as they purposely made her look off from the actual model that Tanya is based on. Other than that, there are people who were upset because they were fixated on the fact that Tanya wasn't looking Edinean as they so believed.

[@fragmentedpixels]

Yeah, I agree her face does look a bit different from the actual face model… but it’s not the worst face model I’ve seen as some may have assumed. I mean-both things can be true. Outside of Tanya, I did see some harsh comments on the women’s faces in the game (that did range to sexist comments)… they look fine to me, though. I’m curious, though: what does an Edenian look like? I’m not too familiar with MK lore!

[@PeerlessUtopian]

@@fragmentedpixels An Edenian varies, but the way Tanya looked in earlier installments, she had somewhat of a Persian to Arabian look. I'm guessing that is what they base Edenians on. From Asians, Persians to Arabians kind of looks.

[@Tashiboss]

​@PeerlessUtopian So we gonna forget about her first design, or are we gonna pretend the white wash only did???

[@Carlos09e]

If they ever make a VF movie, jade cargill is a perfect casting...

[@fragmentedpixels]

that’d be cool.

[@Ghostbody]

I feel like it was further fumbled because they had another opportunity to fix it in the PS4 version of Ultimate Showdown since RGG had to REBUILD the models from the ground up. There was a second chance and the goof happened. I know you mentioned it but we have to remember that game was a full rebuild of VF5 and there was a chance.

[@fragmentedpixels]

right!! even so, this decision was very intentional anyway. IDK if the character got negative reception or whatever, but changing someone’s skin tone should never be a ‘fix’. 😑

[@Ghostbody]

@@fragmentedpixels 100% agreed. I was so thrown off when VF5 originally released and THAT was what happened to the character I played. Just left me asking "If you didn't do it to Jeffery, why did you do it to Vanessa? And better yet to what end would it serve?" Fookin lame.

[@jayro792]

Very interesting. I was thinking about this recently and now here’s your video!!…It didn’t make sense at all for Sega to change her. If they announce they are doing another virtual fighter we should put pressure on them to put Vanessa back to her original design. She looked so much better in VF4

[@fragmentedpixels]

Glad I could discuss this topic! I’ve always thought about how Sega did this to Vanessa and it never sat right with me. I agree. People should certainly do that, but I honestly think they don’t care about the fact they whitewashed Vanessa for no reason. 😑

[@jayro792]

@@fragmentedpixelsIt’s been leaked that there is going to be a new Virtua Fighter. I hope people will put pressure on Sega to restore her back to her Virtua Fighter 4 version. I’m going to because this wasn’t right

[@thenewmissinglink8501]

Ik Im late 🛌, but Omg I remember first seeing her on a Virtua fighter 4 arcade machine at this skating rink I used to go to. And I was stunned at my young age because she was both pretty and muscular looking. I had no idea that she was supposed to be a character I had already seen in Virtua fighter 5 😭. Hopefully they revert the change if they make a number 6. Because this was very disrespectful in so many ways. I remember someone saying something stupid to me and you addressed this. “In Japan they associate dark skin with evil, and because she’s good in the game, it might confuse people.” And that is so stupid to me, for one most fighting games are international in terms of appeal, and two, the fact that this person said this to me, and acted as if we have to sit here and accept a colorist belief that very clearly isn’t true is baffling. As a black person myself, I refuse to be looked in the eye and be told my skin tone is associated with evil.

[@fragmentedpixels]

Whatttt? That doesn't even make sense... just ignorance, really. I agree. And when you really think about it, the fact that dark skin is associated with negativity is dumb in my opinion. What's so bad about that? 'Cause really... there's nothing wrong with that at all!! I want to think that they'll revert this change, but I don't know if they will. We'll have to see...

[@decadentgamer3108]

So admittedly I was never a huge Virtua Fighter person, mostly because I missed out on the games since I didn't have a Dreamcast and when Virtua Fighter 4 came out, while I was interested in getting the game, I was too hooked on Tekken 4, Tekken 5, Soul Calibur 2, Soul Calibur 3, Bloody Roar games, and King of Fighters 2006 that I just never got around to VF4 or VF4 EVO. But I finally got around to the series with VF5 and I thought that Vanessa was a neat character but I had no idea about the controversy for obvious reason. The thing is, I had seen the CGI artwork of VF4 Vanessa and I didn't realize these two were the same characters (Context: When I saw the CGI VF4 artwork years ago before getting VF5, I didn't know the character's name). Learning about the controversy and seeing genuine white-washing in action with this character was so unfortunate to see. Personally her old design looked just fine. So she was more muscular than the other female characters? Buff women do exist but I guess it was seen as "too masculine" because not a lot of men find buffed out women physically attractive but my response to that is "so what"? Not every female character needs to appeal to the male gaze. But this whole "her outfit is too sexy", the only thing I can think of is that they showcase her butt, she showed cleavage + midriff, and compared to the other female characters like Pai Chan, Sarah, and Aoi, she shows a lot more skin in comparison and maybe that is what they meant? I know that in Japanese culture when it comes to female fashion, they seem to prefer a more modest look and perhaps that is why the old outfit was seen as "too sexy". But then just like you pointed out, her VF5 outfit is not any less sexualized than her old outfit, she's literally only wearing a (leather) bra underneath her open jacket. At least in VF4, it's clear she's wearing a sports-bra that goes with her grapple-wrestling based fighting style. It really was a cop out. Now I don't know what the mindset as a whole was like in the late 2000s when it comes to dark skin characters in Japanese culture but as far as video game characters go, they have shown that even back then, they could make dignified black characterrs. In Street Fighter, there were characters like Elena, Sean, and Dudley, Soul Calibur had just gotten Zasalamel, and Tekken had Raven (even if he was an obvious Blade rip-off lol). Oh and Guilty Gear had Venom. So it's not like there weren't some positive blueprints of black characters in Japanese fighting game media at the time. Though with the exception of Elena, not a ton of black female characters but still, there were still examples of this being done in a respectful manner. To be fair, In Virtua Fighter's case there hasn't been a new game in over a decade now and it doesn't seem like there's going to be a Virtua Fighter 6 anytime soon, at least that I'm aware of. But if the series ever returns, we can only hope that they correct this and let Vanessa be as she was originally designed, dark skin and muscles and all.

[@fragmentedpixels]

Yeah, good points. Tbh, I’ve never understood this change. I agree, I find that an excuse about that the character was considered ‘too sexy’, hence they had to change the outfit. I mean based on her style of fighting and in that fight setting, it makes sense to wear what she’s wearing. And ya, I’d say so too in regard to Black characters, it’s kind of far and few in between and there have been some awesome char designs. It’s just sucks that they decided to do that for no reason … and then make her skin tone a darn customisation item. Sadly, dark skin is still seen by some as a negative globally and it never made sense to me, despite all the historical contexts. I just think that if you’re going to include characters that happen to be dark skinned just to whitewash them, then I just think… don’t include any in the first place or make them out to be villains! smh.

[@decadentgamer3108]

@@fragmentedpixels Right exactly. It's just annoying because they really did change the key characteristics that differentiated her from other fighting game characters with the muscles and the dark skin. Like I mentioned, aside from Elena and Tanya (from Mortal Kombat who also got this treatment in MKX...) and Jade (from MK), we don't have very many dark skin female gighting games characters. We did recently get Kimberly from Street Fighter 6 who is an awesomely designed black female character but again, they are just so far and few between that there is absolutely no need to white-wash them. You'd just think that by the time Final Showdown came out which was in 2012, they would've changed her skin back to dark and let it be her default again but alas, just a "cusom" item like you mentioned. Just absolutely sad. And I agree with your last statement. If you intend on making a game that is all around the world and will include people of different ethnic backgrounds, then commit to it and allow dark skin characters to be dark skinned with a respectable design philosophy in mind.

[@BremboT]

Google Jade Cargill. Muscles on women can be sexy. You'd think Vanessa was modeled after her

[@SIXminWHISTLE]

If the new Virtua Fighter does happen, its hard to guess what they'll do. I don't know if any of the old team is still around, now RGG Studio (the Yakuza devs) are making VF. As far as that remaking keeping the design, they were doing a faithful remake of VF5, for better or worse. I kind of expect a middleground between 4 and 5's designs if they do change her, but its possible they'll just do a new character instead. New dark skinned characters (mosly women) have been showing up pretty often in other Japanese fighting games recently, Kimberly in SF, Master Raven in T7, SNK with Samurai Shodown and KoF. Guilty Gear. Mostly games with pretty international popularity. I think VF's issue came about because the series just became somewhat niche compared to all the competition, mostly played in Japanese arcades at the end of it's run.

[@lordtheodore13]

Not a VF fan, so this is news to me. I'm used to SEGA being friendly to darker skinned characters.... For example, I can name Laia Martinez and Alfort Tylor from Phantasy Star, BD Joe, and Skate from Streets of Rage as a few black SEGA characters. So it's a little shocking to see that this passed back then.

[@fragmentedpixels]

yeah, it’s always been very odd to me that this got the OK. The character change was so unnecessary!

[@jayro792]

This reminds me of Birdie in Street fighter. I’m not sure if you are familiar with this character but in SF 1 he was a tall powerfully built white guy who was a British punk with a punk haircut looking like a pub/street hooligan. Subsequent SF’s (SF alpha/SF5) he became a huge fat black guy punk hooligan, scratching his ass and picking his nose. Capcoms reasoning for this was Birdie became sick???? Nobody bought that ridiculous, disrespectful excuse. Now it’s one thing to race swap unnecessarily but than to make him black, look more thuggish, huge and fat and just all round come off nasty and dirty just comes across insulting to black men. It’s as if to say that a black guy would more fit this new take on the character. It says a lot about the developers of those times. I can only hope that this type of nonsense is a thing of the past especially in these times.

[@fragmentedpixels]

I’ve never heard of the character, actually, but wtf??? that is just insensitive as hell. I see this and I just have to not only roll my eyes, but just be irked at how they like to think that dark skin is some kind of joke or it’s a negative. In an ideal world, I’d like to think that isn’t the case with today, but I’m cynical. Has much really changed today in regard to those attitudes?

[@jayro792]

@@fragmentedpixels well a little bit. Not a significant amount, at least it’s put under wraps more in fear of backlash. But it’s still there in subtle ways that ain’t actually that subtle once it’s in your face. In games it’s always rubbed me the wrong way in that moment of first seeing nonsense but I just get over it a keep playing the game. I’m glad these days there’s social media to just call it out instantly which we never had in the late 80’s and 90’s

[@fragmentedpixels]

true, there has been change in that respect. I think that’s why we have some close-minded oldheads (especially in video games) that complain now about how things that were ‘acceptable’ or tolerated then are complaining about how sensitive people are… when really they’re the sensitive ones! 😆 But that’s a conversation for another day… haha!

[@jayro792]

@@fragmentedpixels Exactly!!

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

Don't forget that in SFV's story mode there's a scene where he's eating sandwiches whilst guarding a female hostage and he finishes his plate, then gives her a really uncomfortable stare, with her reaction indicating that she thinks he's going to assault her, then turns back around and eats her sandwiches. (came back to edit it because I checked and it wasn't actually fried chicken in this scene. He was however convinced to help the good guys because he was given an enormous platter of fried chicken)

[@thealantmarismore]

Ok, so it wasn't just me. Being the only black characters in the games even today, i loved how she and Jeffrey were both studs in 4. We already don't get much in the way of virtua fighter as it is, i sadly believe our concerns would fall on deaf ears even if we did get VF6.

[@fragmentedpixels]

Not just you! Unfortunately, I doubt they’ll change that, tbh. Probably one of most bizarre character redesigns I’ve come across for all the wrong reasons… 🥴

[@neonthunder3261]

Wish VF still had proper story cutscenes/endings. A lot of cool characters get wasted in that regard. Still though, will watch to the end! (Never cared much for or against Vanessa, but this might change my mind)

[@fragmentedpixels]

Oh, they don’t have those? Didn’t know that.

[@neonthunder3261]

@@fragmentedpixels Yeah, not at all. It’s a shame since there’s interesting stories to tell with them, too.

[@gido0471]

yes this was a very stupid, weird decision. Glad this video was made to bring in attention.

[@fragmentedpixels]

yeah, I’m surprised not much people have called this out.

[@Siouxnami]

She looks weak and sickly in her new design. Reminds me of mirage from the incredibles

[@fragmentedpixels]

Wait… she kind of does. I think it’s the white hair and eyebrows.

[@jimbatter5246]

Doa almost did the same thing to lisa and had to go back and fix it at the last second J6 cloned her then they can bring back old vanessa and rename her the lighter one Clarissa. Seemingly only mk is aware that the work wont end by having to black women

[@PeerlessUtopian]

The only thing I've never understood about Vanessa is the straight white hair. If they had made the hair wavy or curly, it would make more sense; also, adding to the fact that she has white as a hair color, brown hair or bronze hair would even make more sense. Other than that, her dark skin color makes no sense, since that was the original concept.

[@majortom331]

The dark skin with white hair is pretty much a trope at this point in japanese anime/video games. Which i think was inspited by storm but idk for sure.but i agree its still weird this case since Vanessa is a legit black character so the white hair isn't really necessary. If you play the quest mode in VF4, she has other hair customization that are really cool on her like braids into a ponytail. I hope they get her right and back to her VF4 look in the next game (given that in march of 2024 there are some credible leaks pointing to a new game being announce this year.)

[@PeerlessUtopian]

@@majortom331 YES! I cannot wait for a new installment of VF, and also, DOA.

[@captainmalice]

Here again for no particular reason

[@fragmentedpixels]

hello~

[@funkrates4778]

She seems inspired by D&D. She looks like a Dark Elf to me.

[@Docfriday97]

ima dumbass i thought vanessa was just tanned

[@fragmentedpixels]

nah, they did a complete (and unnecessary) overhaul! 😑

[@Docfriday97]

@@fragmentedpixels I agree, im mixed so I was shocked when I saw this.. btw I've been watching your content, can u rank Eddy gordos looks

[@fragmentedpixels]

@@Docfriday97I’ll consider.

[@yamaha6981]

I like your commentary

[@fragmentedpixels]

thanks!

[@noahr607]

If you want to see some colorism in action look at the Kingdom Hearts series. We literally see a man go from a shady dark skin figure to a white man after removing his bandages. The main antagonist of the series has also been a man named Xehanort who is the only darker skinned character

[@fragmentedpixels]

wtfffff??? when it comes to removing bandages?? that is crazy.

[@SirIsaacFortesque]

@@fragmentedpixels Okay, so I don't want to be disrespectful, but this comment is missing a whole lot of context as to why it happened. So the character is named Riku, (The one who transformed) and he was brought to the darkness by a character named, Ansem the Seeker of Darkness, (Who to keep it simple, is another version of Xehanort in a way, before Xehanort was even made a character) and after the first game, he still had the darkness within him, as well as a piece of Ansem, so after Chain of Memories, he needed to wear a blindfold to trick the darkness inside of him, and to keep control of it, then in 358/2 Days, he needed to take off the blindfold to beat a character named Roxas, and complete his mission, which turned him into the visage of Ansem, voice, Dark Guardian, powers, and all, he then stays that way for most of KH2, and then near the end in Kingdom Hearts 2, he finally reverts back to his real form, the young boy he was before, (I don't even think he's 17 at this point) no longer needing the blindfold, and has a better grasp on using the darkness. I know that probably didn't make too much sense, but it does make... some sense when you actually play KH1, Chain of Memories, 358 and KH2, or just pay attention to the cutscenes So again, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but this comment just feels like they never played the games, or just never bothered to pay attention at all with the part about Riku turning into Ansem. (I can see where they're coming from with the thing about Xehanort though)

[@neonthunder3261]

After finishing the video, I think I'll list some personal thoughts: - I've heard that argument about Evil Ryu and Violent Ken in an article before. This might sound a bit juvenile, but I'd always thought it was less of a 'dark skin = evil' thing and more along the lines of trying to differentiate the characters from their regular forms by giving notable differences. - As for my thoughts on Vanessa, I still don't have my head around the matter completely, but I do find it rather upsetting that the base design was made into an alternate color. It's a wide world out there, so I can only hope that whenever SEGA brings back VF for a sixth title (praying its not just VF5 repackaged again), that we see a more diverse roster of people and fighting styles.

[@fragmentedpixels]

In regard to the first point, it’s fine to have evil counterparts, but I disagree with the fact that Ken and Ryu’s evil counterparts are made a darker skin tone. In this context, darker skin tones in regard to colourism gives dark skin negative connotations (evil, undesirable, aggressive… etc), so that was veryyyy unnecessary. If they wanted to show that they were evil, could’ve easily just given them red eyes or not used their skin tone as a connotation for that. And in regard to point 2, long story short: Vanessa being a dark skinned character was the issue, and her skin tone was sexualised-they said that they gave her an alt outfit in the Western ver of the game because she was ‘too sexy’… even though her main outfit and physique makes sense in a fighting context. Her skin tone and build was an issue for them and rubs me the wronggg way. Now they’ve made her light skinned-she has a more of a lean and busty figure. However, that’s not considered ‘too sexy’. It’s just offensive tbh, and I’m doubtful they’ll revert the design! 😑

[@neonthunder3261]

@@fragmentedpixels I don't think I entirely agree on the matters of evil ryu & violent ken (i may just be biased because i think they look awesome), but I'm glad to get a chance to discuss this! Opened my eyes to things I hadn't quite noticed before.

[@ClydeMystik325]

For the most part, this is actually a very well-written argument, but there's one issue that I'd like to point out here: It feels a bit cherry-picked. For one, take a look at Sega's actual first dark-skinned character: Jeffry McWild. If you look through the entirety of the Virtua Fighter franchise, you can see that his skin is still dark. How could we tell right away that Sega truly is colorist if there are still darker-skinned characters in a handful of their titles? Second, Vanessa's ethnicity has been previously stated to be unknown, so there isn't necessarily a clear view on what her race or skin tone could actually be, especially whether or not she was just tanned in VF4. Would this whole thing really boil down to colorism if we don't actually know her full background? This honestly feels like something to think about a lot. Edit: Despite the rest of the statement, I do agree though that lightening Vanessa's skin out of nowhere was a bit unnecessary.

[@fragmentedpixels]

Thanks. I disagree that my argument is cherry-picked. I agree that they haven’t done that with Jeffry-other than in customisation where you could make him pale (that’s…odd). Sure, that may not be known about Vanessa. But why would they drastically lighten the characters skin tone for no reason, though? It’s like if in one game, Jeffry McWild has his original skin tone and then in the next game, for no reason, just made him veryyyy light permanently. Wouldn’t that be odd? That’s my point in regard to Vanessa. Sure there are dark skinned characters in their games, but that doesn’t absolve them from doing this. Like… I don’t get it. Why is her skin tone and physique an issue? That’s my question here.

[@Salesman]

I never noticed any of the things you pointed out. Ive always like the character and she was the first i ever chose when booting up VF4 for the first time. No offense, but this feels like another one of those, "let's overthink" videos. Cheers.

[@gamrage]

I have a question. How do you know she's black in the first place? Her race is never mentioned in the games and her ancestral origins are left unknown. If the only thing you have to go on is skin color, there are plenty of other races with dark skin as well. Even among Asians, there are people with dark skin as dark as hers before and after Virtua Fighter 5. Are they actually being racist when her race is left as an unknown? Personally I don't mind a lack of representation that much. I'm Asian and rarely play any of the Asian characters in fighting games.

[@fragmentedpixels]

I mean, I thought the character was black. Though, even if we don’t know her background-it is odd that they decided to whitewash a notably dark skinned character and make her light skinned for no reason. No, I don’t just go on race since, as stated in the video, colourism and racism coincide with each other which then links into body stereotyping (her build now isn’t even similar). It’s colourist because with this drastic change, it just implies her skin-tone was an ‘issue’ (smh) and it’s racist ‘cause it’s adds to the negative connotation that dark skin is ‘bad’ and that lighter skin is ‘positive’. That, I disagree with. I know that people of various ethnicities can be dark skinned and I didn’t imply that wasn’t the case. Even so… why would they do this? Sure, they have characters of different backgrounds, but it doesn’t absolve the devs from making this random (and unnecessary) change.

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

We have eyes 😂 Even if she's not of African descent, she clearly had dramatically more melanin in 4 than 5, so the same criticisms apply. There's no way that a single human being can have that much variation in skin tone naturally (besides having vitiligo, which is a completely different thing. If she had that condition there's no way in hell that she would be able to cover herself in full body make-up and come out with a lighter skin tone than what she started with. Michael Jackson had vitiligo and that's the colour she would have right next to her original skin tone. It's one thing to cover up patches of skin that has lost all its melanin, and an entirely different set of challenges to get the two to meet in the middle by lightening the darker skin.) It doesn't matter what ethnic group she belongs to, it matters that she had her skin colour was changed between games in order to make her more appealing.

[@incognitofool6516]

Oh shut up

[@majortom331]

Shes obviously black, like ?

[@jordiix]

Why would they do this to such a strong, beautiful, independent female fighter. Who set a very good bar and was a very good role model in gaming. She was one of my favourites to use because of her back story and fighting style why change all that and attempted to white wash her when she was perfect the way she was like what. Why would you take that away from her. !?!? There is no excuse japan or not because we live in a versatile and cultured world that's the appeal to characters in games to start with and its reality, no excuse for this garbo. It makes me sad. I'm really enjoying your videos, too, on a more positive side note and subbed keep up thr amazing work. 🫶🏻🇬🇧😍

[@fragmentedpixels]

Thank you! And I agree, there’s just no excuse for this tbh. To add, if you’re representing fighters from backgrounds, wouldn’t it make sense to just… stay on that? If her character was negatively received, IDK if it was, whitewashing is never a solution!

[@jordiix]

@fragmentedpixels Thank you for your response lovely. appricate it. And yes, to me, it's just a very poor excuse when she was a very beautiful, well-rounded character . What the hell if you're going to have characters from all over the world all backgrounds. why then discredit that it's such a poor excuse why make such a good character then just go back on everything that makes her unique and interesting such her culture stupid much. 💜