#haven't seen many others talking about it so ayyy here i go :D

[the-nysh]

Fun notes and commentary on Ova4: Games and Rivals

Takes place sometime soon after Boros, and it’s a worldwide online battle tournament with animal avatars. Possible to compete (freely) with either traditional gaming controls or a VR headset using your own moves/skills. For the winning prize of 5 million yen. Here’s what the competitive dorks chose:

Saitama: gorilla (always goes for the brute force power types)

Garou: wolf (obviously!)

Suiryu: dragon (name pun on ‘ryu’)

King: pink koala (dangerously unassuming and girly, of course)

It gets me that Genos never chooses to participate in these things himself; he rather observes and analyzes from the sidelines. (No chill and no fun! Always takes things seriously for a studying opportunity.) While providing supportive morale for Saitama however.

It’s funny how Saitama’s easily swayed by the prize money, but also how he assumes his power will be translated through the VR system for an instant win. (That’s not how it works!) He even admits he’s not that good at video games, and Genos even tells him ‘you should have no problem if you fight like always.’ Oh boy…:’D

Naturally, he’s instantly K.O.’d by King. “Perhaps the game cannot reflect the power of sensei’s punch.” Genos muses. Naturally, he’s pissed on Saitama’s behalf for the loss, but Saitama tells him to direct that anger towards monsters instead. :’) (Which he also jots down in his notebook, aha.) He reasons there must be someone out there with comparable strength to Saitama if they were able to beat him like this with the same VR headset! Impossible! (Oh my gosh, how that’s flawed…and lul the irony.)

Meanwhile, they spot competitor screens from other venues, where Garou (oh who could it be?! fighting as a wolf of course) easily wins and rises the ranks. It’s funny how he’d choose to enter + show off his skills in a gaming tournament like this of all things, but hey, it’s another competition with prize money to be won. :P (Since this is still early on before any of them met, he’s probably still messing around on his dojo hunting days.) Suiryu’s also spotted easily winning other matches, fighting as a dragon using only kick moves. Both of them remark how lackluster the current challengers are…

Until they face each other in the semifinals! Wolf vs Dragon! Genos wants to continue watching, but Saitama’s bummed and wants to go home and eat. They stay and comment how Dragon seems like he has the stronger advantage, but also how Wolf is holding back just measuring him up. (Another difference from Genos, but Garou multitasks analyzing his opponent while also actively participating/having fun in fights like this.) ‘Nice, finally a guy with some fight in him!’ and Garou gets more into it.

Genos recognizes Garou’s stance/moves similar to Bang’s, but hilariously Saitama’s all ‘he’d never play video games, plus he doesn’t hunch over’ like that either (pfft now that’s just too funny, plus it’s another fun case of just who could this mystery new lad be?!).  

Garou and Suiryu start having more fun duking it out, trading blows and appearing rather evenly matched. What proceeds is a really sweet fanservice dream battle that we’d otherwise never get to see in canon (it was either here in a possible early scenario like this or never, since Suiryu soon becomes too injured and Garou progresses too far for a fair match-up between them) and jumpaoki just goes absolutely ham animating them, what a treat. :’D I love the blocked move homages similar to the Metal Bat fight (but visualized better), and how jumpaoki can portray Garou as a cocky shit to a feral bastard. Nice.

Also, the little pause + walk off they do and the mid-air dodge/spin Garou does, wtf! 8’D Just gotta show it (my gif):

Even Saitama comments on the ‘fun’ they’re having. :’)) (Which he…rarely if ever gets to experience anymore…aww.) But just as Garou’s about to get serious and kick it up a gear…he glitches the game. :O

Apparently, the speed of his moves overloaded the VR system. Which, if we recall from the comments Genos made before, the game’s limited in accurately translating/reflecting the actual power of the user, so I like the implication here that Garou’s already showing signs he’s too strong for the system to register/handle. ;) Some nice little foreshadowing in that. Despite how it’s…unfair and unsportsman-like that Suiryu wails on him while immobilized from a controller error. D:

Garou rightfully gets pissed at that and almost ragequits, but reconsiders and refrains from throwing the headset, saving the staff from incident. :’)) Instead he hands it back to them and asks where to find (Suiryu), but they don’t have the information for that (probably a player confidentiality thing). So guess that’s that for them ever meeting/interacting again~ (What we got was delivered nicely and fun while it lasted!)

The finals proceed and bam, King swiftly destroys Suiryu. :’D (Feels like karma, plus with this outcome, it’s preferable this way than King prematurely facing and beating Garou.) Suiryu muses how there’s no way a player could perform moves like that with a regular controller, and reasons (King) must be a far superior martial artist to him.

Except…surprise! 8D King dominated and did all that with a handheld (he was pretty much there just to try out the latest innovation too), and with his unique and unmatched set of skills, I like the message how there’s more to ‘strength’ than just power alone. Classic.