Mai Shiranui

**Mai Shiranui** is a character from both the *Fatal Fury* and *The King of Fighters* series. Her official nickname is **The Alluring Ninja Girl**.

## Story

### Fatal Fury series

Mai Shiranui is the granddaughter of Hanzo Shiranui, master of Ninjitsu and Koppoken. Mai learned from her grandfather the secrets of Ninjitsu. She had met Andy Bogard, during this time, who had come to train under her grandfather. Mai then had to take alternate courses from her grandfather's friend, Jubei Yamada, in Ninjitsu. At first, Mai was uninterested in Andy and only thought of him as another callous man only interested in his training. It wasn't until he gave her a present on her birthday that she saw him in another light and eventually fell in love with him. Though, this confuses him greatly.

She spends much of the series endlessly pursuing Andy and fantasizing about various daydreams about their wedding. When developers were asked about her whereabouts during *Mark of the Wolves*, they chose not to answer the question directly. However, they did divulge that she still loves Andy — as she always has — ten years later. Yasuyuki Oda, jokingly stated she is probably still looking for Andy but is mostly out of luck.

### The King of Fighters series

*Mai's life in this timeline is the same as her Fatal Fury counterpart up until Fatal Fury 2.*

During nearly every King of Fighters tournament, Mai pesters Andy to enter and form a team with her. Upset at his refusals and choice to join a separate team, she forms an all-women team with the help of Yuri and King. In the following years, her teammates change, but she remains firm to enter the tournament to help encourage King and her fellow team members and to prove to Andy the error of his ways. In *The King of Fighters 99*, she is finally able to join the tournament in the same team as Andy. However, the following tournament was asked to step out to allow Mary to investigate a case. Denied again, she is angered by the request and joins the Women's team again and has remained a reoccurring member ever since. In the various team endings, she is often celebrating the team's victory at King's bar or fantasizing about Andy.

#### Orochi Saga

##### The King of Fighters '94

Mai meets Yuri Sakazaki, both of them are frustrated that they couldn't enter KOF with who they wanted to (Ryo and Andy respectively). Mai then remembers her "soul sister" she met in England named King. Rushing over to England, King agrees to enter KOF with them as the **Women Fighters Team**, representing **England**.

##### The King of Fighters '95

King runs into Mai and Yuri by chance, asking her once again to join her in KOF as the ***Women Fighters Team***.

##### The King of Fighters '96

Prior to the 1996 tournament, Kasumi Todoh is referred to the event by King. She greets and tests her other teammate, **Mai Shiranui**, through a short martial arts scuffle. Overjoyed to participate in a grand event with worthy teammates, she becomes a member of the new Women Fighters Team. After the tournament's conclusion, however, Kasumi continues to search for her father.

##### The King of Fighters '97

Chizuru Kagura, the hostess of the previous tournament, publicly announces that she will be participating in the 1997 tournament to see how she stacks up with other fighters. In reality, she is coming in order to convince Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami to work together again. She decides to team up with King and Mai to form the ***Women Fighters Team***.

#### NESTS Chronicles

##### The King of Fighters '99

Two years after the previous tournament's conclusion, Mai joins with the ***Fatal Fury Team***, fulfilling her desire to be close to her loved Andy.

After Krizalid's defeat during the tournament's climax, the underground NESTS base collapse and exploded, which caused many of the fighters participating this year to get caught up in. Andy's brother, Terry Bogard, was one of the many fighters to be caught in it; however, his body was nowhere to be found, with his glove being the only thing left. While Andy and Mai believe the worst has happened to him, Joe doesn't easily believe Terry was dead.

##### The King of Fighters 2000

A few days prior to the 2000 tournament, Yuri and Mai call Kasumi to be a member the next year and gracefully accepts. The next day, they hold audtions for who would be their fourth member. A girl named Hinako Shijou enters, with the three girls are surprised to see a girl like Hinako would enter a tournament. Mai deciding her worth by making Yuri and Hinako fight. Hinako succeeds in proving her worth by defeating Yuri in a mock match.

#### Tales of Ash

##### The King of Fighters XI

Mai did not participate in the eleventh tournament to search for Andy, who was busy at training his disciple, Hokutomaru.

##### The King of Fighters XIII

Mai decides to enter the KOF XIII with her first KOF teammates, King and Yuri, as she felt that the KOF tournament isn't complete without her. She isn't upset at Andy while making her choice, content to enter a tournament with both her and him in it once more.

After Ash Crimson erased himself and Saiki from history, all memories of him were erased from all who knew him, including Mai. In the Women Fighters Team ending, she is one of the many ladies who fight in the Pao Pao Cafe (much to Richard's dismay).

#### New Age Saga

##### The King of Fighters XIV

Prior to the fourteenth tournament, Mai meets King at Illusion, who once AGAIN was unable to make a team with Andy. King decided to join with Mai, but had to find a third member, as Yuri was teaming up with Ryo and Robert, Blue Mary and Vanessa was unavailable, and Kasumi and Hinako was ignored due to her desire to team up with Andy. Running out of time to regester, a girl named Alice spoke up and asked to join the Women's Team. King has heard of Alice, as a new up-and-coming fighter from South Town. Mai agrees with her joining, if Alice lands a single hit on her. While she was unable to hit her for most of the fight, she got lucky with a Diving Tackle, while dodging her Ryuuenbu. Impressed, Mai and King accepted Alice as the new member of the Women's Fighting Team, born with a passion for defeating Terry, Joe, and Ryo.

At some point during the tournament, she ran into Andy, once again angry at him not joining her. She also meets the very eccentric ninja Bandeiras.

After the tournament's climax the heroines all enjoying a meal together.

##### SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy

Several months prior to the events of the fifteenth tournament, Kukri's obsession for women caused him to create a pocket dimension where women fighters must survive in his universe and join forces and slug it out with other women. Kukri transports most of the female fighters, including Mai, to this pocket dimension, and they suddenly fall unconscious. Upon waking, they find themselves in a strange mansion, along some male fighters who have been changed into women. The fighters attempt to battle their way out, but are confronted by the mastermind, Kukri, who reveals he has trapped them in his castle in a pocket dimension and they must defeat him to return home.

Upon Kukri's defeat, the pocket dimension collapsed, sending everyone back through their dreams. Mai reawakens back to reality after a nightmare where she was getting married to Kukri instead of Andy. She punches Kukri, only to be revealed to be Andy in reality.

##### The King of Fighters XV

Mai teams up with Yuri and Athena Asamiya to form the **Super Heroines Team**.

## Personality

Mai is a very cheerful and temperamental girl. She tends to also be somewhat of an airhead and admires any kind of beauty or attractiveness, which sometimes comes across as being vain. She also at times compares attractive boys who flirt with her or acknowledge her beauty to Andy, acknowledging their attractiveness but ending with a comment saying they're 'not as cute as Andy'.

Like many girls, she has dreams of getting married to her Prince Charming. She found that same Prince Charming is Andy and self-proclaimed herself his fiancé, which at times, has creeped out Andy himself. Within the Fatal Fury series, he mostly tries to ignore her advances as he views her like a younger sister but has a hard time adequately returning platonic affections due to her persistence.

Another notable example of this within the King Of Fighters series, is her intro with Andy in KOF '97, proposing to Andy outright in a wedding dress, or scaring Andy with a mock child doll in KOF '99 and 2001. Despite this, Andy mutually acknowledges her love but prefers to keep quiet about it.

Although her peppy fighting persona suggests otherwise, Mai is actually a traditional and ideal Japanese beauty. However, her pride as a Shiranui ninja and infatuation with Andy usually keeps her from fitting the mold 100% of the time.

Despite her complex relationship, Mai has shown her support for the women's team and their notorious reputation for years and enjoys working with her teammates. As for Andy's older brother Terry, Mai admires him, although she gets skeptical when she feels he's hiding something about Andy. Mai shows deference towards Joe but she feels his silly habits are a little annoying.

## Powers

* **Pyrokinesis:** Mai is able to create and control fire. However, she cannot control flames that she didn't create, and is not immune to other types of fire.
	+ **Create Fire:** Mai can create fire.
	+ **Fire Attacks:** Mai can infuse her attacks with fire. She can also completely cloak herself with her flames.
	+ **Fire Channel:** Mai can channel fire through her clothes, weapon, and anything she touches.
	+ **Fire Burst:** Mai can cause explosions and eruptions of fire.
* **Aerial Control:** Mai has the ability to temporarily stay airborne and control her movements in the air. This allows her to float, glide, change directions in mid-air or gain temporary flight.
* **Hammer Space:** Mai can hide/pull out infinite weapons and items from her clothing and cleavage, from seemingly nowhere. She keeps multiple fans (her weapon of choice) with her that can't be seen. She also sometimes carries clothes, giant fans, and usually an umbrella.
* **Bunshin:** Mai can temporarily project shadow images of herself and her weapon.

## Skills

* **Changing** - With only one gesture, Mai can change clothes within a second.
* **Climbing** - Due to her ninja training, Mai is an expert with climbing surfaces.
* **Stealth** - Because of her ninja training, Mai is a master of stealth.
* **Clothing** - With her revealing outfit, it's easy for her male opponents to get distracted, giving her the opportunity to defeat them. She can also create clothing, particularly traditional Japanese clothes.
* **Cooking** - Mai can cook food for particular occasions.

## Fighting Style

Mai uses the Shiranui-ryuu form of ninjutsu combined with her fire powers to fight.

Her style resembles normal ninjutsu with more graceful and majestic moves, somewhat in reference to traditional Japanese dance. She also uses paper fans as weapons, integrating them into her combat technique and using them to perform several combinations and moves. Her clothing, specifically, the tassel on her ninja garb, is also used to attack the opponent. She's also exceptional in hand to hand combat using different throws and techniques to gain the upper hand. Mai has shown great strength as well as being strong enough to throw enemies heavier than her and using her strong elbow strike capable of breaking through her enemy's defense's incapacitating them.

## Fanon Appearances

### Game Appearances

* Capcom vs SNK 3: Fighters' Spirit - Playable character
* King of Fighters Retrowave - Playable character
* KOF: Maximum Impact 3 - Playable character
* Neo Geo 2: Match of the Century - Playable character
* Neo Geo Battle Coliseum 2 - Playable character
* The King of Fighters 2001: Re-Bout - Playable character
* The King of Fighters 2000: Re-Bout - Playable character
* Capcom Vs SNK Ultimate - Playable character
* KOF: The King of Fighters XVI - Playable character
* Real Bout Garou Special - Playable character
* The King of Fighters: Random Definition - Playable character
* Neo Geo Battle Arena - Playable character
* The King of Fighters: Crossover Calamity - Playable character
* The King of Fighters XVI - Playable character
* Street Fighter X KOF - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: First Kingdom - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Second Kingdom - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Warriors - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Masters - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Class C - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Begining of the Scourge - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Third Kingdom - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Disaster in the Story - Playable character
* SNK vs Capcom 2: SVC Clash - Playable character
* MUGENGERS: The Orochi's Origin - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: The First Step - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Memorial - Playable character

## Gallery

The King of Fighters XIII artwork 2.SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy artwork.

## Trivia

* Mai's exclusion from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate due to japan's CERO (the rating board in Japan) ended up making her somewhat way more popular because of the many memes and fanarts where Mai is bullied to the point where she even became evil in memes posted by the YouTuber TheGamerLover.