Did you know there have been references to Virtua Fighter in the X-Files TV Series? How about the Anime series Ben-To? Or the pop song "Ready to Go!" by Republica?

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Editor's Note: Originally posted in 2011 by AlexMD, so some original links may no longer work. Many thread replies have been added to the original post which has also been re-formatted and edited for this re-post - Myke (23 Oct 2018)

X-Files
TV series - Contributed by AlexMD
In season 3 episode 3 of the X-files, Mulder and Scully are investigating a series of lightning related deaths in a small town. Upon inspecting the arcade, Mulder finds Oswald's (the murder suspect) high scores as "D.P.O." on the Virtua Fighter 2 machine.

Some superfluous trivia, contributed by quaelgeist: In the German Dub of this Episode it had unique sound effects laid over the shown gameplay. A high pitched voice would frequently yell "Feuerball des Todes" (fireball of death) during play or "Verlierer, verlierer" (looser, looser) when a round ended. Don't really know the reason for this ridiculous alteration but I guess the studio doing the dub figured this would better reflect the evil character of the player (wasn't this bad guy played by Jack Black?). And yes, German Dubs often feature some astounding stupidity. Don't get me started on the Star Wars Movies or Batman: Arkham Asylum...


Ben-To
Anime - Contributed by various users
In episode 3 of the anime Ben-to the protagonist talks about how he admired Shinjuku Jacky and other strong players. In this episode he finds an easy way to achieve his goal of getting half price bento, but he doesn't find it satisfying because like in VF "The stronger the opponent the better it is. Contributed by AlexMD

Just watched the newest episode of Ben-To (Episode 3) which is a new anime title for Fall 2011. It's a fun series about people fighting over half-priced lunches in local Japanese supermarkets. Near the end of the episode it had a Virtua Fighter 2 reference to Shinjuku Jacky and Bun Bun Maru. The main male fighter of the show talked about his love (and skill) of VF2 and the respect he had for the top fighters in the VF competition. They even had a small amount of footage of Akira whipping Jacky handily and more nods to SEGA in the episode. Thought some might find this interesting. Contributed by Bear Powell on Facebook

Episode 4 and they had Virtua Fighter 2 in it again. I am guessing it's going to be a continuing thing. The unknown girl (Shaga) from Ep 3 he was playing with is his first cousin and she shows up now to be part of his life in some way. Gaming seems to be a big part of their childhood and a common interest. Sato the main character is a Jacky player and his cousin Shaga is an Akira player. They play VF2 to test each other and settle bets. Although, from what was shown in past 2 episodes she owns his sorry butt with SPoD in the first match and P+D/DPS on the next matches. Other SEGA titles were mentioned in the episode and it was also made known that his father is an avid SEGA gamer. Contributed by replicant

Episode 8: This episode is chock full of Virtua Fighter 2 goodness. It all revolves around Yarizui (The President of the Half Priced Food Lovers Club) aka "Ice Witch" who is considered by many to be the strongest of all the Ben-to fighters. First, you see her fight as Akira against Shaga playing Lion. Shaga wins all matches in Perfects. Yarizui asks Satou why she can't land a hit against Shaga and he tells her that she could probably never beat Shaga at the game. Shaga then trash talks her telling her she needs to come back in a decade before she could beat her. Next Asebi (Playing Shun Di) challenges Yarizui (Playing Jeffry) in which Asebi proceeds to beat her in all Perfects. It is then pointed out that Asebi besides being in the school gaming club also works at a gaming store where she plays Virtua Fighter against the customers all the time.

Next, Yarizui challenges Satou to play against her. Yarizui (Playing Pai) goes down against Satou (Playing Jacky) with him winning all matches in Perfects as well. Yarizui then asks Satou how much the game system and game costs and he tells her on the used market it would run at least 4,000 yen, but as he is explaining his is mint condition and it would be worth more she picks up the system and walks to the window. She then says "her hand is slipping" as she throws the Saturn out the window with VF2 in it. Satou screams "MY SATURN!" and leaps out the window grabbing it in mid-air cradling it and recites a sentimental poem before falling five stories into a crumpled heap. He is carried to the hospital in the ambulance and when he arrives the first thing the doctors have to figure out is how to remove the Saturn from his death grip. During his hospital stay the Saturn is kept beside him at all times.

The poem he recited in mid-air:

Wings
By Satou You
Winged birds are indeed caged.
People speak as if the birds in the sky fly freely,
But I do not agree.
If I were a bird,
if my arms were wings,
I would surely have lost simething precious.
... yes, the Sega Saturn.
I grasp it and enfold it in my arms,
feeling its heat against my skin.
Surely there is no greater happiness.
That is what I believe.​

Episode 9: This episode had Satou get knocked down pretty hard by Shiraume (The Student Council President) for no known reason to him. She is a very protective lesbian in love with Oshiroi, a girl who is in the Half Price Food Lovers Club with Satou and happens to like him in an odd way (She writes Yaoi fiction involving him...). To get over his anger at being hit for no reason you see him next playing Virtua Fighter 2 as Jacky against Sarah. He is beating up the CPU in a very vocal and angry way until Asebi shows up to bring him lunch. He stops playing to eat the lunch she made him. When he starts eating he finds out it is a "deconstructed" meal so nothing tastes like it is supposed to which confuses him greatly. In the background you see the CPU Jacky and CPU Sarah fighting with Sarah winning. As he tries to eat the lunch he finally passes out with his mind unable to understand the food he is tyring to eat just as Sarah connects for a KO. He fades away to her saying "Even good guys blow it". Contributed by replicant

All Japan Pro Wrestling
Japanese professional wrestling promotion - Contributed by AlexMD
James Rocha (Born May 4, 1967) is an American Professional Wrestler who competed in World Championship Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling. He's perhaps best known for using the gimmick: Wolf Hawkfield, based on the video game character from the Virtua Fighter video game series. (from wikipedia)
Wolf Hawkfield theme All Japan Pro Wrestling

Skins
TV Series - Contributed by Beligerent_Feck
More info needed... There's an episode of Skins where one of the characters was wearing a pink shirt with Wolf's VF1 character model on it, I'll see if I can find out exactly which episode it was and get a clip.

Charlie Brooker on The Culture Show
TV Show - Contributed by Beligerent_Feck
In his description of the reality TV show "Any Dream Will Do" he mentions the show's "epic quest to uncover the chosen one in a stomach-churning weekly sing-off which, to all intents and purposes, is basically the gay equivalent to Virtua Fighter.

The Forbidden Kingdom
Movie - Contribute by SoulKatana
References to Virtua Fighter 2 characters and techniques.

Mindgame
Anime - Contribute by SoulKatana
More info needed... "Crazy anime flick with drawn VF1 stuff in it"

Game Center CX
Japanese television series - Contributed by AlexMD

• In Episode 3 - Ghosts 'N Goblins there is a section interviewing Yu Suzuki (at 9:00), he talks about the creation of Virtua Fighter, Hang On etc.
• In episode 25 Arino plays Virtua Fighter 4 Final Tuned (at 25:00) and loses to a 14 year old boy

Hajime no Ippo
Manga/Anime - Contributed by Seidon
In Hajime no Ippo one of the characters play VF (in the anime it's fighting vipers). Also, the creator of Ippo is a big VF fan and one of his characters, Itagaki looks a hell of a lot like his favourite character in VF: Lion Rafale.

Also refer to Volume 34, Chapter 298, Page 5 to 9 (Contributed by El_Twelve)

Republica - Ready to Go (pop version)
Song - Contributed by adriana3
VF reference in this clip. The singer plays the VF2 arcade at 3:06.

Gantz
Manga - Contributed by Femto
Kaze does Akira's move's to kill demons. It's too beast. Also when little Takeshi is killed by the abusive boyfriend, the abusive boyfriend is playing VF4.

Clockers
Movie - Contributed by SDS_Overfiend1
Go to the 2:40 mark when Drug Dealer Rodney Littles gets snatched up out his Candy shop. You see the scene takes place next to a VF1 cabinet. He even starts polishing this ancient relic. Shout out to Spike Lee for advertising the first 3-D fighting game.

Bayonetta
Game - Contributed by Lloyd Gronkowski (via Facebook) and Beligerent_Feck
Bayonetta performs Akira's Tetsuzankou (Bodycheck) and victory quote "Juunen hayaindayo!" (You're 10 years too early!)



The Crimson Rivers
Movie - Contributed by Kruza
A few years ago I remember watching a French movie with English subtitles called The Crimson Rivers starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel. In this movie Cassel had a lengthy fight scene in it beating up several bad guys. And in the same area yet at a safe distance away from the fight was a boy playing VF3. The movie kept alternating between Cassel landing blows on real guys and the boy doing the same against his opponents on VF3. I'm not sure if I can find any video clip of this scene though.

Air Master
Anime - Contributed by Heta_Akira
The name is "AirMaster" and tell the story of a female street fighter that fight doing acrobatics hence the nickname. Anyway on with the references:

• Episode 1 - AirMaster soon to be friends are inside an arcade, Renge is trying to get a doll from an UFO Machine but Michiru and Yuu are playing... VF, you can see very clear that Michiru is using Pai and Yuu Sarah, the thing is that Yuu wins and she does the famous "Yahoo" pose from Sarah.
• Episode 17 - In the last two minutes of that episode, AirMaster just beat a high ranked fighter of the "Fukamichi Ranking" and she is about to leave with their friends, when a new fighter comes. He is wearing a Fighting Gi and a white headband, challenge AirMaster and next thing we see is AirMaster in the floor out cold.
• The credits of the anime roll and after that the preview of the next episode. At the end of the preview, Airmaster (Maki) say loud and clear: "Juu Nen Hayain Da Yo"
• Episode 18 - Starting the episode, we see what happened to Maki (AirMaster), plain and simple? Yoho + Dragon Lance (The Dragon Lance changed the first movement for Hougeki (the start of SPoD) but still 2/3 Dragon Lance.
• Later at the middle of episode 18
  No sign of the new fighter but that day (sunday) Michiru and Yuu go to a VF Tournament (it's written just like that), Airmaster and the others meet them... the girls are doing excellent, but someone is beating everybody and Maki see in the game the "Dragon Lance" that was made to her. The winner of the tournament is the mysterious fighter that explains how "Akio" (Akira) was his master and showed him the moves that he needed to win.

Lucky Star
Anime - Contributed by Kazego
At episode 3, Konata & Kagami (two of the four main characters) are playing a VF-lookalike fighting game in their PS2, shown at the 12m40s mark.



Super Robot Wars
Game - Contributed by Kazego
Ryuusei Date, member of the SRX Team and pilot of the Personal Trooper R-1, has adapted some Akira Yuki lines in his battle phrases:

"Ora, ora, ora!"


"Juu'nen hayain dayo!"


To make the connection closer, Ryuusei is voiced by Shinichiro Miki, who also voices Akira Yuki.

Arcade Gamer Fubuki
Anime - Contribued by El_Twelve
VF is featured in an anime called Arcade Gamer Fubuki. It's a silly anime about an arcade gaming tournament featuring real arcade games. VF4 is played in episode 3, and Fighting Vipers makes an appearance in the same episode. The anime uses actual game footage from all the games featured.

http://www.watchcartoononline.com/arcade-gamer-fubuki-episode-3-english-dubbed
Short VF footage from about halfway through the episode.

Houshin Engi
Manga - Contributed by El_Twelve
VF is also referenced in Chapter 1 of the manga Houshin Engi. The main character gets reprimanded by his teacher, who does Lion's f,f P+G on him. The artist goes as far as adding the sound effect "Iiin!" and adding the commands above the name of the move. This manga is from the 90's, so it would have been during the VF2 or 3 era.

http://www.citymanga.com/houshin_engi/chapter-1/12/

Tenchi Muyo
Anime - Contributed by El_Twelve
There is a VF reference in one of the old CD-ROMs for the anime Tenchi Muyo. It's the Ryoohki Gokuraku CD-ROM for Sega Saturn and PC. There's a bit with the character Washuu in polygons doing Pai's crane stance win pose from VF1 and saying Akira's "Juu Nen Hayaindayo." The background in that scene looks a lot like Jacky stage from VF1. Unfortunately, I've lost my copy of this.

Hatsune Miku Project DIVA
Game - Contributed by Kazego
Some of you guys probably knew this but to the uninformed, one of Megurine Luka's costumes is called "VF Suit"(which is Sarah's original costume):
http://youtu.be/432aPcmIqxY?t=9m43s

Hayate no Gotoku! (Hayate the Combat Butler)
Manga - Contributed by Kazego
In Volume 8, when the title character Hayate asked Nagi (his master) about how she trained her pet tiger Tama, this is her response:

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Generation X
Movie - Contributed by Solidus
The film; Generation X. around the 6:30 mark or so. VF2 being played by the mutant Jubilee.


And at around 5:30 in that video there's a pretty funny reference to Virtua Fighter as well (contributed by Denkai)

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
Game - Contributed by Griever
Trish's special win quote against Arthur is "Don't worry about it. Even good guys blow it."