The Judges of Street Fighter III

In the Street Fighter III series there are judges who decide who wins, if there is a Double KO or a time out and both fighters have the same amount of energy. There are always three judges and they're always voting 2:1 by holding up pictures of their favorite. Actually the voting already happens before you see it, you can see that the computer choses who won before the whole judgement thing starts in the case of Ibuki. Her racoon in her background (New Generation, 2. & 3. round, stage: Kyoto) gets scared if she loses, he doesn't do anything if she wins, then the judgement starts. This proofs that the voting happens before the judgement.

 

The friendly looking seven judges from left to right (the names are from various quotes of the Shoryuken.com Forum, don't know for sure if they are written like this):

-Anna (looks a bit like Cammy)
Wearing a fur coat she might be from Russia where it's cold.

-Julia (the jockey)
Maybe from England or some other European country. She reminds me a bit of Karin and is probably well off since a mobile is a sign for wealth in Capcom games.

-Rifa (blue dress with red flowers)
Has hair like Chun-Li. She looks Asian and just like Toli and Tonfa except for the colors and the hairstyle.

-Lilly (looks like Dhalsims wife Sally)
She looks like she's from India and has a buddhist dot on her forehead, maybe she's somehow related to Sally, their names are quite similar, too.
Note: She's not in the Dreamcast version of SFIII New Generation for some reason eventhough she is on the art below which is from that game. Maybe she's only missing in the Dreamcast version.
If she's not in the Arcade version either it's probably because they didn't have time to finish her before the game had to be released and so they finished her till 2nd Impact.

-Toli (dark blue dress with purple flowers)
Ingame: No striking head gear (unlike on the picture). She looks Asian and just like Toli and Rifa except for the colors and the hairstyle.
She only appears once in 2nd Impact!
Note: Eventhough she looks completely different from the two twin-like judges Rifa and Tonfa on that image, she looks just like them in the games. The guys at Capcom were probably just too lazy to draw another sprite and recycled the same one again. That makes three Asian clones. Maybe they are triplets? I think it's possible, if there is one of them on the left side and one on the right and a different judge in the middle (they never appear all together and never next to each other) they always lift their signs at the same moment with the same motion, just like you'd expect it of twins and triplets.

-Fair Libra (the skater girl)
Not sure if she is black or just has darker skin than the others. Maybe an Afro American.

-Tonfa (white dress with yellow flowers)
I think she's wearing laurels like Caesar or some flowers. She looks Asian and just like Toli and Rifa except for the colors and the hairstyle. She only appears twice in 3rd Strike.


(The 7 judges of Street Fighter III New Generation; source: All About SFIII NG)

In Street Fighter III New Generation there are 7 judges (see image above).
In Street Fighter III 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike Effie (Necro's girlfriend) is a judge, too. Like the other 7 judges she is independent and doesn't necessarily vote for Necro.

(animated Effie sprite from this site)

There is a sub character drawing of Effie, Hoimei (Yun's gf) and Pat (Alex' friend Tom's daughter). It appears on the judges page in the booklet of 2nd Impact that's why you might think that Hoimei and Pat are judges, too but only Effie is one.

The three judges, appearing after a Double KO, are determined by stage, not by characters or other ifluences. They always appear in the same order. Here is a list of their appearances in the different Dreamcast versions of the Street Fighter III games, always from left to right:

Street Fighter III New Generation (6 different judges)

stage_________________ first_judge_____ second_judge_____ third_judge_____
New York (Alex) Julia Tonfa Fair Libra
Tokyo (Ryu) Anna Toli Julia
Tokyo (Ken) Anna Toli Julia
Hong Kong (Yun) Anna Rifa Julia
Hong Kong (Yang) Anna Tonfa Julia
Moscow (Necro) Julia Toli Fair Libra
Kyoto (Ibuki) Anna Tonfa Julia
Nairobi (Elena) Anna Fair Libra Julia
Amazon (Oro) Julia Rifa Fair Libra
London (Dudley) Julia Tonfa Fair Libra
New York (Sean) Julia Rifa Fair Libra
Mediterranean Sea (Gill) Julia Fair Libra Rifa

 

 

 

Street Fighter III 2nd Impact (8 different judges)

stage_________________ first_judge_____ second_judge_____ third_judge_____
New York (Alex) Lilly Anna Fair Libra
Tokyo (Ryu) Anna Julia Fair Libra
Hong Kong (Yun) Rifa Anna Toli
Hong Kong (Yang) Toli Anna Julia
London (Dudley) Tonfa Julia Rifa
Moscow (Necro) Anna Effie Fair Libra
Kyoto (Ibuki) Julia Effie Lilly
Nairobi (Elena) Lilly Toli Fair Libra
Amazon (Oro) Toli Anna Julia
San Francisco (Ken) Rifa Julia Fair Libra
Sao Paulo (Sean) Anna Toli Fair Libra
Munich (Hugo) Rifa Julia Anna
Mt. Fuji (Gouki) Julia Rifa Fair Libra
Egypt (Urien) Julia Effie Anna
Secret Shrine (Gill) Lilly Effie Tonfa

 

 

 

Street Fighter III 3rd Strike (8 different judges)

stage_________________ first_judge_____ second_judge_____ third_judge_____
USA (Alex) Lilly Anna Fair Libra
Japan (Ryu) Anna Julia Fair Libra
Hong Kong (Yun) Rifa Anna Toli
Hong Kong (Yang) Toli Anna Julia
England (Dudley) Tonfa Julia Rifa
Russia (Necro) Anna Effie Fair Libra
Japan (Ibuki) Julia Effie Lilly
Kenya (Elena) Lilly Toli Fair Libra
Amazon (Oro) Toli Anna Julia
USA (Ken) Toli Anna Julia
Brazil (Sean) Anna Toli Fia Libra
China (Chun-Li) Toli Anna Julia
Japan (Makoto) Julia Effie Lilly
Russia (Twelve) Anna Effie Libra
France (Remy) Tonfa Julia Rifa
Japan (Gouki) Julia Rifa Fia Libra
Germany (Hugo) Rifa Julia Anna
Egypt (Urien) Julia Effie Anna
Unknown (Gill) Lilly Effie Tonfa

 

Circumstances for the research:
SFIII New Generation: Street Fighter III W Impact (JAP) for Sega Dreamcast
SFIII 2nd Impact: Street Fighter III W Impact (JAP) for Sega Dreamcast
SFIII 3rd Strike: Street Fighter III 3rd Strike (EUR) for Sega Dreamcast

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Scan of the judges from the book Gamest Mook Vol. (75 SFIIING).