Lion Rafale

Lion Rafale
Lion Rafale in Virtua Fighter 5
Profile
Country	France
Fighting Style	Northern Praying Mantis (Tourou-ken)
Birthday	December 24, 1979
Blood Type	AB
Height	171cm (5'7”)
Weight	63kg (139 lbs)
B/W/H	90cm/84cm/88cm
Job	High school student (VF2-VF3) College student (VF4-onwards)
Hobby	Collecting Knives, Skateboarding
Debut	Virtua Fighter 2
Voice Actor	Unknown (VF2) Jeff Manning (since VF3) Tetsuya Kakihara (VF5 CR) Tetsuya Iwanaga (anime (Japanese)) Jonathan Frappier (anime (English))

Lion Rafale (リオン・ラファール, Rion Rafāru) (born December 24, 1979; Bordeaux, France) is a cocky, spoiled, arrogant brat. He made his debut in Virtua Fighter 2 alongside with Shun Di.

Story

Virtua Fighter 2

He was born into the Rafale family, one of the wealthiest families in France. They are involved in the aircraft industry. But this business is just a front for their involvement in illegal arms contracts with terrorists. Lion has been practicing Northern Praying Mantis (pronounced as "Tourou-ken" in Japanese) under an instructor as part of management education since he was five. He resents his father's control over his life and during one of their arguments, his father proposed that Lion must win the World Fighting Tournament as a prerequisite to become free from him. Thus, Lion is participating in the tournament competition.

Virtua Fighter 3

Although Lion lost to Kage-Maru in the first round of the tournament, in the midst of that he became aware of a burning fighting spirit buried deep within him, a satisfying feeling he had never tasted before. Promising a rematch to all the fighters, Lion returned home and became absorbed in his training. In that time his skills have improved greatly. Once again, Lion accepted the invitation to compete in his 3rd tournament.

Virtua Fighter 4

After failing to win the 3rd tournament, Lion went back to France a disappointed fighter. However, he realized he needed to be stronger and thus trained harder than ever. As time passed, he began to let go of his disappointment and slowly regained his fighting spirit. After a few months, he received a letter inviting him to join the 4th tournament. He decides to join the 4th tournament with every intention of winning the title.

Virtua Fighter 5

At the end of the Fourth World Fighting Tournament, Lion once again returned home. He had not been able to win the tournament, but was satisfied with his performance and fighting. His father congratulated him as well, and it seemed that his life would continue without incident.

But one day, Lion stumbled on the documents that seemed to link his father's company to Judgement 6. Lion threw himself into his training, trying to forget his suspicions. Just when he could no longer stand to keep quiet, an invitation arrived for the Fifth World Fighting Tournament. Somewhat bothered by the timing of the invitation's arrival, Lion decides to enter the tournament, in part to learn about his father's involvement with J6.

Virtua Fighter Kids

In Virtua Fighter Kids, Lion is depicted as six to eight years old and he has a group of maids that tend to his every need. The whole situation with his dad is dropped altogether, since the character has been reduced to the age of a boy. Lion's moves are faster-paced. He also has a green praying mantis as a family pet that trains in the Mantis style alongside him.

Other Appearances

Fighters Megamix

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Other Media

Virtua Fighter Anime

A young teenage boy, the only son of a rather upper class French family. Like his counterpart in the games, Lion Rafale is a practitioner of Tourou-ken. In the first season, he helps Akira against Koen-Kan, after he sees him along with Jacky and Sarah's squirrel: Alexander, but in the end he returns home.

In the second season (which was never dubbed in English) he discovers something about the secret organization, which made a secret kill-list where there are the names of all the most famous fighters of the world. He discovers that his father, Vandoll Rafale, is also linked with the secret organization, which has a full control of the Rafale Enterprises, and he tells everything to Akira and his friends. Lion was voiced by Tetsuya Iwanaga in the Japanese version and by Jonathan Frappier in the English version.

Character Relationships

• Childhood friend of Jean Kujo.

Trivia

• In Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown, Lion can be customized to resemble Picky from the Fighting Vipers series, but without armor. Both are teenage skateboarders who enter their respective tournaments to prove themselves.

Quotes

Pre-Fight

• You'd better take me seriously!
• It's showtime!
• I won't lose!

In Battle

• I did it!
• Take that!
• Here I come!
• Party time!
• My time is here!
• Heave ho!
• Up here!
• Yes!

Victory

• You think you can win at that level? (VF2)
• What a knucklehead! (VF2)
• Aren't you about ready to go home now? (VF2)
• I don't make a habit to fight the elderly! (VF2, VF3)
• Why am I so great? (VF4, VF4E)
• Why don't you sleep on it? (VF4, VF4E)
• Can you keep up with my speed? (VF4, VF4E)
• Forgot to train, eh? (VF5)
• Yes! What a knucklehead! (VF5)
• I want a serious fight! (VF5)
• I'm twice the man I used to be! (VF5, VF5R)
• See? I thought I'm better. (VF5FS, VF5US)

Item Victory

• Beating up the elderly is so uncouth! -w/ Beach Flag
• Aren't you about ready to go home now? -w/ BMX Bike
• Take that! Why don't you think before you act? -w/ Linking Dual Swords
• Yahoo! I'm the winner! -w/ Pet Dog
• I'm always a hero! -w/ Flag
• Check this out! Don't you like it? -w/ Ball

Losing

• I want to fight more! (VF2)
• I refuse to believe that I'm that weak! (VF2)
• I wasn't supposed to be so weak!
• Is this all I got? (VF4,VF4E)

Second Chance

• Anytime!

Game Over

• Come on! I wanna fight more! (unused)

Videos

Lion Rafale/Videos

Gallery

Lion Rafale/Gallery