Hsien-Ko

Hsien-Ko (Lei-Lei, レイレイ, Rei-Rei in Japan) is one of the main heroes that was first introduced in Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge along with her 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 Pocket Fighter, Project X Zone, Namco X Capcom, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Background

Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling were twins 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, even though ther personalities were different since Hsien-Ko had a very strong bound to guys and martial arts, while her sister was more into weaponly and cooking, the two were close. On the ceremonial night when they were woman who were close to becoming Senjutsushi by their master, their village and people were attacked by a group of supernatural beings knows as Darkstalkers sent by Jedah Dohma. 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 plains of controling 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 Senjutsushi's and the Darkstalkers battled. It was a land and Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling's homeland. Their leftover bodies had no soul in them anymore. They lied 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.

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 and Hsien-Ko would loose 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 oppose evil from a supernatural being, she has an intimate interest in men who seek to improve themselves and help others, this is often the reason why she does not have feelings for Lord Raptor.

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, and is afraid of the Jiang Shi trying to consume her mind.

Mei-Ling, being the older sister, is a kind, humble, funny woman who is smart in the filed 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 her sister have many supernatural powers such as the ability to see the souls of people and other supernatural beings, they are able to 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.

Hsien-Ko can make her eyes glow a yellow aura when using her power and can turn her nails into claws, she is very skilled in both hand to hand combat with amazing strengh, and even with weapons such a kunais, knives, saw blades, weights, spiked balls, and even daggers, shurikens, and an axe.

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

Weakness

Hsien-Ko can loose herself if she has a taste of blood, her personality traits will be highten to the point of insanity.

About the Jiang Shi

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

Darkstalkers 3 Hsien-Ko Sketch — *Darkstalkers 3* artwork

In Japanese only games

Lei-Lei Magical Hammer — *Lei-Lei's Magical Hammer*

Namco X Capcom
SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash
SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters 2
SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters DS
Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix (Pocket Fighter)
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Lei-Lei's Magical Hammer (cellphone game)
Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Onimusha Soul (browser game)
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (Mei-Ling as a DLC costume)
Project X Zone
Project x Zone 2

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 Darkstalkers the 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 Maximoff 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's Chinese name Hé Xiān Gū(何仙姑) comes from one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon.
Hsien-Ko was planned to be in Tatsunoko Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes as a playable character but was dropped.^[2]
Lord Raptor has romantic feelings for Hsien-Ko, do to him being a fellow supernatural being, as demonstrated by his special intro towards her, but she does not seem to share this interest in 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 dislike 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.
Xiao Lon from KOF Maximum Impact Regulation "A" also seems inspired by Hsien-Ko in terms of appearance and especially fighting style.
Taokaka from the BlazBlue series may also be a reference, having large sleeves with metal claws and saws in them.
Hsien-Ko was announced in Project × Zone along with fellow Capcom character Frank West, who is ironically a man who fights zombies.
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 resemblence is the fact that her Japanese OVA voice, Yūko Miyamura, voiced Chun-Li in most of her video game appearances in the 1990s.
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, 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 in fact chained directly to her scapulas.
Hsien-Ko is the only character in the series to transform into more than one person when hit by Demitri's Midnight Bliss.
Hsien-Ko shares many traits to the Street Fighter character Ryu, as both characters are good people with a dark power (Ryu turning into an Onigami, Hsien-Ko losing herself to the Jiang Shi), both have a character who has feelings for them, and both have a master that they look up too.
Hsien-Ko keeps a statue of Akuma made of clay that she carries.
Unlike Anita, whose Japanese name became her defacto 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.