Guilty Gear Strivehas been making headlines as the most popular entry yet in the prolific fighting game franchise, bringing the series closer than ever to mainstream popularity. Since its release in June of this year, it’s already sold over 500,000 copies, making it the highest-sellingGuilty Geargame to date.
It’s not hard to see whyStrivehas been making such an impact on players everywhere despite the franchise’s past as a relatively niche series. Every single aspect of the game is overflowing with style, from the animation to the soundtrack to the characters. Indeed, while the gameplay is always the most important part of any fighting game, it’s clear that part ofStrive’s success is due to howGuilty Gear’scolorful cast of charactershas resonated with fans.
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At first glance, the playable roster ofGuilty Gear Strivemay just seem like a collection of outlandish oddballs with ridiculous names like Sol Badguy, Chipp Zanuff, and Goldlewis Dickinson — most of which are references to classic rock music, a major interest of series creator Daisuke Ishiwatari. But beneath all the flash ofGuilty Gearlies a surprising amount of substance: since its first entry, the series has woven a single continuous narrative, complete with backstories and motives for every character. Story is an afterthoughtfor most fighting games,yet Ishiwatari and company have created a fully fleshed-out fictional world forGuilty Gear.
Of course, it’s somewhat difficult to appreciate the epic, sprawling story ofGuilty Gearwhen much of it is so inaccessible to new fans. Since the franchise has been telling an ongoing story since its 1998 debut, much of the series’ narrative is locked behind games that are exclusive to older consoles, if not out of print altogether — to say nothing of the various games and supplementary materials that have never been released outside Japan. And even then, the older games lack the cinematic story modes of recent entries in the series, instead conveying all plot developments through brief arcade endings. Despiteall the effort that’s gone intoGuilty Gear’s story since the beginning, said story currently exists in a fractured state, unable to be experienced the way Ishiwatari intended.
There are methods to alleviate this issue, of course.Guilty Gear Strivefeatures an in-game encyclopedia that allows new players to read up on the backstory of the series’ world and characters. But as informative as this database is, spending hours reading about a story isn’t nearly as fun as experiencing it firsthand. Meanwhile, fighting game-focused YoutuberWoolieVersushas made a series of detailed lore videos recounting the entire story ofGuilty Gearfrom the very beginning up to the last events beforeStrive. But once again, as well-made as these videos are, they’reno substitute for directly engagingwithGuilty Gear’s plot.
A story with as much passion behind it asGuilty Geardeserves better than to have most of its narrative inaccessible to fans beyond secondary sources — and that’s exactly why the iconic fighting game series is the perfect game to be adapted into an anime. While anime adaptations of video games have varied wildly in quality over the years,a well-made anime that managesto capture the aesthetic or the games could do wonders for the story ofGuilty Gear. There’d be no more need to rely on lore videos or in-game encyclopedia entries to engage with the series’ backstory: the entire plot would be available in a single self-contained narrative.
Because each game in the series already has a distinct plot, aGuilty Gearanime would only need to follow the same outline as the games. A hypothetical first season would adapt the plot of the originalGuilty Gear, revolving around the series’ two central characters —the mysterious bounty hunter Sol Badguyand his rival, the honorable young knight Ky Kiske — and their background fighting in the hundred-year war against the magical bio-weapons known as Gears. But while Sol and Ky would be the focus, there would also be plenty of time to establish the rest of the original cast, like May, Chipp, Axl, and Milia. The season would naturally culminate in the Holy Order Selection Tournament, ending with the final battle between Sol and his nemesis, the Gear queen Justice.
From there, the second season would likely cover the events ofGuilty Gear XandX2, focusing on the clash over the bountyon Justice’s daughter Dizzy,as well as the character development of Sol and Ky as they go from targeting Dizzy to protecting her. Meanwhile, the plot would also build towards the machinations of the series’ most prominent antagonist, the enigmatic witch known as I-No. Since the games become more narrative-focused from there, it would be simple for future seasons to straightforward adaptations ofOverture,Xrd, andStrive. But due to the increased run time of a full anime season compared to a video game’s cutscenes, each season would naturally allow for more time to be devoted to exploring the cast’s backstories and character dynamics, fleshing them out further than what the constraints of the games allow.
And of course, there’s always the matter of presentation. While recentGuilty Geargames areknown for their stunning animationand high-quality voice acting, the older sprite-based games haven’t aged quite as well in that regard. Even the cinematic story modes ofXrdandStriveare limited by budgetary constraints. Adapting their events using modern animation would allow the story ofGuilty Gearto become even more of a visual spectacle, bringing Ishiwatari’s vision to life in a way never seen before.
Anime based on video games may not have the most consistent track record, but if there’s one game series that could benefit from it, it’sGuilty Gear. Because underneath all the over-the-top action, flashy character designs, and rock music references, there’s a sincere story about love, loss, hope, and redemption. If Daisuke Ishiwatari can create a story where asurgeon with a paper bag on his head,an American ninja who becomes the President of South Africa, a time-traveling witch with an electric guitar, and a bounty hunter based on Freddie Mercury who can turn into a dragon all have genuinely heart-wrenching backstories, then that’s a story that more people deserve to see.
