Double Dragon (animation)

The Animated Adaptation of the Double Dragon video game series. Billy Lee was raised and trained by the master of the Dragon Dojo. His main precepts are not to harm others intentionally and not fight if he can help it. When the master is gone, Billy becomes the new Dragon Master. He helps officer Marion against the Shadow Warriors, a criminal syndicate led by the Shadow Master, wielder of the power of the Black Flame. Billy discovers that his long-lost twin brother Jimmy was raised by Shadow Master as Shadow Boss, but when Shadow Master betrays Jimmy, he joins his brother in the fight against the Shadow Warriors.

The first episode makes a fair adaptation of the first game (granted its based on the NES version, which had Jimmy as the final boss and Willy as his henchman), but the series deviates from Episode 2 and onward.


 * And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Both seasons featured a public service announcement at the end of every episode (except for the pilot), but the ones in Season 1 were rather generic (consisting almost entirely of redubbed footage) and some were even shown more than once in different episodes. On the other hand, the PSAs in Season 2 were unique to each episode and were somehow tied to the episode's plot. One particularly ironic example was an early Season 2 episode about a kid who was really into video games. The moral was essentially "don't play the vidjagaems all the damn time"--which, while certainly a good moral, is kind of odd coming from an adaptation of a video game.
 * Arm Cannon: Triggerhappy. The figure of the character carries a BFG instead.
 * Battle Cry: Both, the Dragons and the Shadows, have one.
 * "Dragons Go!"
 * "The Shadow Falls!"
 * Blind and the Beast: Jawbreaker befriends the Samantha (Commissioner Briggs' blind daughter) after kidnapping her under the Shadow Master's orders in "The Sight of Freedom". When Icepick orders him to "eliminate" the girl, Jawbreaker rebels against the Shadow Warriors and rescues her.
 * By the Power of Grayskull: "For might!" "For right!"
 * Canon Foreigner
 * Most of the Dragon Warriors (save for Billy and Jimmy themselves) and the Shadow Warriors (the gang exists in the games, but not these specific members) were created specifically for the cartoon. Granted, the Shadow Master appears to be loosely based on the nameless final boss from the second NES game.
 * The Shadow Falls fighting game featured a few additional Shadow Warriors who were not in the show. Namely Dominique, Bones, Blade and Sekka.
 * Cool Car: the Dragon Cruiser.
 * Color-Coded Secret Identity: For some reason, many characters have trouble figuring out that Billy and Jimmy were actually the Double Dragons, despite the fact that they always carry their swords. There's not even that much difference between their civilian clothing and their Dragon Warrior alter-egos, save for the addition of masks, lack of undershirts (exposing their birthmarks) and different boots and gloves.
 * Criminal Amnesiac: Billy becomes the Shadow Boss this way in "Over the Line". However, he recovers at the end of the episode, while Jimmy's former career as Shadow Boss was almost his whole young life.
 * Family-Friendly Firearms: The Lee Brothers' magic swords, that shoot a green flame. Shadow Master has a scythe (that can split into a smaller scythe and a sword) that shoots a black flame.
 * Fantastic Drug: Oblivion.
 * Faux Action Girl: Marian goes from a Damsel in Distress in the games to a police officer in the TV series. Despite this, she doesn't really do that much to make her into a genuine Action Girl and is practically reduced to a background character by Season 2.
 * Heel Face Turn: Jimmy Lee after the first episode, and in Season 2, Jawbreaker.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: The Shadow Master is Jim Byrnes, aka Joe Dawson.
 * In Name Only: Besides some characters, it has nothing to do with the games.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: When the brothers meet their mother, she reveals the Shadow Master is her half-brother, which makes him their uncle.
 * Master of Disguise: Sickle.
 * Mooks: The generic Shadow Warriors all wore metal mouthplates and were armed with claws. Blade from the tie-in fighting game was essentially one of them (along with Sekka, who was a one-of-a-kind female counterpart).
 * Never Say "Die"
 * The Oldest Dragon is just told to be "gone", while Abobo and Willy are imprisoned forever in a magic wall by the Shadow Master due to their failure.
 * Averted in some subsequent episodes. In "Mistress of Chi", Jimmy asks Su Lien (the titular "mistress") if she killed the Shadow Master she uses her powers to teleport him, while the "Price of Oblivion" explicitly mentions the increasing murder rate that occurred in Metro City due to the sale of a new drug.
 * Out of Order: Most of the episodes were aired without regard to their production order, especially during Season 2. Particularly notable with "RPM", the final episode ever aired, which clearly took place before Jawbreaker's Heel Face Turn a few episodes earlier.
 * Phantom Zone Picture: If a villain screws up once too many, the Shadow Master will make him part of his mural, trapped as stone and half merged into the wall. Previous victims are still seen there.
 * Recursive Adaptation: Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Billy: blue, Jimmy: red. Their costumes even match.
 * Schizo-Tech: A helicopter with an AI that is actually the spirit of a shattered sword.
 * Shonen Upgrade: In Season 2, both the Lee brothers and the Shadow Master obtain magic armor in the form of the Dragon Claw Daggers for the Lees and the Shield of the Shadow Khan for Shadow Master. Later, they get "ultimate forms" as well.
 * Six Bad Band
 * Shadow Master: Big Bad
 * Sickle: The Dragon
 * Icepick: Evil Genius
 * Trigger Happy and Jawbreaker: The Brute
 * Countdown: The Starscream
 * Talking to Himself: Michael Donovan and Scott McNeil voiced the Lee Brothers, as well as the villains Jawbreaker and Sickle respectively. Some of the other characters also shared voice actors.
 * Toyless Toyline Character: Despite being a blatantly Merchandise-Driven show, the only characters to get tie-in action figures besides the Lee brothers and the Shadow Master were Vortex, Blaster, Sickle and Trigger Happy, rendering everyone else into this.
 * Unperson: the Shadow Master intends to destroy the Dragon Dojo (the Dragon Warriors have been banished to the Shadow Mural, and the Lees are in another dimension), saying that once it occurs, "it will be as though (the Double Dragons) never existed."