Bakugan Battle Brawlers Anime
Spin Master Plans New Bakugan Battle Brawlers Project (Dec 11, 2015) Japa-Con TV Becomes Regular Series With Khara Opening. Sega Toys Aiming for Third Bakugan TV Anime Season (Apr 9, 2009). New characters join the Battle Brawlers in defending against King Zenoheld, who threatens to destroy the Bakugan and the alternate world of Vestroia.
Episodes
Bakugan: Battle Brawlers
The Bakugan, Drago, who will soon become Dan's closest ally, begins to explain the origin of Bakugan and the Dimension of Vestroia.
It seems a very gifted and mysterious Bakugan player named Masquerade has been stealing Bakugans from kids all around the world.
Masquerade gives the Doom card to a mysterious fighter, Dan faces a brawler named Rikimaru and Runo finds another talking Bakugan.
Dan is having a hard time without Drago around. Feeling frustrated, he takes his anger out on a school friend name Ryo.
Dan and Runo meet for the first time other than on the Bakugan web-site and are surprised that they actually live in the same town!
While at an amusement park, Dan and Runo are invited on stage to assist two brothers performing a magic act.
Marucho reveals that he has secretly moved into Dan's neighbourhood and throws an elaborate welcoming bash.
Dan and Marucho are pitted against the two pop star princesses, 'Jenny and Jewls', who have been recruited by Masquerade.
Masquerade convinces two boys into using the Doom card against the Bakugan Battle Brawlers.
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Julie and her childhood friend Billy go toe-to-toe in a Bakugan Battle.
Marucho and Runo realize that the combined strength of the Battle Brawlers doesn't match up to Masquerade's power.
Dan tells Drago about his history with Shun, and how Shun's grandfather wanted him to stop playing Bakugan and focus on becoming a true ninja warrior.
Masquerade has been destroying kids' Bakugans all over the world and the Brawlers need to put a stop to it.
Lured by an invitation to celebrate their world class rankings, five of the top ten Bakugan players gather at a mysterious mansion.
The Brawlers head off to Bakugan Valley looking for the 'Infinity Core'.
While the Bakugan Battle Brawlers continue their search for the Infinity Core; Shun becomes convinced that someone is spying on them.
While searching for information on the infinity core, the brawlers are told to head to Germany, where they're tricked into a deadly battle with Klaus.
Runo and Marucho discover a control room in Klause Von Herzon's castle with a display of rankings of all the Bakugan players from around the world!
Julie finds herself in a brawl with her childhood friend Billy in order to save him from Masquerade.
Dan and Shun have a falling out and Shun takes off on his own to seek out and destroy Masquerade.
The Brawlers are ambushed by Masquerade's gang. A battle ensues, and to the shock of Marucho, his Bakugan Preyas is under the control of the bad guys.
Dan, Marucho and Runo enter into battle with Klaus, Chan and Julio, to try to find out where Masquerade is hiding.
The Brawlers have reason to suspect the webmaster by the name of Joe is spying on them.
Alice befriends a young Bakugan player named Christopher. He loves his Bakugan but is always losing and is on the verge of throwing his Bakugan away.
Runo suspects Alice is secretly spying on the Brawlers and giving information to Masquerade.
Masquerade turns on his own gang and battles them, sending all of their Bakugan to the Doom Dimension!
Bakugan Battle Brawlers Game
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/Bakugan
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Bakugan Battle Brawlers is the story of six children who find Bakugan, which are these spherical toy-like things that transform into Mons, and must save the Bakugan's world, Vestroia. Some of these have their own spirits and are able to speak—all of the main characters, and most of the supporting cast, has one of these.
All and all, Bakugan could be seen as a combination of many different popular series. It is in varying parts reminiscent of Digimon (the whole 'save both worlds' thing—overall, it probably skews closest to Tamers), Yu-Gi-Oh! (the sentient Bakugan is somewhat like the spirit monsters in GX, and the game is played with cards), Pokémon (in that Pokémon was one of the first 'mon' series and this series features battling monsters contained in spherical devices), and Beyblade (Merchandise-Driven). There is one notable difference from these series, and that is that the non-human characters are able to talk while in ball form. (Go ahead, there's no instance where a Pokémon ever talks to its trainer while inside a Poké Ball.)
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The rules are hard to pin point, since they were never fully explained and change whenever necessary, similar to the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Best to just leave it alone.
Was followed by a sequel series, Bakugan: New Vestroia set a few years after the end of Battle Brawlers, followed by a third series, Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders, which was then followed by Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge, which ended its broadcast in Canada and the United States. Additionally, there are three video games available on all seventh generation consoles.
A Reboot based on the Manga titled Baku Tech! Bakugan has started airing on TV Tokyo and animated by Xebec as part of Oha Coro. However, this one is received poorly by the fans. It also spawned a sister series, Zoobles which is aimed more for the girly crowd.
Spin Master first made reference to a Western reboot of the Franchise in their 2015 Q3 financial reportnote , then later went mum for a good couple of years before a trademark was filed late in 2017. Bakugan: Battle Planet is the name for the seemingly more straightforward Bakugan rebootnote . According to a couple morerecent financial reports, Battle Planet will be in the currently vogue style of 2 Quarter Hour Shorts and that they're aiming for a tentative release date for the show and its toys in 2019. Said reports also alluded to the possibility of a movie in the discussion phase, and a 2017 business report also has a couple of shots of the new cast and the Pyrus-using lead (a redesign of Dan Kuso), which have been clipped for convenient viewing here and here.
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Not to be confused with Bakuman。. Or Byakugan. Or even Bakuon!!* .
Collectible Card/Figure game here. and Video Games here.
Tropes used in this series:
- Aborted Arc: In New Vestroia, Drago separates himself from the Perfect Core to fight against the Vexos, and because of this, he no longer has full access to its power. He can briefly tap into the Perfect Core with special Ability Cards, however (which was instrumental to victory in several brawls), with the implication that he would gradually recover his full strength. Despite its plot importance and the fact that it was the target of Spectra’s obsession before his Heel–Face Turn, the writers began to forget about Drago’s Perfect Core powers until Gundalian Invaders, where they were completely gone and were effectively replaced with the Element and later the Sacred Orb.
- Aesop Amnesia: Episodes 5 and 6 spend time showing Dan and Runo learning to work together as a team, only to begin bickering again at the end. Lampshaded by Tigrerra in the former.Tigrerra: And I thought I'd finally understood them.Drago: Tigrerra, we'll never fully understand humans.
- Affectionate Parody: Elfin/Minx Elfin to the titular character of Sailor Moon.
- Alien Invasion: After Naga was destroyed in the first season finale, the next two seasons had extradimensional aliens as their main villains.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Mira is obviously into Dan, however, Runo beat her to the punch.
- And the Adventure Continues: Mechtanium Surge, and the series as a whole, ends with Dan and Drago sailing off into the distance, both sure that wherever the wind takes them, adventure will follow.
- Art Evolution: Gundalian Invaders finally stopped with all the Off-Model-ness, but the Lip Lock is still heavily present.
- Battle Planet also exhibits this with radically new designs and more consistent animation quality for both 2D and 3D animation compared to the earlier seasons. This is likely due to Nelvana and Spin Master having more involvement this time around.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Each of the characters wears attire that has matching colors with their attribute (except for Alice in the first season), and it occurs every seasons. Coincidence? Can't think so.
- The Artifact: Julie in Gundalian Invaders; the sole reasons for her apperance there was to give Jake some pointers early on and to remind the viewers that the original cast was more gender-balanced.
- Bad Future: Coredegon and the evil Mechtogan win, destroying Bakugan City and everyone in it, he then goes to New Vestroia and kills off all the Bakugan. Thankfully, the Brawlers Set Right What Once Went Wrong by going back in time to stop him in his tracks right as he's about to leave to do all this.
- Bare Your Midriff: Julie and Runo. Runo stops after season 1 while Julie continues until season 4.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: While both alien races are able to disguise as normal humans, the Neathians tend to look more human-like and more conventionally attractive than the Gundalians, who often have Big Ol' Eyebrows or Face of a Thug.
- Becoming the Mask: After Alice discovers that she is really Masquerade, she initially stops brawling all together, but eventually is able to fight using Masquerade's abilities while remaining herself.
- BFG: Ren's Boomix battle gear and Kieth's Zukanator Battle Gear.
- Big Bad: Each season has a new Big Bad. Season 1 had Naga, season 2 was King Zenoheld, season 3 was Emperor Barodius, and season 4 has Mag Mel in the first half and Wiseman and Coredegon in the second, although it turns out Mag Mel was Barodius and Wiseman was a disguise for Coredegon.
- Bishōnen: There are many attractive boys in the series, including Shun, Klaus, Spectra, Gus, and possibly Jesse and Hydron as well.
- Boobs of Steel: Julie is unusually well-developed for her age, and her Bakugan partner Gorem is The Big Guy.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Dr. Michael as Hal-G. On top of that, it seems like everyone is getting brainwashed in Gundalian Invaders
- Calling Your Attacks:
- 'Ability Card Activate! (Insert card name here)!'
- And, of course: 'Gate Card, Open!!'
- Catch-Phrase: Akwimos's 'Cool is the rule, dude!'
- Came from the Sky: The Bakugan CardsDan: My whole world changed one day when all these random cards started raining down everywhere! At first they seemed harmless enough so a bunch of us kids invented this cool new game.. That's when we realized those cards weren't so harmless after all!
- Char Clone - Spectra Phantom wears mostly red (including a mask), is blonde, is The Rival, and is actually named Keith Clay, the older brother of Mira Clay. Also, Masquerade doesn't have a thing for red nor does he err, she have a younger sister, but he is mostly this trope.
- Combination Attack:
- Various special attacks can be used to boost the power level of your Bakugan if you're attacking with two Bakugan of elements next to each other on the elemental wheel..or across from each other on the wheel..or with the three that make up a triangle on that wheel. So there's a pretty good chance that any time two of the Brawlers are dueling together, they'll be able to use a combo attack.
- Hell, seeing as how regular (normally Aquos) Preyas can change his element at will and his evolution manifested in the form of a second Bakugan, Haos Preyas Angelo/Pyrus Preyas Diablo, Marucho is able to pull off the Aquos/Pyrus/Haos triangle attack all by himself—or would be, if any of the non-sentient Bakugan appeared at all during New Vestroia.
- Combined Energy Attack: Dragonoid Destroyer gets powered up by the energy of the bond between all humans and Bakugan on earth, activating his Golden Super Mode and allowing him to obliterate Mechtavius Destroyer in one hit.
- Continuity Porn:
- Mechtanium Surge has been this so far. Characters from all seasons have been making reappearances in important roles, including Spectra and Preyas (well, half of him, Preyas Angelo/Diablo is nowhere to be seen), Gundelia and Vestoria have been revisited for multi-episode arcs,and Mag Mel is the previous season's Big Bad, Emperor Barodius. And the season isn't even halfway over yet! Also a case of Tropes Are Not Bad, as this is one of the best things the season has going for it so far.
- The episode 'Blast from the Past' in the second half of the season is a glaring example. It brought back both Preyas forms, Minx Elfin, Skyress, Gorem, Ingram, the list goes on, but it's basically every partner Bakugan except Drago from previous seasons. It's a shame they were just there to get beaten though..
- Contrived Coincidence: Dan, Runo and Shun all live in the same country. Subverted in that Dan and Shun knew each other as children.
- Cool Mask: Masquerade and Spectra both wear these.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: Drago, oh so much. Bonus points for being a literal dragon and turning into an actual crystal at the end of the first season.
- Cultural Translation: Gundalian Invaders seems to have taken this literally, seeing as how Dan's new place of living, Bayview City, has American Football, Burger Joints, has people with English names like Jake, and he now lives fairly close to Julie, it can be assumed that he's moved to America.
- Darker and Edgier:
- Season 2 of New Vestroia made battling more lethal.
- Gundalian Invaders involves an actual war. Permanent character death is a common sight.
- Mechtanium Surge's first Big Bad, Mag Mel, was imprisoned for genocide and seeks to destroy the entire universe!
- The second Big Bad outdos him by leveling an entire city and killing off all the Bakugan! To clarify, there's no attempt to cover up that destroying the city killed millions of people, in fact its very heavily implied it did. Thank goodness the Brawlers Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Alice and Ace use Darkus-attributed Bakugan.
- Dark Is Evil: ..On the other hand, we have Hal-G, Masquerade, Barodius and Ren. Ren turns good later, and Masquerade decides to help Dan during their final brawl together before fading away.
- Dark-Skinned Blond: Julie is the white-haired variant.
- Darkest Hour: All of the seasons tend to have their moments.
- In the first season, Naga has managed to cross to Earth and immediately races towards the Infinity Core and Wavern while the Brawlers are stuck in Vestroia, and even when children are able to release their Bakugan to fight Naga's army, they are only able to slow them down. The tide only turns when Drago is forced to kill Wavern to ensure Naga cannot get the Infinity Core.
- The second season has two of them.
- The first one is when Tigrerra is captured by the Vexals, at which point the Resistance is on the verge of collapse. This prompts the Six Soldiers of Vestroia to send Drago to Earth to summon aid. The second one is when Drago is captured and brainwashed putting the Resistance at a severe psychological disadvantage.
- Defecting for Love: Lync turns against the Vexos out of love for Alice.
- Defector from Decadence:
- Downplayed, but Masquerade decides to help Dan battle the remaining Doom Beings at Alice's behest, but even by his own admission he will do it only once.
- Volt and Lync both leave the Vexos because they want no part in Zenoheld's new genocide plans. Lync even sacrifices himself to deliver the plans to Alice.
- Mira forms the Resistance after discovering the Bakugan her father was torturing intelligent lifeforms, rather than mindless animals that the Vestals had previously assumed the Bakugan were.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Zenthon, a Mechtogan spawned from Drago's out of control power, was a rampaging beast until finally, Drago managed to best him in battle, resulting in him coming under Drago's control. Though in this case, it was described as 'breaking a wild horse' and showing it whose the master.
- Demoted to Extra:
- Julie, Runo and Alice in New Vestroia. Okay, maybe more like demoted to second tier, but until they regain the ability to brawl, the trope still applies.
- By the time of Gundalian Invaders, Runo and Alice don't even appear. Runo's mentioned in a picture, but that's about it.
- Then, Runo returns as a (fairly) main character in the second half of Mechtanium Surge, but she's still retired from battling.
- Distaff Counterpart: Elfin, to Preyas.
- Don't Celebrate Just Yet: This phrase gets thrown around the whole series from time to time during the battles, especially when someone gets overconfident that they're strategy is going to win.
- Elemental Powers: Pyrus (fire), Aquos (water), Ventus (air), Subterra (earth), Haos (light), and Darkus (darkness). These powers are drawn from Infinity (positive energy), which allows Bakugan to use all elements, and Silence (negative energy), which amplifies dark power to extreme heights. When combined, they form Perfect energy, and a Bakugan can use any element to its fullest, or even bend space and time.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Julie thinking that Shun is helping Masquerade is not helped by the fact that his grandfather, who resembles the villain Hal-G is visiting town.
- Evasive Fight-Thread Episode: Episode 2 of New Vestroia, after a bit of exposition, turns into a fight between Dan and Ace that never gets resolved.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Masquerade's first partner, Reaper, objects to being sent to the Doom Dimension.
- Gus seems visibly appalled at Mylene throwing away Elico and Brontes because of the fact they're sentient. Subverted, in that he goes on to put them through brainwashing and torture.
- Volt and Lync leave the Vexos once they begin their master plan to destroy the universe.
- Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Fabia of Neathia, the Haos brawler for Gundalian Invaders.
- Evil Twin: Naga, to Wavern. (They're fraternal twins, by the way.)
- Evil Counterpart:
- Dan and Masquerade both have a dragon-based partner who evolves by getting stronger and are the first two characters shown with talking Bakugan.
- Baron and Volt both live with several young children and prefer Haos-attributed Bakugan.
- Evil vs. Evil: The evil Mechtagan vs the Nonet Bakugan and Wiseman II. The episode is even called 'Evil Vs Evil'.
- Evolution Powerup:
- All of the main Bakugan evolve at least once, and Drago and Hydranoid evolve twice. Then, Drago succumbs to something we could deem Spontaneous Evolution Syndrome, and hits an absurd level of transformations to the point it gets cheap to know he's just gonna keep evolving like crazy each season.
- As of now, Drago has evolved nine times and gone through ten forms, adding in one backslide in power after separating from the Perfect Core. So far, if the show is truly over with. The gimmick's been beaten like a dead horse and serves as the prime excuse to make Drago tougher than the resident villains of each season on the fly (and sell an assload of new toy variants of the main character Bakugan that kids will easily recognize if he's their favorite, thus making their parents shell out money time and time again).
- Season 4 is Deconstructing this rather hard. Drago's latest evolution is way too much for him to control and is causing a lot of problems. It's created an unstoppable engine of destruction that's kicking everyone's butts, threatening to set Mag Melout of his prison, and 'completely ruining'' Dan and Drago's reputation with their in-universe fanbase because they're fighting poorly due to needing to focus on controlling their power. Then, he evolves AGAIN to solve the problems this new evolution caused, but for the last time. Basically, the people behind the series didn't really care how much they abused the evolution gimmick.
- Actually, by the time Drago evolved for the final time, he had overcome the issues caused by his evolution.
- Exposed to the Elements: Julie and Runo go to visit Alice in Moscow in New Vestroia, still wearing the same clothes as always, and don't appear to be having any trouble at all. Fanservice, anyone?
- Expy:
- As far as anyone's concerned, Spectra is Masquerade 2.0. both wear eye-covering masks, have flamboyant blonde hair, seek to create the 'Ultimate Bakugan', and have shocking secret identities.
- That Spectra..HE IS A CHAR!!
- About Mobile Suit Gundam, Hydron pays a passing resemblance to Hilling Care. He also resembles N from Pokemon Black N White.
- Julie looks a lot like a young Villetta Nu.
- Speaking of Code Geass, when Dan's new silver outfit makes him look a lot like Suzaku.
- Shun is a top level battler in his chosen toy-using sport, has real-world fighting skills, plays on All Girls Want Bad Boys for the fans, and is a loner. He's Kai with a different look. He even had issues with working with his team and came around due to his connection with his Bakugan (like Kai did with Dranzer).
- Dan in his first season outfit looks a lot like Keiichi Maebara.
- Elfin. Don't you dare say◊that she is not an expy of Sailor Moon◊.
- Gunz looks a lot like Jack Atlas.
- Billy is a dead ringer for a younger Terry Bogard. Dubbing over Billy's lines with Terry's seems completely natural.
- Dan looks a lot like Takuya - they wear similar clothing and have the same element.
- Fanservice:
- Very subtly. While they've taken them out of the action, Julie and Runo aren't completely gone in New Vestroia, and any time Mira is seen from the side, it will inevitably be from the right side with the knee-high boot.
- 80% of the boys are Bishounen to some extent. Other parts is mixed between cute little boys and dude with Heroic Build. Periphery Demographic much? Since this series ambiguously run on Generic Cuteness, this is debatable but EFFECTIVE.
- Fabia, Ren and Jake all have many moments throughout Gundalian Invaders.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Mira, with Zettai Ryouiki on the right leg.
- Fingerless Gloves: Ace, Dan, Marucho, and Hydron in New Vestroia.
- In the original series, every Bakugan player. Like in season 2 of Beyblade, they're obligatory equipment.
- Strangely absent from the third season so far.
- In the original series, every Bakugan player. Like in season 2 of Beyblade, they're obligatory equipment.
- Final Boss Preview: Mag Mel attacking the Brawlers himself during his assault on Gundalia. Even Dan and Drago aren't powerful enough to take him down and get their butts kicked.
- Fantastic Racism: It is strongly implied that white Bakugan, those that have no element and therefore are powerless, are discriminated against in Vestroia, which explains why Naga is so driven to become powerful. It is also implied that the reason Wavern fell in love with Drago is because he treated her as a normal person and took her into the other realms of Vestroia, something she could never do under her own power.
- Forged by the Gods: Mag Mel's armor was created by what amounts to the God of the Bakugan, Code Eve. However, she isn't doing him any favors because she created it from Emperor Barodius' evil in order to seal him inside it.
- Foreshadowing:
- The first season drops hints to Masquerade's identity as Alice like there's no tomorrow.
- When Joe mentions Wavern, Drago immediately identifies her as Naga's twin sister, something that indicates he knows Naga and Wavern quite well, and foreshadowing their relationship with each other.
- New Vestroia spends the last few episodes setting up Gundalian Invaders with Bakugan Interspace, the phantom data, the Bakugan generated by said phantom data and the introduction of battle gear.
- In Mechtanium Surge, Razenoid's head heavily resembles Dharak's. This sets up the reveal that Razenoid IS Dharak and Mag Mel is Barodius.
- From Bad to Worse:
- When they delete Bakugan Interspace in an attempt to kill Mag Mel, he makes it to Earth with his army anyway. Oh, and Razenoid evolved!
- When Dan accuses Gunz of being Wiseman, when he really isn't, the team turns on him. Gunz responds by actually becoming Wiseman. Thankfully, it got straightened out.
- Fusion Dance: Mechtanium Surge introduces this, allowing two Bakugan to merge together. They split in half and then each half merges with half of their partner. In an unusual take on this, they two remain separate, but both gain traits and powers from their fusion partner.
- Gender Bender: Masquerade is clearly a guy, especially with his deep voice, but when his mask is taken off, he becomes Alice. Comes with a nifty clothes change too.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Episode 17 - Preyas says the magic word close to 8 minutes in. (For proof, go to 8:05 and play it from there.)
- Girlish Pigtails: Runo fits the Tsundere archetype.
- Godzilla Threshold: Mag Mel's threat is so great that the group has to resort to completely deleting Bakugan Interspace in an attempt to stop him. And it doesn't work!
- Goggles Do Nothing: Dan's goggles are usually just there to be stylish, but he used them a grand total of one time: shielding his eyes from a blinding Haos attack.
- Golden Super Mode: Dragonoid Destroyer obtains this after being powered up by the combined energy of the bond of every human and Bakugan on Earth. His power level at this point is infinite.
- Heel–Face Turn: Masquerade, who becomes a secondary personality/spiritual ally for Alice
- And Spectra Phantom/Keith Clay with Helios and Gus Grav with Vulcan
- Volt Luster and Lync Volan of the Vexos
- Hydron joined the Brawlers and sacrificed himself in order to stop his father, King Zenoheld
- Most of the members of the Twelve Orders:
- Ren Krawler and Linehalt
- Nurzak and Sabator, who later becomes Prime Minister of Gundalia
- Mason Brown and Avior
- Lena Isis and Phosphos
- Jesse Glenn and Plitheon
- Zenet Surrow and Contestir
- Sid Arkale willingly releases himself to fall to his death after giving Rubanoid to Ren, and Rubanoid also become the new Guardian Bakugan of Linus Claude after the passing of Neo Ziperator
- Worton and Betadron of the Nonets after Coredegon/Mechtavius-Destroyer commits genocide against humanity and the Bakugan
- Her Heart Will Go On: Fabia's fiance was killed in action some time before meeting the Brawlers.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Drago has to merge with the Perfect Core at the end of Battle Brawlers, losing his physical form. He gets better at the start of New Vestroia.
- Elico sacrifices his life in battle with Farbros to protect Gus. Soon, Hexados follows suit and leaps in front of a lethal blast to save Vulcan.
- Prince Hydron makes sure his father goes down with the quickly collapsing ship at the end of New Vestroia. As for Professor Clay, he chooses to stay behind in the Alternative when he gets trapped, rather than have Mira and Keith risk their lives to save him.
- 'Surge': Kodokor lets himself be slain so that a combined Spatterix and Stronk can take down Mechtavius Destroyer in the havoc of his explosive death, and likewise, the latter two buy time for Betadron and Gunz to escape harm.
- Also in 'Surge', Worton and Betadron stay behind in the time stream to let the Brawlers travel back to the past, knowing they might perish.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Naga kicked off the series by absorbing too much energy from the Silent Core. When he dies, it's also by absorbing too much power. The BT System of New Vestroia also explodes by absorbing too much power. Phantom Darak and Barodius also explode from, guess what, absorbing too much power. Now, in Mechtanium Surge there is a creepy guy who is demanding power from the main characters. Any bets on what'll happen to him next? Guess what! HE EXPLODED.
- Hot-Blooded: Dan, as expected from a Stock Shōnen Hero with the fire attribute.
- Human Aliens:
- The Vestals look no different from normal humans aside from their eyes and hair.
- Subverted in the case of the Nethians and Gundalians- they're only using illusions to make themselves appear human to blend in with humans on Earth.
- Hurricane of Puns: One episode has Masquerade spewing non-stop theater related puns, eg: 'The stage is set, and the performers are all here!' 'And now, the final curtain!' 'Time for an encore!'..
- Humongous Mecha: The Mechtogan. There are also the larger Mechtogan Titan.
- Ill Boy: Joe lives in the hospital in the first episodes where he appears, but he recovers thanks to Wayvern's healing powers and she becomes his Guardian Bakugan.
- Inaction Sequence: Like with most card and toy based games. Although when it's averted, it's averted awesomely! Laser-Sword Fight!
- Incest Subtext: Mira, Keith..mere dinner or a date?
- In the finale, they live together, and Gus was nowhere to be seen.
- Invocation:
- 'Gate Card, Set!', 'Bakugan Brawl!', 'Ability Activate!'..
- During New Vestroia, 'Ability Activate!' makes up 80% of the dialogue. And no, that is not an overstatement, it really does.
- Karmic Death: All of the Big Bads (sans Mechtavius Destroyer) have been done in by their own doing. Naga's own energy absorbing powers were used to overload him, causing him to explode. Zenoheld's own ultimate weapon exploded with him inside it while his son who he treated like crap keeps him inside it. Barodius met his end when the object he spent the entire season trying to get proved far too much for him to handle and seemingly vaporized him and his Guardian Bakugan. Instead, they turned into Mag Mel and Razenoid, but then were finally beaten for good and destroyed entirely.. again, by Mag Mel's suicidal attempt to take Dan down with him by launching all his hi-jacked energy at him.. only to fail.
- Kick the Son of a Bitch: Shun's grandfather is brutally humiliated in his debut episode when he falls into his own trap, and the following episode shows him being an incredibly hard and abusive grandfather who wants to turn Shun into a ninja and isolate him from his friends, and he says this seconds after Shun's mother dies. Needless to say, he got exactly what he deserved.
- Lampshade Hanging: Typical dynamic: Dan is surprised by something so he repeats what he just heard.Shun replies that that's exactly why whoever said that said so.
- Life Meter: In the second season onward.
- Light Is Not Good:
- Some of the villains use Haos-attributed Bakugan.
- Same goes for Bakugan: Lumagrowl in particular openly praises the benefits of cheating.
- Naga, though lacking an attribute, is pure white and very evil.
- Lip Lock: The earlier seasons are horrible with syncing the lips to dialogue, with the notable exception of the Bakugan in their marble state, as their mouths don't move at all. Battle Planet also exhibits this, but not to the same extent.
- Loads And Loads Of Filler: Feels like each arc can be condensed into athird of its length.
- Long-Lost Relative: Spectra is Mira's older brother Keith.
- Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter:
- Mira subverts this; she's already leading La Résistance at the start of New Vestroia, and she's not an only child.
- Alice, a Mad Scientist's Beautiful Granddaughter, plays this straight. Well, sort of. Her grandfather, Michael, was taken over by negative energy after an accident with a dimensional transporter and became the evil Hal-G, and she tried to defend him, and was herself being used by him, first by being turned into Masquerade and then by being tricked into believing that Michael was in there somewhere.
- Magical Girl: Elfin. while it wasn't so noticeable at first, when she evolved into Minx Elfin, she invokes this trope so much that she's practically become a direct homage to Sailor Moon, complete with In the Name of the Moon style phrases. It's so blatantly obvious now that she even copied one of Sailor Moon's signature poses.
- Male Gaze: In Chan Lee’s first battle with Dan, a lot of the shots she’s in puts emphasis on her sizable breasts and how her outfit hugs them.
- More Dakka:
- The entire premise of the Battle Gear is to load a Bakugan down with firepower. Sometimes, it involves giant mechanical Bakugan that can combine into battle armor.
- Helios takes it to a major extreme by implementing Vestal technology into his body to become a technorganic dragon, improving it as he and Spectra see fit. The first Battle Gear he uses (also first in the series) is the Twin Destroyer, a pair of rapid-fire, quadruple-barreled machine gun turrets. The next atep up is the Zukanator, a missle-size photon laser that can rip through tempered steel plates like tinfoil.
- The Vexos use mechanical Bakugan as a total replacement to the living ones, believing they can craft bigger weapons of destruction than Bakugan themselves can unleash. If need be, they will force evolution or experiment to make them deadlier.
- King Zenoheld starts off with Farbros, a mechanized dragon with immense firepower. It turns into a full-fledged battle suit when the Assail System is combined with it. But the most fearsome weapon he ever used was the Alternative, a continent-sized starship with garrisons of disposable attack bots, SAVAGE firepower that ripped a gaping hole in a moon, then 'vaporized said moon', and the power to wipe out planets at the flick of a wrist.
- Drago's constant use of Battle Gear himself, plus his unbelievably frequent evolution rate powers him up time and time again.
- Dragonoid Colossus had Battle Gear he could summon to use on his back like battleship guns. Axator even managed to link up to Drago. If Colossus didn't get destroyed, we might have seen more of his Battle Gear used by Drago.
- Mechtogan are summoned in response to the need for more power to defeat a foe, starting with Zenthon- but he's stuck in an Unstoppable Rage until put under proper control. When that isn't enough, immense willpower can cause a Mechtogan Titan to appear. When a Brawler's will reaches its peak, the strongest Mechtogan can be summoned- ones that can combine. The strongest of these is Dragonoid Destroyer.
- Bakugan can fuse with other Bakugan to combine powers and abilities, or absorb objects of power to grow stronger and harness their might.
- Kazarina splices ancestral DNA into Dharak for the sole purpose of his evolution to be on par with Drago.
- Cordegon, Slycerack, Exostriker, and Mandiblor act as minions to the Nonets to use their power while they recuperate. These Mechtogan combine into the terrifying Mechtavius Destroyer when united, capable of sucking in the power of defeated Bakugan. In response to this, Chromopod's ability to strip these Mechtogan from Cordegon's control allows for the fusion of Quatrogan.
- The strongest power of Bakugan is the ability to resonate with the willpower and courage of other Bakugan and humans to tap into their greatest and most decisive powers, often the result being evolution. In Drago's case, anytime a foe causes both him and Dan to force themselves to new heights, their wills fire up, and almost certainly, it leads to another evolution. They get tested so much by powerful forces and battle challenging evils so frequently, transformations are Drago's instinctive response to finding more strength: he and Dan will it into existence.
- Motionless Chin: Played painfully straight, akin to one of TMS' other series.
- Never Say 'Die': Shun's mom in the dub. Mostly subverted otherwise.
- Nice Hat: On the final episode of Battle Brawlers, Dan and Runo go out on a date, with the latter sporting a whole new hairstyle and matching white dress. Somehow the first thing Dan notices on Runo is her cool looking hat.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!:
- Code Eve, the creator of the Bakugan, gave Drago an upgrade as a reward for defeating season three's Big Bad. This ends up being too much for him to handle, resulting in Drago creating a Zenthon. This also links Dan and Dragon to MagMel, allowing him to absorb energy and begin to escape his prison. Yeah, real nice job there!
- Thanks to Mag Mel, nearly everything the Brawlers do in Mechtanium Surge turns out to be this. Not really their fault though, Mag Mel is just that good at Xanatos Speed Chess.
- Drago's decision in New Vestroia to try to take Dan without telling the Brawlers why he only needs Dan and instead preferring to be incredibly secretive causes a huge rift between Dan and Runo, and causes a huge amount of problems for the Resistance later on in the season, which makes the first arc much more harder than it should have been. His reasoning does not work either, as his claim that he can only count on Dan, along with his desire to not put the others in harm's way, falls completely flat given that he knows the other brawlers are very capable, and the brawlers literally risked their lives to save him.
- Non Action Girl: Alice for the majority of Battle Brawlers—first because she doesn't have any Bakugan, and then because she's too busy Wangsting about having been unknowingly controlled by Masquerade.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Despite half the characters coming from every corner of the world (e.g. Alice is from Moscow), everyone has an American accent.
- Not in Front of the Kid: When Drago and Wavern reunite, Wavern reveals her and Drago's relationship by calling him the pet name she gave him. When the brawlers learn that the two are in a romantic relationship, Wavern proceeds to flirt openly with Drago, who acknowledges the relationship, but asks Wavern not to do it in front of the kids. Wavern just keeps flirting, much to Drago's annoyance, and Dan's uncomfortableness.
- Not Quite Dead: Emperor Barodius and Dharak weren't vaporised, but instead sealed in another dimension by Code Eve, transforming them into Mag Mel and Razenoid.
- Official Couple: See Victorious Childhood Friend below.
- Off-Model: The show can have quality issues. And considering that TMS Entertainment animated it, that's a large stretch. To be more precice, the Off-Model is most noteable with Masquerade, Komba and Julio. In Masquerade's case, it looks almost as though the mask is getting bigger in some shots, or that the mask is sliding up and down his face. With Komba and Julio, it's mostly the nose.
- Only the Pure of Heart: A certain security system works like this.
- Our Dragons Are Different: This anime loves this. In no specific order: [Dragonoid◊, Helios◊, Rubanoid◊Plitheon◊Avior◊Dharak◊Wayvern◊Naga◊ oh gosh Naga◊Dragaon◊. The list will go on forever at this rate.
- Just covering a few missed ones. There's Farbros◊ a mehanical dragon, then there's Krakenoid◊, Percival◊, Hydranoid◊ (all three of his forms) and Appolonir◊, the video game gives us Leonidas◊.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Taken Up to Eleven when, of all things, what ticked Shun off to Hal-G impersonating Kato is him once referring to Marucho by his name alone, as opposed to 'Master Marucho.'
- Palette Swap: Several of the non-guardian Bakugan have the same name and model as another Bakugan with a different attribute, with their colour scheme varying depending on their attribute.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Used to incredible extremes.
- Spectra and Gus make a grand arrival on Earth walking out of a Ferris Wheel. A few days later, Gus is able to walk around unnoticed by the Brawlers simply by taking his coat off. Later on, he sneaks into the throne room, wearing a cocktail dress and a ponytail.
- Talkng of Spectra, Mira doesn't recognise him as her brother until he takes his mask off, despite them having the same voice and face.
- No-one recognises Anubias and Sellon's alien forms until they transform right in front of them.
- Invoked by Wiseman, who models his human form off Gunz Lazar in a spandex costume to frame him, but many viewers can tell them apart from their hair colour.
- The top Brawlers in season 1 went to the same shop selling black cloaks as Yugi Oh GX. Julie knows two of them personally, but doesn't recognise them until the take the cloaks off.
- Power Levels: Have been escalating. Brawlers can now take their opponent's Bakugan if their Bakugan's power level exceeds the opponent's by 500, and this happens regularly—as do power levels nearing 2000. Also, in episode 9 of New Vestroia, Lync says that a Bakugan can't move if its power level drops below 300. In Battle Brawlers, Bakugan with a natural power level below 300 were commonplace.
- Magic A Is Magic A: In episode 15, this new 'rule' is violated. Repeatedly.
- Heck, the power levels in the actual game have been increasing as well, though at a slower pace. 450 to 500 Gs used to be powerful, but now we have Bakugan with 1000 Gs. Luckily enough, 1000 is as far as it goes..for now.
- The highest so far has been Drago with 3150 Gs. Granted, this was seen as far too much in-universe, and he was in danger of exploding, but..
- Power levels vanished about halfway through Gundalian Invaders and haven't returned in Mechtanium Surge.
- Magic A Is Magic A: In episode 15, this new 'rule' is violated. Repeatedly.
- Power Trio: Through three series, we've had three different Haos, Darkus, and Subterra brawlers..but Dan, Shun, and Marucho have been there for all four seasons.
- Put on a Bus:
- Joe in New Vestroia, while played with in Gundalian Invaders as Dan and Julie took a bus away from Runo and Alice.
- The official website has also removed most of the content regarding Battle Brawlers in favor of New Vestroia material..Not exactly sure how they're going to bring the suspense about Shun's return, which hasn't actually aired in the US yet..
- Also Preyas Angelo/Preyas Diablo. He disappears until Mechtavius Destroyer wages an attack on New Vestroia.. and gets a painfully brief cameo before he has a Disney Death.
- By how the website's now been Gundalian-ified, things aren't looking too good for the New Vestroia characters..Mira, Ace, and Baron are replaced by Jake, Ren, and Fabia, respectively by Bakugan type.
- So far in Gundalia, this seems to have happened to Preyas, Elfin, and Ingram.
- In short, if your Brawler or Bakugan is Darkus, Subterra or Haos, you're screwed.
- All of the Trap Bakugan.
- The Bus Came Back for most of them in the fourth season, including Preyas (who is training an apprentice in Vestoria) and most of the Gundalian Invaders characters due to Marucho sending out a Gondor Calls for Aid and Gundalia being Mag Mel's first target after being freed. Many other Bakugan make a return in 'Mechtanium Surge,' Tigerra showing up once, and then a large number making last stand against Mechtavius Destroyer in the Bad Future, including Gorem, Preyas Angelo/Diablo, Skyress, Ingram, Taylean, Hydranoid, Tristar, Tigerra (again), Preyas, and Elfin. The Vestal-native Bakugan do not return.
- Quickly-Demoted Woman: Used to be gender equal. Not. Anymore.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Part of the reason Skyress didn't stick around was because the person who provided voice work for her couldn't return, but a deal was made for Skyress to have a goodbye episode.
- 'The Reason You Suck' Speech: Genesis Dragonoid (through Dragonoid Destroyer) to Mechtavius Destroyer.
- Redemption Earns Life: It says something when the only survivors of the Twelve Orders were the ones who turned good.
- Redemption Equals Death: More or less the end result of Volt and Lync's Heel–Face Turn.
- And later Prince Hydron as well.
- Possibly Professor Worton and Betradron.
- Reflectionless Useless Eyes: The Vestals are different from humans by their eyes, because they have a colored pupil and no shine.
- Reverse Mole: Mira makes an apparent Face–Heel Turn..and proceeds to completely sabotage the Vexos' plans.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: In one episode, Runo thinks that Alice is responsible for Masquerade knowing where they go, despite not telling anyone. While she is right, She thinks Alice is directly telling the guy, when in fact, the two are One and the same.
- Rival Final Boss: After Mechtavius Destroyer is defeated, Dan and Gunz battle each other in the finals of a tournament that was previously interrupted.
- Save Both Worlds: The main story of each season is saving both Earth and Vestroia from the threat of the current adversary of the season. In Season 2 and 3, the Big Bad dosent directly threaten Earth, but Season 1 and 4 bring both Earth and Vestroia close to annihilation.
- Satanic Archetype: Naga very much fits the role of the devil here. He is a powerless white Bakugan who desires power, and has no problem rebelling against the law of Vestroia in order to do so. He similarly corrupts Alice into Masquerade, causing her to commit multiple atrocities under his command, and through Masquerade, he offers many players limitless power and skill in exchange for defeating the Brawlers, even though he has no intention of living up to that agreement. In the final battle, his appearance is incredibly demonic, and many of the Bakugan he leads are corrupted abominations. He also shows a strong fratricidal instinct towards his own sister when he meets her on Earth.
- Say My Name:
- Joe shouts Wavern's name when she is destroyed to release the Infinity Core within her.
- Dan shouts Drago's name in every single battle. Take a sip everytime.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Plot!: The exact rules of the game are never quite made clear, but it's still obvious that what Dan and Drago are doing in the second episode of New Vestroia is circumventing them.
- Screens Are Cameras: When Dan and his friends video chat over the internet, there isn’t any camera to be seen.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The season 4 Big Bad, Mag Mel, is presently sealed away in another dimmension along with his Bakugan Razenoid. Reason for their imprisonment? Genocide.
- Serial Escalation: The anime is shamelessly guilty of this trope:
- In Season 1, a power level of 450 was considered to be horrifyingly strong, yet by the second half of Season 2, it’d be too weak to seriously contend with any Bakugan.
- Also in Season 2 was the introduction of Ability and Gate Cards that added/deducted such exorbitant amounts of Gs that they would be straight-up instant-win cards back in Season 1. (With some being literal instant-win cards!)
- Season 1 had no special gimmicks. Season 2 had Trap Bakugan to provide support for main Bakugan. Season 3 had Battle Gear that could cause major destruction to everything in its user’s radius. Season 4 had Gundam-sized Mechtogan with power that would put the likes of the Megazord and Voltron to shame. Which were later one-upped by Mechtogan Titans, which were double their size.
- Serious Business: Justified, as Bakugan can do a lot of damage.Reporter: Tell us about what really inspires you the most?
- Sequel Hook: At the end of New Vestroia, The last thing Prof. Clay sees before the ship blows is footage of Bakugan at war with each other, setting the stage forGundalian Invaders.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Mechravius Destroyer obliterates Bakugan City and everyone in it, as well as succeeds in Bakugan genocide, so Dan and the Brawlers go back in time to stop him. However, it does not save the fallen Nonets, while the last two left alive perform a Heroic Sacrifice to make this happen.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Dan tries to deny that Runo isn't his girlfriend even in New Vestroia, where they are already an Official Couple since the finale of the first series. Of course, he doesn't fool anyone.
- The Short Guy with Glasses: Marucho, who remains short throughout the series, despite aging up. Take a guess who is The Smart Guy.
- Shout-Out: Amazon from the newest series seems to have some homages to Kamen Rider Amazon, including his pose and dorsal spines flexing when preparing his special moves. He even does the 'AAAAAAA-MAAAAAA-ZOOOONNNN!' when preparing his attacks.
- Sixth Ranger:
- Joe in terms of when he joins the show, and Alice in terms of when she starts brawling, in Battle Brawlers. Shun in New Vestroia, and no, that doesn't need a spoiler.
- What does need a spoiler is the otherSixth Ranger: Spectra, a.k.a. Keith, Mira's brother.
- Fabia starts out as this, but then Ren becomes this after his Heel–Face Turn.
- Slasher Smile:
- When Alice remembers a flashback of Masquerade battling people and sending their Bakugan to the Doom Dimension, she freaks out immensely when the camera pans to his face pulling this smile, phasing partially through his mask to show it's her eyes. That moment also counts as a What Have I Done?
- Brainwashed Jake indulges in these, as do many others.
- The Smurfette Principle: Mira in New Vestroia and Fabia in Gundalian Invaders are the only girls who are part of the main cast.
- So Last Season: In keeping with the Merchandise-Driven nature of the show, each season of Bakugan had a gimmick/gadget prominently used by the cast in battle that was unceremoniously and inexplicably dumped when the next season aired:
- Battle Brawlers had launchers and Baku Pods. Both were gone in New Vestroia.
- New Vestroia had Trap Bakugan and Gauntlets. Both were gone in Gundalian Invaders.
- Gundalian Invaders had Battle Gear and Mobile Assualt vehicles. Both were gone in Mechtanium Surge.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: While mostly completely unconnected, each season's Big Bad is a great deal stronger than the previous one. Their actions also get progressively more evil as they go along as well. Case in point, while Zenoheld attempted genocide but failed, the season four Big Bad Mag Mel is said to have been imprisoned for actually committing it.
- Spell My Name with an 'S': Dan 'Kuso'. Actually, his surname is spelled 'Kuusou'.
- Spin-Off: TMS decided not to Dub Mechtanium Surge in Japanese and instead, do an anime adaptation of the Bakutech! Bakugan Manga, starting again from scratch and rebooting the whole franchise. This however, displeases a lot of Japanese fans.
- Though this is not counted, Zoobles is also considered a Spin-off to the Bakugan Toyline since they both got similar concepts of Spherical Toys transforming into figures, except that Zoobles transform using magnetic holders called Happitats, much like the Gate Cards. But when is Bakugan is a Tabletop Game, Zoobles are more of toys for girls. It gets even more Hilarious in Hindsight when the Zooble toys can be activated using Magnetic Recipe cards, more of a Shout-Out to the Bakugan's way of activating a Bakugan using a Magnetic Gate Card. Of course, both toys were distributed in Japan by the same company, Sega Toys.
- Spoiler Ending: The closing credits for Gundalian Invaders lists characters who haven't even been mentioned yet from the first episode.
- The Starscream: Spectra and Mylene from New Vestroia; Kazarina from Gundalian Invaders, although she was ultimately loyal to Emperor Barodius.
- Stripperiffic: Julie wears a crop top and short shorts with most of her outfits.
- Sword Fight:
- While the Bakugan do most of the combat, Dan has gotten into a couple of energy sword duels over the course of the series.
- Kazarina and Nurzak get one, too.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Julie's Tuskor gets sent to the Doom Dimension every time he's thrown into the battle, yet he's back the next time she has another brawl like nothing happened, only to be sent to the Doom Dimension again.
- Time Skip:
- The ending of the finale of Battle Brawlers skips ahead a couple of years, putting it shortly before the start of New Vestroia.
- And there's a six month skip between seasons of New Vestroia. And yet, with all these skips, Marucho doesn't grow one inch. His hair grew at least.
- Together in Death: Shadow And Mylene, see You Are Worth Hell entry below.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: Played with the second arc of Mechtanium Surge. Wiseman had a tendency to not let the good guys' Bakugan combine, and would just respond to this attempt with an attack, though in 'Jump to Victory' that attack took awhile to rear up so it really didn't make as much sense. In 'Enemy Allies', Mechtavius Destroyer attacks Dan as he is getting ready to bring out Dragonoid Destroyer, and in 'Evil Arrival' he attacks Gunz before he gets to finish saying 'Bakugan Brawl'. Most notably, in 'Evil vs. Evil', he doesn't let Betadron, Kodokor, and Mutabrid combine, and keeps slapping Mutabrid around, but no matter how much, he insists on combining and eventually dies. That said, Talking Is a Free Action is still in play.
- There actually was one time that Talking Is a Free Action was not in play, during the final battle, when Dan was confused as to why Dragonoid Destroyer was only using 90% of his power. This was done for surprise effect later on.
- Tsundere: Runo and Julie both fit this trope. Come to think of it, Billy and Julie have Belligerent Sexual Tension as well, except Billy's not part of the main cast so we don't get to see the extended Will They or Won't They? like we do with Dan and Runo.
- Victorious Childhood Friend: The two Official Couples in the series consist of characters who met each other when they were children. The difference is that Billy and Julie are known to have been friends for quite some time, while Runo met Dan only once when they were playing in the park and didn't realise the boy who was annoying her that day was actually Dan.
- Voice of the Legion: Mag Mel's followers have this in their true forms.
- Water Is Dry: When Dan runs through the river to retrieve Drago in Dan and Drago. In the rain.
- 'Well Done, Son!' Guy: Hydron. When he realizes his father will never give him that approval, he does a Heel–Face Turn.
- The Worf Effect: Aranaut's been hit with this big time. In New Vestroia, he made a strong first showing when a digital clone of him threw around one of the characters like a doll, while in Gundalian Invaders, he has one of the worst fight records in the show, only winning with help or other circumstances.
- You Are Worth Hell: Shadow has a clear chance to survive the Negative Space Wedgie, but opted to die with Mylene anyway, (he thinks it'll be interesting).
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair:
- Runo and her mother both have blue hair, and supporting characters Jenny and Jewles have purple and green hair, respectively.
- In New Vestroia, Baron has purple hair.
- The Vestals have quite a habit of falling under this trope. The only ones with real-world hair colors are carrot-top Mira and blonde Spectra and it turns out they're siblings.
- In Gundalian Invaders Fabia has dark blue hair, though Dan refers to her as a brunette.
- Are you sure he didn't say Bluenette?
- Zettai Ryouiki:
- Runo is Grade S in New Vestroia, having had the other two components since Battle Brawlers but only reaching Grade C throughout that series. Unfortunately, Runo is hardly evenin New Vestroia.
- Mira also has at least Grade B..on the right leg, anyway.