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Western Animation: Kaijudo
aka: Duel Masters

The main cast from left to right: Ray, Gabe, and Allie

Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters is an Animesque Western Animation based on the Duel Masters franchise.

The show's history is as follows: thousands of years ago, numerous creatures roamed the earth, each hailing from one of five Civilizations: Fire, Water, Nature, Darkness, and Light. The various myths of this world were given form due to the aforementioned creatures, from dragons and sea-serpents to even UFOs.

At first, these creatures lived side-by-side with humans and everything was peaceful. Until eventually, certain creatures began to feel that man was growing too powerful too fast and started pulling for them to be enslaved. Thus began the Creature Wars which lasted for centuries. Said wars would understandably mar the present day outlook on the humans side toward creatures.

Seeing the inevitability of the wars tearing the world apart, five shaman warriors joined together. Each representing one of the five Civilizations, they preformed what is called Kaijudo, which means "Way of the Creature". They proceeded to strip the power from the five Creature Rulers and used it to create a parallel dimension know as the Kaiju Realm that is protected from earth by a barrier called the Veil, where creatures reside in to this day.

And, just like that, the Creature Wars ended, and life began to evolve into what it is today.

These five shaman warriors took the near powerless bodies of the Creature Rulers and, putting them into a deep sleep, hid them deep underground. Henceforth, The Order of the Kaijudo Duel Masters began. Their charge was to make sure the Creature Rulers stayed in hibernation and also to guard the Veil, making sure nothing came out and keeping the earth and its people ignorant that such things as "monsters" ever existed.

Fast forward to the present day. The Veil is weakening and creatures are coming through. The current generation of Duel Masters are kept busy sending the wayward beasts back home and sealing the rifts they came through, all the while not aware of what this could possibly foretell�

Our hero is fourteen year-old Raiden 'Ray' Pierce-Okamoto, who, along with his mom and grandpa, has just moved into a new apartment. Somewhat introspective and often bullied for his mixed heritage, he often longs for something more, as if he knows there's another whole world out there. This leads him to be on the "dreamy" side.

On his way home from school with his best friends, Allison 'Allie' Underhill and Gabriel 'Gabe' Wallace, his encounter with some bullies leads him to summon forth a Rumbling Terrasuar like the one he sketched the previous night from out of nowhere just by calling its name that he didn't even know. One thing leads to another, and the group ends up meeting a mysterious young man named Hector Chavez who then proceeds to rescue them by taking them on a short trip to the dangerous Kaiju Realm. This, of course, leads to the kids being shocked and upset when they get out. Chavez decides that the best way to explain would be to invite the kids to where he works, The Temple of the Kaijudo Duel Masters, of which he is one of those Masters.

This in turn leads Ray to his destiny (Gabe and Allie as well, even if they don't realize it yet) and it leads us to this show.

Kaijudo: Rise of The Duel Masters is said to be a Continuity Reboot, with nothing in common with the Japanese Anim� or the original dub of the first series. Well, except for many of the creatures, some of which have a "same creature different look" kinda feel and some are borrowed from the newer Japanese cards. Although a tie-in series to the new card game, this is one of those series that doesn't advertise the cards themselves or its Card Game directly like the Pok�mon Anim� or Huntik: Secrets and Seekers. These shows have a tendency to be very story and character driven, as is evident in this case by simply watching the first three episodes.

The aforementioned tie-in TCG was released around June 2012, under the name of Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters TCG.

This show includes the tropes of:

Action Mom: Ray's mom in the last episode (episode 26) of season 1.
Actor Allusion: The end of "Heavenly Creatures" has the Oded Fehr-voiced Choten saying Master Brightmore has "seen the light".
Adult Fear: Hoo boy. Let's see...
- Episodes 1-3: even though it's seemingly minor, your kid is being hassled for his bi-racial heritage by bullies who are quite willing to be physically aggressive.
- ALL the stuff that seems to happen when the kids go into the creature realm.
- And last but not least "Betrayal": Janet Pierce-Okamoto is forced to watch the building where she and Ray lived burn down while Ray and his same-aged friends are inside. Then, Saguru finds out that he's really Ken Okamoto, Ray's father...which means he had just used and betrayed his own son as well as putting him in physical danger. To make it even worse, he wasn't immediately able to do anything about it since The Choten imprisoned him.
- From a mentor's perspective, Master Chavez must have been devastated by how much damage could have been done to his students, because he trusted Masters Brightmore and Jaha who have now betrayed the council and sided with the Choten. Subverted with Jaha though.
Aliens Speaking English: Although not all creatures can speak a language that the humans can understand, many can. One way to tell if a creature has some importance is if they can speak, Squeaky being an exception.
Almost Kiss: Gabe with Sasha.
Always Chaotic Evil: averted; it's clearly shown as the series goes on that none of the Civilization is either entirely good or evil, though they tend to have a different system of value than humans.
Ancient Artifact: Each of the five civilizations has one powerful artifact, originally owned by the Creature Ruler Kings themselves. Their whereabouts: All five are currently in The Choten's possession by the end episode 24. They each seem to be some form of Instant Allegiance Artifact and, as one would expect, The Choten's after all of them. They are as follows:
- Fire Civilization: The Sword of Fiery Cataclysm
- Water Civilization: The Helm of Ultimate Technology
- Nature Civilization: The Shield of Unity
- Darkness Civilization: The Cloak of Dark Illusion
- Light Civilization: The Heart of Light
Ancient Conspiracy: "The Siphon" reveals The 5 Beast Kings WILLINGLY gave their power to the original masters to power the veil for the sake of BOTH worlds, but for yet-to-be-revealed reasons, the masters backstabbed them, buried them alive, and created a myth of them awakening as Eldritch Abominations that exists to present day.
Animesque: Interestingly, the art director, David Coleman, said, among other things, that the main characters were designed with shapes in mind. Triangles for Ray since he's proactive, squares for Gabe since it's balanced like how he prefers things, and circles for Allie with occasional sharp corners to show her general soft and pacifistic nature, unless you get her really mad. Their main creatures, Bob, Gargle, and Squeaky respectively follow the same patterns.
- To compound this, both animation studios behind this show (Moi Animation and DR Movie) are owned by Madhouse.
Another Dimension: The Kaiju Realm.
Bad Boss: The Choten. He threw Fingers into the darkness realm and dropped Alakshmi from a high building roof. His treatment of Saguru before he had his memories returned can be counted as well.
Batman Gambit: Ray actually pulls off one against The Choten of all people by destroying the portal he's been using to abduct monsters then having Mighty Shouter take a dive in order to abuse his default teleporting back to the Nature Civilization to escape, costing The Choten weeks to repair it. No wonder he's the natural.
Berserk Button: The Cyber Lords of the Council of Lagos hate being called "babies".
Big Creepy Crawlies: Like the Ambush Scorpions that Alakshmi is fond of.
Big Eater: An Extreme Omnivore creature know as a Burn Belly; it consumes anything flammable than belches fire. After being injected with The Choten's mutagenic serum, any time they belch fire, they multiply. When the gang captures them in a container with a vacuum, one of the Burn Bellies eats the rest and transforms into Om Nom Nom, a giant, ferocious version of the Burn Belly.
- Midnight Crawler takes the Extreme Omnivore trope to new heights by literally eating everything from plants and other creatures to entire tracts of land.
Bizarre Alien Locomotion: Gargle walks bipedally on his forelimbs while using his feet as hands.
Black and Grey Morality: Toned down, but this is still visible in the opposition between the two sides; the Duel Masters see the creatures as dangerous weapons and follow a code of conduct when using them. One rule, for example, forbids the duelist from touching a kaiju. Another rule prevents the duelist from befriending the kaiju. (Through their interactions with Ray, Gabe, and Allie, some of Duel Masters have a change of heart.) In any case, the Duel Masters are still better than The Choten, who just wants to control all kaiju to serve his selfish purposes.
- The kids seem to be moving the Gray towards the White with their surprisingly effective tactic of befriending their kaiju.
Butt Monkey: For whatever reason, especially early on, Allie never seemed to be able to keep a creature summoned for long before it was defeated. Fingers also pokes fun at Alakshmi's many recent failures with The Choten showing great displeasure in them.
Combat Pragmatist: Trickery and deceit are the ways of darkness and those who are aligned with that realm tend to use such tactics. Whether it's Allie disguising herself as Alakshmi to fool The Choten Choten, Razorkinder Puppet attacking his duelist Alakshmi when her back is turned, Megaria taking on the form of Allie's and Alakshmi's mothers to screw with their heads, or Jaha faking a betrayal just to defeat traitor Master Nigel when his back is turned.
Continuity Reboot: For the dub of the original show and the Western franchise as a whole.
Cosmopolitan Council: The Order of the Kaijudo Duel Masters.
Crippling Overspecialization: Ray's actually called out on this by Brightmore for wanting to summon Tatsurion/Bob for the specifically stealthy capture of a flying monster, Ray gets flustered and does it anyway, goes temporarily blind for it along with Bob, but of course, gets better and more varied in his approach so the lesson sticks.
- The entire council are guilty of this, relying on one monster above all others. The Choten realizes this, and summons them before summoning the Monarchs.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Though Gabe and Allie do put up the best fight they can, Alakshmi and Razorkinder quite frankly owns them. Ray fairs slightly better, but since he squandered his mana summoning Bob for menial labor, he isn't that useful himself. Razorkinder is defeated eventually, but Alakshmi still gets away with Hissie in the end.
- Though Hissie is rescued later on and Ray does curb-stomp Alakshmi in "The Siphon" after upgrading his Gauntlet. Its not long after that she falls from The Choten's good graces.
Deadpan Snarker: Several: Ray, Gabe, Allie, Master Chavez, Master Nadia, The Choten, Alakshmi, to name a few.
The Choten: Yes. A child will defeat an expert warrior who has survived for years in the Nature Realm... What a firm grasp on reality you have.
Disappeared Dad: Ray's dad. Who was revealed to be Saguru in "Betrayal"
Distressed Damsel: Allie ends up playing this in episode 6 when a summoned creature that was defeated grabs her with its tongue as it is transported back to the Fire Civilization. It isn't long before she's sold to Lord Skycrusher as his dinner.
- Something similar happens to Artie, Allie's Dad, in episode 18 "Duel Hard".
Easy Amnesia: Master Nadia's Cyber Viruses, which she uses to control who knows what knowledge. Like erasing memories of the Kaijudo world from people who are no longer potential acolytes�
- The amnesia is so easy in fact that the good and bad guys both use Cyber Viruses liberally to control who knows what, especially in regards to regular humans as seen when The Choten has Alakshmi and Heller take over the bank to get the Helm of Ultimate Technology. It happens to Heller at the end towards the end of the episode via the Duel Masters. In fact, Master Brightmore threatened to do the same to Ray, Gabe, and Allie during the episode "Night Moves" after their prank against Portia and Maribel go completely awry. Though Gabe points out in a babble that that's no longer possible thanks to the immunity granted to them by the Cyber Lords as reward for saving the Helm of Ultimate Technology in "In the Deep Part II".
- It turns out that the Choten has access to Saguru's missing memories. He uses them to barter (later blackmail) services from him. Unknown to Saguru, he took them in the first place.
Elemental Powers: The five masters of the Kaijudo Order each specializes in creatures from one of the five Civilizations:
- Light 'em Up: Master Nigel Brightmore and the Light Civilization. His primary creature is Ra-Vu, Seeker of Lightning.
- Playing with Fire: Master Hector Chavez and the Fire Civilization. His primary creature is Gilaflame the Assaulter.
- Making a Splash: Master Nadia Lobachevsky and the Water Civilization. Her primary creature is Aqua Chaser, Rusalka.
- Green Thumb: Master Benjirou Kimora and the Nature Civilization. His primary creature is Mighty Shouter
- Casting a Shadow: Master Jaha and the Darkness Civilization. Her primary creature is Black Feather of Shadow Abyss.
Evil Old Folks: In episode 25, the two oldest masters are the ones who side with the power hungry Choten. Allie even remarks about this. Subverted with Jaha who was faking.
Evolving Credits: As much as a 30 something second opening can evolve. Certain scene changes start in episode 6.
Face Heel Turn: Master Nigel (implied) at the end of episode 22 with his suspicious phone call to an unknown source. At the end of episode 23 "Heavenly Creatures," he is confirmed to have called The Choten and has officially joined the villains as well. This betrayal is revealed to the other Duel Masters toward the end of episode 25 "The Rising Part 1". Master Jaha also does this toward the end of episode 25 "The Rising, Part 1" as well only for Jaha to reveal she was faking it.
Fake Defector: Jaha. She pretends to join the Choten and even attacks Master Chavez and Gabe, then later helps them by knocking Master Brightmore, who had fully thought she had actually joined the Choten.
Fallen Hero: The Choten, he was Nadia's teacher and Saguru's friend.
- Masters Nigel and Jaha are this as well as of episode 25 "The Rising, Part 1". Ultimately only Nigel was the fallen hero at the end of "The Rising, Part 2".
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Mighty Shouter's tribe are essentially Magical Native Americans, or at least Thorn-Bringer, and Skycrusher throws Romanesque Gladiator Games.
Fictional Counterpart: San Campion is pretty much San Francisco.
Five-Bad Band: Over the course of the season, The Choten's faction becomes this:
- The Big Bad: The Choten himself.
- The Dragon: Alakshmi most of time except when she out of favor; then that role falls onto Saguru. Either of the two are Co-Dragons to The Choten's main creature Aqua Seneschal.
- The Evil Genius: The Choten plans his own schemes, so he doubles as The Evil Genius and also a Mad Scientist.
- The Brute: Heller. He's a petty thief who happened upon a Tech-Gauntlet and has a surprising knack for mana control. The Choten hired him to be extra muscle on missions, and he isn't treated with much respect otherwise. Saguru can also double as extra muscle if need be, but he's usually respected beyond just that.
- The Dark Chick: Fingers. At this point, he seems to be still around only because The Choten is not one of the most wasteful villain out there. And not for lack of trying.
- Sixth Ranger: As of the end of episode 21, "Like Father, Like Son", Carny joins The Choten's faction after learning that his father Alex is The Choten's financial benefactor and silent partner. All to impress dear old Dad�
Five-Man Band: The Order of the Kaijudo Duel Masters sorta fills this out:
- The Hero: Master Nigel, even though he's a rigid Jerkass, he's still the leader.
  - Not anymore given that he's sided with the Choten as of episode 25 "The Rising pt 1".
- The Lancer: Master Chavez, he is most opposite Nigel in his way of thinking, and is the most supportive of Ray and his friends.
- The Smart Guy: Both Masters Nadia and Jaha fill this role; the former in historical knowledge and the like and the latter in an intelligence sense (i.e. spying).
- The Big Guy: Master Kimora. He's second after Chavez in his support of the gang's ideals. Also The Blacksmith Master Toji.
- The Chick: Joseph, a.k.a. Fingers if he wasn't The Mole working for The Choten.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Allie's comment to Steamstar Grapplog spraying her in episode 4.
Allie: That better have just been water�
- Episode 9 has this from the internet obsessed monster Gargle. Monster attacks are certainly dangerous, but that's not what the phrase "NSFW: Not Safe for Work!" usually means�
- Sasha's interpretation of music like humans "coordinating their bodies".
Gladiator Games: Lord Skycrusher's arena.
Ghost Extras: In episode 25, "The Rising, Part I," Toji and a few temple acolytes are in a group with the heroes preparing to attack The Choten's base. However, there are no scenes where they actually participate in the battle that ensues (they don't summon anything, they are not being attacked, they don't talk, and nobody speaks to them). However, this group of extras is seen behind the heroes when they are all cornered.
Half Breed Discrimination: Carny doesn't let Ray forget his ancestry. Additionally, Tatsurion is a wanted criminal because of his.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Even though Fingers failed to steal the creature tablets, the creatures he set free for the diversion that weren't re-imprisoned are just more creatures The Choten can add to his arsenal.
Heroic BSOD: Saguru. End of Episode 24 "Betrayal" after the reveal that he's Ray's dad.
He Is Not My Boyfriend: Alakshmi calls Ray Allie's boyfriend. She was about to say that he's not her boyfriend, but Alakshmi doesn't seem to care as she attacks her before Allie could even finish saying this trope.
Hollywood Tactics: A person with a duel gauntlet and sufficient mana theoretically can summon a creature (kaiju) if he or she knows the creature's name. After The Choten perfects his kaiju mind control collar, why doesn't he just summon and capture all of the Heroes' and Duel Masters' primary creatures instead of waiting until episode 25 to do it? Prior to episode 24, the Heroes' and Duel Masters did not know where The Choten's base was.
- He probably wanted to wait until they were off-guard or something.
Honor Before Reason: The masters' "No Touching the Monsters" rule is such that Jaha chastised Hector for summoning a monster to fly them to rescue the kids in the Fire Civilization as "picking up the kids' bad habits" instead of walking through desert/lava landscape when they were on a tight schedule. Had Hector not done this, they wouldn't have been able to pull a Big Damn Heroes and save the kids from being killed/recaptured.
I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: In episode 26, Gargle replies to Gabe, "I'm a mechanic, not a doctor."
International Coproduction: Between Moi Animation and Hasbro.
Interspecies Romance: Gabe, a human, and Sasha, a Light Creature.
Kick the Dog: Although keeping the Kaijudo world hidden is understandable, Master Nadia's attempt at erasing the group's memories still feels like this.
- Alakshmi sending Allie's father to the Darkness Civilization.
Laser-Guided Karma: The bullies, Carny, Driggs, and the other one who never spoke, gets their minds wiped of Ray summoning the Terrasuar by Nadia, after Gabe points out the unfairness of him, Allie, and Ray getting mind wiped and not the bullies.
Mad Scientist: The Choten's ambitions to make creatures stronger through evolution makes him this.
Magical Security Cam: Nigel's aptly named "Stalker Spheres" which are totally not spy cameras. Possibly justified by the Stalker Spheres being mobile rather than stationary� They can be hovering anywhere, so what's to say they wouldn't see the same things the audience does?
- Master Jaha's Ghost Spies serve a similar role.
Meaningful Name: Many of the creatures' names as well as nicknames have some kind of meaning behind, obvious or otherwise.
Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Alakshmi betrays The Choten for finding out The Choten's real plan ( Alakshmi thought The Choten was going to tell the town about his triumph. Instead, The Choten launched Cyber Viruses to brainwash the townspeople and prepare them for the new world order.) and later being hurled off the elevated platform for failing to retrieve the Sword of Fiery Cataclysm from Allie. Being thrown off the elevated platform was the more likely trigger for the betrayal.
- Speculation: Because Alakshmi was the only female among the villains, she might be a candidate for High Heel Face Turn in a future episode.
The Mole: Fingers.
- Master Brightmore.
Monochrome Casting: Averted. The cast, both heroes and villains, are ethnically diverse. It was also brought up as a plot point regarding half-Japanese/half-white main character Ray and a racist bully.
My Friends... and Zoidberg: "Gargle has air-suits for friends! Friend G-abriel, friend Ray, friend Squeaky, err�Allie."
My God, What Have I Done?: Saguru in "Betrayal" where it is revealed through a memory swarm that he is Ray's father. This came right after he A) lured Ray and his friends into an area that weakens creatures under the guise of helping them escape a fire, B) stole the Heart of Light from Sasha, rendering her unresponsive, C) broke Ray's ability to trust in him (though he may not be aware of that) and D) left the kids tied up in the creature realm. Needless to say, after Saguru learned who he really was, he was very...displeased.
New Season, New Name: Season one having the subtitle "Way of the Creature" changed in season two to "Clash of the Duel Masters" which comes from a new booster set from the card game.
Power Upgrading Deformation: The Choten's evolution virus.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Master Chavez and Master Nigel (in that order)
The Reveal: Different things, both major and minor, are revealed about both worlds and the characters that inhabit them as time goes on.
Secret Keeper: At the end of "The Rising Part II," the Council offered its condolences to Ray for his father being lost in the creature civilization (and possibly dead, although the last minute of the episode indicates otherwise). Ray's friends asked Ray what he would say to his mother and grandfather. Ray chose to tell them nothing and let them remember his father for who he was.
Selective Obliviousness: The Choten forces this on Saguru by picking and choosing which memories he rewards him for his successes. Before long, Saguru becomes more and more devoted to The Choten's Kaijudo World Domination schemes because they're necessary to protect everyone.
Ship Tease: Master Nadia to Master Chavez considering the frequent slips of calling him Hector, using his Gilaflame without his awareness/permission and being the one to call him out of his meditation in "The Siphon." The two get more moments like this later, when Master Chavez tackles Nadia down to save her from an impending attack. Later on, when Nadia needs to take Allie's dad back to Earth, Chavez calls Nadia by her first name. Also, there's Ray and Allie when they go to the school dance and summon creatures from the same civilization simultaneously and remark about it. Later on, we get the pairing of Gabe and Sasha, Channeler of Light. At the end of episode 26, Master Chavez and Nadia kiss, and Ray and Allie hold hands: a tease no more.
Tagalong Kid: How Gargle comes off towards Gabe when they first met. Additionally, Donald and Ronald are this to Gabe in "A Light in the Darkness" when he ends up essentially baby-sitting them. Never mind the fact that his immature brothers are 1 year older than him.
Taking the Bullet: Saguru and Homunculon do this for Bob with disastrous results for them; made worse by the fact that it was in vain.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Nigel and Chavez's relationship seems to be this more often than not. Ray and Carny in episode 21 "Like Father, Like Son" after becoming trapped together in the Fire Civilization and are forced to work together to survive.
There Can Be Only One: Empress Magaria says this word for word to Allie and Alakshmi about who will be her protegee before pitting them against each other.
To Be Lawful or Good: The Duel Masters struggle with this, especially Master Nigel.
- As of episode 25 "The Rising pt 1", Masters Brightmore and Jaha are now Lawful...and on the side of the Choten. Time will only tell what the other Masters choose.
- As of episode 26, Jaha is still Lawful but was faking her defection as trickery and deceit is the darkness way.
Token Trio: Ray (half-white/half-Japanese boy), Gabe (African-American boy), and Allie (white girl).
Trademark Favorite Food: Bob (Tatsurion the Unchained) loves bacon.
Wham Episode: "Betrayal". Ray's mom is an ex-Kaijudo duelist, Ray's father was a Duel Master, Ray himself was born in the Kaijudo realm, Saguru obtains the Heart of Light, and to top it all of, he's Ray's father.
- Quickly followed by episode 25 "The Rising pt 1" where the Choten deprives ALL of the heroes of their signature creatures, Tatsurion is mutated by the Choten and Masters Brightmore and Jaha defect to the Choten. In episode 26, Jaha had faked her defection.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Heroes and villains view the kaiju of the creature civilizations differently. The Choten lampshades, where his side sees kaiju as living batteries/slaves/tools to be controlled and used. The Duel Masters take a more naturalist approach, while following a code of conduct when using kaiju. Only Ray and his friends think otherwise, which is becoming a plot point.
We Used To Be Friends: Saguru says this to The Choten at the end of episode 24 "Betrayal".
X Meets Y: Kaijudo seems like Digimon and Huntik's biracial lovechild.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After one too many failures, The Choten has Fingers tossed into the Darkness Civilization to fetch one of his lost creatures. In episode 26, The Choten throws Alakshmi off the elevated platform where he was summoning the Creature Civilization Kings after she failed to retrieve the Sword of Fiery Cataclysm from Allie.