Giovanna
Forgive my language, Mr. President... But I'm about to make sure this son of a bitch can never fight again. You and Sol should run.
― Giovanna to Vernon E. Groubitz and Nagoriyuki[src]
Giovanna is a playable character in the Guilty Gear series who makes her debut in Guilty Gear -Strive-. Accompanied by a wolf spirit called Rei, Giovanna is an officer in the special operations unit that protects the President of the United States.[1]
Design
Giovanna has red hair, blue eyes, and a tanned skin complexion. She is dressed in business casual attire, a loosely worn white shirt with bright green pulled up sleeves, baggy olive green dress pants with suspenders and belts, as well as light brown fingerless gloves and white-green heeled boots.
She is accompanied by REI[2], a green wolf spirit with black snout and legs (with the legs being hidden during most of gameplay), whited-out eyes, and an orange recycling symbol around a heart on its forehead.
When possessed by Rei, Giovanna gains a few of Rei's features. Her skin goes a light green and her eyes become white alongside their symbol placed on her forehead. Her hair becomes a lighter red as well.
Personality
Giovanna is said to be careful with her words, but still manages to come off as rude and irreverent due to her attitude. Deep down, though, she means well and is especially friendly with children and animals.[1] Rei, her spirit wolf companion, is like family to Giovanna and fights at her side.[2]
Despite her position as a special forces officer, Giovanna also comes off as lazy, and she often annoys her coworkers with her attitude,[3] but when push comes to shove, she handles matters as a professional.[1] Giovanna often is sarcastic, and complains about her job.[4] However, she does seem grateful to be given the job at all,[5][6] and will follow through on important assignments given to her.[7][4]
Story
Background
Guilty Gear -Strive-
Story Mode
Giovanna is first seen driving a limo to the White House with U.S. President Vernon E. Groubitz, Erica Bartholomew, and the Gear Maker, Asuka R. Kreutz for a preparation of upcoming World Peace G4 Summit. When Anji Mito is at Washington as well, Gio smells no hostility on the Japanese twin-fan wielder, as he is only inspecting Asuka in person.[8]
After bringing Vernon, Erica and Asuka to the White House, Gio takes to the top of a building far from Washington before being called for training by her superior, Stryper and a new agent Udo. Gio explains Stryper on why she refuses to earn high-ranked badge, which is because the design which Vernon made is too cartoony. Before they begin to return to training area, Stryper asks Gio to button up her shirt, advising her that having her shirt button open won't work on catching a "good" man.[8]
Sometime after her training on the day when G4 began, Gio is in a middle of patrolling the White House on the top of a building far from the former building. She soon senses an eerie presence of Happy Chaos, and realizing she is too late to save her fellow agents from being brainwashed by him. While Vernon is able to escape with Sol Badguy and trying to find a way to get away from Happy Chaos preventing him from using Asuka's Tome of Origin for his partner in-crime, I-No, Gio defeats most of the brainwashed agents off-screen and manages to get inside the White House before Chaos reveals the building's true form as an airship called Tír na nÓg, preventing Sol and Vernon from escaping the area. Although Illyrian Third King Daryl manages to make Chaos free him and the rest of world's leaders who are still being taken hostage at meeting room to a rescue airship, so Chaos can only focus on hunting Sol, Asuka and Vernon. As Sol, Asuka and Vernon are in trouble to find a way to escape Chaos' unwitting samurai, Nagoriyuki, Gio saves Sol from being killed by the samurai, knowing that a material from his blade can kill Gears like Sol and any godlike beings. Although Giovanna won the first round against Nagoriyuki, she lost after showing mercy to the samurai after admitting defeat.[9] Sol's stubborn willpower to fight allows Nagoriyuki to have finally break free from Chaos' control.
After Chaos is tricked by Asuka into leaving with his former disciple's illusion on PEOC, then Asuka revert Sol back to his original human-self, Frederick Bulsara, Gio recovers and meet up with Vernon, Ky Kiske, Asuka, Jack-O' Valentine, Potemkin, and a now human Sol, while still injured. When Gio talking about a retirement plan on never keeping a cartoony high-ranked badge, it makes Second Illyrian King Leo Whitefang to notice something is not right. As Gio confirms that the jacket whom Chaos stole was belonged to Udo instead of Stryper, Leo realize that the "Chaos" they arrested is an altered Stryper, while the real Chaos disguise as Udo, meaning Sol's aversion back to human is on a bad timing.[9] After Chaos reveal that Asuka fuse with the real tome for safekeeping, then fuse with I-No into a singular godlike being, Gio, Potemkin and human Sol ignores Asuka's warning on not to engage a now godlike I-No in combat, and all of the three lost. While Giovanna and Potemkin are knocked out, Sol is able to recover and joins both Dragon Install Power Ky, Axl Low, a recently freed Asuka, Vernon, and a freed Nagoriyuki against a godlike I-No, saving Jack-O from sacrificing herself and the universe.[7]
After recovering from the battle, she vowed to get revenge on Nagoriyuki, but her true objective is to save him from the current situation he is in.[10][6]
Arcade Mode
In Giovanna's Arcade Mode, she teams up with Axl Low to fight track down and fight Nagoriyuki. Axl says that his reasoning for fighting was to ask Nagoriyuki was to find answers to the question "What if you could be human again?" and says that question isn't easy to answer for any of the three.[6]
In a different path of her Arcade Mode, Giovanna states that she used to live in "ruined shack with some old man" that she didn't know and wore clothes she found off the street.[6]
In Johnny's Arcade Mode, it's implied that the two have history with each other. Giovanna is very annoyed by Johnny's cocky attitude and demeanor. Depending on the ending the player gets, Giovanna may or may not board the May Ship at the insistent of May.[5]
Abilities
During battle, Giovanna is aided by her wolf spirit companion called REI, who is able to possess her and grants her inhuman speed.[2]
In terms of gameplay, Giovanna is a rush-down character, combining her acrobatic skills and martial arts in tandem with Rei to deliver quick, powerful attacks. She specializes in close combat, able to close in with her fast movement and lock the opponent down with her offense. Her short range abilities can be a disadvantage, but Giovanna possesses special moves that launch her forward to approach the enemy. She has a unique mechanic which increases her damage output as her Tension Gauge fills.
Music
- Trigger - Guilty Gear -Strive-
Quotes
Allusions
- Giovanna could be named after the brazillian actress Giovanna Antonelli. She worked on many famous brazillian soap operas incluinding a main role in Sol Nascente, which could be the name origin to one of her specials.
- Her Sepultura special is named after the famous Brazilian metal band.
- Overall, Giovanna's design seems to have been inspired by Vanessa from The King of Fighters series. Both are agile redheads dressed in business casual attires with a no-nonsense personality. However, while Vanessa mostly uses punches focusing on a boxing-style, Giovanna seems to mostly use kicks.
- Incidentally, her voice actress voiced Angel in The King of Fighters 2002, Neowave and 2002 UM.
Trivia
- Giovanna has made a guest appearance in the game Crusaders Quest.
- Giovanna’s name is commonly pronounced as “Jee-oh-vanna”. The correct pronunciation of her name would be “Jo-vanna” since the name “Giovanna” is of Italian origin and the “Gio” in her name is pronounced as “Jo” in Italian.
- Giovanna is shown to have several traits connected to lycanthropes/werewolves
- She is shown to have heightened senses, able to sniff out Anji
- Her hobby of moongazing is reminiscent of werewolves connection to the full moon.
- During Ventania, Giovanna grows a tail, and she is shown to fuse with Rei, similar to the transformation of werewolves
- Giovanna is extremely attracted to Leo Whitefang.[4]
Gallery
External links
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 GG World/Giovanna
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 GG World/Rei
- ↑ GG World/Udo
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Giovanna/Quotes
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Guilty Gear -Strive- script/Arcade#Johnny
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Guilty Gear -Strive- script/Arcade#Giovanna
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Guilty Gear -Strive- script § "Strive"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Guilty Gear -Strive- script § "Prologue"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Guilty Gear -Strive- script § "Conclusion"
- ↑ GG World: "Correlation"