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1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7bc05d5c5588f136de6e57c398ec5162.jpg]]
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3''Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer'' is a 1995 Platform/NeoGeo FightingGame by Technos Japan, which was later ported to the Platform/PlayStation in Japan only. It is unique in that the game is centered around a manga and superhero theme, and features character design by Creator/MasamiObari.
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5The gameplay at heart is pretty basic and has no complex combos. However, it has the main catch that during the run in the single-player mode, you are able to [[MegaManning get the special moves of your defeated opponents]].
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7In the year of 1999, the entire Kanto region of Japan was devastated in a terrifying record breaking earthquake. With Tokyo at the epicenter, the capitol of Japan is moved 115 miles offshore to a manmade island, and through such efforts, the new city of Neo Tokyo is born at the dawn of a new millennium. Along with reviving Tokyo into a new city, the project aimed to have public services and civil functions all automated by a central super computer for a safe and eased high quality of life for its citizens, and established a prestigious academy for the youth of Japan known as the Grand Bernard Institute.
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9Much to anyone's surprise however, crime exponentially skyrocketed in the years after, and with inexplicable cause, as officials considered the system infallible and with strict control by the computer's AI. Strangely, this all occurred upon Bernard electing a new principal, Shizuru Osaki. Though considered little much but coincidence by the public, plenty of individuals have correlated this conspiracy into truth with their own investigations and insights. As fate might have it, these individuals weren't just any normal people, but those with powers and abilities able to see through to the truth with their own fists. Into the year of 2017, along with protecting the citizens of Neo Tokyo from crime and evil, so have these unordinary people found that the root of it all lies deep within Bernard. Best of all, they are those better known as if lifted from the pages and chapters of sequential media itself: Superheroes.
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11Best said from a popular manga series before, Neo Tokyo is about to explode!
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13These characters include:
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15* '''Isato Kaiza AKA Gowcaizer:''' TheHero. HotBlooded and has a deep passion of justice. [[PlayingWithFire Plays with fire]]. Voiced by Creator/NobuyukiHiyama ([[PigeonholedVoiceActor OOOOOHHHH]])
16* '''Kash Gyustan AKA Hellstinger:''' The closest candidate of TheRival. A WingedHumanoid nicknamed [[RedBaron Prince of Destruction]] who is TheCasanova and has passion in music. Voiced by Creator/HikaruMidorikawa.
17* '''Sun Hualing AKA Karin Son:''' The heroine of the game. A descendant of Seitei Taisei, making her a female {{Stripperiffic}} [[Literature/JourneyToTheWest Son Goku]], fighting with many of his arsenals such as miniature selves, a staff and transportation cloud. Voiced by Creator/TomoSakurai.
18* '''Kyosuke Shigure:''' The 'cool guy' loner who's got a grudge with Ohga. Walks around with BadassLongcoat and fights with a blade-stick and summoned spirits, either wolf, bird or monkey. Voiced by Creator/RyotaroOkiayu.
19* '''Shaia Hishizaki:''' [[TheDitz Ditzy]] IdolSinger who's actually an undercover policewoman trying to arrest Ohga. Fights with her 'pet' Ball Boy which can shoot laser, bash himself to the enemy or burn in fire. Voiced by Creator/YumiTouma.
20* '''Ikki Tachibana AKA Brider:''' Former {{Delinquent}} turned into soldier to serve Ohga, but defects and forms a group of fellow brethren to fight in the name of '''[[ForGreatJustice JUSTICE]]'''. Heavily draws inspiration of ''Franchise/KamenRider'' in how he fights. Voiced by Masami Obari. (Yeah, the guy who designed them all.)
21* '''Ranpou Fudoh AKA Fudomaru:''' Member of ancient {{Ninja}} clan who poses as a science teacher, out to vanquish Ohga. Uses various ninja techniques and throwing vials of explosives or lightning. Voiced by Creator/RyotaroOkiayu
22* '''Randy Riggs AKA Captain Atlantis:''' Nerdy archaeologist who found the mask of Atlantis and when he dons it, he becomes a muscular grinning superhero who's all-confident. You only see that superhero self. Voiced by Creator/HideoIshikawa.
23* '''Marion:''' A robot designed by the Belnar Institute's Technology Division leader Professor Thomas. Seems to be gathering battle data.
24* '''Gouichirou Kaiza/Shen-Long:''' OldMaster who kicks ass with ki and bare fist. He's out to have vengeance against Ohga who beat him in combat in the past.
25* '''Shizuru Ozaki/Ohga:''' The principal of Bernard Institute and the BigBad and FinalBoss of the game, who aims to [[GodhoodSeeker attain godhood]].
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27The game was later adapted into a three-part OAV directed by Obari, infamous for its strange English translation.
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29----
30!!Tropes associated with ''Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer'':
31* AscendedExtra: In the OVA, Kyosuke's dog familiar, Kubira, takes up human form and basically became one of the main supporting characters. Karin Son also gets this as a villainous counterpart of herself in hentai OVA series ''Angel Blade''.
32* BlindIdiotTranslation: It's an old Neo Geo game that comes with all the SNK-style Engrish that just makes no sense or omitted certain parts of the Japanese relations, removing some depths. For instance, let's compare Brider's win quote against Karin:
33-->'''(English version)''': What unique costume!
34-->'''(Japanese non-direct translation)''': What an embarrassing costume. [[HypocrisyNod Nah, I'm on the same boat...]][[note]]Brider has [[FreakinessShame a complex about his transformed form]], thus considering himself not that different from Karin's {{Stripperiffic}} outfit[[/note]]
35* BrotherSisterIncest: ''Heavily'' implied with Ryo and Suzu Asahina, who [[FusionDance combine]] into the boss known as the "Platonic Twins". The OVA confirms their relationship.
36* TheCameo: Burnov from the Neo-Geo ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' makes an appearance in one ending, possibly as a throwback to Shaia cameo-ing in Amon's ending there.
37* CaptainErsatz: Shen-Long looks a wee bit like [[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam Master Asia]]...
38* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The OVA removed the presence of Marion and Shenlong, since the plot has already been crammed into three episodes. Also, Kyosuke's familiars were reduced to Kubira only, he never summoned his monkey and bird familiars.
39* DemotedToExtra: Additionally, in the OVA, Brider and Fudomaru were only seen at the ActionPrologue and then only as their civilian guises as student and teacher (Ikki and Fudou) in the first episode (Fudomaru at least also appears shortly in a flashback). Randy also appears as student momentarily, but he's never seen as Captain Atlantis.
40* DoItYourselfThemeTune: In addition to voicing Brider and providing character designs, Obari also sang a rendition of Brider's theme, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9EyNldsSbk No Return]]".
41* EarlyBirdCameo: In the Neo-Geo ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' ending, Shaia (only her lower part) and Ball Boy made a cameo in Amon's ending, actually predating the cast of Gowcaizer's appearances before their debuts.
42* {{Expy}}: Brider to ''Franchise/KamenRider''. His origin is kinda similar to Takeshi Hongo/Rider One, and furthermore, during one of his moves, he's accompanied with another Brider-like character, which was his best bud Saburou Jumonji, as the counterpart of Hayato Ichimonji/Rider Two.
43* {{Fanservice}}: Of course, this is Masami Obari we're talking about. Karin and Shaia are both High Octane Fetish Fuels. Also, why else did they chose Kubira (Kyosuke's dog familiar) to take up human form and look like a hot babe in the OVA??
44* ForGreatJustice: [[https://www.zanyvideogamequotes.com/gowcaizer/gow-justice.png Brider]] [[http://zanyvideogamequotes.com/gowcaizer/gow-justice2.png is a]] [[http://zanyvideogamequotes.com/gowcaizer/gow-winsjustice.png FOUNTAIN]] [[http://zanyvideogamequotes.com/gowcaizer/gow-together.png of it.]] Although most of them were the result of BlindIdiotTranslation.
45* HeroicBSOD: Isato enters one in the OVA after he accidentally kills Ryo Asahina during a fight with the Platonic Twins. When Suzu reappears seeking revenge, Gowcaizer [[SheatheYourSword refuses to fight back against her]].
46* HotBlooded: Of course, Gowcaizer's fire powers isn't just for show, it's also burning his spirit. And although he's less shouty about it, Brider is very HotBlooded when it comes to '''[[ForGreatJustice JUSTICE]]'''. And while Hellstinger tends to keep his cool, you wouldn't know from his battle quotes, since he gets REALLY fired up as well.
47* MonkeyKingLite: Karin is a descendant of the Seitei Taisei race, people similar to Sun Wukong. She also fights with an elongating staff, has her personal transportation cloud and her inherited skill is making a clone of the user.
48* MusicalAssassin: Subverted. Hellstinger carries a guitar everywhere, but it's not his guitar play that he uses to beat you with. He uses his guitar physically.
49* NonindicativeName: Judging by the title, you would think that Gowcaizer is the guy with [[ShockAndAwe electrical-based attacks]]. Not so; Gowcaizer prefers PlayingWithFire while Brider's the one to use ShockAndAwe.
50** This isn't the case in the Japanese version, where the game's title is instead ''Burning Hero Gocaizer''.
51** Also, the name Brider has nothing to do with brides or other wedding-related stuff. Unless of course, you separate the first word with the rest, then it makes a lot of sense for his case of ShoutOut (B-[[Franchise/KamenRider Rider]])
52* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Most real names are AllThereInTheManual
53* PowerCopying: Just like ''VideoGame/BloodStorm'', every character has a specific special move that can be covered by other characters after admitting defeat.
54* RuleOfCool: ''Brider''. He's basically the lovechild of ''Franchise/KamenRider'' and ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'', with extra spice of passion of [[ForGreatJustice justice]] that would make [[VideoGame/FatalFury Kim Kaphwan]] proud. And his desperation move is RAMMING YOUR ENEMY WITH A RIDER BIKE.
55* ShowerScene: In the OVA.
56* SiblingFusion: Twins Ryo and Suzu Asahina fuse together in their Kaizer Form to create the sub-boss Platonic Twins where Ryo becomes the arms, shoulders, legs, and head or Suzu is suspended in the centre as a torso and arms. Despite the boss name having "Platonic" in there [[BrotherSisterIncest is also a case]] of RomanticFusion at least according to the OriginalVideoAnimation adapation.
57* SNKBoss: Ohga. Joysticks will be thrown when you fight this bastard. You have been warned.
58* SpiritualSuccessor: To the Platform/NeoGeo ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon''.
59* {{Stripperiffic}}: Karin and Shaia, as implied above. Special mention to Suzu Asahina's [[CanonForeigner OVA-only]] transformation, "Platonic Slave" -- the one with her breasts only covered by {{Power Crystal}}s a full inch away from them.
60* WingedHumanoid: Hellstinger

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