Anime / Virtua Fighter

American Poster

Virtua Fighter is a 35-episode anime series based on the fighting game franchise. It premiered in 1995 on TV Tokyo and was produced by TMS Entertainment.

Akira Yuki, a Hakkyoku-Ken martial artist, is Wandering the Earth on a journey to see the eight stars in the sky once again, which can only be seen by those who possess true strength. He ends up in Chinatown and meets Pai Chan, a young girl who is being chased down by the Koenkan, a powerful martial arts organization that terrorizes the town. Along with the help of fellow martial artists Jacky and Sarah Bryant, Akira and Pai fight off against Koenkan's leaders and free the townspeople from their iron grip. As the Koenkan continues to chase them across the country, one of their partners takes an interest in Sarah and hires the mercenary Kage-Maru to kidnap her.

The first season lasted for 24 episodes. The second season, which lasted 11 episodes, takes place three years later with Pai and Jacky following their dreams as a movie star and race car driver respectively. When they decide to visit their old friend Akira, they are attacked by a clan of ninjas belonging to Oni-Maru, who wants to kill Kage-Maru for control over the Hagakure clan.

The English dub of the first season can be seen on TMS's Official Youtube channel.

Discotek Media has announced that they have rescue licensed the series for SD Blu-ray and all 35 episodes will be released for the first time in English. ^note  though the second half will be subtitled only, while the first half utilizes the Media Blasters' sub translation as well as Coastal Carolina's dub of those episodes

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Tropes included:

• Abdicate the Throne: After witnessing for himself what great evils has been done in its name, Lau Chan, the leader of the Koenkan, dissolves it entirely at the end of the first season.
• Accidental Kiss: How Akira is introduced to Pai. And she is not happy it was her first.
  • Accidental Pervert: Later on, he accidentally falls on Sarah and finds his hands on one of her breasts, earning the wrath of both Pai and Jacky.
• Action Girl: Pai and Sarah can kick as much ass as the guys.
  • Faux Action Girl: They have their moments of this, mostly when they're being targeted for kidnapping.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: Akira Yuki, big time. In the games he's just as serious as they come, but here he's a clueless goofball with a big stomach. But once he puts on his dogi and headband, he's a dangerous force to be reckoned with.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Lion Rafale and Shun Di appear in the second game. Here, they appeared in one or two episodes of the first season.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Lau Chan. In the games, he uses his kind persuasion to get Pai to learn Ensei-ken. Here, he forces her to learn the fighting style and tries to get her to marry Liu Kowloon, not caring for her objections in the matter. It took getting a beating from Shun Di, as well as being called out for his actions has made him realize how far he has fallen.
• Adaptational Villainy: Kage-Maru. In the games, he is actively against J6. Here, he is working for J6 being the one responsible for Jacky's race car accident (which is not fatal enough to send him in the hospital) and the kidnapping of his sister, Sarah. Eventually, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn when he finds himself guilty for the creation of Dural.
• Adaptation Deviation: The games established that Pai's mother died from overwork after Lau neglected his family due to his obsession with martial arts. Although Pai holds a grudge against Lau because he abandoned his wife in her dying moments, she later discovers that her mother not only suffered from an incurable disease, but Lau had exercised every option he could to save her. The reason he refused to see her in her final moments was because it was too much for him to bear.
• Adaptation Expansion: With the game series lacking a story mode, the anime showed an expansion for the main cast such as showing Jeffry McWild having a family, and Jacky and Sarah hailing from a rich family, the latter of which would later be implemented in the games. Somewhat.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: While the characters' connection with each other is mostly known in each title of the franchise, the game doesn't explore much of it due to its lack of story mode. The anime showed more of it.
  • Akira and Pai: In the games, their relationship is not known besides the fact they're just friends. The anime showed them having a Belligerent Sexual Tension, mostly when Pai often gets angry with Akira for his idiocy but they showed affection toward each other.
  • Jacky and Sarah: While the games show that they really do love each other as evidenced when they're placed in a tag team at Dead or Alive 5 which is the only time you see them together, the recent VF titles has turned them into rivals against one another. The anime did not have something like this happening; the key change for this is that when she is freed from J6's brainwashing, Sarah did not suffer from Identity Amnesia and that she never had an uncertainty of her memories in trying to kill Jacky which was the reason for the said rivalry in the games.
  • Pai and Lau: In the games, it took recent VF titles for them to repair their strained relationship. In the anime, they managed to repair their relationship at the end of the first season, and he even joined her in the assault against Eva's stronghold in the second season.
  • Lau and Shun Di: In the games, their relationship is unknown. In the anime, they were master and student since Lau called Shun as the former on their first meeting.
• Affably Evil: Gao is remarkably polite for being one of Oni-maru's followers, even while he's putting lives in danger.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Korean dub of the anime has a completely different theme song as opposed to every dub of the series which all had "Wild Vision" as the opening, which is very surprising in the case of Italy and the Middle East since they're both well known for this trope in regards to anime dubs.
• And the Adventure Continues: The series ends with The Cabal forming a fighting tournament to help create the ultimate weapon in Dural, sending out ten invitations to Akira and his friends. The final shot shows them all ready to take on Dural with the text "Continued Your Next Game Stage".
• The Anime of the Game: Though it's a Pragmatic Adaptation, it's pretty well received.
• Arranged Marriage: Pai is on the run because her father has arranged for her to be married to the successor of the Koenkan, and they hunt her down to this end.
• Art Shift: When Akira and Pai realize the bodyguards for the movie shoot are part of the Koenkan, they're drawn in a blocky style that somewhat mimics the low polygon look of the first game.
• Back for the Dead: Jack Moreno returns in the second season only to die in the same episode he appears in.
• Back from the Dead: Eva returns as the main antagonist of the second season, but dies for good at the end.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Lion Rafale's civilian outfit.
• Badass in Distress: Kage-maru is captured early in the second season by Oni-maru. Although he appears to escape, it's actually Oni-maru in disguise.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Akira and Pai need to find a way to pay for Jacky's bail, Akira declares that she'll be making money by using her body, which horrifies her because she's held onto her innocence for so long. The next shot shows them working in construction, and Pai wonders if this is what Akira really meant the whole time.
• Bash Brothers: Takes a while, but Akira and Jacky eventually become this.
• Big Bad Wannabe:
  • Liu Kowloon wants to take over the world, but it becomes evident that Eva Durix is a much bigger threat than he is.
  • Oni-maru is hell-bent on destroying Akira's ideals and his belief in his friends, but it becomes clear that he's merely a disposable pawn in The Cabal's plans, particularly Eva Durix.
• Big Brother Instinct: Jacky in droves. He's extremely protective of his younger sister to the point where they're reliant on each other to a fault. When Lilliana accidentally burns herself with hot soup, Jacky immediately takes her to the closest sink to cool her hand despite her protests that she's fine.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • When Kage-maru turns against his employers, he tends to come to the heroes' rescue in style.
  • After Kage-maru escapes from Oni-maru's captivity, it's Lau who comes to his rescue.
• Big Eater: One of Akira's more defining traits is his bottomless pit of a stomach. If his mind isn't focused on martial arts, it's usually on food instead. He gladly participates in eating contests and people are appalled by his limitless appetite. In season 2, he actually challenges Wolf to an eating contest and the famous wrestler gladly accepts.
• Big "NO!":
  • Akira lets this out when he first loses to Kage-maru.
  • Eva's reaction when Gold Dural is defeated and supposedly destroyed by lightning.
• Bland-Name Product: WcDonalds makes an appearance here. The English dub even has Akira offering Pai a "Big Wac".
• Blood Sport: In New York, the gang come across an underground casino where brutal fights take place. Akira partakes in one to rescue Sarah, where he meets a man who turns out to be a Worthy Opponent: Wolf Hawkfield.
• Bowdlerize: The English dub changes a line at the Episode 15 after Lilliana kisses Jacky on the cheek and hopes he'll come back to see her dance to Swan Lake. In the Japanese version, he says that he'll teach her how adults kiss, and in the English dub, he says she'll drive the boys crazy when they see her dance. Either way Pai gets at him for it.
• Bound and Gagged: Pai is kidnapped, bound and gagged three times in the series.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • Just like the source material, Sarah is kidnapped and brainwashed in an attempt to turn her into a human weapon. She has to undergo the process regularly to stay under Eva's control.
  • Liu later decides to use Eva's brainwashing machine on Pai to make her obedient and agree to marry him. Eva sabotages the attempt so she snaps out of it just in time, just to screw with Liu.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The preview for Episode 16 has Jacky and Pai dramatically hoping that Akira is still alive. Akira keeps butting in and tells him he's fine, only for Jacky and Pai to tell him that they're not supposed to know that yet and tell him to stop ruining the mood.
• Break the Cutie: The anime depicts Sarah as a sweet and nice girl who is very attached and supportive of her brother. Eva discovers that she's actually very dependent on Jacky to the point where she lacks a sense of independence, making her an ideal candidate for her brainwashing experiments.
• Bridal Carry: How Akira carries Pai when they're escaping from the Koenkan on the movie set, and Pai's wearing a wedding dress, no less. When she's injured during the seige on Oni-maru's base, he carries her in this fashion again.
• Brutal Honesty: When Lion asks Akira to help him run away from home, Akira gives him some pretty harsh words that he needs to take matters into his own hands and start to walk on his own two feet, and that his martial arts is useless if he has his back wide open. Lion acknowledges that he's right.
• Bully Hunter: In episode 2, Pai saves a young boy named Wei from being bullied by some kids and sends them running. After saving Wei from the Koenkan, she allows him to get payback for what they did to him, but Wei forgives them instead.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Pai's clearly aware of her feelings of Akira in the second season, but can't bring herself to confess to him.
• Canon Foreigner: Sarah's pet squirrel, Alexander, Liu Kowloon, Eva Durix, and many others from the Koenkan in the first season. Oni-Maru and his followers in the second.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Eva betrays Liu numerous times throughout the first season, such as siccing Sarah on the Hauer sisters, intending to destroy her mansion with him inside of it, sabotaging Pai's brainwashing during his wedding, and shooting him.
• Combat Commentator: Each episode in the first season features a character performing a special move against their enemy, with the Large-Ham Announcer explaining the origins of the move and how devastating it is.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: When he's hanging from the bell tower during her shoot, Akira grabs onto Pai's wedding dress, causing it to rip at the waist and giving the crew below a view. Pai covers herself just in time, but with nothing else to grab on to, they both fall onto the giant mat below.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Akira fits the trope to a T. Normally, he's a dense fool who doesn't seem to take anything seriously and can't think of anything other than his stomach. But when he goes into martial arts mode, he's not to be underestimated.
• Darker and Edgier: The second season of the anime, compared to the much more light-hearted first. The characters are older and their designs are changed to match, becoming less cute and rounded. The plot is treated more seriously and contains less comedy as well.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: Following his defeat after his fight with Akira, Wolf thanks him for the fight and shakes his hand, and even turns against the Koenkan in order to save Akira and his friends from them.
• Disney Villain Death:
  • In the first season, Yan Hong dies after driving off a building during a game of chicken with Jacky.
  • In the second season, this is how Eva finally dies, after Gold Dural tries dragging her off a cliff, and rejects Akira's help.
• The Dreaded:
  • Wolf Hawkfield. When Pai and Jacky learn he's the one Akira is fighting in the underground casino, they've not only heard of him, but worry that our hero has met his match.
  • The Cabal. Those who know of them warn our heroes that they have no idea what they're getting into by challenging them.
• Drives Like Crazy: Jacky, thanks to his skills as a race car driver, does this whenever they're facing off against the Koenkan and he happens to be behind the wheel.
• Dub Name Change:
  • A minor example in the English dub, where Jeffrey's Arch-Enemy is renamed from the "Satan Shark" to "Devil Shark".
  • In the Latin American dub, the series was renamed as El Defensor Virtuoso ("The Virtuous Defender") ^note  Though you can still see the Virtua Fighter logo unaltered as the dubbing team didn't bother to edit that out , and many characters had their names changed. Akira is Alex, Pai is Erica, Jacky Bryant is Roberto Fantini, to name a few.
  • In the Arabic dub, Sarah's name is changed to Sandy.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Jimmy Gates, not helped by the fact he has long blond hair and is quite short. So much that the Latin American dub portrayed him as a girl.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While Lion's father works for the Cabal, once he discovers that Lion has learned about them and becomes one of their targets, he's genuinely scared for his son's safety and tries to protect him.
• Everyone Can See It: In the second season, nearly everyone can tell that Pai's in love with Akira.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • The CEO of Koenkan USA, Jimmy Gates, finds The Power of Friendship to be completely incomprehensible, believing the world is only comprised of winners and losers. After he sees what kind of bond Akira and his friends have, it starts to shatter his perspective but takes it a bit too hard.
  • Oni-maru does everything he can to destroy Akira's ideals and his idea of The Power of Friendship. When Akira offers his friendship after defeating him, it only makes him more desperate to destroy him at whatever cost.
  • At the end of the second season, Eva can't grasp the reasons why Akira would try to save her, but chooses death instead.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: When he's first introduced, Jeffry gives a heartfelt speech telling Akira how touched he was when a boy pleaded for help, and thus allowed the injured martial artist aboard his ship. The actual captain yells at them to get back to work, and Akira points out that Jeffry made it sound like he was the captain. Jeffry simply looks away in embarrassment.
• Flung Clothing: A lot of times, mostly when the main characters have to change from their civilian outfits to their fighting outfits.
• Frame-Up: After Lee attempts to kill Akira and Jacky by blowing up a gas station, the Koenkan pin the blame on our heroes and put "Wanted" posters in the nearby town, which gets them noticed by the local law enforcement.
• Gilded Cage:
  • When the owner of the restaurant that Akira frequents houses Pai, he keeps her locked in a room to prevent the Koenkan from finding her. They later trap her in a net for her own safety.
  • Lion Rafale is rich and has a bright future laid out for him, but he can barely do anything without being forced back home to carry out his duties as the successor of his family's empire. Even there, he can't even do anything to entertain himself because it interferes with his duties.
• Good All Along: When Akira challenges Wolf, he assumes that the deadly wrestler only fights for money. Because of this, Akira fights him out of pure rage, a weakness that Wolf easily exploits. He eventually realizes that Wolf is an honorable fighter and really is one of the good guys.
• Graceful Loser:
  • After Wolf is defeated by Akira, he thanks him for giving him a great fight and shake hands.
  • Lau also takes his defeat against Akira with dignity, with encouragement from Shun Di no less.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: In the first episode, Akira takes a challenge where if he can eat fifty dumplings in an hour, it's free. Unfortunately for the restaurant owner, he realizes he's on the receiving end of this and loses either way; either Akira eats them all and doesn't have to pay, or Akira can't pay anyway because he's dead broke.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Jimmy Gates, the CEO of Koenkan USA, saves Akira's life and abandons his ways after he learns what real friendship is.
  • When Kage-maru realizes that he's responsible for what happens to Sarah, he turns against his employers and saves the heroes from time to time.
  • Jack Moreno returns in the second season to retrieve Lion again, but after learning that the young heir's life is also in danger, he cooperates with Akira and doesn't even attack him.
• Henpecked Husband: Jeffry McWild. After he forgives Pai and Lion for attacking him in season 2, his wife decks him in the back of the head for his part in the whole ordeal and makes him apologize to them.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Moreno throws himself in harm's way to save Lion and Akira from being crushed by falling lights, and dies from his injuries.
• Human Weapon: Explored with Eva, and what Sarah becomes after being subjected to her brainwashing experiments. Eva wants to create what she calls the "Perfect Soldier", and collects battle data to implement into her humanoid fighting machines. She believes that the strongest human beings with the most potential are martial artists, but because they hold themselves back due to their discipline, believes that one without restraints can be used as a dangerous weapon. After she's brainwashed, Sarah quickly becomes more dangerous than most of the cast.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: Subverted with Pai. After she indirectly destroys the camera during her movie shoot, causing the movie to be cancelled, she believes her new dream of becoming an action movie star is gone for good. When she apologizes to Blues later on, he swears he'll one day make her movie. In the second season, Blues has taken her in and turned her into a film star.
• I Have Your Wife: Why Jeffry fights against Lion: His family has been kidnapped and he thinks the Rafale family, who have been trying to force him to sell his island for weapons testing, is behind it.
• I Just Want to Be Free: In the eyes of those around him, Lion is nothing more than the successor of the Rafale empire, and isn't allowed to do anything other than what his title demands. He wants nothing more than to be free of the chains placed on him and be in charge of his own life.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight:
  • After Sarah is brainwashed and ambushes Pai and Lion, Akira fights her in hopes to snap her out of it, but she manages to escape.
  • Jacky faces off against his brainwashed sister near the end of season 1 in hopes to free her from Eva's brainwashing.
• Image Song: Aside from the stage music for each character, image songs were produced for the first game, the second game, and the anime. The second game's image song album Dancing Shadows even got animated music videos for some depicting individual characters' backstories.
• Innocently Insensitive: Lion has a habit of speaking his mind without thinking. When he tells Wolf it's no wonder he struggled during his fight against Nio, Wolf ends up chasing him throughout the restaurant.
• In the Name of the Moon: Whenever Akira is ready to fight, he declares his creed to whoever poor fool is unfortunate enough to cross him.
  Akira Yuki: One should neither bring harm to themselves nor others. This is the guiding principle my martial art is based on. But, it doesn't apply to those who have gone astray! Since you have no discipline, I'll have to set you straight! Come on!
• I Will Wait for You: Blues Davis tries to dissuade Pai from helping her friends in the second season so they can make another movie together, but once he realizes how important Akira is to her, he decides to wait until she's finished taking care of business.
• I Work Alone: Kage-maru adopts this stance when Akira invites him to join their team. He still pops up when the others are in a bind.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Akira teaches a young bullied boy that sometimes when facing a stronger enemy, the best thing to do is run as fast as you can. After all, even if you try to become stronger, there are already people stronger than you, and if they pull out a gun, it's all over anyway.
• Large Ham: The narrator in the anime.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Oni-maru successfully manipulates the cast into fighting each other. He tricks Jacky into fighting Akira, and Lion and Pai into fighting Jeffry.
• Locked Out of the Fight: Pai and Jacky can only watch from a distance as Akira fights against Wolf. Oni-maru employs this on numerous characters in the second season, forcing them to watch helplessly as their friends are either fighting each other or being put in danger.
• Manipulative Bastard: Oni-maru attempts to set up Akira and his friends against each other because he detests Akira's idea of The Power of Friendship. Although he succeeds in making them fight each other, they later come to their senses.
• Man Versus Machine: In the original Japanese dub, Akira is completely determined to defeat Dural because he refuses to allow everyone's years of martial arts training to be outdone by a mere machine. The line was changed in the English dub to say he refuses to let a killing machine hurt his friends.
• Master of Disguise: Oni-maru's ninjas are able to disguise themselves as others. Oni-maru himself even disguises himself as Kage-maru for a couple of episodes.
• Moment Killer: Akira tends to ruin many dramatic moments because of how clueless or hungry he is. When he rescues Pai and Jacky after they've been separated, which made them worry if he was still alive, Pai prepares herself to jump into his arms the moment the cell door opens. Instead, she falls face-first into the floor because Akira went to go free Jacky from his cell.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • When Kage-Maru sees how much pain Sarah's brainwashing is putting her through, he feels so guilty about what he's done that he breaks her out of Eva's lab. Unfortunately, he's the first one who gets a taste of Eva's new human weapon.
  • Lau Chan gets one himself when he found out from Shun Di about Liu Kowloon turning his Koenkan organization into a crime syndicate, as well as having ordered one of his men to kill him behind his back. This helped him realize how it is a bad idea to force his daughter Pai into getting married to such a man.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Jacky isn't happy to see that his sister has an obvious crush on Akira.
• Named by the Adaptation: The second season gives names to Jacky and Sarah's father, Bruce Bryant, and Lion's father, Van Coole Rafale, who were never named in the games.
• N.G.O. Superpower: In the second season, our heroes are being targeted by The Cabal, a group of wealthy individuals who hold tremendous power and influence over the world, creating wars in order to control it. Lion discovers that his father is directly involved with them and runs away from home to warn the others.
• Noble Demon: Gao, one of Oni-maru's followers, comes off as a polite and gentle monk, but makes it clear that he will achieve his goals by any means necessary. Despite his loyalty to Oni-maru, he still follows his own code and isn't blinded by revenge the same way his colleagues are.
• Nonchalant Dodge:
  • Wolf dodges Akira's attacks with his arms crossed, showing just how unfocused Akira is.
  • Lau does this when the heroes fight him in the first season, simply dodging every attack they throw at him unfazed.
• Not Quite Dead: It's revealed midway through the second season that Eva Durix survived and is continuing right where she left off.
• "Not So Different" Remark: During the final battle of the second season, Eva attempts to break Akira's spirit by telling him that he's not so different from Koenkan and Oni-maru by pursuing strength and fighting out of pride.
• Oblivious to Love: Akira has no idea that Sarah likes him and Pai's fallen for him. In season 2, Lion clearly has a thing for Sarah and she doesn't seem to notice.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Akira tries to eat his last dumplings in the air and realizes he's on a crash course with Pai, he tries as hard as he can to stop himself, and ends up kissing her instead.
  • After Pai rescues a woman and fights off her pursuers, she's serious until she hears the word "cut", and realizes she interrupted a movie shoot. She's embarrassed and frantically apologizes to the crew, until she captures the eye of the movie's producer.
  • Whenever he gets summoned by The Cabal, Lion's father.
• One Last Job: A more heroic example. The sheriff in a small town is set to retire, but once he hears that the people supposedly behind the gas station explosion are in town, he decides to make one final arrest.
• Out of Focus: While they still play an important role in the second season, Jacky and Sarah spend much of it investigating The Cabal using their family connections. This gets lampshaded in one of the previews where Sarah complains about her lack of screentime and not being able to shine.
• Poor Communication Kills: When Lion receives a threatening message meant for Akira, instead of giving it to him, he runs off to confront the person who supposedly wrote it: Jeffry McWild.
• The Power of Friendship: One of the predominant themes of the anime. Akira will always be there to help his friends, and by the end of the first season nearly the entire cast has his back. In the second season, Oni-maru is determined to destroy Akira's ideals by setting his friends against each other.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Apparent with some fights, such as Kage-maru's first fight with Akira, and Nio's assault on the pro wrestlers.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Lau Chan is getting one from Shun Di in episode 21 of the first season.
  • He's also on the receiving end from Akira in episode 23, who chews him out after witnessing all the lives Koenkan ruined, and calling him a terrible father for all the suffering Pai also had to endure.
• Rebel Prince: Lion Rafale. Everyone wants him to act like a proper successor to the Rafale empire, but as a young teenager striving for freedom, he defies his orders to the frustration of his superiors.
• Redemption Rejection:
  • When Akira offers his friendship to Oni-maru after defeating him, the ninja rejects and instead gives up his life to make Gold Dural more powerful.
  • Akira tries to save Eva from falling to her death so she can atone for her actions, but she refuses to accept his help and dies.
• Rejecting the Inheritance: Lion's so fed up with his life as the successor of an empire that he asks Akira if he can help him run away from home. After he learns how much suffering the Rafale empire has actually caused, however, the others convince him to stay behind and try to fix everything that's wrong with it.
• Save the Villain: In season 2, Akira tries to save Eva from falling to her death, uncertain why, but says that she needs to atone for her crimes. Unable to accept this, Eva causes him to let go and falls along with Gold Dural to her death.
• Ship Tease: Akira and Pai get the most screentime, and while they have a rough start, it's clear over the course of the series that they've developed feelings for each other. Sarah also develops a crush on Akira, but she also gets some screentime with Kage-maru.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the English dub, when a small town sheriff puts Pai in jail, she insults his partner by calling him "Barney".
  • When Akira, Jacky, and Sarah are in Hong Kong, the Koenkan gang members chasing them pull guns on them. They imagine they're in Virtua Cop and are promptly shot.
  • Jake and Elwood, the two actors working for Koenkan during Pai's movie shoot, are named after DJ Jake Elwood, the radio host in Outrunners.
  • In the English dub, when Jacky is captured by the Hauer sisters, he refers to them as "Twisted Sister".
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Jacky and Sarah Bryant, more so than their game counterparts who appear to share the same personality with their love for fighting and talking down to others who don't exceed in their expectations. Jacky is cocky and hotheaded, while Sarah is gentle and shy.
• Sick Captive Scam: How Kage-maru finally escapes from his captivity in season 2.
• The Starscream: Liu Kowloon, the main antagonist of the first season, is out to marry Pai in order to succeed her father Lau Chan as the leader of the Koenkan. He actually intends to overthrow Lau Chan, kill him, and turn the organization into a global empire so he can control the world.
• Strike Me Down: Upon his defeat, Oni-maru demands that Akira and the others finish him off, and doesn't take it well when they don't.
• Strong Family Resemblance: In Hong Kong, the gang believes they've run into their old enemy Yan Wei Min, but it turns out that it's his younger brother, Yan Hong. Cue an Imagine Spot where the heroes imagine that there's a legion of Yans all over the world who look just like each other.
• Taking the Bullet: Pai takes one meant for Akira after Eva pulls a gun for defeating Gold Dural.
• Team Pet: Alexander, a flying squirrel that belongs to Sarah. He has a tendency of jumping into people's faces and tries to help the team find her when she's kidnapped.
• Thanks for the Mammary: Akira accidentally gropes Sarah's chest during the eating contest. And he happens to do it right in front of Jacky (and a disguised Pai).
• This Is Unforgivable!:
  • Akira will usually get serious and don his dogi whenever he sees something he cannot forgive.
  • After Lau gives Liu a well-deserved beatdown, he scolds his disciple for turning the Koenkan into his personal empire and finds it unforgivable.
  • Immediately afterward, Pai calls out her father for leaving her mom to die, claiming she would never forgive him for it. After Akira watches Lau take down his own daughter, he's infuriated that a father would do such a thing and challenges Lau himself.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Akira, Jacky and Pai urge Lau not to kill Liu so he doesn't get the easy way out.
• Throw It In!: An In-Universe example. When Pai and Akira run from the Koenkan during the film shoot, the crew has no idea if it's part of the script. Blues orders them to shoot anyway and get everything they can on film.
• Time Skip: The second season takes place three years after the first. Since then, Pai has become a famous actress, Jacky is in the racing circuit, and Sarah is attending college.
• Tomboy: Pai is regarded as one by most of the cast, and finds herself a little jealous of Sarah because she's considered more feminine and gets a bigger spotlight than she does.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Lau Chan is much kinder in the second season than he was in the first. Even though he's still strict towards his daughter, they're on better terms and she appreciates that he worries about her.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Liu Kowloon grew up poor on the streets and had to steal to survive, and was saved by Lau when he was caught. Now second only to Lau in the Koenkan, which has given him everything except world domination, he decides to repay Lau by killing him. When Lau finds out, he calls him out on it and then some.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Oni-maru and his followers have a tendency to escape when their plans fail and they're cornered by the heroes.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Jimmy goes so far off the rails when he sees just how far Akira and his friends are willing to go for each other that he initiates the self-destruct sequence in the Koenkan's headquarters.
  • After Liu gets his ass handed by Lau and sees his wedding suit in shreds, he bursts into maniacal laughter realizing he's not as invincible as he thought he was.
  • Oni-maru has a massive one after being defeated, going so far as to give his skills and life to Gold Dural so she can destroy Akira for him.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Jacky Bryant's relationship with his father, due to the latter not being supportive of his dream of being a race car driver. Much like her game counterpart, Pai Chan's relationship with her father.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: At the end of the series, Gao's whereabouts are unknown, but Akira only hopes that one day he'll be a changed man.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Pai absolutely dreads the sight and smell of dumplings because it reminds her of her first kiss with Akira.
• Worthy Opponent: Even though he participates in a bloody underground fighting ring, Wolf doesn't care about the money it offers, he simply wants to fight someone who gives him a challenge. Even after Akira defeats him, he offers to shake his hand and hopes they can fight again without an audience.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • Liu has absolutely no qualms striking down Pai.
  • During his fight with Eliza Hauer, Lion says he normally wouldn't strike a woman, but takes her out with his Saishuhouko uppercut.
  • Lau also doesn't hesitate to make short work of his daughter when she confronts him.
  • Jeffry refuses to fight against Pai during his fight with Lion, but she ends up forcing his hand.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • At the beginning, whenever the villain for that specific arc is defeated by Akira and his friends, they meet their ultimate fate by whoever is the next big threat.
  • Oni-maru believes that failure should only be met with death, and doesn't hesitate to kill his own followers for it.

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