Kasumi

Kasumi is a ninja from the Mugen Tenshin clan who became a runaway ninja after she entered the first Dead or Alive tournament. Kasumi seems to be the unofficial flagship main protagonist of the series.

Dead or Alive
Kasumi, also known as "the Kunoichi of Destiny", is a female ninja skilled in the Mugen Tenshin Style of Ninjutsu. She was to become the 18th Master of the Mugen Tenshin Ninja Clan, but ran away in order to enter the Dead or Alive tournament. There, she hoped to defeat Raidou, the man responsible for crippling her brother Hayate. By leaving the secretive ninja clan, she became a nukenin (runaway shinobi). This means that she must live on the run from her former comrades every day as they seek to silence the "traitorous" Kasumi. Eventually, Kasumi kills Raidou and wins the tournament.

Dead or Alive 2
After having won the first tournament (and killing Raidou), she was captured by DOATEC and a clone of her was created. However, she managed to escape (defeating her clone in the process) and made an attempt to return to her village, but she wasn't allowed to, due to the fact that dishonored ninja can never rejoin their respective clan.

In her story mode, Kasumi fights her clone and defeats it. She then proceed on and met Hayabusa who was trying to stop her from moving on in through the tournament. However, Kasumi defeats Hayabusa and goes on. She then has to face Ayane, who seems to be jealous of Kasumi as she is, as she said in Dead or Alive Ultimate, "a princess". She defeats Ayane and tells her that she can't be defeated. Kasumi finally finds Hayate, but since he lossed his memories, he as Ein fights Kasumi. She defeats Ein but he's a little unconcious. All of a sudden, the Tengu appears and Kasumi goes on to fight him. She defeats the Tengu and Hayate was able to get his memories back. Kasumi and Hayate go back home to Mugen Tenshin village. Kasumi doesn't have an ending after defeating Tengu until the end of the credits. It shows a small flower and Kasumi's voice says, "Home. I want to go home".

Dead or Alive 3
Now labeled as a "traitor" to her village, Kasumi has been pursued incessantly by assassins from her clan; not a day passes without an attempt on her life. Despite this, Kasumi still wishes to see her brother and enters the third tournament to meet him one last time.

Kasumi doesn't play a big role in the game. She's just like the other fighters in that she doesn't have a special introduction before the fight against Genra unlike Ayane, Hayate, and Hayabusa. Despite that, in Kasumi's story mode she was wandering in the woods while Ayane appeared out of no where and fought her. Ayane lets Kasumi go on and see Hayate so that she can go on and fight Genra alone. Kasumi then meets Hayate. Disappointed about the fact that Kasumi ran away from the village, Hayate doesn't want to see Kasumi anymore. Kasumi fights Hayate and the two go their separate ways.

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
Kasumi was invited to Zack Island for the fourth Dead or Alive Tournament. However, the tournament was a hoax and Kasumi (with the other DOA girls) were stuck for two weeks on the tropical island.

Dead or Alive 4


Kasumi again seeks to find Hayate. She meets her brother and tries to convince him to stop the war against DOATEC and return to the Mugen Tenshin village with her. However, Hayate remains quiet and their half-sister Ayane interrupts them. She attacks Kasumi but is defeated.

Kasumi pursues Hayate to the DOATEC Tritower. There she is confronted by Helena who has taken control of DOATEC. Helena says she wants nothing to do with the ninja fighters (this includes Ryu, Ayane, and Hayate) and mentions that a clone of Kasumi - codenamed ALPHA-152 - is about to become active. Kasumi fights her way past Helena and then heads down to the lab to destroy ALPHA-152, who resembles Kasumi in form and fighting style, but seems to be made up of pure energy. Kasumi fights her clone to her best efforts, but in the end it appears ALPHA-152 escapes in the chaos of the destruction wrought by the Mugen Tenshin invasion. Kasumi is last seen watching Helena entering the blazing helipad. When trying to interfere Kasumi is prevented from doing so by Ayane, who by doing that saves Kasumi's life as the building starts exploding mere seconds later.

Dead Or Alive Xtreme 2


Kasumi came to New Zack Island upon hearing that her brother was there, even though she wondered what he was doing on a tropical island.

Personality
Kasumi is portrayed throughout the DOA series as a more compassionate character than her younger half-sister, Ayane, and any of the other fighters. She is an honorable and kind spirit and although a highly skilled kunoichi with deadly abilities. She does not enjoy or wish to fight. Many of the statements she makes in the game series before a round begins reflect her desire to avoid confrontation. Much of the reasoning behind this comes from the fact that in all Other appearance of the tournaments (with the exception of the first) her motive is not to fight or win, but to meet Hayate. Her statements also reflect the fact that Kasumi is very merciful. She doesn't like to see people suffering at the hands of her skills and is inclined to show mercy even to her enemies. However she is capable of killing and this is shown in the first DOA story where she defeated and killed Raidou. She is demonstrably family orientated and would like nothing more than to return home in peace. There were instances where she refused to show mercy though, as seen when she willingly goes to look for Raidou (in the first game), fighting her clone (in the second game) and also when facing Helena when Helena had almost had her shot if not for Ryu Hayabusa who had saved her (in the fourth game).

Gameplay
Similar to the other Dead or Alive ninjutsu characters, Kasumi is considered a mid-to-top tier character due to her balanced character traits. She features good speed, execution, and fairly simplistic input commands. However, her range is lacking and her single strikes do little damage. Kasumi's playing style has differed slightly over the series. In the original Dead or Alive and its sequel, her commands were suited to performing air combos and juggles (her Sakura Parrie is an excellent tiger knee). However, in the later games she became a pressure character, focusing more on extremely fast attacks and great interrupters to keep the opponent constantly on the defense.

Other Appearances
Kasumi appeared as a playable "monster" in Monster Rancher 2 and Monster Rancher 4, also produced by Tecmo. She must be unlocked by going to the Shrine and inserting the Dead or Alive 1 CD in the Disc Tray in Monster Rancher 2, and the Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore disc in Monster Rancher 4.

Although not a playable character, her signature ninja clothes are an unlockable costume in Super Swing Golf and Super Swing Golf 2, which are also produced by Tecmo.

In the game Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Director's Cut for the Xbox, which was produced by Tecmo, Kasumi's original blue costume for Mio Amakura and Ayane's original purple costume for Mayu Amakura can be unlocked. One thing these characters have in common is that they are sisters, although Mio and Mayu are twins, not half-sisters.

Dead Fantasy
With Ayane, Hitomi, Ninja Gaiden's Rachel, and the girls of Final Fantasy, Kasumi appeared in Monty Oum's fanmade video, Dead Fantasy. So far, Kasumi appeared in the first two parts of the series. See'll appear in the next three parts.

DOA:Dead or Alive Movie
In the non-canoical movie DOA: Dead or Alive, Kasumi is portrayed by Devon Aoki. Also on the movie, it should be noted that Kasumi's personality is colder, as opposed to her calm and compassioned naivete. In the movie, she fights Leon, and wins, which makes Kasumi herself doubt that Hayate died at Leon's feet. In the end, she got to go home with her brother despite being a runaway shinobi, but has to make a fighting stand against her clan with her new friends in order to get to stay.

Trivia

 * The reason Kasumi, Ayane and Kokoro, who made her debut in Dead or Alive 4, do not have listed ages (17,16 and 17 respectively) in western versions of the Dead or Alive games is because they are under 18 years old. Tecmo decided to give them an undefined age to avoid the risk of a moral backlash.