Geese Howard

Geese Howard (ギース・ハワード, Gīsu Hawādo) is the chief antagonist of the Fatal Fury series and a secondary villain in the Art of Fighting series. His role varies in the The King of Fighters storyline, but he is always either in the position of a villain or an anti-hero.

Geese also appears in many CD dramas and stars in his own character image album. He also sings in a number of image songs. In addition to appearing in manga adaptations of the Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting and The King of Fighters games published in Japan, Geese Howard was also the subject of a single-volume manga published in 1996 titled The Geese Howard Story by Etsuya Amajishi, adapting the character's fictional history from the Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury games. It was followed by a single-volume sequel in 1997 titled Geese in the Dark, by the same author.

Personality
Geese is a proud man who considers himself a mighty warrior and as such thinks highly of himself. He craves power in all of its forms: from money to immortality, a desire influenced by various tragedies in his childhood, from losing his mother to being estranged as a stepson. He can be quite vengeful as well, as he holds grudges against Krauser and Jeff, whom he later killed. Despite appearing to be heartless however, he has his own code of honor and there are lines that even he will not cross; never underestimating his opponents, especially after suffering defeat from Terry. He will crush anyone who stands in his way and reward those he deems worthy of his respect, or in the case of Billy, whoever he sympathizes with.

He appears to show respect to Tung Fu Rue despite their histories, even if he is sometimes sarcastic about it, as seen in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, and more recently in The King of Fighters XIV.

He has a fascination with Japan, often adorning the Japanese decorum on the Geese Tower rooftop with American flags, and has assimilated some Nipponese culture as a result.

Whether because of ambition or to simply keep them from possible harm, he was apparently distant from his personal family, ignoring Rock's pleas to help Marie in her sickness until she reportedly passed away. As a result, this earned him Rock's indignation and the latter's devotion to stay away from his shadow.

Abilities

 * Gather Chi - Geese can gather chi energy from Gaia, the mother-earth.
 * Sense - Geese can sense the presence of people nearby.
 * Summon Thunder - Through some difficulty, Geese can also summon lightning from the sky. He uses this in his Atemi Nage (Body-Blow Throw) and Thunder Break moves. The former comes in the form of the Raimei Gouha Nage (Thunderclap Strong Crushing Throw).
 * Ergokinesis - Geese has a incredible control over energy that is gathered from Gaia.
 * Energy Projectile - Geese can fire a wave of energy called Reppuuken and even fire two of them at the same time. The air version is called Shippuuken.
 * Energy Attack - Geese can infuse his normal attacks (punches, kicks, etc) with chi energy causing more damage.
 * Cutting Energy - Geese can create blades of energy as seen in his Hishou Nichirin Zan (Soaring Sun Slasher) move.
 * Energy Geyser - By touching the ground with his hands, Geese can make a geyser of energy come from below the ground. He calls this attack the Raging Storm.


 * Administration - Geese is the CEO of the facade Howard Connection, and has managed to successfully maintain his own image to those not in the know.
 * Counter Attack - Thanks to his training in various Japanese martial arts (Karate, Aikidou, Jujutsu, etc.), Geese is able to reverse almost every strike intended to land on him.
 * Japanese Religion and Philosophy - Due to his training in various ancient Japanese martial arts.
 * Survival - Geese has survived the streets and learned how to fend for himself since a young age.

Fighting style
Geese uses Aikijutsu as his primary fighting style. Aikijutsu is a style with several throws, counter throws and locks. However, it is a style that normally lacks striking attacks, and Geese's strikes seem to come from various disciplines of Japanese martial arts, mainly karate; though he also knows traditional and older schools of Japanese martial arts. While Geese is from the US, his extensive practice of such martial arts has lead nearly all of his techniques to be written and spoken out in Japanese. Via his codifying 2/3-way counter throws, some games may or may not allow Geese to even reverse physical supers/DM's.

Many official sources state that his fighting style is Hakkyokuseiken, but this is disputed. It can be assumed that Hakkyokuseiken only teaches the way of the chi and not fighting techniques, as Terry Bogard, Tung Fu Rue and Geese Howard, students of this school, employ different fighting styles. Through his chi control, many of Geese's attacks possess a wind-based motif, mainly through techniques such as the Reppuuken (Gale Fist), Shippuuken (Hurricane Fist) and Raging Storm; as he develops his style, he also adds some electricity-based touches, such as his popular Raimei Gouha Nage (Thunderclap Strong Crushing Throw), and the stronger version of his Raging Storm, the Thunder Break. KOF '96 was also the game that debuted the alternate "wind slashing" variation of his Reppuuken, which also converts his Shippuuken to turn into a short range energy shot instead that negates projectiles.

His Double Reppuuken was also unique in that via Geese tossing out an energy mass prior to form a bigger projectile afterward, it would vary between games if the said energy mass would dissipate or not upon contact with either the opponent or another projectile (if so, it would cause Geese to toss a normal Reppuuken instead of the bigger one). Another one of his inconsistencies his is one of his many unique throw attacks, the Shinkuu Nage (Vacuum Throw); a unique technique he Geese tosses his opponent overhead then waves his arms while ending in a focused stance. In some games, it is a normal throw, while in others, it is a command throw instead; either way, its command has often varied, and ironically Rock has found more use for his version of it due to his ability to break it.

His younger self however, has used an old technique named the Explosion Ball, and also favored a more rigid boxing style mixed with karate. However, as he ages to his more popular present self, he employs many new attacks and has a more upright stance that allows him to focus on his reversals and various throws. Though in tribute to his younger self, one technique present-Geese has retained in some titles from Art of Fighting 2 is his Hishou Nichirin Zan (Flying Day Ring Slash). He also has the Rashoumon (Thin Life Gate) technique, which debuted in Real Bout Fatal Fury 2.

The command input of Geese's Raging Storm has remained mostly untouched in his game appearances due to its popularity with fans in Japan (coined the "Pretzel Command" by the fandom). It is one of the few moves from Fatal Fury to not undergo a command rearrangement in The King of Fighters series. In some games, such as Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, SVC Chaos, and KOF '98 UM, the command input is lax thus gamers can find a way to execute it with a simpler command that overlaps. Regarding its name, many different sources have romanized it as Raising Storm, Raging Storm or Rising Storm (the second naming variation which his son stays consistent with). However, its command so far has been notably the most strict in The King of Fighters Neowave via his younger self, in that messing up the input may have him activate Deadly Rave instead. Though prior to that via, Real Bout Fatal Fury 2, its command input instead was that of the Haou Shoukou Ken (while still fairly tight); in The King of Fighters XIV, its motion instead changes to that of the Ura 108 Shiki: Orochinagi (a quarter-circle backward-to-half-circle forward) motion and is instead his only strongest move via acting as his Climax DM (with the removal of the Deadly Rave), which simplifies his character somewhat and also resembles the "windy" version his son uses. In Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, a unique form of his Raging Storm is used as a stronger version whenever he manages to land one of his counter throw, in reference to the one used in Fatal Fury 3, where it will turn red during a unique combination of attacks and deal more damage.

Geese's CD attack while it had a name in more in-depth movelists in the Japanese scripts (known as the Fudou Kassatsu Uraken, lit. Motionless Life-or-Death Backfist), was one of the few along with some others had that its name brought to light as a command normal in the vs. Capcom crossovers. However, via his ripped SvC Chaos incarnation that appears in the console versions of 2002, his default CD/Blowback Attack (along with Goenitz, Shingo and King's) inflicts no damage via a programming error, while the aforementioned command normal version of it does.

His Deadly Rave technique was created via Geese taking interest of the Kyokugen style's Ryuuko Ranbu technique, in games barring Art of Fighting 2, The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match and The King of Fighters Neowave where the DM was an automatic super, the DM was also famous for having a special sequenced command that could lead into finisher (a series of weaker-to-stronger normal attack inputs followed by a quarter-circle-back finishing input), but also required consistent timing and rhythm (which could be purposely dropped at the very end to extend combos).

While Geese has been balanced in terms of gameplay in many titles barring ones where he is intentionally overpowered, his younger version in Neowave was viable even in competitive play, despite some attributes being hard to counter such as his Deadly Rave having a notable amount of invincibility with a great hitbox; Geese even in his debut was rather considered to be a notably powerful boss in SNK titles, as his counter throws even worked when no incoming attacks triggered it. Younger Geese in Neowave also lacked a properly-programmed HSDM/MAX2DM. Ironically via Real Bout 2, Geese was notably toned down, with almost half of his classic moveset being removed along with a few new moves added. This version of him combined with his "Nightmare" version was brought back in a more balanced composite version in '98 Ultimate Match. His SvC Chaos incarnation which was reused for the later ports of KOF 2002 also had touches from his Nightmare self as well, despite being his normal self that is still alive.

In KOF XIV, Geese instead is slightly reworked with some of his attacks removed once more, along with having new moves up his arsenal; his Ja'ei Ken (Wicked Shadow Fist) being removed and gaining a command throw mainly exclusive to Nightmare Geese. In prior games, Geese was lacking in offensive mixup; this is remedied with his new Fudou Ken (Motionless Fist), a move where Geese rushes forward with a palm strike (and was originally a command normal with auto-guard in the Maximum Impact series) with three followups, A (Flatter), Ba (Name) and Un (Growl), which respectively hit mid, low and overhead (but do not act as a true combo outside of counter hit/juggle hit for the latter two). Other new techniques in XIV are the DM's Raigou Reppuuken (Thunderpeal Gale Fist), a lightning-laced variant of his signature projectile, and the Oni Hanmon (Ogre Agony), a brand new DM counter throw that will still waste a stock if not triggered properly; if triggered, Geese will thrust his palm into the opponent then smash their face in to the ground.

Voice actors

 * Katsuhisa Namase - Fatal Fury Special
 * Michael Beard - Art of Fighting 2
 * Kong Kuwata - Fatal Fury 3~present
 * Ryoko Gi - The King of Fighters All Star (as the Female Version)
 * Tom Bitler - KOF: Maximum Impact 2 (English voice)
 * Hidekatsu Shibata - animated films
 * Richard Epcar - Tekken 7 (English voice dialogues)
 * Masaaki Ōkura - Young Geese in Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle
 * Ward Perry - Animated films (English voice)
 * Katsuji Mori - Fatal Fury Dengeki Bunko drama CD
 * Yōhei Hamada - The King of Fighters: Destiny (As Young Geese)
 * Benjamin Kiesewetter - High Score Girl (German dub)
 * Rafa Calvo - High Score Girl (European Spanish dub)
 * Paolo Corridore - High Score Girl (Italian dub)

Live-action actors

 * Micky James Montera - Fatal Fury Special live commercials

Similar characters

 * Nightmare Geese

Trivia

 * The fate of Geese Howard is one of the major reasons of why there are so many continuities within SNK's various fighting game series. In the Fatal Fury series, he is dead. In The King of Fighters series, however, he is alive (excluding the KOF: Maximum Impact series). He is sometimes known for using his "Nightmare" mode for games where he is dead, such as in Real Bout Fatal Fury Special.
 * An interview with Neo Geo Freak reveals that this is mostly due to the fact that The King of Fighters development team wasn't initially aware about Geese's fate in the Real Bout series. Once they heard about it, the developers from Real Bout team approved his appearance in the series due to their desires to create the "Boss Team" in KOF '96. Additionally, Geese's profile statistics during this series are the same ones for Fatal Fury Special (excluding his age).
 * Geese is not as antagonistic to the Bogard brothers in The King of Fighters series than he is in his native series, but doesn't mind keeping tabs and clashing with them.
 * When the silhouette of his younger AOF 2 appearance was leaked into Neo Geo Freak, many fans thought he was "an evil Andy" or Ryuhaku Todoh. Neowave Geese uses high-pitched re-recorded versions of Geese's battle dialogue from SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.
 * Real Bout Fatal Fury has an impostor named Shadow who can only be fought by Geese or Billy. He is identical to Geese except that Shadow stutters.
 * At the time of his debut in Art of Fighting 2, Geese was exclusively voiced by an English-speaking person, and spoke in full English words. This trend stopped in Fatal Fury: King of Fighters onwards.
 * Ureshino alludes that Nightmare Geese's appearance in Maximum Impact 2 was done mainly due to Rock and Billy's appearances in the game.
 * In the Neo Geo Freak's 1997 Volume 8 character poll, he was voted as the nineteenth favourite character with a total of 507 votes. 232 votes from the male fans and 275 votes from the female fans. In the character popularity poll on Neo Geo Freak's website, he was voted as the thirteenth favorite character with a total of 903 votes.
 * The theme "Kiss Geese Once More", from the KOF: Maximum Impact series, while never used explicitly for Geese, is used in the "Infernal Gate" stage of both Maximum Impact and  Maximum Impact 2. The stage is modeled after Geese's "throne room" from the original Fatal Fury.