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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
As an adaptation of Anthem (1st Sumeragi), Romeo appears in the OVA. His original scene is extended to show his entrance, and the storage room it takes place in was filled with torture instruments similar to what was originally planned for the game. He also has a scene with Merak prior to GV's "capture."
A statue of Romeo appears as an easter egg in the opening stage City Slums. It will fall from the ceiling if the player uses Reload Crush at the location of the second checkpoint or slightly to the left of it (this causes the Romeo statue to trigger the checkpoint).
Romeo is one of the characters chosen to represent the first Azure Striker Gunvolt as a card in the crossover roguelite card-battling RPG Card-en-Ciel. Notably, he was picked over several characters more relevant to GV1 who did not get featured as cards.
Card
Character
Effect
Cost
Movement
Electromagnetic Whip
Romeo
Convert one Convert card in your hand. Gain 5 [Damage+]. (Special: Convert one Convert card in your hand. Gain 10 [Damage+].)
0
Right
In the Azure Striker Gunvolt story dungeon, CeC protagonist Neon looks up info about the game and mentions how the internet is telling him the game "starts with some creepy dude." The heroine Ancie, who is familiar with Gunvolt, is hesitant to talk about it and when Neon asks how he plays into the plot, she tells him she'd prefer that he forget about Romeo's existence entirely.
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 presumably 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 theme of Gunvolt 1 characters being named after cars, Romeo's name may reference the Alfa Romeo brand. Romeo's name was initially 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 Japanese voice actor, Hideki Makino, named him during his guest appearance on part 2 of the Gunvolt News Channel Episode 4 stream.
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]
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, Romeo gained unusual popularity which is attributed by the developers to Hideki Makino's performance and the art by illustrator Yoshitaka Hatakeyama,[1] and subsequently has received many cameos and appearances in side materials.
A 4koma comic, which depicts another hobby: Dancing with his electro whip.
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 card in Card-en-Ciel has high synergy with Isola's Muse card.
