Ayane (Dead or Alive)

Ayane (あやね) is a fictional character in the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises by Team Ninja and Tecmo (Koei Tecmo). She debuted as a hidden unlockable character in the PlayStation version of the fighting game Dead or Alive in 1998, and has appeared in all of its sequels where she served as the protagonist of Dead or Alive 3, and has appeared in all of the series' spin-offs.

Ayane is a teenage ninjutsu master of the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan, who was treated as an outcast during childhood due to her origin, but into adulthood, has become a respected highly-skilled ninja who currently assists alongside her older half-brother and current leader of the clan, Hayate, and has a complex relationship with her half-sister, Kasumi, and runaway ninja and the series' protagonist.

She is also prominently featured as a recurring supporting character in the Ninja Gaiden series since its revival in 2004 and has made multiple guest appearances in other games, in particular in the extended Dynasty Warriors franchise, as well as Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water.

Conception and creation
When developing Dead or Alive, lead developer Tomonobu Itagaki found the ninja concepts submitted by the design team to be the coolest, and chose to apply the concept to the game's protagonist, Kasumi. While she was originally intended to be a "kuru kuru ninja", a type of ninja that incorporates spinning movements into their behavior, however as work progressed Kasumi's characterization strayed from the concept. When developing the Dead or Alive ++ arcade version, as the team had decided to introduce the character Bass Armstrong, Itagaki felt it would be nice to incorporate another ninja into the title, creating Ayane.

While a basic version of Ayane was incorporated into the 1998 PlayStation port of Dead or Alive, the Dead or Alive++ arcade version meanwhile fleshed her out fully, giving her the movements they had originally planned for Kasumi. Itagaki noted due to their technical capabilities they had some trouble with the character concept, in particular difficulty finding "a balance between onset, duration, and rigidity, as well as the coolness of the motion" due to the rotating aspect compared to Kasumi's more linear movement. He felt they reached a level of perfection with her in the game's sequel, Dead or Alive 2.

Though initially her attacks were weaker than other characters, they balanced them gradually with Itagaki aiming for a character that would have a psychological impact on players as they fought her regardless of her strength. Ayane's character background was also meant to have an impact on players, introducing her as Kasumi's half-sister but with a significantly hard background. In Itagaki's view, both Kasumi and Ayane were representative of "many unhappy women who have been at the mercy of a male society", and felt this aspect to their portrayal gave them some depth and importance. Instead of telling it outright in-game though, he included a relationship chart with Dead or Alive so players would recognize the key details between each of the cast and imagine the rest, though later games more directly fleshed out the sister's relationship through in-game cinematics. With Dead or Alive 3, she was given attacks and moves from the Lucha Libre martial art due to the development team wanting to include them somewhere amongst the game's fighting styles.

Ayane's personality is portrayed as a cold demeanor and "extremely serious", in contrast to Kasmui's "soft" personality, an aspect of the latter which Itagaki felt was symbolic of the Dead or Alive series. As a result, Ayane was regarded as a better fit for the "very hard-edged" Ninja Gaiden series, appearing in several of its games. The sentiment was shared by Koei Tecmo general manager Yosuke Hayashi, who stated that the image of Ayane "fighting while covered in blood symbolizes the intensity and sharpness" of the games. While the mainline Dead or Alive series has maintained her personality, later titles have given her a wider range, such as when interacting with the characters Zack or Marie Rose in Dead or Alive 6.

Designs
Standing 157 cm (5 ft 2 in) tall, Ayane is a young Japanese woman with red eyes and measurements of 93-54-84 cm (37-22-33 in). She has purple hair extending to her neck, with bangs in the front. Several designs were considered during development, including a biker style outfit and another with various short skirts that exposed her chest. The finalized design gave her a dark blue miniskirt dress with an orange trim and a butterfly imprint on her left thigh, while the upper portion exposed her cleavage and shoulders and a slit goes slightly up her right thigh. In addition it had matching flowing sleeves, stockings, and high heel boots, while a headband goes across her brow, with a ribbon tied to the left side of it. An orange sash surrounds her waist, tied into a large bow on her back. Even after the outfit was completed, the development team spent additional time working out the proper color scheme.

In terms of physical appearance, the development team wanted to counter the then-perception that it was impossible to "create beautiful girls in 3D", with Itagaki aiming to create "Digital Venus" designs that would be popular on media character rankings. To this end particular emphasis was placed on the size and movement of the cast's breasts, in part due to the development team's own preference and what they perceived as a "breast boom" in Japan at the time, an increase in average bust sizes across the nation. Due to Ayane's original outfit exposing her shoulders Itagaki gave their animation and movement particular attention, describing the process as "trial and error" and not being satisfied with the results until three days prior to the game's release deadline.

With Dead or Alive 3, her primary attire was changed to a black ninja outfit that covered more of her body, while giving off a "somber tone". Itagaki noted he preferred it, in part due to the fact he was unsure what original ideas they could do with her ribbon outfit. Regardless, the ribbon outfit has appeared in other games in the series as a clothing option. In addition to these, Ayane has had a multitude of other outfits throughout the franchise including swimsuits, schoolgirl clothes, and other variations of ninja attire, some of which meant to represent her as a "dark heroine", while others such as her appearance in the Ninja Gaiden series have integrated a butterfly motif.

Several changes to Ayane's appearance and aesthetics however have been met with considerable pushback from players. For her appearance in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, they changed her face to have her appear older. The change received backlash from fans and was reverted, howevever a similar change later in the Dead or Alive series was met with less resistance. For Dead or Alive 5, Hayashi wanted to present the game as more "mature" and stated the characters were "no longer content to be eye candy", in Ayane's reducing the size her breasts and reducing their jiggle. Players again objected, with lead developer Yohei Shimbori stating fans requested "bigger breasts" much to the development team's surprise, and the change was undone.

In Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden
Ayane is a Japanese kunoichi introduced in the video game Dead or Alive by Koei Tecmo. Raised by one of her ninja clan leaders, Genra, she is treated as an outcast with her only friend being series protagonist Kasumi. She later discovers she is the daughter of series villain, Raidou, who raped a woman named Ayame, Kasumi's and Hayate's mother. Angered this was withheld from her, she turns her aggression towards her half-sister, who she saw as living the exact opposite life she had. When Kasumi leaves the clan's village, Genra orders Ayane to hunt her down. She continues this mission into the game's later sequels, but in Dead or Alive 3 discovers that Genra was captured by the corporation DOATEC who had turned him into a superhuman puppet. Taking matters into her own hands, she kills her foster father to end his misery. In Dead or Alive 4, she helps bring down DOATEC by destroying their complex. Later in Dead or Alive 6, she fights alongside Kasumi and her half-brother Hayate to defeat a revived Raidou.

Outside of the main series, Ayane also appears in all of the Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball titles. Dead or Alive: Code Cronus, a prequel project intended to tell the story of Kasumi's and Ayane's childhoods and explore "the innocence and cruelty of children," was intended for release but cancelled when Itagaki left Tecmo. In all appearances, Ayane is voiced by Wakana Yamazaki in Japanese. Meanwhile in English she has been voiced by a variety of actresses, including Gina DeVettori for Dead or Alive 2, Janna Levenstein for Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball 2 up to Dead or Alive Paradise, Wendee Lee for Dead or Alive: Dimensions, Brittney Lee Harvey for Dead or Alive 5, and Janice Kawaye for Dead or Alive 6.

She additionally appears in the Ninja Gaiden series starting with a minor role in the 2004 video game, appearing in a more prominent role in Ninja Gaiden Black where if the player chooses the game's "Ninja Dog" mode she asserts herself as Ryu Hayabusa's master and gives him items throughout the game to make it substantially easier. In later games such as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge she is available in particular missions and multiplayer modes as a playable character. In tie-in games, she is featured in Zen Pinball: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, a 2009 pinball game for the PlayStation Network, and in the 2013 mobile action card game Hyakuman-nin no Ninja Gaiden. In Japanese, the character is voiced again by Wakana Yamazaki in all appearances, while Janice Kawaye voices her thourhgout the series in English.

In other games
Ayane made her debut in Koei's Dynasty Warriors franchise in 2009 with a non-player character guest appearance in Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, where her Fuma Kodachi swords are available as the player's optional weapons. In 2011, Ayane's Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 costume parts were made available as exclusive DLC for Dynasty Warriors Online during the game's first anniversary promotion campaign.

Ayane appears as a player character in the series' 2011 spin-off game Warriors Orochi 3 in her design and primary costume, as well as playstyle, from Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. In this game, set after DOA4, Ayane enters another world, named Orochi, as she stars in the Siege of Hasedō-themed stage and joins Yoshitsune Minamoto's party to find a way back home, then follows Sima Zhao's army and helps them to locate and rescue the prisoners at Xuchang. Ayane returns—together with Ryu—as a playable character in 2012's Shin Sangoku Musou VS (which was abortively planned to be released in English as Dynasty Warriors Vs. or Dynasty Warriors 3DS), as a free downloadable content (DLC) character, once again wearing her Sigma 2 costume. In the 2017 crossover title Warriors All-Stars (Musou Stars), Ayane is playable by default, where she instead representing the Ninja Gaiden series to accompany the said series' original protagonist Ryu Hayabusa, rather than representing her original game series debut Dead or Alive, unlike Kasumi, Marie Rose and Honoka.

Ayane's classic dress outfit is included in the 2004 Director's Cut version of the survival horror game Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly as an alternate costume for Mayu, one of this game's two protagonist sisters (the other one, Mio, may wear Kasumi's costume). It is also an unlockable costume for the character Kooh in 2007's Super Swing Golf: Season 2. In 2017, it was further added for players' avatars in Phantasy Star Online 2.

Ayane herself is featured as a bonus playable character in her own side-mission in Koei Tecmo's 2014 survival horror game Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, where she has been requested to find a missing girl named Tsumugi Katashina. She was additionally included in Marvelous Entertainment's fighting game Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, and later in Honey Parade Games' follow up title Shinobi Master Senran Kagura: New Link in 2018. In mobile titles, she was added to Shift Up's Destiny's Child as part of a collaboration event in 2020.

In other media
In the live-action film DOA: Dead or Alive, Ayane is a ninja assassin and Kasumi's former servant who is dedicated to seeking out and killing her, as Kasumi is considered an outcast to the clan. Ayane first confronts Kasumi before she flees the temple, then several times on the island. She has romantic feelings towards Hayate (she is not his half-sister in the movie, and neither she is Kasumi's), and initially believes him to be dead. Ayane fails to kill Kasumi but finds Hayate and aids him against DOATEC. During the film's finale, she saves him from a potentially fatal fall.

Ayane was portrayed by actress Natassia Malthe, a Norwegian of Malaysian descent, who was much older than Ayane is portrayed in the games. Malthe's Ayane uses a Japanese long sword and also wields two longs swords in the various promotional images in and out of character. Malthe said she has undergone "weeks of martial arts training in China" for the film. Tomonobu Itagaki later said he "wanted to have Japanese actresses portray Kasumi and Ayane" but the film's director Corey Yuen "believed strongly in his casting choices." Itagaki said he would have chosen Aya Ueto to play Ayane. The film's producer Mark A. Altman said that he "was such a fan" of Malthe being "threatening and enigmatic as Ayane" that he cast her in Dead and Deader.

Promotion and merchandise
Licensed merchandise items featuring Ayane include a variety of statuettes and action figures for the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series, including the figures by Kotobukiya,   Multiverse Studio,  Mr Big, Sega, Shunya Yamashita, and Volks. A high-quality statuette of Ayane came with the limited edition Japanese release of Ninja Gaiden.

Other merchandise include "3D" coffee mugs for Banpresto's arcade redemption games, posters, swimwear for women, 3D mousepads and body towels, wall scrolls, arcade sticks by Hori decorated with a graphic of Ayane and Kasumi (released in two versions, for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360), credit cards, and Dead or Alive talking clock that was bundled with another figure of either Ayane or Kasumi. Dead or Alive 4 pre-order bonuses in Japan included "the most beautiful slipcase in the world" and "the most beautiful poster in the world", the slipcase having an almost-naked Kasumi on one side and Ayane in her standard fighting outfit on the other. More Ayane-themed 3D mousepads were released as merchandise for DOA5 in 2012 and 2015 (chest)  and 2016 (butt), along with dakimakura pillow cases,  as well as for the Senran Kagura collaboration. A life-size bed sheet of Kasumi and Ayane was offered as part of the Deluxe Edition of Dead or Alive 6 in Japan and there is a life-size 3D mousepad of Kasumi from DOA Xtreme 3.

Ayane was featured in a special edition of Playboy magazine in 2004. The first batch of the unreleased Dynasty Warriors Vs. was supposed to contain DLC codes for Ayane's judo and volleyball outfit costumes. Free downloadable costumes for Ayane were offered as pre-order bonuses for 2013's Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate at Amazon. First-print copies of Koei Tecmo's Musou Orochi 2 Ultimate (Japanese version of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate) were bundled with DLC codes for blond haired Ayane's special "Orochi" themed costume in DOA5. Dead or Alive 5 Last Round pre-order bonuses included Ayane's special "Ninja 2015" masked outfit at Amazon, Best Buy and GameStop, with an additional skimpy "Aloha" costume available at GameStop only. The game's fourth DLC season pass came with an exclusive costume for Ayane only, and a download code for an exclusive bikini in DOAX3 was offered to visitors attending Dead or Alive Festival 2016. Furthermore, the demo versions of Dead or Alive 5 featuring Ayane and Hayate as playable characters have been added as a downloadable bonus to the pre-order version of Ninja Gaiden 3 for the PlayStation 3, and the collector's edition release for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. She is one of the four playable characters available from the start in the free-to-play versions of Dead or Alive 5 (Core Fighters).

Critical reception
Since her debut, Ayane has received mixed reception. Gen Gamachi of Inside Games described her "appearance and excellent style" as having "blossomed", feeling both helped make her very popular while also praising her as a "quiet, cool beauty" with a strong sense of responsibility. The staff of Dreamcast Magazine meanwhile described her as a character "worthy of special attention", calling her equally glamorous as Kasumi and "just as much of an eyeful...if not more so!" They further praised how the series' clothing options increased her appeal, though called her gameplay "irritating". Mike Fahey of Kotaku on the other hand approved of her toned down breast physics in Dead or Alive 5, stating she now "[looks] more like a young girl who'd studied martial arts all of her life and less like a young woman who only studied martial arts when she wasn't recovering from cosmetic surgery."

Other outlets have focused more on her personality. Raymond Padilla of GameSpy stated he originally saw the character as an "uptight bitch with a massive chip on her shoulder", but that upon seeing her story which covered her upbringing and the root of her feud with Kasumi, helped him to like the character significantly more, and he emphasized it as an example of good writing in fighting games and the effects thereof. Dengeki Online staff writer "Masked Imaichi" stated that while characters with tsundere or kuudere are not uncommon in gaming at present, at the time of Ayane's release "she was a little tough, but with her cute face, she struck a chord with my heart", finding her even more appealing as the series progressed. The staff of Kakuchopurei meanwhile were more critical, describing her as "just a Terminator archetype who’s dressed to kill" and further complained that she had a "literal child-like demeanor." Leinad Chino from eGames News described her personality as "complex and multifaceted." Chino further stated "Her determination and willpower make her an admirable and respected figure among her fellow ninjas and in the gaming community."

The staff of Chinese website Sina Games stated that upon debut her "icy demeanor" and purple hair color quickly drew the attention of players and helped make her a popular character. When discussing her movements, they stated they were "inferior to Kasumi in terms of elegance and noise" but highlighted "her petite and attractive figure". They additionally pointed out the significance of purple in her primary color scheme, noting the color was often believed to have "a healing effect, especially the healing light that people with hurt hearts". They felt it tied well into her backstory and personal traumas, especially as her character became more open as the series progressed. Additional praise was given to voice actress Wakana Yamazaki stating that while some saw her delivery as having a "lack of presence" and giving a weak impression, in their eyes it naturally fit the image of a lonely ninja and called her a perfect fit for the character.

Criticism regarding age and sexualization
In early Dead or Alive titles, Ayane was one of three characters whose in-universe age was stated to be under 18, a detail about her and the others Tecmo omitted from Western releases of the games. However, this caused issues in some countries such as Sweden, particularly in regards to the Nintendo 3DS title of the series, due to allegations of the game portraying underage characters in "pornographic situations". Kakuchopurei's staff in their earlier mention of her also acknowledged her underage status, expressing gratitude that she was made older in Dead or Alive 6 but the unease of "her previous incarnations with the skimpiest kunoichi outfits made for Japan strip clubs" lingered in their minds.

James Stephanie Sterling in an article for Destructoid addressed the matter in her own commentary, jokingly stating they felt like a "pedophile" when discussing the character and her "huge busters" with a Tecmo rep at E3 regarding Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. She further criticized Tecmo for caving in to player demand regarding the character's face for the title, as she felt its "child-like" appearance only added to the issue. In an article for GameFront, Sterling further called Ayane's young age coupled with her sexualization an "obsession with youth", a perceived aspect Japan she found particularly disturbing. She questioned if it was "so important to see [...] that the girl with gigantic tits is sixteen-years-old?", though felt that even if her age was increased Ayane would still "look like a creepy, big-breasted infant". Sterling also called out the sixaxis gimmick of moving her breasts with the controller, feeling the way it was advertised encouraged players to "Buy our game, and manipulate the jugs on this big-eyed lump of grade-A jailbait."

Other aspects of her sexualization have also come under fire, such as the staff of Hyper questioning her usage alongside other characters for imagery in Playboy, feeling it could give those critical of video games ammunition to attack with. Joe Newman of GamesRadar+ meanwhile criticized Ninja Gaiden 2's breast motion gimmick in regards to her as well as the Japanese wall fixture ad campaign, feeling both were out of place with not only the tone of the game but also her character, particularly for her role as a ninja. He further noted it followed a trend of Tecmo using such material to promote their games that to him suggested a lack of confidence in their works.