For the next few days I shall be challenging myself to come up with 30 posts, as to why 30, it’s because I will be turning 30 next week, so this is just a treat to celebrate, starting with OVA Anime Fighting Game Variable Geo.

For reference, Variable Geo was a series of female only fighting games released primarily for the hentai crowd but later became a credible fighting game during its run in the 90s on Sega, Nintendo and Playstation. The anime is loosely based on Advanced VG with some connections to the second game.
The anime starts with an explanation that the toughest waitresses in the world do battle for the prize of riches and prime real estate; if you lose you strip your clothes off in humiliation which is where the hentai bit comes from. Yuka Takeuchi is the focus for much of the series as she starts out the OVA fighting against pro wrestler Jun Kubota while being watched by her friend Satomi Yajima and a mysterious man gathering intel on the fighters. Noticing that Satomi has the potential to be a capable fighter and because Yuka is hard to find as she ends up in Osaka fighting Erina Goldsmith and meeting up with Manami Kusunoki not to mention that Satomi is desperate for money for her brother’s operation, the Jyahana Group move in to recruit her into the VG Tournament much to company president Reimi Jyahana’s disgust at her subordinates incompetence as she asks numerous rhetorical questions, meanwhile ninja Chiho Masuda is investigating the Jyahana group for evidence on a potential project in experiments with genetics only to be caught in a battle against Reimi and is then defeated by Satomi, while the other two characters Kaori Yanase and Ayako Yuuki fight in the tournament as normal. Kaori wastes no time defeating a no name maid all the while remembering the defeat she had at Reimi’s hands while Ayako is destroyed by Satomi and left for dead as it becomes clear that Satomi is being saved for a higher purpose, meanwhile Yuka after fighting Erina ends up fighting an overly drugged up guy demanding to be freed from his state by Yuka only for Yuka to have a brief loss of resolve before being reminded by her master the reasons for fighting which allows her to destroy the man who was previously the villain’s right hand man. Yuka then goes off to save Satomi who has already wasted no time taking out Kaori and Reimi but is in fact being possessed by the deceased Miranda Jyahana the main villain of the show who was after the perfect body to take over, basically M.Bison with boobs. Once Satomi is saved the OVA closes out with the two friends Yuka and Satomi clashing fists in a cheesy way.
Did you understand all that? No? Well it’s a fighting game anime, you can’t really have a sensible story and it is very much an even poorer Street Fighter II but to give the anime some credit, the dub is good despite the lack of big name voice talent; the fight scenes are well choreographed and while it is very cheesy there are some hilarious moments to pick out especially from Jun and Erina.
My criticisms are that while they do have time for all nine characters to be showcased a couple of them are under used, namely Reimi and Kaori who are considered the two best fighters in the story, heck Reimi is the final boss in the first couple of games yet they never get to show their true potential and we were denied a possibly epic fight between Reimi and Yuka which was implied to be happening when Yuka attacked her in her car but it doesn’t happen and it’s quite disappointing, not to mention the ending finishing on a cheesy fist bump rather than an actual fight but for a game that started as a hentai it’s achieved way more than it’s more popular rivals, other that Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury it’s probably the best fighting game anime.
Final Verdict: It’s cheesy but it runs with it and succeeds where its rivals fail.