Western Animation / El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera

aka: El Tigre

“Miracle City… a spicy cesspool of crime and villainy! This is the story of Manny Rivera, better known as El Tigre! Son of the legendary hero White Pantera! Grandson of the evil supervillain Puma Loco!”

— Opening Narration

El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera (2007 – 2008) is an animated series on Nickelodeon created by a husband and wife team, Jorge Gutiérrez and Sandra Equihua. It is about a 13-year-old Mexican boy, Manny Rivera, who has a magical belt that turns him into costumed superhero El Tigre (Spanish for "The Tiger"^note Or just "tiger"; Spanish is more liberal when it comes to definite articles than English).

Unsure of whether he's destined to be a hero like his father, White Pantera, or whether crime is his true calling, like his grandfather Puma Loco, Manny refuses to pick one side over the other. He alternately contributes to and opposes the seedy goings-on of his town, Miracle City (described in the opening sequence as "a spicy cesspool of crime and villainy") with the aid and companionship of his best friend, Frida Suarez.

Although Manny is mainly on the side of good to appeal to young viewers, he frequently disobeys his honest and heroic father and partakes in "bad" acts (e.g. buying the tattoo maker, kicking the crutch that kept Casa De Adios up and thus demolishing it).

While it only ran for a year and 26 episodes, the animation style and sense of humor made El Tigre something of a short lived cult classic. One thing worth mentioning as well is that (per statements from Jorge) El Tigre shares a setting with The Book of Life and Maya and the Three, with various bits of Canon Welding to at least the former, such as the Sanchezes being a cousin family to the Riveras (Manolo's mother being one of Puma Loco's aunts), and Sartana of the Dead being one of Xibalba's estranged daughters.

Years after the series' cancellation, El Tigre returned as a playable fighter in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2.

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El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera provides examples of:

Tropes A to F

• Abnormal Ammo: El Tigre has been seen shooting out straightened versions of his claws as projectile ammunition.
  • In another, once mentioned example, the Flock of Fury's "Goose-zooka," which shoots robotic geese.
• Accidental Misnaming: Manny has a habit of mispronouncing Dr. Chipoltle Jr.'s name, calling him by some other "CH" name, prompting him to correct him in annoyance. However, he has no problem pronouncing Chipoltle Sr.'s name.
• Action Mom:
  • Maria was once a superhero called Plata Peligrosa and was such a good crime-fighter that she became addicted to the powers. She gave up the mantle before having Manny, but briefly takes it up again in the episode "A Mother's Glove."
  • Voltura is Black Cuervo's mother and part of her supervillain team, using combat moves and lasers to fight the Riveras (mostly White Pantura). Her mother, Lady Gobbler, does the same.
• Action Survivor: Frida, who's been captured enough times by Sartana that she has her "usual" cell in Sartana's hideout, but has moments of cunning like jamming Sartana's mystic guitar with a potato so that the backed-up energy causes it to explode.
• Actor Allusion: The Seventh Samurai, voiced by George Takei, says "Oh my" at one point in his debut episode.
• Added Alliterative Appeal : Plata Peligrosa, Senior Siniestro, Justice Jaguar, Titanium Titan, Silver Sombrero.
• Affably Evil: Puma Loco. Other villains tend towards a less sincere version of this trope.
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Manny keeps trying to impress a bunch of reoccurring girls (he usually fails.)
• Ambiguously Evil: In one episode Manny steps through a portal designed to tell if someone is a hero or villain. It explodes!
• Amusement Park of Doom: One is featured in "Adios, Amigos" that sports rides that easily break down and petting zoos where the animals attack the petters. Manny and Frida revel in the chaos and the misfortune of not-so-lucky parkgoers until the Titanium Titan shows up.
  • The Moustache Mafia also take a disguised Manny to a warehouse that exclusively holds condemned amusement park rides.
• Amusing Injuries: Manny and Rodolfo frequently suffer these, including comically broken appendages, missing teeth, and eyes going the wrong directions.
• An Arm and a Leg: Numerous characters are shown to have robotic prosthetics and even missing eyes, one example being everyone in the Chipotle family.
• Animal Theme Naming:
  • Rivera family superheroes are all named after wildcats:
    • Undecided: El Tigre I and II
    • Superheroes: White Pantera, Justice Jaguar, and Golden Leon
    • Supervillains: Puma Loco, Mighty Cheetar, and Dark Leopard
  • Aves family are all named after birds: Lady Gobbler, Voltura, and Black Cuervo.
  • El Oso, Silver Wolf, Albino Burrito, the list goes on.
• Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain: Manny can shade between either sides.
• Armored Villains, Unarmored Heroes: All the Rivera villains, so far, have used a Mini-Mecha / Power Armor, while all the heroes had been powered up by their Bronze Boots and using few, if any, special body protection.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: El Mal Verde, Monsterzuma, Sartana's giant undead monstrosities, Giant Robot Sanchez… the list just goes on.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!!: Frida suffers from this constantly.
• Audible Gleam
• Authority Equals Asskicking:
  • He may be in a wheelchair, but Don Baffi, the leader of the Moustache Mafia, has the deadliest 'stache of them all.
  • And there is Da Chief Emiliano Suarez, the only useful cop in Miracle City and once beat the above and the rest of the mafia for eight hours straight.
• Badass Adorable: El Tigre in his Cat Boy get up is cute even with his mad fighting skills, along with some of the child villains such as Black Cuervo due to their chibi artstyle.
• Badass Bystander: The three geeky kids from "Party Monsters" might be asthmatic LARPers, but they had the guts to stand up to The Mafia.
• Badass Family:
  • His grandfather, father, and his mother at some point have all shown impressive superpowers. In 'A Grave Escape' it seems superpowers are mandatory in the Rivera family.
  • Point of fact it appears that the Rivera family has alternating generations of heroes and villains. Puma Loco (villain)'s father was Justice Jaguar (hero), whose father was the Mighty Cheetar (villain) and so on and so forth back to the first El Tigre who went insane trying to decide whether to be good or bad.
  • Actually, almost all of the super villains in this series have villainous family members. The Aves family, the Chipotle scientists, Sartana and Django, General Chapuza and Che, etc. Sergio and El Oso are first generation villains, but it seems traditional for the younger villains to be the successors of their parents. Note that El Oso has a little bear "brother" as well.
  • To a lesser extent the Suarez family can also count. With the exception of Carmella (as far as seen onscreen) each member has shown to be varying degrees of being a Badass Normal.
• Bears Are Bad News: El Oso is a bear-themed supervillain who was raised by bears, and the Bear King once mauled him for trying to marry the Bear Princess.
• Beautiful All Along: Played around with in "Mustache Love". When Sophia (already considered pretty cute/hot) loses her unibrow/Browsia, she becomes even more gorgeous while still sounding and acting the same. Subverted with Manny who looks pretty much the same with and without Raul, but Sophia finds him repulsive (though the gross googly face he made at Sophia sure didn't help his case).
• Berserk Button: A whole lot of them.
  • Do not call a Rivera anything that is the equivalent of the word "coward". Bad, bad idea, as they immediatly attack anyone who dares to do it.
  • The zombies don't like when they are told they cannot dance. After giving a great demonstration, they immediatly decided to attack Manny just for the insult.
  • Dr. Chipotle gets on angry tirades when someone misnames him, (normally calling him Dr. Habanero).
• Better as Friends: Played With. Much to Rodolfo's chagrin, his ex-wife Maria keeps insisting that they should remain Just Friends. She divorced him because she couldn't endure seeing him get hurt as a superhero; she has also shown to be jealous when another woman is interested in him and flirtatious when in her hero form, Plata Peligrosa.
• Big Bad: Sartana of the Dead. There are countless villains in Miracle City, but Sartana is The Heavy in the long-term on the show.
• Big Fancy House: Most of the 'casas' on the show, but especially the house Maria built for her weekends with Manny.
  • The Riveras themselves live in a rather nice house that sits atop of a humongous skyscraper. The Mayor, who is their next door neighbor (or just owns a home next to them), lives in an even nicer house and is perched high enough to look down on the Rivera home.
• Big "NEVER!": Puma Loco says this in "Puma Licito" when Rodolfo commands him to take the stolen police station back.
  Rodolfo: Papi, take it back now!
  Puma Loco: NEVER!!
  • Manny does this too on occasion.
• Big "NO!": In a lot of episodes, mostly done by Manny/El Tigre.
  • Manny actually managed to do this for a few hours straight until everyone got tired and went to bed (according to Frida). He also managed to make even an astronaut hear him a few times.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Many of the superheroes and supervillains have Spanish codenames which fit their theming. For instance, El Oso, literally "The Bear," is a villain who was raised by bears and dresses as one.
  • El Mal Verde? In Spanish, Mal means "bad/evil" and Verde means "green" — so literally, his name is The Evil Green One.
• Blood Knight: Plata Peligrosa, the old alter ego of Manny's mother. Mostly due to the influence of her power-granting glove. She fights crime, but refuses to stop, always looking for more foes to defeat.
• Blood-Splattered Warrior: In a family-friendly variant of this trope, El Tigre is covered from head to toe with cactus juice when he utterly hacks the Cactus Kid's army to pieces. Other similar instances have occurred with substitutes such as oil (courtesy of Platna Peligrossa).
• Bolivian Army Ending: This is in play a bit at the end of "A Mother's Glove"; after (seemingly) disposing of the glove Frida and Maria walk away while El Tigre is left to the mercy of every prisoner that Platna Peligrossa had released.
• Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Every Rivera villain, so far, had been a Gadgeteer Genius, using a Mini-Mecha/ Power Armor, while all the heroes have used Bronze Boots that grant them Super-Strength and Super-Speed.
• Brick Joke / Chekhov's Gun: During "Miracle City Worker", Dr. Chipotle, Sr. offhandedly confesses he is allergic to churros. We see Frida utilize this during the climatic fight throughout Maria's mansion; then during the heartwarming (somewhat sappy) ending, Dr. Chipotle comments he is going to be sick, and cue Frida stuffing his piehole with a churro, causing an allergic reaction not unlike Rodolfo's in "Fool's Goal."
• Broken Pedestal: The League of Alliance Society to Rodolfo at the end of "Crouching Tigre, Hidden Dragon" after they used his son as bait for a giant monster called the Dragon Worm.
  • Played with in Yellow Pantera. Manny learns his father ran away from a fight ten years previously and assumes it was due to cowardice. Only after attempting to fight El Mal Verde himself does he realize his father had noble reasons for running.
• Brought Down to Normal: Every time a villain snatches his belt, Manny is completely helpless.
  • This happens to all the Rivera men in 'No Belt, No Boots, No Brero', due to a court order. The alternative was time in an onion mine.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": The letter T on the El Tigre belt.
• Bumbling Dad: Rodolfo is a good father, but he's a bit of a dork sometimes. Especially in the presence of his lady love, Maria.
  • As a crime-fighting maverick, on the other hand, he's the real deal.
• Butt-Monkey: Some days, Rodolfo just cannot catch a break. Usually, though, he will break out of this trope before the end of the episode.
• Bus Full of Innocents: Spoofed; "Mrs. Chequita! Pushing a baby carriage! Pulling a box full of kittens!"
• Burning with Anger: Pops up on multiple occasions when someone becomes particularly enraged or maniacal.
• Burping Contest: One between Manny and Zebra Donkey (in fact, this example provides the page quote) and once between Manny and Frida, who tried to pass their belches off as "a study on alternative gas sources" for science class.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Manny often cries out "EL TIGRE!!!" when he spins his belt and transforms into his persona.
• Calacas: In "The Grave Escape", Manny and Frida end up in the Land of the Dead after a battle with supervillainess Santana of the Dead. With the help of Manny's superhero and super villain ancestors, they make it back to the land of the living and defeat Sartana's army of forgotten dead.
• Call-Back: In "El Tigre, El Jefe," White Pantera rebuilds the city dump's old ramshackle office into a shiny new recycling center after Siniestro destroys it. It reappears whenever the dump is shown after that, until Maria accidentally kicks a Giant Robot Sanchez into it in "The Return of Plata Peligrosa."
• Cardboard Prison: A Running Gag, which is frequently lampshaded by El Oso. This is also a plot point in one episode, where Manny's mother decides that the revolving door on the prison is ineffective and tries to rehabilitate criminals instead.
  El Oso: Can we speed this up, I want to break out in time for dinner!
• Calling Card: Puma Loco has one. It's a red-hot brand that says "Viva Puma Loco!" that he burns into his crime scenes.
• The Cameo: A whole host of them in "No Belt, No Boots, No Brero," which ends with the Riveras defeating every villain they've ever faced (including several who had nothing to do with the episode's plot and were just minding their business) with one attack, while being cheered on by a crowd of oneshot characters from across the series.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Every villain on the show. They all proudly proclaim they are villains. A lot of times committing crimes just for the thrill. And they even get worried if people might see them as good.
• Cat Girl: By stealing his belt, Frida borrows Manny's tiger-themed getup to act as a superhero called "La Tigresa." Manny/El Tigre and the other Rivera hero/villains are male examples.
• Catchphrase
  • "It's a fact!" "Vendetta!" "SWIIIINE!"
  • White Pantera's "Okay, be good!" Which, almost always provokes Manny to do the opposite.
    • Also: "UNCLEAN!"
  • Let's not forget, "THIS, I SWEAR!"
  • Carmelita Aves/Voltura often insists that she broke up with Rodolfo/White Pantera. When reminded that he broke up with her, she cries out "AS IF I COULD FORGET"
• Charles Atlas Super Power : Being Raised by Wolves (or bears), or at least, attempting to keep up with them, El Oso became so strong and tough he is the series' strongest Bad Ass Normal, capable of trading punches with super strong heroes like White Pantera.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Inverted in "Fool's Goal": Manny's local soccer team usually comes in dead last because Manny's father tries to play fair and square, even though all the other teams obviously don't. When his Grandpapi takes over coaching and encourages cheating, the team makes it into the finals with the opposing team being headed by one of their villains. However, Manny's father eventually finds out and Manny is guilted into trying to make the winning goal normally… which he utterly fails at and loses the game for the team. The crowd chases Manny and his Dad out of the stadium for the loss. When Rodolfo asks Manny if it felt good to play fair, Manny promptly states that if this was the result, it wasn't worth it. It's not exactly cheating if the other team does it, moral high ground or not.
• The Chew Toy: Manny. Not an episode goes by that he goes through some slew of Amusing Injuries, sometimes impossibly over-the-top amusing injuries, and the universe seems to enjoy putting him through the wringer for humor's sake. If the episode calls for someone to go through extreme bad luck, you can be it will be Manny (and in fact several episodes almost entirely deal with hilariously bad things happening to him over and over). Frida sometimes gets it merely through being around him as well.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Word of God states that Manny and Frida date sometime after high school.
• City of Adventure: Miracle City. Not in a good way since, as the intro says, it is a "spicy cesspool of crime and villainy." So many big name villains use it as their playground.
• Clark Kenting: Parodied. When not superheroing, Rodolfo wears a "disguise" of a unassuming brown suit, fedora and glasses that he doesn't need, just like Clark Kent. Despite everyone in the city knowing who he is, and that he's the superhero White Pantera. Also, note that he does so while wearing his superhero mask underneath the glasses.
• Clothes Make the Maniac: Maria's Plata Peligrosa glove which gives her an exponentially increasing danger mania (coupled with desire to not remove the glove) the longer she wears it.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Manny's entire family gets their super powers from articles of clothing or accessories:
  • Manny's El Tigre belt buckle.
  • Rodolfo's Bronze Boots of Truth.
  • Puma Loco's Golden Sombrero of Chaos.
  • Maria's Plata Peligrosa glove.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right : Albino Burrito's weaponry; all of it is based on Mexican games, toys and dances, and apparently useless, plus activating them makes him seem like a complete dork… but every single time, in the end, they prove to be extremely powerful One-Hit Kill weapons.
• Cyborg: The Chipotles each have a metal left arm and an electronic right eye, so they might count.
• Dance Battler: In "Dia De Los Padres" it's revealed that White Pantera invented "Pantera Bando", which has the fighter dancing The Nutcracker in order to best an enemy. El Tigre winds up having to perform it in order to save him, pink tutu/headband and all.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Rivera Super Macho Blitz, the Rivera family's most powerful attack. Unless performed by the entire Rivera clan, it will kill you in the attempt. Justice Jaguar admits he died trying to use it alone.
• Dating Catwoman: Puma Loco with Lady Gobbler, then Rodolfo with Carmelita/Voltura, and then Manny with Zoe Aves/Black Cuervo… it seems to be genetic.
  • For added humor, Lady Gobbler is Voltura's mother, who is Zoe's mother, parallel to Puma Loco, White Pantera and Manny.
    • And for even more humor, it's the cat-themed protagonist Rivera family dating the bird-themed antagonist Aves'.
  • Also, Puma Loco and Sartana. Despite both being villains, Loco has mellowed out with age while Sartana remains a very dangerous and competent Big Bad who wants to kill his family.
  • Weirder than any of them, the woman who Puma Loco married and had White Pantera with? She was the Chief of Police!
• A Day in the Limelight: Señor Chapi and the Rivera's pet Donkey take the spotlight in "Animales!", retrieving their beloved toy while the Riveras are out.
• The Dead Can Dance: The Zombies of Zombietown are excellent dancers, and it is a great insult to tell them otherwise.
• De Face Of The Moon: Sartana does this with her mystic guitar in "The Good, The Bad and The Tigre" to carve her own face.
• Didn't Think This Through: Manny accidentaly activated a giant robot Granpapi created. He explained the robot was supposed to be activaded after his death so it could wreak havoc and enact his revenge over the whole city. When Manny asks how was he supposed to activate the robot after his death, Granpapi admits he didn't think about that.
• Distaff Counterpart: La Tigresa, when Frida stole Manny's belt.
• Divorce Is Temporary: Rodolfo is still madly in love with his ex-wife Maria, who left him because she can't handle seeing him endangered as White Pantera. It turns out that way when Maria remarries him.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The League of Alliance Society's plan for taking down the dragon worm included luring an adolescent to what could have been his doom, bonus points for the boy's father putting a lot of trust in them despite not knowing them personally.
  • The Silver Wold episode oozes in this. Frida, a thirteen-year-old girl befriends and tags along with Silver Wolf, a young, supposedly adolescent supervillain. In the climax, Silver Wolf reveals himself as The Titanium Titan, Rodolfo's former sidekick turned archnemesis, and a grown man pretending. to be a teenager.
• Dramatic Drop: Maria drops her beautiful "One Week Without Evil" cake when she discovers there was a supervillain throwdown in her house while she was out getting it.
• Drunk on Milk: Manny, in despair of being unable to grow a moustache, drinks multiple milkshakes in a bar-like setting.
• Eating the Enemy:
  • In the episode Night of the Living Guacamole, Manny's father and grandpa turn into Guacamole Monsters after he gives them tainted guacamole he was given by Chipotle Jr. in disguise. He then has to literally run all the way to South America to buy the authentic guacamole that he was supposed to get in the first place. When he opens the jar it releases a light so bright the guacamole is blasted off them. But then it accumulates to form the Guacamole Monster. The monster grabs his dad and grandpa and is about to eat them. Manny tries to fry it again, but it's skin is too tough. He then jumps into the monster's gut to blast it from the inside.
  • Manny has another run-in with Chipotle Jr. and his Guacamole Monster in Mustache Kid where Chipotle Jr. secretly creates a mustache for Manny that's capable of acting on its own. Just as Manny had bonded with it, Jr. has it steal his belt and he gives the belt to his Guacamole Monster to help him conduct his next heist. But with help from Frida, he's able to get the mustache back on his side and with it he creates a giant tortilla ship and throws it into the Guacamole Monster which then proceeds to eat itself.
  • El Mar Verde is a MASSIVE green bandit who is a feared as a Hero Killer. His most grievous trait is his penchant for eating foes.
  • In A Fistful of Nickels, Sartanna storms into Riverra's home, enraged over Manny stealing from her. In the ensuing fight, she has her minions combine to form a giant Bone Zombie beast that quickly eats the Riverras and Frida in one bite. But they're able to break out and defeat Sartanna with the Caliente Catapult of Carnage.
  • In another, a gigantic creature called the Dragonworm devours Manny (who happens to be the last ingredient that will make the Dragonworm "invincible"), but Rodolfo beats the tar out of it, believing it to be fake until he rescues Manny, and finds he's covered with real dragon spit.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The villains among the Rivera line still consider their heroic counterparts (and in-laws, presumably) to be family, and fight other villains who threaten their families. Outside of them, the Aves family evidently love each other, as do other villainous families.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Puma Loco draws the line at hurting your own family. Also, Don Baffi doesn't mess with true love.
  • All of the super villains present were horrified when El Tigre gave Dr. Chipotle Sr. a wet willy.
  • More along the lines of being jerks then outright evil, Frida's Drill Sergeant Nasty twin sisters, much like their father Chief Suarez, draw the line at anyone who tries to hurt their little sister.
• Everybody Knew Already: In "The Mother of All Tigres", Manny tries to hide his identity of El Tigre from his mother because he fears she will ask him to leave Miracle City with her for being too dangerous. As it turns out, Maria already knew about his “secret identity” because, prior to this episode, he had made no attempt to hide his identity and is actually quite famous.
  Maria: Oh come on, don't you think I read the newspapers?
  [Spinning Paper reveals Manny is El Tigre.]
  Frida: Dang, that's right, she can read.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Rodolfo is so well groomed that his clean shaven jaw sparkles. He also wins the "Best Groomed Hero" award and sparkles whenever his grooming is mentioned.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: Zombietown, and particularly the occasion where Frida begins to succumb to the zombie on her head.
• Eviler than Thou: Sartana to the other villains in Miracle City, especially in "The Good, The Bad and The Tigre".
• Evil Laugh: Every villain, of course. And for a hero, Plata Peligrosa has a pretty good evil laugh.
• Evil Versus Evil: All the time. Generally, it's a way for Manny to have evil episodes but still not seem too bad.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Sartana of the Dead. Take a guess at what her theme is.
• Expressive Hair: Manny's white tufts as El Tigre react to his moods. It spikes up when he's angry, and droops when he's sad.
• Eye Color Change: When Manny turns into El Tigre, his eyes shift from chocolate brown to an emerald green color.
• Eye Scream: Nothing graphic, but Lady Gobbler sometimes removes her glass eye with the socket visible and one of the Golden Eagle Twins signed El Oso's eyeballs (all while Manny was freaking out on screen while the audio could be heard).
• Fan Boy: The Albino Burrito is this for El Tigre, complete with the stereotypical get up, the constant stalking, and really wanting to become El Tigre's side kick.
• Fallen Hero: Titanium Titan was White Pantera's sidekick before he turned evil.
• Fastball Special: This has been utilized by El Tigre and his family on occasion with the epic results, notably the "Caliente Catapult of Carnage" and the "Super Macho Blitz." However, Manny does tend to have trouble with stopping, one time almost falling into the volcano if he hadn't crashed into Sr. Chapi.
• Feathered Fiend: The Flock of Fury, a group of bird-themed villainesses.
• The Family for the Whole Family: The Mustache Mafia
• Flying Brick : Plata Peligrosa.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Both parents have done it plenty of times, though on one occasion White Pantera's was interrupted by almost drowning.

Tropes G to M

• Gadgeteer Genius: Dr. Chipotle Sr. and Dr. Chipotle Jr.
• Generation Xerox: Three generations of Riveras were in relationships with three generations of Aves. Each of them went terribly wrong.
• Genki Girl: Frida. In fact, viewers in Asia are labeling her the "Latina Haruhi Suzumiya".
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Sartana, Django and the rest of the undead skeleton army.
  • An earlier example in "Enter the Cuervo" when she uses them to reflect a Black Cuervo laser blast meant for Manny.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Manny has a big scar over his left eye, cause by himself on accident during his first fight/first uses of his powers.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Or possibly Translation Convention. Stills sounds odd.
  • They sometimes throw in Gratuitous Italian when Sergio speaks as well.
• Great Big Book of Everything : Maria carries or summons any book she needs to make a point about practically any topic, making herself a walking Great Big Library of Everything.
  Frida: DO you have a book about guitars?
  Maria: Yes.
  Frida: Do you have a book about churros?
  Maria: Yes.
  Frida: Do you have a book about exploding things?
  Maria: Yes.
  Frida: Aha! But do you have a book about eating churros while playing an exploding guitar?
  Maria: Yes.
  Frida: (Eyes tear up) This is the greatest place EVER!
• Grind Boots: Utilized by many characters (hero and villain) during fights, or in everyday situations. Taken at a literal level by El Tigre and White Pantera, whose alter egos utilize actual, spurred Western style boots to do this, and while they fight. Like White Pantera, Justice Jaguar
• Hairpin Lockpick: Throughout the series, multiple items including El Tigre's claws, Frida's spike bracelets, and a bird's beak have been used to open locks.
• Hammer and Sickle: Comrade Chaos, a retired, Russian-born supervillain, dual wields a hammer and sickle.
• Handicapped Badass: Don Baffi is confined to a wheelchair, but woe betide anyone who gets in a fight with him.
• "Harmful to Pets" Reminder: In "Zebra Donkey" when Manny is asked to take care of the school mascot for the weekend, they go out to an ice cream parlor to have banana sundaes. But then Frida runs in and warns Manny that Zebra Donkey can't have bananas because it's toxic for his kind, and unfortunately at that time, it's too late, and Zebra Donkey ends up dying.
• Hartman Hips: Carmelita/Voltura, Maria (especially as Plata Peligrosa)…
• Heart Symbol: Rodolfo when his undying love for Maria is especially close to the surface.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: El Cucharon was regularly mocked for his power of spoon-based telepathy and turned to villainy. When Maria bolsters his spirits by reminding him of how special he is, he's the only one out of himself, El Oso and Dr. Chipotle, Sr. to make a true Heel–Face Turn, not only rescuing El Tigre and Frida, but stopping El Oso and Chipotle's robbery attempt by burying them with every spoon in Miracle City.
• Hebephile: Senor Siniestro seems to be one of these to those who don't know he's really the thirteen-year-old Sergio. That includes (or consists entirely of) the audience.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Manny could've been the poster boy of this trope.
• Heel–Face Town: Shogun City was once a Wretched Hive in Japan before its superhero the Seventh Samurai turned it into one of the most crime-free towns in the world by defeating the Ninja Monster Clan that ruled it. The city has become so crime-free in-fact, that the Seventh Samurai becomes elated when he sees that Miracle City is anything but, hoping to get back in the game and encourage a fighting spirit into his overly-polite son Toshiro.
• Heroic RRoD: Maria's Glove which makes her particularly Ax-Crazy the longer she wears it.
• Hero Killer: El Mal Verde eats any hero who tries to stop him. White Pantera was the only one who ever got away from him, until the Riveras finally defeated him ten years later.
• Henshin Hero: Manny uses a special belt to transform from his secret identity to his superhero form. He also only possesses his super powers while in his superhero form.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Manny has come pretty close to pulling this on a few occasions, and so has Frida in "The Ballad of Frida Suarez". Implied to have been played straight with Justice Jaguar who died performing the Blitz, then subverted with Zebra Donkey (who was brought back to life… again) and Chui (if that actually was Chui and not an offspring). After the series' timeframe, Manny will do this towards Frida in his old age.
• Hidden Depths: Not shown in the series, but Word of God said that Manny would have become an artist when he grows up. Makes sense, given Manny is based off Jorge himself.
• High-Dive Hijinks: In "The Good, The Bad, and The Tigre", one of the events in the tournament of evil, there's a high dive into a pool of lava. White Pantera (pretending to be evil as Black Pantera), treats it like an ordinary high dive, right down to putting on a swim cap.
• Holiday Episode: "The Grave Escape" is a Dia de Los Muertos episode.
• I Call It "Vera": When Manny gets an animated, sentient moustache through the power of Mad Science, he names it Raul. Raul eventually leaves to live a life of his own, including becoming a crimefighter in his own right.
• I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: Maria with the Glove of Power. A flashback even shows she first got it when mystic items of power were getting passed around at a college party and she decided to experiment.
  • Also parodied with Frieda and bubble-wrap.
• I Can See My House from Here: As Manny and Frida dangle from The Golden Eagle Twin's blimp(Zeppelin!)
  Frida: AHHHHH! Hey, i can see my house from here. AHHHH!
• I Lied: In "Miracle City Worker".
  Maria: You said you wanted to change.
  Dr. Chipotle Sr.: We lied. Dr. Chipotle Sr. advises you to deal with it.
  Maria: DEAL WITH IT?!?!
• Idiosyncratic Wipes: On one memorable occasion the shot of Manny shatters and falls away to reveal the next scene.
• If I Can't Have You…: This is both Sergio's and Diego's response to realizing that Frida could never be with one of them.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Frida is often a bit jealous of Manny's family's abilities and reputation. In one episode, "La Tigresa," she borrows Manny's belt and fights crime herself because she was embarrassed at her lack of crimefighting ability.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: When Raul the moustache is turned to evil by Dr. Chipotle Jr., Manny is willing to die at its "hands", but Frida sings a song called "Remember the Good Times, Raul". It's only partly successful.
• Insult Backfire: Manny tells the mayor of the zombie town that he smells like bad cheese made from goat vomit. The Zombie mayor reacts as if this were the sweetest and most kind compliment.
• I Taste Delicious: Dr. Chipoltle Jr.'s guacamole monster apparently likes to eat itself. With nachos.
• Just a Stupid Accent: Despite ostensibly taking place in Mexico, all the characters speak English with Mexican accents.
• Kangaroo Court: As part of a gag super villain El Oso falls into a court room through the roof, and the first person to speak is the judge, who immediately says guilty. El Oso for some reason says "Well at least I got a fair trail man."
  • He is supposed to be in jail. Merely being there means he must have broke out, which is a crime.
• Karma Houdini: The Golden Eagle Twins, brother and sister who take advantage of their superhero fame to scam the locals into getting whatever they want. Despite Manny and Frida beating them in a fight and destroying their zeppelin ("IT'S NOT A BLIMP"). The city still supported them, none the wiser to their true natures. Worse, Manny ended up getting hospitalized and arrested for destroying a statue of them.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": White Pantera rather adorably fanboys over the Seventh Samurai.
• Knight Templar: In one episode, Manny decides to become good and "help" everyone. He uses his powers to fpthreaten all the kids in his school to stop any behaviour he views as "bad".
• Kryptonite Factor : The zombies are vulnerable to Dark/Black Water, a substance that can only be found at the fountain right in the middle of their own hometown. When El Tigre uses it against pretty much every zombie in the city, General Chapuza, right before getting destroyed, questions the wisdom of the zombies making their residence right around their only weakness; some Fridge Brilliance here, actually, since anyone trying to get the zombies' weakness would need to face them all first.
• Lamarck Was Right: The families of the setting, Rivera and otherwise, keep a lot of traits within the family.
• Lampshade Hanging “It's like you kicked a puppy… a lost, unemployed puppy… with a cold.”
• Laser-Guided Karma: Played for laughs. Even if they realize their mistake and try to make up for it later, if one of the main characters does something nasty they will typically suffer some horribly exaggerated (but hilarious) punishment for it as the punchline of the episode. Lampshaded in "The Ballad of Frida Suarez," after Frida's Acquired Situational Narcissism nearly get everyone killed by Sartana. She learns her lesson and saves the day but still makes it through mostly unscathed while Manny gets Amusing Injuries, until…
  Frida: (realizes her goggles were broken in the fight) NOOOO! Haven't I paid enough for my rock star jerkiness?!
  Manny: Uh… no? (Frida promptly gets hit in the head with her guitar, then a bowl of fruit, and is then swarmed by rats) That'll do it!
• Leitmotif: A few beyond general themes — Manny has the main theme, naturally.
  • Grandpapi has a theme from Carmen that generally plays when a scene is about him.
  • Black Cuervo episodes begin with a particular tune that indicates the episode will be about her and Manny.
• Legacy Character: El Tigre I and the rest of the Rivera ancestors function as this.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: One of the more prominent elements is a rather pronounced recurring parent-child contrast within the Rivera family.
  • Puma Loco is a Evil Genius supervillain who primarily uses technology and his Transforming Mecha. His son White Pantera is a superhero who is a physical fighter who uses magical boots to aid him. This setup is actually a recurring theme that seems to skip generations. Dark Leopard and Mighty Cheetar are villains with mech-suits similar to Grandpapi, while Golden Leon and Justice Jaguar are heroes, with boots similar to those of White Pantera. Bearers of the El Tigre belt, meanwhile, seem to have a hard time picking a side. Despite these differences in alignment, every member of the Rivera family has a deep familial love and respect for one another.
  • Outside of the Rivera family there is Frida Suarez. Frida is a troublemaker who in more than one occasion is the one who encourages Manny to partake in more bad acts. Frida's father is the ever strict no nonsense law-abiding Chief of Police of Miracle City and Frida's mother from what little was shown of her, pretty much shares her husband's police viewpoints. Despite the contrast, hurting Frida is an easy way to get the Chief's wrath.
• Limited Wardrobe: Taken to extremes in the Bad Ending, where Manny and Frida pretty much wear the exact same clothes well into old age.
• Living Lie Detector : White Pantera's Bronze Boots of Truth, besides giving him Super-Strength and Super-Speed, also forces anyone in direct contact with them to tell the truth. However, since direct contact is necessary for this power to work, White Pantera can still be fooled/tricked if the liar doesn't touch the boots.
• Logic Bomb: Maria hits El Oso with one of these in Mother of All Tigres, making him so confused that Manny is able to catch up to him.
• Look Behind You: Parodied.
  Dr. Chipotle, Jr.: Look, a thing!
  Frida: Where? (turns around, then realizes Chipotle ran away) Aw, man!
  • Also, in "The Return of Plata Peligrosa"
    Rodolfo: Look, a danger!
    Maria: Where?
• Loves My Alter Ego: Played straight and Inverted. With Maria Rivera, she loves Rodolfo, but cannot stand seeing him hurt as long as he is White Pantera, which is why she left him and restrains her feelings. Word of God says they remarry when Rodolfo fully retires.
• Love Cannot Overcome: Played With. Maria did not mind being married to superhero White Pantera (Rodolfo) and according to Manny, found it cool; she then saw him seriously hurt for the first time and seeing him consistently get hurt ultimately made her leave him, unable to see him like this. This is a little strange considering that she herself used to be a superheroine (though the item she used also drove her increasingly erratic). Word of God says she remarries him when he retires from superheroing.
• Love Hungry: Can count for both Diego and Sergio, as they are both seen as willing to go to EXTREME lengths to try and gain Frida's affection. Sergio even once says straight out (to her face, no less) that he is thankful for her BREATHING in his direction.
• Made of Iron: Frida… how else could you explain her getting pummeled by the Titanium Titan, getting crushed by Giant Robot Sanchez and surviving a high-velocity launch into the side of the Miracle City Volcano without so much as a scratch?!
  • Honestly, this could apply to the entire population of Miracle City. Exaggerated with Manny.
• Mafia Princess: Manny's crazy, one-time date Sofia is revealed to be the granddaughter of Don Baffi and lives with him in a pretty nice mansion. Manny doesn't find out until the don goes Papa Wolf on him for seeing him and Sofia together.
• Magic Countdown: In "The Late Manny Rivera", Sergio's mech suit is destroyed and begins a self-destruct countdown from five, but the countdown timer it displays has more than five wedges on it.
• Magic Skirt: Frida, even when being flat out hunt upside-down.
• Magnificent Mustaches of Mexico: Oh yes. For starters there is the Mustache Mafia, Manny once nearly goes into a BSOD in fear of not having a mustache which leads to Raul's creation, and pretty much every adult male character sports a mustache.
• Masked Luchador: Several characters wear outfits somewhat reminiscent of this, including El Tigre and especially White Pantera.
• Mayincatec: Dark Leopard was a villain in a stone mech-suit who clearly lived in Mesoamerican times.
• Meaningful Name: "Aves" means "poultry/bird" in Spanish. Need I explain?
  • "Albino Burrito" at first doesn't seem to make sense with Davi's get up to Non-Spanish speakers, but burrito actually translates to "little donkey" (donkey=burro).
  • Manny's name was chosen because it has the word "man" in it, highlighting the machismo he's trying to live up to along with the very human dilemma of facing good vs. evil decisions.
    • Fun fact: "Manuel" also translates to "God is with us". Interesting to note that Manny is supposed to be based off of the show's creator.
    • Two of his middle names are said creator's and his wife's last names. In addition, "O'Brien" was from an Irish ancestor and "Pablo" was for Pablo Neruda, Pablo Picasso, and Pablo Escobar.
  • Manny and Frida's names were actually based off of Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera; both Manny and Frida ultimately take up the arts as their career paths (Manny an artist and Frida a songwriter/rock star).
    • Ironic Name: While most likely a coincidence (or not?), “Frida” actually translates to “peace” and some derivatives also translate to “good counselor”… Frida Suarez is usually anything but those meanings.
• Mirror Character: Manny and Django, to the point that some fans have theorized Django being Manny in an earlier life.
  • As it turns out, this is not so much of a coincidence: Word of God revealed that Manny and Django are actually half-cousins descended from Puma Loco.
• Mood Motif:
  • Feeble Fanfare plays whenever an awesome thing is revealed in pathetic condition.
  • There's always rocked-out Mexican versions of "La Cucaracha" or "Mexican Hat Dance" with electric guitar whenever Frida and Manny are having or imagining making mayhem.
  • The Strings of Suspense play when it looks like Manny must choose between joining Sartana and Django of the Dead or saving his family.
  • There's a Romantic Strings riff of the last phrase of the El Tigre theme song as Black Cuervo admits she's not entirely over her crush on El Tigre.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: In the episode "Love and War" when Sergio (Señor Siniestro) and Diego (Dr. Chipotle Jr.) team up to try and destroy Manny, because they think that he and Frida are so close, they'll never have a chance while he's in the way.
  • This is also the Titanium Titan's reason for going after Manny, given he views him as the primary reason Rodolfo broke things off with him.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Frequently used by Sartana during "The Good, The Bad and The Tigre".
  Sartana: Villains of Miracle City! …and White Panthera.

Tropes N to Z

• Necromancer: Sartana of the Dead, who is a skeleton herself. In fact, anyone who manages to get her mystic guitar can raise the dead, as shown in 'Zebra Donkey'.
• Never Bareheaded: Rodolfo almost never takes off his White Pantera mask, and Grandpapi rarely takes off his sombrero which turns him into Puma Loco.
• Never Say "Die": Sometimes the word "kill" will be used in passive tense, but it is never used directly ("Are you sure this isn't some sinister plot to destroy me?").
• Noble Demon: Grandpapi is a supervillain through and through but he loves his family and will do anything to protect them.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: A Rivera trait; in spite of their alternating generations of heroes and villains constantly fighting eachother, they'll instantly close ranks if someone calls them cowards.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In "Tigre + Cuervo Forever", when Zoe/Cuervo finds out that Manny only dated her to get the lowdown on the Flock's heists, she's heartbroken and completely ticked off. When he tries to make it up to her by saying he'll let her win their fight, she absolutely demolishes him, kicking him through three yachts and capping it off with a three-person BFG blast that scorches Tigre and Pantera and sinks the President's golden yacht. Do NOT mess with Cuervo's feelings.
  • Other characters will sometimes manage this, a couple of examples being Emiliano beating the crap out of the Mustache Mafia and El Tigre going bat-shit crazy with the Cactus Kid's cacti army.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain : Cactus Kid; at first, it seems his only power is making little cacti to dance until both Manny and Puma Loco make him so angry he accidentally triggers his full potential, now being capable of summoning huge cacti, with blade-sharp thorns, that he can control at will, even making them shoot the thorns at his enemies.
• Old-Fashioned Fruit Stomping: The famous and expensive guacamole known as "Guacamole de Los Angeles" is made from the finest avocados hand-picked by blind monkeys and then crushed underfoot like wine grapes by fair ladies in the Andes mountains. Manny and Freida are forced to do the last step of the process for a year as punishment for using the money entrusted to them to buy a tattoo kit instead of said guacamole.
• Only Good People May Pass: During hero awards, they have in the doorway (where a metal detector would be in an ordinary building) a good and evil detector, meant to catch any bad guys trying to sneak in disguised. White Pantera buries the needle at good. His father, Puma Loco would likely bury the needle at evil and be carted off to jail. His son, Manny, as El Tigre, upon entering the machine, causes the needle to flail wildly between good and evil before finally exploding.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Sometimes. Whether or not Frida has a Mexican accent varies line by line: sometimes Grey DeLisle gives her one, most times she doesn't bother.
• Opening Narration: “Miracle City! A spicy cesspool of crime and villainy…”
• Opposed Mentors: Manny had his dad, the hero White Pantera, and his grandfather, the villain Puma Loco.
• Our Alebrijes Are Different: One of the villains is the Alebrije Monster. It's a huge creature with four eyes, horns, tentacle arms, and three legs. It has a girlfriend who looks exactly like him except she has eyelashes.
• Overly Long Name: Manuel Pablo Gutierrez O'Brian Equihua Rivera.
• Panthera Awesome: All the Riveras are named after one big cat or another. But in Spanish!
  • Exaggerated when the Ancient Tiger Spirit was used.
• Papa Wolf: Most of White Pantera and Puma Loco's most badass moments stem from the need to protect Manny.
  • Chief Emiliano Suarez, Frida's dad, too. When the Mustache Mafia went after her, he curb-stomped them… for eight hours… AND HE WAS GOING EASY ON THEM!
• Pirate: Mighty Cheetar, the "Scourge of the Seven Seas".
• Power Glows: El Tigre I and Manny summoning the Ancient Tiger Spirit. Also whenever El Tigre's been flung into the air at a high speed (turning him into a green human fireball).
• Police Are Useless: For a long time it seemed like Chief Suarez was this. Villains were constantly busting out of jail and Manny or Rodolfo had to put them back. Then the Mustache Mafia threatened his daughter and he proceeds to spend several hours beating the shit out of them.
  • The rest of the force, however, play this straight.
• The Power of Love: Played with at the end of "Zebra Donkey" - the titular creature is brought Back from the Dead for a second time this way through a combination of Sartana's mystical guitar and the love of children.
  Frida: It must have been the guitar string!
  Man: And the love of you children!
  Frida: …but mostly the guitar string.
• Pre-Insanity Reveal: The several-generations-back original holder of the belt buckle started out sane, but slowly lost his mind from trying to decide whether to be good or evil. We finally meet him in the Day of the Dead episode. Because he's been dead and without he belt buckle for so long, he's mostly lucid, but the insanity is still lurking under the surface.
• Prehensile Hair: The Moustache Mafia, as you would expect, are a group of criminals all sporting great moustaches which they can control as extra arms. With their leader, Don Baffi, being the most powerful, as his moustaches basically amounts to a Mini-Mecha.
• Pride: The Rivera men don't like to be questioned on their bravery, which makes them easy to bait.
• Puppy Love: At the end of Season 2 Frida kisses Manny romantically.
• Pstandard Psychic Pstance: El Cucharon has the telekinetic ability to control spoons, and he must make the gesture to do so.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: The Aves family were all dumped by the Rivera family at some point, and all of them swear revenge and fight the Riveras regularly (while also still having crushes on them).
• Puff of Logic: In 'Fistful of Nickels' Frida defeats one of Sartana's skeletons by asking how it's able to stand without any muscles, causing it to immediately fall to pieces.
• The Quisling: Apparently, Dark Leopard betrayed his people and sided with Cortez' invading forces, later marrying a conquistador woman — hence why his heroic son Golden Leon is dressed in conquistador garb.
• Raised by Wolves: Parodied and subverted with El Oso. He was, technically, raised by bears, in that his whole life he followed around a family of bears that wanted nothing to do with him and tried with extreme failure to copy them. This included trying punching a beehive open to get the honey inside (and getting stung for his trouble), trying punching water in order to catch fish (and getting attacked by a fish for his trouble), and trying to scratch his back on a tree like the others by punching a twig (and getting smashed by a fallen tree… inexplicably). The bears, incidentally, spend the whole time trying to get rid of him.

• Running Gag: Manny's desire for a jetpack and Maria hyperventilating when faced with something stressful. One episode also treated Sartana capturing Frida as one of these.
  • "Curse you, Dr. Eugene L. Butterman!"
  • A specific store called Manuel's Jewelry always getting robbed whenever there's a crime spree, and often when there isn't as well. The gigantic diamond display on the top of the store will also invariably be destroyed somehow.
  • Manny really needs that T-Belt… because his pants fall down at the slightest provocation, revealing Goofy Print Underwear.
  • Raul the World's Greatest Mustache ending every episode he's in by ripping off of Manny's face in the most painful way possible. Lampshaded by Frida in his last appearance.
  • "CHI-PUT-LAAAAAAAY!!!!"
  • "Okay, didn't see that'a coming."
• Saying Too Much: In "Party Monsters", after Manny, Frida and the geeks defeated the Mustache Mafia, Manny accidentally blurted out that he and Frida were the ones who threw the party that interrupted the geeks' game night. Initially angry, it was all but forgotten when the geeks let the other kids out of the closet they were forced into by the mafia.
• Scary Stinging Swarm: In "Oso Sole Mio," El Oso and Frida are both stung by bees at different points.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Some of the men of the series manages this on occasion. Manny is a notable example (even better given his English VA's a woman).
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Puma Loco bribing the football referee.
• Secret Identity: Sergio/Senor Siniestro, Diego/Dr. Chipotle Jr., and Zoe Aves/Black Cuervo all have separate civilian and villain forms. Diego is the only one whose villain form is his default, as we only see his disguise in one episode.
• Series Goal: Manny's is to decide whether he's going to use his superpowers for good like his father or evil like his grandfather.
• Shout-Out: Frida and Manny's names are based on real-life Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and hubbie Diego Rivera.
  • Jorge Gutierrez seems to be a big Street Fighter fan, because a few characters from the games can be seen as background◊ students◊ at Manny's school in some episodes, such as Blanka (Blanko), Guile (Guillermo), Alex (Alejandro), E. Honda (Onda), Balrog (Mikey), Sagat (Sega), Ryu (Rio), and Remy.
    • The name Super Macho Fighters II should make that clear enough.
  • Frida's puppet show: "So then the rabbit said to the hunter, 'No, I'm a duck.'"
  • Manny uses his belt to transform into El Tigre. Shotaro Ishinomori would be proud…
  • One episode has Manny and Frida visit El Oso's lair, where his twin brother is watching "tv" - really a rock with a crude picture of Yogi Bear drawn on it.
    • Later in the same episode, Manny and Frida try to lure a group of bears to follow them with a picnic basket. It works.
  • Sartana of the Dead's first name sounds suspiciously similar to that of another latin guitarist.
  • The Silver Sombrero is an homage to Mexican wrestler El Santo.
  • The episode in which Raul, the world's greatest mustache first appears has Manny enjoying the adult life, including working at stapling some very important TPS reports.
  • The Seventh Samurai's name is a reference to the film Seven Samurai and, by proxy, The Magnificent Seven.
  • Frida's goggles were actually based on Hellboy's horns, since Jorge designed her to be "the diablita sitting on Manny's shoulder."
  • The unnamed bad girls from "Wrong and Dance" were meant to pay homage to Varla, Rosie, and Billie from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: The Silver Sombrero angry at the monster that ate Manny for not letting him finish his speech.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Sergio (Senior Sinestro) and Diego (Dr. Chipotle, Jr.) develop this for Frida. It's especially apparent in "Wrong and Dance", where the bad girls whom Manny tried to ask to the dance end up falling for Sergio, only for Sergio to rebuff them, calling them "not-Frida girlies."
• Skeletal Musician: Sartana of the Dead has a guitar with mystical powers.
  • Ditto for her grandson, Django.
• Slasher Smile: Several of the villains, but especially the Titanium Titan, who rarely doesn't have his face stretched into a jagged, toothy, creepy grin.
  • El Tigre himself on occasion.
• Sleepwalking: In Puma Loco's case, he believes he's been "sleepgooding" when his evil reputation has seemingly done a complete 180, unknowingly thanks to Manny and Frida.
• Spaghetti Western: Invoked. Manny's school, Leone, is named after Sergio Leone, director of the Dollars Trilogy (which also gets a pair of episode-title refernces: "A Fistful of Collars" and "A Fistful of Nickles". Likewise, Django and Sartana of the Dead are named after two protagonists from the genre.
  • Let's not forget the most obvious one: "Sergio" is the name of the cowboy-themed super-villain. The Italian cowboy-themed super-villain.
• Specific Situation Books:
  • Frida asks Manny's mother for different books to see if the library actually has a book for everything. She asks for a book about churros, a book about exploding things, a book about guitars, and a book for eating churros while playing an exploding guitar.
  • This is a running gag with Manny's mother. Whenever she is discussing something, she always brings a book into the discussion, as in, she literally brings the book with her to show it.
• Spit Take: Puma Loco, on seeing headlines indicating he has become a great hero, loved by everyone in Miracle City.
• Spiritual Predecessor: To The Book of Life, which has the same creator, a similar art style, and takes place in the same universe according to Word of Godinvoked.
• Split Personality: Due to original El Tigre's indecision, as he couldn't decide if he was a hero or a villain, he ended up going back and forth between acting good and evil.
• Spoon Bending: El Cucharon (Spanish for "The Big Spoon") was a villain with the power to manipulate spoons. Mocked for his supposedly useless power, he became a super villain. However, with counseling from Manny's mother Maria, El Cucharon becomes reformed and uses his spoon-based powers to save the day.
• Stalker Shrine: The Titan actually has a small table with pictures of Rodolfo in his lair… above that is a hate shrine to “honor” Manny.
• Stalker with a Crush: Rodolfo's former sidekick, Titanium Titan, is completely obsessed with Rodolfo.
• Stepford Smiler: Aaron, Manny's first target in "El Tigre El Jefe" comes off as this. After being threatened to finish his homework, he looks extremely grateful in class that Manny "helped" him finish it and achieve a gold star. Then later on, when all the other "helped out" kids get together in a hideout, Aaron is seen in the background with them— not smiling, of course.
• Stock Sound Effects: There's a few that you're bound to hear at least once an episode, including certain anime-style slashing sounds, an Audible Sharpness sound that's often used before something explodes, and a couple of commonly-used fart sounds that accompany everything from a garbage truck dumping out shredded trash goop, to a robot dog farting out a battery.
  • There's also a "warping" sound effect used for laser and the like which got a lot of memorable use in the old The Fantastic Four (1967) animated show.
  • Sartana's mystic guitar being played makes the exact same sound as El Kabong's guitar.
  • Zoe Aves' communicator makes the exact same sound as the ones in the James Coburn movies Our Man Flint and In Like Flint.
• Stuffed into a Locker: A recurring nerdy kid who always gets picked on by the bullies, and the goodies too.
• Super Hero Origin: 'Mother of All Tigres'.
  • Also the episode that reveals Maria was once a superhero.
• Talkingthe Monsterto Death: At one point, Frida manages to make a skeleton bandido fall apart, just by reminding it that it has no flesh or muscles, or anything at all to even keep it upright.
• Tattoo Sharpie: Frida is signing autographs after becoming a one-hit wonder and accidentally writes an “F” on Manny's forehead. Manny isn't mad and thinks it will come off, until he sees a label that says "Does Not Come Off".
• The Last Straw: In "Fool Speed Ahead", when Tigre and Puma Loco land on the roof, the roof creaks rather ominously
  Manny: This roof doesn't look too sturdy.
  Grandpapi: Ah, watchu' talking about? It's fine.
  [A butterfly lands on Tigre's ear, and the entire roof collapses beneath them.]
• Theme Naming: The superpowered characters who do not have a Spanish word in their names and/or aren't named after an animal can be counted on one hand. All of the Rivera men we've seen so far (good, neutral, or evil) are named after a big cat of some kind.
• Too Dumb to Live: With some of the stunts they've pulled (one of them being using newspaper as parachutes), it's a wonder Manny and Frida aren't dead yet.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Frida is often goading Manny into doing bad things. Her dad thinks it's the other way round.
• Third-Person Person: The Chipotles always refer to them in third person.
• Trademark Favorite Food - Churros to Frida.
  • Rodolfo has been seen with mass amounts of grapefruit on more than one occasion.
• Transformation Name Announcement: Pretty much everyone.
  • Manny/Tigre: EEEEL TIGRE!
  • Rodolfo/White Pantera: WHIIIITE PANTERA!
  • Puma Loco: PUMAAAA LOCO!
• Tsundere: Zoe Aves/Black Cuervo pretty much sums it up.
  Black Cuervo: You're so stupid. I hate you! How come you never call me?
  • Her entire family is like this. Zoe likes/hates Manny, her mother likes/hates Rodolfo and her grandmother likes/hates Grandpapi.
    • Zoe's mother hates being reminded that Rodolfo is the one who broke up with her.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Sergio, Diego/Dr. Chipotle Jr., and Frida. A whole episode was dedicated to this.
• Two-Teacher School: The only staff of Leone Middle School are Principal Tonino, Vice Principal Chakal, Mrs. Lupita (teacher) and Maria Rivera (librarian). Carmelita Aves, aka Voltura, is said to be the art teacher but she was never seen.
• The Undead: Sartana and her skeletal Bandito minions are skeletons raised from the dead.
• Unholy Matrimony: Lady Gobbler came this close to marrying Puma Loco, only for him to leave her at the altar. Later, he would try this with Sartana of the Dead, but it became clear their views on his family were too disparate and he called the wedding off.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: The episode which introduces Zoe Aves has Manny falling for her. When he figures out she's manipulating him, he loses interest and is forced to defeat her. And is when she sees his strenght in battle that she immediately develops a crush on him which last the rest of the series.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Sergio seemed to be fairly nice, albeit childish and naïve, before being unintentionally but severely humiliated by Manny. After that is when he swore vengeance and created his Señor Siniestro alter-ego.
  • This also might be the case with Toshiro, given he went from super nice and polite to violent and revenge-hungry when he found out Manny and Frida tricked him.
• Vanity License Plate: The plate on Grandpapi's racecar reads SPR MCHO
• Variable-Length Chain: El Tigre's clawed hands become attached via chains that allows him to fight from a distance or use them as grappling hooks. The length of the chains depends on the plot.
• Verbal Tic: El Oso does this a lot, mang.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: El Mal Verde. A colossal green-skinned humanoid who lives in Miracle City's volcano, and has a taste for human flesh. A flashback shows him outright eating several heroes onscreen, and their superhero artifacts are still caught in his teeth.
• Villain Protagonist: Grandpapi/Puma Loco.
• Villain with Good Publicity:
  • The Golden Eagle Twins, they are completely selfish and are always taking advantage of the people's goodwill, but manage to make it look as they are always doing good and keeping their image clean.
  • Spoofed by the Cactus Kid; he has such good publicity in his hometown precisely because he's a villain.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: Black Cuervo and Voltura, for Manny and Rodolfo respectively.
• Vitriolic Best Friends : Sergio/Señor Siniestro and Diego/Doctor Chipotle Jr; they are in love with Frida, and will often fight over her, but, this detail aside, they're the best of friends, to the point Diego is the only person who knows Señor Siniestro's secret identity.
• Wax On, Wax Off: Trying to get out of doing chores, Manny tricked wannabe hero Albino Burrito into doing them thinking it was hero training. Then all he learned during the chores was indeed useful to defeat a rampaging robot built by Puma Loco.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Played with in "El Tigre, El Jefe" when Manny decides to help kids at school after Rodolfo catches him tee-peeing the school and tries to convince him that Good Feels Good. When Manny is unsuccessful in helping a kid with his homework, he proceeds to use El Tigre to threaten the kid's life in order to make the kid get a gold star. Manny then proceeds to harass the other kids into doing things such as only eating dry crackers when wearing white shirts, playing banjos instead of playing yo-yos, and not allowing anyone to wear high heels. This continues to the point that Manny has the kids building statues of him and hanging up propaganda posters in his name, but then Señor Siniestro finally takes him down… in order for him to force the kids into building a gigantic robot horse that he was planning on wreaking havoc with.
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • The Titanium Titan used to be Rodolfo's sidekick and best friend. But he turned to crime after Rodolfo decided to quit fighting crime to focus on raising Manny.
  • Each of the Aves women used to be in a relationship with the respective Rivera Generation. For one reason or another, their relationships ended badly, and now the Aves swore revenge on the Riveras.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: El Cucharon's spoon telekinesis powers. Subverted when he takes a level in badass and uses them for good.
• What the Hell, Hero?: White Pantera calls out his favorite Super Team (who thinks White Pantera is pathetic) for using his son as bait. Instead of feeling guilty and apologizing for what they did, they wanted (rather, begged) White Pantera to join them for destroying the monster, realizing they were wrong about him.
  • Also, he's mortified when he learns that Manny pretended to like Black Cuervo to get intel on the Flock of Fury's plans.
    White Pantera: You took advantage of a lady's feelings? UNCLEAN!
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Lampshaded at one point. Dr Chipotle Jr is using a remote to control the latest Monster of the Week and it's kicking Manny's butt in a straight fight. Frida, who is standing right next to Chipotle, eventually decides to "do this the lazy man's way" and just knocks the remote out of Chipotle's hand.
• Wild Card: Manny/El Tigre
• With Friends Like These... : Frida often acts as Manny's mischievous conscience , convincing him to do the 'funny thing' that, more often than not, isn't the right thing to do; her reckless behavior and low attention deficit also gets him into many problems. On the other hand, Manny, unwittingly, many times gets Frida injured since, after all, she's a normal human trying to keep up with a superhero's adventures.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The first El Tigre and Plata Peligrosa. Can possibly happen to Manny in the future too.
• Would Hurt a Child: Many of the villains wouldn't just hurt 13-year-old Manny, but his non-superpowered friend Frida. In fact, threatening children and even babies seem to be standard practice by the show's villains.
• Wretched Hive: Miracle City is this in spades, introduced right in the theme song as "a spicy cesspool of crime and villainy."
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Golden Leon speaks like this. One could say he's simply speaking in old-fashioned Spanish, but even so.
• You Need a Breath Mint: Played for laughs by Grandpapi, who says this before he and Rodolfo are (seemingly) about to be eaten by a giant monster.

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