Sarah Bryant (Virtua Fighter)

Created during a brainstorming session by development team Sega AM2,[10] her initial name was Anego (姉, lit. "Sister"), signifying her role as Jacky Bryant's sibling who at this point was called Aniki (兄貴, lit. "Big brother").[11] Designed by Seiichi Ishii, he stated she was inspired by the Terminator character Sarah Connor,[3] though series creator Yu Suzuki refused to comment himself when asked if she was based on anyone.[2] He did however label her his favorite character due to her ease of use, due to the fact she "fights aggressively: she does not stand still waiting for the opponent's move, but moves ahead. It fully reflects my personality."[12] When asked what feelings Sarah was meant to invoke in a player, then Vice President of Product Development for Sega Eric Hammond stated it was up to the player, and they could either see her as the "damsel in distress" or the "bad girl" able to take care of herself, the latter of which he felt was popular in comic books.[10]

Her primary outfit went through several radical changes during the course of development, with notes in Virtua Fighter Maniax stating they tried to keep a "voluptuous charm" to her throughout this process. Her initial design consisted of a purple short halter top, leggings, a ponytail, and pink heels. Most of these themes were kept going forward into the second design pass, with the halter top expanded into a full leotard featuring a sash, fingerless purple gloves, and a short dark brown haircut. The next concept was drastically different, and resembled a wrestling outfit consisting of black gloves, hotpants and bikini top, and pink boots with black thigh highs on her legs. Her hair color was also switched back to long and blonde at this point also. The shorts and bikini top were eventually changed into a black catsuit, with the arms and shoulders exposed and extending up to her collar, and a red jewel on the belt buckle while buttons were visible on the top.[11] Intended to have "a sense of style while also combat-ready", and possibly serve as a "distraction", this finalized design was simplified to lose the buttons and buckle, and with Virtua Fighter 3 shifted to a dark blue color.[10] While she has had a wide variety of secondary outfits as the series progressed, her main design has been used through the series and in promotional material, only seeing minimal change through the years.[13]

Sarah stands about 5'8" (173 cm) tall, and has measurements of 36-23-36" (90-57-90 cm).[14] According to Suzuki, her ponytail in the finalized design was intended to be "practical" in martial arts fighting, due to no hair pulling within the games, while her longer legs were meant to emphasize her reliance on kick-based attacks using Jeet Kune Do. As an easter egg, her earring color changes depending on the fighting stage the player is currently engaged in, a trend continued up to Virtua Fighter 3tb.[10] One of the goals of the series development team was to increase realism by improving the graphics from one entry to the next, with one developer noting for Virtua Fighter 2 "many polygons" were used for her chest on the model.[15] Developer Keiji Okayasu elaborated on this, stating it caused an issue for the home port of the title, as they were unable to reduce the polygon count without drastically altering her proportions.[16]

Sarah Bryant was introduced in the 1993 video game Virtua Fighter as a college student from San Francisco, California, investigating her brother Jacky's car crash in the 1990 Indianapolis 500. While doing so she is kidnapped by the Illuminati-esque group responsible for the crash, Judgement 6, and brainwashed to kill her brother who had entered in their World Martial Arts Tournament. However they were unable to control her completely and she failed, and as a result the group focused on training her to be try again in their second tournament.[17] Jacky instead saved her and broke the brainwashing, however it also caused her to have amnesia, so both entered the third tournament in hopes the environment would help her recover her memories.[18] Successful, it also causes her to recall what she had done while brainwashed. Uncertain if the urge to kill Jacky was due to Judgement 6 or her own desires, she enters the subsequent tournaments in hopes of surpassing him while also taking down Judgement 6.[19] Originally voiced by Lynn Harris, since Virtua Fighter 3 she has been voiced by multiple actresses, sometimes for the same game. These actresses include Colleen Lanki, Claire O'Connor, Lenne Hardt, and Lisle Wilkerson.[5][4][7]

Outside of the main series, she also appears in several other fighting games such as Sega's Virtua Fighter Animation, which utilized 2D sprites,[20] Virtua Fighter Kids, a parody of the franchise featuring the characters as super deformed children with more playful representation of their storylines, and Sega franchise crossover title Fighters Megamix.[21] She was featured in Koei Tecmo's Dead or Alive 5 as a guest character, due to Virtua Fighter's influence on their franchise's development.[22] Outside of fighting games, she has appeared as a non-playable character in the Sega's action role-playing game Virtua Quest,[23] and later in SNK's The King of Fighters All Star as part of a collaboration event.[24] After the release of Digital Dance Mix Vol. 1, Yu Suzuki stated to Official Sega Saturn Magazine she would be featured in the next volume. However, the game was never released.[25] In 2022, she appears as a reskin of Nina Williams in Tekken 7.[26]

Sega leaned heavily into the character's sexuality, to both criticism and praise

In an interview for the book From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games in 2000, the then-corporate spokesman for Sega in North America Lee Caraher stated that of their fighting game characters Sarah was picked the most often in her observation, regardless of the player's gender.[31] A variety of merchandise was released to promote the character and series, including a set of playing cards featuring images of moves from the game, pinups, and a CD of 3D rendered images after the release of Virtua Fighter 2, showcasing her in a bikini by a pool.[32]

In an interview with Kotaku, Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi stated he felt that Sarah was one of two characters that "carry with them the history of the [Virtua Fighter] series".[22] Official Sega Saturn Magazine described her as "one of the most brilliant creations in the world of video games", praising her brainwashing plot and more heavily her breast size.[15] Arcade featured her on a two-page spread, praising her appearance but lamenting they knew little about the character's personality from her in-game appearances or Suzuki's statements about her.[33] Roger Miller of Game On! USA called her a "true original", praising her as one of the first female characters in 3D fighting games and preferring her over later similar characters such as Battle Arena Toshinden's Sofia and Tekken's Nina Williams, the latter of which called a "clone, right down to the purple clothes". He further noted of the three, "for sheer volume of fan material published, Sarah Bryant is #1".[34] The magazine Total Control was far more critical of the character, citing Virtua Fighter as an example of sexism due to her presence in the title, comparing the series to Tekken which they felt was more respectful to its female characters, and adding "Sega would be exploiting Sarah Bryant for all she was worth if they could convince anyone she was sexy."[35]

Sarah has also been the subject of academic study in sexualization and video games since her introduction.[14] J. C. Hertz in the 1997 book Joystick Nation called her "the reigning queen of 3D polygon fighting game characters", describing her as being "built like an Olympic swimmer. [...] This woman has powerful shoulders and strong legs, and she's tall", further stating she was more realistic than Pamela Anderson. In a note she additionally praised her outfit, calling her modestly attired and "dressed for business, not for show." However, despite these strong aspects he noted her usage in media such as Next Generation magazine focused on her as a sexual element for their young male readers, complete with pull out poster and text akin to a Playboy article, and felt this helped contribute towards a negative view of women by those readers.[36] The 2015 German book Sheroes: Genderspiele im virtuellen Raum cited her multiple times in an examination of the image of feminine power versus conventional women, and argued that the use of martial arts enhanced her sexualization and emphasized the idea that a woman's most powerful weapon is her body.[37]

On the other hand, University of Delaware professor Rachael Hutchinson noted the positive influence of the characters' sexuality, citing her as significant due to being "the first Western woman in a Japanese fighting game" and that her "tall frame, blond hair and jutting breasts formed the template for later, more sexualized figures" such as Ivy Valentine in Soulcalibur and Nina Williams.[38] She further stated her belief that the increased sexualization in Sarah's own design as the Virtua Fighter series progressed was in part response to the aforementioned Ivy, causing "a ‘sexualization race’ among companies who could produce (and get away with) the most outrageous skin exposure and physical forms", eventually leading to the creation of titles such as Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.[39]