Anime / Brave Exkaiser

The beginning of a series of brave and courageous talking robots in Japan taking pages from Convoy/Optimus Prime.

Brave Exkaiser (Yuusha Exkaiser) is the first installment in the Brave Series. It was broadcast in 1990 through 1991, and mostly draws inspiration from Transformers.

The story begins with Space Police officer Exkaiser and his men, the Kaisers, pursuing a band of Space Pirates known as the Geisters to Earth. As Energy Beings, both the Kaisers and Geisters are forced to possess mechanical bodies before they can get anything done, though. Exkaiser himself possesses a car belonging to the family of a young boy named Kouta Hoshikawa, who soon discovers his secret and befriends him. With Kouta now by their side, the Kaisers fight to prevent the Geisters from looting Earth's treasures!

Exkaiser was so popular, it soon spawned seven Brave shows after it. Even today, long-time fans still remember it fondly.

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This show provides the following tropes:

• Achilles' Heel: The Lifeforce Capture Device can one shot a member of the Kaisers and Geisters species by pulling them right out of their bodies and sealing them inside it...but if the Emerald Stone that emits the beam gets covered in any way, it won't work.
• Alien Among Us: The Kaisers, being alien Energy Beings hidden among humanity as vehicles.
• Aliens Steal Cable: One of the first things the Geisters stole were televisions (including the big sort on the sides of buildings), which they're seen watching frequently. Justified, as Dino Geist felt they'd be a good means of learning about Earth and see what they can steal.
• Arc Words: "Treasure." Everyone has their own concept of it, from the Geister's materialistic view of it to Exkaiser viewing life as his own treasure. Almost every episode has Exkaiser learning about something humans consider a treasure, and the last interaction the Kaisers have with Kouta is considering their memories of their time together a treasure.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Geister Robos can be anything and they're all gigantic.
• Awesome, yet Impractical: The lower rank Geisers can use the bugs used to create Geister Robos to combine into Mad Geister...however, unlike God Max and Ultra Raker, they don't get along and their inability to work together causes the combination to be near impossible to actually USE in a fight.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • Episode 45 has Dino Geist discover the Life Force Capture Device and Exkaiser is unable to stop him from claiming the other half in Egypt and escaping, his plans for the episode a complete success.
  • In episode 46, while Exkaiser and Ultra Raker manage to evade capture, God Max is imprisoned in the Lifeforce Capture Device and the Geisters escape with both it and him.
  • Episode 47 adds Ultra Raker to the Geister's captives, with Tokuda also being taken captive.
• Bad Santa: The Christmas Special has the Geisters turn a giant Santa statue into a surprisingly buff Geister Robo for their Evil Plan. It then does a Fusion Dance with the reindeer to become a centaur Santa with two monstrous reindeer heads for tails.
• Betty and Veronica: Cheerful Kouta is Kotomi's Betty, and haughty Takumi is her Veronica.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The Geisters are alien robots...Alien robots who can smoke, drink sake and eat cuckoo-clocks. This is even odder when one remembers they don't have bodies naturally, being alien Energy Beings.

• Big Damn Heroes:
  • The Kaisers. All. The. Time. Whenever one of them is in trouble, generally another rushes into the scene to save them.
  • Kouta manages to do this in the Final Battle by leaping into action and freeing God Max and Ultra Raker from the Lifeforce Capture Device.
• BFS: Great Exkaiser's sword, which is bigger than he is (which is saying something given he's as big as the gigantic Dino Geist).
• Bizarre Alien Reproduction: While he understands the concept of a mother, Exkaiser mistakes a pregnant human for being infected with a parasite until Kouta explains how it works, and even then assumes the mother is doing this to protect their child rather than that being how their reproduction works. We don't find out how his species reproduces exactly, but given his reaction and the fact they're Energy Beings, it's safe to say it's different than how humans do it. Complicating things is that the Rakers are twin brothers and Drill Max states he has siblings.
• Black Market: It's implied that the Geisters have connections with an interplaneteery one, as in a few episodes they talk about contacting 'space merchants' to sell their stole goods to, who shows up in episode 24.
• But Now I Must Go: The Kaisers are police officers, and catching the Geisters is their current assignment. So as much as they come to like the Earth, they have to leave once the Geisters have been defeated as they have other missions that require them.
• Butt-Monkey: Tokuda. If there's a way for something to go wrong for the poor guy and cost him a scoop for the paper, it will.
• By The Power Of Grey Skull: "Change, (Name)!!!" is the transformation call for everyone. Combiners use 'Form Up!'.
• Calling Your Attacks: "JET BOOMERANG!" "THUNDER FLASH!!" "THUNDER ARROW!!"
• Captain Ersatz: The Geisters are essentially the Dinobots gone bad.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Golden Coffin from an early episode and the Nasca Lines are both components of a map leading to a 'Life Energy Capture Device' left on Earth in ancient times by Space Police.
• Combining Mecha:
  • The Raker Brothers into Ultra Raker, Max Team into God Max, and Exkaiser with his auxiliary mecha into King Exkaiser, Dragon Kaiser, and Great Exkaiser.
  • The lower ranked Geister generals can combine using the same bugs used to make Geister Robos to form Mad Geister...however, unlike Ultra Raker and God Max (who seem to have one consciousness formed from their components), the Geisters are all separate controlling their own body part. As the Geisters don't get along and bicker constantly, this form is pretty much completely useless.
  • Ptera Geist and Thunder Geist can do the same alone to form the centaur-like Pteder, which goes a lot better due to Ptera Geist being able to work with Thunder's Leeroy Jenkins personality when it's only him to deal with.
  • Armor Geist and Horn Geist can combine using the same method as the other Geister fusions, forming Hormor. As with Pteder, this goes much better than Mad Geister did..
• Cool Big Sis: Fuuko is this to Kouta. Even if she's selfish at times and can be a little annoying to him, she does genuinely care about him and is nice to him when it counts.
• Cool Car: Dash Max's vehicle mode is a race car while Exkaiser's is a futuristic sports car.
• Cool Plane: Sky Max's vehicle mode is a fighter jet. Exkaiser's Dragon Jet also counts.
• Cool Train: Blue and Green Raker have high speed bullet trains capable of flying on energy rails as their vehicle modes.

• Chest Blaster: The lion head on Exkaiser's chest isn't just for show, he's capable of firing a powerful blast of fire from the mouth. The other Kaisers also have their own versions of it, and even Dino Geist has his own fired from his chest piece.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • In episode 25, Dino Geist catches Sky Max alone. He completely overpowers him with one hand and takes him captive with zero effort.
  • In episode 29, Dino Geist fights Dragon Kaiser one on one. Dragon Kaiser doesn't stand a chance and can't even land one hit on him.
• Darkest Hour: The final episode: God Max and Ultra Raker have been imprisoned inside the Lifeforce Capture Device, Tokuda is captured, and Exkaiser is fighting the Geisters all alone, and losing. Thankfully, Kouta manages to turn the tide.
• Deus ex Machina: The debut of the Dragon Jet. It looks like Dino Geist has one and Exkaiser...just kinda calls it out of nowhere with no foreshadowing or build up to chase Dino Geist and catch up with him.
• Die Laughing: Dino Geist laughs as he plunges himself into the sun and kills himself as one last act of spite to Exkaiser.
• Dismantled MacGuffin: The Life Force Capture Device. The device itself was hidden in Japan, but the power source was hidden in Egypt.
• Divine Intervention: The prophecy in episode 31 implies that God himself intervened to revitalize Dragon Kaiser and grant him the ability to combine the Kaiser Sword and the Dragon Arrow into a new weapon that can counter Dino Geist's Dino Shield, as well as form Great Exkaiser.
• The Dragon: Ptera Geist fills this role, being the smartest of the Geisters other than Dino Geist himself and the one who comes up with a lot of their plans.
• Dream Sue: In episode 15, Kouta has a dream where he saves Kotomi from one of the Geisters by turning into King Exkaiser (or rather himself wearing King Exkaiser's armor) and curbstomps him.
• Drill Tank: Drill Max's alternate form.
• Driven to Suicide: Dino Geist kills himself in the sun upon being defeated by Exkaiser, refusing to be arrested and imprisoned.
• Drives Like Crazy: Kouta's mother is like this. It doesn't help that Exkaiser refuses to do any corrections, because it's Mother's Day.
• Dumb Muscle: With the exception of Dino Geist and Ptera Geist, the Geisters are all this. Thunder Geist in particular is noted as being very strong, but very dumb.
• Dwindling Party: After the Geisters get the Lifeforce Capture Device, God Max is quickly sealed inside, followed by Ultra Raker, leaving Exkaiser alone.
• Energy Beings: The Kaisers and Geisters are energy beings possessing Earth machines.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Trader is a black market merchant who will buy anything of value no matter how it was acquired...but he's terrified of Dino Geist and normally relents on his haggling the moment Dino Geist interjects. When Dino Geist abandons him to being arrested without a second thought, he calls Dino Geist too ruthless. While that might have just been because it was his neck on the line, he implies that many people in his line of work want nothing to do with Dino Geist.
• Evil Is Bigger: Dino Geist dwarfs King Exkaiser, being at least twice his size. Kouta even mentions it when he debuts.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Horn Geist tries to steal human dreams, only to find out that is completely impossible. His response? Make a monster specifically so no one can dream out of frustration for them having something unstealable.
  • In episode 41, after their evil lair is destroyed in battle with the Kaisers, the Geisters are reduced to living in a rundown, abandoned warehouse exposed to the elements. They choose to target a dog show out of spite for pets getting to be nice and warm while they're exposed to the winter and freezing.
  • Ultimately the reason Dino Geist kills himself: to spite Exkaiser's mentality that life is a treasure.
• The Faceless: Dragon, Dragon Kaiser's drone form.
• Failed a Spot Check: Somehow, the occupants of a baseball stadium somehow miss the entire stadium being picked up by giant monsters with them inside it repeatedly, thinking they're just earthquakes. Kouta's the only one who actually noticed.
• Fast Tunnelling: The Geisters other than Ptera Geist do this, and it's their main method of getting around and stealing things.
• Finishing Move:
  • King Exkaiser: Thunder Flash, a vertical slash with the Kaiser Sword to bisect the enemy.
  • Dragon Kaiser: Thunder Arrow, a powerful arrow that pierces the enemy.
  • Great Exkaiser: Thunder Flash, Great Exkaiser turns gold and triggers a huge explosion, charging through it to bisect his target.
  • God Max:
    • God Sonic Buster: fires Deadly Rings of sonic energy to bind and destroy the target.
    • God Cosmic Bomber: forms a powerful energy ball via his hands and the mouth of the eagle head in his chest then throws it at the enemy.
    • God Bird Attack: turns into a blue energy bird and flies through the opponent.
  • Ultra Raker:
    • Ultra Double Chain Crusher: Launches his shoulder pauldrons off on chains and either smashes the enemy or wraps them up before doing a powerful slam into the ground.
    • Ultra Cannon Beam: A powerful beam fired from his forehead.
• Fish out of Water:
  • Exkaiser frequently asks Kouta to explain various things about human culture to him, as it's all completely new to him.
  • While their own stupidity is a big road block, the Geisters also run into this problem and often end up going after completely useless things due to misunderstanding the importance humans put on things or figures of speech. Even the generally much more competent Dino Geist runs into this issue on several occasions.
• Forced to Watch: In episode 47, the Geisters begin attacking bullet trains hunting for the Rakers so they can capture them with the Lifeforce Capture Device as they did God Max. Unfortunately for poor Green Raker, Ptera Geist starts attacking the station he's at, having to choose between exposing himself and being put at risk, or letting innocent people be put in harms way for his sake. He ultimately can't take it anymore end exposes himself to protect the people despite knowing its a trap.
• Friend in the Black Market: The Geisters have one, named Trader, who buys their stolen goods. Dino Geist views him as easily replaceable and outright abandons him when he gets caught.
• God Is Good: God is prayed to by a few characters, and they normally get out okay when they do (and when Kouta did it on one occasion, it brings down a Bolt of Divine Retribution), and it's heavily implied Exkaiser gaining the ability to turn into Great Exkaiser is a gift from God himself.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Dino Geist's plans with the Life Force Capture Divice: to use a divice left on Earth for Exkaiser to seal him and the other Kaisers away.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: In episode 25, Dino Geist captures Sky Max and forces the other Kaisers to look for the X Virus in exchange for his life, giving them two hours. Naturally, he had no intention of living up to his end of the bargain.
• Hot-Blooded: It's Brave Series, hotblooded is to be expected, and even as the first in the series, the main protagonists due a lot of dramatic screaming.
• Humble Hero: Exkaiser saves humanity at the risk of his own life on a weekly basis, but seeks no praise for it. He gets embarrassed when praised by anyone.
• Humongous Mecha: All the robot characters are at least a few stories tall. Great Exkaiser and Dino Geist take the cake, though, dwarfing everyone else by a significant margin.
• Hurl It into the Sun: Dino Geist does this to himself to commit suicide rather than be captured by Exkaiser.
• I Die Free: Dino Geist casts himself into the sun and destroys himself rather than being arrested by Exkaiser.
• I Lied: Hostage exchanges usually never end well normally against Dino Geist because he never had any intentions to honor his end of the bargain. After he gets his item, he'll usually strike back instead of honoring his promise. Exkaiser and his team usually has to be a little more creative to get through that.
• Large and in Charge: Dino Geist dwarfs his crew. When all of them are in dino mode, the other Geisters come up to his knees. His robot mode is at least twice as large as King Exkaiser.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to the more grim Jushin Liger anime, the show which previously held its timeslot, this show is about as kid-friendly as it gets.
• Laughably Evil: Despite being the most dangerous space pirates in the Galaxy, the Geisters have a collective IQ of about 5. Ptera Geist is somewhat smarter than his allies, but not by that much. Averted with Dino Geist himself is generally a bit more intelligent than his minions, much to his frustration.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Takumi is a Spoiled Brat who loves rubbing his supposed superiority in everyone's faces, but is shown to have his nice moments and genuinely does care about his classmates and desire their company.
• Knight of Cerebus: While Dino Geist was present from day one, once he decides to get involved personally things get much more serious due to him being much more dangerous and competent than all his minions combined, with a lot more Near Villain Victories for the Geisters.
• Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • Exkaiser's Dragon Jet, which not only gives him a ride to fly on, but can act as an independent drone mecha called Dragon and combine with him to form Dragon Kaiser.
  • Dino Geist gets one in episode 31: the Dino Shield, which can not only defend against even Dragon Kaiser's Thunder Arrow, but unleash an extremely powerful attack. It takes literal Divine Intervention in the form of an ancient prophecy coming to past for Exkaiser to be able to damage it, let alone break through it.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: In Episode 30, for once, the Geisters managed to steal a treasure from Earth and the Kaisers fail to stop them! Unfortunately for them, it's cigarettes, it's also hazardous for them (causing them to cough) and they can't sell it to the space merchant. But it's still a 'win' for the bad guys, not that Dino Geist is pleased with this kind of victory.
• Meta Mecha: Exkaiser's combinations both see him more or less get inside and pilot the larger form.
• Mouth of Sauron: Komori, Dino Geist's little bat-like minion, often fills this role, reporting Dino Geist's plans to his minions while he continues researching new things for them to steal. Or chewing them out for their stupidity. Around episode 21, he finally gets fed up enough with their stupidity to chew them out face to face.
• Monsters of the Week: The Geister Robos, mechanical monsters formed when the Geisters put mechanical bugs on objects that convert them into giant monstrous robots.

• Near-Villain Victory:
  • In episode 13, Dino Geist's plan to make Mt. Fuji nearly succeeds, and almost kills Exkaiser in the process. Dash Max managing to turn the tables is the only thing that stopped it.
  • In episode 24, Dino Geist has his minions attack a separate target to distract the heroes from a much more clever hijacking of a cruise ship. Making matters worse, the Geisters block radio transmissions, meaning Kouta can't contact Exkaiser. If Exkaiser hadn't realized that Kouta being out of radio contact was unusual, he'd have gotten the ship traded in with his client before the heroes even realized anything had happened.
• The Needless: While they can eat, the Geisters and Kaisers don't actually need to nor do they need to sleep.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Being energy beings in a Super Robot show, the Kaisers can apparently use convenient situational powers, like coolant beams for shutting down nuclear reactors.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Dino Geist, even by the already high standard of his species. It says a lot that being hit by a city killer level meteor, experiencing unprotected atmospheric re-entry, and then having the meteor he's being hit by blown up with Exkaiser's Finishing Move to actually do any significant damage to him.
• No Honor Among Thieves: In episode 46, the Space Merchant gets captured and tells the heroes to try trading him for the captured God Max. Dino Geists response is to shrug and tell him there's plenty more Space Merchants where he came from. In the final episode, he abandons his crew to the same fate and attempts to flee the planet.
• No-Sell: God Max attempts to use the God Sonic Bomber on Dino Geist. It has no effect. At all. Even being triple teamed by all three of the heroes at once and taking a direct hit from Exkaiser's Thunder Flash only succeeds in creating a Smoke Shield. He doesn't lose this either, as most of the Kaiser's attacks barely make him flinch.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain:
  • Horn Geist, while normally as incompetent as his teammates, shows this in Episode 15 when he singlehandedly creates a monster that causes havoc all over Japan by preventing people from sleeping (which as Exkaiser points out is greatly increasing the risk of traffic accidents due to sleep deprivation. Not only that, but because their passengers end up disabled by the monster's sonic waves, the Raker Brothers can't join in the fight, and the monster itself is one of the most powerful up until that point with an attack that the Kaisers have no defense against. The result is them very nearly killing Exkaiser, beating down Jet Max and Sky Max, and being one of the first monsters to seriously overpower King Exkaiser while he's wielding the Kaiser Sword.
  • In general the lesser Geisters got a competence boost after Dino Geist spends some time in the field, even managing a few near wins after he falls back.
• Orcus on His Throne: Dino Geist spends most of his time sitting in his lair, separate from his minions, sifting through the news media to see what Earth has that's worth stealing. It isn't until 22 he finally chooses to leave his base and start looking into things personally. Finally, in episode 24, he gets ticked off enough to take care of things personally.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Dino Geist decides to take matters into his own hands in episode 24...and shows that he's a much bigger threat than the rest of the Geisters combined. It takes all three of the Kaisers to make a dent in him. He's also far more competent than his minions, with his plan only failing because Exkaiser realized Kouta's radio being out was a sign of trouble. Great Exkaiser is the only opponent capable of fighting him evenly one on one.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Well, except the first one, being robots and all. But according to Exkaiser, the Geisters' MO is to attack planets, pillaging everything of value while destroying everything that gets in their way.
• Rescue Romance: Fuuko falls in love with a mysterious driver who saves her from being crushed by an out of control truck. The problem? It's Dash Max and naturally no such driver exists.
• Revenge: In episode 13, Dino Geist's plan to make Mt. Fuji erupt is explicitly revenge on Exkaiser on the heroes for constantly thwarting him rather than to steal treasure like his other plans.
• Sadistic Choice: In episode 27, Dino Geist holds a space station hostage to force the Kaisers to hand over a satellite. The problem? Said satellite is vital to protect the Earth from an incoming meteor shower. If the Kaisers trade him the satellite, the Earth will be left defenseless against the meteors. If he doesn't, Dino Geist smashes the space station and kills everyone on board. Exkaiser chooses to hand over the satellite and do his best to get them back after they're clear.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Dino Geist attempts this in the final episode when the Final Battle starts going south, grabbing Kouta in one last act of spite and fleeing the planet. Exkaiser cuts him off however, leading to the two having a final showdown on the moon.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The Halloween Episode has what seems to be a supernatural entity behind the attacks, but it's actually a Geister Robo made to look like one, with the intention that humans would mistake the monster for an actual demon or monster instead of realizing they were behind it.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The intended purpose of the Lifeforce Capture Device: to be used to pull evil members of the Kaisers' and Geisters' species out of their mechanical hosts and imprison them inside of it. Unfortunately, the Geisters end up getting it instead. The lesser Geisters end up imprisoned inside of it after being defeated by Ultra Raker and God Max in the Final Battle.
• Sealed Good in a Can: What the Geisters intend to use the Life Force Capture Device for: to imprison the Kaisers inside it and give them free reign. They manage to do so to God Max, followed quickly by Ultra Raker. Kouta releases them.
• Shout-Out:
  • The call for back up Exkaiser sends out in the first episode greatly resembles the Ultra sign.
  • In Episode 40, inside the Robot fair, a statue of a pastiche of Mazinger Z can be seen.
• Show Within a Show: "Justice Police Mekaman", a Toku program Kouta and Takumi enjoy.
• Space Pirate: The Geisters are a gang of space pirates who came to Earth seeking treasures to loot and pillage.
• Space Police: Exkaiser and his allies are these, having come to Earth pursuing the Geisters.
• Spiteful Suicide: In the finale, Dino Geist throws himself into the sun rather than let Exkaiser arrest him to mock the belief of his nemesis that all life is precious.
  Dino Geist: "Life is a treasure, you say? Then I can't let you have this life of mine!"
• Spoiled Brat: Takumi, who's a rich kid and views himself as entitled to anything he wants.
• Spoiler Opening: Dino Geist's robot mode is hidden until episode 24, with him spending most of his time concealed in his T-Rex mode with his jet mode not appearing until episode 22. However, the opening clearly shows his upper body. Particularly bad because the other Geisters are kept in their dino modes.
• Strike Me Down: Dino Geist tells Exkaiser to do this after being defeated in the Final Battle. Exkaiser refuses, intending instead to arrest him. Dino Geist does it himself.
• Storming the Castle: In episode 40, Kouta accidentally gets abducted by the Geisters and taken to their Supervillain Lair. He manages to keep a signal open long enough for Exkaiser to track it, leading to the Kaisers storming their base. The resulting fight triggers the volcano the Geisters made said lair in to erupt, destroying it and forcing both sides to fall back.
• Super Mode: Great Exkaiser, the combination of King Exkaiser and the Dragon Jet.
• Supervillain Lair: The Geisters have one made underground beneath a volcano until episode 40 when the Kaisers find it and the resulting fight destroys it. After that, they're reduced to hiding out in a rundown, drafty abandoned warehouse which they lesser Geisters accidentally light on fire and expose. They then make their HQ on a tropical island.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In episode 3, the Kaisers manage to drive off the Geisters and defeat the monster they made from a nuclear power plant without the reactor exploding...but that means the humans still need to repair it and thus a power outage is going to happen for awhile.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Dino Geist at several points is very frustrated about his minions lack of intelligence.
• Take Me Instead: In episode 25, Dino Geist takes Sky Max's hostage and forces the Kaisers to search for the X Virus he's after. When they run out of time, Exkaiser offers himself instead, but Dino Geist refuses to fall for the obvious trick, instead only giving a 30 minute extension. Exkaiser then offers to be killed instead when the time runs out again (which Dino Geist agrees to), but the others arrive just in time.
• The Dreaded: Dino Geist. Everyone is scared of him, and he's known as the most dangerous criminal in the universe.
• The Juggernaut: Dino Geist once he starts acting in person. Anything except Great Exkaiser has no hope at all of meaningfully harming him, and when it requires intervention from God himself to stop you, you're this trope.
• Theme Music Power-Up: In episode 35, Kotomi playing the show's ending theme on the piano causes the battered Kaisers to have a Heroic Second Wind.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Exkaiser is a cop, not an executioner. While he'll destroy Monsters of the Week, those aren't sapient. The Geisters themselves are and Exkaiser might be willing to beat the hell out of them, but he wants to arrest them, not kill them, as he sees all life as precious. Indeed, at the end the Kaisers arrest the lesser Geisters and Trader and Exkaiser attempts to arrest Dino Geist after defeating him. Dino Geist had something else in mind.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Tokuda finally gets his scoop when he manages to get pictures of the Final Battle with Dino Geist.
• Transforming Mecha: Both the Kaisers and the Geisters are this trope. Justified, as their alternate mode is the machine they possessed when they arrived on Earth. Dino Geist is unique in that he's a triple changer, being able to turn into a T-Rex and a jet.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Generally played straight, as the Kaisers and Geisters seem to follow the 'instantanious transformation in universe' versions for the most part...but subverted in episode 28 when Dino Geist has his minions ambush the King Loader during Exkaiser's combination sequence and smash it up. Granted, they weren't aware that Exkaiser could combine with the Dragon Jet at the time, but still.
• Very Special Episode: Episode 30 deals with the dangers of cigarettes and tabacco. Interestingly enough, in addition to Kouta's father struggling to break his smoking habit, it focuses a lot on the problems secondhand smoke can cause.

• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The show has a pretty light tone to it, with most of the Geisters being Laughably Evil. However, Dino Geist himself is not played for laughs, instead always being portrayed dead seriously, and almost always sends his minions after something of genuine value rather than the random stuff they normally go after. In episode 13, his plan consists of triggering Mt. Fuji to erupt, purely for revenge on the Kaisers for constantly wrecking his plans.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The Geisters do this practically once an episode when their monster is going to lose.

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