Nakoruru

In Samurai Shodown games

Nakoruru is featured as a player character in most game in the Samurai Shodown series, including Samurai Shodown, Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits Bushidō Retsuden (a role-playing game), Samurai Shodown II, Samurai Shodown III (where she also makes background appearance in Rimururu's stage), Samurai Shodown IV, Samurai Shodown V, Samurai Shodown V Special, Samurai Shodown VI, Samurai Shodown!, Samurai Shodown 64, Samurai Shodown! 2, Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage, and Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny, as well as in the spin-off endless runner Samurai Shodown Slash. In Samurai Shodown: Warriors Rage the spirit of Nakoruru is an unplayable story mode character, but its PocketStation mini game is centered around her. She also stars in her own spin-off game, Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono, a 2001 visual novel adventure game which takes place between the first two games in the series, being a non-player character mentor to the protagonist.

In the series, Nakoruru is a gentle and shy teenage girl serving Mother Nature as a shamanic priestess of the Ainu religion, born in 1771. Despite her usually pacifistic ways, she became a Kamui warrior of her peaceful Kamuikotan village after the death of her idolized father and continues to fulfill this role throughout the series, fighting evil, often alongside Haohmaru, and even assuming a human form after her death (when she sacrifices herself to restore the balance of nature and preserve the land for her people at the end of the second game). Eventually, she merges her soul with Gaia and becomes "the holy spirit who wanders through time" in a form that resembles a koro-pok-guru. Unable to assume her original form, she asks the player to awaken her younger sibling, Rimururu the Maiden of Light, who has been sealed by Oboro.

Nakoruru fights with a kodachi, and, depending on the form, a hawk named Mamahaha (in "Slash" form) or a wolf named Shikuru (in "Bust" form), also having other animal friends. Her powers include hearing and communicating with nature, fueling her blade with ki energy, ability to reflect a projectile back to its sender using her cloak, and healing wounds with the power of nature. Ninja Galford D. Weller is in love with her. The endings for Samurai Shodown VI revealed that Nakoruru and the alter-ego of Galford traveled the world together, likely as a romantic couple.

In The King of Fighters games

In The King of Fighters series, Nakoruru was playable in The King of Fighters '95 (as a secret character, only in the Game Boy version), then as a non-playable character in The King of Fighters 2000 (as a Special Striker for Yuri Sakazaki) and The King of Fighters XIII (in Android/iOS versions as a tutorial instructor).

Later, Nakoruru made a canonical playable debut in The King of Fighters XIV, as a leader of the "Another World Team", playing a vital role in that new arc. Following from a certain Samurai Shodown event, Nakoruru sensed recent timeline changes (caused by Ash Crimson at the end of the thirteenth tournament) with a new terrible malice, such as Verse, is created and coming from a crack in time and space. If left alone, it would lead to a massive disaster. To prevent that, Nakoruru traveled to the present and teamed up with Mui Mui and Love Heart to enter the tournament to find the source of the malice, particularly Verse first. As Nakoruru and her team manage to get to Antonov's KOF tournament arena on Russia, where Verse is heading and coming after a Team China's member, Shun'ei for having the creature's half-power, Nakoruru was told by Shun's master, Fatal Fury's Tung Fu Rue to entrust some of their two teammates, along with Team Japan (led by Kyo Kusanagi), and Team Official Invitation (Sylvie Paula Paula and Mian, with Kukri only watching the battle) to beat Verse as their only hope. After Verse's defeat, Nakoruru feels the hatred that was destroyed might one day return and contemplates her and her teammates returning to their respective worlds. However, due to being unable to go back to their respective timeline, Nakoruru eventually decides they should stay and, despite Love's protests, has fun visiting Hokkaido and China.

Design and gameplay

The idea for the character came from a modern Japanese perception of the indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido, being depicted as revering nature and peacefully coexisting with it. Her costume's design was based on Ainu clothing and she was supposed to mix a concept of a "petite girl with a lovely appearance and personality" with an "innovative" character performance of commanding a hawk companion in battle. Although was not directly modeled after any particular existing character, Hilda from The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun and The Dagger of Kamui helped her conception process. Her line "This is nature's punishment!" is a homage to Sailor Moon's "In the name of moon, I punish you!" The girl that appears during Nakoruru's entrances in Capcom vs. SNK is one of her childhood friends introduced in Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono, Manari. Nakoruru is 153 cm high. She was notably the first fighting game character brought back to life following her demise. An alternate, palette swap version of her with tanned skin and different colors of hair and eyes, known as Purple Nakoruru (紫ナコルル, Murasaki Nakoruru), is a recurring Easter egg type character that evolved into Rera.

To compensate for Nakoruru's short weapon range, players must rely on her speed to punish their opponents' mistakes. Nakoruru's strengths lie in her air supremacy (including aerial throws) and ability to jump around the sides of the screen. She can also recover from her moves a little quicker than other characters, making it easier for her to hit-and-run during fights. To balance her out with the rest of the cast, her attack strength is slightly weaker than most fighters. Her move set usually incorporates slightly longer ranged attacks that project her or her animal companions to her foes so her attack range is not limited to her sword. Since Samurai Shodown II, she can also reflect projectiles with the move "Kamui Ryusei". Prior to Samurai Shodown V Special, Nakoruru and Rimururu have been the series' two characters notable for being immune to the Fatality-like bloody killing moves. In Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny , Mamahaha does not appear in fights except in special moves. Her moves' names are written in the Ainu language.

Rera

Rera (レラ, Rera) (meaning "Wind" in Ainu) is a player character introduced in Samurai Shodown V. Her mannerism was based on Nakoruru's "Bust" form, being a violent and haughty ego of hers. The ruthless Nakoruru suppresses this side of herself as Rera sees "eliminating everyone who stands in her way" as a necessity to protect nature. Rera can physically take over Nakoruru, but has only done so when Nakoruru is reluctant to kill her enemies, and even manifest as a separate material entity to protect her host. Rera eventually merges with Nakoruru after she realizes that fighting does not solve everything and peaceful solutions can be made.

Like Nakoruru, Rera wields a kodachi, and fights alongside her wolf companion, Shikuru (like Nakoruru's "Bust" form did in Samurai Shodown III and IV), which primarily serves as a mount for her. She is also playable in Samurai Shodown VI. In the earlier games, when Nakoruru alternate color is chosen, in which she has tanned skin and a white and purple-colored costume, similar to Rera's color scheme, Nakoruru's facial expression looks different than when in her default color scheme (sometimes an evil look) at the winning quote's screen.

In other games

Besides Samurai Shodown and The King of Fighters games, Nakoruru is playable in the Fighting games Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 (as an unlockable secret character), Capcom vs. SNK 2, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium (as rival of Capcom's Morrigan Aensland), Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, and SNK Gals' Fighters. She is also playable in several other games such as Neo Geo Tennis Coliseum, Quiz King of Fighters, Kal Kal Kal for Kakao, The Rhythm of Fighters (optionally), and the Chinese version of League of Legends. In Lost Saga, Nakoruru is a premium character that can be either female or male.

Nakoruru is a non-player character in the dating sims Days of Memories: Oedo Love Scroll and Kaze Maiu Miyako de Tsukamaete!, and has a cameo of Rera as Nakoruru in Sekai de Ichiban Atsui Fuyu. She also makes cameo or minor appearances in a number of other video games, including The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout, The King of Fighters 2000 (as a Striker for Yuri Sakazaki), SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS, The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, The King of Fighters-A 2012 (as tutorial mode instructor), The King of Fighters XIII (in the Japan stage), and SNK Dream Battle (in the game's cards).

Other appearances

Nakoruru appears in the anime film Samurai Shodown: The Motion Picture and in the anime OVA miniseries Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono (as titular lead character) and Samurai Spirits 2: Asura-Zanmaden (appearing along with Rera in both OVAs), also making a cameo in Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture (in a cosplay of Reiko Chiba), as well as in a number of manga releases (including as a co-protagonist of Kyoichi Nanatsuki and Yuki Miyoshi's adaptation of the first Samurai Shodown, which was serialized in the West in the American magazine Game On!). She is also featured in several of the series' drama CDs and is a member in SNK's character image band, Band of Fighters, starring in her own character image CD.

Nakoruru further shows up in pachinko slot machine systems, including prominently in "Samurai Spirits" and especially "Samurai Spirits Oni (nakoruru)". She has dozens of figurines made in her image, and even a life-size figure, also being featured carious other merchandise such as T-shirts and in the American collectible card game Universal Fighting System. Keeping in key with her nature-loving persona, Nakoruru was used as a mascot for SNK's environmental awareness campaigns in 1994. In 2007, SNK Playmore also created a social action program for children using Nakoruru and the Fatal Fury star Terry Bogard as their mascots. A former Samurai Showdown artist Shirai Kageni drew a praying Nakoruru to support the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami relief fund-raising, marking the first time he drew anything in a decade.

Reception and cultural impact

As an iconic Samurai Shdown and SNK character, Nakoruru has been well received worldwide, becoming especially popular in Japan. Japanese arcade gaming magazine Gamest named her as the best character of 1993, later also placing her sixth in 1995 and 1996, 13th in 1997, and tenth in 1998. In 1997, Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine ranked her as the eight best female character on the Sega Saturn, with her sister Rimururu placing 31st. Retrospectively, Japanese magazine Famitsu declared Nakoruru as overally the 37th top video game heroine of the 1990s, with her being one of the only three non-Capcom fighting game characters on this list. Nakoruru was added to 2016's KOF XIV due to her enduring popularity.

Nakoruru-themed dōjin manga authors include Aoi Nanase, whose original take on a resurrected Nakoruru was praised by many as arguably better than official illustrations and was even later used for the creation of the series' anime adaptation. Similar to Capcom's Chun-Li, Nakoruru became particularly popular among cosplaying girls in Japan, especially at Tokyo Game Show events during the 1990s, and a cosplayer dressed as her is featured in Honobu Yonezawa's novel Hyōka.

In the West, GamePro reviewers criticized the original Samurai Shodown for its perceived unbalancing of characters, singling out Nakoruru as "too weak", but Electronic Gaming Monthly conversely opined that "despite her size, Nakoruru is one of the deadlier fighters" in the game. Hobby Consolas described this "no doubt" favourite Samurai Shodown female character as an equivalent of Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury but with a different appeal, that is an irresistible cuteness instead of sexual provocativeness. She has since been included among the series' favourites of many gaming publications, including Anime News Network, GamesRadar, IGN, Joystiq, Official Xbox Magazine and VideoGamer.com. In 2012, GamesRadar listed Nakoruru among top seven fighting game characters of all time, comparing her to a "feudal Japan version of Captain Planet". Tracey John from MTV also included her hawk Mamahaha (misspelled as "Mahaha") among the greatest birds in video game history and Rich Knight from Complex listed it as one of the ten craziest weapons in fighting games.