My abilities are unmatched! Have a taste for yourself!
― Jam Kuradoberi[src]
Jam Kuradoberi is a recurring character in the Guilty Gear series. She is of Chinese descent, and is one of the few characters in the game who fights bare-fisted, supplemented with Ki force. She is a talented chef and a restaurant owner, whose business ventures are constantly set back.
Design[]
Jam stands 5'4" tall, with long brown hair worn in a waist-length loop and secured at the top of her head with a "Pokka" Oolong tea can. She has brown eyes, fair skin, and an athletic physique.
Jam's costume is a tight-fitting Chinese-styled dress of red silk and black trim. It has no sleeves and falls to about the top of her thighs and is cut high over the hip. Under this she wears a second skirt, which is white with red trim and about the same length as the red dress (but it covers her hips, which the red dress doesn't). On her arms she wears wide "sleeves" made from red silk with black trim. These sleeves are held on by straps at her upper bicep. On her feet Jam wears high-heeled red boots with black trim.
Personality[]
Jam is a woman who often jumps to conclusions and is quick to make decisions, while taking the consideration of others into account. In Guilty Gear XX, she immediately got into fights with the other characters, suspecting them as the arsonists who burnt her restaurant down. Jam also takes great pride in her Chinese heritage and skill in both fighting and cooking, often using food as a reference. Overall, she is a very energetic person who is sometimes a little silly, but still tries to establish friendships, despite also being a sucker for fairly attractive men.
Also of note that Jam tends to speak akin to a stereotypical Asian character in both Japanese and English scripts, mainly with limited grammar in the latter via Xrd Rev2, or with the commonly associated verbal tic "aru" at the end of her sentences in the former case.
Story[]
Background[]
Jam is a master chef, and longs to create her own restaurant, but lacks the means to do so. She seems to have terrible luck in this endeavor even once she gets it off the ground. She's a fairly docile character, and also relatively unimportant during the beginning arches of the storyline. However, during Guilty Gear XX, Jam's ability to wield Ki becomes a very notable aspect, so her role in the story, in fact, grows more important. She can be described as a bit of a flirt, as she has hit on both Bridget and Ky Kiske in her story.
Guilty Gear X[]
Jam is wandering about, allegedly having heard rumors about mystical ingredients to be found at "The Devil's Living Place", where Dizzy resides. When she runs into Testament, she claims to be looking for "ingredients," which they mistake for "atonement" (because the two words are homophones in the Japanese language). After her battle with Testament, she goes on to fight Dizzy, who thinks that she's trying to eat her (or simply kill her). In one ending, Jam is able to get the ingredients she sought for, which were allegedly unknown to mankind. In the other, the field is burned down during the battle. In both, she defeats Dizzy, and probably leaves on friendly terms. According to information given in Guilty Gear XX, she later claims the bounty for Dizzy's defeat, and uses the money to start her restaurant.
Guilty Gear XX[]
Jam's restaurant, which is now up and running, is burned down by a mysterious figure who dresses very similar to Ky Kiske. She engages the said arsonist at the scene, and then the story branches out. In one path, she accuses several people of being the arsonist, and then finds a false Ky Kiske, who is revealed to be a robotic version known as Robo-Ky; two endings come from this. In one, someone — presumably from the Post-War Administration Bureau — is revealed to be watching her using a crystal ball, and concludes that her fighting data would be useful for their next "simulation project" (there will not be a Robo-Jam in the works, though this may also foreshadow Robo-Ky II). The other has the Robo-Ky call in reinforcements (in the form of MORE Robo-Ky's) which Jam fights a few of, until Ky appears to intervene. Jam wards off a brainwashed May, while Ky disposes of the aforementioned Robo-Kys. Jam then offers to share a picnic with the Holy Knight, arguing that food is the cure for a bad mood, after the whole arson issue is cleared.
Jam's other path has her meet I-No, who gives her a false list of bounties, including Venom, Johnny, and Millia Rage. After fighting I-No again and finding out that the bounties are false, she tries to make it up to the aforementioned victims by cooking for them. Venom and Millia Rage, unable to sit anywhere near each other (and drunk on top of that), end up slinging insults until they fight. The ensuing battle destroys Jam's new stall, which she has started up since she lacks the finances for a new restaurant.
Jam needs to recover loans to maintain her restaurant. When Chipp Zanuff visits her to ask her to vote him as a president, she tells him she'll vote him if he remains as a client of her restaurant. After having a large dinner, Chipp escapes without paying the bill. Robo-Ky goes into the restaurant with the order of arresting her, and the fight destroys the place. Slayer suggests her to serve more variety of foods, and she looks for Baiken for learning to cook Japanese food, but fails. At one point, she is accosted by Crow and a copy of Justice. Finally, she has the idea of having attractive waiters to work in the restaurant, and she finishes contracting Bridget to do the work. (Path 1)
If the player defeated the Justice copy with Jam's Instant Kill, however, Jam strongarms Crow into coming to her restaurant, though not without Potemkin trying to take Crow off of her hands. She later serves a meal to Axl Low and battles a Robo-Ky unit trying to take Crow back. The commotion, however leads not just to Axl spiraling through time against his will again, but dragging Jam, the Robo-Kys and Crow with him. Jam, dismayed at not being able to control her establishment in another timeframe, takes out her frustration on all present. (Path 2)
Guilty Gear Xrd[]
Kum Haehyun orders some fried rice, which is made and delivered by Jam. Haehyun talks to her about Ki, and says that with her attitude she will always be second-rate with her abilities. But when she tries the fried rice, Haehyun is amazed by its flavor, and Jam says that it is her contribution.
Guilty Gear -Strive-[]
Jam appears in the epilogue watching Haehyun trying a new fried rice made by her.
Abilities[]
Jam's power comes from her ability to wield Ki. Her Ki manipulation allows her to release thin beams of energy, project destructive energy fields, orbs, bursts, and energize her fists and legs with Ki to augment her physical strikes. Said strikes are an amalgamation of various Chinese martial arts in the form of acrobatic kicks, somersaults, blinking movements in a single rush and above all, explosive force-based blows. She is essentially someone who slips in to smash apart her opposition with a fast bursts of blows despite not wielding a weapon.
She can also mold the shape of her ki, having it take on the forms of a phoenix and even a dragon. Aside from being a user of Ki, Jam is also a superb martial artist. She is quite formidable, even enough to enlist herself as a bounty hunter, be commended by Slayer for her prowess, and to be wanted by That Man for her abilities.
It is also revealed in her personal stage that she hunts down and kills dragons for her ingredients. Potemkin notes that, despite her slender frame, her Ki enables Jam to hit as hard as he himself can, however she has not canonically shown to achieve the same feats of strength as him. She was also able to hold her own against Jack-O', who is regarded as the most powerful of the existing Valentine Units.
Music[]
- Babel Nose - Guilty Gear X, Guilty Gear XX
- Sticks and Stones - Guilty Gear XX ♯Reload Korean OST
- Lady Fascination - Guilty Gear Isuka
- Bao Babel Nose - Guilty Gear Xrd
Quotes[]
Allusions[]
- Jam's name is a reference to the Swedish pop/jazz group Cloudberry Jam that was popular in Japan at one time.
- Jam's Overdrive, Tousai Hyakuretsuken, in Λ Core resembles Kenshirou's Hokuto Hyakuretsuken from Fist of the North Star. She also quotes his catchphrase by stating "You're already dying, aru."
- Whenever she is hit by Faust's Shigekiteki Zetsumeiken in Xrd, her face contorts to a style akin the detailed artstyle seen in the aforementioned series.
- Her fighting style, idle animations and dragon themed moves have likely some references to Bruce Lee.
- It's a running gag in Kung Fu films for the lead action protagonist to work in a restaurant and all of a sudden get attacked, only for a restaurant brawl to break out. Jam's story is an homage to such films starring actors like Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. This is also parodied by Marshal Law in Tekken.
- Jam's intro quote "Kuradoberi Jam, making an appearance!" is a style nod to the super-heroine magical girl Sailor Moon.
- "The Phoenix" and "Phoenix Sword" are Melodic Power Metal Bands out of Japan.
Trivia[]
- Despite being of Chinese descent, her name is rendered in a Japanese name-style via exceeding 2-to-3 Han characters.
- In the anime and manga series Genshiken, the character Kanako Oono cosplays Jam.
- In the webcomic, MegaTokyo, Junko and Largo can be seen playing and dressing up as Jam and Johnny, fighting in a game called Punished Pinion. The L337 D00D can later be seen as Kliff Undersn.
- BlazBlue character Litchi Faye-Ling's character theme, "Oriental Flower", is a remixed version of Jam's "Babel Nose".
- Both Jam and Baiken possess a move called Mawarikomi.
- Jam. along with Sol Badguy, make cameos in River City Girls 2 as assist characters. Although this game reuses Xrd voice archives (both Sign and its standalone Rev update). However, unlike Sol's English voice, which is reused from Sign, Jam's English voice over is brand new.
- So far, Jam, Baiken, Johnny and Slayer are the only characters whose outfit and/or appearance hasn't change at all through the series.
Gallery[]
External links[]
References[]