Bakugan: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Bakugan_Mechtanium_Surge_6978.png|frame|The conclusive arc of Bakugan.]]

 

 

 

The rules are hard to pin point, since they were never fully explained and [[Screw the Rules I Have Plot|change whenever its needed]], similar to the first season of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''. At difference of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', however, as the show has progressed the rules haven't become more clear; on the contrary, they've become more and more vague (hard as that is to believe). What little structure and strategy there was in the first season has been completely abandoned in favor of two children shouting "Ability Card Activate!" over and over and over and over for the entire episode. Of course, this doesn't translate to the [[Bakugan (game)|actual game]], which while not played like traditional card games, has many rules like card limit (you can have 15 cards in your deck). The anime seems to break the rules as far as how many cards you are allowed to use, and just treat them like attacks later on.

Not to be confused with ''[[Bakuman｡]]''. Or [[Naruto|Byakugan]].

 

 

* [[Affectionate Parody]]: Elfin/Minx Elfin to the titular character of [[Sailor Moon]].

* [[Alien Invasion]]: After [[Big Bad|Naga]] was destroyed in the first season finale, the next two seasons had extradimmensional aliens as their main villains. Its presently unknown is Mag Mel is continuing this trend or not.

* [[Ambiguously Brown]]: Julie's ''entire family''.

* [[Art Evolution]]: ''Gundalian Invaders'' finally stopped with all the [[Off-Model]]-[[Buffy-Speak|ness]], but the [[Lip Lock]] is still heavily present.

* [[The Artifact]]: Julie in ''Gundalian Invaders''; her sole reason for existence is to remind the viewers that the original cast was more gender-balanced.

* [[Bad Future]]: {{spoiler|[[The Bad Guys Win|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.

* [[The Baroness]]: Mylene, Kazarina

* [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]: the Neathians over the Gundalians

* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: Dan and Runo.

** Shadow and Mylene in ''New Vestroia''.

* [[Becoming the Mask]]: {{spoiler|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.}}

* [[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{{spoiler|, although it turns out Mag Mel was Barodius and Wiseman was a disguise for Coredegon.}}

* [[Bifauxnen]]: Paige

* [[Cash Cow Franchise]]: An obvious trope considering how they promote a lot of the monsters once. It's also TMS's fourth (alongside [[Anpanman]], [[Detective Conan]] and [[Lupin III]]).

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Akwimos's "Cool is the rule, dude!"

* [[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.

* [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]: Drago, oh so much. Bonus points for being a literal dragon and {{spoiler|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]]: {{spoiler|Season 2 of New Vestroia made battling more lethal.}}

** ''Gundalian Invaders'' involves an actual ''[[War Is Hell|war]]''. Permanent character death is a common sight.

* [[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.

* [[Double Agent]]: {{spoiler|Mira.}}

* [[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.

* [[Everything's Better with Princesses]]: Princess Fabia of Neathia, the Haos brawler for ''Gundalian Invaders''.

** As of now, {{spoiler|Drago has evolved nine times. So far.}}

*** 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 [[Big Bad|Mag Mel]] [[Sealed Evil in a Can|out of his prison]], and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|''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.

* [[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.

* [[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...[[Char Clone|HE IS A CHAR!!]]

** Julie looks a lot like a young [[Code Geass|Villetta Nu]].

** 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 [[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni|Keiichi Maebara]].

** Gunz looks a lot like [[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's|Jack Atlas]].

** Billy is a dead ringer for a younger [[Fatal Fury|Terry Bogard]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNLdCmZblRQ Dubbing over Billy's lines with Terry's] seems ''completely natural.''

** Dan looks a lot like [[Digimon Frontier|Takuya]] - they wear similar clothing and have the same element.

* [[Fan Service]]: 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 [[Zettai Ryouiki|the right side]]. Marketing to children while including some [[Turn-On Tropes]]...[[Fetish Fuel|well played, Sega/Spinmaster.]]

** Hmm, it's me or Baron was too [[Heroic Build|'buffy']] for brawler standard?

* [[Gender Bender]]: {{spoiler|Masquerade is clearly a guy, especially with his deep voice, but when his mask is taken off, he becomes ''Alice.'' Comes with a [[Impossibly Cool Clothes|nifty]] clothes change too.}}

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Episode 17 - Preyas says the magic word close to 8 minutes in. ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO7lpMBl2fw For proof, go to 8:05 and play it from there.])

* [[Girlish Pigtails]]: [[Tsundere|Runo]].

* [[Godzilla Threshold]]: Mag Mel's threat is so great that {{spoiler|the group has to resort to ''completely deleting Bakugan Interspace'' in an attempt to stop him. And it ''doesn't work!''}}

** {{spoiler|Volt and Lync too}}

** {{spoiler|Ren. Also, Nurzak and Mason. Lena, Jesse, and Zenet help out the Brawlers once their brainwashing wears off.}}

* [[Her Heart Will Go On]]: {{spoiler|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'', though this naturally requires him to [[Restart At Level One]].

** 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.

** {{spoiler|Prince Hydron makes sure his father goes down with the quickly collapsing ship}} at the end of ''New Vestroia''. As for {{spoiler|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.}}

** {{spoiler|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.}}

* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]: Mira, [[X-Men|Jubilee]]. Jubilee, [[Alyson Court|Mira]].

** Pretty much two third's of the cast are voiced by Canadian animation voice acting veterans

** Hmm, half of Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders is the [[Metal Fight Beyblade|Beyblade Metal Fusion]] show, if not all.

* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: Naga kicked off the series by absorbing too much energy from the Silent Core. {{spoiler|When he dies, it's also by absorbing too much power.}} The BT System of New Vestroia also explodes by absorbing too much power. {{spoiler|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?

** {{spoiler|Guess what! HE EXPLODED.}}

* [[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 Girl|Ill Boy]]: Joe.

* [[Incest Subtext]]: Mira, Keith...[[Not a Date|mere dinner or a date?]]

** In the finale, {{spoiler|they live together, and Gus was nowhere to be seen}}.

** 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.

* [[Karmic Death]]: All of the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] have been done in by their own doing. {{spoiler|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 [[The Dog Bites Back|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.}}

** To date, all of the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]]

** Same goes for Bakugan: Lumagrowl in particular ''openly praises the benefits of cheating''.

** Naga, though lacking an attribute, is pure white.

* [[Long-Distance Relationship]]: Julie and Billy.

* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: Spectra is {{spoiler|Mira's older brother Keith.}}

* [[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 [[Affectionate Parody|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.

* [[Mask Power]]: The evil Masquerade.

** And the evil Spectra. Though he's started wearing the mask even as good.

* [[Merchandise-Driven]]

* [[The Messiah]]: Drago.

* [[Mission Control]]: Joe.

* [[Capulet Counterpart|Montague Counterpart]]: Lync turns against the Vexos out of love for Alice.

** 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. {{spoiler|If Colossus didn't get destroyed, we might have seen more of his Battle Gear used by Drago.}}

** 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.

** 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 [[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple|TMS' other series]].

* [[Never Say "Die"]]: Shun's Mom. 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 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjCCdcsAfzg cool looking hat].

** 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 [[Big Bad|Mag]] [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Mel]], 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]].

* [[The Other Darrin]]: There're several characters in the English dub have more then one actor, but isn't that noticeable (nor are they credited for that matter), Naga in particular had three.

* [[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.

*** 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 to much in-universe, and he was in danger of ''exploding'' but...

* [[Power Trio]]: Through three series, we've had three different Haos, Darkus, and Subterra brawlers...but [[The Hero|Dan]], [[The Lancer|Shun]], and [[The Smart Guy|Marucho]] have been there for all four seasons.

* [[The Ingenue]] / [[Proper Lady]]: Alice

** Also Preyas Angelo/Preyas Diablo. He disappears until Mechtavius Destroyer wages an attack on New Vestroia... and gets a painfully brief cameo before {{spoiler|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.

** {{spoiler|Possibly Professor Worton and Betradron.}}

* [[Reverse Mole]]: {{spoiler|Mira makes an apparent [[Face Heel Turn]]...and proceeds to completely sabotage the Vestals' plans.}}

* [[Say My Name]]: Joe when {{spoiler|Wavern is destroyed to release the Infinity Core within her.}}

** Dan to Drago in every. Single. Battle.

* [[Screens Are Cameras]]: When Dan and his friends video chat over the internet.

* [[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.'''

* [[Serious Business]]: Justified, as Bakugan can do [[The Game Plays You|a lot of damage]].

* [[Sequel Hook]]: At the end of ''New Vestroia'', {{spoiler|The last thing Prof. Clay sees before the ship blows is footage of Bakugan at war with each other, setting the stage for}} ''{{spoiler|Gundalian Invaders}}''.

[[Category:Mons Series]]

[[Category:Anime]]

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