Capcom and SNK appear to have race replaced SNK’s Blue Mary character in a promotional trailer for Terry Bogard joining Capcom’s Street Fighter VI.
A screenshot from Street Fighter 6 (2023), Capcom
The official Street Fighter YouTube channel released a promo video for Fatal Fury’s Terry Bogard that depicts what appears to be a race-replaced Blue Mary.
READ: ‘SNK VS. CAPCOM SVC CHAOS’ Features Trigger Warning And A Censored Poster
The race-replaced Blue Mary can be seen at around the :34 second mark in the above trailer standing next to what appears to be Joe Higashi, who appears to have dyed his hair blonde. Both Higashi and Mary challenge Bogart to a fight in the trailer.
Here’s a screenshot:
Alleged race replaced Blue Mary in Street Fighter 6 (2023), Capcom
As noted by Fighters Generation, Blue Mary is the pseudonym for Mary Ryan who “debuted as a private detective in Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory.”
Blue Mary is a white woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She typically wears a red crop top with purple gloves. She originally wore a red bikini top, purple gloves, blue pants, and red sandals.
Blue Mary in Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory (1995), SNK
Neither Capcom nor SNK have addressed whether these characters are indeed Blue Mary and Joe Higashi. Some players believe they could be fans simply cosplaying as the characters.
One user on the Street Fighter 6 Steam forums speculated, “Or maybe, just maybe, those are Blue Mary cosmetics we’ll be able to get in the inevitable pre-Terry battle pass.”
Peddie on Street Fighter 6 Steam forum
Another added, “She’s just a fangirl. World tour is FULL of impostors who dress like Street Fighter characters, but are clearly cosplayers for Metro City fun. I add… it only serves to anticipate that in the next Fight pass we will have the costumes of Blue Mary and Joe Higashi.”
-VAL- on Street Fighter 6 Steam forum
Another also claimed, “That’s an avatar lmao”
Sixtyfivekills on Street Fighter 6 Steam forum
Capcom has made it clear the company wants to promote diversity. On its website it notes, “Going forward, we will create a system for improving motivation and work on promoting diversity, including support for securing housing when foreign nationals move to Japan, and the introduction of special leave for temporarily visiting their home countries.”
In fact, in the company’s 45th Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, which took place at the end of June, a shareholder questioned the company, “You’ve submitted a female candidate for external director, however all your internal directors are male. Please tell me what you are doing to increase the ratio of female managers internally.”
Capcom responded, “Regarding diversity of our board of directors, we select director candidates who are able to oversee management of the company and offer appropriate advice, while considering the skills and characteristics required in accordance with our management strategy, and the balance of each individual’s career history, insight, and experience.”
A screenshot from Street Fighter 6 (2023), Capcom
The company then noted, “Also note that, while our internal directors are currently all male, in addition to women, going forward we will also consider non-Japanese directors.”
“Regarding female managers, currently 21.2% of employees are female and 13.6% of our core talent is female. We are aiming to bring the percentage of female managers up to 15%. Looking ahead, we believe we will be able to see more female directors by broadening our scope and increasing the ratio of female managers,” Capcom concluded.
A screenshot from Street Fighter 6 (2023), Capcom
The company’s CEO and Chairman Kenzo Tsujimoto also made it clear the company was committed to ESG in a letter from November 2021.
As part of the letter, he noted, “I believe that building a healthy relationship with stakeholders through business activities leads to improved corporate value. Therefore, focusing particularly on “S ” (social) and “G ” (corporate governance) of ESG, I recognize our critical issues as (1) developer numbers, (2) diversity, (3) support for education, and (4) the ratio of external directors. We will continue to promote ESG initiatives based on the SDG goals of creating a sustainable society and strive for sustainable growth while building a relationship of trust with our stakeholders.”
A screenshot from Street Fighter 6 (2023), Capcom
What do you make of this apparent race replacement of Blue Mary in Street Fighter 6?
