Variable Geo

Variable Geo (ヴァリアブル・ジオ), also known as V.G., is a Japanese 2D fighting game and eroge series developed and published by TGL for consoles and under their Giga brand for home computers. The series focuses on an all-female martial arts competition where participants are required to promote various family restaurants by acting as waitresses when not fighting. The original Variable Geo was released in 1993 for PC-9801; after this first game, the series continued on home computers as an adult-oriented eroge including visual novel spin-offs, while a separate rebooted sub-series was made for consoles called Advanced V.G. with a story mode and toned down (or removed) explicit content, more akin to a regular 2D fighter. The Advanced line had three titles, the last being Advanced V.G. 2 on PlayStation in 1998,[1][2] while the main line continued until 2004's V.G. NEO. Alongside the video games, OVA adaptations were also made based on the Variable Geo series.

Plot

Set in a near-future version of Japan, the games tell the story of a

Characters

Takahiro Kimura was responsible for designing the characters in V.G. and V.G. II.

Yuka Takeuchi (武内優香)

A practitioner of karate who resides in Tokyo. After her parents died when she was young, her grandfather took her in and trained her in the martial arts, including Karate and the manipulation of ki (life-energy). She enters the VG tournaments simply for the purpose of furthering her training and testing herself against strong opponents. Her virtuous, outgoing personality wins her many friends among the other fighters, among whom are Chiho Masuda, Jun Kubota, and Satomi Yajima, the latter of whom she has been best friends with for years. Apart from the main series, Yuka also appears in V.G. Neo as "Misty" and in Giga's crossover game Otome Crisis.

Chiho Masuda (増田千穂)

A trained ninja and was once the heir apparent to her family's ninja clan. However, she desires a life of freedom and happiness and thus has run away, becoming a "Missing-nin." She participates in hopes of using the prize money and free real estate to finance her new life.

Jun Kubota (久保田潤)

A wrestler with vast amounts of strength, Jun once participated in the Olympics while in high school. However, she was ejected from the games due to repeated unsportsmanlike conduct. She later joins the V.G. competitions because she can treat her opponents as roughly as she pleases. Despite this however, Jun operates by her own personal honor code. She fiercely believes that the use of weaponry in an unarmed bout is unacceptable.

Manami Kusunoki (楠真奈美)

The youngest competitor in the VG Tournament at age 16. Along with her relative youth, she is also woefully immature, often acting like a girl half her age. Despite this however, she is a surprisingly clever and capable fighter, incorporating the natural energeticness of a child, as well her own vivid imagination into her fighting style. Her reason for entering the competitions is solely to obtain the large cash prize awarded to the winner. She is often the most lighthearted competitor in any given tournament, treating the fights as if they were all a big game.

Kaori Yanase (梁瀬かおり)

A 19-year old computer technician schooled in the art of taekwondo. She initially entered the V.G. tournament to test her own abilities, but found herself humiliated in the final round by Reimi Jahana. Ever since, she has devoted her training to defeating the multi-time V.G. champion. Despite this, Kaori apparently bears no ill will towards her would-be rival and simply sees defeating her as part of the path she must travel to become stronger.

Reimi Jahana (レイミ・謝花)

The head of the Jahana Group, the organization which supervises the V.G. tournaments. Reimi is wealthy, highly intelligent, and extremely beautiful. She is also a skilled martial artist and a three-time V.G. champion. Reimi initially sees the competitions as a chance to prove herself the strongest and most beautiful warrior of all, and takes a kind of perverse pleasure in watching those who lose against her be humiliated in various ways. After being defeated by Yuka, she reforms and re-enters the tournament with the hopes of regaining her title.

Yumiko Watanuki (綿貫弓子)

The first of Kotoe's bodyguards who specializes in Chinese martial arts. She would later reappear as a playable character in V.G. Max. She is first introduced in V.G. II: Bout of Cabalistic Goddess.

Satomi Yajima (八島聡美)

A young woman who lives with her younger brother, Daisuke. Their parents died when they were young. She earns money for living expenses and school tuition by working part-time jobs while caring for Daisuke. While she is an honest, straightforward person, she is also practical and realistic when it comes to situations involving money. This is because they have no other living relatives to provide for them, Satomi is often forced to take various odd jobs simply in order to make ends meet.

Ayako Yuuki (結城綾子)

The star attraction of the SoTO, a Women only techno/rave dance club and restaurant, where she dazzles visitors with her flashy dancing. While appearing on the surface to be nothing more than a good-looking "Party girl", Ayako spends a great deal of her free time providing volunteer services to the needy and homeless. She also makes a pastime of luring out rapists, muggers, and stalkers and then beating them to within an inch of their lives, because they do unjust things to women. She is openly lesbian, in the OVA she is portrayed as being attracted to Satomi.

Erina Goldsmith (エリナ・ゴールドスミス)

Also known as Elirin, is a full-blooded American born and raised in Osaka. She is loud, outspoken, and fond of bawdy humor. She owns and operates her own restaurant, The Rival, and fights in the V.G. tournaments in hopes of bringing her paternal grandmother from the United States to live with her in Japan. Erina practices no particular martial art, but instead fights using improvised methods derived from years of street brawling which she took up to vent her anger at her treatment by others due to a kind of prejudice commonly shown by Japanese towards foreigners.

Tamao Mitsurugi (御剣珠緒)

A young girl who dreams of one day being like her idol, Yuka Takeuchi. To that end, she has tirelessly spent her spare time practicing amateur Karate and attempting to copy Yuka's various techniques. She somehow gained the ability to control her energy before her fourteenth birthday. Much like Yuka, Tamao is hard working, honest, and generally outgoing, which allows her to make friends easily. However, she is clumsy, forgetful, and tends to act before thinking things through.

Kyouko Kirishima (霧島恭子)

A member of one of the Masuda clan's branch families and Chiho's distant cousin. She is sent to compete under orders to either force Chiho back into the clan or kill her.

type	ova
director	Tooru Yoshida
producer	Masato Ebina Ayumi Enomoto
writer	Yōsuke Kuroda
music	Harukichi Yamamoto
studio	Chaos Project
first	January 29, 1997
last	June 27, 1997
runtime	30 minutes (each)
episodes	3

Plot

Characters

Media

Games

Anime

Gameplay

Reception

External links

References