Shout Out / Granblue Fantasy

There are plenty of references to other popular culture, which can be found from various aspects of the game.

Entries for the Grand Blues! spin-off can be found here.

Entries for the Granblue Fantasy Versus Fighting Game spin-off (and its sequel, Rising) can be found here, though some examples may overlap or are carried over.

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Game

Characters / Expies / Abilities / Charge Attacks

• All of the races of the world seem highly based after the playable races of Final Fantasy XIV:
  • Humans are Hyur, the equivalent in Final Fantasy XIV's world.
  • Erunes are the equivalent of Miqo'te, a race of cat-eared folks.
  • Harvins are the equivalent of Lalafells, a race of small people with child-like features.
  • Draphs are the closest equivalent of the Au Ra. While the horns of the Au Ra are more demonic/draconic than bovine, they also have the Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism of very small petite females and huge, somewhat muscular males.
  • While their aesthetics and body types are derived from Final Fantasy, their names in katakana make it clear they're also just repackaged Standard Fantasy Races. Erufu = Eruune, Haafuringu = Haavin, and Dowaafu = Dorafu. Making them also shoutouts to the predecessor Square got a lot its starting material from.
• Aletheia is an Expy of Gandalf, specifically Gandalf the Grey circa The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring. While he lacks any kind of magic, he has the signature staff and sword fighting style, pointy hat, and long white beard.
• Ange's backstory and motivations very much mirror Utena on a superficial level. Her design, on the other hand, is based off of Sapphire from Princess Knight.
• While he's your classic Gentleman Thief, Chat Noir shares a lot of traits with Kaito Kid in particular: an unresolved past, tricks such as smoke bombs, voice imitation and full-body disguises, and a fun-loving, Manchild personality behind his mysterious persona.
• Anne's personality isn't really one, but her concept is based on Rin Tohsaka... A wealthy princess-like schoolgirl who summons heroi- pardon us, paragon spirits^note and yes, they are explicitly eirei in Japanese to do battle for her, and these spirits are linked to her past and family, are mortals who Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence, and are difficult for most mages to summon, let alone control? You'd be forgiven for expecting Kana Ueda's voice to come out of Anne's mouth, not Yoko Hikasa's, or for the primary spirit she uses to use a glowing sword, or be an "archer" that curiously uses swords instead.
• De La Fille's use of gem magic and her twin-tails brings to mind Rin Tohsaka from Fate/stay night, though curiously, it's Chiwa Saitō voicing her. Even then, she does have a few rather vocally Rin-like moments in her various appearances.
• Charlotta is basically Saber, if Saber was three feet tall and had a complex about her height on top of her concerns about being qualified for the position she found herself in. Being an Expy of Saber, Charlotta's Charge Attack is Excalibur in all but name - even the particle effects are similar to Excalibur's depictions in later Fate works.
• Charlotta's weapon, Claíomh Solais, resembles the Moonlight Greatsword from the Dark Souls games.
• Sara's Graphos was later redesigned in her SSR and Summer versions to resemble the summon Alexander from Final Fantasy.
• Siegfried is an Expy Of Guts. A fearsome Black Swordsman that is reviled by the general populace, wielding a massive blade specifically designed to slay giant monsters, who fought an entire army by himself, and fights with a wild, reckless style of swordsmanship. Especially evident when the visor of his helmet is lowered, making it look even more like the Berserker Armor, and his 5★ fate episode in which he appears to be possessed by a malevolent spirit. Lastly, Siegfried's Red Baron in this game is "Dragonslayer", the name of Guts's weapon in Berserk.
• Arusha's design is based on one of Final Fantasy Scholars, the Scholars of Final Fantasy XIV in particular - being a bookworm, wearing glasses and a hat to specificy such similarities.
• Melissabelle is an Expy of Rapunzel. More specifically, the Disney version.
• The name isn't the only thing Yodarha has in common with Yoda, being a tiny and old, yet legendary swordmaster turned quirky hermit whose most promising student turned into a bad guy. They also share the same "jump and flip everywhere" style of swordsmanship.
• The Charge Attack of Soriz, as well as some of the main character's in a Melee class, ends with a Dragon Punch. Ties in nicely with later Street Fighter promotions.
  • Aside from the Shoryuken reference, the SSR version of Soriz is also animated like one long series of Fighting Game shout-outs, featuring animation cancelling Combos, and various poses borrowed from Ryu.
  • After his 5★ uncap, Soriz's Punch the Stars will make him shout "Ora! Ora! Ora!" accompanying his rapid-fire fisticuffs.
• Ghandagoza's 5★ Uncap Art◊ and the icon of his Level 100 Skill "Flashbeat Branding Palm" resemble Akuma's iconic victory pose.
• On the uncap art◊ of Lady Katapillar, Vira somewhat imitates the iconic "Yandere Face" from Future Diary.
• Seofon is a blatant reference to Archer in a way that Charlotta is to Saber, but the comparisons are much more:
  • Similarly voiced by Jun'ichi Suwabe
  • Attacks with magic copies of multiple swords that he makes. Archer's Noble Phantasm is named "Unlimited Blade Works", while Seofon has Cien Mil Espada, or translated to "One Hundred Thousand Blades" in Spanish.
  • The Gag Series occasionally acknowledges their similarities, such as Grand Blues! Comic #852 featuring Seofon, which is titled "Blade Works Not So Unlimited" also mentioned below.
• The Evoker Nier is pretty much another direct Fate/Stay Night reference like Charlotta and Seofon did before her. Specifically, she is one to Sakura Matou. A quiet girl who is The Unfavorite of the family and seeks for the love and approval of a family member, who had a darker side hidden in them and goes bonkers as they continue on... Also voiced by Noriko Shitaya? That sounds familiar... Additional points for having a pact with a powerful being that is loyal to her and wants to see her thrive.
• Vira is basically a female Jin Kisaragi. She inherited all of his qualities right down to a tee.
  • Being commanders of their respective organizations, they're both naturally talented but lack people skills.
  • She also inherited Jin's obsessive qualities over their own respective older siblings (although Jin's obsession is non-romantic while Vira's is and she makes no attempts to hide it).
  • One word:
    Jin: "Brother!! / Nii-san!!"
    Vira: "Sister!! / Onee-sama!!"
  • The name of her sword? Lyst Sin. This is a very obvious reference to Jin Kisaragi's theme, Lust Sin.
  • She also shares the same voiced actor with Tsubaki Yayoi, who is Jin's Love Interest in his home series.
• Vikala is a walking reference to Disney. All over the place. Her stage persona insists on being called Vicky; her temple is practically an amusement park complete with night parades, where you can buy copies of her suspiciously round-eared hairband; her Utopia field features a very familiar castle; she works part-time for a chef named Remy; and it just keeps going.
  • Her second biggest source of references is Tottemo Luckyman. The Catchphrase, "Lucky! Cookie! Vicky!" is based on his henshin phrase. Then there's her secret idendtity, the downer screw-up nobody likes who happened to inherit a superhero's power letting them ham it up until the effects wear off. The sailor fuku elements in her casual getup might also be a nod to Luckyman's love interest, Miyo Kireida's generic schoolgirl look.
• The nickname given by Vyrn to Barawa is "Chairlock Holmes".
• Similarly, the nickname given by Vyrn to Melissabelle is "Goldilocks".
• Melissabelle's Light version has a skill named "Get Over Hair", a pun on Scorpion's memetic Catchphrase from Mortal Kombat.
• Ayer's storyline borrows a lot from Fight Club.
• The storyline of Andira's SSR version makes several references to Journey to the West. Appearance-wise, she's got all the details to be a Monkey King Lite, namely the monkey motif, Nyoi-Bo staff as a weapon, the nimbus cloud, the ability to summon copies of herself and a golden ring headband. Of course, what would a Monkey King Lite / Sun Wukong Expy be without having allusions to this classic novel. In her episodes, Andira plans to travel to Tianzhu in order to find Lord Tripitaka, and encounters Silver Horn and Gold Horn along the way. Her second fate episode is even titled "Journey to the Sky".
• By way of Woolseyism; the translators saw Tyre's looks and crush on a woman he has no chance in hell with, and had some fun renaming all of his skills and Charge Attack after lyrics from "Gaston".
  Perfect, a Pure Paragon
  Even when Taking Your Lumps
  Everyone's Awed and Inspired by you
  My, What a Guy, that Gaston!
• Feather's entire motif is very clearly a love letter to Rock Howard of Garou: Mark of the Wolves fame, right down to his Skybound Art and SR Charge Attack.
• Ferry references Sailor Moon in quite a few ways. Firstly, she is an Erune girl with rabbit-like ears, and Sailor Moon's first name is "Usagi" (literally "rabbit"). Secondly, her original SR outfit is reminiscent of a Sailor Fuku and has mostly the same colour scheme as Sailor Moon's senshi outfit. Thirdly, Ferry like Sailor Moon often uses the word "oshiyoki" ("punish"). Chapter 81 of Grand Blues!, where she is introduced, even has her strike a pose with one hand on her hip and the other in front of her face, making a V-sign. Also, her Grand version's uncap artwork conspicuously features the moon in the background, along with a castle-like structure.
• Randall's Aerial Assault Kick is made up of three consecutive backflip kicks similar to Charlie's Flash Kick Combo from the Street Fighter franchise, complete with green-colored arcs.
• Aside from her name and SR uncap art being an obvious reference to Gundam, the upgraded portrait of Rosamia's SSR version is a Colony Laser, complete with her talismans acting as solar panels.
• Zooey's uncap art is the Zeta Gundam's Hyper Mega Launcher pose, which is also used as a reference for Wing Zero EW's Buster Rifle pose.
• Yet another Gundam reference, Sandalphon's Charge Attack Ain Soph Aur is identical to ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom's Full Burst◊ - a winged humanoid surrounded by Flying Weapons which fire a barrage of laser beams. The difference is that Sandalphon has angel wings and he uses swords. Sandalphon's voice actor also voiced Shinn Asuka, the pilot of Destiny Gundam (Strike Freedom's counterpart in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny)
• The victory pose / animation of Lowain's SR version is a shout-out to EXILE's "Choo Choo Train" music video.
• Nicholas and Robomi's charge attacks are akin to Kamen Rider's famous Diving Kick.^note Though if the mecha lineage is considered, it is a dead giveaway to either Gunbuster's Inazuma Kick or Gespenst Kick from Super Robot Wars.
  • His hammy speech and the design of his armor (particularly that scarf) used by the playable version of Nicholas is also based on Kamen Rider. The comparisons further in "Robomi Z" when he temporarily becomes a hybrid of human and abomination, referencing how Kamen Riders are some sort of Phlebotinum Rebel.
  • As he becomes something like a cyborg to mesh with his suit in "Generations", he has a significant other who is the lead researcher's daughter, and he eventually pilots the enormous God Gigantes at the end of "Generations" while in his suit, he's very, very comparable to Guy Shishioh from GaoGaiGar.
• The Twelve Divine Generals' charge attacks are references to games by SNK:
  • Anila uses Terry Bogard's Power Geyser, while her uncapped charge is instead his Buster Wolf.
  • Andira references Andy Bogard's Chou Reppa Dan. Her uncapped CA is based on his Zetsu Hishou Ken.
  • Mahira references Joe Higashi's Screw Upper. Her uncapped CA is instead the Ougon Tiger Kick
  • Vajra references Leona's V-Slasher from The King of Fighters.
  • Kumbhira references Yuki's Shin Yukishi Maki from The Last Blade.
  • Vikala references Athena Asamiya's Crystal Shoot as it appeared in The King of Fighters All-Star mobile game.
  • Catura's charge attack, instead of being based on any actual moves from an SNK game, instead is a reference to the famously meme'd sequence of Ryo Sakazaki riding his motorcycle between matches in Art of Fighting.
  • The Cidala Twins reference Makoto Mizoguchi's Gottsui Tiger Bazooka from KOF: Maximum Impact Regulation A ^note The move and Mizoguchi himself originate from Fighter's History, a game by Data East. His appearance Regulation A was that of a Guest Fighter.
  • Makura's CA references Orochi Shermie's Raijin no Sabaki from The King of Fighters XV.
• The game is littered with enough heavy metal references in the ability names to give Guilty Gear a run for its money:
  • Vaseraga's ability names are taken from Blind Guardian songs.^note (The) Forgotten Tales, Soul Forge(d), Battalions of Fear, Welcome to Dying (Welcome to Death)
  • Amira's are from Dragonforce.^note Power Within, Inhuman Rampage Her first skill is named Bal-Sagoth. Additionally, her normal mode's Charge Attack is also named "Avantesia" which is derived from the band Avantasia.
  • Lucio's are from Symphony X.^note Eye of Seduction, Out of the Ashes, Awakenings
  • Marquiares,^note Unholy Warcry, (Sad) Mystic Moon, Reign of Terror Zeta,^note Thousand Flames, Shining Star, Rhapsody, Infinite Wonders Katalina^note Enchanted Lands and Estarriola^note (Riding the) Winds of Eternity, Silent Dream, Echoes Of Tragedy from Rhapsody of Fire.
  • Heles,^note Reckoning Night, Reckoning Day, Graven Image Sarunan^note Unia and Sandalphon^note Alone in Heaven, Ecliptica (Actually the name of one of their albums), The Power of One from Sonata Arctica. Heles also has Autumnal from the band Dark Moor.
  • Yngwie from his namesake Yngwie Malmsteen^note No Mercy, Odyssey and Mötley Crüe.^note Jumpstart my Heart (Kickstart My Heart)
  • Ilsa from Edguy.^note Hymn, Tinnitus, Sacred Hell, Shadow Eaters, Hellfire Club, (Until We) Rise Again
  • Siegfried from Manigance.^note Delivrance, Messager, L'Ombre d'Hier His Earth version even has a skill named after the band.
  • Eustace,^note Anti-Social (Disease), Tonight I Fly, Wasted Earth, Forever Yours, Shed Your Blood, Slow Kill Nemone,^note Stand In Line and Melleau (Her third skill is named after the band) from Impellitteri.
  • All of Zooey's Charge Attacks are named Gamma Ray. A line of dialogue in her Fate Episode also reinforces this, with Zooey mentioning that she has to be "One With the World" (which is the title of a song from the metal band).
  • Hallessena's 5★ Upgrade changes her Charge Attack's name to "Psycho's Path".
  • Vira's SR version has a skill named after the band Darkane.
• Vania is a vampire, and she lives in a Castle. Does that ring any bells? Can also be applied to Rage of Bahamut and Shadowverse as well, since she appears in both games.
• Lowain's event version has a Passive ability named "Come at Me, Bro!".
• Walder's event version has a Passive ability named "Where's Walder?". Interestingly, the name of the picture book character in North America is Waldo, which sounds similar to Walder.
• If Walder switches to Super Ranger Mode in his event version, his second skill's name will be changed to "Can't Touch This".
• Wulf and Renie are clearly based on Little Red Riding Hood, with Wulf being based on the Wolf, and Renie on the titular character, along with wearing a red hooded jacket.
  • Their unlock weapon is an axe called the "Master Key", described as a giant key that can open any lock with ease...
• Danua's dolls are named Hansel and Gretel.
• Some characters have a Guardian Entity that act like stands. In this list so far are Lady Grey,^note dead husband's ghost Petra^note a wind spirit Sarunan,^note Honey, a dying spirit Sara,^note Graphos, a sand spirit Magisa,^note Morax, a demon Juliet,^note a guardian spirit of Verona Romeo,^note another guardian spirit of Verona Orchid^note Lloyd, an attack automata and Anne.^note a heroic spirit
• "Bzzt! Amped Up Summer" has characters named Capo Tony, Lenny, and Ronnie who belong to the Mafioso group. They are clearly based from characters of The Godfather - a mafia leader is referred to as the caporegime, or "capo" for short and the three aforementioned NPCs are likely named after Tony Rosato, Lenny Montana and Ronnie Tosca respectively. The Gold Trophy which can be obtained after clearing the Impossible difficulty quest is even named "The Godfather".
• The "Vyrmaments", joke weapons based on the Grand Blues! counterpart of Vyrn transforming into weapons have Charge Attacks making parodies of some anime titles and other pop culture as seen on this compilation:
  • Vyrn Star Sword makes him go Super Saiyan.
  • Vyrn Spear opens up the Gate Of Babylon.
  • The Vyrnstrument's Charge Attack is named "Beethovyrn".
• When you equipped the Fully Voiced (regular or summer version) and the Smiling Crew Member Skins for the captain, their Charge Attack will be named "Vorpal Blade".
• Albert's FLB artwork has him do a mirrored salute of Heero Yuy, which even his voice actor, Hikaru Midorikawa (who voices both characters) noticed in his Granblue Channel episode.
• In the English version, each one of them is officially called an "Evoker", which is a reference to the equipment used by the S.E.E.S. in Persona 3, fitting as both groups use Tarot Motifs to summon Guardian Entities and that the main theme of Persona 3 is also dark and Shounen-leaning, similar to the backstories of Granblue's Evokers.
• Some specific aspects of the Evokers seem to reference works made by PlatinumGames.
  • The name of The Lovers Evoker is Nier. The Primal Beast she has a pact with, Death, also shares visual similarities (and a love-obsessed personality) to Simone. Probably intentional, since according to an interview, NieR: Automata is among producer Kimura's favourite games of 2017.
  • When casting Indominus, Fraux summons a portal that brings forth an arm of The Devil for a powerful punch. This is a reference to one of Madama Butterfly's Wicked Weave moves from Bayonetta. Even the sound effects are almost similar.
• The mysterious Elderly Woman in the EX and EX-2 quest lines will sometimes light up with a flaming yellow Battle Aura resembling a Super Saiyan's.
• The "Guider to the Eternal Edge" outfit references Dragon Ball Super by providing the main character with a blue hair and fiery aura akin to Super Saiyan God SS.
• Belial's appearance was very similar to Lucifel from El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron which raised some suspicions on whether or not Cygames was aware of that and Ignition Entertainment threatened to charge them with plagiarism but the latter eventually dropped the issue.
• Al-Khalid is essentially Rashid as a Harvin.
• The Seven Luminiary Knights are pretty clear expies/homages of some of the Tin Tyrant groups in certain Final Fantasy games, in particular the Judges of Final Fantasy XII and the Garlean generals of Final Fantasy XIV. (It's the Golden Knight where it gets most obvious, as the "collar" of her armor is exactly the same as that of Judge Drace.)
• Classes:
  • The Soldier class makes Gran ripped topless, wearing combat shorts, a red bandanna and a bandoiler on his shoulder. All of these make him a clear Expy of the titular character from Rambo.
  • The Superstar class gives Gran Saturday Night Fever.
  • The Drum Master class has Gran and Djeeta gain festival outfits fit for taiko drummers. You can even access a Fever mode if you can successfully keep a chain going.
    • And the followup to the Drum Master class? Rising Force, complete with an electric guitar and heavy metal aesthetic and skills.
  • The Glorybringer, Nekomancer, and Kengo classes are lifted wholesale from the now long-defunct Cygames Mobile Phone game Knights of Glory.
• As a space engineer thrown into a situation way bigger than him, the Isaac of Granblue is named after Isaac Clarke. Notably, the "Spaghetti Syndrome" event weapon is noted to be one of his tools that he modded to function like a gun... and it's pretty much exactly the Plasma Cutter from the games mounted on a wooden stock.
• Ever wonder why Dorothy associates burning people with cheerful cleaning? She's partly based on the Flamethrower Man from Fist of the North Star and will sometimes quote his catchphrase, "Sterilize the garbage!"
• Kolulu is an expy of Emeralda Kasim from Xenogears. Emeralda was a nanomachine colony who could turn her body parts into visually metallic weaponry including for the deathblow, Hammerhead. Kolulu inherited her green hair, dark skin, similarly tattered outfit, deceptively heavy weight, and has the currently unexplained power to make her body as hard as steel with an emphasis on her weapon-shattering hard head.
• The "Vesture of Life" outfit for the Captain's charge attack ends with them performing the same motorbike slide from AKIRA on a fried shrimp.

Quests / Events / Boss Battles

• Granblue's Bahamut is an Expy of Final Fantasy's Bahamut, complete with its own equivalent to Final Fantasy's Bahamut's Megaflare in the form of Skyfall.
• Granblue's Tiamat is a non-villainous expy of Romancing SaGa 3's Buné (aka Byunei), the Sinistral of the Air, with traces of the Final Fantasy edition of Tiamat, the Fiend of the Air.
• The Primal Beast Celeste is a ghost ship that emits fog and steals death. It is based on a real-life ship named Mary Celeste which is found deserted and drifting in the Atlantic Ocean on its original route to Genoa. For bonus points, an author named Brian Hicks published a book entitled "Ghost Ship", and it is all about Mary Celeste, which is now popularly associated with the term.
• The event that features Farrah and Yodahara is titled "The Girl Who Leapt Through Mountains".
• The Arcarum event boss The Star lets out rapid fire fisticuffs, just like another character based on the Star tarot.
• The entire Platinum Sky event is a shout out to Wacky Races with some REDLINE thrown in. Wacky Races was huge in Japan and Djeeta's driver's outfit is likely pink in reference to Penelope Pitstop.
• The "Cinderella Fantasy: Piña Hazard" event is a whole parody or reference to Resident Evil from the event's title being based from the franchise's Japanese title of Biohazard. The event also has its own version of the Keeper's Diary.
  "Itchy itchy skyfarer came... Mm, hungry and eat piña food..."
• The 2016 April Fools' Day event releases Theatrhythm: Granblue Fantasy, a parody of the Final Fantasy rhythm game was available for a day as a minigame.
• Vyrn? claims in the "Big Bad Shadow" event description that his power level is over 9000. He also uses attacks that look suspiciously like the Kamehameha and Spirit Bombs.
• During the 2018 re-run of the April Fools' Day event, the obtainable weapon is even named "Dragon Bar V".
• In the 2018 April Fools' Day event, the Oira minigame went up on the App Store and Google Play, a Taiko no Tatsujin parody with fifteen of the game's vocal songs available to play through.
• In the "Table for Six" event, many of Psycho Vira's attacks invoke the Super Robot Genre, such as missiles and finger laser beams fired from the robot.
  • Its appearance is also quite based on the Zeong from Mobile Suit Gundam, particularly for being a giant mecha lacking legs.
• Also from the "Table for Six" event, two of the Raid Boss Battles against Psycho Vira is titled "Dude, Your Vira is in Another Fantasy"
• "Gripping Freedom" borrows several plot points from Mad Max: Fury Road - A gang of ruffians serving a leader, with their own bizzare way of nicknaming people using adjectives (i.e. "Northsister"), kidnap our protagonist (Beatrix) and tie her in a vehicle to be paraded in their roadtrip? The only stark difference is the location - an icy mountain instead of the desert in the Mad Max franchise.
• The "Auld Lanxiety" event is the first one to feature the generic thugs and even townsfolk NPCs as a raid boss battle and a solo quest respectively, since they are under the influence of Klesha. Its first raid battle pits you against a group of three thugs, who are collectively named Bad Seed Boys.
• Zogora, the final boss of the "Robomi" event closely resembles Godzilla. This fits into the event's theme of blending in the Kamen Rider and Kaiju subcultures of Japan. A later event even introduces Mecha Zogora, much like the iconic Kaiju's Mecha Godzilla counterpart.
• One of SSR Baotorda's Fate Episodes is titled A Man of Culture.
• Anne's introductory Fate Episode is titled Friendship is Magic.
• Predator's introductory Fate Episode is titled Die Another Day.
• The introductory Fate Episode of Vania's Halloween version is titled Vania in Wonderwood.
• A quest introduced in February 2018 titled "High Soaring Cyper Rangers" focuses on Walder, Vyrn, Zooey, Sierokarte, and Cagliostro forming the Cyper Rangers, a parody / tribute to the Super Sentai Series / Power Rangers complete with their own color-coded helmets and outfits, as well as quotes and poses.
• Chapter 5 of the Detective Conan event, "Gears of Conspiracy" has the title Guilty Gears.
• The "Handsome Gorilla" event also mentions two book series read by the skypeople – "Pundam" and "PrePure".
• Even before the proper collaboration event took place, the "Handsome Gorilla" event had the Harvin cast perform what looks suspiciously similar to an "All-Out Attack" from the Persona series.
• In the Point Celsus - Gaia's Jaws areas of the Arcarum expeditions, a node caption may sometimes mention "All we are is dust in the wind."
• During the Expedition Mini-Games of the "Bzzt! Amped-Up Summer" event, the node caption may sometimes mention "When the seagulls cry..."
• In the Grand Blues! Radio Quest titled "The Art of Refinement", the curator tasked the Grandcypher crew to protect one of the masterpieces named "Noma Sila" in an art museum.
• Chapter 5 of the Princess Connect Re:Dive! event is a reference to the short story, "The Restaurant with Many Orders" by Kenji Miyazaki.
• The second chapter of the "Winter Nights, Stardust Memories" is titled "Bah Humbug!"
• The third chapter of "The Many Lives of Cats" event is titled "Sen, Tear Down This Wall".
• One of the names that you can give for the Young Cat from "The Many Lives of Cats" includes Tom. There's also Catman and Verminator.
• The prerequisite quest for unlocking the Kengo class is titled "You Have My Katana".
• "The Maydays" series of summer events are parodies to some B-Movie films particularly the shark horror genre, while also incorporating some of their plot points and tropes to this event. Sure enough, the event has a theme with sharks, and there are also references to other horror titles.
  • The short story teaser for "The Maydays" event parodies Jaws by imitating the "all uppercase, red-text on a blue ocean background" style of the posters.
  • The giant shark is named "Old Bruce", which is the Production Nickname of the shark animatronic from Jaws.
  • Additionally, Bruce is mostly depicted in its raid battle with only its head rising from the sea, just like the shark's depiction from the Jaws posters.
  • And the second half of the event parodies the ridiculous plot of Sharknado to a degree. The event also introduced two NPC's voiced by voice actors working on the Japanese dub of Sharknado.
  • In Chapter 3, Old Bruce pretends to be dead/sleeping, and tries to attack only when Sandalphon gets near it. This references a plot point in films where the shark can think. Specifically, the "playing dead until a human gets close to its mouth" happens in Deep Blue Sea.
  • In Chapter 6, Sandalphon references, on all things, the memetic line from Snakes on a Plane:
    Sandalphon: I have had it with these sludge-sucking sharks in this sludge-sucky sky!
  • Off-topic from B-Movies, Martin also screams "Oraoraoraaa!" while fighting the flying sharks.
  • The name of the Mini-Game "The Sharkening" is a shark-based pun on The Happening.
• The primal beast Cocytus is basically a direct homage to The Divine Comedy, with all of his attacks taken from the poem.
• The first half of "Cinderella Fantasy: To the Skies Once More" lifts its plot structure from the Image Song (Koi Kaze) of the event's new lead, Kaede Takagaki. Kaede even realizes at the climax that the antagonist has the perspective of the jealous lover who resents how their crush has gotten close to another person and sings the song to calm him down.
• Izmir's third Fate Episode is titled "Kingdom of Isolation".
• The Halloween boss His Excellency Daemonen is named after the Japanese musician and celebrity His Excellency Demon.
• Pop from The Adventures of Dai's ultimate spell, Medoroa/Frizz Cracker, was influencial enough to be included in the Dragon Quest main series. Except between the originator long-remaining unanimated, most entries casting it from off-screen, and the ones where you do see the characters treating it as a combination spell, no official work actually recreated the casting motions that helped make it so popular. Aside from adding to the growing mountain of Square Enix referenes in Granblue, Twin Elements's ultimate attack Frigid Blaze faithfully animates the effects and motions to deliver what fans have wanted to see for decades.
• The April/May 2022 event Freedom's Dirge has several shoutouts to Fist of the North Star. Key character Reizrit is introduced as a wandering martial artist who specialises in Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, ruthlessly smashing his way through various thugs. Some of the thugs resemble Harvin versions of Jagi, and the big bad greatly resembles Yuda. For bonus points, Reizrit is voiced by Takaya Kuroda, who voiced Kenshiro in Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise.

Items / Summons / Trophies

• A trophy you win for beating Grueler is titled "It's Morphin' Time!"
• Reaching a certain amount of honors in the "Alchemist Astray" event gives the "Full Mettle Alchemist" trophy.
• Defeating Psycho Vira's Nightmare battle in "Table for Six" gives you "So As I Pray..."
• Lucifer's Summon Call is named after the book Paradise Lost. This ability later becomes plot-relevant in the event similarly titled "What Makes The Sky Blue II: Paradise Lost".
• Robomi and Super Robo Gigantes' summon calls are inspired by attack animations of the classic Super Robot Wars games.
• A trophy in the "Between Frost and Flame" event is called "Come at me, Aglovale!" which is a reference to the "COME AT ME BRO!" meme spawned from Jersey Shore. To add context, the event's featured character is Percival, the brother of Aglovale.
• One of the trophies you can get in the Touken Ranbu collaboration, Katsugeki Touken Ranbu, is titled Everyday I'm Hammerin'.
• The Charge Attack of Wicked Sick Blaster is "No-Scope Headshot" referencing the 360 No Scope meme popularized by Modern Warfare.
• The "Make Up and Go!" event gives you the "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" bronze trophy.
• Upgrading the four Seraphic Weapons to SSR nets you four trophies, all of which are reference to the Christmas song "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", just replace "Angels" with the Seraphic Weapon.
• From the crab-killing trophies:
  • The first trophy, "Oh No! Sebastien!", is a reference to the crab Sebastian from The Little Mermaid.
  • Defeating 50 crabs nets "Crusty Crabs", a reference to the Krusty Krab from SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • The trophy for defeating 4,096 crabs is "To Crablivion and Beyond", a reference to "To Oblivion and Beyond", itself a parody of "To infinity and beyond!" from Toy Story.
• Uncapping Cagliostro's Earth version to 5★ and leveling her to 100 unlocks the "Fairest of them all" trophy.
• Defeating Tagosaku 20 times unlocks the "Walking Dead Wrecker" trophy.
• Defeating the Maniac difficulty raid of Baihu unlocks the "Yellow Eyes White Tiger" trophy, itself a reference from the iconic Blue-Eyes White Dragon card from Yu-Gi-Oh!.
• Completing the Christmas quest "Underneath a Tree of Lights" gives the "A Granblue Carol" trophy.
• The Cerberus, Hellhound Trifecta summon added the suffix "Such Wow◊" to the list of Summon Call combination terms, based on a meme originating from Tumblr. What's the context behind this? Because Cerberus is a dog(e)!
• The original Japanese name of the True Grit glove earned in No Rain, No Rainbow is the Dokonjou Glove. Most popularly localized as the GutsGlove, it is Akira's best weapon in LiveALive.
• The Dark Crest summon, Nyarlthotep, not only has quite a few references to the Cthulhu Mythos, but half of his combo call named is named "Now Roll for Sanity.

Dialogue

• When they ran out of ideas on how to remove Bakura's hat, Vyrn mentions "I guess a mad hatter's gonna be a mad hatter."
• Marquiares calls himself a "sorcerer supreme" in his second Fate Episode.
• In one of Amira's 5★ Fate Episodes, a soldier tries to arrest her before she can even take a bite off her food. Her response? "Why won't you let me eat! You won't like me when I'm hungry!"
• During the "Table for Six" event, Elsam notes that "punch, kick, chop, flirt—or whatever you do—it's all in the mind."
• The "Table for Six" event plot thread about Sutera getting her groove is a reference to How Stella Got Her Groove Back. The Fate Episode for that event's version of the character is even outright titled "How Sutera Got Her Groove".
• At the end of the "Table for Six" event, Lowain, Elsam, and Tomoi recite a modified version of the Unlimited Blade Works chant.
  "Iron is my body...
  And lettuce is my blood...
  Have withstood machos...
  To create this...
  Gigantic bod!
  And these hands will...
  Hold the girl of our fantasies (Gotta protect that smile!) No more bein' emo!
  Wahey"
• At one point in the "Poacher's Day" event, one of the Odajumoki gang members complains that your group was the one who "set up us the bloodbath", to which another one shouts that "All yer island are belong to us!".
• One of Walder's lines in his Christmas version reads "I see you're a skyfarer of culture as well". A similar line is also said by Lunalu to a customer in the "Handsome Gorilla" event.
• Feena belongs to a group called "Goblin Busters" as mentioned in Goblin Mage's fate episodes.
• Hallessena says "I'm mad to the max!" in her Skill-up Fate episode.
• In Silva's Fate Episode, Vyrn shouts "Sniper, no sniping!" when Silva still tries to reload in front of the Fog of Doom while the rest of them are about to run back to the village.
• During the "Auld Lanxiety" event, Vajra commands her pet dog to calm the bystanders distracted by Anthuria, one thug drops the line "Who let the dogs out?", referencing a popular song of the Baha Men.
• In the Cross-Fate Episode of Nemone and Melleau, Nemone overreacts to Sachy's attack and claims that her bones are broken, "All 215 of them!". This references a scene from Terminator 2: Judgment Day where Sarah Connor (incorrectly) mentions that there are 215 bones in the human body.
• At the epilogue of "Bzzt! Amped Up Summer", Lowain and his bros. shout out "Winner winner! Eal dinner!".
• In the skill Fate Episode of Izmir's Summer version, Vyrn shouts "My body is ready!"
• In the third chapter of the "Make Up and Go!" event, Sierokarte says "My merchant senses are tingling already."
• In Yngwie's 5★ Fate Episode, Vyrn imitates a Metropolis citizen's rather iconic line whenever they see a certain flying superhero, but with some alterations to fit into the setting of Granblue.
  "It's a bird... It's an airship... Wait, it's just Yngwie again!"
• In the Cross-Fate episode of Suframare and Tsubasa, bold-font !? symbols appear around the vehicles as the Delinquent trio are showing off their gear-cycles to Suframare. This references Saki's episode in Zombie Land Saga where the same symbols appear as the bike-riding delinquents in Dorami show off their Death Glare. Additionally, ZLS and GBF are properties where Cygames is involved in.
• Andira makes multiple mentions of her ancestor named Goku in her 5★ uncap, which is rather fitting since both characters are Monkey King Lites.
• Afaka from "The Many Lives of Cats" event references The Enigma of Amigara Fault by mentioning "This is my hole. It was made for me..."
• After finishing the prologue of "What Makes The Sky Blue III: 000" and before starting the first chapter, the event's screen may sometimes feature Vyrn quoting "My pen is mightier than [Sandalphon's] sword".
• The third Lowain Bros event "A Walk on the Wild Side" also has pop-culture references mixed in:
  • The trio end Chapter 1 by shouting "Just Communication?"
  • Jeanne d'Arc shouting "Die monster! You don't belong in this town!" during the Challenge Quest.
  • Lowain once saying "Just shut up and take my rupies!".
  • Lowain's "Kept ya waitin huh?" when coming to Razia's rescue.
  • Machorilla's pose resembles giants from the Romancing Saga series and in particular uses some moves from Romancing SaGa 3.
• For still another Spider-Man reference. In Maria Theresa's Fate episode, Vyrn says her Justice Tarot Card "got his Vyrn-sense tingling".
• In a reference to The Lion King, Lowain shouts "Hakuna Matata" before chomping down on Katalina's cooking in Naoise's Summer episode.
• In the Fate Episode of Cagliostro's event version, she discusses the "Equivalent Exchange" principle of alchemy, the term of which is a reference to Fullmetal Alchemist, the Trope Namer.
• Vane remarks that the Salty-sweet simmered alabone in the "Kappa Summer Chronicle" event is "finger lickin' good!".
• In the "Seeds of Redemption" event:
  • In Chapter 2, Fif recalls her past days when Eahta visited their Harvin village, which naturally had small doors and Eahta had trouble going in, and the doorway for Fif's house had to be rebuilt. This backstory about the Harvin Village is a reference to the Shire in The Hobbit - A settlement consisting of small houses for a race of small people, where visitors from other races have trouble physically fitting inside the tight spaces of these small houses.
  • In Chapter 6, when Seofon rallies his fellow Eternals, he shouts "Eternals, assemble!"
• Vyrn remarks they'll need a bigger airship to deal with Lindwurm in the dragon's introductory quest.
• The English translation has Doraemon in the Doraemon collab reference Dora the Explorer when trying to figure out what to name the Main Five's newly rebuilt airship.

Anime and Character Songs

• In the ninth episode of the anime, Lyria plays with a mask◊ that shares a similar appearance to Vyrn's head, but with a striking resemblance to Angry Bird Red's facial features.
• Cagliostro's Image Song is titled "It would be better to create a cute girl than create the world over 7 days". The latter half of the title refers to the seven-day Genesis Creation narrative of Christianity covered within the first two chapters of The Book of Genesis in The Bible.