Line #143 Series/ChouSeiShinGransazer


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gransazer_0.png]]
2
3	The first of Creator/{{Toho}} and Creator/{{Konami}}'s [[Series/ChouSeiShinSeries ChouSeiShin trilogy]], ''Chouseishin Gransazer'' debuted in 2003.
4
5	Millions of years ago, the Earth was once a [[{{Precursors}} highly-advanced civilisation]] until the day it was attacked by an alliance of alien races called "Warp Monarch". Though humanity built [[HumongousMecha giant humanoid war machines]] called "Ultra Star Gods" to defend themselves, the civilisation was ultimately defeated by Warp Monarch's superior numbers.
6
7	Now in the modern day, the LostTechnology of that precursor race is stirring, [[SuperpowerfulGenetics awakening the dormant DNA of their descendants]] in response to a new threat. Courier Tenma Kudou discovers that he is one of the chosen, [[HenshinHero gaining the power to transform]] into one of the twelve legendary warriors known as the Gransazer.
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9	Like their ancestors, the Gransazer are split into [[ElementalPowers four elemental Tribes]]: Fire, Wind, Earth and Water. As the leader of the reborn Fire Tribe, Tenma (as Sazer Tarious) soon finds both allies and [[TheRival enemies]] in the other three Tribes [[EnemyMine as he struggles to unite them in the face of the alien menace]] that threatens to repeat the genocide of the past. Fortunately he has help, for when three members of the same Tribe unite their powers they can summon their respective Ultra Star God and take the fight to the enemy.
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11	[[folder:List of Characters]]
12	!!! '''[[color:red:The Fire Tribe]]''':
13
14	* Tenma Kudou/ Sazer-Tarious (Sagittarius): The [[HotBlood hotblooded]] [[TheHero hero]]; An archer in his falcon armor.
15	* Mika Shidou/ Sazer-Mithras (Aries): TheLancer and Ken's CoolBigSis; in her swan-based armor, she wields two [[CombatHandFan metal fans of doom]].
16	* Ken Shidou/ Sazer-Lion (Leo): TheSmartGuy and Mika's brother; he [[DualWielding wields two]] [[CoolSword swords]] in his swallow-based armor.
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18	!!! '''[[color:purple:The Wind Tribe]]''':
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20	* Akira Dentsuin/ Sazer-Remls (Gemini): A victim of LoveMakesYouCrazy for Karin, and a SugarAndIcePersonality; his Rhinoceros-Beetle armor comes with a {{BFG}}.
21	* Ryoko Amemiya/ Sazer-Velsou (Aquarius): [[TheSmartGuy The smart girl]] who first saw Karin for what she really was; she has [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe twin-bucklers]] in her butterfly-based armor.
22	* Jin Hakariya/ Sazer-Dail (Libra): A showoff who also believes in ThePowerOfFriendship; he has [[DualWielding two]] axe-tonfas as his Stag Beetle-armored alter-ego.
23
24	!!! '''[[color:gold:The Earth Tribe]]'''
25	* Naoto Matsuzaka/ Sazer-Tawlon (Taurus): TheBigGuy, TheDeterminator and the IneffectualLoner; he has two [[ShoulderCannon shoulder-mounted]] {{BFG}} in his Bull-based armor.
26	* Ran Saotome/ Sazer-Visuel (Virgo): The LivingMacGuffin; she has some [[AbsurdlySharpBlade mean claws]] as the leopard-based Visuel.
27	* Go Kamiya/ Sazer-Tragos (Capricorn): A ByTheBookCop; he has a [[ThisIsADrill mean drill]] when he activates his goat-based armor.
28
29	!!! '''[[color:blue:The Water Tribe]]'''
30	* Makoto Sorimachi/ Sazer-Gorbion (Scorpio): A photographer and TeamDad (an IneffectualLoner outside the perceptions of his tribe); he uses a CoolSword upon activating his Shark-based armor.
31	* Ai Uozumi/ Sazer-Pisces ([[MeaningfulName take a guess]]): the youngest of all 12; her Orca-based armor is equipped with a [[TheGunslinger small gun]].
32	* Tappei Mikami/ Sazer-Gans (Cancer): A FriendToAllLivingThings who has a crush on Ai; his Manta Ray based armor is equipped with a double-edged spear.
33
34	!!! '''[[color:black:The villains]]'''
35	* [[spoiler: Saeki Karin]]: A disguised alien of the Akelon race. Tries to use her disguise to put the Gransazers against eachother. When she is exposed, she goes OneWingedAngel, but is defeated.
36	* The Impactors: A ProudWarriorRace trio consisting of [[HenshinHero Henshin Villains]]. They consist of:
37	** Logia: The leader of the trio. A GunSlinger who mainly uses dirty methods to get what he wants. Also likes to use the trope 'UnexplainedRecovery' multiple times.
38	** Radia: The hotheaded Brute. Uses an ax as weapon. Subtlety is NOT his preferred method.
39	** Lucia: Almost as equally hotheaded as Radia, but completely devoted to please her leader Logia. Wielder of a [[PrecisionGuidedBoomerang Boomerang]] [[CoolSword Blade]].
40	* The Garbans
41	** Belzeus: The leader of the Garbans [[spoiler:and the one responsible for the Warp Monarch's invasion of Earth in the first place]].
42	** Brighton: An emissary sent down to Earth by Belzeus to [[spoiler:find the Communicator]].
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	----
46
47	!! This show features examples of:
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49	* ActionGirl: All female Gransazers are skilled fighters who are just as capable as their male counterparts.
50	** DarkActionGirl: Ryouko (Sazer Velsou) initially, though she's not evil so much as misguided. Lucia of the Impactors plays this straight and is capable of overpowering each Gransazer individually.
51	* AdvancedAncientHumans: The human civilization that existed on Earth 400,000,000 years ago was global in scope and developed advanced technology such as the Chou Sei Shin and Cloud Dragon.
52	* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: Every Gransazer Tribe has a specific motif based around a kind of animal. The Flame Tribe has birds, the Wind Tribe has insects, the Earth Tribe has mammals and the Water Tribe has aquatic animals.
53	* ApocalypseHow: Earth's ancient human civilization suffered a Class 3 in the past when they were [[OrbitalBombardment bombarded into oblivion]] by Warp Monarch. [[spoiler:Although at that point they'd already suffered a Class 2 from having their planet overrun by Bosquito and being nearly wiped out.]]
54	* BewareTheNiceOnes: In #6, Ran fully transforms into Sazer Visuel for the first time when Naito, the thug who blackmailed her childhood friend, Akaki, prepared to fire his gun at Go.
55	* BossSubtitles: Subtitles are always shown to name the Gransazers and their Chou Sei Shins.
56	* BrickJoke:
57	** In #7, Go chases on his bike after Tenma (who was hastily delivering blood for a transfusion) and arrives after the surgery is over, completely exhausted and out of breath.
58	** In #25, Hoshiguchi is shown wearing a wig that gets blown away after he and Mika touch the crystal slab during a flashback. At the final episode, when Mika and Hosiguchi are cleaning the lab, Mika finds it.
59	* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler:The Chouseishin and Cloud Dragon leave in the finale after the threat of Warp Monarch is ended, no longer being needed to protect Earth.]]
60	* ByThePowerOfGrayskull: The Gransazers chant "Souchaku!" to transform.
61	* ContrivedCoincidence: All 12 Gransazers are Japanese and their Chou Sei Shins are all buried in Japan, even though the Precursors were a global civilization. They also keep running into each other by chance.
62	* CouchGag: Each episode ends with a clip show of footage from said episode.
63	* {{Courier}}: Tenma's main job is a motorcycle deliveryman.
64	* CycleOfRevenge: The reason Ai stops the other Gransazers from killing Lucia is to keep from promulgating this, as she believes if they continue to battle the Impactors it will only lead to more coming down to avenge the comrades they've just trounced.
65	* DarkestHour: Comes towards the end of the penultimate episode and carries on into the finale. [[spoiler:Ruby and Tenma are both seemingly dead, the other Gransazers are fighting a losing battle against [[TheJuggernaut Cabryon]], the Chouseishin are decimated, Ran's Communicator powers still haven't awakened and the Warp Monarch fleet is just hours away from destroying Earth.]]
66	* DisappearedDad: Ai's father was never present when she was a kid. [[spoiler:He's actually Dr. Bear/Professor Wakui.]]
67	* DoggedNiceGuy: Jin (to Ryouko) and Tappei (to Ai). Ultimately for Jin, [[spoiler: Ryouko marries Naoto as seen in the finale.]]
68	* ElementalPowers: We have:
69	** PlayingWithFire: Fire Tribe
70	** DishingOutDirt: Earth Tribe
71	** MakingASplash: Water Tribe
72	** BlowYouAway: Wind Tribe
73	* EmptyPilesOfClothing: When the Bosquito absorbs energy from people, only their clothes are left behind.
74	* EndOfSeriesAwareness: In the final episode:
75	--> '''Mika''': Our final battle, right?
76	--> '''Tenma''': Yeah.
77	* EnergyAbsorption: The Bosquito's modus apparatus is to [[LifeDrinker drain energy from people]] to feed itself.
78	* EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep: The mysterious benefactor who kept an eye on Ai all her life addressed himself as Mr. Bear. [[spoiler: In reality he's Professor Wakui who's also her father.]]
79	* EvolvingCredits: Early in the show, the beginning and ending credits only show the Gransazers that appear so far.
80	* {{Fangirl}}: Maki, a friend of Tenma, is a big fan of Naoto.
81	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the beginning of episode 16, Ai is shown sending a text message to someone. Minutes later, Professor Wakui enters Horiguchi's office. [[spoiler: Wakui pulls out a cellphone similar to Ai's and smiles at the note, to note that he's the receiver of the message.]]
82	* GeodesicCast: The 12 Gransazers are split into four elemental tribes.
83	* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Gender-flipped, the ''only'' girl who actually uses long-ranged weapons is Pisces with a gun. The other shooters are guys: Tarious, Relms and Tawlon.
84	* HumansAreCthulhu: Subverted; it's revealed that the Gransazers, and possibly all humans, are [[spoiler: descendants of the Bosquito. However, it's just [[MaliciousSlander propaganda]] set up by Belzeus]].
85	* HumongousMecha: The Chou Sei Shins, who [[TransformingMecha transform from mecha animal to robot]], and [[CombiningMecha combine together to form Daisazer]] with [[spoiler: Guntras as the core]]. In a neat twist, the tribes' four transforming mecha merge with a humanoid to form a dragon-shaped robot instead of a bigger humanoid.
86	* InterimVillain:
87	** Clo-Akelon, which serves as the villain in episodes 28 and 29. Although it's technically Akelon it has no affiliation with Warp Monarch, instead being a rogue JSDF science experiment.
88	** Kriminel in 36 is another one of the few enemies to have no connection to Warp Monarch, instead being an alien fugitive.
89	** The [[spoiler:Bosquito]], which although playing a critical role in the lore of the series, only appears for a mini arc comprising episodes 42-45, in between the Gransazers' previous encounter with Logia and the beginning of the final arc.
90	* ItsAllMyFault: In #7, Tenma blamed himself for his friend, Maki, put in a critical condition as he had no idea that Karin would go attacking him.
91	* ItsPersonal: Ai personally wants to take down Lucia [[spoiler: after the latter nearly killed Dr. Wakui/her father and also because she gave the chip to the Guntroller.]]
92	* LostTechnology: The Ultra Star Gods, Cloud Dragon and Guntras were all developed by a long lost civilization millions of years old.
93	* MakeMyMonsterGrow: A given considering this is a {{Sentai}} show, but how it comes into play varies throughout.
94	** Karin Saeki enlarged herself by absorbing energy to turn herself into a {{kaiju}}. The same goes for the Clo-Akelon created from her in episode 28.
95	** Impactors Radia and Lucia were both capable of enlarging themselves. Their commander Logia opts for a different approach, instead fighting the Chouseishin in his own personal mecha, Dailogian.
96	** When two Bosquito are destroyed, the third absorbs the cores they left behind to turn into a giant monster.
97	** Troius and Cabryon are two kaiju kept in the employ of Warp Monarch that are naturally giant.
98	** Other Warp Monarch members, including aliens of the week Kilardo, Gadaru and Gorfin, avert this by staying human-sized and never enlarging, resulting in the Chouseishin being OutOfFocus for their respective episodes.
99	* TheManBehindTheMan: The Gransazers first assume the Akelons are the ones responsible for destroying ancient humanity, given their encounter with Karin. They soon discover that the Akelons are just one race in the universe-spanning Cosmic Alliance.
100	* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Mika is a tough. abrasive tomboy while her brother Ken is friendlier and more passive.
101	* MilitariesAreUseless: Averted, as JSDF is ''much'' more involved in the plot than most of Toku series, and actually fared pretty well in assisting the Gransazers, especially after they got their own HumongousMecha Youhi.
102	* MonsterOfTheWeek: Initially averted, with the Gransazers doing battle against {{Arc Villain}}s at first. By the third quarter however, the series shifts to self-contained episode plots about the Gransazers fighting various [[MonsterOfTheWeek aliens of the week]] sent down by Warp Monarch.
103	* MsFanservice: Ryoko, Ran and Ai all get to show off skin at various points. Ryoko with her tight outfits and Ran and Ai with their beach scenes.
104	* OneHourWorkWeek: Subverted; many times we see the Gransazers doing their jobs (Tenma being in a delivery service, Jin a fashion designer, Akira and Ai both working at the hospital, etc.)
105	* OneSteveLimit: Averted; two successive victims of the week were named Shinji.
106	* PaleFemalesDarkMales: Zigzagged. Mithras' armor showed a lot of white, Velsou's armor was magenta in contrast to the dark purple and blue of the other Wind Tribe members, Pisces was a light cyan, but Visuel was a dark orange compared to Tawlon's yellow.
107	* PostFinalBoss: Cabryon is the show's effective final boss [[spoiler:but is fought only after the Gransazers have halted Warp Monarch's attack, when Belzeus uses it to mount one last stand]].
108	* PowerTrio: Each tribe is composed of three fighters.
109	* {{Precursors}}: Ancient Humanity, who existed millions of years before the current iteration of humankind and left behind the Chouseishin. The Gransazers are all descended from them.
110	* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Impactors. {{Deconstructed}} as they feel as if they have nothing else but their pride. Lucia tried to kill herself via CyanidePill when Ai takes sympathy for her, and Professor Hoshiguki suggests that Logia killed himself to save his own pride.
111	* RealMenWearPink: Jin (Sazer-Dail) is a fashion designer whose Sazer armor is purple, but that doesn't mean he can't kick ass like his fellow Sazers.
112	* RefusalOfTheCall:
113	** Tenma initially doesn't want to do anything with the summoning of the Gransazers as he believes that it's not going to be part of his fate. He comes back because he states "When someone punches me, I punch back."
114	** Makoto also was this at first, until Tenma convinces him to fight.
115	* RecapEpisode: Episode 25 serves as this, recounting the formations of many of the Gransazers and their fights against the villains.
116	* RousingSpeech: Tenma usually gives these to the members of the Water Tribe, explaining that the Gransazers are fighting together and it's nothing about tribes.
117	* {{Sentai}}: With the twist being that it's ''four'' Sentai teams all coming together.
118	* ShoutOut: The opening music theme ends with tunes similar to the intro themes from the first game of ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'', another Konami franchise.
119	* SiblingTeam: Mika and Ken, whenever they fight togehter.
120	* SkywardScream: #22 has [[spoiler:Logia screaming Lucia's name in agony after she dies.]]
121	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: An interesting play: While each tribe has exactly one female Sazer to play the trope straight, the subversion comes when they all got together. The ratio is still the same though.
122	* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: The Gransazers start off fighting each other before coming together to battle Akelon alien Karin Saeki, who puts up a moderately tough challenge but is defeated by only three of the tribes. Then the Impactors arrive and prove much tougher than Karin, forcing all four tribes to team up. They're followed by several one-shot aliens of varying power levels, after which the Gransazers face much stronger opponents in [[spoiler:the Bosquito and even stronger ones in the Garbans, with the FinalBoss Cabryon putting up a tougher fight than anything they've battled previously.]]
123	* SpiceUpTheSubtitles: Happens a lot, especially in regards to Tenma.
124	* TheStoic: The times Naoto smiles can be counted on one hand.
125	* StoryArc: ''Gransazer'' is broken up into four arcs each roughly comprising a quarter of the show.
126	** 1-12: The Flame Tribe gets formed and searches for the members of the Earth Tribe all while having repeated battles against the Wind Tribe, who've been deceived into attacking them by an agent of the Warp Monarch.
127	** 13-24: The last of the tribes, the Water Tribe, is found as the Gransazers do battle against the Impactors, a trio of robotic aliens sent by the Warp Monarch to destroy Earth.
128	** 25-41: A where the Gransazer mostly do battle against various sent by Warp Monarch, all while having repeated encounters with Logia.
129	** 42-51: The Gransazers learn the truth about the conflict involving the ancient human civilization and work to stop the Warp Monarch's final assault.
130	* SuperpowerfulGenetics: The Gransazers all obtained their powers by being descended from the ancient humans.
131	* TakingTheBullet: Subverted. Go tries to do this against Logia [[spoiler: but Tenma pushes him out of the way. Good thing too...Go would've been '''''obliterated''''' if he wasn't pushed.]]
132	* ThePsychoRangers: The Impactor trio, who are HumanAliens with black-armored fighting forms that resemble evil Gransazers.
133	* TokenRomance: [[spoiler:Naoto and Ryoko, who end up married at the finale.]]
134	* TransformationTrinket: The Knuckle Riser, devices the Gransazers equip on the backs of their hands to transform.
135	* {{Tsundere}}: Mika is a Type A, mostly acting abrasive around Tenma while secretly caring about him.
136	* UnexplainedRecovery: Impactor Logia. He clearly committed a suicide attack and when he returned, no real explanation was given apart from that Logia wanted vengeance.
137	* UnreliableNarrator: [[spoiler:The narrator in the first episode turns out to be a literal version. Everything that's said about the war involing the Warp Monarch and the ancient humans turns out to be untrue.]]
138	* VictimOfTheWeek: The routines in the second half of the show are mostly this, with a different human being targeted by a new Warp Monarch [[MonsterOfTheWeek Alien of the Week]] and needing to be defended by the Gransazers.
139	* WesternZodiac: Each Sazer is modeled after a specific sign of the Zodiac.
140	* WhamLine: Ep 18, for Ai.
141	-->'''Lucia:''' ''(while gripping onto Professor Wakui)'' Ah, I see. [[spoiler: So you do care for your father's safety.]]
142	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: A VictimOfTheWeek has a ''far greater'' survival rate if he is a human than if he is an alien.
143	* WhatTheHellHero: Tenma asks what Go was thinking [[spoiler: when Go decides to take a bullet against Logia.]]
144	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: [[spoiler:The end credits for the final episode have a montage showing what all the Gransazers got up to after the battle with Warp Monarch ended. It closes on the other Gransazers and Professor Horiguchi attending Ryouko and Naoto's wedding.]]
145	* WouldHurtAChild: Lucia kicks a boy in the stomach, sending him flying in #19. Fortunately, he survives.
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Context Series / ChouSeiShinGransazer