Sakura Kasugano

Sakura Kasugano (春日野さくら Kasugano Sakura) is a video game character in the Street Fighter series of fighting games. She is a 16-year-old (as of Street Fighter Alpha 3) Japanese schoolgirl who has an intense fascination with Ryu. She's managed to copy and learn some of Ryu's techniques, but really wants him to train her personally.

Sakura typically fights in her school's uniform, a short-skirted sailor fuku, with a pair of red bloomers underneath. She wears a red top under her uniform, sparring gloves, and a white headband. Her red shoes bear a strong resemblance to Converse Chuck Taylors.

Story

Sakura first appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 2, where she had begun to participate in street fighting after watching Ryu win the first World Warrior tournament. She was searching for him and wished for him to train her to be a better fighter. She met up with many interesting people along the way, notably the Muay Thai master Sagat of all people and fought him, and eventually came across Ryu, who was still stressed over the Satsui no Hadou that had corrupted him -- he told her he couldn't train her as he still had much to learn himself. He sparred with her for a bit and as he began to leave, she took a picture of him to remember him by.

Rival Schools saw Sakura involved in the adventure between her school and various others in Aohura city. Fighting in it, she realized how much it meant to her to protect something she cared about.

She was still fighting in Street Fighter Alpha 3 and decided to travel the world to find Ryu. She started off in her native Japan and fought the sumo wrestler E. Honda, who mentioned Ryu was going off to such places as India and Thailand. She also fought a rematch with her rival Karin Kanzuki, and though Karin won the fight, admitted Sakura was better and she had learned winning wasn't everything. Thereafter traveling with her self-proclaimed sensei, Dan, she met his friend Blanka along the way and was promised a match with him. She continued to search the world for Ryu, eventually ditching Dan and finding Ryu's friend and rival Ken. She commented to him how she loved to fight to better herself, and finding inspiration in those words himself, Ken and Sakura eventually found Ryu in Thailand, where he was actually being brainwashed by M. Bison. Sagat had come by this time to find the scene as well, and as Sagat took on Ryu, both Ken and Sakura took on Bison. A combination of Sakura being hurt by Bison and Sagat's urgings finally snapped Ryu out of the mind control and he smacked Bison away, forcing him to retreat. He told Sakura then he wasn't ready to train her and fight a rematch with her yet, and walked off, Sakura watching him go.

Several vs. series indicate Sakura may have finally put off street fighting to go to college, especially as she would have been the perfect age to be attending it by the next chronological game, Street Fighter 2.

Trivia

*She's one of the myriad of school-age fighters in the series aside from Karin, Cammy, and all 12 Dolls.
*Sakura lives in Tokyo, Setagaya ward, where she attends Tamagawa Minami High School, along with her best friend Kei Chitose and her self proclaimed rival, the spoiled rich girl Karin Kanzuki.
*She rescued Kei from being assaulted by three college bullies by knocking them out completely. The battered punks ran away while Kei was upset of Sakura's fascination of street fighting. Kei wishes that Sakura had chosen a better and safer hobby.
*Sakura is also friends with Taiyo High School student Hinata Wakaba (who oddly idolizes her) and Gorin High School student Natsu Ayuhara from the Rival Schools series, both of whom are Sakura's childhood friends.
*One of Sakura's winquotes in Street Fighter Alpha 3 is "I like street fighting more than sparring in rival schools." This is a reference to her appearance in Rival Schools.
*Several of vs. series games have a "Sunburnt Sakura" pallete swap. Many speculate that this is supposed to be Sakura if she followed in Akuma's footsteps. While this may be true, the inspiration behind a sunburnt Sakura was the ganguro look many Japanese girls were taking around the time of the game's development. In a sense, the developers were making fun of this short lived fad. The reason for this speculation is probably the fact that the "Sunburnt" version has several of Akuma's moves either replacing her regular moves or adding moves to her arsenal.
*Story evidence from the sourcebook All About Street Fighter Alpha 3 indicate Shadaloo henchmen tried to kidnap her to make her part of the Doll project.
*She's friends with Chun-Li as well as Ken and Ryu.
*Sakura's storyline in Sakura Ganbaru states her as being initiated to fighting by Dan Hibiki, who challenged her constantly (including races to the bus stop) in order to evaluate her skills. Her parents eventually allowed her to compete in streetfighting with Dan as her supervising adult. The same book ended with her after growing up, wearing a red jersey and teaching physical education to her former school.
*In one episode in the US cartoon series, she develops a grudge against Guile, but later on calls a truce and works together with Ryu to find Ken. At first, Guile refused to let Sakura help them on the mission, and she did her "Sakura-jime" grab move on him (wherein she grabs the opponent, squeezes them in the head several times, and then knocks them down with an elbow to the head). Guile also called her a "kid", due to her young age, and Sakura said "Don't call me 'kid'!"

Games

List of fighting games in which Sakura appears as a playable character.
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (known as Street Fighter Zero 2 in Japan) - first appearance
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (known as Super Puzzle Fighter II X in Japan)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold (known as Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha in Japan)
Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
Pocket Fighter (Also known as Super Gem Fighter in US arcades)
Rival Schools: United By Fate (known as Shiritsu Justice Gakuen in Japan)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (known as Street Fighter Zero 3 in Japan)
SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium (Made by SNK)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Street Fighter EX 3
Capcom vs. SNK
Capcom vs. SNK 2 (known as Capcom vs. SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001 in Japan)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper (known as Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper in Japan)
Capcom Fighting Evolution (known as Capcom Fighting Jam in Japan)
Namco x Capcom

Cameos

Breath of Fire III (Among the crowd during the coliseum battle, along with Leon S. Kennedy from the Resident Evil series)
X-Men vs. Street Fighter (Trapped in a tube in Apocalypse's Level. Also appears in Storm's ending along with Dan)
Marvel vs. Capcom (appears along with Kei taking a bath in the bathhouse level)
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash (featured on some cards. Made by SNK)