Kanzuki Estate

When I was still making videos on YouTube, one of the videos I made ended with the idea of an entire video based around the idea of Karin being in a Street Fighter spinoff horror game. That video was “Speculation: How Much Do M. Bison’s Black Moons Cost?” It was the final video I made on Street Fighter theories before I moved into food reviews, and then, eventually, I stopped doing videos altogether. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwct2AEikts

That video was made five years ago. In that time, the idea of Karin being in a horror game has never left me. In fact, recently, I did a short, impromptu mini-game on Twitter in the vein of MS Paint Adventures to promote the idea of “Kanzuki Estate”, a visual novel/beat ’em up hybrid that would likely be destined for cult fandom. That thread starts here (and can be a little confusing since there are parts that abruptly stop, but if you search the replies, you’ll find the thread again; Twitter is not the best platform for games like this). https://twitter.com/StevenManeVox/status/1504664387994497024?s=20&t=c0r-F8WAHCSeEb3GJ81ISQ

In this game, the main antagonist would be Necalli, who would hound Karin as she explores her own, empty mansion. The idea for this is based around a few concepts:

A) The Kanzuki mansion is an ideal setting for a horror game because of its sheer size. How spooky would it look when the lights are out and no one is there? Also, because of its size, there may be rooms that have gone unused or rooms that Karin herself has never entered.

B) Karin owns the mansion. Having Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, or Sakura as “house sitters” would honestly make no real sense plotwise. Plus, they already have a ton of characterization from the main Street Fighter series. Karin has been missing in action for some time, and being a fan favorite character, could benefit from more characterization.

C) Considering that Karin’s entire personality is based on being “Little Miss Perfect” who’s extremely strong and arrogant because of it, and because there are grumbles of Karin being a “Mary Sue”, putting her in a situation where she’s completely alone except for an angry, otherworldly creature that wants to eat her would make for an interesting gameplay mechanic. Sure, the idea of a hungry beast who chases the hero down has been done a lot, but it hasn’t really been done for characters from Street Fighter. This leads me to the last point….

D) Necalli really didn’t get a chance to fulfill his true potential in Street Fighter V. He was supposed to be the hungry beast that chased down and ultimately ate several characters in the game, including Ryu, Dhalsim, M. Bison, Nash, and Rashid. He ended up being ripped apart by Akuma after trying to eat him… but it’s still debatable if Necalli actually died, considering his body has the consistency of mud. He could easily reassemble and chase after Karin instead.

Of course, there’d have to be a reason for Necalli to chase Karin in the first place, and I do have a few ideas that would both fit the lore of Street Fighter and fit the dark tone of the game. However, since this blog is more about what’s currently in the game, it would be more appropriate to talk about what would make Karin and Necalli interesting foils. Quite simply, they are what the other hates. Karin is about being intelligent, mannered, and innovative. As the heiress to the Kanzuki zaibatsu, a conglomerate with industrial ties, she would have to not only behave and communicate in a way suited for big businesses, but she would have the final say on the products created by said businesses. This includes weaponry, vehicles, and space technology; since all would be artificial constructs, they would be part of the “man-made things” that Necalli despises. https://streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/Necalli

On the other side of the coin, Necalli is a cannibalistic savage, who comes off as primitive, uncivilized, and worldly. While he is given the epithet “Soul-Consuming Darkness”, he’s more like a feral force of nature, someone who wants the earth to return to its natural state while consuming all who mess with it. Karin is his complete opposite and, in essence, his arch-nemesis, because it’s people like her who control the earth’s natural resources and uses them to create things that ultimately harm the earth. This doesn’t mean Karin is a bad person – it just means she’s doing what she was literally groomed from birth to do. Still, this wouldn’t be a justifiable excuse for Necalli, and it would create a reason to why he would want to hunt her.

There are a few other opposing dynamics in play here, including rich and poor, man and woman, etc. However, this blog isn’t about pitching game ideas – it’s about writing Street Fighter lore theories and revealing what I found. What makes this whole thing rather interesting is that the horror game I’ve been thinking about for years ties into an idea for a theory concept I’ve only had for a few months: if Necalli consumed Karin, would he be able to fulfill the prophecy of the Warrior Prophet found in his story mode in SFV?

The Warrior Prophet predicts that Necalli will eat three warriors, described as follows:

1) “The first of these warriors agonizes to proceed on his path. Inside him the red power burns at his soul.”

2) “The next warrior is the one who serves the god of fire.”

3) “The next warrior to fall, is the one who fills the world with destruction.”

Necalli’s story reveals that the three characters who Necalli was destined to consume were, in order, Ryu, Dhalsim, and Bison. In a previous theory, I stated that Necalli consuming Bison alone would satisfy these requirements, as he had a red power at the core of his soul, served himself as an ambitious god of fire, and wanted to fill the world with destruction. https://manestreetblog.com/2019/02/20/necallis-true-purpose/

Could Karin fill this role instead of Bison? Could she be the person Necalli is destined to consume instead? Let’s look at the three statements the Warrior Prophet made to decide if this is the case.
The easiest statement to determine is the third one. Karin is technically a good person, but since she fully controls a corporation that makes weapons of destruction, like her satellite Red Spider Lily, this is pretty straightforward. Yes, she’s responsible with it, but since her name is literally branded on things that have the potential to hurt the earth and the people within it, the idea that she’s responsible doesn’t really matter. The idea that her machines exist is enough to brand her as “the one who fills the world with destruction.”

The first statement also applies to Karin, as she agonizes on her path to uphold her family’s legacy, the power of Kanzuki-ryu burning at her soul. The argument could be made that the Warrior Prophet implies that the warrior he predicts Necalli to eat is male, but this doesn’t matter much as Karin’s father, Daigenjuro Kanzuki, who wanted a male heir, gave Karin a “son’s upbringing”. A girl given a traditionally male role would be enough to qualify. https://streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/Karin#Background

The second statement, however, is the most challenging to fulfill, as the Warrior Prophet states that Necalli would consume “the one who serves the god of fire.” Dhalsim fits that prophecy as he worships the Hindu god of fire, Agni. Is there any proof that Karin worships a god of fire?
It honestly depends on how you look at it. There are six Japanese deities that we can look at to determine if Karin could fit this requirement. However, only two of them actually represent the concept of fire, Kagu-tsuchi and Kōjin, and try as I might, I could find no evidence that Karin paid either of these deities any sort of lip service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagu-tsuchi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Djin

There were also the deities Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, the moon god. Karin actually had more in common with Tsukuyomi, who represents not only the moon, but order and etiquette. It’s Karin’s rival, Sakura Kasugano, who seemed to represent Amaterasu better, namely because of her own connection to the sun: her tarot card.

This doesn’t help our cause, so this leaves us with two deities. The first is the volcano goddess, Konohanasakuya-hime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konohanasakuya-hime

What make this goddess particularly interesting is that her symbol is the cherry blossom, or sakura. She would be in line with Karin’s personality if Karin worshipped her, especially considering Karin’s obsession with Sakura Kasugano. In a sense, this could serve a double meaning of Karin worshipping both the deity and the girl. Considering the Kanzuki Estate has sakura trees growing within it, this isn’t entirely out of the discussion.

However, sakura trees are a common sight in Japan, so to say that Karin planted them in her mansion specifically as a loving tribute to her best friend and rival is pushing it, even if they share the same name. Moreso, there aren’t any icons within the Kanzuki Estate that depict or even suggest Konohanasakuya-hime as being a focus of deference for Karin.

There is one deity, however, that appears to be prevalent in Karin’s life, one that is fitting for Karin as well as her entire family: the god of war, Hachiman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachiman

There are at least two presumed symbols of Hachiman that I was able to find. The first, collectively, the statues in the Capcom Pro Tour Ring of Pride stage.

The statues look to be representations of Hachiman in a sitting position. The statue in the middle, however, has a distinguishing feature: it shares Karin’s ringlet hairstyle. This could potentially mean that Karin sees herself as an agent or even an incarnation of the god of war.
This could potentially mean something more considering the second symbol, the samurai armory in the Kanzuki Estate.

Considering I’m not well-versed in Japanese mythology, I can only assume that is yet another depiction of Hachiman in bronze outside of the armory. However, I’m more concerned on what’s inside. (For a better view, you can check out this Event Hubs article from 2016: https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2016/jul/26/have-you-seen-secret-samurai-armor-room-kanzuki-estate-stage/).

The armory contains several suits of armor and several pieces of weaponry that were used by samurai. While it’s unclear if they’re simple display pieces or part of a ritual Karin herself practices, it nonetheless shows that Karin has a vested interest in the samurai code of bushido. Whether this was instilled by her father or was something she picked up on her own, the point is that the presence of samurai equipment at the center of her estate and within reach of both Karin and anyone who fights there means that Karin holds those values close to her heart. (Also, the argument that the armory is a relic from her father’s tenure as the leader of the Kanzuki zaibatsu and not something Karin herself believes in doesn’t really hold up as Karin could have gotten rid of it the day she took over; she didn’t.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido

Quite simply, the corporate princess doesn’t just believe in street fighting as a means of keeping her fit and active – she’s a passionate warrior with a strict honor code. As someone who wants to uphold it, it then makes perfect sense that she would see Hachiman as a guide for her personal life and as an idol who she reveres.

In other words, this could mean that Karin serves the god of war, but with the statue of Hachiman with her hairstyle in her CPT stage, it could also mean that she believes herself a version of Hachiman, meaning she serves herself as the god of war. In “Necalli’s True Purpose”, I pointed out that Bison served himself as the god of fire, so basically Karin is just doing what Bison already has.

However, as I’ve already shown, Hachiman isn’t a god of fire – he’s a god of combat, and Dhalsim is shown to actually utilize fire in his moves. In addition, Hachiman’s characteristic emblems are doves and the bow and arrow, neither of which are displayed at the Kanzuki Estate. So, if Necalli were to realize the Warrior Prophet’s prediction by eating Karin, how would Karin’s worship of Hachiman fulfill the “god of fire” requirement?

It isn’t what Hachiman is, but what he brings. War can be a metaphor for fire as it too destroys whatever it touches. War brings with it the fires of combat and the scorching of the environment around it. War razes everything to the ground and eliminates all in its path. War itself is an insatiable conflagration that consumes everything without mercy. As the saying goes, war is hell. Like fire, though, war can also be controlled. While it destroys, it depends on its controllers how much it is allowed to destroy. Its scale can be small, only affecting a few areas, or it can be enormous, affecting whole countries. Karin herself has the capability to affect things on a big or small level. She can focus her resources on destroying tiny-in-comparison Shadaloo or she can use her vast arsenal to take over the world if she so desired.

The only thing stopping her from doing this is her morality. As stated in the Queen’s Resort side story, “The Kanzuki clan despised the use of power for oppression.” Later, the story explains:
“It is all too natural for leaders to fall prey to their desires. Power begets power, wealth begets wealth. Soon enough, the difference between good and evil becomes a moot point, and leaders become power-craving monsters, just as Shadaloo has become.

“If I lose my way, and power consumes me, the influence the Kanzuki family wields will only ever serve nefarious ends, Karin thought to herself. I cannot allow that to happen.” https://game.capcom.com/cfn/sfv/column/130364.html

Karin could literally set the world on fire, and so the unresolved part of the Warrior Prophet’s prophecy would hold true if Necalli devoured her.

But there’s one last thing that must be addressed, and it’s the final clue that could seal Karin’s fate as his destined victim: Getepe. As I briefly stated in “Getepe and the Seven Sisters”, there’s a theory that Getepe is the phonetic of a word in Hebrew that means “Fruit of Life.” If this holds true, then it means that Getepe is Karin. https://manestreetblog.com/2019/08/26/getepe-and-the-seven-sisters/

Why? In my very first theory on YouTube, “Speculation: Karin is Ingrid?!”, I stated, “It’s been said that a quince was likely the fruit that Eve ate before she and Adam were kicked out of the Garden of Eden.” Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life, meaning that the quince would be the Fruit of Life. https://youtu.be/3DEzoOG8JrM?t=133

The quince’s name in Japanese? Karin.