‘Lady Beast’ strikes blow for girl gamers

CHIBA, Japan — In her online world, she is “Lady Beast”, deftly operating her green monster Blanka in dizzying hand-to-hand streetfighting combat on the global professional gaming circuit.

In real life, she is Yuko Momochi, a 31-year-old slender Japanese woman with short hair dyed light brown, who is hoping to encourage more girls into the male-dominated world of professional gaming.

A former car saleswoman, Momochi got her break in competitive gaming in 2011 after she defeated a previously invincible character in a Street Fighter match, earning her a sponsorship offer from a team from the United States.

She was Japan’s first female professional gamer and now also spends her time hosting events and searching for female talent who could one day turn pro.

“My parents wanted me to be a civil servant,” she laughs on the sidelines of the Tokyo Game Show, one of the world’s largest.

“A girl raised by steady parents has turned out like this!”

Visitors to the Tokyo Game Show are left in little doubt they are entering a maledominated world.

Only a handful of female players are in evidence in the loud atmosphere and scantily-clad women in exhibition halls greet the 250,000 mostly male visitors expected to attend the fair.

Momochi started gaming at a young age, playing Donkey Kong and other video games with her brother.

She recalled how her mother would unplug the computer after a few hours. Up until recently, her parents disapproved of her career, only softening their opposition slightly in recent years.

And now she has launched a group — “Project Gaming Girls” or P2G — to encourage women and girls players, whether professional or amateur.

“I want to share the joy you can get from gaming. Gaming itself was fun but socializing with my opponent after the fight was also fun,” she said.

Mika Sawae, an art director at a Tokyo company, took a day off to join about 40 other players — including just a few women — for a simultaneous play battle.

She said she was seeing more and more women at gaming events.

A co-fighter, Yuka Sugiyama, agreed: “What was not accepted as being played by women is accepted now ... I grew up being told not to be aggressive but I enjoy playing (fighting games) now.”