is the protagonist of the Dead or Alive fighting game series by Team Ninja and Tecmo (Koei Tecmo). She was a main character in the first, second, and fifth games and in the film adaptation, DOA: Dead or Alive.
In the games' canon, Kasumi, also known as "The Kunoichi of Destiny", is a teenage ninja princess of the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan. Kasumi abandoned her clan, becoming an outcast and is pursued by her younger half-sister, Ayane. Throughout the series, there have been several boss characters who are clones of her. She also guest appeared in various other games, including Team Ninja's other flagship series, Ninja Gaiden, where she and Ayane play much bigger roles, as well as Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate and Warriors All-Stars as part of their playable roster.
Kasumi has become a symbol of the Dead or Alive franchise and is the personal favorite of Team Ninja's founder and the series' creator, Tomonobu Itagaki. She has been the subject of various merchandise and was also used to promote Xbox consoles in Japan. Kasumi is a popular sex symbol in video game culture and an iconic ninja character. Due to differences in cultural norms, she has attracted some controversy in the West involving eroticism and the use of underage female characters in video games.
Conception and design Tomonobu Itagaki originally envisioned the character to be male, before changing her gender. As Kasumi became more and more kawaii, he decided to make her the lead character. The rest of his team was only half-convinced at first but warmed up to the idea eventually. Her primary outfit was designed to keep "in mind of materials available to cosplayers at the time"
Kasumi stands and has three-sizes of 89-54-85 cm (35-21-33 in). She is usually wearing a wakizashi in a small of her back. Her hair has been variously blonde, auburn and red, with hairstyle options including a ponytail, a braid, and loose hair. She wears many types of costumes through the series, including female ninja outfits, feminine casual clothes, Japanese schoolgirl uniforms,Dead or Alive 2 Schoolgirl Outfits Revealed , IGN, March 8, 2000.Itagaki Speaks! , 1UP.com, 2005. and bikinis. Commonly, her default (and sometimes only, in most of her guest appearances) costume has been her blue-and-white "Brilliant Lapis" (originally white-and-red, later known as "Immaculate White"), made of a revealing and puff-sleeved Japanese tunic (later with swan-themed ornaments), a sash, thigh-high tabi, sandals with shin guards, hand guards with metal wristbands, and a choker. According to IGN, she had the best outfits of the characters in Dead or Alive Ultimatethe expanded compilation of the first two DOA gamesin which "she looks great and her outfits are fantastic."Hilary Goldstein, Girls of DOAU: Kasumi | The buxom ninja is set to take on all combatants with deadly speed. , IGN, September 27, 2004. A planned new main costume for Kasumi in Dead or Alive: Dimensions upset some fans when the game was announced in 2010.Jim Sterling, Ayane & Kasumi's new costumes in Dead or Alive Dimensions , Destructoid, 09.27.2010.
She was the youngest character in the original version of the first game. Itagaki said his "daughter" Kasumi "has been a main character of the Dead or Alive series, and please understand, she is like a Venus to me.""Alive & Heaving". Dreamcast Magazine issue 5, page 41. When asked if he was comfortable with sexualizing a 17-year-old character, Itagaki answered, "In Japan, that's okay. Maybe it's 20 in America."QuickJump QuickList: top ten Tomonobu Itagaki lines , QJ.net, November 12, 2007. He said, "I was 27 when I created Kasumi. I'm older now, but 17-year-old girls are still gorgeous." Itagaki said the Dead or Alive series contributed its character Ayane, rather than the "very soft" Kasumi, for a cameo appearance in 2004's Ninja Gaiden because Kasumi did not fit with the game's "very hard-edged" basis as "DOA is based on a 'softer' concept, and she is rather symbolic of the game as a whole".Itagaki: The Kikizo Interview 2005 , Video Games Daily, February 15, 2005. He said that if Ninja Gaiden had featured Kasumi, it would have become less a "story of [Ryu] Hayabusa and ninjas" and more a story of Kasumi ("Kasumi-den") and a "DOA action game". Itagaki has described himself as personally "a fan of Kasumi" as his favorite DOA character.David Taylor, Tomonobu Itagaki at the Championship Gaming Series Final , Gaming Target, August 2, 2007. He also said he felt "responsible for her" and was "very close to her".XBox Nation Magazine, Winter 2002. When hackers found a way to remove her clothing in DOA2, Itagaki felt this "was an attack on her". Tecmo's lawyers sued software company West Side, the authors of the hack, for violating copyright, and won the caseTecmo Wins Against Nude DOA2 Hackers, GamePro, September 3, 2002. and damages of two million yen (over ).Tom Bramwell, Tecmo wins naked Kasumi court case , Eurogamer, 1 October 2004. Kasumi's nude model can be also accessed using a GameShark cheat device in the Dreamcast version of DOA2, and one fan-made mod for DOA5 modified her training suit to remove most of the clothing.
For Dead or Alive 5, Kasumi was redesigned with an emphasis to look more "grown up".Kasumi's New Look In Dead or Alive 5 Is A Bit More Grown Up , Siliconera, March 12, 2012. The game's art director Yuta Saito said, "From DOA4 we wanted to evolve the characters in a slightly realistic direction. The most difficult, and you don't have to ask, is Kasumi. Kasumi is the face of DOA and the eternal heroine. And for such a popular character like Kasumi, to change her form we really needed a lot of courage and it really was a big challenge. But if we didn't do that, we couldn't make DOA5 and we wouldn't be able to show you anything." Producer Yasuke Hayashi said the process of remodeling Kasumi has sparked most disputes in the development team, especially since she is "a character that is not so much out on the table, with hidden feelings, and it's been difficult to express such a 'hidden look'." GamesRadar+ noted that "the manga influences on her facial featureswhile still apparenthave been scaled right back [a]nd her boobs seem less ludicrously unmanageable."Matt Cundy, Dead or Alive 5: Check out the redesigned and more mature Kasumi (in a bikini) , GamesRadar+, August 29, 2012.
In Dead or Alive 6, her appearance was overseen by game director Yohei Shimbori and art director Yukata Saito. Shimbori stated he was nervous on what costume to give her, as she was considered the face of the franchise. As he felt "times had changed" at that point in gaming, he chose to give her a more heroic image, though assured fans that her original outfit would still be present in the game as an option. She went through multiple revisions during development, aiming for a design that combined "a dignified design that combines the coolness of a ninja with a beautiful feminine silhouette", while incorporating cherry blossom shapes into her attire. By the end, her default outfit was changed to an armored "full-body skin-tight catsuit with combat heels" that featured a black and blue color scheme.
Appearances
In video games Kasumi was introduced in the 1996 fighting video game Dead or Alive by Koei Tecmo, and alongside her brother Hayate is one of heirs apparent of their ninja clan. However after Hayate is seriously injured by series villain Raidou, she abandons her position to fight and kill him at the game's fighting tournament. Now an outcast, she is pursued by her half sister Ayane. Despite being victorious, she is captured and experimented on by the company DOATEC, which produces several clones of her she fights through the series. After she escapes, she reunites with her now-amnesiac brother. Kasumi helps him to recover his memories and restores him to the head of the ninja clan, though she remains an outcast. Living as a hermit in the mountains, in Dead or Alive 6 she fights alongside Ayane and Hayate to defeat a revived Raidou.
Kasumi appears in the 2003 sports video game Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (DOAX). There, Kasumi is invited to a fourth DOA tournament; upon arriving she discovers the invitation is a hoax, and she and the game's other characters play beach volleyball. Kasumi also appears in the sequel, Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (2006), and in the portable version Dead or Alive Paradise (2010). She is one of the first nine playable female characters in Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 (2015). In this case, Kasumi, while reading her fortune, returns once again to New Zack Island, and she decides to spend some time in order to find of about her fortune. In mobile game The Girls of Dead or Alive: Blackjack (2009), Kasumi makes a non-player appearance as blackjack dealer.Mike Fahey, Tecmo Deals iPhone DoA Kasumi Blackjack, Kotaku, June 12, 2009.
Dead or Alive: Code Chronos, a DOA series' prequel game which was to star Kasumi and Ayane in the leading roles. Itagaki said in 2003, "the fact that we registered this trademark for Kasumi-den should tell you that we have a big plan for it." Code Chronos was cancelled following Itagaki's departure from Tecmo
In the Ninja Gaiden series, Kasumi first made a cameo appearance at the end of 2009's Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Kasumi appears as a playable character in the 2012 action game Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, which was made available as free DLC for the Wii U, and was included in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. In it, she is armed with a long sword and kunai throwing knives and by default wears hooded black armor with a cape-like blue scarf;Dave Cook, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge gets Kasumi DLC screens , VG247, December 7, 2012. the player can also select three of her costumes from DOA5.Kasumi Has A Range Of Costumes In Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge , Siliconera, December 26, 2012. In 2013, Kasumi was featured in the smart phone action card game Hyakuman-nin no Ninja Gaiden, in which Hitomi from Dead or Alive and Rio from Rio: Rainbow Gate! also appear dressed in Kasumi's DOA costumes.
Kasumi appears as an optionally playable 'monster' in the games Monster Rancher 2 (1999) and Monster Rancher 4 (2003). Kasumi also appears as a playable character in a minor role in Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate (Musou Orochi 3 Ultimate, 2013). She is a playable character in the crossover crowd-fighting game Warriors All-Stars (Musou Stars, 2017) in a larger role, including appearing on the game's cover art.
Her classic blue ninja getup is an unlockable costume for Arin in Super Swing Golf,Kasumi from Dead or Alive plays golf , Siliconera, June 12, 2006. and is an alternative costume of Mio Amakura in the Director's Cut version of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly for the Xbox (2004). It is also available for character avatars in Koei's social game My GAMECITY and in Sega's Phantasy Star Online 2 (added in 2017), as well as for player characters in Game Arts' Ragnarok Odyssey Ace (2013) and for Senran Kagura'''s Asuka in Shinobi Master Senran Kagura: New Link (a 2018 collaboration). Sega's free-to-play game Samurai & Dragons added a rare Kasumi card in 2013. Kasumi also appeared as a playable guest character in Netmarble/SNK's The King of Fighters All Star (a 2021 collaboration).
In other media