More Street Fighter V characters! The news just keeps on coming for the next big installment in what is arguably the most well-known fighting game franchises in existence, and Capcom may have let a bit too much slip out in the process. First things first, however, because Zangief is back. His presence in the next installment has been confirmed by Capcom, and he even got a shiny debut trailer.
Zangief’s inclusion was publicly revealed at IgroMir Expo 2015, which took place across the pond, in Russia. However, while this is great, the really juicy news was unintended. Leaked by a pop culture magazine in Japan, called Famitsu, was a set of screenshots depicting an entirely new character, Laura.
Laura has no official trailer from Capcom as Zangief did, but the screenshots made public tell enough of a story to at least partially flesh out this character. Take a look:
Hailing from Brazil and wielding the seemingly unrelated power of lightning, Laura’s style is distinctly her own. She hops, grapples, and focuses on submission-style combat, and all the while she wields the lightning. Check of the rest of the leaked pics below. As far as appearance, the sexual overtones are the elephant in the room, but it’s far from extreme relative to Capcom’s track record. If anything, Laura’s revealing top is modest when lined up with a few of the other female characters from the franchise. Aside from that and her bright green Dragonball-esque getup, her hair is the next feature to catch the eye. The feminine half-shave seems to be catching on in countries other than America.
Until Capcom comes forward to make some kind of statement on her, Laura’s existence remains limited to these pictures as far as the public is concerned. Famitsu was apparently reporting on Zangief and allowed access to the Laura pictures to be published alongside it. Anyone that followed the hyperlink to the page probably pieced together that the work was taken down. No statement has been made by Famitsu, but it’s assumed by most at this point that it was an honest mistake and that Famitsu is scrambling to clean up its mess. Regardless, enjoy the fruits of the Streisand Effect below, manifest as this gallery of the nine leaked Laura screenshots.