I was fighting for my life in a country club convention center. I entered a BlazBlue: Continuum Shift tournament for fun, but I still didn’t want to lose in the first rounds. I spent my first match getting destroyed as my opponent exposed how little I trained. Now to avoid elimination I had to win my next match. My opponent was using Tsubaki, a soldier girl wearing a body-covering uniform. My hopes rested on Mu-12, a half-naked robot girl.

I neither expected nor wanted to play as a half-naked robot girl when BlazBlue came out. But I never expected to enjoy playing BlazBlue either.

I could never get into BlazBlue. The series is known for its unique roster, but I didn't like any of the first game’s fighters. I only played the game when my friends wanted to, and I listened to the bonus soundtrack more than I played the actual game.

My hope in Continuum Shift rested on one of the game’s new characters being enjoyable. The arcade version originally came with two new characters: Tsubaki and the villainous Hazama. When Arc System Works ported the game to consoles it introduced Mu-12, a new final boss, but my excitement for her evaporated as soon as she was announced.

I hated everything about Mu-12’s character design. I’m hated that Mu-12 was a sprite-swap of another character, only with as much flesh exposed as the developers could get away with. I hated that she was an alternate version of another character, Noel Vermillion, essentially turning the game’s final boss into obnoxious fanservice. I even hated what she was wearing: Why did she still have Noel's tie on?

To be fair, Soul Calibur’s Ivy and Guilty Gear’s Dizzy have the same type of outfit as Mu-12, and there are alternate colors where a leotard is “painted” over her body. Still, Mu-12 feels more like a promotional tool than a character. The game disc has Mu-12 with her back to the reader, showing her behind and smiling like she’s posing for an otaku statue. Even in a behind-the-scenes video BlazBlue’s character designer said he faced objections to Mu-12’s look, though apparently not enough to change it. Noel is arguably the most-popular character in BlazBlue, and Mu-12 reeks of a marketing cash-in.  

I waited until my friends bought the game, and since Tsubaki and Hazama didn’t grab my interest I never got it myself. To play as Mu-12 you have to either buy an unlock code or complete BlazBlue’s hours-long text story mode, and my friend who did unlock her lived 40 miles away. When I finally came to his place two months later I decided to try her out.

I hated Mu-12 the character, but Mu-12 the collection of sprites and hitboxes was the Goldilocks warrior I wanted. Mu-12’s gimmick -- the ability to summon little laser pods onto the field -- could be used both to keep opponents away and set up an offense. BlazBlue is very combo-heavy, and every player eventually has to learn long attack strings to succeed. With proper use of her normals and specials, however, Mu-12 isn’t completely dependent on combos. She reminded me of Rose, my favorite character from Super Street Fighter 4.

After three close games the Tsubaki player defeated my purple-armored, black-suited Modest Mu. I failed to advance, but I thought I did well considering my lack of preparation. Later, I watched another Mu-12 player fight all the way to second place. I can rant over the design, but the actual playing I want to commit to memory.  

As an anime fan, I know characters like Mu-12 come with the territory, and it’s easy to blame others for encouraging these portrayals of women. But as long as I look the other way to enjoy a good game, am I making way for more Mu-12s in the future?

This is an entry for Jeremy Signor's October Bitmob Writing Challenge, called Editor's Choice. My editor for this article is Richard Moss, and you can click through these pages to see my progress from first draft to final edits.