B-Fighter Kabuto
B-Fighter Kabuto was Toei's 15th entry in its Metal Heroes series, and the second of its B-Fighter series. Its footage was used to create Beetleborgs Metallix.
Ten years after the Jamahl Empire fell, a new threat, the Melzard tribe, emerges. At the revamped Earth Academia called Cosmo Academia, Takuya Kai and Guru work on a new generation of Insect-Powered Powered Armor suits. When the Melzard launches their first attack, two of the suits are immediately entrusted to Kengo Tachibana and Ran Ayukawa. The third is soon entrusted to Ordinary High School Student Kouhei Toba. With the new team in place, the Melzard's schemes for Earth have reached a dead end.
The New Generation B-Fighters:
- Kouhei Toba/B-Fighter Kabuto: The Hero; an Ordinary High School Student who becomes involved in the fight against evil.
- Kengo Tachibana/B-Fighter Kuwaga: Big Lancer; a student inititally bitter with Kouhei for taking the mantle of B-Fighter Kabuto instead of him. However, he does warm up to our hero.
- Ran Ayukawa/B-Fighter Tentou: Smart Chick; she is so involved with technology that she is naive on natural matters.
Our heroes are soon joined by:
- Mac Windy/B-Fighter Yanma: A Funny Foreigner from New York, very much Sanguine.
- Julio Rivera/B-Fighter Genji: A Peruvian archaeologist, love interest for Ran, who taught her to experience the beauty of nature.
- Li Wen/B-Fighter Min: A Chinese elementary schoolteacher and Technical Pacifist.
- Sophie Villeneuve/B-Fighter Ageha: A French violinist and love interest for Kouhei; responsible for wakening the Astral Saber.
Melzard Tribe:
- Mother Melzard: The Big Bad
- Dinosaur Warrior Raija : The Saurian-Armored dragon.
- Deep Sea Fish-man Dezzle: Raija's fish-armored brother and arch-enemy.
- Insect Swordswoman Miola : The Insectoid-armored Dark Chick.
- B-Crushers: The Psycho Rangers:
- B-Crusher Deathcorpion: A Noble Demon.
- B-Crusher Mukaderinger: The Dirty Coward.
- B-Crusher Killmantis: The Master Swordsman
- B-Crusher Beezack: A Master of Disguise and Killmantis's partner-in-crime.
Tropes used in B-Fighter Kabuto include:
- Back from the Dead: Raija and Dezzle in Episode 36.
- But Not Too Foreign: Except for Mac, all the Sixth Rangers are played by Japanese actors.
- Sophie's actress is half-Mexican, not that you can tell.
- By the Power of Grayskull: "Cho Juko!" [1]
- Crossover: The first B-Fighters appear to aid our heroes for some episodes.
- Franchise Killer: Due to the low reception this show got, the Metal Heroes franchise as it was known ceased to exist and Robotack and Kabutack are only unofficially part of the franchise.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Tetsu Inada as the voice of Desscorpion...
- Mack Windy is Reuben Langdon, stuntman and motion capture actor best known as voice of Dante from Devil May Cry and Ken Masters in Street Fighter IV.
- Humongous Mecha: The heroes get assistance from two giant Kojin [2], Kabuterios and Kuwaga Titan.
- Japanese Beetle Brothers: B-Fighter Kabuto and B-Fighter Kuwaga, like their predecessors, are a Type A.
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast: The B-Crushers, especially Deathcorpion and Killmantis.
- The Psycho Rangers