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"I just wanted to torment a cutie-pie like you..."
—Romeo, Azure Striker Gunvolt
Romeo, also known as Creepy Electro Whip Guy, is a Sumeragi Group executive and a minor antagonist in Azure Striker Gunvolt. An eccentric, somewhat disturbing person, Romeo is known for his sadistic tendencies, especially towards young men.
OVA Website Description
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English site
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Japanese site
Romeo is a Sumeragi Group officer who does not possess any Septimal powers.
His official position should be higher than Nova's, and yet, does not outrank him.
He loves to torment cute young men, so much so that he has a special room in Sumeragi's main building that allows him to do that very thing...
All of this is common knowledge amongst his subordinates...
役職的には紫電より偉いはずだが、
まったくそうは見えない。
かわいい少年をいたぶるのが趣味で、
存在しているというのは、
部下たちの間では公然の秘密となっている。
Appearance
Romeo is an adult man with somewhat long, pale cyan hair and matching eyes. He also has bright purple lips, most likely lipstick. He wears the standard Sumeragi officers uniform.
He is occasionally seen wielding an electric whip.
Gallery
Main article: Romeo/Gallery
Personality
Romeo appears to be an extremely flamboyant, eccentric person. However, he is also quite sadistic, taking a disturbing amount of glee in torturing his prisoners, especially handsome young men, even stating that it's his hobby. He has no problems outright molesting even his fellow officers, regardless of age.
He also appears to be quite cowardly, being reduced to little more than a petrified wreck upon the realization of Gunvolt's identity.
History
Azure Striker Gunvolt
Anthem (1st Sumeragi)
At some point, Romeo and his men succeed in capturing a young QUILL agent on a mission to destroy Sumeragi's virtual idol, Lumen. Interrogating him himself, Romeo tortures the young "terrorist" with his electro whip, mocking him for his failure, and tells him Lumen is on a train.
At that moment, the boy suddenly breaks free from his bonds, completely unharmed. Romeo is shocked, then terrified when he realizes the boy is, in fact, Gunvolt. The latter thanks him for the intel, then leaves to find The Muse. Cowering in the corner, Romeo orders his men to cut all power to the elevator.
Powers and Abilities
Romeo is a normal human with no particularly noteworthy abilities, although he is presumably competent or well connected enough to have reached his executive officer position. He has enough clout within Sumeragi to get away with indulging in his personal interests in a company building, despite it being an open secret among his subordinates. He is adept at wielding various tools such as pliers and a jerrycan, although that's just his hobby.
Electro-whip
(Original localization: The Electroscourge, or just The 'Scourge) A powerful electro-whip capable of channeling vast amounts of electricity, making it quite the lethal weapon. Despite this, it is virtually useless against an Azure Striker, and actually recharges Gunvolt when used against him.
Romeo safely handles the whip by wearing insulated gloves (in the game at least; in the anime he does it barehanded).
Trivia
- Following the tradition of Gunvolt 1 characters being named after cars, Romeo's name may reference the Alfa Romeo. Romeo's name is only mentioned by the website and credits for the OVA. In both the game and anime, he is referred to as "Creepy Electro Whip Guy" (Hentai no Ojisan in Japan).
- Originally, Romeo did not have an official name. His voice actor, Hideki Makino, named him during his guest appearance on part 2 of the Gunvolt News Channel Episode 4 stream.
- Although Romeo is said to officially be higher ranked than Nova, his uniform does not have colored shoulder stripes like the ones on Nova, Jota, the three executives in GV2, or Corvette's uniforms.
- Despite his small role in the game, Romeo has repeatedly gotten cameos and been featured in extra materials.
- A 4koma comic, which depicts another hobby: Dancing with his electro whip.
- A Line sticker.
- An expanded role in the OVA.
- A pixel sticker in Mighty Gunvolt Burst.
- A hidden voice-clip-playing bronze statue in Luminous Avenger iX's opening stage, accessed by mid-air reloading a checkpoint at the bottom of stairs.
- Sumeragi creating statues of employees is brought up in a home conversation in Epilogue ATEMS in Azure Striker Gunvolt 3.
- The Gunvolt 1 character tin badge package is named the Romeo Pack.
- The Inti Creates merchandise official website, Inti Direct, has a welcome banner with a chibified Romeo holding his whip.
- The blu-ray release of MORPHO VIRTUAL LIVE 2020, where Romeo (Hideki Makino) serves as a navigator to liven the performance.
- Romeo's voice actor, Hideki Makino, voices Isola's manager in the drama CD Isola: Full Power Idol. He is also the voice actor for Kenwood in the Blaster Master Zero Trilogy.
- Romeo's Image Pulse in Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 deals significantly more damage to male opponents, especially younger ones.
- The opening scene with Gunvolt and Romeo in GV1 is one of the only things from the original story draft by series director Yoshihisa Tsuda that remained mostly unchanged throughout development. Originally, designer Munehiro Araki wanted it to take place in a torture room, but the idea was discarded. He also drew a wooden horse, but this was deemed "too dangerous", and in the end it became a normal storage room.[1] Torture instruments did appear in the OVA, however.
- As reported by the official Inti Creates Twitter account, according to Tsuda the original story was so hardcore that it was CERO Z rating (18 years or older audiences only) class content and unsuitable to be shared on Twitter. Only one keyword hint was given: Bathrobe.[2]