Kimberly

SPECIES
Human
HEIGHT
5'6"[1] (168 cm)[2]
WEIGHT
134 lbs[1] (61 kg)[2]
EYE COLOR
Brown
HAIR COLOR
Black
BLOOD TYPE
O+
MEASUREMENTS
TBA

FIRST GAME
Street Fighter 6
TITLE(S)
Ninjastar
BIRTHDATE
April 15[3]
BIRTHPLACE
United States
FIGHTING STYLE
Bushin-ryu Ninjutsu
LIKES
80's music, sneakers, large numbers[1][2], her uncle, Dee Jay's songs and albums
DISLIKES
Tear-jerker movies[1][2], JP
OCCUPATION
Ninja (kunoichi)
AFFILIATION
Unaffiliated
RIVAL(S)
Dee Jay (friendly), JP
MOVESET
Bushin Senpukyaku, Sprint, (Arc Step, Bushin Izuna Otoshi, Bushin Hojin Kick), Vagabond Edge, Hidden Variable, Genius at Play/Shuriken Bomb (Shuriken Bomb Spread), Nue Twister, Bushin Beats, Bushin Scramble, Bushin Ninjastar Cypher, Water Slicer Slide, Windmill Kick, Hisen Kick, Elbow Drop, Bushin Tiger Fangs, Bushin Prism Strikes, Bushin Hellchain, Bushin Hellchain Throw, Ripcord Throw, Bell Ringer, Steadfast Strike. Shapeless State
ALIGNMENT
Good
STATUS
Alive
RELATIONSHIP
Albert Jackson (uncle)
Guy (master)
Avatar (pupil)

MASTER STYLE
Custom Bushinryu Ninjutsu
LOCATION
SiRN Building - R&D - 3rd Floor (First Encounter), Rooftop of The Metro City Police Department, Metro City, United States of America
LEVEL
26 (first sparring session)
FAVORITE GIFT
The Answer Lies in the Heart of Love
Vintage Earbuds

Kimberly Jackson (キンバリー・ジャクソン, Kinbarī Jakuson?) is a video game character from the Street Fighter series, first partially seen in Street Fighter 6's second trailer before being properly confirmed near the end of the 2022 EVO tournament. She is an African-American ninja girl/kunoichi fighter trained under Guy in the Bushinryu style, but with her own twist.

Kimberly is a slender, brown eyed, black American girl with dark brown skin. Her hair is braided in five sections, with the tips dyed blue.

Her default costume consists of a headband and ascot with African-inspired patterns, a red cropped short-sleeved puffer jacket with white trims, red fingerless gloves, black skin-tight capris that bare the sides of her hips, and red sneakers with white soles and blue laces. She also has yellow wraps across her wrists and legs, and carries a blue cassette player on her leg with matching earbuds.

She is a spunky teen with a boundless amount of energy and enthusiasm. Kimberly has a love for art and all things '80s. She's a prodigy who graduated college early and has an insanely high combat potential. In both her and JP's arcade story and like Chun-Li who searches for answers in finding her father by meeting Gen, Kimberly is also searching for answers about the whereabouts of her uncle, Albert Jackson, who is also Ken's advisor by meeting JP. In Dee Jay's arcade story, she was also shown to be mature and insightful, while giving some thought and advice to Dee Jay about the new songs he needs to be popularized and the reason Dee Jay is inspired by her when he finally composed a new song for his new albums.

According to character designer Kaname Fujioka, Kimberly is set up to serve as the Chun-Li for the new generation of Street Fighter fans.[4] The Street Fighter 6 development team spoke to many black employees within the company and hired consultants to provide help in designing Kimberly and her mannerisms.[5] She went through many designs combining ninjitsu with modern designs, and even had a cybernetic concept.

Family

Albert Jackson

Kimberly's uncle, who served as Ken Masters's advisor in the Masters Foundation. Kimberly searches for his whereabouts after the events of the Nayshall Incident.

Friends/Allies

Guy

Kimberly's master of the Bushinryu ninjutsu style.

Zeku

Guy's master of the Bushinryu ninjutsu style.

Dee Jay

Kimberly is a fan of Dee Jay's songs and albums.

JP

Seeks to find answers for her uncle who was killed by JP.

Uninvited student to Guy, the 39th successor to Bushinryu. Kimberly had an ordinary upbringing, but she's a genuine prodigy who graduated college early...and is very enthusiastic about being a ninja, because she thinks its cool. Loves '80s pop culture. She is regarded as the new generation counterpart to Chun-Li.

Kimberly's story begins with a monologue about how she got a new clue to uncover the mysterious death of her uncle Albert in Nayshall through "one crazy coincidence". After Kimberly has solved a "weird formula" on an online math forum, a user named "Shaobing" has sent a direct message to reveal that the formula that she has just solved is in fact a secret message about a shadowy cabal that seems to be involved with her uncle.

Following the new clue, Kimberly later arrived at Nayshall. Kimberly describe how she admired her late uncle for taking care of her, and that since after he died due to "getting caught up in some trouble", Kimberly is determined to uncover the truth behind his demise. After finding clues and "kicked more tail than [she] can keep track of", Kimberly encountered "Johan Petrovic", the man who she believed to have been "pulling all the strings" all along at the Suval'hal Arena. After noticing the intruder, JP nonchalantly asked Kimberly if she need some help, to which the ninja girl responded by demanding JP, who is her uncle's former boss, to answer everything he know about him. Thus leading the two into a fight.

After the fight, Kimberly seemingly emerged victorious. However, she believed that JP is actually holding back the whole time and that it is her who is "on the ropes" throughout the fight. JP then warned Kimberly that there are few things "more dangerous than unwarranted confidence in one's abilities", and told her to "forget" their encounter, before silently retreated. In the end, Kimberly didn't managed to get the answer from JP, though she realized that she is still not strong enough to deal with a "monster" like him. Therefore, Kimberly believes that she still needs to train and improve herself for the new journey ahead of her.

Kimberly appeared in JP's Arcade story which depicts their encounter from his perspective. There, Kimberly is spying on JP as he eventually noticed her, leading into a confrontation and eventually a fight.

As the student of Guy, Kimberly's uses her master's famed Bushinryu style of ninjutsu, and also uses some of Guy's moves such as both his somersault or a leaping side kick, and a version of Hozanto that uses her front elbow to damage her opponent rather than using a turning elbow. She is themed after a ninja, though with a modern twist and unique interpretations of ninja abilities: she is shown to use spray paints used for graffiti, and these various colored spray paints are involved in many of her skills as replacements for common ninja tropes (eg. a cloud of paint acting as a smoke bomb when she teleports, and her Super Art spraying her opponent with graffiti). Most of her acrobatic moves and animations are also based on cheerleading poses.

Moveset

Kimberly's playstyle revolves around speed and keeping opponents guessing, as she is very agile and possesses a multitude of mobility options. Due to the variety of options she gains out of her movement abilities, she plays effectively as a bait and mix-up character.

Kimberly possesses a unique resource known as Shuriken Bombs. She starts with two bombs (which do not restock on round end), and is able to throw these Shuriken Bombs as delayed explosives to force opponents to react, or to extend combos as the bombs deal vertical knockback. Kimberly is able to restock her Shuriken Bombs with Genius At Play: a normal restock gives 1 can, while an Overdrive restock gives 2 cans and allows her to use Shuriken Bomb Spread, which throws out two bombs instead of one.

Kimberly's Sprint can be cancelled into either a stop in place, or three different kicks (light, medium, heavy) that are useful against blocking opponents. If she sprints onto an opponent, she performs an automatic rebounding kick that causes Kimberly to leap off the opponent (Arc Step) and gives her several new options like a throw (Bushin Izuna Otoshi) or a delayed dive kick (Bushin Hojin Kick). She also has a "smoke bomb" teleport (Hidden Variable) as a way to surprise opponents or stay on the offensive.

Kimberly's first Super Art is Bushin Beats, an automatic sprint that, if it connects, causes her to deliver a beatdown to the opponent; she can throw a Shuriken Bomb at the end (Bushin Thunderous Beats) to tack on more damage at the cost of one bomb stock. Her second Super Art is Bushin Scramble, which moves her into the air and acts as a divekick, then transitions into multiple acrobatic wall-jumping tackles ending with a divebomb; both the normal and aerial version (Soaring Bushin Scramble) are excellent for avoiding projectiles or ground attacks. Her third Super Art is Bushin Ninjastar Cypher, causing Kimberly to aggressively spraypaint her opponent in the air, ending with a shoulder tackle that slams them into the ground in a graffiti pattern that persists through the round; upon using the move, Kimberly activates her music player, increasing her walk speed and attack power by 11% for the rest of the game.

Kimberly's surname was revealed by her Japanese actress Nao Toyama.[6] Her surname is likely a nod to Janet Jackson.
Kimberly is the second playable Street Fighter character who has a close connection to Guy and the Bushinryu style but never appeared in the Final Fight series, the first being Zeku.
If counting Street Fighter EX characters Hokuto and Kairi (who both mixes Bushinryu into their respective fighting styles) are taken into consideration, then Kimberly is the fourth.
Upon using her Level 3 Super (Bunshin Ninjastar Cypher), a track of the same name will replace the match's music for the round. A version with vocals also exists, and can be heard in a mirror match when both Kimberlys activate their Level 3 Supers.
Kimberly's cassette player is heavily modeled after the original Sony Walkman TPS-L2, down to the iconic stereo label and arrow. Notably, the Sony logo appears to be painted over.
Kimberly is the fourth playable female character originating from the United States, after C. Viper, Poison, and Lucia.
Kimberly's uncle Albert Jackson bears a close resemblance to veteran actor, Morgan Freeman.
Kimberly shares a few similarities with Master Raven from the Tekken franchise; as they are both black kunoichi who fight using ninjutsu (in Kimberly's case, a specific fictional version of it) which they largely share with a male ninja (Guy and Raven) who both have been in earlier installments before the two kunoichis' debut, and they both use certain objects as weapons to a degree (Kimberly uses spray cans and a shuriken bomb while Master Raven uses a sword).

The key differences between Kimberly and Master Raven are, among others, their contrasting personalities (as Kimberly is expressive, excitable and playful whereas Master Raven is stoic, serious and focused), their nationality (Kimberly being American while Master Raven is so far officially listed as unknown), and their names (Kimberly has a known full name while the Tekken character's name is not known, as "Master Raven" is seemingly just a title or alias).
In the Japanese setting of the game, Kimberly says "Bushinryu" using katakana (ブシンリュウ) instead of (武神流) in traditional kanji. This is possibly due to her being an American expressing herself through a syllabary mostly dedicated to foreign languages such as English.
The beginning of Kimberly's theme, Ninjastar Pop, features a leitmotif of the first stage from the original Final Fight game.
In World Tour, if the player stands close to Kimberly, it is possible to hear her humming. Uncoincidentally, the tune she hums sounds very similar to Guy's theme from the Street Fighter Alpha series.