Leifang

Leifang (レイファン, Reifan) is a college student and T'ai Chi Quan prodigy from the Dead or Alive series, who made her debut in the first Dead or Alive. She is one of the first females to appear in the series, alongside Kasumi and Tina Armstrong.

Throughout the series, she seeks to fight Jann Lee, who is thought to have saved her life at one stage in her past, to prove herself to him that she too is a strong individual. However, Leifang had lost to Jann Lee in almost every tournament, but she managed to defeat him in the fourth one.

Early Life
A girl who grew up in a wealthy family from China, Leifang is a good-hearted woman of justice and bares a very independent spirit. Six years before the first tournament, Leifang was saved from a bunch of thugs by a martial artist, Jann Lee. Although she was very grateful for being saved, she felt that she could have handled the situation herself. After that incident, she mastered the art of T'ai Chi Quan and sought to prove her strength to Jann Lee.

The First Tournament
Leifang joined the first Dead or Alive Tournament in order to fight Jann Lee, to prove her worth to him. During the tournament she faces him. However, she is defeated by him. This doesn't damper her spirits, however, and she goes on to train herself for the next tournament.

The Second Tournament
During her matches of the second tournament, she forms a philosophical rivalry with Tina Armstrong, who believes that the meaning of power comes from physical strength. Leifang disagreed, arguing and demonstrating that power originated from the mind, and was channeled into and through the rest of the body.

When she finally faced Jann Lee, she tells him that her martial art was perfected and that she was ready. However, Leifang loses again, resulting in Jann Lee retorting that she was far from ready.



The Third Tournament
Now known to many as a young genius of T'ai Chi Quan, Leifang continues to train to defeat Jann Lee. She enters the third Dead or Alive tournament, telling herself; "This time... This time, I am going to beat him!" She once again fights her way to Jann Lee. When she finally reaches him, telling him it was time for her to defeat “the dragon” within him, despite her best efforts, Leifang once again loses the fight.

After the tournament is over, she returns home. While out in the city, she rescues a young boy from getting kidnapped, easily defeating the kidnappers with her martial art skills, reflecting the time when she was saved by Jann Lee.



The Fourth Tournament
Leifang enters the tournament to once again fight Jann Lee. She is defeated by Hitomi in a match over a simple cabbage, but they befriend each other sometime afterwards. She later defeats Bass Armstrong after he began attacking bystanders over losing his money at the casino. After these matches, she finally reaches Jann Lee, who is not really surprised to see her. The two combat in the DOATEC Tritower, which begins to fall apart due to the attack by the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan. However, the two start their match anyway. The outcome of the fight turned out to be Leifang as the winner, finally defeating Jann Lee at long last. Because of this outcome, Leifang was able to advance to the final round, the fight against Alpha-152. However, Alpha-152 proven to be too powerful for Leifang and instead Jann Lee came to rescue her and fought against Alpha-152.

After the tournament, Leifang returns home again. While traveling on the train, she becomes involved in an embarrassing incident; when the train suddenly stops, an old man falls over and grabs her breasts. Humiliated and enraged, and despite it being an accident, Leifang loses her temper and literally kicks the man through a window, out of the now moving train into a lake below the bridge. The other passengers applaud her stunt, but Leifang likely thinks that they are mocking her due to the fact that the buttons on her shirt came undone, and she tries to cover herself.

The Fifth Tournament
Upon hearing about the fifth Dead or Alive Tournament, Leifang reunites with Hitomi and the two of them set off a journey to train together. While training at a circus that's still under construction, the pair does a friendly sparring match against Brad Wong and Eliot. They are then invited to the tournament by Zack, who does so humorously by launching himself into the air with the human cannon.

Later, Leifang and Hitomi travel to South America to continue their training. There, they spot Jann Lee being recruited by Zack into joining the tournament. Knowing that she has to prepare herself to fight him again, Leifang does a sparring match against Hitomi to improve her skills. After the fight, the two of them go their own ways, promising each other to meet again at the tournament.

Leifang travels to New York, following Jann Lee to a martial art gym. While trying to spy on him, she bumps into Mila and decides to spar with her to train more. Leifang manages to find Jann Lee on a train and follows him. Suddenly, the train becomes unsteady and Leifang stumbles. As she tries to rebalance herself, an old man (who appears to be the same one from her Dead or Alive 4 ending) begins to fall towards her. However, Jann Lee quickly steps in between, protecting Leifang from another embarrassing moment. After he tells her that it's not right to sneak on people, the two of then engage in a fight. However, before they can fight, the train somehow loses its balance and its thrown off its track. After the crash, Leifang finds herself on top of Jann Lee. The two of them share an awkward moment together, showing that they might have romantic feelings for each other.

At the tournament, Leifang is defeated by Jann Lee in the quarterfinals, marking her fourth loss against him.

Appearance
Also see: Leifang's Outfit Catalogues

While Leifang appears to always have a slender build of average height as one of the smallest fighters in the series, She has black hair,dark brown eyes, fair skin and very lithe and peitie body ,her appearance has changed considerably since the first Dead or Alive. In the first game, her hair was short and tied back in a high ponytail, which made her look somewhat masculine. Since Dead or Alive 2, her facial features have became more round and softer, and her hair much longer, normally tied in two braids which are looped round and pinned on either side of her head; in later games her default hairstyle became loose hair, and the braids became a second choice. Her hair color has changed often in the series: first it was light brown, then very dark blue, then black, to finally dark brown.

Her outfit has also become more feminine; in the original game, her clothes consisted of trousers, shorts and flat shoes with simple detailing. Later, she started to sport high-heels and long, formal-looking body-hugging Chinese dresses called. They are normally embraced with Asian-inspired patterns of birds and flowers.

Most of her wardrobe consists of her simply wearing them in different colors.

In Dead or Alive 5, the length of her cheongsam seem to be shortened when compared to the previous titles.

Personality
Leifang is a spunky, intelligent and cheerful college student. Practicing martial arts has given her a strong dedication to self-improvement, both mentally and physically. She hopes that by honing her own skills, she can eventually help others to do the same. At the same time, her young age and general inexperience with the world around her can sometimes keep her from fully thinking things through.

Along with a strong motivation for self-improvement, Leifang is also somewhat prideful and becomes angry if she feels she is being taken advantage of or being looked down upon. This may be the core reason for her fixation and need to prove herself to Jann Lee after he rescued her, but in spite all this she is usually friendly and compassionate to other people.

Etymology
"Leifang" is created from two Chinese names: Lei, meaning "flower bud", and Fang meaning "fragrant, sweet smelling". Altogether, Leifang's name means "fragrant flower bud", relating to her beauty, and either her youthfulness or her blooming talent as a fighter. The name is a common name for Chinese girls in, so this can imply that Leifang is from the area.

Jann Lee
Jann Lee is Leifang's primary rival, target, and obsession. Ever since Jann Lee, then known to Leifang as "Gi", saved her from a group of thugs, she has aimed to perfect her fighting skills so that she could prove herself to him, and become "a part of his world". She has thought of him so much through every bit of her training that it has brought to a point unexpected in her obsession for him.

It is unclear what Jann Lee’s feelings are exactly about this rivalry obsession. However, he doesn’t seem to have made any major attempts to stop her from continuing in this pursuit (unless he thought that defeating her time and time again would be some kind of attempt in stopping her.) In the events of Dead or Alive 4, when they meet for battle and the Tritowers begin to detonate, he tells her "What do you say, Should we die together." She tells him, "I'm not going to die." He replies to her willpower by clenching his fist and saying, "No, you're not." In this statement, it does indicate that he cares for her.

In Dead or Alive 5, Leifang persistently follows Jann Lee, while secretly training with Hitomi to keep her skills sharp enough to beat him. At one point, she almost encounters him, which results in her pursuing him onto a train. A potentially embarrassing and somewhat familiar occurrence following a sudden acute movement of the train is averted quickly thanks to Jann Lee: An older man almost relies on Leifang's breasts to regain balance, but Jann steps in at the last minute (showing his commitment to protecting her). After another sharp movement of the train, Leifang falls on top of Jann lee, resulting in an awkward romantic moment.

Leifang's embarrassment may have caused her to lose her battle with Lee in the Dead or Alive 5 finals. This may also imply she does have feelings for Jann Lee.

Hitomi
After Dead or Alive 3, Hitomi and Leifang became fast friends due to their keenness in martial arts and closeness in age. By the events of Dead or Alive 5, they have become close friends, as well as martial arts rivals. Both being young, quirky, somewhat naïve, and baring cheerful personalities, they can be playful with each other one minute, such as during their visits to Zack Island, and then become engaged in a heated battle next over something as trivial as a cabbage.

Tina Armstrong
Stemming from a disagreement on the philosophy of martial power, Tina and Leifang have since become rivals of a sort, if not for any other reason than for their difference in opinions. Their tag team poses, however, show potential in the two resolving their differences and in fact having strengths the other doesn't have.

Helena Douglas
Leifang and Helena were both born in wealthy families. Leifang was jealous when Helena announced she had entered the Second tournament, saying that the tournament doesn't need a "spoiled little princess". However she seems to be friendly with Helena.

Dead or Alive
Leifang is a very technical character, focusing on powerful holds and parry maneuvers to expose the enemy for counterattacks. She also has an excellent air-juggling game. A common combo starter is the Renkan-Sho-Kinda, which hits 3 times in succession, and depending on the terrain height and launch duration, can hit up to 6 times in succession. Her kicks, similar to Gen Fu, are also excellent combo starters (such as Sanren-Kyaku) and have an excellent execution and recovery time frame.

Due to her varying attack string levels, she can be very difficult to counter against. She is most compatible in tag-team battle with Helena Douglas and Jann Lee; particularly Helena, for "Power is not always the answer" and thus their combination of intricate techniques highly complement one another.

Dead or Alive Xtreme
Leifang is very easy to befriend, because she likes everyone, although she seems not to like Tina Armstrong as much; this can be changed with a few good gifts. Leifang herself can befriend almost everyone, too.

In beach volleyball, like Kasumi, Leifang is not the strongest character in terms of power, resulting in poor spikes, and a high chance of being knocked down by stronger players. However, she can quickly get back on her feet after a fall. She also has good technique, jump and defense stats, thus making her an ideal defensive character in returning the ball and counter-attacking. She is best suited as playing defense for Kokoro, as both girls are nearly well-balanced, and Kokoro has the strength Leifang lacks, but needs the technique the other has.

Dead or Alive Series

 * Dead or Alive (1996 - 1998)
 * Dead or Alive 2 (1999 - 2000)
 * Dead or Alive 3 (2001 - 2002)
 * Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (2003)
 * Dead or Alive Ultimate (2004 - 2005)
 * Dead or Alive 4 (2005 - 2006)
 * Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (2006)
 * Dead or Alive Paradise (2010)
 * Dead or Alive: Dimensions (2011)
 * Dead or Alive 5 (2012)

DOA: Dead or Alive
Leifang was played by Ying Wang in the movie, DOA: Dead or Alive. She makes several appearances in the beginning of the movie, until she got knocked out by Gen Fu. She also can be seen far away in the beach scene.

Musical Themes

 * The Fist of Taikyoku Blows Up - Dead or Alive (Ultimate 1)
 * Concentration - Dead or Alive (1998)
 * Grand Style - Dead or Alive 2 (Ultimate 2) and Dead or Alive: Dimensions
 * Perfume of Forest - Dead or Alive 2 (Ultimate 2) Ending Theme
 * Mayflower - Dead or Alive 3
 * Reaction - Dead or Alive 3 Ending Theme
 * Flowerbed - Dead or Alive 4
 * Touch Me - Dead or Alive 4 Ending Theme

Trivia

 * The T'ai Chi style Leifang practices is a mixture of the Yang and Chen styles.
 * Leifang's 14th outfit in the PlayStation verison of Dead or Alive pays homage to Pixie from the  series, another one of Tecmo's game series.
 * In Dead or Alive 4 and Dead or Alive 5, Leifang wears glasses; pressing a certain button when selecting her to play will result in her wearing said glasses.
 * IGN featured Leifang in their "Videogame Babe of the Day" series in 2006.
 * When Leifang served as a sub-boss for Hitomi and Bass, her theme doesn't play. Instead, Hitomi's and Bass' themes play.
 * Leifang has a special tag intro and win pose with Pai Chan in Dead or Alive 5. However, the two do not have a special tag throw.