Otomedius/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Angel Squadron

Otomedius Debut

Anoa Aoba

Arguably the main character, and a staple of Otomedius' promotional art. Anoa is a bright and cheerful girl with a penchant for blue. Her Ride Viper is the Vic Viper. When not saving the world, Anoa is a second year high school student at St. Gradius Academy.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Awesome but Impractical: Hyper Anoa. The concept of her becoming more powerful as her Platonic power grows is great from a story perspective, but when it happens in gameplay, it strips all of your powers and weapons, leaving you to face the final stage with default speed, no weapons and no options.
    • Also, Anoa's Platonic Break. By the time it's charged and ready to fire, the enemies it's locked on to are most likely off the screen. It's impressive though when used on bosses.
  • Big Good: Hyper Anoa.
  • Frickin' Laser Beams: Vic Viper's primary weapon.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Meant to invoke the split-hull design of the Vic Viper itself.
    • Art Evolution in Excellent keeps the aesthetic, but makes Anoa's pigtails an actual extension of her bangs, furthering the split-hull/fanged appearance of the Vic Viper's hull.
  • Hair Antennae
  • Magical Girl: Her Transformation Sequence is even featured in the trailer for Otomedius Excellent.
  • The Mario: Vic Viper is identified as a 'Balance Type', and Anoa's default weapon loadout is intentionally easy to use for beginners.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: Of the Vic Viper space fighter.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Not as obvious since she wears it in those pigtails, but if worn loose, it would probably reach her knees or even her ankles.
  • Roboteching: Anoa's Platonic Break in Excellent is a swarm of homing lasers.
  • Super Mode: Gains one when her Platonic power overdrives near the end of Excellent, resulting in Hyper Anoa.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: It actually becomes more blue when she changes into her uniform.

Erul Tron

A Gradian. Erul is Anoa's best friend, and came to Earth as part of a search for her older brother, the pilot of VIXEN (a ship from one of Konami's earlier shooters). She's quite intelligent, and enjoys studying Earth culture. Her Ride Viper is Lord British. Erul is a second-year student, in the same class as her friend Anoa.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Frickin' Laser Beams: Lord British's signature weapon Ripple Laser fires expanding laser rings that still destroy enemies that fly through the center.
  • Human Aliens: Gradian.
  • Magical Girl: Presumed to transform like Anoa.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: Of the Lord British space fighter.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Like Anoa, but it's more obvious with her.
  • Rose-Haired Girl
  • Shout-Out: Her brother was the pilot of VIXEN from Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou. Another is her credit dialogue in Gorgeous, quoted word-for-word from the Salamander OVA.

Esmeralda: "What are you going to do, now?"
Erul: "Well... I'll think about it while listening to some rock music."

  • Stuff Blowing Up: Erul's Platonic Break, where she positions her Options and then detonates them.

Diol Twee

A third year student and the closest to being an adult in the cast, Diol is the squadron leader. She's firm, but has a sisterly kindness to her approach on leadership. She seems to be bonded to the Flint, an organic component of her otherwise artificial Serenity Viper.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Absolute Cleavage: Rather more noticeable with her than the others due to her... size.
  • Brainy Brunette: She is shown in the ending of Excellent to be leading a lesson of some sort.
  • Catgirl: She is not one. However, her cat-ear style headset and tail-like tentacle give her the appearance of one.
  • Combat Tentacles: Her Platonic Break attack smashes half the screen with huge spiked tentacles similar to her "tail".
  • Cool Big Sis: Edging into Team Mom territory.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Diol gets very excited during the boss rush in Excellent, commenting that her body feels hot, and she wants to fight more and more.

Diol: "More! More! Harder, Faster!"

  • Meganekko: In reference to her intelligence, she wears glasses.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: Of the Flintlock, playable ship in the Konami sleeper hit Xexex.
  • Rapunzel Hair
  • Shout-Out: Her tentacle tail resembles those found on the Flint in the original game.
  • Workaholic: A rare, upbeat version. Diol loves her work for the "G" Organization and can't seem to put it down.
    • In her ending cutscene from Gorgeous, Diol announces that the mission is complete and she wants another one because her "work is never really finished." Anoa and Erul promptly complain about the work load, but she just laughs it off.

Madoka

An immigrant from Planet Mel, Madoka is an engineering genius who built her own Ride Viper, which is based on Twinbee, a hero from her planet. On Earth, she's a first-year high school student.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Art Evolution: Madoka underwent significant design changes between Gorgeous and Excellent.
    • Of note, she wears shorts now, instead of a skirt. She's also opted for Twinbee's iconic gloves.
    • Murdoch Viper now has handles for her to hang on to. Additionally, the seat now physically resembles Twinbee's body, with the cushion itself replacing the windshield/eye portion. It's also referred to as Murdoch Viper Mk.II.
  • Custom Uniform: Madoka doesn't wear a standard "G" uniform.
  • Dumb Blonde: Completely inverted, as she's a mechanical genius. She's still just a first-year student though.
  • Enemy Summoner: The rare heroic version, Madoka's Platonic Break summons a duplicate of Gainbee who punches the crap out of enemies for a while.
    • In Excellent, she summons a Shooting Star enemy who swoops through, unleashing a variety of attacks along the way.
  • Genki Girl: She even charges up her Platonic Break with a mischievous giggle.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Wrapped in ribbons.
  • Human Aliens: Melian.
  • Lethal Chef: The Madoka of Twinbee fame is horrible at baking cookies. If this is the same Madoka, than Tita's line "I won't miss you, cookie!" while Madoka was departing must've referred to this.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: Of Twinbee.
  • Rapunzel Hair
  • Wrench Wench: Built her own Ride Viper completely from scratch, before she even saw any of the others.

Emon Five

Hailing from another dimension, and the planet Ebisuboshi, Emon Five is the only male in the entire cast. While he himself is inspired by Ganbare Goemon, his Xel Viper is drawn from Thunder Cross. Emon is (was?) a second year student in Anoa's class.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Emon: "Lin, Byou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zen... Pierce them!!"

  • Put on a Bus: Left the team prior to Excellent for the purpose of training.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Longer even than some of the girls!
  • Rated "M" for Manly: The character designer Mine Yoshizaki explains in an interview that Emon's unusual position on Xel Viper was chosen so that the hitbox being below his waist would make it look like he tanked enemy fire with his chest.
  • Shout-Out: The character for Five is 'Go'. Read in Japanese, Emon's full name is Go Emon.
  • Smoking Is Cool: ...when you use a pipe longer than your entire body.
  • Take That: Due to being cut from the cast in Excellent, his sister Emon-8 attacks the Angels in a fit of rage.

Emon-8: "How dare you drive out Emon-5 like that!"

Tita Nium

A Bacterian, Tita is a spacey girl whose body is rife with cybernetics. She flies the Big Core Examiner, and has a terse relationship with the rest of the squadron, being the same race as their primary enemy. Tita aspires to win their trust, though doesn't understand humans very well. Tita is in Madoka's class, as a first-year student at St. Gradius.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Tita: "Like water off a supersonic duck's back."

  • Emotionless Girl: But getting better.
  • Eyepatch of Power: The D-Burst cutin suggests it conceals the interface to Big Core Examiner's weapon system.
    • It helps that her eyepatch has "BC System" written on it in plain English.
  • Frickin' Laser Beams: Primary weapon of the Big Core Examiner.
  • Heel Face Turn: Before the games take place.
    • The Time Travel in Excellent suggests that her defection was fairly recent, as her access codes were still usable in Dark Force's fortress.

Tita: "I wonder if my clearance codes still work... ...Hm ...This should be adequate."

  • Human Aliens: Bacterian. This is an important story point for Tita, as everything she does is to try and get the other Angels to accept her as one of their own despite being the same species as their worst enemy.
  • Kill Sat: Tita's Platonic Break invokes this by calling down a spread of high-powered lasers from the sky.
  • Magical Girl: Presumably, just like Anoa.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: Of the Big Core class battleship.
  • Punny Name: Titanium.
  • Shout-Out:

Tita: [reacting to Emon's presence] "What a pity for the first 1 MEGAROM PACK..."

Tita: "Is this an admission ceremony or what?"

Tita: "Tita the Second is in a pinch!"

Otomedius Gorgeous Debut

Esmeralda

Another pilot from Planet Gradius, Esmeralda is a formal and businesslike tactician and weapons expert. She's a reference to the popular Gradius Gaiden, and pilots Jade Knight. Despite her cold and curt exterior, she seems to have a weakness for cute things. Esmeralda is in Diol's class, as a third year student.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Poini Kune

Esmeralda's wingman, Poini is a surprisingly young girl with an equally surprising intelligence. Like Esmeralda, she's a reference to Gradius Gaiden, piloting Jade Knight's partner ship Falchion Beta. Also like Esmeralda, Poini is in Diol's class at St. Gradius, as a third year student in spite of her age.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Cat Smile
  • Child Prodigy: Shown in an upperclassman's uniform, placing her in the same class as Diol and Esmeralda despite being at least eight years younger than they are.
  • Downloadable Content: In Gorgeous. She becomes unlockable instead in Excellent.
  • Genki Girl
  • Gratuitous English: Poini's Japanese actress is well known for English as well as Japanese dialogue, so she makes use of it.

Poini:[facing Excellent's Gunner Wall] "I hope you can entertain me~." (Word-For-Word quoting the Gunner Wall from Gradius Gaiden)

Poini: "You are a new legend. Good job!"

Otomedius Excellent Debut

Gesshi Hanafuuma

A samurai girl who references the obscure Getsu Fuuma Den. Fuuma and Kokoro come to Angel Squadron to replace Emon. She's a very no-nonsense sort of girl who takes her job and her training very seriously. She lives by the code of bushido, though seems to be unaware of the history of her family name as she does not recognize Ryukotsuki.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Fiery Redhead
  • Katanas Are Just Better: The trailer shows it as a metal sword (see image), but some of the promotional art claims it's a Laser Blade.
    • Additionally, Gesshi gets access to the exclusive weapon Thunder Sword, which has short range but does an incredible amount of damage.
  • Magical Girl
  • Replacement Goldfish: Joined the team to replace Emon.
  • Sarashi: She wears some across her chest, as appropriate for her warrior's lifestyle.
  • Summon Magic: With Poini's new Black Hole Platonic Break, Gesshi gets her old homing dragon, though it's somewhat nerfed because Gesshi has no Options to speak of.

Kokoro Belmont

A girl who references Konami's popular Castlevania series. Kokoro is an all-business sort of girl who works hard so that she can live up to her noble lineage. She compliments Gesshi's samurai sensibility quite well. Kokoro's Ride Viper is Stavros.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Arnval

A robot girl from the Busou Shinki series of collectable figurines. She's a very demure and even shy person who tends to keep to herself. She dislikes combat and lacks the motivation for it, so tends to default to her programming. She contrasts with her playful and active sister in more ways than one. Arnval's Riding Viper is Anthurium.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Strarf

Arnval's partner, also from Busou Shinki. Strarf seems to be optimized for night combat, and otherwise is a very active girl compared to her subdued partner. Strarf's main system imitates psychic powers, which she exercises with many of the weapons systems on Alpinia. Unlike Arnval, Strarf is a very active and playful girl who is very curious about the world of humans.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

The Bacterians

Otomedius Debut

L.B. Gofer and R.B. Gofer

Referred to as the "Daughters of Gofer", these sinister twins seem to be behind most of the Bacterian activity in the series.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Eliza

A mermaid queen who sides with the Bacterians out of what seems to be whimsy more than actual malice.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Titi XIV

Queen of Space Egypt, Titi XIV sided with the Bacterians in an attempt to harness their Core technology and advance her civilization.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Otomedius Gorgeous Debut

Meta Lium

One of the Gofer twins' ace pilots, found piloting Big Core DX.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Yoshiko

Empress of Easter Island, a weird society of sentient Moai statues.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Otomedius Excellent Debut

Neko-Sencho

A bikini-clad catgirl pirate. Her motivation as a villain isn't explained in the least. Given her pirate motif, the most sensible explenation is that she's a mercenary that the Bacterians have hired.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Neko Sencho: "I'm gonna need all nine lives for this-nya!"

  • High Altitude Battle: Neko Sencho attacks the angels above the clouds. Mirrored Core emerges from the clouds in a way reminiscent of a surfacing submarine.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: Of the Cat Pirate Ship from the Parodius series.
  • Shout-Out: Her battle music Runaway is remixed from "Crisis, 4th Movement", the mid-boss song from the original Parodius where the Cat Pirate Ship is encountered.
  • Space Pirates: With flavors of more traditional nautical Pirates, such as her surcoat, hat and cat's paw.
  • Verbal Tic: Ends most of her sentences with "nya".

Neko Sencho: "I'm no 'fraidy cat! I'm an air-sea-landcat, the purrfect feline warrior-nya! I'll bat you around like a ball of string-nya!"

  • Warmup Boss: Generally considered easy, even in high loop play.

T.B. Rika

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Bait and Switch Boss: The stage initially seems like you'll be fighting the Gofer Sisters in a Tetran, which you can damage throughout the level. And then they take off down a side-street and T.B. leaps out with a perfect-condition Tripod Core.
  • Blondes Are Evil
  • Human Alien: Bacterian.
  • The Mole
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: When she introduces herself.
  • Only Known by Initials: Like the Gofer sisters, it's never stated what T.B. stands for, though there is a sensible theory that it stands for Tuberculosis. She is, after all, a Bacterian.
  • Sadist Teacher: Many of Tripod Core's attacks are prefaced by her announcing it is a punishment of some kind, and she was a teacher at the characters' school St. Gradius Academy.
  • Shout-Out: Her theme "Falling Rock" is a remix of the "The Final Enemy" which has appeared in Gradius II and was a theme for Chichibinta Rika, an enemy from the Gradius series.

Ryukotsuki

A three-armed demon lord from a distant hell who was slain a long, long time ago. The Gofer Sisters resurrected her so they could use her power against the G Organization's newest members Kokoro and Gesshi.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Shiori Fujisaki

A teenage high school student. Her motivation for working with the Bacterians is completely unexplained.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Ruby and Cobalt

Two female androids created by the Bacterians, intentionally based on Hikaru and Akane in both appearance and personality.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Dark Force

Adult form
Child form

The Final Boss of Otomedius Excellent.

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Dark Force: "I was spawned from the desires of humanity... So long as you exist... so shall I."

Dark Force: "I will gather up my might again... and show you the power of a god."

  • Sequential Boss: First, she pilots the Black Viper, a Bacterian copy of the Ride Vipers. Then, she pilots a mecha. Finally, in the secret final stage, she's an Anticlimax Boss.
  • Shout-Out: After you defeat Dark Force in her first phase, and she escapes, you can see potraits of the final bosses of Gradius 1, Gradius 2, Gradius 3 and Salamander 1 and Salamander 2.
  • True Final Boss: She's the boss of Stage 8, which only unlocks on Expert mode.
  • Tyke Bomb: Either she's the current leader of the Bacterians, or the Gofer Sisters created her as a Person of Mass Destruction. No matter which one it is, even when she's in her larval stage, she's very powerful.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl

Supporting Cast

Otomedius Debut

Operetta/Operator

Effective commander of Angel Squadron, Operetta is a robot girl who coordinates the squadron's activities and dispatches them on their missions.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

"Homing Missile!"
"Aqua Laser, level two!"

"Destroy the core!"

Irene

In Otomedius Gorgeous, Irene appears as a reference to Xexex, as an automated distress beacon embedded in Snowflake Core. The actual character doesn't make an appearance.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Pengu

The innumerable Penguin robots fielded by the Bacterians. Pengu fulfill Konami's Penguin Quota.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Otomedius Excellent Debut

Dr. Venom

Destroy them all!

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Heel Face Turn: For unexplained reasons, assists the Gradian fleet against the Bacterians during a mass assault. In the final stage, he's coordinating the fleet's repairs and pursuit of the routed Bacterian ships.
Back to Otomedius
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Otomedius/Characters?oldid=1798808"