Evil Zone

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A Fighting Game released in 1999 for the PlayStation, known as Eretzvaju in the original Japanese.

The entire premise of the game was to defeat the evil super being know as Ihadulca, who was a Sealed Evil in a Can. She was put there by the same people who summon all the characters of the game to I-Praseru, also called "Happy Island", the world where the game takes place.

The standard tournament for no reason takes place, as the characters bumble into one another and fight for various reasons.

Tropes used in Evil Zone include:
  • 100% Completion: Beating the game with a character and unlocking all eight of each character's intro animations unlocks the encyclopedias for that character. Getting this for each and every character, including Ihadurca herself, and you get an audio drama where all the characters fight over who's the real main character.
  • Affably Evil/Wicked Cultured: Keiya is dashing, good looking, polite, willing to help people with their problems, and will utterly maim, brutalize, and kill anyone that gets in his way.
  • Affectionate Parody: Every character is a homage to an anime genre or character archetype.
  • All There in the Manual: The game includes an encyclopedia in the main menu, and it explains everything. Want to know what kind of a throw a character uses, and what style it's from? It's in there. Want to know what the name, range, and accuracy of Danzaiver!'s satellite beam cannon? It's in there. Want to know about a piece of a character's costume, that isn't visible on the model, but provides an in-game function? That's in there too! With BACKSTORY FOR IT!
  • Armor Is Useless: Played both straight and averted at the same time. Really, no one wearing armor is any more protected than anyone else, however, those wearing armor can only keep up with the rest because of their armor. Thankfully, it's Power Armor, but still...
  • Asskicking Pose: Delivered before every single one of his battles by, you guessed it; Danzaiver!.
  • Badass: It'd be easier to list the parts in the game that DON'T include heaping helpings of this.
  • Badass Normal: Aside from their Power Armor, Danzaiver! and Gally really are just normal humans, unlike the rest of the cast, who sport supernatural powers.
    • Wouldn't Midori count as well? She has no magical powers or armor and is capable of going toe-to-toe with all the magic users and super-powered beings in the game with only her martial arts.
      • It would have if Martial Arts would let you fire energy discs and make clones of yourself.
  • Battle Aura: When charging up for a super, everyone glows.
  • Beam Spam: Gally, Al (his is more fire-based), and Ihadurca all have this when they grapple opponents from various distances. Danzaiver! also does this as one of his gem specials.
  • Berserk Button: Don't call her "Iha".
  • BFS: Gally, he's surprisingly fast with it too.
    • Danzaiver! pulls this off with his ultra-attack, by adding an extra battery to the Danzaiblade, doubling the handle length and the sword's blade.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: From the poorly-synced speech lines to the literalist translation, much Narm abounds, ranging from Danzaiver! telling Ruri to "withdraw, quickly!" to Kakurine thinking Alty is her big brother.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Gally, Midori and Danzaiver!.
  • Boobs of Steel: Ihadurca plays this straight by being the most powerful character in the game. Slightly subverted with Erel who's pretty balanced.
  • Bounty Hunter: Gally "Vanish" Gregman. Nice guy. Devoted husband.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Everyone, ALL the time.
  • Clothing Damage: Erel and Keiya wear ponytails that will come undone when they lose about 70% of their health. Danzaiver! loses a chunk of the armor on his face when he takes the same amount of damage.
  • Combo Breaker: Hitting your opponent with anything will disrupt them from attacking and cancel whatever special attack they may have been using. Keep up the hits and you can juggle an opponent with temporary stuns long enough to hit them with a death attack.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Ihadurca's Bendis-Meltis. Prime candidate for That One Attack, it can break any attack you throw at her, including attacks that would normally break any other enemy attack, and hit you if you're on the other side of it. It actually carries over to the playable Ihadurca as well.
  • Cute Bruiser: Midori, Setsuna, Erel.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: Grapple attacks usually involve getting your opponent utterly at your mercy long enough to deliver a super powerful attack. Also, many characters have a cutscene attack for one of their three basic special moves.
  • Dark-Skinned Redhead: Midori, naturally.
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: The whole point of the game.
  • Determinator: According to the plot, Danzaiver! is exhausted from fighting most of the cast roster about two-thirds of the way through the game.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Yes, yes they did. Ihadurca is apparently a fragment of a goddess, nevertheless, she's still dangerous enough to threaten whole dimensions. Certain items and even one of the characters are also connected to the original goddess. It's All There in the Manual after all.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Poor, poor Gally...
  • Doomed by Canon: Kakurine only truly dies in her own ending.
  • Downer Ending: Linedwell gets killed by Shahal, only for somebody else to pick it up and start the whole thing over again.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Al. His third unlockable outfit runs with this by putting him in what is essentially a schoolgirl uniform.
    • Ihadurca, who appears as female in the I-Praseru universe, but is more androgynous in a general sense.
    • Kakurine also fits this: she looks like a little girl, and usually talks like one, but she is clearly some different being, and at times speaks in a deep male voice.
  • Empathic Weapon: Both Erel and Linedwell have one. Though Erel's is her armor and Linedwell is the sword. Ihadurca's Bendis-Meltis are also somewhat sentient.
  • Enfant Terrible: Kakurine, oh so very much.
  • Evil Laugh: Linedwell is fond of doing this.
  • Face Palm: In reaction to Erel's angry rejection of his offer to let him fight Ihadulca for her, Danzaiver! pulls one of these.
  • Fan Service: Everyone. Just... Everyone. Even those that dress modestly or fully cover up their bodies (Gally, Danzaiver!, Keiya, Kakurine) still manage to come across as fanservice in one form or another.
  • Finger-Poke of Doom: One of Kakurine's moves is to bind the enemy up with a ring, float over slowly and then flick them in the forehead, sending them away and doing small to moderate damage. Many of Kakurine's attacks function like this.
  • Finishing Move: Everyone has one. They come in two variants, a quick version that does a bunch of damage and a longer, flashier and more dramatic version of the same move that shows up when you're guaranteed to finish them off with it. If you see the second one, you know you've won.
    • If you have Midori in her alternate costume, she goes "Here is, the winning punch!". Setsuna, if you win with hers will go "Karin, your ultra death attack, you're too much."
  • Fragile Speedster: Linedwell, Erel, Al and Danzaiver! are pretty easy to damage and fairly quick on their feet.
  • Genki Girl: Midori and Erel.
  • Henshin Hero: Sho a.k.a. Danzaiver!.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In Danzaiver!'s route, Midori knocks him away from Kakurine's sneak-attack, nearly biting it in the process. She gets better.
  • Homage: Danzaiver!, pretty much as a clear homage to the Metal Heroes' first three shows.
  • Hong Kong Dub: Try playing as Keiya. Every other match, watch his mouth move for the several seconds between finishing his pre-battle speech and his Asskicking Pose as the camera dramatically sweeps and zooms. The game in general is pretty lax about Mouth Flaps; Keiya's just the most regular offender.
    • This pretty much happens to everybody but Danzaiver! (who is the only character without a moving mouth sprite), while Danzaiver! himself continues swinging his arms around emphatically long after he's stopped speaking.
  • Hot-Blooded: Danzaiver! So much. SO very, very much PLUS! Bonus points for he is voiced by none other than Tomokazu Seki, the guy who is notoriously known to be one of the most prolific seiyuus who can give these types of characters a too hot to handle presence.
    • Midori too. Heck, in Danzaiver!'s storyline, his fight with her is titled 'Attacking the challenger, Fiery fist! -Entry of a hot-blooded fighter, Midori-'
      • The weird thing is, when Danzaiver! and Midori face off, the Hot-Blooded-ness is toned down quite a bit.
  • I Call It Vera: A number of characters have named weapons and armor, like Danzaiver!'s Danzaiblade, Setsuna's Klau Solas, Kakurine's Void, and Ihadurca's Vanalgando, to name a few.
  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: Linedwell to Erel in his storyline. Heavily implied that he rapes her after their fight. Erel's boyfriend Al is rightfully pissed off due to the events that happened earlier. Sadly, it doesn't work out too well for Al in the end.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Nobody impales people like Lindwell.
  • Instant Armor: One of Danzaiver!'s animations when selected is to summon his armor, after calling out the activation phrase 'Zerochaku' and going through a few totally necessary arm-motions and poses.
  • In the Name of the Moon: Oh yeah. Danzaiver! does this a lot.

"I cannot be stopped. Absolutely, positively, for the sake of the world! Here goes! The power of the Supreme Ruler destroys an evil! The ultimate hero, DANZAIVER!"

    • Setsuna has a specific (and hammy) incantation to merge with Karin:

"To the one who illuminates my passage and destroys evil. In the name of Setsuna, I vow my unfailing love. I want your power and soul. Take my body for the sake of your name. Karin, come here!"

  • Kamehame Hadoken: Everyone has some variant of it. Midori's is just the most obvious.
    • Every single melee attack outside of a certain range also doubles as a projectile attack.
  • Kill It with Fire: Alty Al Lazel uses fire a lot.
    • What probably happened to Linedwell in Kakurine's story mode.
  • Kill Sat: Danzaiver! when he calls for some long range support fire from Seingreed. It's one of the coolest looking moves in the game.
    • Gets pretty ridiculous when Danzaiver! fights the remote control Tactical Frame (i.e. himself), controlled by Ruri... who also controls Seingreed! Also causes some Fridge Logic when you realize that it can also shoot straight into the Evil Zone with no problem.
  • Lady of War: Setsuna.
  • Large Ham: Most characters count. As Paul Eiding put it in a comment on an Evil Zone Retsupurae:

Paul Eiding: I remember them wanting it to be 'over the top'... and they got it.

  • Laser Blade: Danzaiver!. Also, Erel Plowse has a mystical version, and Gally 'Vanish' Gregman has a laser edged BFS.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Gally 'Vanish' Gregman loves this trope, his super invokes this trope.
  • Magical Girl: Setsuna and Kakurine are homages to this, the latter being more of a Dark Magical Girl.
  • Magic Wand: Ihadurca has this is as her weapon.
    • More of a staff than a wand really.
  • Meaningful Name: Erel's armor Nephilm sounds like the Hebrew "Nephilim", literally antediluvian half-human half-angel creatures from The Bible.
  • Megaton Punch: Midori's finishing move is essentially this.
  • Mighty Glacier: Gally, at least at first glance, seems to be this. He's pretty fast despite his size, but it takes him a moment longer to recover from attacking.
    • Nobody is really that much faster, slower, stronger, or weaker than any other character. The only differences between them are the traits and ranges of their attacks, and where the opponent falls down after getting hit by each of their grapple attacks.
      • Actually, some of them recover slightly faster than others. It's worth noting that if Midori misses with some of her moves, she's vulnerable for more than a couple of seconds, while characters like Al recover almost instantly.
  • Mirror Match: Everyone has one. Generally around the 2nd or 3rd to last match in their storyline, except for Ihadurca, who has hers right away. Also comes with some rather clever reasons for the match-up.
    • Danzaiver: fighting a remote-controlled spare tactical frame.
    • Kakurine: fighting her own self-doubt, quite possibly in her head.
    • Setsuna: fights an illusion created by Karin.
    • Keiya: fights a clone of himself created by Kakurine.
    • Gally: also fights a clone of himself created by Kakurine.
    • Erel: fights a copy of herself created by her malfunctioning magical armor; extra points for that armor being created by (wait for it) Kakurine.
    • Al: fights his mentor.
    • Ihadurca: fights the last line of defense on the Evil Zone, namely a copy of herself.
  • Missile Lock On: Gally's super uses this before he fires.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Kakurine. She appears in the guise of a harmless little miko girl, only to annihilate the poor soul. Heck, show her to anybody who doesn't know anything about Evil Zone and you'll most likely get a "D'aww, kawaiiiiii!!!!" reaction. Then tell them that she's basically That One Boss and watch their jaw hit the floor.
  • Oh Crap: Apparently, just having Ihadulca's attention on you is enough to stop a normal person in their tracks, if Badass Normal Danzaiver! is any indication.

Danzaiver!: "Ihadulca!"
Ihadulca: "What? Who's there?"
Danzaiver!: "Ght! This sensation... Gillaclava, is it?"

  • Older Than They Look: The in-game encyclopedia states that Alty is 21, but he has a kid's voice and looks about half as old as his girlfriend Erel. In fact, a number of characters that were younger in the Japanese version are said to be 21 in the English version.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The reason everybody fights in the tournament is for the right to face Ihadurca themselves for whatever reason. Never mind that she's about to break out of her cage anyway...
  • Orgasmic Combat: Setsuna. Doesn't help that she's flashing her panties all the time.
  • Panty Shot: Setsuna flashes hers all the time.
  • Playing with Fire: Keiya tosses around fireballs as normal attacks while Al's super is a giant fireball that surrounds you on all sides before converging.
  • Power Armor: Danzaiver!'s "Tactical Frame", Gally (more armor than powered), Erel's Nephilm (who has a mystical version).
  • Power Perversion Potential: Erel can make an exact duplicate of herself, that is completely solid. Think about it.
  • Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Midori.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Ihadulca and Kakurine.
  • Redheaded Hero: Midori for sure.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ruri and Yuri, the former being hot-blooded, and the latter being calm and collected.
  • Rock Me, Asmodeus: Lindwell has heavy metal as his area background music.
  • Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Watch the part of the intro with Setsuna and Midori. Now try and pretend this trope isn't kicking at the side of your brain, yelling your name, and demanding you write fanfiction about them.
    • For the record, the intro bit being referred to, is the part where Midori flashes a peace sign while hanging off of Setsuna.
    • Setsuna outright tells Karin "I love you" before her fight with Ihadurca.
  • Say My Name: About as much as to be expected, since this game styles itself as several anime series wrapped into one.

"Al..." "Karen!" "Setsuna!" "Sh-Sho-" "Danzaiver!" "IHADULCA!"

  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Ihadulca is very clearly this, though the seal isn't as tight as it should be.
  • Shout-Out: Midori has a throw where she grabs an opponent across their front, and slams them back-first into the ground, while yelling 'Rock Bottom!'.
  • Slap-On-The-Wrist Nuke: Pretty much every special move ever. For instance, getting impaled can do anything from medium-grapple damage, to a finishing move, to a finishing move on your opponent, depending on who does it and how. The worst offender by far is the Seingblaze attack from Danzaiver!'s personal satellite. Arguably one of the most epic cases of Boom! Headshot! in a video game... and they just stand back up again with a little bit of health missing.
  • SNK Boss: Ihadurca, so very much. She has incredibly cheap attacks (see The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard above), she spams grabs and other special attacks like no other character in the game, and her reaction times are absolutely ridiculous. The only way to get any damage in on her is to catch her in the middle of a breakable attack, stun her, and grab-spam her.
  • Some Dexterity Required: Unusually subverted for a fighting game. There is only one attack button, one guard button, and the directional pad. The direction you press on the directional pad while attacking determines what kind of attack you'll get, thus eliminating the need to memorize an arcane series of button-presses and ensuring that every character will generally play like every other character. Granted, hitting some of the combos does take a bit of getting used to, but once you figure it out, you can basically play as any character you want without having to learn too much.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": 'Ihadurca', pronounced in-game as 'Ihadulca'. Danzaiver! as well, since it ends up being pronounced as 'Danzai-BAR'.
  • Stripperiffic: Midori, Ihadurca, Erel. The first two wear skimpy clothing (allowing for butt shots from Midori and Absolute Cleavage from Ihadurca) and Erel wears a skin-tight suit that if using the right color scheme looks a bit like her skin, so it looks like she's fighting naked.
    • Also, Erel's Japanese design has no leggings on her bikini-style suit. Buttshots better than Midori, in fact.
  • Teen Genius: Alty.
  • Teleport Spam: Kakurine has this as one of her grapples. Ihadurca also does this in real-time, and will usually reappear on your screen right in the middle of an attack, making it incredibly tough to read and counter her attacks.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: EVERYTHING.
  • Whoring: Spamming your character's stun attack and grappling the opponent (or using a death attack if you have any crystals) as soon as they're stunned. It's cheap, it's tedious, and it's pretty much the only way to get through Survivor mode.
  • World of Badass: Yep! You got it!
  • World of Ham: EVERYONE! Especially Danzaiver!. Bonus points for being voiced by Tomokazu Seki.
  • Yandere: Kakurine.