Ayane

Ayane is a video game character from the Dead or Alive video game series. She has been a member of the series from the beginning, starting as an unplayable training dummy in the Sega Saturn port of the original Dead or Alive. According to series canon, she won the third tournament by defeating Omega.

Dead or Alive
Ayane initially appeared as the training dummy in the Sparring mode of the game's Sega Saturn version, but was not selectable as a character. She is an unlockable fighter in the PlayStation version.

Dead or Alive 2
Ayane is the half-sister and cousin of Kasumi and Hayate. During the events of Dead or Alive 2, she is ordered by Genra to hunt down and kill Kasumi who had been considered a runaway shinobi because of her departure from her village. However, Ayane fails her task and is defeated by Kasumi in the final rounds of the tournament. Ayane encounters Hayate as well in the tournament, but because he is suffering from temporary memory loss due to the Epsilon Project, he does not remember her and views her as just another opponent.

During the tournament, Ayane is confronted by Helena, who accuses her of killing her mother. Ayane does not confess, nor deny the accusation outright, choosing instead to taunt Helena before they battle.

Dead or Alive 3
Ayane enters Dead or Alive 3 in order to kill Genra, who has been made into a puppet of DOATEC. She sees this as her responsibility to end his pain and return the favor of Genra having taken her under his wing. Ayane eventually succeeds in her mission, even defeating Hayate in order to fight Genra. As a reminder of her foster father, she takes Genra's ritual mask and energy sword. The picture shown is circa DOA 4 and shows the mask that always covered Genra's face while he was alive.

Note: Ayane 'allows' Kasumi to go on and see Hayate regardless of the outcome of their match but she will not allow Kasumi to advance higher as she wanted to be the one to end Genra's life. After Kasumi affirms that she will go see Hayate, Ayane also tells Kasumi that she can't "allow her to have this one", possibly alluding to the fact that in DOA 1 Kasumi defeated Raidou, Ayane's biological father.

Dead or Alive 4
Ayane has pledged her life to her half-brother and Mugen Tenshin Clan leader Hayate in his cause to destroy DOATEC for all the suffering the company has caused the ninja clans. Ayane has a threefold stake in this revenge trip in that Raidou was changed by DOATEC into a monster, Hayate was brainwashed in DOATEC's attempt to realize Project Epsilon, and the brainwashing and death of Genra. In her story mode, she stays back to delay Kasumi from keeping Hayate away from joining up with the other Mugen Tenshin ninja to travel to DOATEC's headquarters. She also goes one-on-one against the assassin Christie, giving time for Ryu to go after his own targets. She is responsible for this campaign's success by which she cast a very powerful Ninpō spell in the middle of the DOATEC complex with Hayate defending her, destroying the foundations of the buildings as the screen fades. Ironically, as shown in Helena's CG ending with Ayane and Kasumi away from the tower, Hayate and Ryu Hayabusa are nowhere to be seen as the building explodes. Ayane also prevents Kasumi from returning to the building, already fearing the worst. This action seems to indicate that Ayane and Kasumi's rivalry could be over.

Other Appearances
Ayane has a recurring appearance in Ninja Gaiden. In Ninja Gaiden, Ayane is a young ninja in training at the age of 14 who first appears to inform Murai and incidentally Ryu Hayabusa that the Hayabusa Village is under heavy attack. Throughout the game, Ayane provides tips and assistance to Ryu while always keeping an eye on his progress. In the expansion Ninja Gaiden Black, if the player chooses the Ninja Dog Easy mode, Ayane condescendingly provides Ryu with assistance.

The upcoming Xbox 360 title Dead or Alive: Code Chronos will also feature Ayane, acting as a prequel to the Dead or Alive series and detailing the history between Kasumi and herself as they grew up within their clan.

Movie Appearance
In the film DOA: Dead or Alive, loosely based on the video game series, Ayane is portrayed by Natassia Malthe and therefore appears much older than her 16 year old self. Instead, she is the lover of Hayate and has no blood relation to him or Kasumi. She is assigned the task of killing Kasumi for abandoning the village and as a result follows her to the DOA tournament, where she finds Hayate alive. She then realized that Kasumi was right about Hayate still being alive. At the end of the movie, she and Hayate exchange a kiss. Her character was portrayed similar to herself in the video game series, in the sense that they are both somewhat cold and focused on their objective.

Personality
Ayane was born as the result of Raidou raping Kasumi's mother, Ayame. Though Ayane was allowed to stay in the ninja clan, she was always looked down upon as a "poisoned child", generally ignored by many of the ninja clan. Ever since they were children, Ayane admired Hayate. She looked up to him as a way of increasing her self-esteem and lifting her sadness. Hayate as well was fond of Ayane; he might have learned of the true circumstances behind Ayane's birth and did not see the point of isolating her as everyone else did.

While Kasumi and Hayate joined the rest of the village in a festival, Ayame called her estranged daughter to her and revealed through tears that she was indeed her mother instead of being an orphan as she was probably lead to believe. Shocked at this news, her young mind quickly deduced that it seemed that everyone knew that she was indeed the daughter of Ayame, wife of the leader of their village. Along with a burning hatred for Raidou, the man who ruined her life by creating it in the first place, the focal point of her ire rested on the one who had been treated like a princess while she was treated like dirt even though they shared the same mother - Kasumi. This envy that Ayane harbors can be greatly compared to the hatred Raidou had over Shinden, Kasumi's father.

Quiet and reserved, she tries to forget her experiences as a child. She has honed her skills to unbelievable heights in an attempt to make others see her to be more than the "cursed child". With the death of Genra, Ayane is now the strongest ninja of the Hajinmon, if not the de facto leader.

Ayane may have managed to reconcile her feelings of hatred towards Kasumi somewhat, as demonstrated when she stops Kasumi from entering the burning DOATEC building seconds before it explodes in DOA 4.