Chaotic

"You can transport to Chaotic and play for real."

- Kaz, to Tom.

Chaotic is a Danish trading card game (TCG) turned animated series that broadcasted on "4kids"TV and now airing on The CWkids and Cartoon Network.

In the show, Tom Majors and his friend Kazdan Kalinkas enjoy the mildly popular Chaotic TCG as a recreation. Kaz, being the one with the glasses, always tells Tom of his adventures in Perim and his matches in Chaotic. Tom usually dismisses such stories as a fanboyism -- that is, until he receives a mysterious password after one online match. He enters it into his Chaotic tie-in device called a scanner and is transported to the pocket dimension "Chaotic". Here players gather to play in the eight Dromes, where they transform into the creatures from the game and defeat each other in combat. It turns out that when you port to Chaotic, you also leave behind a version of yourself on Earth to go about normal life. As if all that wren't enough, you can also port into the actual world of the card game, Perim. There players can use their scanners to scan locations, creatures and items with their scanners, gaining the ability to use them in the game. Tom makes some new friends, Sarah and Peyton, as well new enemies, Klay and Krystella. Along the way the characters manage to get wrapped up in some dangerous adventures.

The real-life card game seems to take place separate from the TV series, with no humans turning up and featuring only the high fantasy world of Perim.

In Perim the four Tribes are at a centuries-long war that sought to find the Cothica, the supreme and ultimate power in all of Perim, as well as seek to retribution on the Tribe(s) that they blame for its disappearance. As the game has progressed into M'arrillian Invasion, the fifth forgotten Tribe, the M'arrilians, was released from its imprisonment behind the Doors of Deepmines and is now wreaking havoc across all of Perim in order turn it into one big ocean. The process of oceanification is done by practically melting the ice caps of Perim. One year later, Secrets of the Lost City begins. The four high muges of Perim, Najarin, Enre-hep, Kopond, and Lore preform a ritual that raises Kaizeph, the levitating lost city of elements, from the depths of Lake Ken-i-po. The city becomes a new hub of activity for the Tribes. Over in the dig sites of the City of Kehn-Sep, the creatures have finally uncovered the Cothica Tablet. Though the tablet answers many long-debated questions, apparently not everyone likes the answers.

Now has a character sheet.

This show provides examples of:

 * Action Girl: Almost every female creature put into the spotlight by the show, including Laarina, Intress, and Takinom, to name a few.
 * Amazonian Beauty /Beastess: Intress, in the card game anyway
 * All Just a Dream: The episode called  where the creatures of Perim
 * Alternate Universe: Perim and Chaotic are an alternate universe to earth, according to the official backstory.
 * Animesque: M'arillian Invasion, not so much in the first season.
 * Art Evolution: While season 1 used flash animation, M'arillian Invasion has switched to more anime-style traditional animation.
 * Big Eater: Peyton
 * The Big Guy: Peyton, again
 * Biological Mashup: Borth-Majar. They can fight only while merged together.
 * Broken Aesop: Played for Laughs. In a Battle of the Sexes episode, Peyton declares that guys are better and then wins by using only female monsters. The rest of the cast can't figure out what this means.
 * It's more like he's saying girls aren't better than boys. Just that Crystella isn't better than him.
 * By season two, he's turned this into a Running Gag.
 * There is also the episode where the gang befriends a new Tom, lavishing all of old Tom's previous positive attention on him. Fed up, old Tom wagers their friendship on a match. He wins, but his friends call him on it telling him that they'll be friends with whomever they choose. Simple Enough, but it becomes jarring once you recognize that the unfortunate implication that his friends weren't actually TREATING him like their friend.
 * They did the same thing to Sara when a cute girl showed up in a close episode cute girl dumped them.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Literally...
 * Cthulhumanoid: Many of the M'arrilians, including their leader Aa'une
 * Collectible Card Game
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: The Mugic colors happen to be color-coded for the Tribe that can use them. Colorless Mugic can be used by anyone, Blue Mugic for the Overworld, Red for the Underworld, Yellow for the Mipedians, Brown for the Danians, and Black for the M'arrilians. The players' Scanners match these colors after the Art Evolution. (Codemasters' are white, for those who were wondering)
 * Combining Mecha: GiganTroopers (or Big Giant Robots) figured out how to do this after they went on a rampage after being given autonomy.
 * Convection Shmonvection: Nobody seems to be affected by the heat coming off the magma at the Lava Pond, even though in one episode the temperature is shown as being enough to incinerate hot dogs held over it.
 * Creepy Twins: The original idea for Klay and Krystella; although now they aren't twins -- they are still creepy, especially Klay.
 * Still played somewhat straight with Krystella; she has a twin sister, but only Krystella herself is creepy.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Cothica. Apparently its power maintained a golden age of peace, until it just vanished. Phelphor claimed the M'arrillians had the Cothica and the tribes grew jealous against the M'arrillians for having it,.
 * Cyberspace: The world of Chaotic may possibly be like this, since it's based on an online game -- yet another similarity to Digimon.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Underworlders say that the Overworld tribe is responsible for the war over the Cothica.
 * Light Is Not Good: On the other side of the spectrum, the Overworlders are arrogant and are sometimes willing to Shoot the Dog. Don't let the teamwork system fool you; they can be pretty petty.
 * Peyton even told Tom in one episode, when he was complaining about the Mipedians attack on Castle Bodhran from an earlier episode, that no tribe is all good or all evil and each has their own good & bad members.
 * Deadpan Snarker: In the first episode, one of the robots hates the first reactions to new players, since they all say the same thing. And is also annoyed by their reactions of seeing a talking robot.
 * Different As Night and Day: Krystella's twin Jysella
 * Doomsday Device: A gigantic heat ray built by the M'arrillians at Glacier Plains capable of melting the ice caps and turning all of Perim into an ocean.
 * Enemy Mine The Danians, Mipedians, Overworlders, and Underworlders all put aside their feuding to combat the M'arrilians' dominance over Perim.
 * Faux Action Girl: Sarah, although she has a lot of Scan Quests, is very rarely seen in an actual Drome Battle.
 * Action Girl: When we DO see her battle, it's one of the most intense fights in the series.
 * Fighting Series: Debatable because even with the elements of a war, arenas, and semi-standardized techniques, the game is still the point of the show.
 * Game Face Phelphor is actually a.
 * Geek: Kaz
 * Goggles Do Nothing: The original character design of Tom shows the similarity to Digimon.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: GRIFFITH!
 * At one point, Maxxor was voiced by DAN GREEN; at another point, he was voiced by Sean Schemmel (both the original voice of Lucario in the Pokemon dub and of Goku in the Funimation dub).
 * Hufflepuff House: The Mipedian and Danian tribes
 * While they don't get as much ink as the Over/Underworlders they still get more development than the tropenamer.
 * Jerkass: Vlar, Maxxor's ancestor, is despised by his contemporaries for his acts of thievery from the local Kiru Village.
 * A lot of the humans are huge jerkasses too. Klay and Krystella are the obvious examples, but many others have their moments, most notably Sam, and even Kaz and especially Sarah tend to be absolute douchebags from time to time. It should be noted that out of all animated shows based on a game and revolving around said game, this one is arguably the one with the most hardcore trash talking.
 * Killed Off for Real: . It was still a Never Say Die one though.
 * Limited Wardrobe
 * Loads and Loads of Characters
 * Master of Disguise: Iparu
 * Mentors: Codemaster Crellan, obviously. Kaz, Sarah, and Peyton could be considered mentors to Tom.
 * Merchandise Driven: The tie-in card game, of course.
 * Mind Manipulation: This ability is pretty much the M'arrillians' bread and butter. There is also one Underworlder (Opto) who possesses the ability.
 * Do they lose the ability after they're defeated in the Season Finale of M'arrillian Invasion? They're still around, but no mind control.
 * Well, all their mind controlled minions DID snap out of it after.
 * The Minnesota Fats- CoolTom
 * Monowheel Mayhem:Mowercycles are this plus some teeth to grip stone walls and powersaw through everything else. They can also ride up walls, just don't try to drive across a log bridge.
 * Monster Lord
 * Nerd: Kaz
 * Never Say Die: Surprisingly Averted in M'arillian Invasion. In the second episode of the 3-part season finale.  This is surprising because this happens in a show made by "4kids", who removes every single mention of death in their shows and the anime they dub.
 * Then again, it could be a Disney Death since characters who are said to have died in "4kids" shows, come back later (e.g., Luffy from One Piece Dub, Leather Head from TMNT).
 * . This time, it's a real death.
 * New Meat: Tom is new to the real world of Chaotic
 * Noodle Incident: Used in the first two episodes, and rather hilariously, as it was used to make Tom believe Kaz about saving the scanner.
 * One Winged Angel: Aa'une decides to do Lovecraft before his doomed battle.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Averted. Most of the Mipedians are nicer to the humans than the Overworlders, Underworlders or Danians.
 * Screwed By the Network
 * Serious Business: Only in one parallel universe though
 * Shaggy Dog Story: In one episode, someone steals a piece of Danian battle gear that Sarah was attempting to scan, so she recruits Tom, Kaz, & Peyton to engage in a Chain of Deals that will allow her to get a card version of it. After much hassle on their part, including Kaz having to give up one of his prized cards, they manage to obtain it, only for Sarah to reveal that her Danian friend caught the thief while they were busy and she already scanned it.
 * Shout Out: The M'arrillian's former name was "The Deep Ones"
 * Tom Majors screen name is "Majortom", chances are he or one of the staff are David Bowie fans.
 * The Smart Guy: Kaz, and to some extent Sarah
 * The Smurfette Principle: Sarah is the token female lead of Chaotic.
 * Team Pet: He'arring, though probably a lot different, seems to fill this role
 * Transformation Sequence
 * Xanatos Gambit: In one episode Chaor's army corners the M'arrillians in a marsh of oil before sending it all up in a massive inferno, only to find when the smoke clears that not only did he not harm any of the M'arrillians (they simply hid beneath the oil until the flames died down), but the whole reason they came to the marsh in the first place was to lure him and his army away from Underworld City so that Lord Van Bloot could conquer it for them.