Waku Waku 7

Waku Waku 7 is a Fighting Game created in 1996 by Sunsoft for Neo Geo, Sega Saturn and PlayStation 2, their second venture in the genre after Galaxy Fight. The story is about the seven magical WakuWaku Balls, artifacts that will grant a wish to their owner: soon enough, whoever is possessing one of them is looking for the other owners and their Ball, hoping to get their wish granted by a fairy that lives in the spheres.

Waku Waku 7 has very colorful, cheery, Anime-inspired graphics, and indeed every single character in the game is either an Affectionate Parody of some anime cliches or an Expy of already famous characters, even non-anime ones. Here's the list:

• Arina - An athletic, cheerful girl with unexplained rabbit ears who wants to use the seven Balls to find true love. She may be an expy of Roomi, the Catgirl from Sunsoft's previous Galaxy Fight.
• Rai - A Hot-Blooded, loud-mouthed, rowdy Japanese student which attacks with a variety of electrical-based moves.
• Mauru - This huge purple cat/rabbit thing appears to be an expy of My Neighbor Totoro's titular creature. He's always followed around by a little girl called Mugi. Mauru is surprisingly agile for his size.
• Dandy-J - An Adventurer Archaeologist who is a cross between Indiana Jones (as you would expect from his goofy name) and Joseph Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Dandy-J is always followed in the background of his fights by his dead partner's daughter, Natsumi, and his white cat, Ranpoo, who sometimes intervene against his opponents.
• Slash - A send-up of every White-Haired Pretty Boy out there, he is an elf who hunts and kills monsters with his trusty magical sword.
• Tesse - A Robot Maid created by some Mad Scientist called simply "The Doctor". Her stated goal is To Become Human.
• Politank-Z - (Not quite so) Humongous Mecha + Tank Goodness. It is a police robot piloted by a midget police chief and his somewhat anthropomorphic dog, who also doubles as mechanic. Politank possesses quite a lot of built-in weapons and gadgets.

Tropes used in Waku Waku 7 include:

• And the Adventure Continues...: Rai's ending. He basically just asks the fairy to start everything again.
• Anime Theme Song: Arina has one all to herself in her stage.
  • Also of note: Politank-Z's theme song is based on the music from Voltes V, the preferred giant robot anime of the Philippines.
• Assist Character: Natsumi and Ranpoo. Sometimes it's the girl who throws the cat into the fight against the opponent, sometimes the other way around.
• Ass Kicks You: Some of Arina's moves.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Fernandeath/Fernandez, the final boss, is truly gigantic. Your character grows to its size to fight, courtesy of the fairy's magical powers.
• Awesome Yet Impractical: The Hara Hara attacks are incredibly powerful (Politank-Z's can even take down a character at full health), but they're telegraphed by loud sirens and a warning screen, and take a few seconds to actually take effect. If the opponent is anywhere near the character, they can easily step in and interrupt it.
• Badass Longcoat: Slash's.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Obviously. Slash and Arina learn it the hard way.
• Big Bulky Bomb: Politank-Z's Limit Break. The damaging explosions are very very slow, but considering the fact that they reach almost to the very top of the screen and the game's overall lack of a generic evasion move, the move is practically undodgeable if he actually manages to pull it off.
• Blinding Bangs: We only see Tesse's eyes very briefly during her Hara Hara attack.
• Bonus Boss: The aptly-named Bonus-kun, who was first featured in Galaxy Fight.
• Canon Immigrant: Bonus-kun, as stated above.
• Compilation Rerelease: Released in Japan along with Galaxy Fight under the name Sunsoft Collection (PlayStation 2).
• Crash Into Hello: Rai and Arina in the (fake) comic that runs under the end credits. She's not pleased about it.
• Cute but Cacophonic/Make Me Wanna Shout: Mauru's Limit Break, as can be largely expected from an expy of Totoro.
• Doppelganger/Evil Twin: For some reason (probably because the game would be too short without it), you have to fight a darker-colored clone of your character right before the final boss fight.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Tesse's creator is called simply "The Doctor".
• Everything's Better with Spinning: Two characters have Spin Attack Limit Breaks: Rai and Fernandez.
• Fartillery: One of Fernandez's attacks is eating you and launching you out the other end.
  • One of Politank-Z's attacks is a better fit for this; although mechanical rather than biological, the character's anthropomorphic nature makes it closely resemble the quintessential Fart of Fury (Chaos from Primal Rage).
• Goggles Do Nothing: Rai's fashion choice.
  • ...and Arina's ...and all of Arina's friends... and everyone in Rai's background... I'm starting to think it's actually part of the school uniform!
• Improbable Weapon User: Tesse uses everyday items to fight, including a syringe that saps the opponent's life meter.
  • Her projectile attack has her throwing random items (in the sense that the collection of items is odd; you can actually choose the item by holding down the punch button long enough,) including lawyer-friendly Bullet Bills and geese.
• Literal Genie: In Politank-Z's ending, the fairy overhears the dog's comments about how Politank should be cleaned and repaired after the fights, thinking that was the wish. The police chief, having lost the opportunity to get his wish granted, becomes truly pissed and Hilarity Ensues.
• Meaningful Name: Rai means "lightning" in Japanese, so no wonder that his attacks are based mostly on electricity.
• Mirror Match: Lampshaded in the penultimate match; more like 'shadow self' given the darkened sprites used for the fakes.
• Pillar of Light: Dandy-J's Limit Break.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Arina's. Although she attacks with more kicks than punches.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The final boss Fernandeath is an entity trapped into the seven Waku Waku Balls.
• Selfless Wish: Tesse's ending.
• Shape Shifter: Tesse, for example, can turn her feet into floor cleaners or her entire lower body into a bell. She also has stretchy limbs.
• Shotoclone: Aside from the obvious Bonus-Kun, Arina's fighting style is very shoto-esque.
  • Arina's backstory explains that she learned her fighting style in gym class. No wonder there's so many of them!
• Shout-Out" Seven magic spheres with the power to grant wishes when reunited? I don't remember where I already heard that one...
  • Bonus-kun is an obvious parody of Ryu from Street Fighter.
    • Not just that, but his stage music IS Ryu's theme. The home ports also give him two extra colours. One with a red body and yellow headband which makes him look like Ken. And one which give him a black body, red headband and red eyes which makes him look like Akuma.
  • Some of Mauru's moves seem inspired by Sasquatch from Darkstalkers.
• SNK Boss: Fernandeath. Its HaraHara has no delay (okay, so about 6 frames, but compare that to the 2 seconds most other characters have) and gets priority over most standard moves - meaning it can counter with it as long as it has one charge on the super gauge (the cap is 7). This gets pretty annoying when the difficulty is set to 8 as opposed to the factory default 4.
  • Protip: Fernandez is highly susceptible to Tesse's Forward-B attack/B-throw, especially since he will ALWAYS rush you until he's right in range of it if there's any considerable distance between you and him, and as long as you get the timing down for juggling him when he bounces back the fight's in the bag. It even works when he's in Hara Hara mode (though Tesse will still take a bit of damage from it).
• Thanks for the Mammary: Rai accidentally gropes Arina in the ending comic.
• This Is a Drill: Politank has drills and he's not afraid to use them.
• To Become Human: Tesse wants to use the Balls to turn into a human girl. In the end, she uses the wish to cure her master and creator from his illnesses.
• Walking Tank: Politank-Z.
• Wave Motion Gun/Kamehame Hadoken: Tesse's HaraHara.
• Whip It Good: Dandy-J's weapon of choice.