Continuing with Guilty Gear design comparisons; Kuradoberi Jam

Kuradoberi Jam is an interesting character in Guilty Gear Xrd. Not because she got a new voice actor or new moves, but because she is a good example on how 2010 character design sensibilities often clash with late 1990’s/early 2000’s. Jam was designed fifteen years ago, and the time shows itself.

Jam’s overall visuals have stayed relatively same to the point that she can be recognised as the same character, much like how Ky can be recognised despite all the little changes. Unlike Potemkin and Millia, Jam’s design follows the same school of updating as Sol’s; tweaks and exaggerations. I’ll be using Jam’s Guilty Gear X and Accent Core designs to contrast her Xrd design. In reality, her design went through a lot of small changes with each new illustration, changing little things here and there, like touching up the can on her head, but let’s just stick with the original and AC design. This entry will be long as it is.

From left to right; Xrd, X and AC. While the Xrd illustration makes Jam look a bit scrawny, her in-game model is much softer and fuller

The main points we notice from Jam’s design is that her sleeves have grown again. Originally, they were low key, but you still noticed them. They’ve now grow to half of her body length and have a kanji for centre on them with cooking flames above them. This element is very much something BlazBlue would have. Litchi’s main theme may be mah-jong, but her outfit and theme carries some elements from Jam. It’s not too farfetched to assume that the centre kanji 中, which happens to be the red dragon tile in mah-jong, was put on Jam’s sleeves to reference Litchi back. Hell, Litchi’s name itself is a reference to riichi, thou the name is directly taken from Lychee, the Chinese plum. Fits her colours and all. Speaking of sleeves, the straps that kept them together are now connected with one bigger buckle rather than two, despite there’s still two straps. It must have a some sort weird locking mechanism inside. There is also an additional piece under armpits that connect to the sleeves somehow, leaving her shoulder exposed. This most likely has something to do with keeping hose sleeves better in place. It’s a nice additional detail.

To keep with exaggerations, Jam’s hair has more volume now, especially towards the bottom and top. The hair that’s coming from the oolong tea can has now consistent shape, making it look like an upside down omega. Her forehead hair is sleeker and she wears a pink pin to keep it in place unsymmetrically. She had shorter, wilder forehead hair before. Hair in general has been a point in character design that changes a lot, and currently we’re in an era where sleek, unruly and even hair is most utilised. Compare to either GGX or AC Jam to see how there’s less strands and more even mass. Speaking of the can, it also got a visual update. The can itself reads 烏龍茶 for oolong tea, and was originally modeled after Pokka oolong cans in colour, but the current one seems to be revised to look similar to Suntory’s oolong can. While the can carries that metal sheen-rye colouring to it, the black shield where the text is placed can’t be mistaken. The kanji also dropped 茶 for tea, simply reading oolong. It even has that small underlining text to it, reading OolongTea. What is important that with these changes the can is more prominent detail than before.

Jam’s makeup is far more feminine than before, which fits her vain nature. Then again, she is a headstrong character that does her way and does it the best she can

Jam’s face has gone through some revisions. Much like every other character contracted some sort of face cancer in GGXX until AC’s revisions, Jam’s face went from quote round to sharply shaped to this modern pseudo-round with visible bones. In-game Jam’s face is much rounder, much like her eyes and mouth. While you still recognize her, they’ve done some significant tweaking. For example, Jam’s jawline has been revised completely and her cheekbones are of different roundness. Similar tweaking was done to her qipao’s collar, where it has a black angular design on it to expose it. Before she had a very traditional high collar.

A closer look at her hair as well as her collar

Similar things have happened elsewhere in her design as well. Jam has always had an attractive physique, and as that’s something that changes with time, her physical appearance has become slightly rounder from before. Jam’s frontal assets i.e. honkers have gained a bit more volume to, and in-game that actually changes her overall visual balance. Combined with the larger hair and longer sleeves, Jam’s a much more filling character on-screen. This contrast is best seen in her Asanagi no Koukyuu (Morning Calm’s Breath), (22+K/S/H), where before her breathing and circular hand motions kept it tight, but the Xrd version has a lot more happening in there, mostly due to the sleeves and her hitting fist to palm at the end with a slight knees bent stand. For those who don’t know the idea behind the move most likely just see Jam waving her arms around, which is sad to see as the whole idea behind Asanagi no Kokyuu is that Jam uses a breathing technique to control her chi in order to charge her moves up. I haven’t found if the form she does is on any wushu system, her older animation charges the chi at middle tan t’ien at the level of her heart. This fits, as the middle center is place of storing chi. The newer animation implies that she breathes for the lower tan t’ien located just below the navel. This center is more about the root of all things, where the purification of essence into qi begins. As such, it’s a place of regeneration, but also for sexual energies and is an essential spot for life. Worked for Jam. It should be noted that the effect animations have shifted too, as the old one vanished in Jam’s lower center while the new one finishes higher. The new effect also has a taijitu to it in red and blue.

Jam’s GGXX guidevideo shows the same basics that still pop up in Xrd

That CHESTO-ARU! is spot on from the new voice actor

Breathing has been part of Jam’s idle pose from the beginning, her taking sharp inhales and exhaling out while lower her arm. Xrd version of her still has this in, but it’s a bit toned down from previous. Her breathing rate has also been upped a slight amount, but like before, there’s no real sign of her controlling her breath during moves. It’s nothing major, but breathing is often described as one of the main methods of controlling one’s chi. Another example for this sort of approach would be Hokuto Shinken’s Tenryuu Kokyuu Hou from Fist of the North Star, which results Kenshiro losing his shirt. Jam actually had a parody Overdrive of Hayakuretsuken in GGAC in form of Tosai Hyakuretsu Ken.

From this angle you notice that there are a bit more sharp corners on her, like on the upper parts of the sleeves. The extra black knotted lace also is very visible

Her qipao is in overall shape the same. Main changes are the little tassels on her chest are again more exaggerated. I’m glad they’re not gone, but they could be far more animated in-game like the sleeves. Jam’s overall design is very simple, and details like this add character to her. Modern Jam is still simple in comparison to some others, but the few spots where that simplicity has been exaggerated gives off another kind of flavour. Sometimes these details aren’t even all that big but add information, like the new little straps in her qipao’s sides. On her left hip she has an additional tassel, which looks really nice, but again could be bit more animated. The skirt has lost its black trimming and the round emblem has been changed to straight hard angled variant of it. She also wears a black underskirt instead of white. This actually throws her colours scheme off-balance a little bit. Previously she had black in places to further enhance the rest of colours on her outfit, the red and yellow, but with the sleeves being bigger and her shoes getting more exaggerated with black line on them, she’s darker than before. The black underskirt also cuts the light visual cue from her upper body to her legs. Arguably this brings her legs out a bit more.

Jam’s in-game base stance is very similar to her original. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s not exactly different either. The center kanji is visible from this angle

Her shoes’ collars were already exaggerated in GGAC’s design, and in Xrd those and the belt have ended up being even larger. Her shoes are also a shade duller than the rest of her outfit, which is really strange considering the red on her has been consistent to this point. In-game model still uses the same pallet, which is only a good thing. She’s also wearing a red garter on her left thigh, and while we’re going into this territory, Jam still retains some panty shots. Like previously, her qipao’s skirt doesn’t bounce around too much and is almost strategically placed at times. At times you don’t see any flashing, but seeing how Jam’s design is a bit more full this time, rest of her design shines through, especially with legs and torso. I’m not complaining, I’m just pointing it out. While Jam has been accused of panty flashing, this isn’t really the case. Most remember one of Jam’s winning pose where she goes over the opponent to wonder on stuff, but outside that one there’s not many spots where there’s gratuitous flashing. Her fame is a bit undeserved in this regard. She is a flirty character, being flashy in every aspect is to be expected.

The changes to Jam’s facelines are pretty jarring when they’re not in a right angle. Compare to the previous screenshot

In gameplay Jam hasn’t changed in how she’s approached. Still a rushdown character, still doing only bits of damage that you need to combo together, but she’s gotten some new moves, some moves have been changed to look different, but these changes make her feel like she’s been progressing with her style. The same can be said of GGX Jam compared to her GGAC iteration. During GGXX Jam got a whole slew of new options to work with and tweaks how she works, and in GGAC she became a character that was fun and easy to pick up, but required good execution skills to utilise her moveset properly. Since GGX, Jam has been my choice of character because of these points.

Jam’s new voice actress is Rei Matsuzaki. While she does good job and everything, I do have a personal preference towards Manami Komori’s way of pronouncing things and having an interesting depth to her yells. They’re both fine really, it will just take some time to get used to how Matsuzaki ends most move names in a very, very different fashion from her predecessor. I do love her Chest-aru! yell a lot already.

One last point I want to make is about her Instant Kill, Gasenkotsu. The kanjis used are 我羨惚, standing for Self, Admiration and falling in love with. The last one also can stand for Idiot. As with names like this that play with words, Gasenkotsu is something like Admiring One’s Self-love, but as per her IK animation, it might just as well be Admiring One’s Idiocy. Narcissism doesn’t really cut it, but fits in the allotted slot.

During Gasenkotsu kanjis for Tenjou Tenge Yuiga Dokuson, 天上天下唯我独尊, appear. This line is traditionally translated as I alone am honored in heaven and on earth, and it can be transliterated as Above heaven, under heaven, I alone am worthy of honour. It is believed that Buddha Śākyamuni said this after his enlightenment. Thus, Gasenkotsu is Jam proclaiming her admiration for herself in how she has gained enlightenment. Because of the kanji 惚, she’s also proclaiming her stupidity and self-conceit on the matter. You always knew there was a reason why Jam looked like an idiot during her Instant Kill. All in all, as Jam’s character is about having her own way and seeing it as the true one out of all, Gasenkotsu reflects this attitude. She admires herself for choosing what she sees as an enlightened path.

Her stuff always gets screwed up ever since she got the reward in GGX…