Exchange Student Zero is an Australian animated Made-for-TV Movie produced by BES Animation for Cartoon Network's Asia-Pacific feed. The collaborative brainchild of Patrick Crawley, as well as Bruce Kane and Maurice Argiro (Monster Beach, Kitty Is Not a Cat), it premiered on December 16, 2012 as the first originally produced piece of Australian animation to be commissioned by Cartoon Network.
The movie tells the story of best friends John Stitt and Max Cameron, two geeky high schoolers from Perth, Australia obsessed with the Japanese fantasy card game Battle Day Zero, with their favorite card being of the mighty Warrior Prince Hiro Karuta. As it happens, John's family is planning to host a Japanese exchange student also named Hiro, and on the day of the meeting, a dramatic storm summons a grand spaceship that drops down the exchange student — who looks and acts awfully similar to the character from John and Max's favorite game. As it turns out, this Hiro is the one from Battle Day Zero, brought to life by a miraculous bolt of lightning that struck some cards John and Max lost during the drive to meet the exchange student. With the real Hiro's whereabouts unknown, John and Max allow their school and John's family to take Hiro Karuta in, with his peculiarities as an animesque fantasy hero being dismissed as foreign quirks by everyone else. This charade will give John and Max the time they need to figure out how to send Hiro back to the card game he came from, but things are quickly complicated by the discovery that more of their Battle Day Zero cards are starting to come to life. With a whole host of monsters, villains, and heroes from Battle Day Zero now entering the real world and causing chaos, John and Max soon find that Hiro is their only hope for confronting these powerful and dangerous beings. And although keeping Hiro around means nothing will ever be the same again for these two dweebs (except for their rock-bottom positions on the school food chain), life is certainly going to be a lot more exciting.
In 2015, a TV series based on the movie was released, becoming Cartoon Network's first Australian original series. Also produced by BES Animation, the TV series is best understood as an Alternate Continuity to the movie, as it changes up the premise slightly by making Battle Day Zero a magical card game from another universe that conjures forth the characters and creatures from said dimension, with Hiro being summoned by John and Max. And while the show polished up the film's Flash animation and maintained the tongue-in-cheek action-comedy angle, it replaced most of the voice actors and changed the location of the series to the fictional US town of South Port (resulting in most of the cast Americanizing their accents too). However, the show only ran for 13 episodes.
Exchange Student Zero features the following tropes:
Tropes that apply to the TV movie
- Abhorrent Admirer: Happy Peach Flower to Max, which he calls out on her for though he felt bad after. They eventually become a couple seeing that Max already admired her even before officially meeting her.
- Academic Alpha Bitch: Charity. While she somewhat grows out of this in the Made-for-TV Movie, she reprises this role in the TV series, ten fold. Then again, the show deliberately deviates from the events that happened in the TV movie so her Character Development is apparently non-existent.
- Alice and Bob: Hiro's parents and Avere's parents. If you hear them about to engage in battle, saying each other's names, spitefully, you'll notice they're...oddly standard.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Seemed to be this way in the beginning but it's eventually averted for everyone's case (see Surprisingly Happy Ending). John manages to get his crush to finally like him in the end.
- Altar Diplomacy: Turns out Hiro was in an Arranged Marriage with Avere as a part of a peace treaty between their tribes.
- Always Save the Girl: Whenever Charity is about to get crushed or be somewhere in the middle of harm's way, Hiro would always save her. This happens several times which causes her constant denial to his advances start to fade more and more.
- Anime Hair: many of the characters from Battle Day Zero qualify, most obviously Hiro, who has prominent spikey blue hair.
- Animesque: Downplayed. Only the characters that originate from the cards are designed anime-like.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: A few of the monsters from the cards count as this, as they go on to terrorize the school, and sometimes, the entire city.
- Big Anime Eyes: As a parody of anime, many of the characters from the Battle Day Zero game are drawn this way, most prominently Hiro.
- Bound and Gagged: John and Charity's parents after Avere breaks into their home. And they remain that way for some time, because the kids just either ignored or forgot them which becomes a Running Gag.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Charity Stitt, John's older sister. She partly grows out of this in the movie, but snaps back to this trope with a vengeance in the series.
- Bridezilla: Avere is understandably upset over Hiro leaving her at the altar.
- Calling Your Attacks: Most of the characters from Hiro's universe, including Hiro himself, do this.
- Cards of Power: The premise of the movie involves cards from a Japanese game infused with mystical power that brings the characters in said cards to life. While the movie left it somewhat open-ended as to how these cards gained their power, the TV series depicts them as magical artifacts from another dimension cast to Earth by its inhabitants.
- Cargo Ship: In-universe. Amonsun falls in love with one of Charity's stuffed toys, a doll specifically.
- Chick Magnet: Hiro is very popular with the girls at John and Max's school, including John's sister Charity (who even briefly dates him).
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Happy Peach Flower is extremely possessive of Max and constantly demands attention from him.
- The Comically Serious: A lot of the humor in both the movie and TV series comes from Hiro's stern warrior characterization being very out of place on Earth, resulting in a lot of mayhem and misunderstandings.
- Cosmic Plaything: Downplayed in the sense that he isn't given much focus in the movie, but Principal Rogerson's son, Leroy, gets the shortest end of the stick out of everyone else, especially compared to the actual Japanese exchange student, Hiro Tanada.
Leroy is probably the only one who doesn't get a piece of the Surprisingly Happy Ending. - Dance Party Ending: Courtesy of Totally Hot (a band, consisting of Happy Peach Flower's friends), and at the school prom no less!
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Charity. The more she gets to know Hiro, she becomes less mean especially when they finally got together.
- Dodgy Toupee: Principal Rogerson, since he doesn't seem to have much hair around his head.
- The Door Slams You: As John dashes to the door to find Hiro, Max burst in slamming John with it.
- Double Entendre: Max disparages on Denmead by saying, "trying to score with a bunch of dudes". See, because he plays football and his teammates are all guys!
- Dramatic Wind: Hiro's hair is prone to this, even if there is no wind.
- Evil Overlord: King Blackyard, the sworn enemy of Hiro's family, the Karutas. And while he was open to having Hiro marry his own daughter, he was pretty quick to take up arms once he found out Hiro ditched the bride.
- Faint in Shock: Lucinda faints after seeing a large wave plunge down on John.
- Fish out of Water: As an animesque exchange student from a fantastical universe of warriors and monsters, Hiro Karuta is humorously out of place among the slightly quirky if otherwise wholly mundane world of John and Max.
- Geek: John and Max, full spades. Two lanky, unpopular teenage boys obsessed with anime and card games. Max moreso than John, as John generally has some self-awareness to how much of a loser they both are, while Max, despite being even dweebier, is even more shameless about it. We also have Leroy Rogerson, who somehow manages to be even more pathetic than either.
- Geek Physiques: John and Max both represent the "skinny" geek body type. Principal Rogerson's son Leroy represents the "fat" body type.
- Gratuitous Japanese: The kanji "交換留学生 零"? written below the title logo is actually the literal Japanese translation of said title.
- Ironic Name: In an official character profile, Charity is described as the complete antithesis of her name. This is true at first when she was somewhat the alpha bitch cheerleader dating the equally popular jerk jock before meeting Hiro.
- Jerk/Dumb Jock: Denmead. And he's probably one of the most exaggerated examples ever, complete with a Simpleton Voice and Dumb Blond. He also defects more than once to Avere's side.
- Kiss of Life: Denmead crashed in the waves after falling from his surfboard and when he's washed ashore, Max does this to him. After he wakes up, he's shown to be quite unappreciative.
- Large Ham: Being a parody of anime protagonists, Hiro is very prone to being dramatic and shouting a lot while gesturing and posing in over-the-top manners. In fact, this seems to be a standard trait for people from his universe, the number of whom speak reservedly can be counted on one hand.
- Literal-Minded: Hiro is prone to misunderstanding certain aspects of Earth life in a literal manner. For example, when first shown around the Stitt family home, he assumes the names of different rooms to have special meaning, like the living room being a place to honor those who are still alive and the toilet in the "little boy's room" as holding a child inside.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Variation with a website rather than a building, which admittedly would be easier to pull off. it was how John and Max found the Battle Day Zero cards.
- Love Hurts: Charity and Max fall in love with Hiro and Happy Peach Flower respectively, and once they leave, it had some pretty hard emotional repercussions for the both of them. Principal Rogerson as well with Avere.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Principal Rogerson who falls in love with Avere. He tries to bring her back by summoning various monsters from the cards until he can find her again.
- Magical Girl: Happy Peach Flower and her friends are parodies of this trope, and true to anime nerd culture, they are the objects of Perverse Sexual Lust for Max and some of the school's other nerds.
- Meaningful Name: Hiros' surname Karuta is derived from a type of Japanese playing card.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The ratterpillar monster fought by Hiro early on is pretty much what it sounds like, a giant caterpillar with the head of a rat.
- Mons: Hiro's pet Amonsun is a parody of Pikachu and similar characters. He's mostly there to be cute, but is a pretty formidable fighter when Hiro calls on him. The TV series goes into more depth about the nature of Mons in Hiro's world however, specifically in the episode "Amonsun Under Fire", which reveals how he became Hiro's sidekick.
- Nerdy Nasalness: While John and Max are both massive geeks, the latter speaks with a very noticeably nasally voice that emphasizes his status as the even bigger and more pathetic nerd of the two.
- No Accounting for Taste: Aside from Happy Peach Flower herself (who takes a strange liking to Max), her three like-minded friends also share the same habit of fawning over the boys in school who are at best, average.
- Subverted with Avere's sudden attraction to Principal Rogerson near the end. She never found him to be handsome at all (even lampshaded by her parents), and only wanted to marry him instead of Hiro was when he was crowned king in the grad ball and witnesses the student body chanting "all hail the king", taking it as how much "his subjects fear him".
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Inverted. The school Charity attends does not require students to wear a uniform but she wears clothes that resemble one as if she's attending a highly prestigious boarding school, seemingly to highlight how much of an Academic Alpha Bitch she is.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. When Hiro arrived for the first time in school, he was simply passed on as the Japanese exchange student the school was expecting. But the real exchange student they were supposed to welcome was a guy named Hiro Tanaga.
- Only Sane Man: John is the only character fully aware of all the insanity going on as a result of Hiro and Battle Day Zero crossing over into their world. This becomes especially prominent in the TV series.
- Perverse Sexual Lust: In-universe. Max is infatuated with the Magical Girl Happy Peach Flower. Luckily for him, she feels in love with him as well (albeit a little too much even for him).
- The Pig-Pen: One student in school looks like a goth kid with a perpetual aura of flies nicknamed Stinky.
- Repetitive Name: Principal Roger Rogerson, as well as Coach Coach. The latter is lampshaded by the former.
- Runaway Fiancé: Hiro is revealed to be this once Avere shows up, his parents having hoped to end the rivalry between them and their enemies by doing so.
- Running Gag: A few, including:
- The school receiving collateral damage from Hiro's battles with whatever monster attacking them, much to the Principal's annoyance.
- John and Charity's parents still bound and gagged. When Charity was talking to them in one scene, she didn't even bother to notice their plight nor even free them, for that matter. Also counts as a Brick Joke since it seemed that a few days had to pass before they're seen out of their binds (though it still remains unexplained how....)
- Rogerson referring to Avere as one of the cleaners just because they first met at night inside the school. To that end, he even sulks in a janitor's closet when she disappeared.
- Rival Turned Evil: Rival in a sense, but Denmead aligns himself with Avere twice, including going to her world in the end, on the grounds that "he's no brainiac and henchman is a pretty sweet gig". Oh, and because he thinks Avere's hot.
- Satellite Love Interest: Lucinda has no major role in the movie other than crushing on John. Luckily for them, they feel the same way towards each other.
- Sealed with a Kiss: Charity and Hiro. Played for Laughs variant with Amonsun and Charity's stuffed doll.
- Sexophone: Done by Hiro Tanaga of all people, over a shot of Rogerson leering at Avere.
- Shout-Out: Among the ones to anime, Hiro mentions hell mouths as potential interference with an interdimensional communication device.
- Speech Impediment: Max speaks with a noticeable lisp.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Hiro is able to generate his sword from thin air. In fact, many other characters display this ability, such as his parents and King Blackyard.
- Stock Sound Effect: The ratterpillar uses stock dinosaur roars.
- Stripperific: Avere's overall outfit. Even her wedding dress when she was about to marry Hiro.
- Summon Magic: How the cards work, with some element of Equivalent Exchange. As long as there aren't a full set of cards, the pathway will remain open and beings will randomly appear from Hiro's reality.
- Super Wrist-Gadget: Hiro wears one, allowing him to communicate with his parents and perform his Spontaneous Weapon Creation.
- Supporting Protagonist: The title "Exchange Student Zero" refers to Hiro, yes, but both the movie and series focus more on John and Max.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: The battle now done, Hiro, Amonsun, and Happy Peach Flower must leave their world so everything will be at peace. But since Principal Rogerson and his son Leroy, along with Denmead, are also transported into the world of Battle Day Zero when everyone/everything else was going back, the number of cards with the characters in them are complete, and them as the remaining three are now allowed to stay.
- Talking Is a Free Action: The chaos and fighting just stop the moment Charity takes the mike on stage to announce the grad ball king.
- Team Pet: Amonsu acts as this for Hiro, John, and Max.
- That Came Out Wrong: Denmead's long-winded insult that leads to a tangent about taking his (John's) crush to his funeral who he'll probably marry and as they lie around kissing all day, he'll be thinking about him. Instead of offending John, he just made him confused.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Hiro goes completely catatonic at the realization that water is wet.
- Unholy Matrimony: The result of Avere and Principal Rogerson's marriage, which is why his son is very much against it.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Charity throwing the cards out of the car window at the beginning is what opens the portal to their world, immediately starting the plot.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Happy Peach Flower is doesn't want anyone who seems to be hanging around with or threatening Max, if so she would be force to beat up whoever person does so.
- Warrior Prince: Hiro is one of these, the fierce and courageous son of the mighty King Karuta and a formidable fighter with a variety of combat techniques at his disposal.
- Weirdness Censor: From how the people simply just stood there in shock or pure confusion, probably none of them would be scarred for life.
- Wham Line: Avere's first line when she spots Hiro with Charity:Avere: GET AWAY FROM MY HUSBAND!!!!!
Tropes specific to the animated TV series
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Principal Rogerson's suit is changed from blue to brown.
- Adaptation Expansion: The series elaborates a little more on the details of Battle Day Zero, exploring Hiro's world and the origins of the card game in further depth (well, as much as you can in 13 episodes). A good example of this is the episode "Amonsun Under Fire", which reveals the backstory to Hiro's Mons sidekick.
- Adaptational Nationality: Whereas the movie is set in Perth, Australia, the series changes the characters to Americans living in the fictional town of South Port on the West Coast.
- Adapted Out: No mention is made of the real Hiro in the TV series, despite the character playing an important role in the movie.
- Alternate Continuity: This is established right away in the first episode, with Principal Rogerson and Denmead, who were taken to the world of Battle Day Zero by the end of the TV movie, being present in the real world, apparently to serve as recurring characters/antagonists to the protagonists.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Cartoon Network's Japanese dub has "Change my world
" by FUNCTION6ch as its opening theme. - Animation Bump: While the artstyle remains more or less the same (the primary difference being that they thinned the outlines a bit), the TV show's animation actually looks more polished than that of the movie, thanks to higher production values and a bit of tweaking on the character designs.
- Another Dimension: Battle Day Zero and all its characters are explained in the series as originating from one.
- Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: Fishing plays a major role in the plot of "Dad to the Bone". The episode starts with John returning from a father-son fishing trip with his dad for Father's Day. When John notices Hiro misses his own father, he allows Hiro to return to his own dimension, where Hiro introduces King Karuta to fishing in an effort to having a similar bonding experience with him. Of course, being the son of a warrior-king in a World of Badass means that even a simple father-son fishing trip isn't exactly easy for anyone.
- Basilisk and Cockatrice: The last and most dangerous monster fought by the main trio in "See Ya Later Gladiator" is a basilisk. It appears as a regular chicken at first, but once enraged, it transforms into a half lizard, half-rooster monster that fires deadly lasers from its eyes. Hiro explains the only way to kill it is to trick it into seeing its reflection, but Max gets around it by imitating the monster and making it believe he is its reflection, causing the basilisk to turn to stone.
- Big Sister Bully: Charity, who, in stark contrast to the development her movie version receives, actually condones her boyfriend's bullying of Max and her brother.
- Blob Monster: The Gunk Queen of Argon, a gigantic mass of mucus who attacks by vomiting up even more mucus on others. Max offhandedly mentions that she used to be even bigger.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Charity very much behaves this way, even moreso than her movie counterpart. She frequently throws tantrums with her parents and teachers over not getting things her way and has a massively dysfunctional relationship with Denmead.
- Broad Strokes: Some of the events of the TV movie are alluded to in the series (such as how John and Max discovered Battle Day Zero and Principal Rogerson's son having to switch with Hiro), but the exact canonicity of the movie in relation to series is a bit unclear.
- Butt-Monkey: Max, as the comic relief of the main trio, is a frequent victim of slapstick and misfortune. This is probably best displayed at the end of the Valentine's Day Episode, where John scores his first date with Lucinda, while poor Max is left being chased around by Happy Peach Flower.
- Chair Reveal: Lampshaded by Headmaster Headly in "Good Old Days, Bad Old Days" when Amonsun tries to sneak into his office to get the detention room keys."Tsk, tsk. When you enter a villain's office, always check the oversized chair turned away from view."
- Cool Board: In the episode "The Mystic Skater", John takes one from Hiro to impress Lucinda. It's a golden hovering board that Hiro originally used for a sport in his universe called Clashboard, which is basically an extreme version of skateboarding.
- Cuteness Proximity: Malentwines have this effect on others, causing anybody who sees them to instantly fall in love with whoever gave it to them. The catch is it works too well. If you're Amonsun however, the proximity reaction is a little stronger...
- Dancing Theme: The show's credits theme has Hiro, John, and Max dancing alongside it in a parody of common anime outro sequences.
- Dean Bitterman: Mr. Rogerson, although generally incompetent, qualifies as this in both the movie and TV series, but the episode "Good Old Days, Bad Old Days" introduces Headmaster Headly, an evil principal from Hiro's world who takes over the school when Rogerson goes on a vacation.
- Demoted to Extra: Several major characters in the movie are reduced to one-off or semi-recurring side characters in the TV series, such as Lucinda, Avere, Happy Peach Flower, and King Blackyard.
- Embarrassing Name: In "Sweet Potato", it's revealed Max's name is short for Maxine! According to him, his parents believed he was a girl for the first four years of his life.
- Election Day Episode: "Reign of Error". Max convinces Hiro to run for school president against Charity. However, things quickly go south when Hiro decides to take a page from his father's book and quickly becomes an authoritarian, forcing John and Max to find a way to stop him.
- Evil Gloating: King Blackyard is prone to this, often distracting him from his evil plans.
- Expository Theme Tune: The lyrics of the show's intro explain the premise of the series.
- Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: The owner of Malcovans, Max and John's favorite brand of potato chips, is one of these.
- Gladiator Games: The plot of "See Ya Later Gladiator". Hiro, John, and Max end up in one in the Battle Day Zero universe being overseen by Avere. Hiro helps the group with fighting through the arena's champions and monsters, but to avoid being spotted by Avere (his ex-bride as in the movie), he lets Max take all the credit (under the name "Maximus Gluteus") while John tries to figure out how to get everyone home.
- Great Offscreen War: As described in the Opening Narration, the Battle Day Zero cards were fought over for in Hiro's universe in a centuries-long one that ultimately ended when the kingdoms decided to call for peace and banished the cards to Earth.
- Hulking Out: Amonsun's primary power.
- Ice-Cream Koan: Zoobooninian the Enlightened, the equine spirit advisor of King Karuta, mostly delivers these kinds of statements.
- Magical Camera: The episode "School Photo" sees King Blackyard employ one to teleport and mind control the students of John and Max's high school during Picture Day.
- Mistaken for Cheating: In "Denmead for Denmead", Denmead starts a bromance with a clone of himself, and ends up spending so much time with him that Principal Rogerson is forced to tell Charity that the school is beginning to suspect their star athlete's frequent absences are because Denmead is having an affair behind her back.
- Mistaken for Special Guest: Charity mistakes herself for this in "I'll Take the Couch" when she sees her family (plus Hiro, Max, and Amonsun) preparing for a welcome party for Hiro's parents, instead assuming that the party is for her upcoming birthday.
- Mundane Object Amazement: King and Queen Karuta are awed by the Stitt family's appliances and furniture in "I'll Take the Couch", particularly their sofa-bed, the toaster, and the ironing board (the last of which they mistake for a powerful weapon).
- Narcissist: Denmead. He's so self-absorbed that in the episode "Denmead for Denmead", he literally started ignoring Charity, his girlfriend, just to hang out with a clone of himself and ended up developing a bromance with him as a result.
- Nerd in Evil's Helmet: As a result of having to survival the World of Badass that is Hiro's dimension and being raised by vultures when he was swapped with Hiro as part of the exchange program, Leroy Rogerson transforms from a tiny, pathetic geek that even John and Max stand above in the school food chain to a fearsome Tin Tyrant overlord who commands armies of vultures against his enemies. When John and Max bring him back to Earth to let him spend time with his dad, Leroy ends up taking over the school, imprisoning his father and enslaving the popular kids (sans Denmead who defects to his side by pretending to be a nerd).
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Rove McManus reprises his role as Max among others, and his change of accent is sometimes egregious.
- Oni: One monster card, Sweet Potato, summons a baby one. John and Max end up having to be parents for the episode "Sweet Potato".
- Opening Narration: The series intro includes this, explaining the origins of the Battle Day Zero cards and how they ended up with John and Max.
- Picture Day: The plot of "School Photo" involves one. Principal Rogerson is determined to finally get non-embarrassing school photos from his student this year, but things are derailed by King Blackyard disguising himself as the new photographer to use a magical camera that teleports the students to the Battle Day Zero dimension and mind controlling them as his new soldiers.
- Pop-Star Composer: The theme song is composed by Mark Mothersbaugh and Bob Mothersbaugh of Devo fame.
- Pretty Boy: Parodied in "Prince Harming" with the character of Prince Castellan, who fits all the classic qualities of Bishōnen anime characters, because he's actually a vampire.
- Proud to Be a Geek: Max displayed shades of this in the movie, but they're more prominent in the TV series. He's a humongous dweeb who makes even the very geeky John seem cool, but his Small Name, Big Ego means he's very oblivious to how pathetic everyone else sees him. The few times he shows some form of awareness for his uncoolness, he takes it as a compliment.
- Rail Enthusiast: John and Charity's father collects model trains and keeps them in the basement.
- Raised by Wolves: Leroy Rogerson was taken care of by vultures while in Hiro's dimension, eventually becoming their king.
- Reset Button: In some ways, the TV series does this to the movie, with the Character Development undergone by a few characters and the fates of others being completely undone, as well as some of the plot points first brought up in the film reappearing again but treated as totally new by the characters (such as Hiro revealing his former engagement to Avere).
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Amonsun could be argued as this, but a more blatant example comes in the form of the Malentwines, adorable chinchilla-like fuzzballs whose mere presence causes hypnotic Cuteness Proximity for anyone who sees them. According to Hiro, legend has it that a peasant was able to win the heart of a fearsome warrior-princess by giving her a Malentwine due to its sheer adorableness.
- School Play:
- The episode "See Ya Later Gladiator" starts off with John, Max, and Hiro auditioning for one. Unsurprisingly, given the Sucky School they go to though, the auditionees are all completely terrible and it's clear that Principal Rogerson is choosing leads based on their popularity among the students rather than their acting ability.
- "I'll Take the Couch" has the school performing a pig version of Hamlet at the start and end of the episode. It's quality is what you'd expect based on the costumes and premise.
- Small Name, Big Ego: A character trait more emphasized in the series than in the movie for Max, who is depicted as being extremely unaware of his own nerdiness due to his very inflated self-image.
- Snap Back: A possible interpretation of the cartoon series' Alternate Continuity, specifically regarding some of the Character Development. Also somewhat mixed with Broad Strokes with regards to what is and is not the same.
- Straw Loser: John and Max are both complete nerds sitting at the absolute bottom of their school's food chain, but whereas John is at least self-aware of his own geekiness and a rational human being, Max is a Small Name, Big Ego Stereotypical Nerd who somehow manages to be an even bigger geek with absolutely zero understanding of just how uncool he is.
- Sucky School: John and Max's school is generally shown to have pretty poor standards, to the point where it's stated to be the worst school in the whole country.
- Swordfish Sabre: King Karuta uses one in "Dad to the Bone", although this being a Karutan swordfish, it has an actual sword for a nose.
- Traintop Battle: Parodied in "Amonsun Under Fire" when Amonsun and Avere (disguised as one of Amonsun's fellow Mons) have one of the model trains belonging to John and Charity's dad.
- Transformation Sequence: Amonsun goes through one, assuming a larger, more muscular form when Hiro shouts "Amonsun, transmute!".
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: Avere was King Blackyard's daughter in the movie, but in the TV series, she appears entirely divorced from any connections to Blackyard and is instead the queen of an unnamed gladiator planet.
- Valentine's Day Episode: "Dead Cute" is set during the holiday, with John and Max trying to help their fellow nerds score girlfriends while themselves considering their own romantic pursuits. Hiro also mentions of the Karutan version, Malentwine's Day, and its customs, inspiring John and Max to adopt them to try get ahead.
- Weaponized Teleportation: In "Denmead for Denmead", Max uses a card called Exiler to do this to Denmead in retaliation for his regular bullying. However, his excessive abuse of the card's power ends up creating two Denmeads (who luckily for John and Max quickly become extremely infatuated with each other and forget about pummeling the two geeks).
- World of Badass: Being a parody of Shōnen anime with a fantasy twist, Hiro's universe is full of deadly fighters, mighty warrior-kings, fearsome monsters, and powerful magical beings, many of whom have been at war with each other for thousands of years and whose customs are typically brutal and violent. As Principal Rogerson's own son disocvered, Earthlings who end up in their world must quickly learn their ways or be crushed.
