Gravure model joins Air Comiket movement with birthday salute to Final Fantasy VII’s martial arts heroine.

23 years is practically an eternity in the video game industry, and so while 1997’s Final Fantasy VII’s reputation as one of the greatest games ever made never completely faded away, the blocky polygon models and turn-based combat made it, in the eyes of many modern gamers, more a museum piece to be respected than an entertaining game to play. But with the recent release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, those present-day barriers have been swept away, and there’s now a whole new generation of fans to join in on the Final Fantasy VII fun in real-time.

One person who was too young to get into the FF VII spirit the first time around is Japanese swimsuit model Fumina Suzuki, who was just six years old when the original game came out. However, right about the time gamers were diving into Remake, Suzuki was slipping into the costume of the game’s martial artist heroine, Tifa Lockheart.

Suzuki’s Tifa cosplay was doubly timely, as she tweeted out the photos on May 3, Tifa’s birthday according to her official character bio.

▼ The official Final Fantasy VII Remake Twitter account also marked the occasion.

Secondly, Suzuki’s cosplay session coincided with the “Air Comiket” celebration, in which otaku culture creators shared their work online in response to May’s Comiket convention being cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Those who are looking very closely at Suzuki’s photos (to check the authenticity of her costuming, obviously) will notice that it’s closest in design to the character’s 1997 outfit, as compared to Remake’s much discussed variant that was designed to “constrict” her chest. Whether that’s due to Suzuki’s strong sense of fidelity to the game’s original aesthetics or for some other nebulous reason is something we can’t say for sure.

Ardent Tifa admirers are no doubt already aware that Tifa has one of the more diverse wardrobes in the Final Fantasy cast, with yet another iconic outfit from the Advent Children CG animated feature, a cowgirl-inspired outfit worn in her younger days, and a trio of dresses she wears to infiltrate a crime lord’s stronghold during Remake, so perhaps Suzuki will follow up with more Tifa cosplay next May 3. In the meantime, though, odds are her support is in no way hurting Tifa’s standing among the ranks of Final Fantasy VII’s most popular female characters.

Source: Twitter/@suzukifumina via Mantan Web
Featured image: Twitter/@suzukifumina
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he says Tifa’s theme music is better than Aerith’s.