Western Animation / Master Raindrop

From left to right: Shao Yen, Raindrop, Niwa, Jin Hou, and Flamo.

"A powerful golden dragon, protector of the land of a thousand legends, was attacked and fell from the sky splitting into five elements. They disappeared and were feared lost. In their absence, an evil erupted and seized the land. But after twelve years, the elements reemerged! Raindrop, Water; Shao Yen, Wood; Jin Hou, Metal; Niwa, Earth; and Flamo, Fire. They must join forces in battle against evil if peace and harmony is to be restored."

— Narrator

Master Raindrop is a children's animated television program produced jointly by Australian, New Zealander, and Singaporean companies that first screened on the Australian Seven Network in 2008.

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Tropes:

• Aerith and Bob: The show uses Asian-sounding names, but also ones like "Nigel" and "Marv."
• All-CGI Cartoon: Except for the flashbacks, as noted under Art Shift.
• All Part of the Show: The bystanders all think that the group's fights with Flamo and Grub, and then the Nian, in "Determination" are just shows being put on by Street Performers.
• All Your Powers Combined: The cat vampire from "Friendship" steals the powers of all of the elements, as well as General Bu.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: General Bu tries to gain control of the moon by forcibly marrying the Moon Goddess in "Commitment."
• Anti-Villain: The apothecaries in "Caring" only help General Bu because they are desperate for funds to keep their clinic open, and when one of them goes too far, he sides with Raindrop after experiencing a moment of My God, What Have I Done?.
• Art Initiates Life: This is the power of the magic paintbrushes from "Creativity."
• Art Shift: The flashbacks are all in red and black and are 2D instead of CGI.
• Bad Boss: General Bu treats Grub like crap, and goes as far as using him for target practice in "Humility." He also nearly kills him in "Wisdom."
• Bag of Holding: Jin Hou was given one by the Red Lotus Monastery, though his attempt's at using it almost always resulted in Rummage Fail.
• Baku: General Bu hires one to help him spread nightmares in "Acceptance."
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Jin Hou is an animate gold statue, so he is completely smooth under his clothes, not that this stops him from experiencing a Naked Freak-Out in his nightmare in "Acceptance."
• Brain with a Manual Control: The Golden Dragon's has a mecha-like setup, complete with five connected chairs for all of the Elements.
• Big Bad: General Bu, a marauding warlord who seeks to bring about a never-ending age of darkness by destroying the Golden Dragon.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Grub is a big, slug-like creature with two black Eyes on Stalks and a pair of Power Pincers.
• Bumbling Henchmen Duo: General Bu's two main lackeys, Flamo (an overeager hothead) and Grub (a big dimwit).
• Butt-Monkey: Grub, a simpleton who is subject to constant slapstick violence, as well as abuse from General Bu.
• Cat Girl:
  • Princess Keket (whose mother is having a hard time finding her a husband because of it) from "Moderation."
  • The cat vampire from "Friendship." At the end of the episode, she is turned into a powerless, normal-seeming cat that is adopted by Gran Helsing.
• Chrome Champion: Jin Hou, who started out as just an inanimate gold statue decorating the Red Lotus Monastery.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: Momotaro manipulated the Elements into helping him steal treasure from a gang of Oni and then abandoned them, but, after realizing that he actually did value the Elements' friendship, he goes back to help them deal with the Oni.
• Cool Airship: General Bu's base, the Flying Fortress.
• Criminal Amnesiac: General Bu turns an amnesia-ridden Shao Yen to his side in "Flexibility."
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: General Bu can be a buffoon, but he is still an accomplished alchemist, inventor, and warrior who did almost kill the Golden Dragon.
• Crystalline Creature: The giant, snake-like Jade Spirit, which can be summoned and controlled by the Jade Princess.
• Daruma Doll: The Elements race General Bu for a wish-granting one in "Responsibility."
• Depraved Dwarf: General Bu is revealed to be one when his armor, which he was previously never shown without, is destroyed at the end of "Wisdom."
• Didn't Think This Through: "Creativity" had General Bu use magic paintbrushes to trap the Elements inside of an enclosure that was made up of four magically conjured walls... which his army was outside of, along with Flamo and Grub.
• Disney Death: The five Elements all appear to die when they fuse together to reform the Golden Dragon, but then the Golden Dragon reforms them as a favor to Master Yun, and to act as guardians of the Land of a 1000 Legends.
• The Dog Bites Back: After becoming the leader of a gang of Oni who are even dumber than he is, Grub uses them to torment Flamo.
• Dragon Hoard: The dragons from "Focus" are obsessed with guarding their treasure, which turns out to be all of the money that they made back when they were in a band called "Roar."
• Dream Land: A secluded mountaintop village and the surrounding area are revealed to be connected to it in "Acceptance." The villagers use it as a Shared Dream Happy Place.
• Elemental Embodiment: The Five Elements, who of course have Elemental Powers.
  • Flamo: Playing with Fire.
  • Jin Hou: Extra-ore-dinary.
  • Niwa: Dishing Out Dirt.
  • Raindrop: Making a Splash, as well as An Ice Person.
  • Shao Yen: Green Thumb.
• Endless Daytime: General Bu caused this by setting the moon on fire in "Commitment."
• Evil Doppelgänger: General Bu creates a dumb knockoff of Raindrop (dubbed the "Dropelganger") in order to steal a magic lamp that can see into the future in "Originality."
• Evil Is Burning Hot: Flamo, the Fire Elemental, works for the evil General Bu.
• Evil Laugh: General Bu's "mwa ha ha ha ha ha!"
• Evil Old Folks: The creepy old lady who General Bu employs as a Personal Mook. She might be his mother, going by the end of "Wisdom."
• Expository Theme Tune:
  The powerful Golden Dragon, the protector of the Land of a Thousand Legends, was attacked
  And fell in the sky, splitting into five elements
• Extreme Omnivore: Grub is an utterly voracious Villainous Glutton.
• Fake Static: Flamo does this while talking to General Bu through a magic bubble in "Co-Operation."
• Fake Ultimate Hero: The Bull Demon King from "Co-Operation" only won every fight that he ever participated in because he looks big and scary, when in reality he is a Paper Tiger.
• Fallen Hero:
  • Yi was the land's best archer, but he lost his eyesight from staring at the sun for too long, so the only help that he can provide is training when Raindrop and Shao Yen come to him for help in "Commitment."
  • The dragon and the phoenix that guard the Pearl of Prosperity grew fat and lazy from boredom, and have to be whipped back into shape by the gang in "Co-Operation."
• Fireballs: These are Flamo's main method of attack, contrasting the waterballs used by Raindrop.
• Flying on a Cloud: Raindrop and Mekla use a cloud car in "Forgiveness."
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: In the final episode, General Bu combines two of his inventions to forcibly transfer the minds of a mob of angry villagers with those of a bunch of broken Terracottas in order to quickly assemble a new army for use against the Elements. And later, he switches bodies with Master Yun in a last ditch effort to defeat the Elements.
• Food-Based Superpowers: After the Elements are robbed of their powers, they gain temporary replacement ones from Momotaro. Unfortunately, they are all weird, food-based ones, namely Raindrop conjuring soy sauce, Shao Yen conjuring vegetables, Jin Hou conjuring noodles, and Niwa becoming a jelly-based Rubber Man.
• Forced Transformation:
  • The Witch Queen from "Moderation" turned any man who rejected marriage to her daughter into either a statue-like soldier or an animal, a chicken for Lin Hou and a frog for Raindrop.
  • A curse turns a hermit's daughter into a monkey in "Patience."
• The Foreign Subtitle: In Brazil, it's called Mestre Raindrop e a Missão dos Elementos (Master Raindrop and the Mission of the Elements).
• Fusion Dance: In the final episode, the Elements all combine to reform the Golden Dragon.
• Giant Mook: In the final episode, General Bu uses a volcano to produce a massive, rideable Terracotta that he calls the Tyrano-Terra.
• Healing Spring: The Well of Wellness from "Flexibility."
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Flamo betrays General Bu and sides with the other Elements in "Trust."
  • Grub betrays General Bu after Master Yun saves his life in "Wisdom."
• Hold the Line: Master Yun combats General Bu on his own while the Elements work to ressurect the Golden Dragon in "Wisdom."
• Hollywood Mirage: Jin Hou experiences a lot of these in "Determination." But then the ice tea stand, which the group decided to ignore, turned out to be Real After All.
  Woman: Oy, I told you this was a stupid place to set up!
• Hooks and Crooks: We get a more family friendly version of this with Jin Hou's Monkey's Paw weapon, which is almost like a primitive Grappling-Hook Pistol.
• Hour of Power: The Moon Goddess's powers only work at night, when the moon is out, which becomes a problem when the Elements summon her for help during the daytime in "Perseverance."
• Jerkass:
  • The Nian from "Determination." He punishes anyone who drinks from his oasis by enslaving them, even though the oasis is enchanted to never run dry, and if they fail to complete whatever task that he assigns them in an impossibly short amount of time, they get Taken for Granite. When Lin Hou does complete the task (washing a mountain of dishes) in time, the Nian just breaks one of the "irreplaceable" dishes, blames it on Jin Hou, and keeps him as a slave, who he eventually decides to turn to stone, with Lin Hou only being saved at the last minute by the Qilin, whose magic was previously stolen by the Nian.
  • The old man who purposely wastes Jin Hou's time by pretending to know how to help him in "Honesty."
  • Sultan Nigel from "Integrity" was such a self-aggrandizing ass that his own people ended up preferring General Bu to him, though he does end up helping the Elements after eating Humble Pie.
• Jet Pack: General Bu uses one that is powered by dragon fire in "Responsibility" and "Wisdom."
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: In order to resurrect the Golden Dragon, the Elements use the Dragon's Gate to venture into its consciousness in "Wisdom."
• Killer Rabbit: The stick figures that General Bu conjures up with the magic paintbrushes in "Creativity" look ridiculous, but turn out to be far more dangerous than his Terracottas.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: General Bu tries to wipe the Elements' memories with spiked tea in "Flexibility." He only gets Shao Yen.
• Laughably Evil: General Bu may be a power-hungry tyrant, but he is also a very amusing Large Ham.
• Lessons in Sophistication: General Bu tries this (to no avail) with Grub in "Moderation."
• Like a Son to Me: General Bu acts this way towards Flamo, though it is eventually revealed that he is going to have Flamo killed to ensure that the Golden Dragon can never be resurrected to watch over the Land of a 1000 Legends.
• Living Statue:
  • General Bu is served by a Terracotta Army. They are stupid and slow, but destroying them does not matter, as they can be mass produced, so We Have Reserves.
  • Jin Hou was a golden monkey statue that the Golden Dragon turned into the Metal Element.
• The Load: Jin Hou often screws up and causes problems for the other Elements.
• Magic Compass: The Dragon's Eye device that guides the Elements.
• Magic Music: The violin from "Acceptance" can put anyone to sleep because it is enchanted to only be able to play "the most boring songs of all eternity."
• Magitek: The characters sometimes use primitive, magic-based versions of modern appliances, like cameras, telephones, and even a computer, the latter being owned by General Bu.
• Magnetism Manipulation: Jin Hou is given this power by the Tree of Power in "Perseverance."
• Make a Wish: "Responsibility" has everyone racing to make a wish on a Daruma Doll.
• Martial Arts Staff: Shao Yen's main weapon is a wooden staff which she can channel her Green Thumb powers into to either make it stronger or turn it into a Telephone Polearm.
• Mask of Power: The Witch Queen's two magical masks (which General Bu tries to steal) from "Moderation." One of them was an Evil Mask.
• Minion with an F in Evil: Grub was too stupid and incompetent to ever be a real threat, and caused nothing but problems for General Bu.
• Moon Rabbit: A rabbit is the preferred pet of the Moon Goddess.
• Multiple Head Case: General Bu chugging an entire brain-stimulating formula, when he was only supposed to drink just a few drops, causes him to grow a second head in "Caring."
• New-Age Retro Hippie: The Moon Goddess, Chang Er.
• Next Tier Power-Up: The Elements all gain a new power from the "Tree of Power" in "Perseverance."
• No Man Should Have This Power: The magic lantern that can see into the future in "Originality." It was Raindrop's destiny to destroy it for this reason, and he does so after getting it back from General Bu.
• Non-Nude Bathing: General Bu is shown showering with his armor on in "Caution."
• No Ontological Inertia: General Bu's mind-swapping weapon being destroyed restores everyone who was affected by it to normal at the end of "Wisdom."
• Oculothorax: The spy satellite that General Bu tries to launch into orbit in "Patience." It is aptly named the "Eye in the Sky."
• One-Word Vocabulary: The Raindrop knockoffs from "Originality" can only say "get lantern."
• Our Vampires Are Different: The cat vampire from "Friendship" could steal a person's essence by licking them, turning the victim into a mindless automaton who could only be saved if the cat vampire was force fed garlic to make it cough up the essence before the next full moon (which, unfortunately for the Elements, was set to occur during the events of the episode).
• Paperworkaholic: The first dragon that the Elements encounter in "Focus" tried to fight them, while the third was a Trap Master. The second was... one of these, demanding that they fill out the appropriate paperwork before they could move on and escape from Flamo and Grub.
• Parents for a Day: The Elements have to take care of a recently-hatched baby dragon in "Responsibility."
• Power Nullifier: General Bu uses a machine powered by a dragon egg to steal all of the Elements' powers in "Sincerity."
• Power Parasite: The cat vampire from "Friendship."
• Proverbial Wisdom: Master Yun speaks in almost nothing but this, to the immense frustration of General Bu.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: General Bu, the Big Bad, was once a student of Master Yun, the Big Good.
• Quicksand Sucks: Niwa gains the ability to summon quicksand in "Perseverance."
• Red Right Hand: General Bu's scarred left eye.
• Road Apples: General Bu steps in a massive pile of dragon dung in "Responsibility."
• Save the Villain: Master Yun is knocked out by General Bu when he becomes distracted saving Grub in "Wisdom."
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: This is done with tunnels (which a bemused General Bu notes all somehow lead to the same place) in "Humility."
• Sea Serpents: Well, river serpents in "Caution" and "Honesty."
• Shaming the Mob: The protagonists do this to a group of angry villagers who had decided to turn them in to General Bu in "Acceptance."
• Shockwave Stomp: This is Niwa's main form of attack, and she sometimes used it to create stalactite and stalagmites for use as Spikes of Doom.
• Simpleton Voice: Grub has a low and slow voice, as befitting a character who, even after drinking a brain-stimulating formula, thinks that 1+1=3.
• Snake People: The apothecary sisters, aptly named Green Snake and White Snake, in "Caring."
• Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: General Bu uses a giant version of this as a weapon in "Wisdom."
• Some Kind of Force Field: General Bu encases the Tree of Power in a force field (which is invisible from the outside) in "Perseverance."
• Split at Birth: After it was poisoned by General Bu, the Golden Dragon saved itself by splitting into the five Elements.
• Sticky Fingers: The Geni steals anything of value that catches its eye, and had an entire valley full of gems that Flamo and Grub try (and fail) to loot in "Caution."
• Surrounded by Idiots: General Bu laments this in "Caring."
  General Bu: Why can't I get good help?
• Tail Slap: This was Grub's only real means of attack, and he actually manages to successfully use it to knock out the Demon Bull King in "Trust."
• Taken for Granite: The fate of anyone who fails to wash the Nian's dishes in a timely manner in "Determination."
• Takes One to Kill One: The demons from "Co-Operation" could only be vanquished by another demon, or a half-demon like the Bull Demon King.
• Thirsty Desert: The Desert of Unbearable Heat from "Determination."
  General Bu: Flamo, Grub, I've got a mission for you. You must go to the Desert of Unbearable Heat.
  Grub: Is it hot?
  General Bu: Unbearably.
• Throw a Barrel at It: Master Yun defeats what is left of General Bu's forces by just rolling a bunch of barrels at them in "Wisdom."
• Title Drop: At the very end of "Wisdom."
  Master Yun: Then I am glad to be your humble student, if that's alright with you, Master Raindrop.
• Trade Your Passion for Glory: The dragon band in "Focus" broke up because most of its members started caring more about the money than the music, which they learn to start appreciating again thanks to the Elements.
• Unwanted Assistance: By creating a new volcano, General Bu unintentionally summons a fire dragon to "help" him in "Focus." The dragon does nothing but annoy him and get in his way, which proves fortuitous for the Elements.
• Vampire Hunter: Gran Helsing from "Friendship."
• Vampires Hate Garlic: Garlic is the one weakness of the cat vampire from "Friendship."
• Villain Exclusivity Clause: General Bu, Flamo, and Grub appear in every episode, even ones with other villains, like the Nian and the Geni.
• Visual Pun: The Red Lotus Monastery is manned by Monkeys.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Flamo and Grub, something emphasized by Flamo becoming sad when it looked like Grub may have died in "Wisdom."
• Vocal Dissonance: The weather Gods from "Forgiveness" sounded like American hicks, while the Moon Goddess's gardener from "Perseverance" sounded like a Surfer Dude.
• Volcanic Veins: The Tyrano-Terra from "Wisdom" has these, to emphasize how it is kind of a cooled Magma Man.
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • Raindrop's powers are reliant on ambient moisture, so they stop working if it is too dry, something which Flamo almost always took advantage of by starting a bunch of fires whenever he fought Raindrop.
  • Raindrop, despite being a Water Element with ice powers, is also weak to the cold, and freezes up while climbing a snowy mountaintop in "Responsibilty."
• "What Do They Fear?" Episode: We see the greatest fears of all of the main characters (except for Grub) in "Acceptance."
  • Raindrop: Being a drop in the ocean.
  • Lin Hou: A Naked Freak-Out.
  • Shao Yen: Marrying a bunch of Grubs.
  • Niwa: Being separated from the Earth and hurled into the Sun.
  • General Bu: The Golden Dragon.
  • Flamo: Being small and weak.
• Where It All Began: In the final episode, it is revealed that the Dragon's Gate was located underneath Master Yun's Academy from "Courage" (the very first episode).
• Wicked Witch: The Witch Queen from "Moderation." It was only due to being corrupted by an Evil Mask, though.
• World-Healing Wave: The Golden Dragon unleashes one, repairing all of the damage done by General Bu, at the end of "Wisdom."
• Wrecked Weapon: Jin Hou's Monkey's Paw weapon is damaged and needs to be repaired by the Well of Wellness in "Flexibility."
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • General Bu reveals in "Trust" that he had always planned on killing his protégé, Flamo.
  • General Bu shows a willingness to sacrifice Grub to get his way in "Wisdom."
• Younger Than They Look: The Jade Princess looks and acts like a child, but is actually 300.
• Zombie Gait: The villagers who have had their minds swapped with Terracottas walk like this, outstretched arms and everything, in "Wisdom."

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