Advanced Variable Geo (or Advanced V.G. as officially shortened) is a duology of console Fighting Games by the company Giga (later known for their Baldr series of Visual Novels). The general premise, where in the future a grand championship tournament called Variable Geo is held annually to determine who is the strongest waitress in the world, derives from a series of H-Games. This page is for the console games only.
The first Advanced V.G. was a quasi-remake of the original H-Game, with the hentai content removed. It was released for the PC Engine (1994), Super Famicom (1995, as Super Variable Geo, with the story mode removed), PlayStation (1996) and Sega Saturn (1997; the H-scenes were restored to this last version in a Bowdlerised state). It also introduced the series' overarching plot in which the waitresses (Yuka and Reimi, in particular), were being manipulated from behind the scenes by Reimi's mother, Miranda Jahana, whose goal was to use them as test subjects in order to create the ultimate fighting machine.
Advanced V.G. II, which released for the PlayStation in 1998, focused on a new character: Tamao Mitsurugi, a fan of Yuka, who wanted to become just like her. She befriended many of Yuka's old rivals, but eventually learned that her hero had lost the will to fight, since K-1 and K-2 were killed by Miranda for failing to defeat her in the previous tournament. After re-igniting Yuka's fighting spirit and overcoming Miranda's Psycho for Hire, Saki Shinjou, Tamao and Yuka were pitted against Miranda's latest Designer Babies, the Material twins, after which Tamao defeated Miranda, herself. The saga concluded with the waitresses coming together to prevent Miranda's escape, by unleashing a Combined Energy Attack which killed her.
The plot of these games was later loosely adapted for the Variable Geo OVA.
Now has a character sheet in progress.
These games provide examples of:
- Action Girl: Its about an all-womens MMA competition for combat waitresses.
- World of Action Girls: Most of whom are trained martial artists, including the main antagonist Miranda and her "babies", who are also all female.
- Adaptation Induced Plothole: Advanced V.G. II's opening story mode cutscene suggests that it takes place sometime after the OVA (see the Continuity Nod entry), which creates two problems:
- First, Miranda's already dead in the OVA, which was the reason for the "Black Goddess" project. Whereas in the game, she's still alive.
- Tamao saw the televised match between Yuka and Jun, yet didn't know who Satomi was. Despite Satomi being present at ringside and was the reason Yuka won
note .
- Almighty Janitor: In VG, the waitresses are the most powerful humans on the face of the planet and are competing for the title of "Virgin Goddess". Which makes them the ideal test specimens for The Jahana Group.
- All There in the Manual: There's a few guidebooks and novels that expand the Advanced universe. Even throwing in the characters introduced in V.G. II: Bout of Cabalistic Goddess (the direct sequel to the original pre-Advanced game) for good measure.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Like most fighting games, several of the cast are similar to characters from other fighting game series:
- Yuka and Satomi are the tomboy equivalents of Ryu and Ken respectively, due to the nature of their rivalry and their rolesnote .
- Though in terms of fighting style, Satomi is often considered to be the gender flipped equivalent of Kyo Kusanagi instead.
- Tamao is comparable to Sakura, in that she greatly admires Yuka and strives to become just like her, by emulating Yuka's fighting style. She also has the same backstory - with both being schoolgirls who first saw their respective role models in televised matches.
- And Saki's character design is a mashup of Rugal Bernstein, Iori Yagami, and Vice. Which is also reflected in her personality and fighting style, since she borrows attacks from each of them - including Rugal's "Genocide Cutter", Iori's claw swipes and his "Dark Plume" finisher, and Vice's "Negative Gain".
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Practically half the cast prior to their befriending, although Reimi was by far the most arrogant.
- Berserk Button: For Jun, it's her old nickname of "Bonecrusher"; although prior to Advanced V.G. 2, she also had an extreme distaste for Americans. For Erina, it's people who discriminate against her because she is American.
- Big Bad: Miranda Jahana is the founder of The Jahana Group who created the hybrids and is using the tournament to test them and create the perfect fighter/bio-weapon. She also desires to break Yuka Takeuchi for getting in her way.
- Brand X: Just about every restaurant featured in the games is a Shout-Out to one that exists/existed in Real Life Japan. Hanna Miller's is based on Anna Miller's, Bikkuri Monkey is based on Bikkuri Donkey, The Rival is based on The Royal, Skalark is based on Skylark, Fushiya is based on the Fujiya Confectionary, etc.
- But Not Too Foreign: Reimi, whose father Souichirou is Japanese, and mother Miranda is American.
- Cat Fight: While there's no actual Clothing Damage in-game, the loser of each match is always depicted with their uniform torn to varying degrees, their hair mussed, and their faces are usually covered in scratch marks.
- Chaste Teens: Aside from Reimi (who gets married during her ending in Advanced V.G.) and Ayako's one-sided crush on Satomi, the other waitresses are all single and have no canon love interests. Making them a group of celibate heroines.
- Chromosome Casting: A fighting game series with only females as fighters, if not THE FIRST fighting game in history only starred by girls.
- Combined Energy Attack: Miranda dies during her escape attempt at the conclusion of Advanced V.G. II, when Yuka and the other tournament entrants unleash their combined might to shoot down her plane.
- Continuity Nod: Advanced V.G. II has two references, suggesting it takes place after the OVA:
- The story mode opens with a flashback to Yuka's match with Jun, using the exact same footage from the OVA. Which is how Tamao first saw Yuka in action.
- Ayako's crush on Satomi (first seen in the OVA) was canonized in the second game, where she's Ayako's end boss battle. Ayako tries hitting on her before the fight, but her feelings are unrequited.
- The story mode opens with a flashback to Yuka's match with Jun, using the exact same footage from the OVA. Which is how Tamao first saw Yuka in action.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Both Yuka and Satomi lost their parents at an early age.
- Yuka was raised by her grandfather who's trained her in Kyokushin Karate since childhood. The cause of her parents death is never revealed, though her father is briefly seen in a flashback.
- Both of Satomi's parents died together in a car accident, when she was only 14. Her only living relative is her kid brother, Daisuke, whom she's had to care for on her own.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Miranda Jahana, until her husband and daughter decide to lock her out of the company forever.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Generally, the girls fighting in the tournaments become good friends with each other over the course of the story.
- Designer Babies: The Hybrids created by Miranda (K-1, K-2, and the twin Material units).
- Deuteragonist:
- As the heiress of The Jahana Corporation, Reimi serves as both the deuteragonist and as Yuka's primary rival. After being defeated by Yuka, she aids her putting an end to her mother, Miranda's, ambitions.
- Tamao takes over the role in the second game, relagating Reimi to the position of tritagonist. She helps rekindle Yuka's fighting spirit by making her see that she wasn't to blame for the deaths of K-1 and K-2, in the previous tournament. They have a friendly match afterward, which Tamao wins, before moving on to face Miranda.
- Disney Death / No One Could Survive That!: In the ending to Advanced V.G. 2, Chiho is shot at point blank by Miranda, and then tells the rest of her True Companions to blow up the plane she and Miranda are in with a Spirit Bomb. Everyone thinks she bit the dust until she turns up at her own funeral.
- Dysfunction Junction: Just about everybody except Yuka, Manami, and Tamao have extremely dark or messed up pasts.
- Emergent Gameplay: The first H-Game titles had the fights as a mere excuse to see the Hentai scenes. In the Advanced V.G. games, the combats evolved into something more competitive and more fighting-oriented, becoming a real fighting game on its own terms, with AVG2 being considered one of the most underrated fighters on the original Playstation.
- Fanservice with a Smile: Justified, since the tournament is for waitresses only.
- Freudian Excuse: Reimi. Her mother put her through Training from Hell, never once acknowledged or praised her, and ultimately used her as a testbed for her Designer Babies.
- Friendly Rivalry: Yuka and her best friend, Satomi, trained together at the same dojo and have been competing against each other since childhood. Jun and Erina became friends during the tournament and have a tense rivalry of their own.
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Attempted by Jun, Erina, and Reimi, who all tried snapping Yuka out of her Heroic BSoD by challenging her. However...
- Go Through Me: Tamao was blinded by her fangirlism of Yuka and saw it as them ganging up on her, while she was down. So she took each of them on herself, and made them back off of her.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Invoked during Saki's ending. She's shown silhouetted against a red background as she kills Reimi, by ripping out her throat.
- Gratuitous English: Reimi's ("Burning Love!" "Rose Stinger!" "Gryphon Nail!"), Kaori's ("Data Pulse!" "Flat Scan!"), Jun's ("Kubota Buster/Shuttle!" "Earth Shaker!"), and Ayako's ("Mach Spin!" "Rave Storm!") attack names.
- Incompatible Orientation: Yuka and Satomi are both canonically straight, which hasn't stopped other girls from hitting on them.
- In Yuka's case, her 14-year old student Tamao has fantasized about being with her. Taken a step further in a piece of official art where Tamao offers her birthday sex! Yuka's response amounts to, 'Thanks, but no thanks'.
- Whereas Satomi gets hit on by Ayako in the OVA adaptation and in Advanced V.G. II. It happens again in the third Light Novel, when a new female transfer student also becomes smitten with Satomi and steals her First Kiss!
- Kame Hame Hadoken: Yuka's "Kyuukyoku Kikou Dan" and Tamao's "Lightning Crash" supers.
- Leg Focus:
- Yuka's legs are given special attention. Not only does she fight with them bare, but we're also given an 18-second close-up of them during one of Advanced V.G. II's final cutscenes. And they're featured prominently on the cover art for the OVA.
- The shapeliness of Satomi's legs are emphasized by her in-game character sprite and in several pieces of official art for the series.
- Attention is drawn directly to the curvature of Kyoko's legs, being she's one of the tallest characters in the game. She's also the only one, besides Yuka and Satomi, to fight with her legs bare.
- And Erina is the stereotypical busty blonde American female, complete with long legs, though they're covered in pantyhose.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the original set of H-Games, the Advanced V.G. series did away with the hentai content, making it more of a mainstream fighting game series.
- Meaningful Name:
- Reimi and Miranda's surname, "Jahana" literally means "evil flower".
- The etymology of Kyoko's name is "a mirror," which likely alludes to the fact that redirecting her opponent's attacks is a core aspect of her fighting style.
- The initials "V.G." are assumed to be an abbreviation of "Variable Geo". However, the tournament entrants are referred to as "VG warriors", because they're competing for the title of Virgin Goddess. Which implies that they're all Chaste Teens.
- Moveset Clone: Tamao is essentially "Sakura" to Yuka's "Ryu". And, in a unusual twist on the trope, Chiho was originally a Shoto Clone as well, but was given a different moveset once Tamao's character was introduced.
- Multiple Endings: In Advanced V.G., each character (with the exception of Reimi) has a second ending that can be unlocked when Normal Mode is beaten on one of the higher difficulties.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Advanced V.G. makes waitressing look cool and exciting, by having them duke it out in an MMA competition for the title of "Goddess". Except they uncover a nefarious scheme by the tournament sponsors, involving genetic hybrids. They may as well call it "The Queen of Fighters".
- Ninja: Chiho is descendant of the Masuda Clan and is their heir apparent. While her cousin, Kyoko, is from the Kirishima Clan, which is one of their branch families. Between the two, Chiho is the more traditional example. Kyoko is the exact opposite.
- The One Guy: K-1, who is the only male to ever be seen in a combat role.
- Parental Abandonment: Yuka's parents died when she was younger (she was raised by her grandfather however). Satomi's parents died in a car accident. The whereabouts of most other characters' are never elaborated upon, although in Erina's case, her desperate longing to bring her grandmother to Japan might be a good indicator that her parents are gone as well.
- Playing with Fire: Erina uses Ki Manipulation to supercharge a cigarette lighter to create a makeshift flamethrower. While Satomi is essentially a gender flipped version of Kyo Kusunagi.
- The Rival: Yuka has several in the game continuity:
- Reimi becomes a rival to Yuka, following her defeat at the end of the first VG game. Though she still remains aloof towards Yuka, regarding her more as a Worthy Opponent, than a friend.
- Tamao is a straighter example, being a fangirl of Yuka, much like Sakura towards Ryu. As such, she emulates Yuka's fighting style in order to become more like her hero and tests herself by competing with her.
- Jun develops a decent amount of respect for her too, though she seems to have more of a rivalry with Erina Goldsmith that borders on them being Vitriolic Best Buds.
- Ryu and Ken: Yuka and Satomi have trained together since childhood under Yuka's grandfather, and formed a close bond as sparring partners.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: For the cover of the second game, Yuka and Tamao are about to punch you!◊
- Shock and Awe: All of Miranda's hybrids have the power to summon lightning and channel it directly from their bodies.
- Shortlived Aerial Escape: Noted near the end of the summary and in the Combined Energy Attack entry.
- Shotoclone: Yuka and Tamao are TGL's equivalent of Ryu and Sakura respectively, as noted in the Alternate Company Equivalent entry.
- Something about a Rose: Reimi's red roses are her trademark.
- The Stinger: After the credits of part 2, Tamao, Yuka, and the others are shown visiting Chiho's grave... When a hand suddenly touches Tamao's shoulder and she has a big smile on her face and she turns back to see who it really is.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: Nearly all of the waitresses know how to channel Ki to varying degrees, from enhanced strikes, to direct blasts of spirit energy. The lone exception is Manami, who uses a rocket powered glove.
- Tomboy:
- Applies to both Yuka and Satomi, who have spent their childhood and adolescence regularly competing in full-contact martial arts. Both are highly skilled and have naturally athletic figures as a result.
- Jun's hobbies include weightlifting and motor cycling. She's also an amateur wrestling champion, with the physique to show for it.
- We Will Meet Again: Miranda tries to pull this in the climax of Advanced V.G. 2, but doesn't make it very far.
- You Have Failed Me: Miranda disposes of K-1 and K-2 for failing to defeat Yuka, at the end of Advanced V.G..
