Blanka The Magician (Is He Green or Yellow?)

My brother recently dressed up as a horrible Blanka for Halloween and painted himself green so my buddy Vic’s response to that was, “So he’s Blanka from the later versions?” I looked at him blankly, “Um no, just the very standard Blanka.” Puzzled, Vic said that my brother should have painted himself yellow and thus begins the war.

In the very original Street Fighter II, before picking Bison, Sagat, etc., Blanka was green. Vic swears on his left eye that he is yellow. Now take a look at this screen shot.

Do you still think he’s green? Sure, maybe he’s not as green as the snake and plants in the background but I don’t think he’s totally yellow like Vic believes. I sent out an email asking 5 people who range from casual-gamer to really-casual-gamer. They all said green. Tray even jumped in and asked his people, the responses he got were “green”, “gatorade green”, and “he’s fucking green, please stop asking me.”

Then I tested something…

To my shock, there were absolutely no traces of green in Blanka - at all. No matter where I moved my color picker, he was always in the blatant yellow range. If you want to be literal about it then yes, Blanka’s original appearance is yellow.

Vic wins by technicality.

However, ask yourself why everyone was so sure that he is green? Easy, it’s the marketing of the character and the character himself. Blanka lives in the thick jungles of Brazil, he was raised by animals, and he shits in plants. Give anybody that scenario with a color to match it and they’ll most likely say green.

Vic then lost his mind and decided to ask his friends (about 10 people) for their opinions. Everyone said green.

I win by popularity.

This is one of the wildest illusions I’ve ever had the pleasure of wasting an entire morning on. Stay tuned for the next nerd argument where Vic claims that Mario is an illegal Mexican.