by Capcom Street Fighter the series has given us some of the most recognizable and iconic gaming characters in history. But when attached to Street Fighter V, a game with a shaky launch in 2016 from which it never fully recovered, these characters received relatively little attention. Fortunately, Street fighter 6 gave new life to the franchise, attracting the interest of casual and competitive players, thanks to its in-depth story mode, advanced mechanics, accessible control schemes and new characters, two of which many fans particularly like. And I’d like to see a kiss.
Of its six new characters – part of an 18-character set that will be regularly expanded with DLC add-ons – players flocked to Marisa, a muscular Greek warrior, and Manon, a French supermodel with ballet-style attacks. Sure, there’s plenty of love for other newcomers, like graffiti artist-ninja Kimberly, but Marissa and Manon seem to be played the most out of all the newcomers.
As reported by IGNReddit user geco_420 compiled a list of the most played characters based on June 8 data collected from the official Street Fighter website. Unsurprisingly, series mainstays Ken, Ryu, and Cami topped the list, but Marisa and Manon followed, taking fourth and fifth place.
There has been a lot of discussion about the play styles of the two characters. Marisa, a “bruising” character, has extremely strong attacks that can easily break through opponents’ defenses. The popular fighting game’s YouTuber Maximilian Doud called it “absolutely TERRIBLE” in video title. Manon, meanwhile, has additional grapple attacks that increase in power each time they are used up to five times, and the damage dealt ends up being massive. As a Twitter user @Lucafi0 posted, “NEVER let her reach level five on her command grab… that nasty scary af.”
But it’s not just their effectiveness as fighters that has won players over. Fans are also blown away by the style and mood of the characters, Marisa, the strong enchantress who outright fights a lion in the story mode, and Manon, the elegant, beautiful dancer. There’s a lovely contrast between the two that seems ripe for sparks to fly, and the community quite decisively dispatched them.
The perceived romance between the pair isn’t something players have completely created out of whole cloth, as the two definitely share an interesting dynamic in-game as well. Fans analyze the cutscenes of each character’s runs in an arcade mode where each fighter has a rival they are matched against in their story. For Marisa and Manon, these rivals are each other. However, instead of their rivalries being filled with bitterness or anger, the characters have a genuine appreciation for each other.
At the end of Manon’s storyline, when she defeats Marissa in a fight, Marissa calls her strong. “I usually hate it when people call me that,” says Manon. “I feel a pain in my chest every time I hear it. And yet… The way she said it so bluntly and clearly… It didn’t bother me in the least.”
Uploading of each set of cutscenes by Youtuber Ruba that has 37,000 views is called “Street Fighter 6 – Manon has a Crush on Marisa”. Below the video, hundreds of players discuss, discuss and celebrate the romance between the characters. On social networks, the discussion continues. @JennyOutrageous on Twitter posted screenshots of arcade mode with the caption “I said I was shipping Marissa and Manon and the game won’t convince me otherwise.”
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for fans to share fanart of the two. Twitter user @zxidart is created cute cartoon image of Marissa holding Manon (pretty easily and with one hand, no less) while @tankushoku did a more realistic looking image with the two looking into each other’s eyes. And you can find a lot more online.
Some fan illustrations of the two are not explicitly romantic. Twitter user @KosenaMaster they created a really sweet, stylized image of Manon fighting a huge Marissa. And Twitter user @KdeKercy shared a cool, pixel art image of the two fighting, depicting what they might have looked like back in the day Street Fighter III era, with commentary acknowledging the great popularity of both characters. “Glad to see Manon and Marissa so playful in the first week of SF6,” she said with one of her tweets of the image, which has more than 167,000 views, “here they are again in pixel form.”
Also, yes, there are plenty of decidedly unsafe images of the two, but we’ll let you look them up for yourself if you’d like.