YMMV / Bakugan: Battle Planet

• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Shun Kazami. Some consider him to have been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap by the end of the first season thanks to his Character Development and improving greatly as a brawler than when he first began, most notably in the episodes that tackle his rivalries with the Kazamis from Toshi, evolving in his rematch with Masato, engineering the plan to save everyone from an unstable Core Cell about to blow up the Kazami island, and defeating his Tiko-possessed father by the finale. Others simply dislike him for his soft spoken attitude, voice direction (which lead to more debates when he received a new VA in Armored Alliance), and still see him as a pale imitation of his original Bakugan counterpart.
  • Lightning. Supporters point out his heroic nature and loyalty to Dan, and the show using his nature as a dog for creative, hilarious, and genuine heartwarming scenes with the rest of the heroes and his Bakugan as a highlight. Detractors question the absurdity of a dog even being able to play Bakugan and whether or not he contributes to the show.
  • Reboot Dan himself: Seen as a likeable protagonist with reasonable flaws yet ultimately altruistic and gets more character development later with Drago to some, an annoying and bland version of his original self to others, and those in the middle that like him but find his other teammates Wynton and Lia more interesting.
  • For some people, reboot Drago is one: Either a different, younger and less experience version of the character that grows as much as Dan into The Paragon, or an overly reckless and only focused on battling meathead in contrast to the original Drago compose and even solemn (at times) attitude. Though the division has lowered given the Character Development Dan and Drago garnered throughout the first season.
  • Athena of season 4 has become contentious thanks to both her prideful attitude and her brawling skill being higher than all of the Awesome Brawlers at the start of the season. One part loves her because it is clear her intentions are still noble, how she tries to open up more to others in spite of her competitiveness, and how that turns her into a fun foil to Dan (who this group tend to ship her with), while another part of the fanbase consider her a Mary Sue, mostly because it took Dan almost 30 episodes to finally be able to defeat her and how she always seem to be one step ahead of everybody else, getting stronger mostly offscreen.
• Bizarro Episode: The second half of Season 5, episode 10 has Lightning and Ebony being dragged into fighting on behalf of two races of alien cats and dogs locked in a Forever War.
• Broken Base: While Ajit and Storm's storyline in Armored Alliance was well-received for the most part, some fans are split on which character was truly responsible for the schism. Those in favor of Ajit point out Storm's increasing aggression towards him brawling was extremely hypocritical given their success in theft throughout the first season was mostly because of Ajit and Pharol's working, as well as Storm's treatment as his father figure borderlining on victim blaming and gaslighting. Storm acquiring and using Bakugan later in an attempt to murder his mentee and son as revenge, alongside Ajit choosing to atone for his mistakes. Furthermore, had Storm had trusted and supported Ajit into winning the Battle League, Storm's goal of acquiring the trophy would have went off without them to begin with. Those in favor of Storm believe Ajit was an ungrateful brat who stopped listening to him despite raising the child as his own and sees him as a reckless Ron the Death Eater who is solely to blame for Storm going over the deep end, and Havvik's Brainwashed and Crazy was completely on Ajit rather than Storm's actions and behavior leaving him susceptible to the Big Bad's control.
• Complete Monster: Viloch is an Aurelus Bakugan and member of the Supreme Council whose veneer of refinement clouds an intense hatred towards humanity and lust for power. Enlisting Gregorius Reed and his team of brawlers to fight on his behalf in the Battle Judgment tournament to decide whether Earth and Vestroia should be separated, Viloch plots behind Reed's back to betray him when the moment arises. Causing several Geogan agony as he merges with them against their will, Viloch becomes immensely powerful before turning on Reed and revealing his true plan to destroy the Earth and everyone on it once it's separated from Vestroia. When his fellow Council members and the Awesome Brawlers try to stop him, Viloch simply steals the power of the Faction Crystals to augment his own and knocks them down with ease. When it seems that he is on the brink of defeat against a similarly-empowered Drago, Viloch tosses his own ally Spartillion in the path of one of his opponent's attacks, callous and uncaring towards his well-being.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Between the heroes, Shun x Lia is a popular pairing. Dan/Benton is very popular amongst Yaoi fans.
• Growing the Beard: The first 20 episodes were received to mixed reception, having praise for Revisiting the Roots, focusing on worldbuilding and the Surprisingly Realistic Outcome of Bakugan in the real world, but faced detractors for the Slow-Paced Beginning progression, the character designs, and many of the characters barring Magnus, Lia, and Wynton were polarizing at best. However, the AAAnimus and Maze arcs started pushing the story, establishing the major plotlines and character rivalries, giving more Character Development to more divisive characters such as Dan and Shun.
  • Season 1B started off So Okay, It's Average with the characters and Benton connecting Core Cells coming off as a simple Fetch Quest plot. Once Magnus & the Big Bad's return and more Golden Bakugan came in play, the pacing, plot and tension picked off by endgame arc.
  • Armored Alliance's first half was seen as a bit lacking given the early focus on giving the protagonists new partners and Baku-Gear, the Magnus vigilante and Ajit & Callowway Storm's sub-plots, not helped by the first half of the Bakugan Battle League Tournament Arc seeming to be lacking beyond Ajit's inclusion and Dan's inconsistent competence. Thankfully, the show picked up with Bakugan Battle League's semi-finals matches between Dan vs Wynton, Shun vs Ajit, Dan vs Ajit, and Storm and Magnus' plots becoming to the central role. Then Haavik's introduction bringing the all the various antagonists together and the plot began to pick up since.
• Magnificent Bastard: Haavik is a shapeshifting alien who sets his sights on Earth. Witnessing the Awesome Brawlers defeat his thralls, he takes an interest in them and first meets them personally, forcing them to take part in his "games" before being defeated by Dan in a brawl. Later hijacking the Bakugan Battle League, Haavik places the losers in stasis while he steals their Bakugan in a bid to control them in order to destroy Tokyo. Using the data he collected in the League, Haavik creates Sabrus, a Fusion Bakugan he uses to cause large amounts of property damage before setting his sights on Tiko, who he intends to use to increase Sabrus's power. Even though he finds Tiko having undergone a Heel–Face Turn and unwilling to give up without a fight, Haavik is undeterred and instead forcibly fuses a weakened Pyravian to his creation. Although he loses to the Awesome Brawlers, Haavik graciously accepts his loss and simply moves on to invade another planet.
• Moral Event Horizon: Sophie was part of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in Season 2 and an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain in her return during Season 4, but when she appears in Season 5, she sinks to a new low by holding up several ships worth of displaced civilians and forcing Dan to battle her on an oil tanker (where any of Drago’s fire attacks could detonate and kill them both) purely because she wasn’t invited by Hanoj to join his Battle Judgement. Let us reiterate: Because she didn’t get a chance to help destroy the world, she decided to indulge in what is comparatively a Kick the Dog moment to try and get the chance to do so.
• Narm: The name of the main character's team, The Awesome Ones, sounds way too childish, even for their age. Armored Alliance updates the name to Awesome Brawlers, making its slightly closer to the original and more fittingly cheesy.
• Older Than They Think: While changes to the reboot have been controversial, many elements in the reboot harken back to the original, akin to Revisiting the Roots. Examples include:
  • A criticism against the reboot has been the protagonists starting out as vloggers and Youtuber influencers to teach people about Bakugan when they first acquired. However, in the original series, the characters also used the internet and message boards to teach each other, learn, and develop the rules of Bakugan for others to follow.
  • Reboot Dan and Drago began an mini arc with them having problems mastering Drago's growing hostility and evolution between during the second half of the season 1a, something the original series had between Dan and Drago in the early episodes and in Mechtanium Surge.
  • In the reboot, adults and teenagers that were born during the Great Collision that connects Earth to Vestroia, and the previous one that allows Benton and Philomena to battle brawl normally are not able to use Bakugan without the use of specialized devices. However, in the original series, adults with the exception of Klaus (age 18 at the start of BB, 21 by NV), Julio and Hal-G were never able to use Bakugan with no explanation until the Vestals were introduced until New Vestroia.
  • Season 3, Geogan Rising has received some initial flak for changing the partners of all the protagonists barring Dan and Drago. However, in season 2 of the original series, New Vestroia, Shun and Marucho received new allies in their Bakugan. While Preyas and Skyress returned (and in Skyress' case, left him for Ingrram), by Gundalian Invaders and Mechatium Surge, they were replaced with only a cameo near the end of the series.
• The Scrappy: Lord Brakken, Marco, and Duran are the most disliked characters from Battle Planet, mostly due to their dislikable personalities and attitudes towards the other characters. Marco gets this the most for actually bullying and attacking little children and early onlookers assuming he's a major antagonist. Duran gets flak for being an annoying obstacle only made to create more conflict between the A Os and Benton. While Brakken is the least disliked of the three for actually having some development and getting better at his Royal Brat episodes thanks to Lia's influence, his voice acting doesn't help and shippers prefer Lia to end up with someone else.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: As typical of a reaction to a reboot, there have been complaints that the drastic changes in the story, characters (where Dan, Drago, and Shun are the only characters from the original cast), and artstyle have made the show almost unrecognizable from the original anime. Never mind that the changes are to reflect what's now popular to the current target audience — not unlike the original anime to the Beyblade and Yu-Gi-Oh! franchises — and that this reboot came ten years after the original series came out as well as having different production crews (such as the inclusion of Man of Action Studios).
• The Woobie: Magnus and Emily were both born in a war torn environment, essentially orphans on the run with little food, help, and support from anyone and live in abandoned hospital. And while Magnus reaches Jerkass Woobie and Iron Woobie due to his sheer determination for power, his breakdowns over almost never being able to beat Dan, not even being a natural born Bakugan battler and his belief in constantly failing Emily garner him more sympathetic points. Emily in general just wants her brother to be happy to the point she even asks Dan to make sure he’s okay despite both of them being on opposing ends. Worse, when the entire Exit Team and Main Force is fired by Philomena, Magnus and Emily resort to living back in their current home as the former takes more drastic measures for power.
  • Shun's status as a Lonely Rich Kid hasn't done him much favors. His father's strict teaching have raised him to lack any friends or emotional support from anyone but Toshi and his first attempts at Bakugan don't exactly go well. While the Awesome Ones welcome him with open arms after he runs from home and he starts taking several improvements in his battles and confidence, Shun's father nearly forces him to leave the team, only changing his mind at the last minute for no other purpose than to use Shun as The Mole to learn more about Bakugan for profit. Once he returns from the Maze, his father orders his cousin Masato to retrieve him, and his cousin Masato repeatedly attempts to remove him from the picture to become the next heir of the company. When Shun outright refuses and stands up to Masato and Ichiro, Ichiro immediately disowns him. In the second half of season 1, it seems his father may be opening up towards a Heel–Face Turn, only for Shun to find out his father wants to take advantage of his connection of his Bakugan and is nearly killed when Masato's jealously towards him almost results in the Awesome Ones and the Kazami corporation employees destruction from an unstable Core Cell he and Dan barely manage to solve. When Ichiro turns good to stop Tiko and Masato return, things start to look up for their family, only for Tiko's army to overpower the base, brainwash Toshi, and Shun watches his father perform a Heroic Sacrifice to get him and everyone else away before their new base explodes. While it's revealed Ichiro managed to survive much to his relief, he ends up fighting his father and Toshi as Tiko's control of the world reigns closer and closer. Thankfully, Shun manages to save them alongside the rest of the world, but until Armored Alliance, the poor child could not catch a break.