Axl Low

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Axl Low
Official Guilty Gear XX Accent Core artwork for Axl Low.
Game series	Guilty Gear series
First game	Guilty Gear
Creator(s)	Daisuke Ishiwatari
Voice actor(s)	Keiichi Nanba
In-Universe Information
Birthplace	United Kingdom
Blood type	B
Theme song	""The March of the Wicked King" (GG) Make Oneself" (GGX-) "Dogs On The Run" (Korean XX #Reload)

Axl Low (アクセル＝ロウ, Akuseru Rou^?) is a character in the Guilty Gear fighting game series, making his first appearance in the first game, Guilty Gear: The Missing Link, though his story and character change and develop more dramatically in the later games. He employs a strangely modified kusarigama, which, instead of a weight at the end, has another kama, and a thus-far unexplained control over fire. His personality can be described as laid-back or lighthearted, and despite his consistent failure to solve his problem, he always keeps a fairly upbeat attitude.

1 Story
2 Related characters
- 2.1 Megumi
- 2.2 Raven
3 Music References
4 Trivia

[edit] Story

[edit] Background

Axl is a bit of an involuntary time traveller, and actually comes from the 20th century, over one hundred and fifty years before most of the Guilty Gear story takes place. His main goal seems to be to return to his own time period, mainly because of his desire to return to his girlfriend, Megumi. For this reason, he seeks out various ways to do so, and is continually attempting to solve the mystery of why it is that he "slips" through time in the first place.

[edit] Guilty Gear: The Missing Link

Axl enters the Sacred Knights Tournament in hopes of finding a way to get back to his own era. He was apparently led to believe that the winner of the tournament could have a wish granted them. In his ending, he defeats Justice and is hailed as a hero. This is unlikely to be canon, and Sol Badguy's ending is more likely. He also declares that he will stop actively looking for a way to get home.

[edit] Guilty Gear X: By Your Side

In the second game, Axl is wandering about, looking for Faust, in hopes of being cured by a doctor of such skill. He encounters various people on the way, and fights them, chalking it all up to bad luck. Then he meets up with Sol Badguy. After this, the path splits. In one ending, Axl fights Kliff Undersn and Justice, and then realizes that he's been thrown back in time once again. In the other (more likely) ending, he battles Faust, and then is diagnosed with involuntary timeslipping. Faust blames this on there being an alternate version of Axl in existence.

[edit] Guilty Gear XX: The Midnight Carnival

Through story mode, Axl meets up with I-No, among other people, while wandering about. As is the case with many other characters, I-No is the catalyst that causes the events that follow. In one of his three endings, he ends up fighting a future version of himself. In another, Axl fights with Zappa, and afterward begins to wonder how Megumi is faring. In the third ending, he meets up with "That Man" and finds out from him that Raven is the cause of his timeslipping, and it is implied that Raven is the alternate version of Axl that was diagnosed by Faust. This allegedly has something to do with actions performed by Axl later on. Perhaps more light will be shed on this in later games. Interestingly, since the three endings have nothing to do with each other, and don't contradict each other in any way, it's entirely possible that they all happened.

[edit] Related characters

Axl seems to have some sort of story connection with I-No, as he consistently claims to recognise her. He also seems to know Sol quite well, and vice versa. He apparently has a photograph of Sol as a child, and talks to him like an old friend. Given Sol's age and Axl's time travelling, this is more plausible than one would think.

[edit] Megumi

Megumi is Axl's girlfriend from his own era. She is never seen and so little is known about her, except that he is obviously devoted enough to actively seek a route back in time to rejoin her.

[edit] Raven

Raven is one of That Man's four servants -- the other three being I-No, Justice and an unknown and unnamed individual who is completely covered from head to the ankles (this character appears during one of Sol's endings in Guilty Gear X Plus, and makes an appearance in an official artwork along with That Man and his other subordinates). Even less is known of him than is known of That Man, except that he has some sort of connection with Axl Low, described by That Man as a "parallel existence."

In the Guilty Gear novel Lightning the Argent, he battles both Faust and Sol Badguy, defeating Faust in an interdimensional battle and essentially ignoring Sol's fire attacks through regeneration. Raven at this time claims that he cannot feel the heat from Sol's flames.

[edit] Music References

Axl is clearly modeled (and named) after Axl Rose, frontman for Guns N' Roses. Axl Rose also wore a British Flag of a similar design. [1]

In the original Guilty Gear, the opening guitar riffs in Axls theme "March of the Wicked King" are similar to the ones in the Guns N' Roses song "You're Crazy".

[edit] Trivia

Axl's appearance notably changes between Guilty Gear: The Missing Link and Guilty Gear X: By Your Side. In Guilty Gear: The Missing Link, he is portrayed as a very large, muscular person. However, since Guilty Gear X: By Your Side, he is portrayed as having a much more average physique, if slightly thin, and is more fully clothed. The reason for this change is unknown, however, the character designs of many characters changed considerably between the two games, most notably Faust's.