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Dizzy (Guilty Gear)

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Dizzy
Guilty Gear character
Dizzy from Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
First gameGuilty Gear X (2000)
Created byDaisuke Ishiwatari[1]
Voiced byEN: Kira Buckland[2]
JA: Kazue Fujita[3]

Dizzy (Japanese: ディズィー, Hepburn: Dizī) is a character in Arc System Works' Guilty Gear fighting game series. Created by Daisuke Ishiwatari and first appearing in the 2000 video game Guilty Gear X, she acts as the game's final boss. Designed to resemble an angel, Ishiwatari wanted to illustrate the contrast of a character feared for her abilities despite her appearance. Her wings Necro and Undine have distinct personalities, attacking on her behalf due to her nature of hating conflict. Since her initial appearance she has returned as a playable character in most subsequent Guilty Gear series titles, as well as several mobile games and the ecchi game Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos. In all appearances, she is voiced by Kazue Fujita, with Kira Buckland providing her English voice for Guilty Gear Strive.

Dizzy has been well received since her release, praised for both her design but also her character. She was also seen as adding depth to the series, particularly in regards to the central conflict and in contrast to how final bosses are often handled in fighting games. However, some concerns have been voiced in regards to her character's handling, particularly due to her young age despite being established as a mother in later games. Necro and Undine meanwhile have been examined in a study of how male and female characters are portrayed in fighting games, particularly in regards to how male characters are often allowed to be monstrous compared to their female counterparts.

Conception and design

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Introduced in Guilty Gear X as the game's final boss, Dizzy stands 5 ft 6 in (167 cm) tall, and is described as a woman with an "honest and pure heart" that hates conflict.[4] Appearing as a girl in her teens, she has long blue hair fashioned into twintails behind her head, and bangs that frame her face. Dizzy's normal outfit consists of a black and white leather outfit that crisscrosses over her breasts while exposing her stomach, shoulders, and thighs. Black stockings cover her legs, while white boots cover her feet. Additionally, she has a long black tail, and matching yellow bows on her tail and the back of her head. She has two large feathered wings that protrude from her back, with the right one green and the left light blue. Called Necro and Undine, these wings act as independent defense units, able to transform into the semblance of a grim reaper and a woman respectively, and have independent personalities separate from Dizzy's.[5]

When developing Guilty Gear X, series creator Daisuke Ishiwatari decided early on that the game's final boss would be female to continue what he felt would be a trend established by the previous game. He focused on designing a character that could summon a variety of projectiles, while also being "flashy enough" to be distinct from ordinary people.[6] Her design was built around the duality of her being seen as dangerous due to her abilities, while resembling an angel with a gentle personality. Her tail and wings were heavily detailed to give her a dynamic expression, with Ishiwatari wanting her feathers to stand out as her main feature.[1][7][8] He added a bow on her tail to represent her desire to be human. For many of her attacks, Necro and Undine act in the place of her arms and legs, particularly her special attacks,[5] and were meant to highlight Dizzy's role as both a "god of death" and a "goddess" as well as give her more personality.[8][6] The handling of Dizzy's hair was emphasized by Ishiwatari in her concept art, with each pigtail folded upon itself to keep it mostly above her shoulders. Her name is derived from December, due to Ishiwatari wanting to keep a theme of month-based names after developing the character May.[5] In illustrations depicting moments after X's conclusion, he wanted to depict her happy and smiling "for once", showing her new home as a place of comfort where she could "live" rather than just "survive".[9]

In subsequent appearances her design was kept consistent until Guilty Gear Xrd, in which she was given a long white shirt that covered her torso and midsection, while emphasizing her cleavage. In addition her hair was lengthened, extending more visibly behind her.[4] It was changed again for Guilty Gear Strive, where she is now called Queen Dizzy. Her outfit was changed to a long black and blue dress skirt that exposes her right leg and thigh, a white top with a black ribbon tie at the collar and flowing sleeves, and bracers covering her hands extending her fingers. Her hair, while still framing her face, is now more loose and adorned with white and yellow flowers. Necro and Undyne's designs were also changed, now appearing black with the top halves of their faces obscured; Necro's by a white shawl that covers his back, while Undyne's white hair covers her brow and gives similar coverage.[10]

Appearances

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As introduced in the 2000 fighting game Guilty Gear X, Dizzy acts as the game's final boss and a playable character. Her father is series protagonist Sol Badguy, while her mother is Justice, a member of a race of magical bioweapons called Gears. Taken in by adoptive parents as an infant, by the time of X her body has matured despite being three years old, making her Gear heritage apparent. Hiding in a nearby forest, she meets the character Testament who watches after her, and is later taken in by another character Johnny as part of his airship pirate crew. After the events of Guilty Gear XX, she meets series secondary protagonist Ky Kiske, and after falling in love they have a child named Sin.[11][12] In all appearances she is voiced by Kazue Fujita,[3] with Kira Buckland providing her English voice for Strive.[2]

In terms of gameplay, Dizzy was given a wide range of projectile attacks, but few defensive options outside of her high mobility, with players meant to keep opponents at a distance. She uses her wings to attack, with Undine specializing in ice attacks, able to generate pillars and spikes to knock the opponent away, while Necro attacks by generating arrows and a large sword. One of her strongest attacks, "Imperial Ray", fires a beam along the ground that generates a series of explosions.[11] Throughout the series, Dizzy has lacked an "instant kill" attack available to every other character due to her pacifist nature. However, in Xrd, she received a variation of the concept with the move "Gamma Ray", where Necro would fire a large projectile before Dizzy pushes his arm away to protect the opponent. After the projectile explodes in a mushroom cloud in the distance, the opponent surrenders out of shock.[4]

After her initial appearance, Dizzy has been a playable character in all subsequent Guilty Gear games, with the exception of Guilty Gear 2. In extended media for the Guilty Gear series, she is featured in a side story on audio play collection Guilty Gear X Drama CD Vol.2, which tells how she met and befriended Testament, while evading the assassin Venom.[13] She also appears in Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Black, which showcases an alternate timeline where Dizzy embraces her Gear heritage and attacks humanity. A side story set in the main timeline was additionally included, where Dizzy has a misadventure while bringing a letter to Testament.[14]

Outside of the Guilty Gear series, Dizzy appears in Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos, a game based on the Queen's Gate series of ecchi books.[15] She also appears as a playable character in the 2020 Arc System Works crossover beat 'em up game Code Shifter.[16] Dizzy has also appeared in several mobile games, including #Compass,[17] Crusaders Quest,[18] Epic Seven,[19] Star Ocean: Anamnesis,[20] Brave Frontier,[21] The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Online,[22] and The King of Fighters Allstar.[23]

Promotion and merchandise

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Dizzy has been promoted through various merchandise for the series, including t-shirts, plushies and cosplay outfits.[24][25][26] In 2020, Dizzy was one of four 3D virtual reality avatars available for purchase as part of a promotion between Arc System Works and the Virtual Market 5 convention in California.[27] In 2022, Fairy Tail Co., Ltd released a promotional perfume inspired by the character, meant to have a citrus scent.[28] As part of a collaboration between Arc System Works and distillery Wakatsuru, the latter produced a malt whiskey themed after the character in 2024, to celebrate the Guilty Gear series' 25th anniversary.[29] In another collaboration, this time between Team Ninja and Arc System Works, Dizzy's outfit from Xrd was one of several released as downloadable content for character Nyotengu in the game Dead or Alive 5 Last Round.[30]

Additionally, several figures and sculptures of Dizzy have also been produced. Nendoroid released a chibi figure of her in 2021 as part of their signature line, which featured wings that could be replaced with likenesses of Necro and/or Undine.[31] Two 1/8th scale figures were released by model company Alter for her appearance in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, featuring her primary and secondary color palettes from the game.[32][33] Another 1/8th scale figure was released by Kotobukiya, for her appearances in Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos.[34] Other figures were released for her appearance in Xrd, including a diorama figure produced by Kinetiquettes, and a 1/7th scale figure produced by Prime 1 Studio.[35][36]

Critical reception

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Dizzy has received praise not only for herself but for Undine and Necro's behavior and animations as well

Matt Sainsbury of DigitallyDownloaded.net described her as the "ultimate in fighting game characters", praising both aspects of her appearance as well as personality, but particularly for her sex appeal. While he acknowledged that the Guilty Gear series had many well designed characters, he felt that "takes the cake by a significant margin".[37] Gameshark's staff described her as a character that "defies description" in their review of Guilty Gear X, calling Necro and Undine "a devil and angel in her soul" and praising their appearances in her attacks.[38] Japanese website ITmedia meanwhile compared her to a "special seafood bowl" due to her complex combination of traits such as her physical age, role as a mother, and character design. They additionally noticed fans reacted positively to the nature of her "instant kill" attack in Xrd, who called it "innovative" and "interesting".[4]

In terms of her character, Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek stated that Dizzy bucked a trend of sequel fighting games introducing a more imposing final boss than its predecessor. Instead in Guilty Gear X she was presented as "a confused Disney princess in fetish gear who is powerful enough to destroy humanity" that just wanted to relax in the forest. He stated that through this characterization it brought depth to the series' war against Gears, painting a formerly "black and white" conflict grey.[39] However, he lamented that while she was portrayed as strong, she was constantly held back due to her pacifism and plot contrivance.[40] Though he felt the story sidelined her as a character as the series progressed, he still found her role as a "minor character who is capable of leveling cities with her grim reaper wing" fascinating.[39]

Meanwhile, Todd Ciolek of Anime News Network observed that some fans disliked what they perceived as her "meek 'moe aura", and further the contradiction of her mentally being in her twenties despite only being physically three years old, something Ciolek felt was a reverse of a particular trend in anime media of a much older character in a younger female body.[41] Destructoid writer Chris Carter also voiced some concerns over Sin's existence, stating it was possible "Dizzy could have aged a bit more by the events of Xrd, but it’s just...weird, even for Guilty Gear standards."[42]

Necro and Undine were the subject of discussion by Perdosa Guilherme and Georgia da Cruz Pedrosa in a dissertation at Brazil's Universidade Federal da Bahia, in a thesis regarding video game character design in fighting games. They observed that due to being masculine, Necro was presented as monstrous and covered by a cloak, while by comparison Undine was presented as a feminine humanoid with little attire. They felt this continued a trend in fighting games where female character were always emphasized over beauty, even when they were two aspects of the same character.[43]

References

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  1. ^ a b Guilty Gear X Drafting Artworks. Arcadia Extra (in Japanese). Vol. 3. Enterbrain. March 23, 2001. pp. 141, 213. ISBN 9784757703018.
  2. ^ a b Buckland, Kira [@KiraBuckland] (October 24, 2024). "It doesn't even feel real to me to type these words here...I will be voicing Queen Dizzy in Guilty Gear Strive. I will write some things below about what playing Dizzy means to me on a personal level" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b "PS4/PS3『Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-』ついに「ディズィー」配信開始！2種の性能を使い分ける一児の母". Inside Games (in Japanese). July 9, 2016. Archived from the original on September 22, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d 母は強しにも程がある　GGXrdRに参戦したディズィーの一撃必殺技が"降伏"させる斬新な演出で話題に. ITmedia (in Japanese). July 19, 2016. Archived from the original on February 21, 2024. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Guilty Gear X Drafting Artworks. Arcadia Extra (in Japanese). Vol. 3. Enterbrain. March 23, 2001. pp. 210–221. ISBN 9784757703018.
  6. ^ a b "Guilty Gear XX". Character Designer (in Japanese). No. 1. September 2003. p. 42.
  7. ^ Guilty Gear X Slash Encyclopedia. Arcadia Extra (in Japanese). Vol. 1. Enterbrain. July 2000. p. 18. ISBN 9784757701847.
  8. ^ a b Guilty Gear X Drafting Artworks. Arcadia Extra (in Japanese). Vol. 3. Enterbrain. March 23, 2001. pp. 170–171. ISBN 9784757703018.
  9. ^ Ishiwatari, Daisuke (June 2007). Artworks of Guilty Gear X 2000-2007 (in Japanese). SoftBank Creative. p. 26. ISBN 9784797341485.
  10. ^ Romano, Sal (September 25, 2024). "Guilty Gear: Strive DLC Character Queen Dizzy Launches October 31". Gematsu. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Guilty Gear 10th Memorial Book. Arcadia Extra (in Japanese). Vol. 77. March 2009. pp. 103–104. ISBN 9784757748019.
  12. ^ Buchalter, Jake (March 14, 2023). "The Most Powerful Guilty Gear Characters". TheGamer. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  13. ^ Norimitsu, Kaihou (November 21, 2001). Guilty Gear X Drama CD Vol.2 (CD) (in Japanese). Scitron Digital Contents. Catalog no. SCDC-00137. Translation. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  14. ^ Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Black (CD) (in Japanese). TEAM Entertainment. August 20, 2003. ASIN B0000AFOON. Catalog no. KDSD-00014. Translation. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  15. ^ "Mai, Noel, Iroha, And Dizzy. Yeah, This Is Another Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos Video". Siliconera. June 30, 2011. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  16. ^ "Code Shifter". Arc System Works. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  17. ^ "【#コンパス攻略】"全員強制スタン"が強いディズィーのヒーロースキル（HS）対策まとめ". Famitsu (in Japanese). March 17, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  18. ^ 《克魯賽德戰記》×《聖騎士之戰》 限定聯名活動 Part.3 正式展開. GNN Gamer (in Japanese). October 5, 2018. Archived from the original on February 18, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  19. ^ "「Epic Seven」，「ギルティギア」コラボで★５"ディズィー"が登場". 4Gamer (in Japanese). May 7, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  20. ^ "『SOA』に『GGXrd Rev 2』よりカイとディズィーが参戦". Dengeki Online (in Japanese). February 2, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  21. ^ Logarta, Michael (May 25, 2017). "Brave Frontier and Guilty Gear collide in new game event". GMA News Online. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  22. ^ "【聯名活動】Guillty Gear 聯名合作活動時程表 & 活動說明". PixNet (in Japanese). October 15, 2020. Archived from the original on February 18, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  23. ^ Tolentino, Josh (November 24, 2021). "KOF Allstar Adds Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 Playable Characters". Siliconera. Archived from the original on February 18, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  24. ^ Cospa から「Guilty Gear -Strive」「Guilty Gear Xrd REV2」の新グッズが登場！TGS2023で先行販売決定！. SaigaNAK (in Japanese). September 11, 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  25. ^ 『Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2』ディズィー、『Guilty Gear -Strive-』ラムレザル＝ヴァレンタインのぬいぐるみが登場！阿々久商店にて予約受付中. Dengeki Online (in Japanese). June 28, 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  26. ^ Guilty Gear 10th Memorial Book. Arcadia Extra (in Japanese). Vol. 77. March 2009. p. 26. ISBN 9784757748019.
  27. ^ "Arc System Works is coming to Virtual Market 5". Arc System Works. December 16, 2020. Archived from the original on February 19, 2024. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
  28. ^ 対戦格闘ゲーム「Guilty Gear™ Xrd Rev 2」よりディズィー、エルフェルト=ヴァレンタインをイメージした香水が6月14日(火)予約販売開始. PR Times (in Japanese). June 14, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  29. ^ Stenbuck, Kite (January 11, 2024). "Guilty Gear Dizzy Blended Malt Whiskey Will Be Sold Next Week". Siliconera. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  30. ^ "BlazBlue And Guilty Gear Costumes Now Available For Dead or Alive 5: Last round". Siliconera. March 14, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  31. ^ Lada, Jenni (February 18, 2021). "The Guilty Gear Dizzy Nendoroid Also Includes Necro and Undine". Siliconera. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
  32. ^ "Guilty Gear XX Λ Core - Dizzy - 1/8 (Alter)". MyFigureCollection. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  33. ^ "Guilty Gear XX Λ Core - Dizzy - 1/8 - Type-S (Alter)". MyFigureCollection. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  34. ^ "Guilty Gear XX - Queen's Gate - Dizzy - 1/8 (Kotobukiya)". MyFigureCollection. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  35. ^ "Kinetiquettes breaks free from Capcom for their next big figure release". Destructoid. March 26, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  36. ^ Lada, Jenni (May 25, 2022). "Guilty Gear Baiken, Dizzy, Ramlethal, and Sol Badguy Figures Announced". Siliconera. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  37. ^ Sainsbury, Matt (May 26, 2017). "The Friday Ten: The ten top fighting game waifu". DigitallyDownloaded.net. Archived from the original on September 21, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  38. ^ "Guilty Gear X Review". Gameshark. October 13, 2001. Archived from the original on December 9, 2001. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  39. ^ a b Jasper, Gavin (August 4, 2018). "Guilty Gear: Ranking All the Characters". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on February 17, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  40. ^ Jasper, Gavin (June 11, 2021). "Guilty Gear: 15 Most Powerful Characters". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on February 17, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  41. ^ Ciolek, Todd (August 19, 2015). "The X Button: Lost in Blues". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on February 20, 2024. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  42. ^ Carter, Chris (July 3, 2014). "Sin Kiske is a new Guilty Gear Xrd character birthed by the union of Ky Kiske and Dizzy". Destructoid. Archived from the original on February 21, 2024. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  43. ^ de Araújo, Guilherme; Carvalho, Pedrosa; Pereira, Georgia da Cruz (2019). Análise da representação feminina nos jogos de luta (Thesis) (in Portuguese). Universidade Federal da Bahia: XV Enecult (published August 1, 2019).
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