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Bakugan Battle Brawlers is the story of six children who find Bakugan, which are these spherical toy-like things that transform into Mons, and must save the Bakugan's world, Vestroia. Some of these have their own spirits and are able to speak—all of the main characters, and most of the supporting cast, have one of these.

All and all, Bakugan could be seen as a combination of many different popular series. It is in varying parts reminiscent of Digimon (the whole "save both worlds" thing— it probably skews closest to Tamers in concept if not in tone), Yu-Gi-Oh! (the sentient Bakugan are somewhat like the spirit monsters in GX, and the game is played with cards), Pokémon (in that Pokémon was one of the first "mon" series and this series features battling monsters contained in spherical devices), and Beyblade (Merchandise-Driven). There is one notable difference from these series, and that is that the non-human characters are able to talk while in ball form. (Go ahead, there's no instance where a Pokémon ever talks to its trainer while inside a Poké Ball.)

The rules are hard to pin point, since they were never fully explained and change whenever necessary, similar to the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Best to just leave it alone.

Was followed by a sequel series, Bakugan: New Vestroia set a few years after the end of Battle Brawlers, followed by a third series, Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders, which was then followed by Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge, which ended its broadcast in Canada and the United States. Additionally, there are three video games available on all seventh generation consoles.

A Reboot based on the Manga titled Baku Tech! Bakugan has started airing on TV Tokyo and animated by Xebec as part of Oha Coro. However, this one is received poorly by the fans. It also spawned a sister series, Zoobles which is aimed more for the girly crowd.

Spin Master first made reference to a Western reboot of the franchise in their 2015 Q3 financial report,note  then later went mum for a good couple of years before a trademark was filed late in 2017. Bakugan: Battle Planet is the name for the seemingly more straightforward Bakugan reboot.note  According to a couple more recent financial reports, Battle Planet will be in the currently vogue style of 2 Quarter Hour Shorts and that they're aiming for a tentative release date for the show and its toys in 2019. Said reports also alluded to the possibility of a movie in the discussion phase, and a 2017 business report also has a couple of shots of the new cast and the Pyrus-using lead (a redesign of Dan Kuso), which have been clipped for convenient viewing here and here.

Not to be confused with Bakuman。. Or Byakugan. Or even Bakuon!!.


Provides examples of:

  • 10-Minute Retirement: Runo briefly quits brawling in episode 26 of the first season. But she comes back after Dan gives her a disgusting health drink (since he thought she was sick, and thus not thinking straight) and an Opinion-Changing Dream wherein Masquerade still comes after and defeats her.
  • Aborted Arc: In New Vestroia, Drago separates himself from the Perfect Core to fight against the Vexos, and because of this, he no longer has full access to its power. He can briefly tap into the Perfect Core with special Ability Cards, however (which was instrumental to victory in several brawls), with the implication that he would gradually recover his full strength. Despite its plot importance and the fact that it was the target of Spectra’s obsession before his Heel–Face Turn, the writers began to forget about Drago’s Perfect Core powers until Gundalian Invaders, where they were completely gone and were effectively replaced with the Element and later the Sacred Orb.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: Shun's grandfather in the dub. Originally, when Shiori was in the hospital, he would tell Shun that her condition was getting worse, and when she passed away, he told Shun the situation with her and Skyress, explaining that Shiori wanted to give Skyress to him for his birthday. In the dub however, along with keeping Shiori alive (Albeit in a coma), Shun's grandfather is changed to a Fantasy Forbidding Grandfather, as he instead calls Shun to tell him he's taking over his life, and mere seconds after Shiori slips into a coma, he tells Shun he's going to force him to focus on his ninja training and that he won't be playing Bakugan anymore.
  • Aesop Amnesia: Episodes 5 and 6 spend time showing Dan and Runo learning to work together as a team, only to begin bickering again at the end. Lampshaded by Tigrerra in the former.
    Tigrerra: And I thought I'd finally understood them.
    Drago: Tigrerra, we'll never fully understand humans.
  • Affectionate Parody: Elfin/Minx Elfin to the titular character of Sailor Moon.
  • Alien Invasion: After Naga was destroyed in the first season finale, the next two seasons had extradimensional aliens as their main villains.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Mira is obviously into Dan, however, Runo beat her to the punch.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Julie and her family have dark skin. They avert this trope in the Japanese version, where they are an Australian family with the last name Hayward. The dub changed the name to Makimoto, implying Japanese descent while removing the specific notion they're from Australia.
  • An Alien Named "Bob": The vestals from New Vestroia are a race of human-like aliens. Some of them have normal names, like Mira and Gus.
  • And the Adventure Continues: Mechtanium Surge, and the series as a whole, ends with Dan and Drago sailing off into the distance, both sure that wherever the wind takes them, adventure will follow.
  • Art Evolution:
    • Gundalian Invaders finally stopped with all the Off-Model-ness, but the Lip Lock is still heavily present.
    • Battle Planet also exhibits this with radically new designs and more consistent animation quality for both 2D and 3D animation compared to the earlier seasons. This is likely due to Nelvana and Spin Master having more involvement this time around.
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Each of the characters wears attire that has matching colors with their attribute (except for Alice in the first season), and it occurs every seasons. Coincidence? Can't think so.
  • The Artifact: Julie in Gundalian Invaders; the sole reasons for her apperance there was to give Jake some pointers early on and to remind the viewers that the original cast was more gender-balanced.
  • Bad Future: 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 Midriffs Are Feminine: In the first season, Runo and Julie, two of the three female brawlers in the main cast, wear crop tops, while Alice and the boys don't. The more feminine and emotional Julie continues to wear crop tops in the following two seasons, while the more tomboyish Runo doesn't continue the trend. On one occasion, Julie mentions that she is proud of doing this.
  • The Baroness: Mylene and Kazarina both play this role in their respective seasons.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: While both alien races are able to disguise as normal humans, the Neathians tend to look more human-like and more conventionally attractive than the Gundalians, who often have Big Ol' Eyebrows or Face of a Thug.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Dan and Runo. Drago and Wavern are also shown to have this.
    • Shadow and Mylene in New Vestroia.
  • Becoming the Mask: 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.
  • BFG: Ren's Boomix battle gear and Keith's Zukanator Battle Gear.
  • 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, although it turns out Mag Mel was Barodius and Wiseman was a disguise for Coredegon.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Jake’s general personality when not brainwashed..
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Dr. Michael as Hal-G. On top of that, it seems like everyone is getting brainwashed in Gundalian Invaders
  • Bratty Half-Pint: Recurring character Nene, who at one point calls herself “the smartest person in the world”, despite being visibly younger than any other battler in the show.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the episode where Dan and Runo meet in person, the scene before they actually meet has Runo noted the Plot Parallel with both her and Dan taking advantage of a sale at the butcher’s, commenting “I’m probably going to run into Dan there.”
  • Bust-Contrast Duo: Initially rivals for Dan's feelings and later best friends, Runo is a small-chested, spunky Type A Tsundere and Julie is a well developed (especially for her age) girl who is cheerful, optimistic, and genuinely nice.
  • Calling Your Attacks:
    • "Ability Card Activate! (Insert card name here)!"
    • And, of course: "Gate Card, Open!!"
  • Catchphrase: Akwimos's "Cool is the rule, dude!"
  • Came from the Sky: The Bakugan Cards
    Dan: My whole world changed one day when all these random cards started raining down everywhere! At first they seemed harmless enough so a bunch of us kids invented this cool new game... That's when we realized those cards weren't so harmless after all!
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys: There are many attractive boys in the series, including Shun, Klaus, Spectra, Gus, and possibly Jesse and Hydron as well.
  • Char Clone:
    • Spectra Phantom wears mostly red (including a mask), is blonde, is The Rival, and is actually named Keith Fermin, the older brother of Mira Fermin.
    • Masquerade doesn't have a thing for red nor does he actually a she have a younger sister, but he is mostly this trope.
  • 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.
    • The Fusion Abilities in New Vestroia and onward are a type of this, as they significantly boost the attack of a Bakugan and can only be activated after activating a basic Ability.
  • Combined Energy Attack: Dragonoid Destroyer gets powered up by the energy of the bond between all humans and Bakugan on earth, activating his Golden Super Mode and allowing him to obliterate Mechtavius Destroyer in one hit.
  • Continuity Porn:
    • Mechtanium Surge has been this so far. Characters from all seasons have been making reappearances in important roles, including Spectra and Preyas (well, half of him, Preyas Angelo/Diablo is nowhere to be seen), Gundelia and Vestoria have been revisited for multi-episode arcs,and Mag Mel is the previous season's Big Bad, Emperor Barodius. And the season isn't even halfway over yet! Also a case of Tropes Are Not Bad, as this is one of the best things the season has going for it so far.
    • The episode 'Blast from the Past' in the second half of the season is a glaring example. It brought back both Preyas forms, Minx Elfin, Skyress, Gorem, Ingram, the list goes on, but it's basically every partner Bakugan except Drago from previous seasons. It's a shame they were just there to get beaten though...
  • Contrived Coincidence: Dan, Runo and Shun all live in the same country. Subverted in that Dan and Shun knew each other as children.
  • Cool Mask: Masquerade and Spectra both wear these, as is par for the Char of the series.
  • Costume Evolution: In the original series, every Bakugan player wears fingerless gloves; they're unofficial obligatory equipment. Yet they are strangely absent from the third season so far.
  • Crash-Into Hello: This is how Dan and Runo find out they live in the same city. They weren't paying attention to where they were going and crashed into each other. They first express annoyance at the other, and then surprise that they are meeting each other in real life as opposed to online.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: Drago, oh so much. Bonus points for being a literal dragon and turning into an actual crystal at the end of the first season.
  • Crystal Spires and Togas: Neathia is a technologically advanced planet home to beautiful landscapes and gigantic crystal formations, which the locals use to build their city.
  • 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.
  • Cyborg : Helios decides to become one because he couldn't evolve any further (it's heavily hinted that Viper Helios is his Ultimate evolution) yet he still wanted more power to defeat Drago. He has three cybernetic forms (two in New Vestroia and one in Mechtanium Surge):
    • Cyborg Helios MK 1 is the Flawed Prototype form, marginally stronger than his (organic) Viper form, with most of the upgrades being a new set of wings with built in cannons, the FARBAS damage repair system and the ability to combine with the Maxus Traps mentioned below.
    • The MK 2 upgrade gives Helios a lot more toys to play with: besides retaining the wing cannons, he gets a Chest Blaster (a reference to the Sazabi), a new right hand with finger lasers that can also work as a Rocket Punch (a reference to the Zeong) that covers an Arm Cannon that can be used once fists-a-fly on top of that. MK 2 further improves on the FARBAS repair system by giving Helios three more versions: EM which allows him to survive simultaneous attacks, RX which lets him nullify gate cards and all ability cards for a limited time, and D2 which lets him nullify all ability cards once they've been activated during D2's activation period. And he retains the compatibility with the Maxus traps AND gains the ability to use not one, but TWO different sets of Battle Gear (the only Bakugan in the anime ever shown to do this): one that is a pair of shoulder Gatling cannons and another one being a big-effin-cannon that is a reference to the Hyaku Shiki's Mega Beam Launcher. Whew.
    • Infinity Helios from Mechtanium Surge is a streamlined, Darkus version of Cyborg Helios MK 2 that ditches a lot of the tacked-on mecha-reference weapons, so he only retains the Chest Blaster and FARBAS system (which has been upgraded even further to FARBAS Infinity). He also completely ditches the wings for a Jet Pack that contains a plethora of lasers that robotech towards their targets, but retains the ability to combine with a BakuNano (essentially miniaturized and significantly improved Battle Gear), his being a set of big-effin beam guns. Helios loves his dakka.
  • Darker and Edgier:
    • Part 2 of New Vestroia made battling more lethal, with a body count consisting of both Bakugan and brawlers.
    • Gundalian Invaders involves an actual war. Permanent character death is a common sight.
    • Mechtanium Surge's first Big Bad, Mag Mel, was imprisoned for genocide and seeks to destroy the entire universe!
      • The second Big Bad outdoes him by leveling an entire city and killing off all the Bakugan! To clarify, there's no attempt to cover up that destroying the city killed millions of people. In fact, it's very heavily implied that it did. Thank goodness the Brawlers Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
  • Dark Is Evil: Hal-G, Masquerade, Barodius and Ren. Ren turns good later, and Masquerade decides to help Dan during their final brawl together before fading away.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Alice and Ace use Darkus-attributed Bakugan. Spectra also uses the now-Darkus Helios in Mechtanium Surge and, given he is Older and Wiser there, is firmly on the side of the good guys.
  • Darkest Hour: All of the seasons tend to have their moments.
    • In the first season, Naga has managed to cross to Earth and immediately races towards the Infinity Core and Wavern while the Brawlers are stuck in Vestroia, and even when children are able to release their Bakugan to fight Naga's army, they are only able to slow them down. The tide only turns when Drago is forced to kill Wavern to ensure Naga cannot get the Infinity Core.
    • The second season has two of them.
      • The first one is early on when Tigrerra is captured by the Vexals, at which point the Resistance is on the verge of collapse. This prompts the Six Soldiers of Vestroia to send Drago to Earth to summon aid.
      • The second one is when Drago is captured and brainwashed putting the Resistance at a severe psychological disadvantage.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Preyas’ dialogue consists of little but this. Gets even worse with Preyas Diablo.
  • Defecting for Love: Lync turns against the Vexos out of love for Alice.
  • Defector from Decadence:
    • Downplayed, but Masquerade decides to help Dan battle the remaining Doom Beings at Alice's behest, but even by his own admission he will do it only once.
    • Volt and Lync both leave the Vexos because they want no part in Zenoheld's new genocide plans. Lync even sacrifices himself to deliver the plans to Alice.
    • Mira forms the Resistance after discovering the Bakugan her father was torturing intelligent lifeforms, rather than mindless animals that the Vestals had previously assumed the Bakugan were.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Zenthon, a Mechtogan spawned from Drago's out of control power, was a rampaging beast until finally, Drago managed to best him in battle, resulting in him coming under Drago's control. Though in this case, it was described as "breaking a wild horse" and showing it whose the master.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Julie, Runo and Alice in New Vestroia. Okay, maybe more like demoted to second tier, but until they regain the ability to brawl, the trope still applies.
    • By the time of Gundalian Invaders, Runo and Alice don't even appear. Runo's mentioned in a picture, but that's about it.
    • Then, Runo returns as a (fairly) main character in the second half of Mechtanium Surge, but she's still retired from battling. Mira also comes back, but she's more or less Mission Control now. There's also Julie, who like Runo is still retired from battling and now works as a news reporter.
  • Disney Death: Gus and Vulcan seemingly get disintegrated by Zenoheld, but later turn out to have survived and been imprisoned.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Elfin, to Preyas.
  • 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.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the first episode, originally when Shuji goes on to pronounce himself as the "Master of Subterra", Dan's response is one of faked shock, noting that he's never heard of Shuji, letalone someone with such a title. In the dub however, he's in shock because he's unaware of what Subterra is... despite the fact he was one of the people who invented the game.
  • Dub Pronunciation Change: The Italian dub as Shun's name pronounced like it was "Sean".
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Hydron is made of this trope. As a Prince, everyone treats him as a Spoiled Brat and tries to undermine him. As a Vexos warrior, he turns out to be the most competent of Zenoheld’s minions, but is constantly being punished for his allies’ failures.
  • Elemental Powers: Pyrus (fire), Aquos (water), Ventus (air), Subterra (earth), Haos (light), and Darkus (darkness). These powers are drawn from Infinity (positive energy), which allows Bakugan to use all elements, and Silence (negative energy), which amplifies dark power to extreme heights. When combined, they form Perfect energy, and a Bakugan can use any element to its fullest, or even bend space and time.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: Julie thinking that Shun is helping Masquerade is not helped by the fact that his grandfather, who resembles the villain Hal-G is visiting town.
  • 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.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Masquerade's first partner, Reaper, objects to being sent to the Doom Dimension.
    • Gus seems visibly appalled at Mylene throwing away Elico and Brontes because of the fact they're sentient. Subverted, in that he goes on to put them through brainwashing and torture.
    • Volt and Lync leave the Vexos once they begin their master plan to destroy the universe.
  • Evil Twin: Naga, to Wavern. (They're fraternal twins, by the way.)
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • Dan and Masquerade both have a dragon-based partner who evolves by getting stronger and are the first two characters shown with talking Bakugan.
      • Dan and Spectra in the second season for, again, having dragon-like partners and a similar end goal of defeating Zenoheld, though their means to an end significantly differ. Well, until Keith decides to drop the mask and join the Brawlers, that is.
    • Baron and Volt both live with several young children and prefer Haos-attributed Bakugan.
  • Evil Versus Evil: The evil Mechtagan vs the Nonet Bakugan and Wiseman II. The episode is even called "Evil Vs Evil".
  • Evolution Powerup:
  • 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. Fanservice, anyone?
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Mira, with Zettai Ryouiki on the right leg.
  • Final Boss Preview: Mag Mel attacking the Brawlers himself during his assault on Gundalia. Even Dan and Drago aren't powerful enough to take him down and get their butts kicked.
  • Fantastic Racism: It is strongly implied that white Bakugan, those that have no element and therefore are powerless, are discriminated against in Vestroia, which explains why Naga is so driven to become powerful. It is also implied that the reason Wavern fell in love with Drago is because he treated her as a normal person and took her into the other realms of Vestroia, something she could never do under her own power.
  • Forged by the Gods: Mag Mel's armor was created by what amounts to the God of the Bakugan, Code Eve. However, she isn't doing him any favors because she created it from Emperor Barodius' evil in order to seal him inside it.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • The first season drops hints to Masquerade's identity as Alice like there's no tomorrow.
      • Not once are Alice and Masquerade ever seen together in the same scene (not counting Masquerade's battle with Exedra and an illusory Alice listed below).
      • The Battle Brawlers have six members each that wield Bakugan of a specific attribute, except for Darkus. Alice is the only who doesn't initially brawl, while Masquerade is the main Darkus brawler. While this may have been because Darkus was initially seen as an "evil attribute", once Alice accepts that Masquerade is a part of herself, she becomes the Darkus brawler, inheriting Masquerade's Hydranoid as her own Bakugan.
      • While Alice didn't intially battle, she knew the rules of Bakugan and was a skilled strategist. She likely could have been the top Brawler if she did battle. Masquerade was the top Brawler because he had Alice's knowledge and strategic mind, and also knew Alice's friends personally.
      • Masquerade was one of the servants of Naga alongside Hal-G, the evil alter-ego of Alice's grandfather Michael. Masquerade was also shown in the background of a video recording just after Michael was corrupted into Hal-G. It turns out Alice was visiting her grandfather at the time when he made the recording and was transformed by the negative energy Naga unleashed into the lab into Masquerade.
      • No matter where the Brawlers go, Masquerade and his minions always knew where to find them. Everyone suspects that there is an inside man on the team, though this suspicion doesn't do them any good. When they assume at first that the leaker is their website’s web master, Masquerade’s cronies continue to follow them, regardless of whether they post online. This indicates that the Web Master is a Red Herring.
      • Continuing from above, Runo suspects in one episode that Alice is Masquerade's spy, with Dan reluctantly admitting that the evidence isn't in Alice's favor. Alice is genuinely saddened that her friends think she could be a spy and works hard to prove herself. It's not until Alice helps them in a battle that all doubts about her loyalty are erased. This both serves as foreshadowing and a false reassurance. Alice's loyalty to the team is genuine, but at the same time she doesn't know that she's Masquerade.
      • Alice never goes to the Doom Dimension with her friends because she's not a Brawler, but when her friends return, she is mysteriously absent. At the same time, Masquerade is visiting the Doom Dimension...
      • The biggest hint has to be when Masquerade faces an illusory Alice brawling with Excedra. As mentioned above, Alice and Masquerade have never interacted once onscreen before, so Alice being "what Masquerade must overcome" wouldn't make any sense unless there was some connection between the two.
    • When Joe mentions Wavern, Drago immediately identifies her as Naga's twin sister, something that indicates he knows Naga and Wavern quite well, and foreshadowing their relationship with each other.
    • New Vestroia spends the last few episodes setting up Gundalian Invaders with Bakugan Interspace, the phantom data, the Bakugan generated by said phantom data and the introduction of battle gear.
    • The second episode of Gundalian Invaders has the first Eyecatch in the Teletoon broadcast have Ren saying “Everything’s going to plan, Linehalt.”. Now why would someone on the Brawlers’ side say such a stock bad guy line to what is supposedly another digital clone? The answer comes three episodes later, with the reveal that Ren is The Mole and that Linehalt is a real Bakugan.
    • In Mechtanium Surge, Razenoid's head heavily resembles Dharak's. This sets up the reveal that Razenoid IS Dharak and Mag Mel is Barodius. In at least one episode set on Gundalia, Dan even suggests that he (Mag Mel) has been there before due to his familiarity with the terrain. Of course the former Emperor would know the terrain of his planet.
    • In the second half of Mechtanium Surge, Wiseman and Cordegon are never in the same scene together (just like how Masquerade and Alice are never seen together), not even when Cordegon is summoned into battle by the Nonet Bakugan. When Wiseman reveals himself to be Cordegon, Shun even mentions how Wiseman and Cordegon were never in the same place at once.
  • From Bad to Worse:
    • When they delete Bakugan Interspace in an attempt to kill Mag Mel, he makes it to Earth with his army anyway. Oh, and Razenoid evolved!
    • 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.
  • Fusion Dance: Mechtanium Surge introduces this, allowing two Bakugan to merge together. They split in half and then each half merges with half of their partner. In an unusual take on this, they two remain separate, but both gain traits and powers from their fusion partner. The second half however introduces a more traditional variant.
  • Gender Bender: Masquerade is clearly a guy, especially with his deep voice, but when his mask is taken off, he becomes Alice. Comes with a nifty clothes change too.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Runo fits the Tsundere archetype.
  • God Couple: Drago and Wavern definitely qualify to be this, as they hold the power of the Perfect Core.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Mag Mel's threat is so great that the group has to resort to completely deleting Bakugan Interspace in an attempt to stop him. And it doesn't work!
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Dan's goggles are usually just there to be stylish, but he used them a grand total of one time: shielding his eyes from a blinding Haos attack.
  • Golden Super Mode: Dragonoid Destroyer obtains this after being powered up by the combined energy of the bond of every human and Bakugan on Earth. His power level at this point is infinite.
  • Good Angel, Bad Angel: Preyas Angelo and Preyas Diablo, almost literally.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Masquerade, who becomes a secondary personality/spiritual ally for Alice
    • And Spectra Phantom/Keith Fermin with Helios and Gus Grav with Vulcan
    • Volt Luster and Lync Volan of the Vexos
    • Hydron joined the Brawlers and sacrificed himself in order to stop his father, King Zenoheld
    • Most of the members of the Twelve Orders:
      • Ren Krawler and Linehalt
      • Nurzak and Sabator, who later becomes Prime Minister of Gundalia
      • Mason Brown and Avior
      • Lena Isis and Phosphos
      • Jesse Glenn and Plitheon
      • Zenet Surrow and Contestir
      • Sid Arkale willingly releases himself to fall to his death after giving Rubanoid to Ren, and Rubanoid also become the new Guardian Bakugan of Linus Claude after the passing of Neo Ziperator
    • Worton and Betadron of the Nonets after Coredegon/Mechtavius-Destroyer commits genocide against humanity and the Bakugan
  • Her Heart Will Go On: Fabia's fiancé was killed in action some time before meeting the Brawlers.
  • Hero Ball: The second arc of New Vestroia is rife with this. First, King Zenoheld threatens to destroy all Bakugan unless the Six Legendary Soldiers defeat him. Except, he can't destroy the Bakugan unless he takes the attribute energies from the soldiers. What do the soldiers do? Fight him anyway, putting all Bakugan at risk even though they are ostensibly trying to protect them. Next, the Brawlers are trusted with protecting the attribute energies. Whenever the Vexos show up to take the energies, the Brawlers always accept the challenge. However, defeating the Vexos only means they will challenge them another day, while losing to the Vexos means all Bakugan die. The heroes lose nothing by refusing to battle, but always accept the challenge anyway, for no reason.
  • 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.
    • 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.
    • Prince Hydron makes sure his father goes down with the quickly collapsing ship at the end of New Vestroia. As for 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.
    • "Surge": Kodokor lets himself be slain so that a combined Spatterix and Stronk can take down Mechtavius Destroyer in the havoc of his explosive death, and likewise, the latter two buy time for Betadron and Gunz to escape harm.
    • 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.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Naga kicked off the series by absorbing too much energy from the Silent Core. When he dies, it's also by absorbing too much power. The BT System of New Vestroia also explodes by absorbing too much power. 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 next? Guess what! HE EXPLODED.
  • Hot-Blooded: Dan, as expected from a Stock Shōnen Hero with the fire attribute.
  • Human Aliens:
    • The Vestals look no different from normal humans aside from their eyes and hair.
    • Subverted in the case of the Neathians and Gundalians- they're only using illusions to make themselves appear human to blend in with humans on Earth.
  • 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!"...
    • Jesse. Just... Jesse. EVEN HIS SUPPOSED LAST WORDS!
  • Humongous Mecha: The Mechtogan. There are also the larger Mechtogan Titan.
    • Before that however, New Vestroia married this trope. All the Vexos use Mechanical Bakugan by the end of the season:
      • Altair, the first Mechanical Bakugan and a Flawed Prototype that's used by Lync roughly a quarter of the way into New Vestroia until it's destroyed by Nemus. Can also combine with its' companion trap Wired to form a significantly more powerful form.
      • Hades, a fairly straightforward copy of Alpha Hydranoid which ditches Hydranoid's Chainsaw Belly for some serious firepower that's used by Shadow until Hydranoid himself destroys it in Episode 32.
      • Aluze, an improved form of Altair which is a fast flying Glass Cannon that Lync uses for the rest of the season.
      • Macubass, a rather obvious homage to the Qubeley complete with funnels and hand mounted beam-saber-thingies that also double as cannons. Appropriately enough, Mylene uses it.
      • Boriates, the rather berserker/samurai-like Mechanical Bakugan used by Volt.
      • Dryoid, a not-quite-homage to the Pegas with some serious beam saber moves on par with the Justice Gundam that's used by Hydron.
      • The MAC Spider, a lightly armored artillery unit that also looks like a giant spider and has a electroshock attack suspiciously similar to that of the MAX-03 Adzam. Used by Shadow during the second half of the season.
      • Farbros, the main antagonist Bakugan, has a base form with beam cannons in the claws which can also electroshock, a beam cannon in it's mouth (after all it's a mecha dragon), some missile launchers and flamethrowers in the knees. And then it combines with the Assail System for some big guns on the back and a pilotable cockpit. And then it combines with the Alternative, a literal Planet-Killer Starship.
    • Similarly we have some of the Traps used during New Vestroia (seems like the guys at TMS are some serious mecha fans):
      • Metalfencer, an early powerup for Helios.
      • The abovementioned Wired that Lync uses during his stint with Altair.
      • Fortress (not to be confused with the similarly named Fourtress, Chan Lee's Bakugan that ironically enough defeats this Trap) that's first used by Shadow and later on mass-produced on the Alternative.
      • Dynamo, a powerup for Brontes and later Boriates.
      • Carlvelt, a mechanical copy of Baliton and another powerup for Boriates.
      • And last but not least we have the Maxus Traps, a set of 12 Traps that combine in sets of 6 with a central Bakugan. One set is owned by Spectra and the other by Dan. They duke it out in the Mid-Season Finale.
  • Inaction Sequence: Like with most card and toy based games. Although when it's averted, it's averted awesomely! Laser-Sword Fight!
  • Incest Subtext: Mira, Keith...mere dinner or a date?
    • In the finale, they live together, and Gus was nowhere to be seen.
  • Invocation:
    • "Gate Card, Set!", "Bakugan Brawl!", "Ability Activate!"...
    • During New Vestroia, "Ability Activate!" makes up 80% of the dialogue. And no, that is not an overstatement, it really does.
  • Karmic Death: All of the Big Bads (sans Mechtavius Destroyer) have been done in by their own doing. 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 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... again, by Mag Mel's suicidal attempt to take Dan down with him by launching all his hi-jacked energy at him... only to fail.
  • Killed Off for Real: If you’re not a villain and you don’t get a Heel–Face Turn, this is your fats.
  • Laughing Mad: Shadow Prove does this Once an Episode.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Typical dynamic: Dan is surprised by something so he repeats what he just heard. Shun replies that that's exactly why whoever said that said so.
  • Life Meter: In the second season onward.
  • Light Is Not Good:
    • Some of the villains use Haos-attributed Bakugan.
    • Same goes for Bakugan: Lumagrowl in particular openly praises the benefits of cheating.
    • Naga, though lacking an attribute, is pure white and very evil.
  • Lip Lock: The earlier seasons are horrible with syncing the lips to dialogue, with the notable exception of the Bakugan in their marble state, as their mouths don't move at all. Battle Planet also exhibits this, but not to the same extent.
  • Loads And Loads Of Filler: Feels like each arc can be condensed into a third of its length.
  • Long-Distance Relationship: Julie and Billy have one in New Vestroia, due to the latter travelling the world.
  • Long-Lost Relative: Spectra is Mira's older brother Keith.
  • Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter:
    • Mira partially subverts this; she's already leading La Résistance at the start of New Vestroia, and she's not an only child. She is however the literal daughter of a Mad Scientist and is quite attractive.
    • Alice, a Mad Scientist's Beautiful Granddaughter, plays this straight. Well, sort of. Her grandfather, Michael, was taken over by negative energy after an accident with a dimensional transporter and became the evil Hal-G, and she tried to defend him, and was herself being used by him, first by being turned into Masquerade and then by being tricked into believing that Michael was in there somewhere.
  • 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 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.
  • Male Gaze: In Chan Lee’s first battle with Dan, a lot of the shots she’s in puts emphasis on her sizable breasts and how her outfit hugs them.
  • Masked Villains, Unmasked Heroes: The main hero Dan doesn't wear a mask. Masquerade, who serves as The Dragon to Naga wears a black mask which is the source of is his existence and what allows his personality to dominate Alice's.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Yup.
  • Mission Control: Joe serves this function during the final battle with Naga.
  • More Dakka:
    • The entire premise of the Battle Gear is to load a Bakugan down with firepower. Sometimes, it involves giant mechanical Bakugan that can combine into battle armor.
    • Helios takes it to a major extreme by implementing Vestal technology into his body to become a technorganic dragon, improving it as he and Spectra see fit. The first Battle Gear he uses (also first in the series) is the Twin Destroyer, a pair of rapid-fire, quadruple-barreled machine gun turrets. The next atep up is the Zukanator, a missile-size photon laser that can rip through tempered steel plates like tinfoil.
    • The Vexos use mecha Bakugan as a total replacement to the living ones, believing they can craft bigger weapons of destruction than Bakugan themselves can unleash. If need be, they will force evolution or experiment to make them deadlier.
    • King Zenoheld starts off with Farbros, a mecha dragon with immense firepower. It turns into a full-fledged battle suit when the Assail System is combined with it. But the most fearsome weapon he ever used was the Alternative, a continent-sized starship with garrisons of disposable attack bots, SAVAGE firepower that ripped a gaping hole in a moon, then vaporized said moon, and the power to wipe out planets at the flick of a wrist.
    • 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. He passes one of these, Axator, to Drago. If Colossus didn't get destroyed, we might have seen more of his Battle Gear used by Drago.
    • Mechtogan are summoned in response to the need for more power to defeat a foe, starting with Zenthon- but he's stuck in an Unstoppable Rage until put under proper control. When that isn't enough, immense willpower and the complete synchronization of Brawler, Bakugan and Mechtogan can cause a Mechtogan Titan to appear. When a Brawler's will reaches its peak, the strongest Mechtogan can be summoned- ones that can combine. The strongest of these is Dragonoid Destroyer.
    • 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.
    • Cordegon, Slycerack, Exostriker, and Mandiblor act as minions to the Nonets to use their power while they recuperate. Emphasis on the "act".These Mechtogan combine into the terrifying Mechtavius Destroyer when united, capable of sucking in the power of defeated Bakugan. In response to this, Chromopod's ability to strip these Mechtogan from Cordegon's control allows for the fusion of Quatrogan.
    • 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 TMS' other series.
  • Ms. Fanservice: For a kodomo series, Julie sure is very easy on the eyes. A preference for crop tops and short shorts, big breasts, dark skin... the list goes on. Mira is one too, albeit more emphasis is placed on her overall looks (though it's pretty obvious she has impressive breasts and very nice, shapely legs...)
  • Never Say "Die": Shun's mom in the dub, which changed the scene of her death to make it look like she simply fell into a coma, thus changing Shun's motivation for his isolation from grief over his mother's death to his grandfather forbidding him from playing Bakugan. Mostly averted otherwise.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • 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 Mag 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.
    • Drago's decision in New Vestroia to try to take Dan without telling the Brawlers why he only needs Dan and instead preferring to be incredibly secretive causes a huge rift between Dan and Runo, and causes a huge amount of problems for the Resistance later on in the season, which makes the first arc much more harder than it should have been. His reasoning does not work either, as his claim that he can only count on Dan, along with his desire to not put the others in harm's way, falls completely flat given that he knows the other brawlers are very capable, and the brawlers literally risked their lives to save him.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Zenoheld’s plan to wipe out the Bakugan would’ve succeeded if he didn’t include a “return the Bakugan to normal size so the Brawlers have to see them die horribly” function. That just gives Drago and Helios (the only Bakugan left on New Vestroia and two of the most powerful in the show) a chance to destroy it, which they gladly take.
  • Non Action Girl: Alice for the majority of Battle Brawlers—first because she doesn't have any Bakugan, and then because she's too busy Wangsting about having been unknowingly controlled by Masquerade.
  • "No Peeking!" Request: In the first episode of "The New Vestroia", Drago comes back to Earth to ask Dan's help, but because he doesn't want the other brawlers involved, he requests Runo, Julie and Marucho that they turn around without telling them the reason (which they assume to be him wanting to change) while him and Dan jump into the portal. Marucho figures it out and jumps into the portal as well, while Runo and Julie are angry they were left behind.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Despite half the characters coming from every corner of the world (e.g. Alice is from Moscow), everyone has an American accent.
  • Not in Front of the Kid: When Drago and Wavern reunite, Wavern reveals her and Drago's relationship by calling him the pet name she gave him. When the brawlers learn that the two are in a romantic relationship, Wavern proceeds to flirt openly with Drago, who acknowledges the relationship, but asks Wavern not to do it in front of the kids. Wavern just keeps flirting, much to Drago's annoyance, and Dan's uncomfortableness.
  • Not Quite Dead: Emperor Barodius and Dharak weren't vaporised, but instead sealed in another dimension by Code Eve, transforming them into Mag Mel and Razenoid.
  • Official Couple: See Victorious Childhood Friend below.
  • Only the Pure of Heart: A certain security system works like this.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: This anime loves this. In no specific order: [Dragonoid, Helios, Rubanoid Plitheon Avior Dharak Wavern Naga oh gosh Naga Dragaon. The list will go on forever at this rate.
  • Outliving One's Offspring: Shun’s grandpa outlives his daughter Shiori (Shun’s mother) when she dies from an illness, with no explanation on what happened to his son-in law (Shun’s father), implying that he died too.
  • Out-of-Character Alert: Of all things, what ticked Shun off to Hal-G impersonating Kato is him once referring to Marucho by his name alone, as opposed to "Master Marucho."
  • Palette Swap: Several of the non-guardian Bakugan have the same name and model as another Bakugan with a different attribute, with their colour scheme varying depending on their attribute.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Used to incredible extremes.
    • Spectra and Gus make a grand arrival on Earth walking out of a Ferris Wheel. A few days later, Gus is able to walk around unnoticed by the Brawlers simply by taking his coat off. Later on, he sneaks into the throne room, wearing a cocktail dress and a ponytail.
    • Talkng of Spectra, Mira doesn't recognise him as her brother until he takes his mask off, despite them having the same voice and face.
    • No-one recognises Anubias and Sellon's alien forms until they transform right in front of them.
    • Invoked by Wiseman, who models his human form off Gunz Lazar in a spandex costume to frame him, but many viewers can tell them apart from their hair colour.
    • The top Brawlers in season 1 went to the same shop selling black cloaks as Yugi Oh GX. Julie knows two of them personally, but doesn't recognise them until the take the cloaks off.
  • 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.
    • Magic A Is Magic A: In episode 15, this new "rule" is violated. Repeatedly.
      • 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 too much in-universe, and he was in danger of exploding, but...
    • Power levels vanished about halfway through Gundalian Invaders and haven't returned in Mechtanium Surge.
  • Proper Lady: Alice acts like this, despite being seemingly middle-class.
  • Put on a Bus:
    • Joe in New Vestroia, while played with in Gundalian Invaders as Dan and Julie took a bus away from Runo and Alice.
    • The official website has also removed most of the content regarding Battle Brawlers in favor of New Vestroia material...Not exactly sure how they're going to bring the suspense about Shun's return, which hasn't actually aired in the US yet...
    • Also Preyas Angelo/Preyas Diablo. He disappears until Mechtavius Destroyer wages an attack on New Vestroia... and gets a painfully brief cameo before 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.
    • So far in Gundalia, this seems to have happened to Preyas, Elfin, and Ingram.
      • In short, if your Brawler or Bakugan is Darkus, Subterra or Haos, you're screwed.
    • All of the Trap Bakugan.
    • The Bus Came Back for most of them in the fourth season, including Preyas (who is training an apprentice in Vestoria) and most of the Gundalian Invaders characters due to Marucho sending out a Gondor Calls for Aid and Gundalia being Mag Mel's first target after being freed. Many other Bakugan make a return in "Mechtanium Surge," Tigerra showing up once, and then a large number making last stand against Mechtavius Destroyer in the Bad Future, including Gorem, Preyas Angelo/Diablo, Skyress, Ingram, Taylean, Hydranoid, Tristar, Tigerra (again), Preyas, and Elfin. The Vestal-native Bakugan do not return.
  • Quickly-Demoted Woman: Used to be gender equal. Not. Anymore.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: Part of the reason Skyress didn't stick around was because the person who provided voice work for her couldn't return, but a deal was made for Skyress to have a goodbye episode.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Genesis Dragonoid (through Dragonoid Destroyer) to Mechtavius Destroyer.
  • Redemption Earns Life: It says something when the only survivors of the Twelve Orders were the ones who turned good.
  • Redemption Equals Death: More or less the end result of Volt and Lync's Heel–Face Turn.
    • And later Prince Hydron as well.
    • Possibly Professor Worton and Betradron.
  • Reflectionless Useless Eyes: The Vestals are different from humans by their eyes, because they have a colored pupil and no shine.
  • The Mole: Mira makes an apparent Face–Heel Turn...and proceeds to completely sabotage the Vexos' plans.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: In one episode, Runo thinks that Alice is responsible for Masquerade knowing where they go, despite not telling anyone. While she is right, She thinks Alice is directly telling the guy, when in fact, the two are One and the same.
  • Rival Final Boss: After Mechtavius Destroyer is defeated, Dan and Gunz battle each other in the finals of a tournament that was previously interrupted.
  • Save Both Worlds: The main story of each season is saving both Earth and Vestroia from the threat of the current adversary of the season. In Season 2 and 3, the Big Bad dosent directly threaten Earth, but Season 1 and 4 bring both Earth and Vestroia close to annihilation.
  • Satanic Archetype: Naga very much fits the role of the devil here. He is a powerless white Bakugan who desires power, and has no problem rebelling against the law of Vestroia in order to do so. He similarly corrupts Alice into Masquerade, causing her to commit multiple atrocities under his command, and through Masquerade, he offers many players limitless power and skill in exchange for defeating the Brawlers, even though he has no intention of living up to that agreement. In the final battle, his appearance is incredibly demonic, and many of the Bakugan he leads are corrupted abominations. He also shows a strong fratricidal instinct towards his own sister when he meets her on Earth.
  • Say My Name:
    • Joe shouts Wavern's name when she is destroyed to release the Infinity Core within her.
    • Dan shouts Drago's name in every single battle. Take a sip everytime.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Plot!: The exact rules of the game are never quite made clear, but it's still obvious that what Dan and Drago are doing in the second episode of New Vestroia is circumventing them.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Jake gets this when he gets sent up to battle twice.
  • Screens Are Cameras: When Dan and his friends video chat over the internet, there isn’t any camera to be seen.
  • 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.
  • Serial Escalation: The anime is shamelessly guilty of this trope:
    • In Season 1, a power level of 450 was considered to be horrifyingly strong, yet by the second half of Season 2, it’d be too weak to seriously contend with any Bakugan.
    • Also in Season 2 was the introduction of Ability and Gate Cards that added/deducted such exorbitant amounts of Gs that they would be straight-up instant-win cards back in Season 1. (With some being literal instant-win cards!)
    • Season 1 had no special gimmicks. Season 2 had Trap Bakugan to provide support for main Bakugan. Season 3 had Battle Gear that could cause major destruction to everything in its user’s radius. Season 4 had Gundam-sized Mechtogan with power that would put the likes of the Megazord and Voltron to shame. Which were later one-upped by Mechtogan Titans, which were double their size.
  • Serious Business: Justified, as Bakugan can do a lot of damage.
    Reporter: Tell us about what really inspires you the most?
    Girls: Bakugan!
  • Sequel Hook: At the end of New Vestroia, The last thing Prof. Clay sees before the ship blows is footage of Bakugan at war with each other, setting the stage for Gundalian Invaders.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Mechravius Destroyer obliterates Bakugan City and everyone in it, as well as succeeds in Bakugan genocide, so Dan and the Brawlers go back in time to stop him. However, it does not save the fallen Nonets, while the last two left alive perform a Heroic Sacrifice to make this happen.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Dan tries to deny that Runo isn't his girlfriend even in New Vestroia, where they are already an Official Couple since the finale of the first series. Of course, he doesn't fool anyone.
  • The Short Guy with Glasses: Marucho, who remains short throughout the series, despite aging up. Take a guess who is The Smart Guy.
  • Shout-Out: Amazon from the newest series seems to have some homages to Kamen Rider Amazon, including his pose and dorsal spines flexing when preparing his special moves. He even does the "AAAAAAA-MAAAAAA-ZOOOONNNN!" when preparing his attacks.
  • Sixth Ranger:
    • Joe in terms of when he joins the show, and Alice in terms of when she starts brawling, in Battle Brawlers. Shun in New Vestroia, and no, that doesn't need a spoiler.
    • What does need a spoiler is the other Sixth Ranger: Spectra, a.k.a. Keith, Mira's brother.
    • Fabia starts out as this, but then Ren becomes this after his Heel–Face Turn.
  • Slasher Smile:
    • When Alice remembers a flashback of Masquerade battling people and sending their Bakugan to the Doom Dimension, she freaks out immensely when the camera pans to his face pulling this smile, phasing partially through his mask to show it's her eyes. That moment also counts as a What Have I Done?
    • Brainwashed Jake indulges in these, as do many others.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Mira in New Vestroia and Fabia in Gundalian Invaders are the only girls who are part of the main cast.
  • So Last Season: In keeping with the Merchandise-Driven nature of the show, each season of Bakugan had a gimmick/gadget prominently used by the cast in battle that was unceremoniously and inexplicably dumped when the next season aired:
    • Battle Brawlers had launchers and Baku Pods. Both were gone in New Vestroia.
    • New Vestroia had Trap Bakugan and Gauntlets. Both were gone in Gundalian Invaders.
    • Gundalian Invaders had Battle Gear. They were gone by Mechtanium Surge.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: While mostly completely unconnected, each season's Big Bad is a great deal stronger than the previous one. Their actions also get progressively more evil as they go along as well. Case in point, while Zenoheld attempted genocide but failed, the season four Big Bad Mag Mel is said to have been imprisoned for actually committing it.
  • Space Elves: Neathians are a race of humanoid aliens with pointy ears and huge diamond-like eyes.
  • Species Title: The series focuses on the people who fight with the titular toys to Save the World.
  • Spin-Off: TMS decided not to release the original dub of Mechtanium Surge in Japanese and instead, do an anime adaptation of the Bakutech! Bakugan Manga, starting again from scratch and rebooting the whole franchise. This however, displeases a lot of Japanese fans.
    • Though this is not counted, Zoobles is also considered a Spin-off to the Bakugan Toyline since they both got similar concepts of Spherical Toys transforming into figures, except that Zoobles transform using magnetic holders called Happitats, much like the Gate Cards. But when is Bakugan is a Tabletop Game, Zoobles are more of toys for girls. It gets even more Hilarious in Hindsight when the Zooble toys can be activated using Magnetic Recipe cards, more of a Shout-Out to the Bakugan's way of activating a Bakugan using a Magnetic Gate Card. Of course, both toys were distributed in Japan by the same company, Sega Toys.
  • The Starscream: Spectra and Mylene from New Vestroia; Kazarina from Gundalian Invaders , although she was ultimately loyal to Emperor Barodius.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Every battle with Masquerade or one of his minions result in at least one of the heroes’ Bakugan essentially dying. So by the midpoint of the season, Runo notes that she only has 5 Bakugan left in her collection other than Tigrerra.
  • Stripperiffic: Julie wears a crop top and short shorts with most of her outfits.
  • Sword Fight:
    • While the Bakugan do most of the combat, Dan has gotten into a couple of energy sword duels over the course of the series.
    • Kazarina and Nurzak get one, too.
  • They Killed Kenny Again: Julie's Tuskor gets sent to the Doom Dimension every time he's thrown into the battle, yet he's back the next time she has another brawl like nothing happened, only to be sent to the Doom Dimension again.
  • The Three Faces of Adam: Through three series, we've had three different Haos, Darkus, and Subterra brawlers...but Dan, Shun, and Marucho have been there for all four seasons.
  • Time Skip:
    • The ending of the finale of Battle Brawlers skips ahead a couple of years, putting it shortly before the start of New Vestroia.
    • And there's a six month skip between seasons of New Vestroia. And yet, with all these skips, Marucho doesn't grow one inch. His hair grew at least.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Runo and Julies’ dynamic in the first season. Bizarrely, their interests are more indicative of each other’s archetype.
  • Totally Radical: Akwimos speaks like this, with the slightest hint of Jive Turkey.
  • Together in Death: Shadow And Mylene, see You Are Worth Hell entry below.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: Played with the second arc of Mechtanium Surge. Wiseman had a tendency to not let the good guys' Bakugan combine, and would just respond to this attempt with an attack, though in "Jump to Victory" that attack took awhile to rear up so it really didn't make as much sense. In "Enemy Allies", Mechtavius Destroyer attacks Dan as he is getting ready to bring out Dragonoid Destroyer, and in "Evil Arrival" he attacks Gunz before he gets to finish saying "Bakugan Brawl". Most notably, in "Evil vs. Evil", he doesn't let Betadron, Kodokor, and Mutabrid combine, and keeps slapping Mutabrid around, but no matter how much, he insists on combining and eventually dies. That said, Talking Is a Free Action is still in play.
    • There actually was one time that Talking Is a Free Action was not in play, during the final battle, when Dan was confused as to why Dragonoid Destroyer was only using 90% of his power. This was done for surprise effect later on.
  • Victorious Childhood Friend: The two Official Couples in the series consist of characters who met each other when they were children. The difference is that Billy and Julie are known to have been friends for quite some time, while Runo met Dan only once when they were playing in the park and didn't realise the boy who was annoying her that day was actually Dan.
  • Vocal Dissonance:
    • Dan ages 6 years over 4 seasons, but his voice remains that of a preteen in the Japanese version. Averted in the dub, where Dan is voiced by a male actor who lowers his voice each season.
    • Baron has a higher voice than his younger sister. To be fair, his VA was a child actor.
  • Voice of the Legion: Mag Mel's followers have this in their true forms.
  • Walk on Water: The Sacred Orb’s shrine has a pool of water that only the someone pure can walk on.
  • Warrior Thespian: Jesse spends his dialogue reading Shakespeare-esque poetry.
  • Water Is Dry: When Dan runs through the river to retrieve Drago in Dan and Drago. In the rain.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Hydron. When he realizes his father will never give him that approval, he does a Heel–Face Turn.
  • The Worf Effect: Aranaut's been hit with this big time. In New Vestroia, he made a strong first showing when a digital clone of him threw around one of the characters like a doll, while in Gundalian Invaders, he has one of the worst fight records in the show, only winning with help or other circumstances.
  • You Are Worth Hell: Shadow has a clear chance to survive the Negative Space Wedgie, but opted to die with Mylene anyway, (he thinks it'll be interesting).

 
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Alternative Title(s): Bakugan Battle Brawlers

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Mira

Prior the start of the series, Mira was just an average Vestal citizen, viewing the Bakugan nothing more than unintelligent pets. However, this all changed one day, when she heard Hydranoid speaking while her father conducted painful experiments on him. No longer willing to participate in the enslavement of another sapient species, she formed the Bakugan Resistance to fight for their freedom.

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Main / DefectorFromDecadence

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