Variable Geo/Characters

Variable Geo, or simply VG, is a series of Video Games created by the company Technical Group Laboratory (TGL). Although most entries in the series are Fighting Games, the last three to date have been of the Visual Novel variety.

The following is a list of characters who have appeared in the series, separated by debut title.

Yuka Takeuchi
The Heroine of most games in the series. She's a karate practicioner looking to challenge herself and keep moving forward in her craft... In other words, she wants To Be a Master. She firmly believes that Defeat Means Friendship, and that people can communicate through combat what cannot be said in words.

Associated Tropes:
 * Big Breasts, Big Deal: type 2 in the ova as she's actually not happy that her breasts are still growing
 * The Empath: In the first OVA series, Yuka is able to get glimpses into the mind of her opponents when she gets hit by their Ki Attacks. She gets disturbed when this doesn't work on an opponent.
 * Heroic BSOD: After watching Miranda Jahana kill off K-1 and K-2, she started having serious doubts about her Defeat Means Friendship philosophy, causing her to lose her powers until Tamao helps her find confidence again.
 * Hey, It's That Voice! (She's voiced by Yukana (games) and Kotono Mitsuishi (anime).)
 * Jack of All Stats
 * The Messiah: She tends to have moments of this. Especially in the OVAs.
 * Japanese Pronouns: Yuka uses "boku" to refer to herself.
 * Kamehame Hadoken: Her Limit Break in most games that include super attacks.
 * Shotoclone
 * Warrior Therapist: Yuka tends to do this as a side effect of being The Empath.
 * Worthy Opponent: Largely to Reimi.

Chiho Masuda
A Ninja who got sick of life in the shadows and decided to run away and live life on her own terms. She hopes to use the tournament prize money to fund her new, free life.

Associated Tropes:
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: In the OVA during the last episode.
 * Doppelganger Attack: One of her Limit Breaks.
 * Hey, It's That Voice! (Hekiru Shiina (games), Junko Iwao (OVA).)
 * Knife Nut: Kunai throwing knives are one of her favorite tools.
 * Ninja
 * Not Quite Dead: In the climax to Advanced VG 2, Chiho is shot and then subsequently seemingly performs a Heroic Sacrifice when she guides a Combined Energy Attack formed by the other girls straight into the plane that she and the Big Bad are on board. She then turns up at her own funeral, no worse for wear.
 * Not So Stoic: Although she tends to be quite... Well, Stoic in a fight thanks to her Ninja upbringing, she's a rather normal, emotional teenage girl when not in combat. It's so jarring that Yuka has told her that her ability to control her emotions like that would make her a perfect actress.
 * Ryu and Ken: In an unusual version, Chiho initially had a very similar moveset to Yuka instead of being a Fragile Speedster like most Ninja.

Jun Kubota
A former olympic-level amateur wrestler. She was sent home in disgrace after refusing to let up on an injured opponent, and branded with the nickname "Bonecrusher". She initially fought in the tournaments as a Blood Knight looking for some skulls to crack, but after being befriended by Yuka, is seemingly just in it for the lulz.

Associated Tropes:
 * Badass Biker: She rides around a rather nice sport bike when not on duty or mixing it up.
 * Berserk Button: Her nickname is a general Berserk Button for her. She also had a rather extreme distaste for Eagle Land prior to meeting Erina.
 * Bokukko: Amusingly enough, her preferred pronoun is "ore".
 * Ground Pound: Her signature Earth Shaker attack.
 * Guilty Pleasures: Jun has a hidden love of small, cute things, such a stuffed animals.
 * Hey, It's That Voice! (Chiharu Tezuka (games), Ai Orikasa (anime).
 * Mighty Glacier
 * The Ladette: She's a hard drinkin', hard fightin' lass.

Manami Kusunoki
A 16-year old Loli Idol Singer from Osaka. Entered strictly for the chance to earn the prize money, although she never reveals what exactly it is she wants it for. Has a strange fixation with the other competitors' breasts which invariably leads to gropage.

Associated Tropes:
 * Catgirl: She invokes the image with her energetic yet selfish, moody behavior and a pair of gloves that look like cat paws.
 * Cast From Hit Points: The result of her How Do I Shot Web? traits is that every use of her Neko Rocket Punch means she's going to lose some of her own health.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: Her "Rolling Attack".
 * Fragile Speedster
 * Hair Colors: Manami's twintails are cotton candy pink.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Kae Araki (games), Ikue Ohtani (anime).
 * How Do I Shot Web?: When using her Neko Rocket Punch, Manami launches one of her heavy cat paw gloves at the opponent... And then snaps it back too hard, causing it to hit herself in the head.
 * Idol Singer
 * Kansai Regional Accent
 * Lolicon: The whole reason she was included.
 * Mouthy Kid
 * Kawaiiko
 * Rocket Punch: "Neko Roketto Panchi!"
 * Skinship Grope: Manami loves doing this to the other girls.
 * Token Mini-Moe: In Advanced VG 2, she gets mad at Tamao for taking this status away from her.

Kaori Yanase
A 19-year-old Meganekko computer technician. She fights using Tae Kwan Do, and also makes use of a computer to analyze her opponents' strengths and weaknesses. She fights both to improve herself, and to make up for her humiliating loss to Reimi during her first time in the V.G. tournament.

Associated Tropes:
 * Apologetic Attacker
 * Awesomeness By Analysis
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Yuri Shiratori (games), Yuka Imai (anime).
 * Kick Chick
 * Meganekko
 * Nerds Are Sexy
 * Voice Actors: In at least two of her endings throughout the series, she winds up becoming the Voice Actress behind the main character of a Magical Girl show.

Reimi Jahana
Reimi is the young heiress of the Jahana Group, the Mega Corp responsible for running the V.G. tournaments. She was also the Final Boss of the first game.

Associated Tropes:
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Girl: Very much so in the first game and somewhat in the OVA.
 * But Not Too Foreign: Her father is Japanese, her mother American.
 * Disc One Final Boss: It's eventually revealed that Reimi's mother, Miranda, is the Woman Behind The Woman for the series.
 * Heel Face Turn
 * Hey, It's That Voice! (Kumiko Watanabe (games), Yuriko Yamaguchi (anime).)
 * Hot Amazon: In the OVA, she's seen repeatedly forcing herself on her lover/assistant, who doesn't sem to mind much at all.
 * Lady of War
 * Let's Fight Like Gentlewomen: For all her arrogance, Reimi simply will not abide by rule breaking and disorderly conduct in her tournament.
 * The Ojou
 * Princess Curls
 * Rich Bitch: She gets better.
 * Something About a Rose: Red roses are Reimi's trademark.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl

Satomi Yajima
Satomi is an old friend of Yuka's, and a fellow martial artist. She enters the V.G. tournament for the sake of her Ill Boy little brother, Daisuke, who she's responsible for taking care of as his only living relative.

Associated Tropes:
 * Deal with the Devil: In the OVA, she's convinced to enter the VG tournament this way after Daisuke's poisoned.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Chisa Yokoyama (games), Yuko Miyamura (anime).
 * Parental Abandonment: Her and Daisuke's parents died in a car accident
 * Perpetual Poverty
 * Playing with Fire: Really, she might as well be a more reserved, Gender Flipped version of Kyo Kusanagi.
 * Promotion to Parent
 * Ryu and Ken: The first OVA series played her relationship/rivalry with Yuka this way.
 * Unkempt Beauty: Toyed with. Because of her Perpetual Poverty, Satomi's hair is always messy. Satomi herself constantly bemoans this fact, but her fans see it as her charm point.

Ayako Yuuki
"Body-conscious" waitress\dancer at the club "SoTO". Does charity work for the homeless in her spare time. She also lures out rapists, muggers, and stalkers before beating them within an inch of their lives.

Associated Tropes:
 * Dance Battler
 * Eyes Always Shut
 * Good Samaritan
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Yuri Amano (games), Michiko Neya (anime).
 * Kansai Regional Accent
 * Lipstick Lesbian / Invisible to Gaydar

Erina "Eririn" Goldsmith
American expatriate owner of the restaraunt "The Rival"; she and the other waitresses there work in Playboy Bunny outfits. She fights and works to earn enough money to bring her grandmother to Japan to stay with her. Her fighting style uses several fire-based attacks based on Ki Attacks and the flame from a lighter she carries.

Associated Tropes:
 * Berserk Button: Whatever you do, don't put her down for being a foreigner.
 * Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: In a few of her endings in the series, she pulls Jun into forming one of these with her.
 * Broken Bird: Being bullied as a foreigner since childhood has filled her with a rage that fuels her attacks.
 * Cool Big Sis: The other "bunnies" at The Rival see her as this.
 * Cute Bruiser
 * Delinquents: She was one in her younger years, and she still hasn't quite gotten rid of all of the tendencies.
 * Foreign Fan Service with a Smile: Blonde, buxom, and in a bunny costume.
 * Gag Boobs: Erina takes the large size of her breasts to the logical extreme...her ability to hold a lighter between her melons is a part of her fighting strategy
 * Hey, It's That Voice! (Miyuki Matsushita (Q-Bee, Bulleta/B.B.Hood) in the games, Yuko Nagashima (Tina Armstrong, Mimori Kiryuu, Erina Won) in the OVA.)
 * Kansai Regional Accent: She grew up in Osaka, so it's expected.
 * Parental Abandonment: Not explicitly stated, but implied by her close relationship with her grandmother.
 * Phenotype Stereotype
 * Playboy Bunny
 * Playing with Fire
 * Victoria's Secret Compartment: She carries her lighter in her cleavage.

K-1
One of Miranda Jahana's Hybrid super soldiers made to capture anybody strong enough to beat Reimi. He (yes, he) is beaten by Yuka and killed off by his "sister" K-2.

Associated Tropes:
 * Designer Babies
 * Determinator: Although not quite enough to avoid defeat and death.
 * The Dragon
 * The One Guy: The only guy in the entire series seen in a combat role.
 * Shock and Awe: All Hybrids have some unexplained power over electricity.
 * You Have Failed Me

K-2
K-1's older sister figure and killer, she wound up being killed off by Miranda after also failing to nab Yuka.

Associated Tropes:
 * Designer Babies
 * Dirty Coward: She engages Yuka only after blinding her with her powers.
 * Fake Boss
 * Final Boss
 * Shock and Awe
 * You Have Failed Me: Coupled with Hoist by His Own Petard when Miranda shoots her in the head.

Yumiko Watanuki
One of Kotoe Kashima's bodyguards (specializing in Taichi Chuan), she pulls double-duty by also working at a Chinese restaurant. She, along with Terumi and Kotoe were Retconned out of the series; but Yumiko must have been somebody's favorite, as she was Rescued From the Scrappy Heap and made a comeback in VG Max.

Associated Tropes:
 * As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The "Chinese" that Yumiko speaks in-game is notable for being laughably bad, even back before the series started using Voice Actresses.
 * Battle Butler: In VG II, at least.
 * But Not Too Foreign: Her mother's family is Chinese.
 * Chinese Girl
 * The Cutie: Manami is noted to have made a fuss over how cute Yumiko is when they met.
 * Dance Battler: Her backstory mentions that she had been a dancer while living in Hong Kong and incorporated it into her Taichi.
 * Genki Girl

Terumi Kannazuki
The second of Kotoe's bodyguards, Terumi fights with Muay Thai kickboxing, and despite working for someone like Kotoe, she stands very squarely on the "Idealism" side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, and doesn't tolerate wrongdoing. She was Retconned out of the series.

Associated Tropes:
 * Battle Butler: And she even dresses the part!
 * Cool Big Sis: Towards Yumiko
 * The Dragon
 * Justice Will Prevail
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Her last name is sometimes romanized as "Kannaduki".

Kotoe Kashima
Reimi's childhood Rival who, after hearing about Reimi's loss to Yuka in VG, decided to Kick the Dog and rub things in Reimi's face by holding her own tournament and beat not only Reimi, but everybody else, at her own game. She suffered the exact same fate as Terumi.

Associated Tropes:
 * Final Boss
 * The Ojou
 * Rich Bitch: She cranks this up all the way to 11.
 * The Rival: To Reimi
 * Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
 * Start My Own: Held her own VG Tournament just to piss off Reimi.

Tamao Mitsurugi
The main heroine of AVG 2, Tamao is a Hero Worshipper who wants to be just like Yuka, whom she admires. She has an uncanny talent for fighting and manages to defeat many long-time favorites, eventually getting Yuka out of her Heroic BSOD from the previous tournament.

Associated Tropes:
 * Divergent Character Evolution: She was downgraded into a borderline Joke Character for VG Max.
 * Hero Worshipper: To the point where in her VG Max ending, she uses the prize money to have a robot double of Yuka built to satisfy her fangirlism.
 * Improbable Age / Token Mini-Moe: Youngest VG character overall at 14 years old. Manami was not happy about having her position usurped.
 * Mega Manning: She fights with moves copied from Yuka.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Subversion. She largely replaces Yuka for most of AVG 2's storyline, but is just different enough to count as a character in her own right since Yuka's still playable.

Kyoko Kirishima
Chiho's cousin and a fellow member of the family clan of Ninja. She was sent by their grandfather to bring Chiho back, but ultimately decided against it after being befriended by Chiho and Tamao.

Associated Tropes:
 * The Comically Serious
 * Kissing Cousins: Largely in Fanon thanks to their reconciliation towards the end of Advanced VG 2.
 * Ninja: Although she doesn't quite look the part.
 * The Stoic: All the time, unlike Chiho.
 * Stone Wall: Her attack power is relatively low, but her defense is high, as is the damage output from her counter throws.

Saki Shinjou
A Psycho for Hire whom Miranda Jahana uses as her own personal Battle Butler. She's out to make sure that none of the other girls get in the way of her boss' plans. Has something of a personal grudge against Reimi for defying Miranda.

Associated Tropes:
 * Battle Butler
 * Evil Laugh
 * Hair Colors: Dark green
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Mari Mashiba (Cima Garahau).
 * Psycho for Hire

Material
Miranda's latest-model Hybrid Designer Babies. A set of Single-Minded Twins with identical powers. Miranda set them on Yuka and Tamao, but they were defeated and unceremoniously deactivated by Miranda.

Associated Tropes:
 * Designer Babies
 * The Dragon
 * Emotionless Girl
 * Hair Colors: The Material that Tamao faces has green hair, Her Palette Swap has blue.
 * Palette Swap: Because they're effectively the same character, the two separate palettes are used to differentiate between them.
 * Single-Minded Twins
 * Shock and Awe
 * You Have Failed Me: They were both placed on the receiving end of this, thanks to Miranda.

Miranda Jahana
The Woman Behind The Woman during Advanced VG. She's a Corrupt Corporate Executive bent on creating and mass-producing the ultimate fighting machine for a purpose that isn't very well elaborated on. To this end, she used her own daughter (Reimi) as a testbed, putting her through Training From Hell, abusing her when she faltered and never once praising or letting up on her when she succeeded. After she decided her daughter was of no more use, she discarded her and went into seclusion, controling things from behind the scenes while using the tournament to test out her "Hybrids", Designer Babies made to carry out her orders. She's killed when a Combined Energy Attack formed by Yuka and company collides with her personal jet.

Associated Tropes
 * Bad Boss
 * Big Bad
 * Blondes Are Evil
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * Eagle Land
 * Evil Foreigner
 * Evil Matriarch
 * Final Boss
 * Grand Theft Me: In the OVA, Miranda is already deceased and her spirit is looking to take over a suitably powerful body. She gets Satomi for a short while, leading to an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight.
 * Hot Mom
 * Kick the Dog: Her speciality.
 * Oh Crap: After hearing that she's been locked out of the Jahana group by her husband and Reimi.
 * Phenotype Stereotype
 * We Will Meet Again: Attempted. She didn't make it very far thanks to a team Combined Energy Attack.