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Darkstalkopedia


Hsien-Ko (シェンコ Shenko, Chinese: 贤哥) (Lei-Lei (レイレイ Reirei, 蕾蕾) in Japan) is one of the main heroes that was first introduced in Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge along with her older twin sister, Mei-Ling (Lin-Lin, リンリン, Rin-Rin in Japan). Her character is based off the Chinese hopping vampire, also known as a Jiang Shi (also known as a Kyonshi in Japanese) of Asian myths. She has appeared in many cameos such as Ken's party from the Street Fighter series, and many Capcom and Namco games such as Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (Pocket Fighter), Namco × Capcom, Project × Zone, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3/Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Hsien-Ko was originally voiced by Michiko Neya before being replaced by Saori Hayami in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, while her English voice provider starting from the same game is now Hunter MacKenzie Austin as well. In the Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge OVA, she was voiced by Yūko Miyamura in the original and by Nicole Oliver in the English dub.

Background

Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling were twin girls born in a village of Senjutsushis. Both of them were raised to be Senjutsushis as they were taught of its art by their beloved master. They were great girls that people cared about and respected, and even though their personalities were different (Hsien-Ko had a very strong interest in guys and martial arts while her sister was more into weaponry and cooking), the two were close. On the ceremonial night when they were sixteen-year olds who were close to becoming Senjutsushi by their master, their village and people were attacked by a group of supernatural beings known as Darkstalkers. After their master was murdered, their mother gave her life to protect them, but because of this, her soul was trapped in darkness by their powers. To release their mother's soul from the darkness, Hsien-Ko uses the Igyo Tenshin technique to turn into a Jiang-Shi. Mei-Ling, her older sister, turns into a ward to make sure Hsien-Ko doesn't lose control of her darker half that has been building inside her. The two set off to hunt down the Darkstalkers who attacked their people, and help innocent people as a Darkhunter of the night.

After the two had freed their mother's soul from the darkness, the two were reincarnated with the powers of their mother. The two were reborn in a normal family and were raised in happiness. On their 16th birthday, the supernatural powers of the two sisters awoke. These powers had been passed down from the very first member of the Shao family that came across the realm of Makai. This was their mother's way of repaying her daughters for saving her soul. However, Jedah Dohma had been watching them from the realm of Makai, and deemed them as worthy souls for his own plans of controlling the human realm.

The two dreamed again on the night their powers awoke. It was a nightmare which was caused by Jedah's summoning. In the nightmare, their souls were instantly transferred to Majigen. This place was where the Senjutsushis and the Darkstalkers battled. It was Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling's homeland. Their leftover bodies had no soul in them anymore. They lay there side by side with no sign of life.

When they awoke, the two of them had no memory of their previous battle. They didn't know why they were in Majigen. But they both felt strongly that they must win the battle to return to the human realm. To them, it was like watching a bad nightmare.

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Their form in Majigen was the form which is best suited for the realm. It is the same form they took when Pyron came to Earth. This was due to their mother lending them some power. Though the two of them had experience as Darkhunters, they were now just normal humans. To survive in the world where supernatural beings travel, they needed the supernatural power of Senjutsu. With help from their mother, they could use various arts without any thought. However, the moment the two sisters lose their trust in each other, their powers would weaken and Hsien-Ko would lose herself into darkness.

After the events of Vampire Savior, their souls are once again consumed by the darkness, but their mother's soul saved them once again. The two sisters returned to the human world and went back to their lives again.

Personality

Hsien-Ko is a respectful, goodhearted, and honorable person who opposes evil from supernatural beings. She has an intimate interest in men who seek to improve themselves and help others. This is often the reason why she does not want to date Lord Raptor, though this dislike seems to have somewhat softened over time upon finding his true personality. Other interpretations depict her attraction to Lord Raptor as one of a tsundere-type personality, and sometimes this attraction is reciprocated too.

She is very protective when it comes to her family and the relationships she makes with others and dislike those who disregard their own humanity in search for absolute power. There is however a darker side to Hsien-Ko, as she holds a personal grudge to demons and those that hurt innocent people; she is also afraid of the Jiang Shi trying to consume her mind.

In moments she doesn't need to fight or in not-so-tense moments she seems to be somewhat clumsy, accidentally leaving a lot of her weapons to fall unexpectedly, or hitting people heads with some of her enormous gadgets without intention.

Mei-Ling, being the older sister, is a kind, humble, funny woman who is smart in the field of weaponry, like their mother, she is respectful to those who are at peace with themselves and not by what others think of them.

Powers and Abilities

Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling have many supernatural powers such as the ability to see the souls of people and other supernatural beings, fly in the air, change their skin color to match the area they are at, and even teleport to different areas and travel in daylight. They also have the ability to switch time and space.

Hsien-Ko can make her eyes glow a yellow aura when using her power and can turn her nails into claws, and she is very skilled in hand-to-hand combat due to her amazing strength, and her proficiency with weapons such as kunai, knives, saw blades, weights, spiked balls, daggers, shurikens, and axes.

Her sister can turn herself into a talisman and is also good with combat and weaponry, such as swords, boomerangs, bombs, rocks, chains, claws, as well as bonsai tree plants.

Weakness

Hsien-Ko can lose herself if she has a taste of blood; her personality traits will be heightened to the point of insanity.

About the Jiang Shi

Main Template Bat Main article: Jiang Shi

Geong Si, Jiang Shi (Putonghua), Kyonshi (Japanese) or Kuang Shi (Cantonese) are the vampires of Asian myth. They are caused by demonic possession of a person and said to have a dark appearance. They have physical bodies, but they are not alive, nor have will or thought. They are closer to Haitian zombies than to anything else in widely-known Western folklore. As it grows in powers, it gains new skills with their kind, among them rumored to have the ability to fly.

Before the Civil War and before World War II, it was said that the undead still walked the roads of rural China in parades marching toward their ancestral villages in Asia. Buried away from the family, a dead Chinese had no feasts, no paper clothes, slaves, boats, food, or incense burnt to him, since all these things are in the hands of his descendants. Such is the spiritual importance of the Chinese ancestral village.

When a Chinese person is killed, there are several ways to return their body to native earth, but the less-than-rich rural Chinese once used this form of underground railway. A medium or priest, especially a Taoist priest who had toiled in a specialized apprenticeship, would be hired by the village to bring their dead home, walking them along the roads, perhaps as one still sees geese herded down multi-lane highways in modern China.

Spells had a part in this ritual and in controlling the dead when they were made to walk, but there is nothing special or extraordinary about spells in the Chinese world. A wide variety of spells were usually written out on red paper called Dzi Dzat, the generic name given for the paper grave goods and ancestral sacrifices burnt to make a comfortable life for the afterlife.

Paper and bamboo mansions were burnt at regular festivals. These dwellings for the spirits of the dead were filled with paper representations of everything the ancestors knew or had wanted in life: favorite food, books, signs of rank, a pleasure boat or a young mistress, all in painted and folded paper.

In some accounts of the Kuang Shi, a spell glued to the face of the body is the medicine that makes it move. This method is favored in popular film, since it is visible to the camera, and the viewer can always tell a Kuang Shi by his label. Traditional accounts do not agree on this point. In modern Asian films, the Kuang Shi is the slave of the character of an evil Taoist priest, who launches platoons of these animated corpses at heroes at movies. This picture of Kuang Shi in current films does not represent their old form. Nevertheless, the Kuang Shi remains one of the current, tangible, commonly believed myths of Asia.

Appearances

  • Street Fighter Alpha 2, Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling both appear in human form next to Lord Raptor on Ken Masters' stage.
  • Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, Hsien-Ko appears on the Shanghai stage.
  • Capcom Fighting Evolution, she appears in Pyron's ending.

  • Hsien-Ko (Human Form) (OVA)

    Hsien-Ko in the Darkstalkers anime

    Hsien-Ko appears in the Darkstalkers animated series in the episodes "Ghost Hunter" and "Darkest Before Dawn". Unlike her video game counter part, in the cartoon series Hsien-Ko no longer has blue skin but instead has normal flesh. To tie her storyline with the remaining cast, Hsien-Ko's family was killed by Demitri and turns into a Chinese vampire after meeting the Lady of Mercy.

    In the Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge OVA, Hsien-Ko first appears along side her sister in the second story, Blood of the Darkstalkers, Power of the Darkstalkers. In Udon's Darkstalkers series, she makes a cameo in the mini for issue one and later another small appearance in the second series, issue one.

    Street Fighter VS. Darkstalkers

    Trivia

    • Hsien-Ko is known for the following distinctions:
      • She is the only character in the series to transform into more than one person when hit by Demitri's "Midnight Bliss".
      • She is one of the few characters who can break the forth wall in Capcom media, alongside Anakaris.
      • She is the only character in the series whose body breaks up into three parts when killed by being sliced; her arms break off along with her torso.
    • Hsien-Ko's name in Chinese is, 仙姑 (xiāngū). Her name derives from the xian that is among the pantheon of the Eight Immortals of Chinese mythos, 何仙姑 (hé xiāngū). 少 (shǎo) is her and Mei-Ling's family name, according to information revealed in Pocket fighter. Given this information, their actual names (using Chinese naming convention) are Shao Hsien-Ko and Shao Mei-Ling (and in the Japanese version, Shao Lei-Lei and Shao Lin-Lin).
    • The Chinese characters on the talisman read: 勅令 陏身保命 (proper Chinese: 敕令 隨身保命) Chìlìng: Suíshēn-Bǎomìng "Imperial Edict: Personal Survival".
    • Hsien-Ko was planned to be in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes as a playable character, but was dropped.[2]
    • Lord Raptor has romantic feelings for Hsien-Ko due to him being a fellow supernatural being, as demonstrated by his special intro towards her, but she is very annoyed by him. In Namco × Capcom, Raptor constantly attempts to go on a date with her, but she wants nothing to do with him. She also mentions her annoyance of Raptor in the Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, saying her opponent was annoying, but not nearly as annoying as Lord Raptor.
      • If playing as Lord Raptor in Vampire Savior, Hsien-Ko will be his secret challenger, and based on the quotes, she is at least cordial, until she finds out his fixation on her.
      • In the Vampire Savior manga however, she does have feelings for him but has no interest in admitting it to him. This could imply that she is a tsundere type character.
        • In the same manga Hsien-ko is rescued by Lord Raptor from Victor (and later he rescues her from Rikuo).
      • Lord Raptor and Hsien-ko make a cameo as human figures in Street Fighter Alpha 2 (along with some other Darkstalkers characters). Lord Raptor is seen playing his guitar while Hsien-ko watches him, however she first looks around to see if anyone is watching her before doing so. This could also imply that she is shy.
      • In Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo Hsien-ko uses Lord Raptor's chainsaw instead of her own, he is also seen watching her in the background of her stage within the bushes and his eyes are shaped like hearts. If she wins the stage his heart-shaped eyes start to beat. This could hint that Hsien-ko is at least allies with Lord Raptor or have some sort of positive relationship at some point.
    • Hsien-Ko's hammerspace sleeves filled with nigh infinite amounts of weaponry to throw (and even chained weapons) is similar in design and functionality to Mousse, a character from Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½ series. While it may be implied some of her character design and fighting style (and to an extent, even nationality) was inspired in part or wholly from Mousse, Hsien-Ko herself became an apparent inspiration to some future character design.
    • Despite B.B. Hood often being incorrectly cited as the inspiration for Peacock from Skullgirls, due to their unintentional similarities, it was actually Hsien-Ko who served as the main inspiration for Peacock’s character, aside from her theme of rubber hose cartoons. Alex Ahad, the creator of the Skullgirls series, initially envisioned Peacock as a more mentally ill and chaotic version of Hsien-Ko and was inspired by both her design and move set. Peacock was also originally a grown woman with a taller and creepier design in early lore before the game and in concept art until gradually gaining a cuter design and being aged down into a child at some point, a bit of a contrast to Hsien-Ko having some early younger designs or different ages until she was settled on as being older. So Peacock and B.B. Hood both being “cute and psycho” children was very unintentional. Peacock also has a color palette that references her.
    • Hsien-Ko was announced in Project × Zone along with fellow Capcom character Frank West, who is ironically a man who fights zombies.
      • The two appears together as well in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, with humorous jabs against one another in winquotes.
    • Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling are mostly likely fraternal twins, as neither of them look similar (Hsien-Ko has spiky purple hair, and Mei-Ling has straight brown hair).
    • Hsien-Ko has had the same voice actress in nearly all of her video games appearances up to Namco × Capcom: Michiko Neya (the exception being Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, where Kae Araki took over). As of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, she is now voiced by Saori Hayami.
      • In Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire, Mei-Ling is also voiced by Michiko Neya via reverb and in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (Pocket Fighter) using an unregulated voice. Despite this she is voiced by actresses different from those of Hsien-Ko in all other appearances in Japanese media as well as all English appearances.
    • In the Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge OVA, Hsien-Ko's design looks like Chun-Li from the Street Fighter series in her human form, this is due to the characters being drawn by the same artist.
      • Furthering this resemblance is the fact that her Japanese OVA voice, Yūko Miyamura, voiced Chun-Li in most of her video game appearances in the mid-to-late '90s.
    • In her appearances where she has a voice in English, she was been voiced by Nicole Oliver in the Night Warriors OVA. Whereas in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 onwards, she is voiced by Hunter MacKenzie Austin.
    • Her first appearances in both Namco × Capcom and Project × Zone have several things in common. She first appears in the fifth prologue chapter of the game. Both levels take place on a boat. She meets the representatives of Resident Evil in this stage. Also, she is called by Lord Raptor who greets her with the words "My sweetheart! Hsien-Kohhhh (Lei-Lei-chan)!!" in both games.
    • In Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and its remake, most of the English-speaking actors, including the announcer, cannot properly pronounce her name, instead saying it as "shin-ko", "sen-ko", "sheng-ko", and "hee-sen-ko". The correct way is in fact "syen-ko", as heard in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix.
    • According to concept art, Hsien-Ko's many weapons are stored in carrying devices she holds onto, while her claw weapons are chained directly to her scapulas. When electrocuted, her sprites will show her chains coming from the back area. However, nothing seems to exist aside from this to show that these concepts made it into the finished game, with more evidence pointing against it, as even the aforementioned sprite shows no carrying devices and doesn't make it clear whether the chains connect directly to her.
    • Unlike Anita, whose Japanese name became her de-facto English name (from Amanda), her sister's English name varied. Pre-Vampire Savior, it was Mei-Ling, until the game used the Japanese name for her sister, Lin-Lin. As of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, her sister's name is once again Mei-Ling, and she even calls her Mei as a nickname.
    • The Chinese characters on the blades that appear during her Chireitou move read: 勅令 昇龍剣 Chìlìng: Shēnglóngjiàn "Imperial Edict: Rising Dragon Sword". By coincidence, 昇龍剣 is pronounced in Japanese as Shōryūken, exactly the same as the "Rising-Dragon-Fist" of the Street Fighter franchise (although 昇龍拳 would be pronounced in Chinese as Shēnglóngquán).
    • The dress Hsien-Ko wears is called a Cheongsam (長衫, lit. Long garment) or Qipao (旗袍, lit. Banner dress), a dress derived from traditional Manchu clothing. It grew in popularity during the 1920s, centrally amongst high society women in Shanghai.
    • Hsien-Ko's characterization in Vampire Savior takes place after the events of her story mode in Vampire Hunter/Night Warriors but this would be contradictory to the rest of the plot of the series since only Demitri's fight against Pyron was canon in that game and Hsien-Ko being reborn is meant to be her reward after defeating all the Darkstalkers including Pyron. The reason why they went with this story and characterization is unexplained, but it is possible the team had no idea what to do with Hsien-Ko's character but wanted her to still be playable, so they just went with whatever character interpretation was available.

    Sprite

    Hsien-ko-leilei

    Pocket Fighter Hsien-Ko

    Darkstalkers
    series
    Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

    Notes:

    • Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo sprite is also used in Pocket Fighter.

    SVC CCF card Hsien-Ko SVC CCF2 Hsien-Ko SVC CCF2 Action Hsien-Ko SVC CCF2 Reaction Hsien-Ko SVC CCF DS Hsien-Ko
    Card Fighters' Clash
    Card Fighters 2
    Card Fighters 2*
    Card Fighters 2
    Card Fighters DS
    • This same card was used in the original SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash.

    Official artwork

    Night Warriors Darkstalkers Revenge Hsien-Ko 01 Darkstalkers 3 Hsien-Ko Sketch Hsien-Ko Pocket Fighter Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Hsien-Ko Hsien-Ko Project x Zone
    The full image gallery for Hsien-Ko may be viewed here.

    Videos

    Navigation

    Darkstalkers cast
    Main cast
    AnitaAnakarisBaby Bonnie HoodBishamonDeeDemitri MaximoffDonovan BaineFeliciaHsien-KoHuitzil
    Jedah Dohma Jon TalbainLilithLord RaptorMorrigan AenslandPyronQ-BeeRikuoSasquatch
    Victor von Gerdenheim
    Secondary cast
    Belial AenslandDark TalbainLe MaltaMei-LingOboro BishamonOzom
    Other cast
    Harry GrimoireJohn StatelyMajorette/ThomasMarionetteShadowJack


    External Links

    References

    1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Capcom, (2008). Darkstalkers Graphic File. Udon Entertainment Corp, pg. 105. ISBN 1897-37604-9
    2. http://www.siliconera.com/2009/05/17/these-characters-didnt-make-the-tatsunoko-vs-capcom-cut/

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