Welcome back friends. Before we begin this part I have to mention how this Spanish Capcom fan-site broke down the origin of El Fuerte months ago. If you cannot read Spanish I will make many of those same observations here. I would like to mirror some of what was said on Capcom-Town.es and enlighten you as to how important it was for Capcom to present a masked wrestler right. Let's start with the most obvious thing, the appearance of El Fuerte.
El Fuerte breaks from traditional lucha libre designs in a few, not so obvious ways. Some of these changes are acceptable given the evolution and look of the modern-day wrestler. Rey Mysterio Jr. is undoubtedly the template for popular enmascarado designs in fighting games. He does have classic lucha libre training and is considered one of the best high flyers of all-time. His look is very contemporary, as he wears pants instead of tights, sports an open mouth mask and is covered in tattoos. Traditional enmascarados would never dress or present themselves in this way. El Blaze from Virtua Fighter steals the most cues from him.
However I do see something added for the sake of the game instead of lucha libre. The sash worn as a belt for both El Blaze and El Fuerte was added to show movement in the game engine. Not many wrestlers wear loose garments like that as it is very easy to get tangled on a rope during a high risk maneuver. As far as videogames go a sash is a way in which our eye can be drawn to motion. The pants of El Fuerte are odd, as they are neither traditional tights nor Mysterio pants. They look more like gaucho pants than anything. Perhaps the people at Capcom were going to give him the pants of a matador only to realize that they had already given those design cues to Balrog / Vega. For whichever reason, the designs of El Fuerte's costume are not consistent with lucha tradition. His mask is obviously the most important part of the look and if Capcom didn't get that right it was going to hurt the impact of the character. The mask is the identity of the wrestler, it is the source of his pride and his power. Enmascarados spend as much time as they can protecting their mask and identity throughout their career. Very few last long enough to retire with their secret intact. Most lose their masks to the next generation of superstar in the legendary mask vs mask match. This is done in order to help them build a reputation.
The mask of El Fuerte doesn't ring true to the heritage. Although on the surface it seems to be consistent with the popular idea of enmascarados, it is actually bland and borderline comical in lucha circles. It is very plain and unassuming in white with simple details around the eyes and mouth instead of a contrasting color. Aztec warrior masks and helmets wore bright contrasting colors so they could be picked out in battle. In the case of a lucha libre mask, the contrasting colors and designs were so that fans in the cheap seats could keep an eye on their favorite luchador. Three tiny stars are the only decoration on the otherwise plain El Fuerte mask. The ponytail sticking out of the back of the mask is non-traditional, very out of place. There are open-top masks in lucha libre and lucharesu however not many with little holes for a ponytail. The only popular wrestlers that I can remember as having ponytails were puro stars Takuya "Yo****une / Shanao" Sugi and the Great Hayabusa.
Seeing a ponytail on an enmascarado makes me think that the designers were grasping at straws, ways to make the mask unique, or they were using the hair as a way to show movement like the dreadlocks on the new Bionic Commando. The shape of the eyes and the use of stars on his mask are either by divine intervention, or dumb luck. They harken back to the days of the legends and the "chosen ones" of lucha libre.
El Santo "the Saint" was the biggest wrestling superstar of all-time. He was one of the few enmascarados to be buried with his mask on, never losing it in a match. He created an iconic character that still resonates with many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans today. His nickname was el enmascarado de plata (the silver masked man), his mask and silver outfit became a trademark and currently his son keeps the tradition alive. The upturned eyes on the mask of El Santo seems to be mirrored in the mask of El Fuerte. Although his mask, like that of El Feurte's, did not have a contrasting color around the eyes, nose or mouth it was still a glittery silver. It was not the matt white of El Fuerte's mask. It was easy to spot El Santo from a mile away because his mask sparkled.
While Fray Tormenta (Father storm) is not the true heir to the Santo legacy, he is a bit of a literal "spiritual" successor. Fray as you might know was the basis of the movie Nacho Libre. He was an actual priest that wrestled to raise money for his parish. The movie isn't nearly as interesting as the true story, and if you ask me quite an insult to the legacy. But I digress, Fray wore a mask of gold with red lightning trim. Something of a balance to El Santo's silver.
A couple of generations later a new high-flying enmascarado showed up on the scene, the new chosen one was not Rey Mysterio as many believed, he was Mistico and he was "ordained" by Fray Tormenta. His mask was an equal mix of gold and silver, his title "the Prince of the Silver and Gold mask" was a way bringing the iconography of both legends together.
I cannot overemphesize the importance of the faith that these masked men stood for. They weren't simply "technicos" but absolutely represented the best qualities in humanity. Some, like El Santo, Fray Tormenta and Mistico had a lot of spirituality behind their look and name. They represented the ideal qualities of man and acted as living symbols of faith. El Sagrado (the sacred one) and Mascara Sagrada (the sacred mask) were other wrestlers that purported a spiritual path. Their roles were to be great performers and never succumb to the dirty tactics of the rudos. El Sagrado in fact was supposed to be the modern "chosen one" but he did not seem ready for the limelight so he was held back until fans warmed up to him. Mistico was an instant hit with audiences so the torch was passed to him instead. But I digress...
If lucha libre represents the eternal fight between good and evil then fans would want to see the absolute best representing the path of righteousness. Wrestlers like El Santo, Mistico and El Sagrado were famous because of their ties with the Catholic faith. They were very popular in the highly religious small towns of Mexico and even more so in the secular big cities. I mention these legends because there is a chance that El Fuerte takes some hints from them with the color of his mask and shape of the eyes. Whether Capcom understood the cultural significance of them or not has yet to be determined. More likely El Fuerte has only a passing resemblance in regards to the legends... but what about those stars? Where did the stars on the mask come from?
If you know your Street Fighter history then you remember that a masked wrestler was on the drawing board while SF II was in development. They had at least two separate looks for this "Maskuman" (Mask Man) early on. One that looked very much like the legendary Tiger Mask and one with a more generic star mask. Undoubtedly Tiger Mask was a character that many of the developers had grown up with, especially since he was a masked wrestler that started off as a bad guy and became a good guy. Tiger Mask proved a popular character in manga and even had his own anime series.
Japanese culture provided a lot of the SF II character influences, Ryu looked more like Kenshiro from Hokuto No Ken than Mas Oyama. It was easy to imagine that the designers wanted an over-the-top masked wrester in the game that had as much personality as any of the characters or bosses in the SF II. Read the InsertCredit.com Making of Street Fighter II feature to see some more concept art. El Fuerte sports some stars on his mask and also on his pants. It is possible that these details are an homage to the original masked man.
Here is where Japan's wrestling influence, and especially the masked wrestler variety differ from the enmascarado; Japan does not have the cultural relevance of the enmascarados. It would be very odd to see a masked person walking around the streets in Japan, unless it was a surgical mask to prevent the spread of colds. They do not have the same cultural significance as the luchadores have in Mexico. They do not have the same religion, myths and folklore that support the symbolism and tradition of elaborate masks. To them a mask is just a mask and it is the wrestler that defines the character. During the development of Street Fighter II Capcom was just drawing masked characters from pop culture without really understanding their origins.00 Possibly for this reason Maskuman never made it past the planning stages.
As the lucha style began gaining popularity in Japan in the late 1970's-early-80's so too did the masked wrestler. Possibly just as famous as Tiger Mask was Jushin "Thunder" Liger. The look of the masked wrestler in Japan began to evolve to fit their culture. Since they could not draw cultural significance from the masks or costumes of Aztec warriors they instead began taking cues from henshin and sentai, the popular superhero and science fiction characters. The look of Thunder Liger is somewhere in between Ultraman and a Power Ranger. Interestingly enough in Mexico the enmascarados like Psicosis also began experimenting with this new look.
However these masked men in Japan did little to preserve their identity or maintain kayfabe (the illusion of their character). They did not go to extreme lengths to preserve the sacred title of an enmascarado because the cultural significance had no precedence. Even one of my favorite masked Japanese wrestlers of all-time, the Great Hayabusa, would remove his mask after matches so photographers could take pictures of his face. The ego had superseded the symbol in Japanese wrestling.
The wrestlers that wore face paint were closer to capturing the spirit of an enmascarado. They were a little closer in recreating the ideal following in Japan. Some of the most famous Japanese wrestlers, like the Great Muta, wore face paint and sometimes masks during their matches. Many wrestling fans believe that this was because Japan had a well established tradition in theater. Kabuki theater in particular with the dramatically painted faces of characters was an easy comparison. This translated well to Street Fighter II.
Look at how the kabuki paint was used on E. Honda. From my understanding this was to make Japanese characters more appealing to US audiences. Many sumo purists saw this as a slap in the face, as wearing makeup in the sumo ring is almost sacrilegious. However E. Honda managed to win over enough fans to become the iconic sumo in the universe. As Maskuman ended up on the cutting room floor, he was compensated in some way by a kabuki-painted sumo wrestler, a more "theatrical" traditional athlete.
As you may know from reading the InsertCredit.com feature, there were many characters designed for SF II. Most didn't make the first round of cuts and some of the icons evolved with a few changes. The Russian sailor Vodka Gobalsky was turned into a wrestler, like E. Honda, the newly formed Zangief picked up some of the wrestling slack from the missing Maskuman. The sailor theme wasn't lost to Capcom as a similar character named Drake ended up in Final Fight 3 a few years later.
A lot changed in the 18 years since SF II went into development. The face of puro changed dramatically. Lucharesu captured more and more fans in that time and eventually the audience began to recognize the importance of the enmascarado and their secret identity. Possibly the most famous Japanese enmascarado, who worked on keeping his mask on at all times, was the Great Sasuke. Even when he won a spot in politics he still kept his mask on to preserve the honor and tradition of the sport. Japan had come full circle and had earned the respect of Mexican enmascarados.
Like Liger before, the Great Sasuke had a contemporary in Mexico named Octagon. The newer generations of masked wrestlers began influencing each other. It was becoming okay to wear karate gi's and even pants in place of tights for these "martial arts" superstars. I can't say for certain which came first, I do know that both Sasuke and Octagon worked well in Mexico and Japan and their design is what I emulated in my "Karateka" illustration.
Unfortunately it seems that the look of El Fuerte lacks a complete understanding of lucha libre or even lucharesu. Which is sad because the team at Capcom and DIMPS had much more wrestling tradition to draw from. They could have dug much further into the culture than any developer before them ever could. What they seemed to do with El Fuerte was update the masked wrestler to fill our current tastes and what the arcade fighting scene looks like. Tiger Mask was an epic character 20 years ago but today he is a dated legend and would not work in Street Fighter IV. Putting him in the game would be an anachronism, akin to putting Gorgeous George or El Santo in the lineup. To appease fighting game fans and a new generation of gamers, the character has to be more relevant. Thus the template comes more from the high flying Rey Mysterio Jr. than a character from the days of black and white film. Unfortunately after El Fuerte made his debut many gamers only saw an El Blaze clone.
El Fuerte could have worked better in the context of the game had his uniform looked more like a traditional luchador. It would have put some distance between himself and El Blaze if he had looked more traditional. The classic world warriors all had uniforms that were simple and in keeping with the fighting arts they represented. For example Ken and Ryu wore traditional gi's, Sagat wore boxer shorts and Zangief wrestling trunks. El Fuerte should have been dressed like a straight-forward enmascarado. Lose the ponytail and sash belt, do not allow any hair to poke out from under the mask, use a contrasting color around the eyes, nose and mouth and replace the gaucho pants with tights. Keep the star theme consistent on his mask, tights and boots as well.
Notice that the blue and white motif works because it is very traditional. A blue-themed wrestler is obviously the opposite of the red-themed Zangief. This explains why Rainbow Mika, the female masked wrestler in SF Zero / Alpha 3 wore blue. However Abel is a powerful mixed martial arts figure that was also assigned blue in SF IV, using the same color combination on two characters in SF IV would be redundant. Plus, years earlier, the blue and white color scheme was used for the Mexican enmascarado El Stingray / El Stinger from Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters. Three grapplers had been done with the same palette so the artists at Capcom assigned El Fuerte more white, deep red, black and gold coloring.
White is a weak primary color for a costume, apologies to Ryu. Had the artists done just a little more research they could have given El Fuerte a silver and gold palette instead. Those in the know would see the El Santo / Mistico homage while casual fans would be grateful that he does not look like El Blaze. Gold and silver are also regal colors and would make El Fuerte seem like an important wrestler from Mexico. If he is important, if his mask and costume has some unique qualities to it, it makes him special. Then the player has a reason to want to know what he looks like underneath the mask. These are the suggestions that I would have made in the design stages of El Fuerte. What are your thought on this?
Aerialgroove over at FightingStreet.com clued me in to the creation of Street Fighter II, the World Warrior. He has an interview with SF II producer Noritaka Funamizu where he mentions that 35-40 people worked on the game and 20 people were designing the characters. 20 on characters is an absurdly large number for a fighting game. However the more eyes looking over the designs, the more insight each could bring to the process and help evolve the look. This explains why the characters, their moves and appearance were timeless in SF II yet seem to lack that impact in IV. I am not certain how many people were working on SF IV characters, but 20 would probably be far over budget. I am not convinced that any of the artists, or the main artist on SF IV, Daigo Ikeno, were truly familiar with lucha libre. As such El Fuerte has missed the "look" in my analysis. This is only part of my complaints with the character. What about the moves themselves? Does El Fuerte have the moves of a lucha libre star? Please come back tomorrow for the next portion of this series. As always comments are welcome and encouraged.
