YMMV / Variable Geo

• Adaptation Displacement: Few people know that the OVA is based off a fighting game series, because it's the only part of the Variable Geo franchise to ever leave Japan.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Yuka and Satomi never get the chance to actually fight Miranda. Instead, once Satomi is freed from her control, Miranda's spirit remains trapped within the cyber drive; leaving her utterly defenseless. So when they destroy it, she goes along with it.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: So uh, what did the old man and mute girl getting that mystical looking stone near the end of the final OVA episode have to do with anything again?
• Broken Base: There are fans who question why they included the "losing conditions" from the original H-Games in a story based off the more mainstream reboots. Others wonder why they just didn't go the other direction entirely.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In the OVA, Yuka nearly concedes defeat to Jun, but wouldn't have suffered the penalty^note In the H-games, the loser of each match is publicly raped by members of the audience, or the tournament committee since the OVA is based off the Advanced V.G. reboot. That was changed years later, due to two new pieces of official art set during the original H-game continuity. The first one shows Yuka with her shirt torn, from being KO'd by Jun. The second one shows Yuka staring down her soon to be rapist.
  • The decision to include the losing conditions from the H-games made some fans wonder why KSS bothered to censor it. Then along came V.G.: NEO, an AU series which also enforced the losing conditions - without censorship. It was poorly received, causing many to dismiss it as non-canon.
• Les Yay: Both the original Japanese and english dubs contain dialogue that, when taken out of context, can make it seem as if Yuka and Satomi are dating, rather than friends.
  • OVA 2 begins with Yuka finding the farewell letter Satomi left for her. When she tells Jun about it (sub version), Jun asks if it means they've broken up. To which Yuka dejectedly replies, "yes".
  • In the final episode of the dub version, Kaori speaks of Satomi as though she were Yuka's girlfriend (from 22:25-22:54).
    Yuka: [at Kaori] Let me go! I've got to help Satomi!
    Kaori: [urgently] Listen to me! Think back to your match with Jun Kubota: you and Satomi share an incredibly strong emotional bond. Her voice broke through and saved you, when you were about to fall. Now, you can return that strength.
    Yuka: [voice breaking] How can I help Satomi when she's not even herself?
    Kaori: With love! Use the feelings you have towards Satomi, to break through into her true spirit!
  • In OVA episode 1, Reimi congratulates Kaori for winning her first bout, but says she's far more interested in seeing her lose so she can see Kaori's "beautiful body again". It immediately cuts to an Imagine Spot of Reimi watching as Kaori and her unnamed opponent are both forced to strip naked in her rose garden and masturbate in front of her. Kaori blushes indignantly and replies that she doesn't intend to lose.
• Narm: Erina's rant in the english dub; particularly when Yuka tries to reach out to her with her heart and she rejects it.
  Erina: [dramatically] NO! TRUST! RAAAAAGGEEE!!
  • There's also Chiho's reaction when she enters the roof of the Jihana research facility:
    Chiho: A ROSE GARDEN!? [cue music sting]
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The OVA establishes Reimi as the woman to beat, with Yuka as the up and coming challenger, and hints at their inevitable showdown when they pass each other, on the highway... And that's all we get, because Reimi gets eliminated from the competition before the finals, thanks to her mother's meddling.
  • The final match itself is a case of this, as we never see the outcome.
• The Woobie:
  • Satomi was already the primary example in the game series^note covered by the Perpetual Poverty and Promotion to Parent entries in her character section, but the OVA heaps additional suffering on her between repeat losses to Yuka and by having her be manipulated by The Jahana Group. But when she makes it to the finals, Fridge Horror kicks in.
  • Erina seems happy-go-lucky, on the surface, but the glimpses we're allowed to see of her childhood shows she was bullied, which started her on the path to juvenile delinquency. It was believed that she grew out of it, but her match with Yuka revealed those feelings of anger and resentment were still there.
  • The truth concerning Reimi's childhood is covered by the Abusive Parents entry on the character sheet, in her example section. Suffice to say, her upbringing has hardened her into both a Stoic Woobie and an Iron Lady.
  • There's also the girl Kaori fought in her first match. We never learn her name, but one has to wonder what circumstances drove her to try to fight an opponent she clearly had no chance of defeating. Not only was she publicly humiliated by being taken out by Kaori's opening attack, the look in her eye when she realized she had to pay the penalty for losing at level-1, further elicits audience sympathy.

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