Manga / Legendz

Good job, members of the Legendz club!

Legendz, a story about a boy and his dragon... or the other way around.

This was a fairly popular series in Japan even ranking up there with other Mons shows like Digimon or Pokémon at the height of its popularity. In fact, the character designs came from the same Bandai production team as Digimon. It came in two distinct (and oddly separate) series, the Manga and the Anime. However, only the Manga has hit US shores.

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Legendz provides examples of the following from the Manga (as well as Anime separately)

• Big Bad: Lord Jabberwock; Necrom
• Bittersweet Ending: Although they save the world, Ken can no longer talk with Shiron. However, their friendship is still implied. Afterwards, Ken moves to America, leaving behind his friends, to face the American champion, the boy he knew from earlier.
• The Chosen One: Ken, Leo, Kaoruko and Ririko are the Four Sagas, chosen by the four elements.
• Eldritch Abomination: Jabberwock/Necron. His influence is enough to cause all Legendz to go crazy just by existing.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Leo Engokun. Just before he makes his big entrance in the Legendz Carnival, he slicks his hair back into spikes.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Shiron. The very final page of the manga shows that he got better.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum
  • After learning that the Golden Soul Figure can power up Shiron to ridiculous levels, he actively decides not to use the powerup ever again, because winning battles using outside help won't help them grow. To his credit, he and Shiron wipe out like 500 Mooks and a Triton by themselves before the arc is out. They use it again, in the battle with Necron, as a form of All Your Powers Combined with the other Sagas.
  • Interestingly, the Golden Soul Doll isn't actually activated at all in the entire manga; Ken uses its power, but refuses to use the Legendz. It makes one wonder if the series could have had a better ending had he just Reborn'd the thing...
• Mythology Gag: During the Legendz Carnival, one of the souvenirs Ken buys is a key-chain with a Windragon on it; it looks just like Shiron's Fun Size Mode from the anime.
  • Shu and Meg from the anime make a brief cameo in the last chapter.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Toward the end of the manga, the main characters' Legendz tend to "evolve" into new forms as needed.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: While invading a high school, Ken encounters Ninja Werewolves. (He even notes how ridiculous it is.)
• Serious Business: Of the "The creatures are real and hold the power to save/destroy the world" type.

Tropes in the Legendz Anime

• A Boy and His X: Played straight with more or less the entire lead cast. With so many Mons coming out of the woodwork, there's a good chance of finding a boy (or girl) learning important life lessons from it.
• A Day in the Limelight: There are several episodes which completely ditch the focus on the main characters and instead focus on a side character, giving them more depth and development.
  • Episode 16 focuses on Bruno Sparks, Dino's father. The episode explains how he developed his own toy company and obtained his riches, and how his family relationship were messed up in the first place.
  • Lampshaded and invoked in Episode 32, where Shiron, Garion and Greedo decides to not fight against Yeti to give Zuou more spotlight and see his true potential.
  • Halca gets one in Episode 39, focusing to her character arc.
  • Episode 44 focuses entirely on Edward and Fire Giant's history, detailing how they met and went through several obstacles together.
• Ambiguously Gay: Crocodile Dandy and his male room-mate Salamander. He gets all misty-eyed, complete with Bishie Sparkle, when his "Aniki" Shiron shows up and drives what appears to be a pink minivan around.
• Apocalypse How: The Legendz War is pretty clearly a Class 2.
• Art Shift: The manga has a more defined art style than the anime, which has the humans drawn in a cartoony fashion while the titular Legendz are drawn in great detail.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: If a Legendz has a rank somewhere in his name, just run. This only applies to militiary titles like Commando or Colonel, "Lunch Lady" and "Club Treasurer" don't count.
• Badass Preacher: Ranshiin, who not only gets to wear what appears to be a dragonized version of a White-Collar Preacher's outfit, but he also delivers a Breaking Speech and claims he's on a Mission from God.
• Berserk Button: Whatever you do, Don't call Dandy a Crocodile. (He's a Devour Gator, thank you very much.) Only crocodiles call other people crocodiles.
  • Also, don't hurt Shu's mother. The usually silly Idiot Hero boy will go on an Out-of-Character Moment and becomes dead serious whenever someone dares to try hurting her.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Mac and Shiron.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ranshiin manages to pull Jabberwock into space, but all of the Legendz disappear, and are permanently forgotten by everyone.
• Blessed with Suck: Ranshiin somehow managed to strike a deal with dark forces for great power and knowledge, including the ability to see the future. Unfortunately, the deal gave him a Weaksauce Weakness. Despite being a Wind-element creature, exposure to the open sky causes him to both lose power AND experience debilitating pain. (Whether this is the curse itself or a side effect of purification is up to debate.) To the point that, despite him not only having wings and being able to fly and having Elemental Baggage, he spends his time in a cramped wind tunnel and has to use a little hover pod called the "Bird Cage" to get around in.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: This is done numerous times, mostly lampshading the obvious clichés that the show is going through. "What kind of an anime is this??~!!, 'Warrior of Light?' That's not written in the script!" and to a lesser extent the part where Shiron talks about how hard it would be to make a Legendz anime.
• Breather Episode: The "Ed and Fired Giant in: Adventure of Fired Brothers!" episode.
• Broken Ace: Dino. He is very handsome and good-looking, admired by a lot of girls (even Meg falls for him!), does well in school and is extremely good at sports. However, he is also a Lonely Rich Kid who suffers from Parental Abandonment and Friendless Background.
• Broken Pedestal: Ms. Hepburn used to love legendz, then she became disenchanted with them and the people who hang out with or research them. This includes her Papa.
• Calling Your Attacks: Oh yes, this happens.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The C.E.O. Who is the underling of a more literal dragon. That dragon being The Dragon of the local abomination.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Shiron's first battle with Ranshiin, at least until Shu shows up.
• Darker and Edgier: The whole second half of the show, while still retaining some of its humor, shifts into a much more serious mood overall, all with the Legendz War taking place and Jabberwock's awakening. In Episode 46 and 47, it shows some of the characters dying in the chaos— Halca, Wolfy and Leon included.
• Dark Is Evil: Played mostly straight, only slightly averted with Skeleton in the last few episodes.
• Darkest Hour: Episode 47. Ranshiin, in Conoledo Windragon form, awakens the Dragon Kings, causing all of the main characters' Legendz to go Brainwashed and Crazy, and several Legendz seen in the series die in the war, and we see some of them die in pretty cruel ways (including Wolfy and Leon!). Thank god the Light Legendz have a Reset Button up in their arms...
• Deadpan Snarker: Greedo has shades of this.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Of the characters, Meg consistently shows a somewhat irrational fear of Legendz. This is especially egregious towards Zuou, until she eventually warms up to him.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: Although instead of taking over the world, the CEO just has some instructions for children (to "save the world").
• Drop the Washtub: Used on Shiron to help snap him out of Colonel mode in the last two or so episodes.
• Eagle Land: The anime show is set on New York with the point of view of Japanese. Flavor one to the extreme point it has no military forces whatsoever.
• Eldritch Abomination: Reborn, Jabberwock!
• Elemental Baggage
  • A lot of the lesser legendz, namely Dandy and Salamander, can control their respective element but not produce it. For example, Salamander produces oil from his tail and lights it on fire from some other source and Dandy can't produce water, but he can cause tidal waves when near the ocean.
  • Also, all legendz get antsy when they can't get regular exposure to their element of choice. Windragons love windy areas, Goblins constantly dig and mine, and Devour Gators such as Dandy get some serious scale itch when not regularly moisturized.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire beats earth, earth beats wind, wind beats water, water beats fire, and the usual light/dark relation. This is even used in a minor Batman Gambit involving attacking each of the protagonist's homes with an element they are weak to. It would have worked if the apocalypse didn't start right that second.
• Evil Twin: The two windragons. It's actually more complicated than that, given they're two halves of the same person.
• Face of a Thug: Greedo, who looks menacing and is a Blazedragon, but is actually a laid-back guy and a true friend when you get along with him. Also counts for Wolfy and Leon.
• Fantastic Racism
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Hey, you know all those old stories of skeletons and things? They were all true... Sorta.
• Gentle Giant: Zuou. He is by far the nicest out of the main Legendz, and gets popular with Shu's baseball team more than Shu himself ever did in his life— much to his chagrin.
• Geo Effects: Most Legendz get powered up by being on relevant terrain. Forests for earth types, and so on. More powerful Legendz can Element Shift to change it to their favor.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Shows up in one of the earlier episodes. It doesn't listen to anyone, but all it wants to do is to return to the sea.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Or in this case, Ms. Hepburn has three. Schoolteacher, Adventurer, and Stripperiffic.
• Good Is Impotent: The light/spiritual legendz. Justified in that they're apparently visible or audible only to those Pure of Heart enough.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: J.J., and their boss, Betty. Also Edward, before he left DWC.
• Gratuitous English: Oh good lord so many to invoke pseudo-New York flair, the Carrot-nosed Eigo-Eita, and most, if not all, the in-show text.
• Hellish Pupils: Used to indicate your Legendz has become Brainwashed and Crazy.
• Heroic BSoD: Shu gets one of these when his mom becomes Taken for Granite. This immediately leads to the chain of Oh, Crap! occurences, and causes Shiron to have a Heroic BSoD as well.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: Episode 3 has the Goldfish Poop Gang use Mac, (who had been captured by them after he attacked the Monster of the Week, for destroying his burger) as a hostage to get Shu's talispod.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Played with. Some of the Legendz had a very strong intention to wipe out mankind because Humans Are Bastards. While none of the protagonists are remotely evil, the Legendz are not entirely wrong in this regard either. You see, the townspeople are scared of the Legendz, lets their own fear overcome them and even supported the idea of them getting exterminated in spite of not knowing that they also have their own free wills and are harmless outside of their duty to fight, which gives a very strong implication of them doing this to save themselves. This is even coined by the fact that the CEO of Dark Wiz Company, a human, is willing to become the Darkness Saga and awaken a monster by using his own wife to protect humanity, making him an even worse monster than the Legendz ever are.
  • As evidenced by the words of the Legendz God:
  Legendz God: A human heart is not something you can see with your own eyes. That's why it is one of the things that are able to change the world we are in.
• Idiot Hero: Shu. Then again, he's like... 10 at best, so we can forgive him for it, but he's still noted for being a very... Silly person even by his peers.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Ambiguously Gay or not, he still is Crocodile Dandy.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Halca. She keeps jars of bits and pieces of Legendz in her closet.
• Interspecies Romance: Halca goes on a happy date with Shiron. Shiron almost gets forced to marry Meg's mouse counterpart. Shiron has Dandy clearly head over heels for him. (See a pattern?) Then BB and Greedo... The less said about Ed and Linda the better.
• Image Song
• Jazz: Some of the background music has this.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shiron generally acts ignorant and jerkish most of the time, but he cares a great deal about Shu and his friends, and will go to any lengths to protect them.
• Knight of Cerebus: Whenever Ranshiin gets out of his hideout, you know it is going to get serious. The CEO of Dark Wiz Company/the Saga of Darkness, Yul Hepburn AKA Halca's father, eventually usurps Ranshiin's role in the second half of the show, along with the legendary Darkness Legendz Jabberwock.
• Killed Off for Real: Halca, when she tries to call back Jabberwock to the giant Talispod. This costs her her life, and it pushes Yul straight into Despair Event Horizon, triggering Jabberwock's complete form and starting the Legendz War. This was completely averted when the Light Legendz pushed the Reset Button, returning the timeline to the time before Ranshiin brings them to the Legendz Kingdom— undoing Halca's efforts to call back Jabberwock.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: All the Legendz have it. They can't remember the last war at all. Or at least don't until the next one starts.
• Light Is Good
• Lonely Rich Kid: Dino. He has the riches and all, but he doesn't care about all of it, and all he wants is his family to be back together.
• Loyal Phlebotinum: Shu's Talispod. He can't get rid of it, even when he's actively trying to.
• The Magic Comes Back: The Legendz were sealed away but then they made a comeback and the world was shaken.
• Malicious Misnaming: Dino gets called "snob" by Shu. A lot.
• Master of Disguise: Halca-sensei... Who happens to be one of those international superspy types. She is also a complete and utter Fangirl for anything Legendz-related.
• Merchandise-Driven: Yep. Definitely some of this in there.
• Mon Tech:
  • Talispods are devices Sagas uses to summon Legendz from a Soul Doll. They also feed, train, and rest their Legendz to gain strength. Talispod can create a comfortable environment for a Legendz.
  • Talisdams can carry three Soul Dolls, giving three Legendz an environment suitable for each. When used to summon, it creates an Elemental Legion, a powerful fusion that can defeat the strongest Legendz.
• Mood Whiplash: The show is relatively lighthearted, but more or less takes a huge nosedive during the whole Griffon in the Arboretum segment. Also when the actual main antagonist, The CEO/Darkness Saga Yul Hepburn debuted.
• Ms. Exposition: Garion, being the most knowledgeable members of the Legendz Club. Greedo even lampshades this on one point:

  Greedo: Since the past, Garion has always been talkative.

• Mundane Utility: Salamander's day job has him use his control over fire to cook food.
• My Greatest Failure: Greedo's previous saga- No, no, not the one with the wig,: died because of him through the Cast from Hit Points effect. He never really got over it.
• Nice Guy: Mac, who is rarely seen angry or resentful. In fact, he is so nice that he tolerates Shu despite him being an Idiot Hero, which makes Garion wonder how did he put up with all of that.
• No Fourth Wall: The anime constantly calls attention to it's own insanity, especially through Shu. Episodes often begin with the phrase "What kind of show IS this?" and throughout several of the episodes Shu comments, "What a typical anime _______" In the last episode, the characters refer to the script, unsure of the true ending.
• Oh, Crap!: A chain of these are set off right when the Legendz War begins. It starts by Shu's mom becoming a casualty. Shiron has one of these when he sees Shu has gone into shock. Garion and the others also have an Oh, Crap! when the wind suddenly and violently stops blowing. And then Jabberwock gets summoned.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Shu of all people has several of these, and its such a jarring contrast to his usual airhead demeanor. He's very protective of his mother, and warns Shiron, never under any circumstances come near their home. Shiron scoffs at the kid as usual, then briefly stops when he realizes The Ditz is being deadly serious. When his worst fears become reality and his mother is hurt, Shu has a nervous breakdown.
• Power-Up Food: Garion and Garlic Hamburgers for some reason. They end up curing her Laser-Guided Amnesia as well as her garlic breath being used as a [[Understatement somewhat silly]] finisher on a vampire she fights the same episode.
• Rousseau Was Right: None of the human characters are genuinely evil. The bad guys just manipulated by the evil Legendz.
• Shoddy Knockoff Product: Dino's father Bruno made his fortune selling "Talispads", toys based off the popular "Talispod" toy. This is after years of effort and originality barely payed his bachelor bills.: This is applied again later, when the Goldfish Poop Gang gets fired, and they open up the "DuckDuck Toys" toy shop selling toys both knockoffs and originals.
• Show Within a Show: The show about the dancers singing about their yellow wigs.
• Sleep-Mode Size: All the Legendz have one form of this or another. Shiron's turns him into a hamster-sized Ridiculously Cute Critter who often acts as Shu's Head Pet. He even went on a somewhat trippy Alternate Universe -style adventure, where he encountered mouse versions of the human cast.
• The Smurfette Principle: From the main human cast and Legendz, Meg and Garion are the only females in their respective categories.
• Spell My Name With An S: There's been quite a few arguments on just how to represent the two dragon's names. And Haruca/Halca's name.
• Stripperific: Halca after Face–Heel Turn. It shows on the second OP!
• Superpowered Evil Side: See the Hellish Pupils entry above.
• Synchronization: A saga gets to be the Kid with the Leash and all, but one of the downsides is summoning a Legendz and keeping it out is taxing, to the point that it can, and does, kill people.
• Take Me Instead: Halca and Rashiin, respectively saving Halca's mother and Halca herself from the Jabberwock's heart.
• Taking the Bullet: Shuu's mom takes a pointy thrown crystal meant for him.
• Toyetic: Despite being artifacts capable of destroying the world, the Talispods and Talisdams all look like they just rolled off of Bandai's factory production lines.
• Those Two Guys: A lot. Wolfy and Leon on the main characters' side, the two J Js, Ed and Fire Giant, as well as Dandy and Salamander later on.
• Trademark Favorite Food
  • Mac loves hamburgers... He doesn't mind if they get roughed up a bit, but if one becomes damaged to the point of being completely inedible, his Superpowered Evil Side comes out until he runs out of energy because he hasn't had lunch yet..
  • A lesser extent with Shiron's favorite drink, the "Sweet Dandy".
• Transformation Trauma: Near the end of season one, Mac turns into Garion the Griffon with a somewhat startling transformation sequence... While he later doesn't remember a thing, Meg is the one who is traumatized...
• Tsundere: Meg towards Shu. She keeps slapping him, but clearly cares for him and doesn't like it whenever he tries to flirt with other women.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: Happens in episode 9 when Shiron used his Wing Tornado attack on Cait-Sith and blew him away
• Tomes of Prophecy and Fate: The Legendz Book is a history book. It just so happens to contain future history as well.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Sorry, this war is going to happen one way or another. Jabberwock will be reborn, Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies. He'll even make you Brainwashed and Crazy to do so... And unfortunately, he SUCCEEDS causing The End of the World as We Know It. Thankfully, the Light Legendz had access to a reset button, (which they pushed,) and Shiron has Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory. So the whole thing was averted after all.
• Wham Episode
  • Episode 13. Mac transforms into Garion The Griffin, the Legendz that has been hiding inside him all the time. This traumatizes Meg enough that she becomes hateful towards Legendz after this.
  • Episode 40. Shu enters a nervous breakdown after his mother gets Taken for Granite when she protects him from the black crystals, causing Shiron to go Angst Nuke and triggering a strong wind that returns all of the Legendz seen in the series into their wild state save for Greedo, Zuou and Garion. Things get really dark after this episode.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to Dino's mom? Sure she shows up again, but why she left or came back or how she got so fat is never explained. The latter is clearly Played for Laughs, however.
• Weirdness Censor: Two people think it was normal seeing a Giant Enemy Crab chasing people.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the second half, Halca sends Legendz after the Sagas to protect them from the Legendz they own. Needless to say, this doesn't work too well.
  • Her father Yul had this intention when he attempts to awaken Jabberwock to exterminate the Legendz— which he saw as the ones ruining the Earth and might hurt his daughter. He uses his own wife's body to become the vessel of Jabberwock's heart. Again, it doesn't work too well and backfires horribly.
• Wind from Beneath My Wings: Two words. Wing Tornado.

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