History Anime / ZoidsChaoticCentury

''Guardian Force'' picks up after a TimeSkip of several years, during which the Empire and the Republic have worked together to form an elite military group: the eponymous Guardian Force, dedicated to ending conflicts before they can become full-blown wars. Van, naturally, has joined on behalf of the Helic Republic; his Imperial counterpart is Thomas Schubaltz, who becomes his partner. The two of them, eventually joined by their friends from ''Chaotic Century'', quickly uncover a plot that threatens the entire world. This time, the mystery revolves around Zoid Eve, and the emergence of several new villains, each with the own Organoid.

* DramaticIrony: After Raven's parents were killed, he was picked up by Dan Flyheight (Van's dad), who planned to take him home and hoped that the two would become good friends. Sadly Van's dad was killed shortly and Raven would be picked up by Prozen. The two would become bitter rivals for the remainder of the series, never aware of how close they were to become adoptive brothers.

* FullPotentialUpgrade: The Organoids allow their owners to unlock this in their Zoids, though in slightly differing ways. Zeke can link Zoids with their pilots allowing them to work in complete synchronisation, Shadow can kick a Zoid's power output into overdrive for a limited time, Specula can rework and optimise a Zoid's physical body, and Ambient can alter or even fuse Zoid cores.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: The Heaven and Hell Brothers, who show up once in Chaotic Century and again in Guardian Force.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Hiltz by the end of the series. The entire planet wants him dead for the [[MoralEventHorizon destruction he caused]], even Raven and Reese since he was just using them and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness tried to kill them]].

''Guardian Force'' picks up after a TimeSkip of several years, during which the Empire and the Republic have worked together to form an elite military group: the eponymous Guardian Force, dedicated to ending conflicts before they can become full-blown wars. Van, naturally, has joined on behalf of the Helic Republic; his Imperial counterpart is Thomas Schubaltz, who becomes his partner. The two of them, eventually joined by their friends from ''Chaotic Century'', quickly uncover a plot that threatens the entire world. This time, the mystery revolves around Zoid Eve, and the emergence of several new villains, each with the own Organoid. The final conflict, when it occurs, takes place over ''eight full episodes'' without running into EndingFatigue, saturating the series with nearly toxic levels of awesome.

* EvilAlbino: Prozen.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Genobreaker is the single most deadly non-legendary Zoid in the series, and is tailored specifically to fit Raven and Shadow working in concert. However, it can only stay merged with Shadow (and thus at peak power) for 180 seconds, meaning that if anybody besides Raven piloted it, they'd be screwed.

* TheDreaded: Raven is a textbook example by this time, and it only gets worse when he gets ahold of the Genobreaker.

* FastballSpecial: Van's final attack on the True Deathsaurer is somewhere between this and CatapultToGlory.

* TalkToTheFist: From Raven to Hiltz during the final battle. Doesn't work out so well for the former, since the [[spoiler: Death Saurer]] just grabs Ravens Genobreaker, and [[spoiler: blocks the Charged Particle Shot with the]] shield encased hand.

* AbnormalAmmo: The gravity cannon, as may be imagined from the name, fires ''miniature gravitational fields'' at its target; it's later used to shoot [[spoiler:Van and the Blade Liger at the True Death Saurer]].

* DiminishingVillainThreat: Prozen went from being the BigBad to becoming the enigmatic Dark Kaiser to being nothing more than a pawn in Hiltz's plan.

* ABoyAndHisX: Van counts double, as both "a boy and his Zoid" and "a boy and his Organoid".

* DullSurprise: The voice acting for Rudolph and Herman is often completely lacking in emotional range.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Raven's real name is Joyce Chen in the manga.

* AlternateContinuity: ''Chaotic Century'' is an adaptation of the Battle Story featured [[AllThereInTheManual in the original Zoids model kits]], but it is not a 1:1 adaptation, and [[BroadStrokes takes several liberties with Battle Story's canon]].

* TheDragon: Raven.

* Androcles' Lion: Van befriends a wounded Gordos guarding an old ruin fortress from a previous war at one point and then later in the episode blocks a shot from Irvine.

''Zoids: Chaotic Century'' is the first of the several ''Franchise/{{Zoids}}'' anime, adapted from the [[Manga/ZoidsChaoticCentury manga]] of the same name. Known simply as ''Zoids'' in Japan, it was [[MarketBasedTitle marketed as]] ''Zoids: Chaotic Century'' in English-language markets. Western fans occasionally use ''Chaotic Century'' to refer to the first half of the series, and ''Guardian Force'' to refer to the post-TimeSkip second half, though this distinction was never officially made in Japan. It was played on Creator/CartoonNetwork in North America, but [[ScrewedByTheNetwork moved to an early-morning timeslot]] before it finished airing, and eventually canceled entirely without ever showing the last four episodes of the series, which were delayed due to production issues. The [[FanNickname Final Four]] were eventually aired -- on {{Toonami}} no less -- as a [[NetworkToTheRescue gift to the fans]].

* {{Bowdlerize}}: Several scenes were cut from the English dub.
** From Chaotic Century: Moonbay tells Fiona to answer the door when they're taking a shower, she gets out without bothering to put clothes on and opens the door to see Van. He runs away blushing with her chasing him.
** From Guardian Force: In the episode where Van reunites with Irvine, he's sneaking aboard the Whale King but is caught by a group of guys drinking; also the captain grabs Fiona and points a gun to her head.
*** When Van and Fiona go to Lumiere Island, Reese shows Fiona a vision where zombies ambush her, Van comes to her rescue but is shot and lies in a pool of blood. Fiona tries to wake him but then she sees her blood-covered hands and screams.
*** Reese's flashback to her childhood is cut where Nichalo is shot while trying to protect her.
*** In the beginning of the season when Van's village is attacked, the defeated pilot meets up with Hiltz and he's thrown off a cliff.
*** All of this is averted in the Chilean Spanish dub, since it was dubbed from the Japanese version, rather from the English version.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar[=/=]PrecisionFStrike: For whatever reason, the edited English dub featured some mild swearing, such as uses of "damn" and "hell", which were broadcast completely intact on Cartoon Network under a TV-Y7-FV. This leads one to believe the show may have been dubbed uncut, but was edited down to broadcast standards, and the uncut version never saw the light of day.

* NemesisWeapon: At the outset Van had an white organoid named Zeke who would power up his abilities, and was coveted by many thieves. Later in season one his rival Raven showed up with black organoid named Shadow who could do the same for him. In season two, two more antagonists showed up with red and blue organoids. One of them pulled a HeelFaceTurn but the other was the final BigBad of the show.

''Chaotic Century'''s story follows Van Flyheight, a teenager who spends much of his time {{Hover Board}}ing around the local desert ruins for kicks. One day, he's pursued by a local bandit and forced to flee into said ruins, where he discovers a set of PeopleJars in a previously inaccessible part of the structure. In one, he finds a [[RobotBuddy small and unusually intelligent dinosaur-like zoid]]; from another emerges [[GirlInABox a young girl]], who proves to have [[MysteriousWaif no memory of her past]] but experiences [[OracularUrchin occasional visions of a mysterious nature]]. Van promptly names the girl Fiona (which she called herself when initially asked her name, but seemed to forget as soon as she said it) and the zoid Zeke (after his father's Command Wolf). Zeke proves to have mysterious powers of his own when he instantly revives an old, abandoned Shield Liger, allowing Van to fight off the bandit and return home.

Between being pursued by bandits after Zeke, a valuable "organoid", and Fiona's visions of a "Zoid Eve", Van [[JumpedAtTheCall Jumps At The Call]] and decides to go adventuring and see if he can find any answers about his new friends. Along the way he meets [[TheLancer tough guy]] Irvine and [[WrenchWench mechanically-inclined]] transporter Moonbay, gets involved in the ongoing war between the [[TheFederation Helic Republic]] and [[TheEmpire Guylos Empire]], and gains a [[TheRival rival]] in Raven, a warrior for the Empire with an organoid of his own. Before things can be put to rest, Van must learn about Fiona's past and how it relates to Zeke and the SealedEvilInACan that the Empire's TreacherousAdvisor, Gunter Prozen, is trying to harness.

''Guardian Force'' picks up after a TimeSkip of several years, during which the Empire and the Republic have worked together to form an elite military group: the eponymous Guardian Force, dedicated to ending conflicts before they can become full-blown wars. Van, naturally, has joined on behalf of the Helic Republic; his Imperial counterpart is Thomas Schubaltz, who becomes his partner. The two of them, eventually joined by their friends from ''Chaotic Century'', quickly uncover a plot that threatens the entire world. This time, the mystery revolves around Zoid Eve, and the emergence of several new villains, each with the own organoid. The final conflict, when it occurs, takes place over ''eight full episodes'' without running into EndingFatigue, saturating the series with nearly toxic levels of awesome.

* CampGay: Stinger. He even pilots pink zoids.

** TeamPet: Zeke, Van's RobotBuddy (despite actually being [[BondCreatures Fiona's organoid]]), whose reactions to things is often used for ComicRelief (when he's not acting as an AmplifierArtifact for Van's zoid).

* ProtagonistPowerUpPrivileges: Van was the only heroic character to ever fuse with an organoid, giving him unfair stat boosts from day 1. He could only be matched by [[TheRival Raven]] who also had an organoid.
** By time of season 2 he had made a point of training without the organoid so he could be legitimately powerful, but still fused to face other organoid owners.

* TookALevelInBadass: Over the course of Chaotic Century, Van goes from a lucky kid with an organoid to a capable pilot in his own right. The TimeSkip takes it UpToEleven; by Guardian Force, he's one of the top zoid pilots in the world with formal military training including hand-to-hand combat.
* WaveMotionGun: The Charged Particle Cannon, which is only mounted on the most powerful zoids: the Geno Saurer (and its upgrade, the Geno Breaker), the Death Saurer, and the Death Stinger.

* ABoyAndHisX: Van counts double, as both "a boy and his zoid" and "a boy and his organoid".

* HopeSpot: In Raven's introductory episode, he goes on a rampage, destroying countless zoids. Cue Van's appearance in the Shield Liger! And then Raven proceeds to ''demolish'' him, and only withdraws due to orders from above.

* TheQuest: Van and Fiona set out to find Zoid Eve and pick up some friends along the way; however, they get sidetracked all the time and by the time Guardian Force starts, they pretty much put off finding it for later.

* AbnormalAmmo: The gravity cannon, as may be imagined from the name, fires ''miniature gravitational fields'' at its target; it's later used to shoot [[spoiler:Van, Zeke, and the Blade Liger at the True Deathsaurer]].