| Taki | |
|---|---|
Taki in Soulcalibur IV (aged 29) |
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| Series | Soulcalibur |
| First game | Soul Edge (1996) |
| Voiced by (English) | Desirée Goyette (II, III, IV) |
| Voiced by (Japanese) | Fujiko Takimoto (Soul Edge, Soulcalibur, II, III) Sachiko Kojima (Legends, IV, Broken Destiny) |
| Fictional profile | |
| Birthplace | Fū-Ma no Satō, Sengoku Japan |
| Fighting style | Musō-Battō-Ryū ninjutsu |
| Weapon | Dual swords Rekki-Maru and Mekki-Maru |
Taki (タキ Taki, also written as 多喜) is a fictional character in the Soul series of fighting games by Namco. Taki, one of the series' good characters, is a demon huntress and a runaway kunoichi whose motive is destroying the evil sword known as Soul Edge.
Taki, Mitsurugi and Siegfried are the only characters who have been featured as a player character in every title in the Soul series,[1] including the spin-off game Soulcalibur Legends and the upcoming Soulcalibur V. Taki also plays a major role in the Soulcalibur manga series, killing Cervantes and destroying Nightmare. She received positive reception as one of the most popular characters of the franchise as well as one of the sex symbols and top ninja characters in video gaming.
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Given that Mitsurugi was replaced by the character Arthur in some versions of Soulcalibur, Taki is the only character to have appeared in all versions of every game. Soulcalibur III director Katsutoshi Sasaki described her as his personal favourite character in the series.[2]
Taki debuted as one of the eight original characters in Soul Edge (1996), in which she is a 22-year-old Sengoku-era demon huntress who has been raised in the Fu-Ma ninja clan since she has been adopted by them as young orphan, and is also an accomplished spy and blacksmith.[3] Her Edge Master Mode in-game story states that, following a hard fight against a demon who haunted a temple, she discovered her beloved weapon, the magical blade she named Rekkimaru, was considerably weakened. Discovering the source to be Soul Edge, Taki decides to travel west to save her treasured sword, and to hunt down Soul Edge as well. The Prologue of Soulcalibur (1998) tells how eventually she has confronted and defeated the game's main villain and Soul Edge's wielder, Cervantes de Leon, and obtained a fragment of the shattered sword. In the process, she also saved another character, Sophitia, who was the one who shattered the smaller of the demon swords. She then tried to merge the fragment with her Rekkimaru without success. But when she fused it with her other weapon, Mekkimaru, it shed a powerful evil aura. In order to destroy this new evil weapon, Taki sought to pit it against Soul Edge, hoping both blades would then destroy each other.
However, the official profile released on the official website expanded on the backstory of her new weapon Mekkimaru, and how she obtained it. It starts with the revelation, from her master Toki, that former Fu-Ma leader Hachibei stole the mysterious sword and escaped. Turned a nukenin (fugitive ninja), she is ordered to kill both him and his daughter Chie, a childhood friend of her, and bring back the blade. With her network intelligence, Taki locates Hachibei quickly, but is also informed about Toki's obsession with the powers of the blade. Hachibei urges her to not let Toki get ahold the Mekkimaru and gives Taki a kodachi short sword. Taki later gives a false report to Toki, leading his forces in pursuit of Li Long, Chie's lover, under the idea he has Mekkimaru after killing both Hachibei and Chie. However, Taki is eventually found out by Toki's right hand man, a ninja known as Geki. Surviving the encounter, Taki becomes a nukenin herself, being pursued by her former friends as she tries to destroy Mekkimaru.[4] Taki returns as a starting character in the game's sequel, Soulcalibur II (2002), set seven years after the events of the first game. Her profile states that, after hearing Soul Edge was destroyed by a group of warriors, she decided to try to tame the evil kodachi instead. Four years after, several Fu-Ma ninja tried to capture her without success. Taki discovers then that they carry Soul Edge fragments, and reaches the realization Toki has many more of them, and was looking for her to gather information. She then decided to keep both Soul Edge and Mekkimaru from Toki, but became worried of him as well.[5]
Four years later, the 29-year-old Taki returns in the fourth installment of the saga, Soulcalibur III (2005). Her story followed from her last profile, showing Taki decided to travel back to Japan, discovering that the Fu-Ma village was suffering from internal conflicts due to Toki's madness. Taki contacted the rebellious part of the Fu-Ma and discovered Toki's location at the underground Buddhist sanctum within the Hoko temple. Sneaking there, Taki faces her master Toki, who has recently absorbed the Oni spirits within the shrine. Taki defeats her master with the techniques he taught her, but then the spirits dwelling within him came out from him and traveled west. Knowing they are going for Soul Edge, and that the sword's presence was weak enough to allow its destruction, Taki begins a new journey to end Soul Edge. In Soulcalibur IV (2008), Taki witnesses how the battle between Siegfried and the Soul Calibur-wielding and Soul Edge-wielding Nightmare unleashed a powerful cataclysm. She then learned that Soul Edge was in the city of Ostrheinsburg, and Siegfried was heading there with Soul Calibur, and so she sets out there.[6] In her ending, she tracks down and defeats Siegfried, who takes the evil sword and allows himself to be crystallized while she silently walks away. According to the text-only epilogue, "There is no way to know how Taki lived her life from that point on. She sealed such a great evil and disappeared from history."[7]
Contrary to her Soulcalibur IV ending, however, Taki was confirmed to return in Soulcalibur V (2012),[8] set 17 years after the events of the previous game. She is set to appear along with a young female disciple named Natsu ("a mini-Taki doused in pink"[9]), who is a debuting new player character in the series.[10][11]
Taki appeared as a playable character in the 2005 crossover tactical role-playing game Namco x Capcom, where she represented the Soulcalibur universe alongside Mitsurugi[12] and was eventually paired with Waya Hime (Bravoman) and teamed-up with fighting game heroes Jin Kazama (Tekken) and Ryu (Street Fighter). In 2009, the costumes of Taki and Mitsurugi were featured as free DLC in the action role-playing game Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology.[13]
Taki had been originally conceived as a helmeted Yoshimitsu-like ninja with a large helmet covering her upper face and loose outfit during the early development of Soul Edge. Before the first game was released, Taki went through several major design changes,[5] eventually becoming a buxom, iron-masked woman in partially-armored catsuit, a theme that she would keep through the series in various variations and colors (by default either crimson red or navy blue).
She has also some distinctly different costumes, such as her third one of Soulcalibur II modeled after the outfit worn by Waya Hime in Bravoman and Namco x Capcom.[14] That same costume was the first in which she has appeared with loose hair, instead of having her hair up in a ponytail (or hidden inside the helmet in her Soul Edge alternate), and with fishnet/mesh elements. Soulcalibur II also marked the first instance in which her primary outfit of the game has her face unmasked (actually there are no masks in all three of Taki's costumes in the game), althrough a metal mask from Soul Edge returned for her main costume of Soulcalibur III (blue-colored), this time shaped after the Japanese demon mask. About her appearance in the upcoming Soulcalibur V, in which Taki will be 46-year-old, the game's producer Hisaharu Tago joked: "In terms of her outfit, we don't know if she'll be in body tights".[8]
Taki's original weapon from Soul Edge is Rekki-Maru (a ninjatō which she made herself by infusing its blade with mystical powers and is her preferred weapon), one of the few original weapons to have never been replaced in the following games. Her secondary weapon is kodachi Mekki-Maru, the lower blade on her back which has been added in Soulcalibur as her new dual-wielding style (even though Taki uses a single weapon in Soul Edge, Mekki-Maru was in fact already featured there as an unlockable weapon). Her exclusive optional weapons include a jutte, a kunai, a tanto and an iron fan.
According to UGO, Taki is "a close-range fighter, end of story" - a character that is "blindingly fast, perhaps one of the most agile fighters in the series", and often perceived as being "cheap" by the other players.[15] According to IGN, her fighting style had "improved dramatically" between Soul Edge and Soulcalibur due to having given the second sword to wield once.[1]
Taki was one of the four character available in the pre-release version of Soulcalibur IV.[16] According to 1UP.com, in this game she is an agile and fast character even as she has lost many of her prior adventages, able to deal considerable damage and meant to be played aggressively (the main way to play Taki is to stay up close to the opponent), as well as a strong counterattacker; her weaknesses include having trouble playing against ranged-type characters and many unsafe special moves.[6] According to IGN, "thanks to her lightning-quick ninja reflexes", Taki is "a vicious combatant that new and old players alike love to control".[1]
It was revealed that Soulcalibur V's Natsu would "borrow many of Taki's trademark moves".[8]
Yujin released a four-inch tall immobile figurine of Taki after the release of Soulcalibur II, based upon her artwork for the title as part of their Namco Girls Series #1 line of gashapon figurines.[17] A second Yujin-maden Taki figurine was released for the collection Namco Girls Series #4, utilizing her secondary outfit from the same game.[18] A 1/8 scale (7.5-inch) scale resin kit of Taki from Soulcalibur II was also released by Wave in 2003.[19]
In 2006, Namco released a PVC figurine as part of a Soulcalibur III set Game Character Collection Soul Calibur III Series 1, based upon her promotional artwork for the game. While not posable, it came with three interchangeable weapons for it to hold and an alternate color version was later released in a secondary set.[20][21] A 12-inch action figure of Taki from Soulcalibur IV was released by Triad Games in 2008.[22] It was strongly criticized by GamesRadar as oversexualized.[23]
Taki's character design has resulted in mixed but largely positive reception, in particular in response to her large breasts and mostly skintight attires.[24][25] According to Kotaku, "her tighter than skin tight ninja outfit leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination, making her high kicks the stuff of Hustler magazine spreads",[26] while GamePro noted how her "um, assets bobbed and jiggled after each move ... fighting fans - and pubescent teen boys - will have a ton of fun"[27] and GamesRadar called "her love pillows" to be the reason of "a fanboy fave".[28]
UGO.com featured her in their 2008 series "Imaginary Love" ("thinking about her beauty and what she might be able to do with that amazing flexibility of hers makes our brains - and our pants - explode"),[29] also including her on their lists of top 11 Soulcalibur fighters (2008),[15] the 50 "hottest girls" in video games (2010)[30] and the 25 "hot ninja girls" in all media (2011).[31] In 2008, Virgin Media ranked her as fifth-best ninja hero in video games.[32] In 2010, GamePro Australia ranked her as the second-best video game ninja character and compared her with the similarily "improbably propotioned" Mai Shiranui (tongue-in-cheek adding they had "originally contemplated giving Taki two places on this list in honour of her formidable pair of assets").[33] She was also noted to be the favourite Soulcalibur character of GamePro US editors McKinley Noble and Billy Berghammer.[34][35]
In 2007, Taki was included by Tom's Games among the 50 greatest female characters in video game history (as "a skilled and noble warrior with a shining spirit and stunning beauty"), suggesting that she should be played by Zhang Ziyi.[36] In 2008, GamesRadar chose her to represent Soulcalibur in the article discussing the best breasts of video games ("sure, Ivy's a couple of cup sizes larger, but Taki probably has less back pain"),[37] and IGN ranked her as fifth-top fighter in the series, commenting that "everyone loves a good ninja, and Taki just so happens to be one of the best" and adding: "It's hard to imagine a Soulcalibur game without Taki. It just wouldn't be the same."[1] In 2011, Cracked listed the "sexy ninja" Taki as the first among the "important good guys" of Soulcalibur, calling her the series' equivalent of Street Fighter's Chun-Li,[38] and GameFront ranked her breasts as the 28th finest "boobs" in gaming.[39]
Taki has been featured in many GameDaily articles in the "Babes of the Week" series, including the 2007 special "Babe of the Week: Taki" ("becoming more agile – and big-breasted – with each new entry. She made such an impact ... that we awarded her a solo gig"), which praised her "superb fashion sense" and contrasted her with Mileena of Mortal Kombat.[40] Others included "Soul Calibur Hotties" in 2007 (with a comment that Taki "has left an impact from the very start" since the series' debut),[41] "Babes We're Thankful For" in 2008 ("the only thing better than a regular looking ninja is a big breasted female one"),[42] and 2009's "Brunettes" ("she's quite agile too, despite her tremendous breasts")[43] and "Asian Beauties" (in which she was called one of the "most elite fighters" in the series).[44] In 2008, GameDaily also ranked Taki as 17th on the list of "hottest game babes" ("female ninjas will always hold a special place in our hearts, especially Taki, what with her muscular physique and insanely large chest")[45] and featured her in the article "The Next Wave of Video Game Babes" ("there are many women worth mentioning in the Soul Calibur series, but if anyone really knows how to handle Darth Vader, Yoda and the Apprentice, it's Taki").[46]
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