10 Elena Street Fighter Facts You Probably Didn't Know

Elena Street Fighter
Elena fighting in her homeland of Africa, in Ultra Street Fighter IV.


This fun-loving and highly spiritual African princess debuted in 1997's Street Fighter 3 using the Brazilian capoeira fighting style. Her name is Elena, she comes from Kenya, and she entered the tournament to travel the world and meet new people.

As the offspring of an East African tribal chief who has attended schools abroad and travelled the world to make friends, Elena is quite an intriguing character, but there's still so much more than meets the eye.

From using unique abilities during fights to making unexpected cameo appearances in other games, here are 10 interesting facts about Street Fighter's first Capoeira practitioner, you probably didn't know.

1. Based off

Many will agree that Elena has a unique character design which is easy on the eyes, however an obscure fact about the long limbed fighter is that her looks were inspired by a Japanese model.

It was revealed in the official Street Fighter 3 soundtrack booklet that Elena was based on actress Yuki Uchida during her years as a model in the 90s. Okay, so Elena clearly isn't a Japanese woman, but the similarities between the two are uncanny.

Elena Street Fighter

2. Spear of Destiny

Before giving her the capoeira fighting style, the team originally planned for Elena to use a long spear in battle and this was revealed in the Japanese Video Game Magazine, Gamest Mook Vol.185 STREET FIGHTER III 3rd Strike in 1999.

3. Just a Dancer 

The Street Fighter series itself is jampacked with references to real life people or popular culture, and one of Elena's victory animations in Street Fighter III seemingly takes it inspiration from one of the dancers in David Lee Roth's 1985 "Just a Gigolo" music video.

Elena's suggestive pose, doesn't only resemble the backup dancer's movements, but they're near identical. Many believe this animation was created using a technique called rotoscoping.

4. The Tallest Female Character

Street Fighter girls come in many shapes and sizes — including incredibly tall, which is the case of Elena, who at 6' (183cm) tall is the tallest female character in the Street Fighter series yet. There's a reason for this as well. 

During her creation, Capcom gave the barefoot fighter capoeira as a fighting style because their image of African women at the time was that they had long legs and arms, hence her height.


5. No Punches Thrown

As a fighter who is a mastery of Capoeira, Elena uses her long powerful legs to execute amazing acrobatics, fancy footwork, and flutter kicks. As such, besides grabs, her move-set consists wholly of kicks and leg throws.

She's the first Street Fighter character to use only kicks, in contrast to Dudley and Balrog (excluding his foot stomp in his second SFIV ultra Combo) who only use upper body focused attacks in their move-sets.

6. The Most Revealing 

Elena's attire (or lack thereof) leaves nothing to imagination. Her outfit consists of a white bikini top and pants, along with the colorful bangles she adorns on her body. This makes her the most scantily dressed playable female character in Street Fighter history.

7. I'm A Healer But 

As the daughter of a traditional healer and tribal leader, Elena is currently one of the only characters who can heal herself, which she uses her Super Arts to do in Street Fighter 3, and as a Ultra Combo in Ultra Street Fighter IV.

In the Street Fighter VS Darkstalkers crossover comic series published by UDON Entertainment, Elena was shown to be able to heal others in various different situations, acting as the combat medic of her group.

black street fighter characters
Elena's victory screen vs Sean Matsuda in Street Fighter III: Second Impact.


8. Cameo Appearances
 

Elena has made several notable cameo appearances in other video games not named Street Fighter. She appears in the Beach stage in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, The London stage in Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Felicia's Capcom Fighting Evolution ending.

9. Voices in my Head

Her English voice actress Karen Dyer, who first provided the voice work for Elena in 2012's Street Fighter X Tekken, is also known for voicing Sheva Alomar in Resident Evil 5.

The Brooklyn native would also cosplay as the character to promote crowdfunding campaign for her live-action series project back in 2016. 

10. Evil Begone

Elena is a magical girl who is highly in tune with spirituality. She's able to sense evil hearted people, as witnessed in her win quote against M.Bison in Street Fighter X Tekken ("I don't need the wind to tell me that you are a very bad man!").

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