SNK's Famous Barefoot (Sometimes) Kunoichi: Mai Shiranui

Summer Gamefest 2024 has passed and we're all still reeling from the announcement of Streetfighter 6 Season 2's upcoming DLC Fighters. Yes, M.Bison is back and looking badass, while Capoerista Charmer Elena is sadly now sporting pants and sandals. But for now, let's take on the Prime Treasure of this new season- Mai Shiranui.

Mai is THE Ninja Girl in videogames, so popular that she is basically the female face and figure of SNK- which is why she is alongside Terry Bogard as having the most guest appearances in other franchises and fighting games.

She wasn't always barefoot- her first appearance in Fatal Fury 2 had her wearing the usual ninja footwear, called 'tabi'. It wasn't until Fatal Fury 3: Road to Final Victory did Mai suddenly show her toes with her sexy 'barefoot' tabi or footguards. Since then, Mai has kept her semi-barefoot look only to the games in the subsequent 'Real Bout' series, which includes four games- Real Bout Fatal Fury, Real Bout Fatal Fury 2, Real Bout Fatal Fury Special and finally, the Playstation-only Real Bout Dominated Mind.

Her costumes had slight variations, but she always had the footguards showing off her bare toes and heels. Any footlover worth their salt would hold these games close to their heart. Outside of the Fatal Fury Real Bout series, notably in the King of Fighters games, Mai would wear her old tabi, concealing her feet completely from the world. The reason for this is unknown, we can only speculate that the Fatal Fury and KOF dev teams are separate entities and one of them doesn't have a foot guy on the team.

Sadly, for the last entry in the Fatal Fury series- Garou Densetsu: Mark of the Wolves, Mai did not participate, so we did not see if she would once again show her feet in Fatal Fury. With the new chapter in the series- City of the Wolves- coming in the future, it is highly likely that Mai will return, but whether she shows her toes and soles again remains to be seen.

But regardless, the Famous Kunoichi is set to don her barefoot tabi once again in, of all games, Streetfighter 6. We've seen the artwork of the Season 2 DLC, and clearly Mai is wearing the barefoot (well, semi-barefoot) Real Bout costume. Apparently this amazing Collaboration came about because the SF6 Devs are big SNK fans, and in particular love the Real Bout series!

But how will Mai look in the game's RE Engine graphics? Will she have foot-centric camera angles for her intro and winpose? The anticipation is killing me! Sadly we have to wait for a bit- despite some release date weirdness, it is pretty much confirmed that Mai should release in early 2025, from January to February (which is Winter). Still a solid wait of more than half a year, but time travels fast, and we will try to have content to occupy us as we inch our way to Mai's release.

Till then, we can only hope that the SF Devs do their best to make SF6 Mai, the sexiest, most foot-tastic version of SNK's Ninja Goddess ever. Till then, everyone take care and let's all see her together when she arrives.