Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo
Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo is a made-for-TV movie based on the popular 2003-2006 Animated Series Teen Titans, produced for Cartoon Network by Warner Bros animation. It was the last original Teen Titans material to air on Cartoon Network before the show went into reruns.
After Titans Tower is nearly destroyed by a Sentai-esque, paint-themed assailant, apparently for no reason, the Teen Titans decide to get to the root of the problem and head for Japan, where they believe the villain came from. Once there, they hear word of a fantastic underworld figure named Brushogun, who may be behind the unexplained attack...even though a team of Japanese troopers whose job it is to keep Tokyo safe from threats too great for the regular police insist that such a person is nothing but folklore and doesn't really exist. Discouraged, the Teen Titans put the matter aside and explore the city, until, unexpectedly, an attack by a group of bizarre monsters leads them to believe that there may be much more to the Brushogun "myth" than they have been told.
Tropes used in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo include:
- Almost Kiss: Twice, between Robin and Starfire.
- Affectionate Parody: One of Japanese kids' shows/films from yesteryear, such as Astro Boy and Spirited Away.
- Armor-Piercing Slap/Dope Slap: Raven does this to Beast Boy in the end, just before the credits.
- And I Must Scream: Brushogun under Daizo's imprisonment.
- Animesque: You don't say.
- Animeland: In more of a Satire/Parody Sense.
- Art Attacker / Art Initiates Life: Brushogun's ability.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The team faces this twice: once when first arriving, and again as the climactic battle.
- Batman Gambit: Brushogun sending the first Saico-Tek against the Titans to lure them to Tokyo.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Brushogun's origin.
- Big Bad: Brushogun turns out to simply be a prisoner being used by the real Big Bad Commander Daizo.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Robin and Starfire finally get theirs, after four seasons of the show's Ship Tease but not until the last few minutes of the movie.
- Bilingual Bonus: Nya-Nya, the pink-ink Catgirl, never speaks a word of English in either of her forms.
- "Otaku" is the Japanese equivalent of "geek"...not cute, which Beast Boy seems to think it means.
- "Nya-nya" translates to "meow-meow".
- During the battle, when Nya-Nya is riding pterodactyl-BB:
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Nya-Nya: I love to hurt cute little animals. I look forward to tormenting you. |
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- After kissing BB on the cheek:
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Nya-Nya Close your eyes. This will hurt. |
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- The Cameo: Aqualad briefly appears as the Titans fly over the Pacific.
- The Chew Toy: Beast Boy.
- Clear My Name: After Robin seems to accidentally kill Saiko-Tek.
- Cool Shades: Robin, when he impersonates a Japanese street tough.
- Combined with Badass Longcoat.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: When Saiko-tek somehow totally vanishes right in front of Robin after kicking open the sprinkler systems, Beast Boy jokingly suggest that he "just wasn't waterproof". As it turns out, he was made out of paint, so he really wasn't!
- When the gang first arrives in Tokyo, the one place Beast Boy really wants to visit is a comic book factory. Wouldn't you know it, that's where the Big Bad's hideout is.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu
- Dark-Skinned Blond: A ganguro features as part of Beast Boy's Unwanted Harem.
- Deranged Animation: Bits of it within the movie.
- Did Not Do the Research: To serve the plot, but still. Printer's ink is not water soluble. Alcohol, on the other hand, would have the effect shown.
- Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): From beginning to end, Raven mostly abuses Beast Boy, though he did start it when he stuck his finger up Raven's nose while she was sleeping.
- Eat That: The Chef, trying to discourage Cyborg from eating everything in his restaurant.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Commander Daizo, a major plot point.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: During the Gratuitous English karaoke scene, Beast Boy morphs into a number of animals. He turns into an octopus--while striking the classic "seduction on a bed" pose. Yes. You read it right. They had the balls to put in a Naughty Tentacles reference. Just wow.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Keone Young as Commander Daizo, Saico-Tek, and the angry chef.
- Janice Kawaye is Nya-Nya, the catgirl, and Yuri Lowenthal voiced the biker Robin interrogates.
- Brushogun himself is voiced by actor Cary-Hiroyuki Kagawa, who played as Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat movie.
- Indecisive Parody: Tokyo.
- Jackass Genie/Deal with the Devil
- Kaiju: The first threat the Titans encounter in Tokyo, eventually beaten by the Troopers.
- Karaoke Box: Beast Boy during the movie, and the whole cast during the end credits. The lyrics are due to Rule of Funny.
- Last-Minute Hookup: After endless teasing in the series, Robin and Starfire finally kiss at the end of the movie.
- The Man Behind the Man: Commander Uehara Daizo
- Mecha-Mooks: Well, technically magic-ink-construct mooks, but still...
- Moment Killer: Robin ruins the first moment himself. The second time Robin and Starfire are just about to kiss, the rest of the Titans walk in and interrupt that moment. Funnily enough, they don't seem to suspect a thing.
- The Movie: What do you think?
- Occidental Otaku: Beast Boy
- Official Couple: Robin and Starfire. About time.
- One-Winged Angel: Commander Daizo jumps into his magic printer, fusing himself with Brushogun's magic and turning himself into a gigantic ink monster.
- Orbital Kiss
- Plucky Comic Relief: Beast Boy of course.
- Portmanteau: Brushogun is a combination of the English "brush" and the Japanese "shogun".
- Pummeling the Corpse: Robin to the first Saico-Tek, though subverted as it's not exactly a 'corpse'.
- Relationship Upgrade: Take a wild guess.
- Scenery Porn: The cityscapes of Tokyo are very pretty.
- Shout-Out: There are tons of them for Japanese pop culture.
- The blob monster that attacks Raven resembles No-Face from Spirited Away.
- Mecha-Boi is...do I really need to say it?
- Uehara Daizo throws himself into a machine, similar to the Joker's origin, albeit an intentional version.
- Commander Uehara Daizo closely resembles Lupin III's famous Inspector Zenigata.
- Kaneda and Yamagata from Akira appear in a crowd scene watching a sumo match.
- The bike Robin "borrows" has taillights that leave momentary after-images, just like Kaneda's bike.
- Saico-Tek is similar in design to numerous Kamen Riders, and his split-down-the-middle color scheme resembles Kikaider.
- The yellow robot that fights Cyborg is noticeably similar to Boss Borot
- Nya-Nya is based on the Puma sisters from Dominion Tank Police
- A little less noticeable, but the story of how Brushogun and the ink monsters came to be is terribly similar to the Painter who tried to use ink dissolved with a Shikon Fragment to create his own personal version of the Hime that he was in love with in chapters 56-58 of the Inuyasha manga. Inuyasha defeats him, though. The other similarity is that whenever one of his Ink Oni are killed they collapse in an explosion of ink, blood and guts, much like Brushogun did when killed by the Titans...minus the blood and guts.
- Raven becoming a spokeswoman for Super Twinkle Donkey Gum mirrors the practice of hiring American actors to star in Japanese commercials.
- Ship Sinking: Raven/Beast Boy, according to some.
- This is not as definitive as the obvious sinking of Robin/Raven, however.
- Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Duh!
- Tonight Someone Kisses: Robin and Starfire
- Unwanted Harem: Beast Boy gets one of these. At first it's subverted in that he has no qualms about being Covered in Kisses, then it's played straight when it becomes apparent his new fangirls won't let him leave.
- They're [the fangirls] quite clingy in an almost Yandere sort of way.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Robin gets called out on this after he apparently killed a villain though the villain was made of ink:
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Robin: He wasn't human. |
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- Will They or Won't They?
- You Fail Geography Forever: Beast Boy, in-context. "When do we see the Great Wall?"
- Also, Tokyo Tower is white and orange, not some shade of blue. And it would be lit up at night.
- "You?" Squared: a variation occurs in this exchange:
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Cyborg and Beast Boy: *Screeching halt* Who's chasing you?!? |
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