The third series of the Bakugan franchise, simply titled "Bakugan" (also known as Bakugan Revolution or Bakugan: Battle Clan in other countries), is a Continuity Reboot of the series being released shortly after Bakugan: Battle Planet.
Much like the prior two continuities, the story begins as the titular Bakugan make First Contact and arrive on Earth, with Dan Kouzo and his friends being some of the first to bond with them, with everyone on Earth quickly discovering that brawling is a way of life for the Bakugan. Thus, brawling would become a public sport, with kids all over Earth bonding with a Bakugan and taking part, especially Dan and one of the first arriving Bakugan, Drago. And during a tournament battle with their rivals Kage and Nillious, Dan and Drago would discover the power of a bond can bring out a Bakugan's true power, allowing them to grow to a Kaiju size and granting a Gate Card to use to create specialized arenas for brawls.
However, things take a turn from the usual series of events as a result of an attack on a city by a couple of Bakugan driven berserk. While Dan and his friends are able to stop them, the damage has been done, and authorities would outlaw brawling all over the world as a result. However, Bakugan Brawlers around the planet wouldn't take this standing down, as Dan and his friends would discover, many brawlers would form clans (usually consisting of a single species, Mammal, Dragon, Insect, ect.) and partake in underground battles to let their way of life flourish without having to deal with the authorities. And as a result, our heroes would form their own clan, the Misfit Clan, to make their mark on the underground brawling world.
The first half of Season One was released on Netflix on September 1, 2023, with an early preview of the first two episodes being aired on Roblox. The second half of Season One was later released on Netflix on January 8, 2024.
Bakugan (2023) contains examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Much like the second generation of Bakugan, all Bakugan are rendered in CGI with humans rendered in a hand-drawn style.
- Adaptational Location Change: Vestroia, instead of being another dimension separate from the human one in the previous two continuities, is another galaxy this time around.
- Adaptational Villainy: The previous continuity's incarnation of Nillious started off as a Noble Demon Anti-Villain before undergoing a Heel–Face Turn, and even before then he is shown to have Undying Loyalty towards his human partner, whereas this continuity's incarnation of Nillious is an Omnicidal Maniac with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder who serves as the Big Bad of Season 1.
- Calling Your Attacks: Human partners are able to call out special attacks for Bakugan to use, with the Bakugan occasionally calling it out in sync as well.
- Cool Mask: V, the main antagonist of the second half of Season One, wears an electronic mask with a large Slasher Smile on it.
- Darker and Edgier: While not as dark as the original continuity, it still manages to be noticeably darker than the previous reboot, with the Bakugan’s arrival on Earth being the result of a failed attempt at multiplanetary genocide in a galaxy-wide war and the series now once again being willing to kill off characters after the previous reboot went through its entire run without killing anyone off.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: In the third episode, as a result of Bakugan brawls being banned, Drago is left to work at a fast food burger shop. A job that he's not quite good at, apparently taking an hour to bring out a single order to the drive-thru.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Enforced by Nillious, who insists that Bakugan be separated by species, and arranges for the Brawlers using them to be broken up into 6 clans (Dragon, Avian, Dino, Aqua, Insect and Mammal).
- Chip is shown to have this attitude towards all Bakugan in general, seeing them as nothing more than dangerous creatures even before the mysterious rampages started happening. Once Bakugan brawls are made illegal, he proceeds to enforce the new law to his heart's content and begins to actively look for excuses to arrest Bakugan and their human partners, no matter how flimsy they may be. This eventually gets him killed, as he abandons his responsibility to evacuate civilians to try to arrest Drago while he's defending the city from rampaging Bakugan during the final battle of Season one and ends up getting crushed to death by large pieces of falling debris.
- Framing Device: The origin of how the Bakugan arrived on Earth is narrated by Dan for a news report livestream for Tia Dee in the first episode.
- Fun with Acronyms: In Gate Card arenas, BAMs, a.k.a. Bakugan Ability Modifications, are used to empower Bakugan.
- Make My Monster Grow: As a result of a strong bond between human and Bakugan, a Bakugan can grow to an even larger form that's capable of using various special attacks.
- Market-Based Title: The series is called Bakugan 3.1 in Latin American, Bakugan: Battle Clan in Canada and Bakugan: Revolution in certain countries.
- Mascot's Name Goes Unchanged: Once again like the previous generation, Dan and Drago's names are unchanged, with Dan in particular keeping the surname of Battle Planet's Dan (Kouzo) rather than the original's (Kuso).
- Mon Tech: Brawlers can use card technology to create arenas called BAM (Bakugan Ability Modifications) Zones. These stadias can allow Bakugan to battle without causing collateral damage while gaining power-ups. They can also evolve Bakugan, but it needs to be unlocked by Brawlers by researching the card's data while understanding how to use it.
- New Season, New Title: Subverted, as unlike any other Bakugan season in either continuity, this series has no subtitle to it, or at least for the first season.
- Recycled Animation: The "rollout" sequences for several Bakugan have them go through very similar motions
to ones from Battle Planet. - Sealed Evil in a Can: Nillious' fate in the Season One finale. After his defeat at the hands of the Clans, Nillious gets stuck on his ball form and is imprisoned at a special cell at Illusion Tech.
- Sequel Hook: At the end of Season One, Nillious has been defeated, peace has been restored between the Clans and the Nanjiani brothers have reconciled. However, an unknown individual with nefarious intentions has stolen V's mask, an artifact with immense power.
- Spoiled Brat: Chip, the son of a mayor which he won't let anyone forget, not only displays Fantastic Racism towards the alien Bakugan seeing them as nothing more than dangerous creatures, but also is left in charge by his dad of a military group enforcing the "no brawling" policy in his city, being more than proud to put a stop to any brawling he finds, let alone just arrest Bakugan in general.
- Tempting Fate: While Dan is trying to convince Chip that Bakugan are harmless in the second episode, the second he says Bakugan wouldn't hurt anyone, a pair of Bakugan suddenly go berserk and attack a city.
