Mai Shiranui

1992character memeclassic

Mai Shiranui is a fighting game character from SNK's Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series who became a long-running fan-favorite sex symbol and, in 2019, the subject of a viral joke cycle after Masahiro Sakurai said Smash games are 'for good boys and girls.' Her 2023 casual Street Fighter 6 cameo revived the meme with fresh fan art and cosplay.

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Overview

Mai Shiranui is a kunoichi fighter from SNK's Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series, easily recognized by her red-and-white outfit, giant paper fan, and the jiggle physics that later games gave her sprite work1. Her design leans hard into fanservice, and she picked up a reputation as one of the go-to sex symbols of the 16-bit fighting game era2.

The character became a meme in her own right around two moments: a 2019 Nintendo Direct joke about her being too risqué for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate3, and a 2023 Street Fighter 6 guest appearance where her relaxed 'casual' pose in dolphin shorts and a tank top went viral. Both cycles leaned on the same joke: Mai is the meme, and the meme is that she is Mai.

How It Spread

Through the late 90s and 2000s she landed on hot-video-game-girl lists, including a #4 slot on GameSpy's Top Ten Babes In Games and an entry on Agree Or Die's 'Hottest Girls Of the 16 Bit Era' rundown2. The jiggle-physics animations added in later SNK titles kept her recurring in fan art circles well past her sprite-era peak1.

The modern meme wave kicked off on November 6th, 2019, when Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai used a Nintendo Direct to explain that Terry Bogard was joining the roster but Mai was not, because Smash is 'for good boys and girls'3. Twitter ran with it fast. User @EXDragonith posted a 'No Way Fag' parody about the snub that pulled over 1,900 retweets and 5,900 likes, and @Aevanko posted a Drakeposting edit pointing out that Bayonetta was already in the game3. Kotaku covered the pile-on the same week3.

A second wave hit with Street Fighter 6's Year 2 DLC, when Mai showed up as a guest character. Her character-select pose, sitting in a chair in pink dolphin shorts and a white tank top, spawned a 'Casual Mai Shiranui' micro-meme of fan art and cosplay recreations of the outfit1.

How to Use This Meme

There is no single template. The 2019 wave typically ran as reaction images or Drakeposting-style edits contrasting Mai's exclusion with the presence of other sexualized Nintendo characters. The 2023 Casual Mai wave is mostly fan art, cosplay, and figure photos recreating the specific dolphin-shorts-plus-tank-top select-screen look1.

Frequently Asked Questions

Mai Shiranui

1992character memeclassic

Mai Shiranui is a fighting game character from SNK's Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series who became a long-running fan-favorite sex symbol and, in 2019, the subject of a viral joke cycle after Masahiro Sakurai said Smash games are 'for good boys and girls.' Her 2023 casual Street Fighter 6 cameo revived the meme with fresh fan art and cosplay.

gaming hornyposting memes smash bros memes character design memes fan art memes

Overview

Mai Shiranui is a kunoichi fighter from SNK's Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series, easily recognized by her red-and-white outfit, giant paper fan, and the jiggle physics that later games gave her sprite work1. Her design leans hard into fanservice, and she picked up a reputation as one of the go-to sex symbols of the 16-bit fighting game era2.

The character became a meme in her own right around two moments: a 2019 Nintendo Direct joke about her being too risqué for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate3, and a 2023 Street Fighter 6 guest appearance where her relaxed 'casual' pose in dolphin shorts and a tank top went viral. Both cycles leaned on the same joke: Mai is the meme, and the meme is that she is Mai.

How It Spread

Through the late 90s and 2000s she landed on hot-video-game-girl lists, including a #4 slot on GameSpy's Top Ten Babes In Games and an entry on Agree Or Die's 'Hottest Girls Of the 16 Bit Era' rundown2. The jiggle-physics animations added in later SNK titles kept her recurring in fan art circles well past her sprite-era peak1.

The modern meme wave kicked off on November 6th, 2019, when Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai used a Nintendo Direct to explain that Terry Bogard was joining the roster but Mai was not, because Smash is 'for good boys and girls'3. Twitter ran with it fast. User @EXDragonith posted a 'No Way Fag' parody about the snub that pulled over 1,900 retweets and 5,900 likes, and @Aevanko posted a Drakeposting edit pointing out that Bayonetta was already in the game3. Kotaku covered the pile-on the same week3.

A second wave hit with Street Fighter 6's Year 2 DLC, when Mai showed up as a guest character. Her character-select pose, sitting in a chair in pink dolphin shorts and a white tank top, spawned a 'Casual Mai Shiranui' micro-meme of fan art and cosplay recreations of the outfit1.

How to Use This Meme

There is no single template. The 2019 wave typically ran as reaction images or Drakeposting-style edits contrasting Mai's exclusion with the presence of other sexualized Nintendo characters. The 2023 Casual Mai wave is mostly fan art, cosplay, and figure photos recreating the specific dolphin-shorts-plus-tank-top select-screen look1.

Frequently Asked Questions