Now Viewing: poison_(final_fight)Tag type: Character Poison (ポイズン, poizun) is a video game character from Capcom. She first appeared as an antagonist in the Final_Fight fighting game from 1989, and has a very interesting origin. The producers of the mentioned game initially planned both Poison and her color swap version, Roxy, to be full-fledged females, but due to the taboo against fighting women, Capcom of America requested both Poison and Roxy be replaced in the American release with male characters. Due to a miscommunication, Poison and Roxy were replaced with male transsexual/transvestite/cross-dresser characters instead, and their gender has been the source of some confusion and debates through the years. It should be noted that even their concept art mentioned they were "newhalfs" (shemale/pre-op trans women). This fact and her sexy design have made Poison gain unusual fame. She also has cameos in several Street_Fighter games and its crossover series. In English ports of the games to Nintendo consoles, both Poison and Roxy were replaced by two male thugs named Billy and Sid in order to avoid any shred of controversy. Poison's sex/gender: Poison's sex has been addressed several times by Capcom employees (producers, developers, game designers) with different stances on the topic. The latest official word on the issue is that it is up to each one to choose what's Poison's sexuality. Character profiles featured in the 2005 compilation Capcom Classics Collection state that Poison is a male transvestite/cross-dresser, while Roxy is a female who dislikes Poison's cross-dressing. In 2007 Nishitani_Akira stated that Poison "could be male" but that it was up to the viewer to decide. Ono_Yoshinori is quoted in the January 2008 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly thus: "Let's set the record straight: In North America, Poison is officially a post-op trans woman. But in Japan, she simply tucks her business away to look female." Later in 2008 he restated that stance. However, in a 2011 interview, again for Electronic Gaming Monthly, Yoshinori says that Capcom has no official stance on the issue and that, just as Nishitani had said in 2007, it is up to the viewer to decide. Capcom's ambiguity comes, at least in part, from their wish to please the transgender/transsexual community by allowing them to consider Poison one of their own. From < www.egmnow.com/articles/news/egm-interviewyoshinori-ono/ >: ... Capcom’s official stance has and will continue to be that we don’t have a stance technically. It’s supposed to be mysterious; if people want to talk about it on forums or what not they’re welcome to, but we’re not going to give you a straight answer because, well, there isn’t one. We deliberately want to make it a mysterious thing—that question of what’s at the core of this character. At the end of the day, we don’t have an actual canonical answer to that. [...] From my point of view, I’m very happy to have fans continue to discuss that, but once again we’re not going to give an official answer. We’re happy to leave that open and up to individual fans. [Question:] ... Do you think there’s any responsibility on Capcom’s part to make a decision? If Capcom makes the statement that Poison is whatever each individual wants her to be, it’s very easy to ignore the important discussion that come up because of what she has become. [Answer:] I absolutely get what you’re saying, and I understand that there’s not a lot of transgender or transsexual characters in games at all. Certainly, I can see the need for that community to have a character to look up to in a game like this. At the same time, there’s a lot of Poison fans that see her as a standard woman, and want her to be a woman, so by our stance of not giving a canonical answer, I think—at least, it’s my intent—that we’re trying to please both groups. We’re trying to have our cake, and eat it too basically. We want both groups of fans to be satisfied in seeing the character the way they want to see her. I think we have a responsibility to support both sides; we can’t give you a 100% answer. I can give you, maybe, an 85% answer. [laughs] You’re more than welcome to look at it either way. As you say, it’s kind of a pickle we’ve gotten ourselves into on accident, so it’s a very complicated issue. You do raise a good point, however, and I’m very proud and happy that people can see this character as their representative in the game world, due to there not being a lot of characters like that. TL;DR: It is up to each one to decide Poison's sexuality. See also: Roxy Final_Fight Street_Fighter newhalf Poison's sexuality: < en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_(Final_Fight) > < gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/19310 > < www.egmnow.com/articles/news/egm-interviewyoshinori-ono/ > Other Wiki Information Last updated: 11/01/18 2:18 PM by Grumo2frui This entry is not locked and you can edit it as you see fit. |
     
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