She doesn’t really win Street Fighter tournaments, nor does she often play integral roles in Street Fighter story lines, and yet Sakura Kasagano is one of the most popular and beloved characters in all of Street Fighter.
She’s not in Street Fighter 6 yet, but given her long time waifu status we figure it’s more than likely just a matter of time before she is. We’re hoping to pass that time a little more rapidly with a fun recap of the character’s story thus far, as well as a little speculation as to what Capcom might do with her if and when they bring her back again.
It doesn’t take long to see what kinds of boxes developers were aiming to check when designing Sakura. She’s a young, naive school girl with a total infatuation with the franchise’s most popular character, (also the one that’s easiest to map one’s own identity over) and so it comes as little surprise that she’s been immensely popular with fighting game players.
Indeed, Sakura was voted as the most popular character of every single SF character (previously playable and not) in their 2017 poll, and she was easily one of the most requested characters for Street Fighter 5 DLC before she was officially announced for that game’s third season.
While this approach has certainly worked in the past, it’s getting a little tired at this point, especially since Street Fighter 6 takes place later in the timeline than any other entry to date.
Even in her brief SF5 story, Sakura expresses a want to evolve and grow into a widely different person. She’s no longer drawn to travel the world in search of Ryu (a story that Capcom has recycled over multiple games) and wants to start exploring more down to earth avenues.
She directly mentions and considers motherhood in her most recent appearance, which is an endeavor that’s amongst the most bold and courageous a woman can take on. This could be explored via her actually having her own child, or perhaps she takes on a pupil or a younger character that she must watch over with a maternal eye.
Such a situation is naturally high stakes and presents plenty of easy paths for the character to get into righteous fights, but she could also wrestle with the idea of simultaneously wanting to hold onto the freedoms of her younger years.
Perhaps the psychological schism could lead to Sakura’s darker side surfacing, especially since she’s had run ins with Ryu while he was under the influence of the dark Satsui no hado energy in the past. Indeed, this energy rubbed off on Sagat and led him to some inner struggles in SF5, so it could just as easily lead to Evil or Dark Sakura being a character in Street Fighter 6.
Check out Sakura’s full historical recap and our ideas of what Capcom might do with her in the full video below. If you enjoy what you watch please consider liking and subscribing over on our YouTube Channel.