Kasumi (Dead or Alive)

Kasumi (霞) is a player character in Dead or Alive video game series by Team Ninja and Temco.

Kasumi has served as the main protagonist of DOA franchise since 1996 and has since became one of sex symbols in video game culture. She is also a personal favourite of Team Ninja's founder and Dead or Alive series' creator, Tomonobu Itagaki.

Character
According to the game canon, Kasumi (her name translates to "Mist"), also known as "the Kunoichi of Destiny", is a teenage female shinobi skilled in the Mugen Tenshin style of ninjutsu. She was to become the 18th Master of the Mugen Tenshin ninja clan, but ran away in order to enter the Dead or Alive tournament and defeat Raidou, who crippled her brother Hayate. Leaving the secretive ninja clan made her a nukenin (runaway shinobi), obliged to live on the run from former comrades who are now seeking to hunt her down.

Kasumi is portrayed throughout the DOA series as a more compassionate character than her younger half-sister Ayane and the other fighters. Though she is a highly skilled kunoichi with deadly abilities but she does not enjoy fighting and often expresses a desire to avoid confrontation. She values her family and seeks to return home in peace. In all of the tournaments except the first her goal is not to win or even to fight; she simply wishes to meet Hayate. Kasumi dislikes seeing people suffer from at the hands of her skills and often shows mercy even to enemies. However she is a trained shinobi who is capable of killing, though, as shown in the first DOA story, and she foregoes showing mercy to particularly dangerous adversaries or those who have wronged her or her family: Raidou (first game), her clone (second game) and Helena (fourth game).

Storyline
Kasumi eventually killed Raidou and to avenged Hayate, winning the first tournament. However, she was then captured by Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee (DOATEC) who created a clone of her, called Kasumi X. Kasumi managed to escape (defeating her clone in the process) and attempts to return to her village, but was not allowed to because a dishonored ninja could not rejoin their clan.

Now labeled as a "traitor" in her village, Kasumi has been pursued incessantly by assassins from her clan and not a day passed without an attempt on her life. Despite this, Kasumi still wished to see her brother Hayate and half-sister Ayane and entered the third tournament to meet with them one last time.

Kasumi was then invited to Zack Island, an imaginary place that has all the DOA girls for the fourth Dead or Alive tournament. Kasumi, hoping to see Hayate, goes to the island for the tournament. However, the tournament turns out to be a hoax crafted by Zack, and Kasumi, along with the other DOA girls are stuck for two weeks on the tropical island, playing beach volleyball. Kasumi then returned to searching for Hayate.

She eventually managed to meet her brother and tried to convince him to return to the Mugen Tenshin village with her; their half-sister Ayane attacked Kasumi, but was defeated. Kasumi pursued Hayate to the DOATEC Tritower, where she was confronted by Helena who has taken control of DOATEC. Kasumi fought her way past Helena and then headed down to the lab to destroy a new clone of herself, code-named ALPHA-152, who seemed to be made up of pure energy. Kasumi fought her clone to her best efforts, but in the end ALPHA-152 escaped in the chaos of the destruction wrought by the Mugen Tenshin attack. Kasumi then spotted Helena entering the blazing helipad; when trying to interfere, Kasumi was prevented from doing so by Ayane, who (by doing that) saved Kasumi's life as the building started exploding seconds later.

Kasumi then came to New Zack Island upon hearing that her brother was there, even though she wondered what he was doing on a tropical island. It was there that Kasumi began to develop a more friendly relationship with Ayane, again playing valleyball, this time on New Zack Island.

Design
Just like the other girls in the franchise, Kasumi was designed by Tomonobu Itagaki to have a buxom figure (her official measurements are 34-20-35). When asked if he was fine with "sexualizing" a 17-year-old girl, he answered: "In Japan, that's okay. Maybe it's 20 in America."

Asked about Ayane and Kasumi, Itagaki said: "The basic concept of Ninja Gaiden was very hard-edged, but Kasumi is very soft. That's why she wasn't in it. DOA is based on a "softer" concept, and she is rather symbolic of the game as a whole." Kasumi is "of course" his favorite DOA character and he feels "very close to her"; when hackers found a way to turn Kasumi nude in DOA3, Itagaki felt this "was an attack on her".

Kasumi uses a wide range of costumes through the series, from several female ninja outfits to teenage-girl casual clothes to Japanese schoolgirl uniforms (Itagaki's favorite ) to beach bikinis. According to IGN, she had the best overall outfits of Dead or Alive Ultimate, the expanded compilation of the first two DOA games ("She looks great and her outfits are fantastic").

On film
Kasumi appeared in the 2006 action-comedy film DOA: Dead or Alive, loosely based on the game series. She was played by Devon Aoki, who however bears no physical similarity to the character she portrayed and it many felt she appeared to be miscast in this role, the sentiment which was shared also by Itagaki; when asked about whom he would choose for the film, he said it would be Aya Ueto as Ayane and Kumiko Gotoh "from the time right after she made her debut" as Kasumi.

In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Aoki said this about Kasumi: "Yes, she's pretty badass. ... and she's a princess. She's never been outside the palace walls. She's been very, very sheltered, because she's a princess and that's the way it is…until the point where she actually decides to leave, she's basically been pretty sheltered but she's a capable fighter." In the movie, she fights against Leon and wins. The film Kiss of the Dragon is referenced when Kasumi pierces an acupuncture needle into the villain Victor Donovan, who then suffers paralysis and perishes in an explosion. In the end, she did go home with her brother despite being a runaway shinobi, but has to make a fighting stand against her clan with her new friends in order to get to stay.

Other appearances and promotion
Kasumi appeared as a playable "monster" in the video games Monster Rancher 2 and Monster Rancher 4, also produced by Tecmo. Kasumi appears in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, starring Ayane and Ryu Hayabusa, in a new outfit and it's possible she might become a player character via DLC. The current status of Dead or Alive: Code Chronos, a DOA series' prequel game which was supposed to center on Kasumi and Ayane is uncertain as of 2010, after the series' creator Itagaki left Tecmo (Code Chronos has been his "pet project").

A number of merchandise items featuring Kasumi was created as well, such as statues and action figures of various sizes, inlcuding one which was bundled with a special edition of Dead or Alive Paradise for the PSP (a different edition also came with an original Kasumi box cover) and another which could be stripped topless, an Xbox 360 face plate, a very special mousepad, and even a live-size 160 cm long (Kasumi' height is supposed to be 158 cm high) pillow which was bundled by Microsoft with the Kasumi Blue limited edition batch of the Xbox consoles in Japan.

Reception
Kasumi was received well among the gaming fans and professional critics for both her sex appeal and her martial arts abilities, and sometimes also her personality. WomanGamers.Com appreciated her portrayal "as a woman of action and deeds ... willing to risk everything in order to search for her missing brother", however hurt by her eye candy aspect "for which the series is both famous and infamous" and the games' poorly explained plot line, overally rating her 8.14/10 as "a very pleasing character". The Age ranked her #38 among 'The Top 50 Xbox Characters of All Time' in 2008, adding: "Kasumi’s appeal is no great mystery, is it? As the merciful ninja who avoids confrontation but finds herself again and again having to defeat challengers, she’s just another heroine based on a well-loved archetype."

In 2004 TeamXbox ranked Kasumi #3 in their list of 'Top Ten Xbox Babes', saying: "When we imagine our ideal Tecmo babe, Kasumi fits the bill perfectly. She has fought her way into the hearts and minds of millions of gamers." Speaking about her popularity in Japan, Itagaki claimed in 2004: "It's almost like there are too many Kasumi covers. If you look at Japanese magazines, maybe 10% of them have Kasumi on their cover." In 2006 IGN featured her in their 'Videogame Babe of the Day' series, commenting: "This sultry redhead is also a fan favorite, and it's not difficult to see why. In addition to being gifted as a fighter, she's been graced with one of the finest digital bodies ever. Also, she is a freaking ninja." In the 2005 TV show Video Game Vixens Kasumi won in the category 'Dressed to Kill'.

GameDaily placed her #8 on their 'Top 50 Hottest Game Babes' list in 2008, saying: "We love female ninjas, especially ones with gigantic breasts, flowing hair and a knack for beach volleyball. Kasumi remains the most recognizable Dead or Alive girl, and ... one of the most dangerous". In 2009 VG Chartz named her the #1 among the "Hottest Videogame Babes", explaining their choice this way: "For having not only the [nude] patch but a direct series dedicated to promote her (along with her fighting companions) sex appeal, we get our number one for this list." In 2010 UGO Networks ranked her #48 in their 'Top 50 Videogame Hotties' article, adding: "Kasumi is the flagship protagonist of the Dead or Alive series of games, and it's for good reason. Her huge breasts, flowing hair, and butt-bumpin' volleyball skills represent at least half of what the series is all about. It only helps that she's equally deadly when the fighting portion comes around."