her nation's and family's traditions, including battle outfits and ceremonial clothing, as well as having learned archery, calligraphy, koto playing, and performing the tea ceremony and the flower arrangement art. However, she is also fond of modern foreign things, such as American style casual fashion and heavy metal music (her favourite band being Pantera). As a girlfriend, she is gentle, kind and enjoying cooking (especially osechi dishes) and only occasionally losing her temper. Her first name, "Mai", is the Japanese word for "dance" and her surname is the title of a Japanese optical phenomenon similar to will-o'-the-wisp, in reference to the character's pyrokinetic abilities. These powers enable her to cloak herself in fire; channel it through her clothes, weapons and anything she touches and cause explosions. She can change her clothes in an instant, as well as to temporarily stay airborne, float, glide and control her movements and change directions in mid-air, and is also a master of climbing and stealth. Her fighting style is to "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee". Mai's weapons are her "Fire Butterfly Fans" that can be used in close quarters and as projectiles. She furthermore has a variety of hand-to-hand combat maneuvers, such as a diving attack ("Flying Squirrel Dance") and a rushing cartwheel kick followed by an elbow strike ("Deadly Ninja Bees"). In most of the games, Mai's Japanese voice actress has been Akoya Sogi (dubbed by Sheryl Stanley in the English versions of The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact series), until she was gradually replaced by Ami Koshimizu since the 2010s. Kotono Mitsuishi voiced Mai in the Fatal Fury anime films, with English dubbings provided by Sarah Sawatsky and Lisa Ann Beley, and Japanese voice actress and singer Megumi Hayashibara portrayed Mai in a series of drama CDs during the 1990s. Conception and overall design Mai Shiranui became SNK's first female playable fighting game character upon her Fatal Fury series debut in 1992. SNK had originally conceived two different characters—a male ninja and a Japanese idol—for Fatal Fury 2 prior to her creation. The ninja character's working name was just Ninja Master and he had been around 60% completed before being scrapped; his long scarf was turned into her "tails" and the female character's original name was already Mai. Further inspiration for Mai's appearance and attributes came from a number of sources. According to the Neo Geo publication Neo Geo