Leifang

Leifang
Dead or Alive character
Leifang in Dead or Alive 5
First appearance	Dead or Alive (1996)
Created by	Tomonobu Itagaki[1]
Voiced by	English Zinnia Su (DOAX2-DOAD)[2] Cassandra Lee Morris (DOA5, DOA6)[3] Japanese Yumi Tōma[2]
Portrayed by	Ying Wang (film)[4]
In-universe information
Fighting style	Tai chi
Origin	China
Nationality	Chinese

Leifang (Japanese: レイファン, Hepburn: Reifan), originally stylized as Lei Fang, is a character in the Dead or Alive fighting game series by Koei Tecmo. She was introduced in the original Dead or Alive in 1996 and has appeared in the series' subsequent installments, as well as spinoff titles such as the Dead or Alive Xtreme series and related media to the franchise. Created by Tomonobu Itagaki who snuck a rough version of her character into location test builds of the game, she is a Tai Chi martial arts prodigy who competes in the franchise's tournaments to prove her superiority over fellow combatant Jann Lee after he had previously rescued her.

One of the Dead or Alive series' more popular characters, she has received positive reception since her debut for her characterization in the series as an optimistic and strong character, while also received praise for the beauty of her design and variety of outfits. She additionally received praise as both a portrayal of female characters in fighting games and portrayal of Chinese cultural aspects within them, namely for her application of Tai Chi as a fighting style in light of the liberties fighting games take with martial arts, but also for her hairstyles and dresses.

Conception and creation

When developing the 1996 fighting video game Dead or Alive, lead developer Tomonobu Itagaki had wanted to include a woman that used kung fu early on. Named Long Lihua in the game's design document, as development progressed her concept was scrapped,^[7] and the character Gen Fu was given a Tai Chi fighting style. However Itagaki wanted to include more Chinese martial arts into the title despite the development team being told not to include more than nine characters in the game. After a strong showing at the AOU Entertainment Expo in 1996 with a version of the game that only had three playable characters, Itagaki took a female character test model and applied the character Jann Lee's moveset to it. At location tests she became quite popular, and Itagaki joked as a result he had "tricked" the development team to include the "AOU-only character". As a result the Tai Chi fighting style was given to her instead of Gen Fu,^[1] who was changed to use Xingyiquan instead.^[8]

Originally they had developed Leifang's fighting style to use grappling attacks to help fit into the "rock paper scissors" gameplay mechanic of the franchise. However, with development on the Sega Saturn port they incoporated a wider variety of attacks that used direct strikes. Itagaki's design philosophy was that instead of removing gameplay the key to strengthening a character was to add more, changing her from "a character who can't win without using holds to a character who becomes stronger by using holds." In terms of personality and appearance they wanted to emphasize Leifang as "cute" but also innocent, with Itagaki describing her as a good example of how well the modeling team for the series worked when they created a character with love.^[1] In the first game, her name was stylized as "Lei Fang", however this was corrected for all subsequent appearances.^[6]

Standing 167 cm (5 ft 6 in) tall and with measurements of 87-55-86 cm (34-22-34 in), Leifang is a young Chinese woman with brown hair and eyes. Her hairstyle was intended to change frequently throughout the series to help portray her innocence, and she is often shown as having bangs and long hair, often stylized into queue-style pigtails dangling from the sides of her head.^[1] In the first game, her outfit consisted of a black leather zipped up sleeveless top and matching shorts, while red fingerless gloves covered her hands.^[9] For Dead or Alive 2, her primary outfit was changed to a cheongsam dress with several alternatives.^[10] While she has other varied alternate outfits throughout the series such as a waitress uniform and swimsuits the dresses remained her primary attire until Dead or Alive 6.^[5][6] There, it was changed to a yellow, black and white tracksuit that exposes her midriff, resembling a similar outfit worn by martial artist and actor Bruce Lee.^[11][12]

Appearances

Leifang is a Chinese woman introduced in the 1996 fighting game Dead or Alive by Koei Tecmo. Considered a prodigy in Tai Chi, a martial art she picked up to be able to compete with local boys around her, she is the daughter of a wealthy family,^[1] and earned a martial arts scholarship to Montana State University to teach the students.^[13] One day upon encountering a boy being accosted by two thugs she intervened, she is taken by surprise and received a deep slash on her arm. Another boy, Jang Lee, jumped in to defend her and quickly dispatched the two before walking away. Taken aback by his impressive strength, she increased her studies and enters the series' martial arts tournaments in order to defeat him.^[1] Through the course of the series she develops rivalries with other fighters as well, namely Tina and Hitomi.^[12] In English she was voiced by Zinnia Su with Cassandra Lee Morris later taking over the role with Dead or Alive 5,^[2][3] while Yumi Tōma voices her in Japanese.^[2]

Outside of the main series titles, she also appears in the first two Dead or Alive Xtreme spinoff games. While she was excluded from Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 she later appeared in its free to play counterpart Venus Vacation as the result of a player poll, though the development team noted she was particularly difficult to implement as they did not want to negatively impact her established crush towards Jang Lee while still having her show feelings towards the player's character.^[14][15] In games outside the Dead or Alive franchise, Leifang also appears in the mobile game Destiny Child as part of a collaboration event between Tecmo and its developer Shift Up.^[16] In other media, Leifang appears in a minor role in the live-action film DOA: Dead or Alive, played by actress Ying Wang.^[4] She also appears in several stories in the gag comic series Dead or Alive 2 Comic Anthology by DNA Media Comics.^[17]

Promotion and reception

To promote the first game's release Tecmo, published cosplay guides for the female cast,^[9] and for the Sega Saturn version they developed costumes based off the designs, hiring cosplayer Ikuko to portray Leifang and partnering with publisher Dengeki Strategy King to do comparisons between the model and her in-game counterpart.^[18] Several figures of Leifang were produced by companies such as Epoch,^[19] Bandai,^[20] and Kotobukiya.^[21][22] Other merchandise has included dakimakura body pillow cases and 3D mouse pads.^[23][24] One of her outfits meanwhile was included as skins for the character Miichigo in the game Shinobi Master Senran Kagura.^[25]

Leifang was well received upon debut. Dreamcast Magazine describer her as "a Chinese beauty in all senses of the word" and an "elegant fighter if there ever was one", but also a character that proved to be "a bit of a femme fatale at the same time".^[26] Vietnamese newspaper Thanh Niên meanwhile stated she stood out amongst th Dead or Alive cast due to her intelligence and character background, additionally praising how she always held "an optimistic and loving attitude towards life" while being portrayed in outfits that were both cute and complimented her physique.^[27] Hilary Goldstein of IGN described her as having "the most recognizable braided pigtails in all of video gaming", further stating that the website's staff enjoyed the character due to the fact she "dresses with some elegance" and the visually impressive nature of her attacks.^[28] Liyun Fei of 3DM meanwhile praised her as one of the more popular characters of the franchise, describing her as having a toned physique with a "bit of masculinity" that they felt was enjoyed by players and complimented well by her in-game outfits.^[29]

The staff of Kakuchopurei named her their favorite character in the Dead or Alive franchise, calling her "the underdog who somehow keeps making it in every entry and adds pizzazz to the already-stellar cast". They further praised her outfit selection, feeling it suited her "to a tee", and they felt her appearance was superior to every younger female character amongst the game's cast. Additional praise was given for her character's story, which featured her as not only wanting to surpass her Jan Lee but also rivalry with characters like Hitomi, stating "You know you’ve got it made in the fighting game world when you’re front and center in the game’s story with strong rivals with different martial arts philosophies."^[12] Meanwhile, Zenji Nishikawa of Famitsu praised how Venus Vacation illustrated the "slight innocence that she boldly displays", while appreciating that the game allowed her a wider range of emotional expression than the mainline titles.^[14]

Author Nnedi Okorafor in a thesis published for the Michigan State University's Department of Journalism examined several video game characters and how they were portrayed through media such as gaming manuals, including Leifang. While the drew issue with how text for the character's backstory described her as a "vixen" solely because she was portrayed as "aggressive and 'beautiful'", Okorafor also praised how the character's backstory emphasized her placement in an overseas scholarship program. She felt details such as this helped Leifang to be portrayed as more than "just a female character whose breast can be set to bounce profusely", while also helping to add context to her character in a way that made more more realistic in a real world sense rather than just a virtual one.^[13]

Regarding representation and stereotypes

Leon Hunt in the book Kung Fu Cult Masters used Leifang as an example of how fighting games often lack authenticity in how they portray certain techniques, stating that while in cutscenes she used actual Tai Chi moves, her in-game fighting style instead demonstrated more on "the 'soft', flowing idea of an 'internal' style of Tai Chi".^[32] George Joerz of Chinese website Sina however argued that Leifang's portrayal of Tai Chi was in line with its 14th century usage as "Practical Tai Chi", a subset of boxing as a martial art that focuses on internal damage instead of physical. While he noted some elementts of her fighting style deviated from the actual martial art, he attributed this to the nature of fighting games,^[33] The website staff as a whole emphasized her kicking motions in this regard, though pointed out when coupled with her cheongsam dresses it only served to enhance her appeal due to the flexibility and physical exposure the outfits provided for such attacks.^[34] Joerz meanwhile further felt Tecmo's approach kept the fundamental concepts enough to illustrate the fighting style, and further that her character combines a difficult martial art "with the implicit feminine beauty of China."^[33]

While lecturer Fanny Lignon cited Leifang's attire as an example of gender stereotype reinforcement in fighting games,^[35] Christopher B. Patterson in the book Open World Empire meanwhile cited her as an example of how the Dead or Alive series "depicted the 'cultural fragrance' of racial identities through a kawaii minimalism" via elements such as her cheongsam outfit and queue hairstyle, and that elements like sexualized attire tied into character backgrounds illustrated the characters' racial identities as an "explicit pleasure" for players to enjoy.^[36] The staff of Chinese website The Paper used her as an example how over-present the use of cultural identifiers such as martial arts and cheongsam outfits are in video game character design to help players "understand" that a character is Chinese are, and questioned the necessity of them.^[37] The staff of Cina's 17173.com on the other hand argued these aspects were well received by players, and elements such as her hairstyle which would normally be seen as "immature" instead received praise. They further argued as a whole she was seen "vivid portrayal of Chinese, but also of all Asian female fighters", citing the impact of her cheongsam design on male players in particular.^[38]

References