The Burn Up franchise is a set of four Panty Fighter series revolving around an Amazon Brigade quasi-SWAT team called "Team Warrior", and their fight against crime and government conspiracies. The series are generally lighthearted at first, but develop a case of Cerebus Syndrome near the end.
All four series were produced by AIC between 1991 (the original) and 2004 (Scramble). ADV Films actually helped co-produce the two middle entries in the franchise, Burn Up W and Burn Up Excessnote , after the success of their release of the original one-shot OVA.
The latest installment, Burn Up Scramble was released in North America by Geneon USA, who also co-produced the show along with their main office in Japan.
This series contains examples of:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The last two episodes of W.
- Alternate Continuity: None of the series is in exactly the same continuity of the others.
- Art Shift: Between the OVA, W and Excess, and finally Scramble as part of the general shift in anime art style between the early and late 90s, and then the early 2000s.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Zig-Zagged It's averted in every other entry of the series, but for some reason Excess plays this trope straight and has it on full display. note
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: In Excess, Maya gets to play the straight woman for her father, his Yakuza syndicate, and more or less everyone else back home in Osaka during her A Day in the Limelight episode. (Except after she gets her hands on heavy weaponry from an Auction of Evil.)
- Breast Attack: In the last episode of Excess, Rio grabs and pulls on Ruby's breasts in order to break out of a stranglehold, then knocks her out with a headbutt.Rio: "Hey, they almost feel real..."
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: Lilika in Scramble. Even a little gets her plastered and accentuated her clumsiness and
Les Yay, below. - Cherry Blossoms: In Scramble, they fall while Maya informs Rio that she's leaving. They also fall on Lilika while she's sleeping it off.
- Color-Coded Characters: The skinsuits in Scramble. Red for Rio, green for Maya, blue for Lilika, purple for The Commander.
- Covert Pervert: For a supposed sheltered innocent, Scramble!Lilika has a kinky imagination!
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Lilika in Scramble.
- Dark Action Girl: Ruby, The Dragon from Excess
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The original 1991 OVA's ending theme is sung by Yumiko Shibata, Miki Itō and Kumiko Nishihara, who all voice Maki, Reimi and Yuka respectively
- Burn Up Excess's opening is sung by Mami Kingetsu note , who voices Maki
- Burn Up Scramble's ending is sung by Megumi Toyoguchi, Rie Kugimiya and Mamiko Noto who voice Rio, Maya and Lilika respectively
- Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": The Commander from Scramble
- Evil Counterpart: The "New Warriors" from Scrambled. Two superpowered women who gave the Warriors a hard time. While they completed missions quicker, they left great damage and a body count. Turns out they were illegally experimented on by the Police in collaboration with underground organizations: given drugs for strength and their combat techniques from data on Rio and Maya.
- Little Miss Snarker: Scramble!Maya
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Our first view of Rio in Excess is one of these, where she's enjoying a bowl of ramen. Really enjoying. The scenes we see before this is revealed...
- Gadgeteer Genius: Nanvel from W and Excess
- Goofy Print Underwear: Rio is shown to wear childish underwear with teddy-bear prints in both Excess and Scramble.
- Groin Attack: Episode 8 of Excess had a giant Rio dealing with a giant male transvestite as the two of them were battling in the city from within a Neon Genesis Evangelion-like parody battle. Near the end of the fight, Rio ends up delivering a devastating back mule kick to the guy's own groin and you can't help but feel sorry for him, since Rio struck him with a sharp high-heel shoe and that you could hear the direct Sickening "Crunch!" of the man's own crotch (complete with an x-ray that shows the entire pelvis cracking itself). It's safe to say that it's gonna be a long time before the guy is able to recover from such a strike.Chi-Mama: Shoulda gone to Morocco for that sex-change operation...
- Hadaka Apron: Scramble!Lilika
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Scramble!Lilika, the "objects" being Rio and Maya.
- Handsome Lech:Yuji
- I Call It "Vera": Every version of Maya.
- Ironic Echo: "It's showtime!"
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rio
- Law Enforcement, Inc.: Team Warrior is usually non-official, and always provides bounties for successfully completed missions.
- Lethal Chef: Adding bullets and gunpowder to "punch up" stew? Yeah, sure thing, Lilika
- Local Hangout: The ramen restaraunt in Excess, mostly because it's one of the places Rio can afford to eat at.
- Mafia Princess: W/Excess!Maya was the daughter of a Yakuza boss.
- Marshmallow Hell: In Scramble, The Warriors Commander uses this as an attack against Rio, before throwing her into a stack of junked cars.
- Mars Needs Women: Henry the AI Hover Tank, towards Rio.
- Ms. Fanservice: Lots of it, but particularly Rio.
- Non-Action Guy: Yuji, although he is technically an ace helicopter pilot.
- Omake: Excess usually had an epilogue to each episode, which eventually evolved into "Yuji's Omake Theater".
- No Name Given: We are never told who the two New Warriors real names are in Scramble.
- Omniscient Council of Vagueness: One of these approves dispatching Team Warrior in Scramble.
- Perpetual Poverty: Rio, because of her spendthrift habits.
- Playboy Bunny: In Excess, Maya ends up in one as part of a (half-baked) plan to infiltrate an Auction of Evil as entertainers.
- Psychic Powers: Scramble!Lilica; they don't really work that well, though.
- Not so much that they work poorly as too well, and Lilika had a tendency to spout off what she read in a Creepy Monotone without thought to how it may embarrass others (usually Rio).
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Excess!Maki, though she's a good guy.
- Screaming Warrior: In Scramble, Lilika, of all people. Also a pun.
- Serious Business: In the first ep of W, one of the terrorists' demands is that a manager for a baseball team publicly prostrate himself and apologize for their lackluster season. (Their rage at Lilika's faked Backhanded Apology footage is taken as more evidence that they're not the masterminds.)
- Shoot the Bullet: At the end of Scramble.
- Shout-Out: Many, to Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Ultraman, and oh-so-many to Neon Genesis Evangelion — such as a scene-for-scene remake of the fight with the Third Angel featuring Rio and a Camp Gay transvestite.
- Shower Scene: Several across all incarnations of the franchise.
- Show Some Leg: Rio does this to get out of trouble at her job in W. She and the rest of Warrior also do this several other times in the line of duty.
- Super Cop: The "New Warriors" from Scramble are an attempt in police force. Keyword attempt, as while they do their jobs, they leave alot of collateral damage in their wake.
- Tank Goodness: Rio has to escort a robotic AI Hover Tank in Excess; it turns out to be controlled by a Kill Sat.
- This Loser Is You: Yuji in W and Excess.
- Token Mini-Moe: W/Excess!Lilica
- Trigger-Happy: Every version of Maya, but especially the W/Excess incarnation.
- Tron Lines: The Commander's skinsuit in Scramble.
- 12-Episode Anime: Excess, Scramble
- Virtual Celebrity: Maria from the second episode of W.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Chisato from W; the audience learns that she's Rio's best friend just in time for her to be killed by the villains of the two-parter.
- White Sheep: Excess!Maya; in her A Day in the Limelight episode, we learn she's a Yakuza Princess (from Osaka) whose father threw her out because she wanted to be a cop. The episode revolves around her father trying to guilt her into coming home, and the two coming to terms while allying against a corrupt construction company.
- Wrench Wench: Nanvel Candlestick. Quirky but genius inventor and still as busty as most of her squad.
