Arcade Gamer Fubuki

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An Anime about Magical Gaming Panties.

It began as a manga series created by Mine Yoshizaki (who went on to create Keroro Gunsou, among other things), and eventually became a four-episode OVA series which eventually saw a U.S. DVD release. It's a sort of fan-sequel to an older manga and anime called Game Center Arashi, which had a similar premise but focused on a bucktoothed boy -- who makes a Cameo appearance in the series.

The story revolves around a young girl named Fubuki who is entered in the Best Of Arcade Gamer video game tournament. She seems incompetent; but she has a secret weapon in the form of the Passion Panties, a magical pair of panties that give her the ability to play video games really well while upside down and shooting electricity out of her hands. But there's an evil organization of muscle men dressed as Galaxians, led by a woman dressed as a Galaxian flagship; they come from some kind of parallel dimension and are commanded by a mysterious but familiar voice. Fubuki also has to deal with other competitors, including her rival, who wields a pair of black Passion Panties and doesn't suck at video games without them!

...so it's basically an anime adaption of The Wizard (film), except with the cast replaced with cute girls, the Power Glove replaced with the Black Passion Panties, and Nintendo replaced with Sega.

Tropes used in Arcade Gamer Fubuki include:

• Americans Are Cowboys: Melody Honey.
• Animeland
• Blind Idiot Translation: Okay, not quite as bad, but one has to wonder how the translators managed to translate Glass Joe (said completely in English and a Punch-Out!! reference to boot) as Joe Dallas. One common explanation for it is because the subtitler loathed it and thus didn't care.
• Button Mashing: Both averted and not. Fubuki seems to be just randomly hitting buttons and winning when using her magic panties, but other times games are played believably or at least the punching of the joysticks by a boxer named after a 'Punch-Out!! character is explained.
  • There was also a brief scene where Hanako played Decathlete.
• Crossover: Arashi, the protagonist of Game Center Arashi appears in both anime and manga briefly, and, in the manga, there's even an antagonist from the same series.
  • From Keroro Gunso, Keroro plushies can be seen in a crane game in the first episode of the anime. In the manga, there's both a Keroro plushy and even Natsumi herself.
  • Meanwhile, the cast of Fubuki regularly appears in the background of Keroro manga and less frequently in the anime. Later, there's an entire crossover chapter of the manga featuring Fubuki facing Keroro at an arcade game.
  • From Seven of Seven, there's Melody Honey. She appears here as the Lord of Rhythm Games and would later become a recurring character in Keroro in both the manga and anime, even sharing the same voice as the one used here, and showing up in the theatrical movies!
  • There's also the Taisen Net Gimmick Majong girls (whom Yoshizaki also designed) in the DVD exclusive Beach Episode.
• The Ditz: Fubuki and especially Melody Honey
• Evil Counterpart: Chizuru works for the villains and has a pair of black Passion Panties!
• Executive Meddling: They were originally the Pac-Man Panties and there were more blatant Namco references before lawyers presumably got involved.
• Expy: Mr. Mystery originally started out as one for Game Center Arashi, but this changed when the creator of that manga officially approved Arcade Gamer Fubuki.
• Fluffy Tamer: Layla Rurilan. R.E.X. is carrying her around after a bit of food.
• Gratuitous English: Courtesy of American competitor and Lord of Rhythm Games, Melody Honey.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: There's a conveniently unnamed guy in a karate uniform who works at a rather SEGA-esque company and beats people up for not respecting the game, is voiced by Hiroshi Fujioka, says "Play until your fingers break!", and stops a missile with his bare hands.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The main villain is Fubuki's father.
  • The fact that he's also Segata Sanshiro is a much bigger twist.
• Marshmallow Hell: Fubuki suffers this during her first encounter with Melody Honey
• Pac-Man Fever: Zig-Zagging Trope. The show uses real footage of actual games and believable techniques half the time. The other half, we have upside down girls shooting electricity while flashing their panties atop clashing tornadoes of water.
• Panty Shot: Practically the entire premise of the show!
• There Was a Door: Mr. Mystery opts to jump through Fubuki's window rather than use the freaking door.
• Underwear of Power: In the most literal sense.