Bakugan Battle Brawlers

Bakugan Battle Brawlers (爆丸バトルブローラーズ, Bakugan Batoru Burōrāzu) is a Japanese-Canadian action adventure^[1] television series produced by TMS Entertainment and Japan Vistec under the direction of Mitsuo Hashimoto. The story centers on the lives of creatures called Bakugan and the battle brawlers who possess them. Though initially a failure in Japan, the series became popular in the United States and Canada, prompting the creation/order of several follow-up seasons, (New Vestroia, and Gundalian Invaders) which aired in other countries before Japan. The fourth and final season, Mechtanium Surge, was never broadcast in Japan and instead aired in Canadian and U.S. markets. The Bakugan franchise are co-productions from Nelvana Enterprises, Spin Master (owns trademarks and characters), Sega Toys and TMS Entertainment, with animation by TMS Entertainment in association with Sega Toys. A spin-off series called Baku Tech! Bakugan which featured the characters from the manga of the same name aired on TV Tokyo from April 7, 2012 to March 30, 2013. It was followed by a sequel series called Baku Tech! Bakugan Gachi which ran from April 6, 2013 to December 28, 2013.^[2]

Plot

Season 1: Battle Brawlers

Dan Kuso's life changed one day when random cards fell out of the sky with special powers. He and his friend Shun invented a game called Bakugan with these. Together with his friends Runo, Marucho,Julie, Shun, and Alice, they form the Bakugan Battle Brawlers and its members are accidentally dragged into fighting for the fate of Vestroia (the Bakugan's home dimension) against the Doom Beings.

The season is the story of a dimension called Vestroia which loses its natural balance and merges with the Earth and many other worlds. An evil Bakugan called Naga was tempted to take the power of the Infinity and Silent Cores, which formed the Perfect Core that balanced Vestroia, but absorbed too much negative energy and thus was trapped within the Silent Core and destabilised Vestroia. So Dan and the brawlers decided to bring back balance by meeting new friends and allies in the other worlds, learn more about the origin of the Bakugan; and facing Naga, a rogue bakugan who seeks the mighty Infinity Core so that he could complete the all-powerful Perfect Core and have almighty power and absolute control over Earth and Vestroia.

Season 2: New Vestroia

The two of the six Battle Brawlers (Dan and Marucho) return to New Vestroia and discover that it has been colonized by an alien race called Vestals, who are unaware that the Bakugan are intelligent beings. Three Vestals: Mira, Ace and Baron, however, encounter Shun, who was an old friend of Dan and Marucho, so he knew the truth about Bakugan and formed the Bakugan Brawlers Resistance. While battling against the evil Vexos, the top Vestal brawlers, the Brawlers destroy each of the three Dimension Controllers that keep the Bakugan in their ball form, liberating New Vestroia. The Resistance part but reunite six months later when they discover that King Zenoheld of Vestal has attacked the Six Ancient Warriors in an attempt to steal the Attribute Energies. The Six Ancient Warriors engage in a 6-on-1 battle with Zenoheld, but are unable to defeat Zenohelds Mechanical Bakugan, Farbros. In desperation, the Ancient Warriors give the Resistance Bakugan their attribute energies to protect them from Zenoheld, who has the Bakugan Termination System, a machine built to wipe out all Bakugan but needs the Attribute Energies to power it. These energies result in the 6 Bakugan evolving. After losing half the energies, the Brawlers decided to attack instead, engaging a temporary alliance with Spectra Phantom, the former leader of the Vexos, along with his sidekick Gus Grav. However, the remaining energies are taken and the Brawlers rush to New Vestroia to evacuate all the Bakugan. Drago, however, refuses to give up and manages to destroy the BT System by absorbing all 6 Attribute Energies and evolves again into Helix Dragonoid. Things quiet down until Spectra resurfaces again to battle Dan and when he loses, he concedes that Dan is number one and joins the Brawlers, returning to his original self, Keith Clay. Keith reveals that Zenoheld is working on a powerful weapon called the Alternative System and helps construct Battle Gear for Drago. Meanwhile, the Vexos begins crumbling from within as both Volt, Lync and Shadow decide to leave, feeling that Zenoheld and his son Hydron have finally gone too far but are quickly disposed of by Prince Hydron. In the final battle, the Brawlers with Gus, who joins as their newest member, manage to destroy the Alternative and the Resistance go their separate ways.

Season 3: Gundalian Invaders

After defeating Zenoheld, the Brawlers return to Earth and with the help of newcomer Ren, they set up Bakugan Interspace. However, Ren is not all that he seems to be and reveals that he is a Gundalian in need of help, saying that his planet Gundalia, is under attack by Neathia. Shun is not convinced and discovers, that Ren is lying once Princess Fabia showed and proved Ren's story wrong. The Brawlers agree to help Fabia and head to Neathia to help fight off the Gundalians. Meanwhile, Ren begins showing signs of distrust for Barodius (Gundalia's Tyrannical Emperor) and eventually defects to rejoin the Brawlers. Unfortunately, Jake is captured by Kazarina (Gundalia's leading Bakugan biologist) and brainwashed, so the Brawlers head to Gundalia to rescue him along with Ren's imprisoned team mates(who were imprisoned for failure), joined by Nurzak (a former advisor to Barodious, who turned against him when he saw he would lead Gundalia to ruin) and Mason Brown(a team mate who had escaped imprisonment, who have also sided with Neathia. Once they do, the Twelve Orders mount a final attack on Neathia. The Brawlers rush back in time to defend the planet while Dan and Barodius engage in their final battle. Ren and Mason's team mates Jesse Glenn, Lena Isis and Zenet Surrow are freed from their brainwashed state after Kazarina's demise. Linehalt uses his Forbidden Powers to restore the war torn Neathia, while Barodius and Dharak are destroyed by an overload of vast energy and power from the Sacred Orb (which they tried to take anyway, despite Dan and Drago defeating them), which grants Drago new strength and abilities and evolves into Titanium Dragonoid and granting him the status of ruler over all Bakugan.

Season 4: Mechtanium Surge

The Brawlers' reign as number one in Bakugan Interspace is ended by two new powerful teams: Team Anubias and Team Sellon. To make matters worse, Dan and Drago continuously suffer from visions sent to them by Mag Mel and Razenoid. These cause them to lose fans rapidly when Drago loses control in battle several times, threatening the lives of all the children in Interspace. Shun and Marucho find themselves unable to help as Dan is keeping everything to himself. When Dan loses control once again and nearly kills Anubias in battle, all of Dan's fans abandon him and he leaves for New Vestroia to train. Shun, meanwhile, takes the reins of leader of the Battle Brawlers and charges himself with the task of returning the Brawlers to their former glory. He becomes more and more uncaring and brushes off all opinions but his own while Marucho tries to help him be a better leader. Paige and Rafe show up to learn from them, but find them in disarray. Meanwhile, Dan and Drago fix their problem and prepare to come back. Eventually, Dan controls Drago's powers as Marucho and Shun reunite and join up with Paige and Rafe. When the Chaos Bakugan start destroying Interspace, Spectra appears out of nowhere to help the Brawlers out and destroys many of the Chaos Bakugan. Afterwards, Dan returns, but is out of sync and accidentally defeats his fellow brawlers with Zenthon. He tells them later about Mag Mel (Spectra left beforehand, disappointed in Dan having changed). Shun walks out and dismisses Taylean's words. Dan later has a vision (which is true) about Gundalia being attacked by Mag Mel (who is now free). Dan arrives and tells them about Gundalia, which Paige confirms unexpectedly. The Brawlers dismiss Dan and don't let him go, but Dan says somewhat angrily that he's not asking; he's telling them that he is an original brawler and isn't gonna be cut from this fight. They let him come along and save Ren's home world.

Then they face Mag Mel and discover Interspace being destroyed, so they go back to Earth to save it but they are trapped and must figure a way to save the gate, the key, the battlers and Interspace. Just then, Anubias and Sellon reveal themselves as artificial life forms created by Mag Mel to assure his resurrection and succeeded in taking Dan's Key. In a new battle, Dan find out that Mag Mel is actually Barodius, who survived his last encounter on Neathia after being transported to the dark reversed dimension created by Code Eve. He later plans to destroy Earth, Gundalia, Neathia, Vestal and New Vestroia by sending every civilization to the dark reversed dimension. Before "disappearing", he says that his final demise will cause another disaster to befall on Dan and Drago.

A few months later, Bakugan City is shown to have a peaceful start as humans have now communed with the Bakugan from New Vestroia. Not all is well when 4 Mechtogan led by Coredegon, who have broken free from their bakugan, start terrorizing the place. Not only that, but some new enemy called Wiseman has appeared with ancient Bakugan called the Nonets. At the beginning, The Brawlers get confused because Wiseman somehow had the appearance of Gunz Lazar, the new Haos Brawler who disappeared after the four Mechtogan attacked Bakugan City. But is was later revealed that Wiseman was actually Coredegon in disguise while the real Gunz was put in a coma so his negative energy was absorbed. After Coredegon alongside his pals (in his combined form as a Mechtogan Destroyer) sent the Brawlers to the Doom Dimension, he completely destroyed the Earth and New Vestroia. With Gunz back to his normal state, Dan and the others travel through time in order to stop Mechtavius Destroyer from killing every human and Bakugan. In the final battle, Dragonoid Destroyer, who is Drago's last Mechtogan, acquires an infinite power that comes from the bond between Bakugan and humans all over the world, which gave them a chance to defeat the Nonet Mechtogan and send them back between dimensions. Dan's friends throw him a party, but soon discover Dan is missing. Shun sees Dan and Drago sailing off using a boat borrowed from Kato. Dan says that another adventure is waiting for him and Drago, and that he had enough time in the spotlight, such that he wants to let other Brawlers to rise to his rank.

Media

The Anime

Battle Brawlers

The first episode of the anime television series (produced by TMS Entertainment and Japan Vistec under the direction of Mitsuo Hashimoto), made its debut in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 5, 2007 and was rebroadcast six days later on BS Japan. Nelvana Limited produced the English-language version and premiered the series on the Canadian network Teletoon on July 2007 and then on Cartoon Network on February 24, 2008.

New Vestroia

In March 2009, TMS and Nelvana Entertainment companies announced that a follow-up series, Bakugan Battle Brawlers New Vestroia (爆丸バトルブローラーズニューヴェストロイア, Bakugan Batoru Burōrāzu Nyū Vesutoroia), consisting of 26 episodes was in production.^[3] The series began airing on April 12, 2009 on the Canadian network Teletoon and then on Cartoon Network on May 9, 2009. Due to the ratings in Canada, Teletoon asked that New Vestroia be extended leading to an additional 26 episode order.

The Cartoon Network website aired a special called Maxus Unleashed, and marks a synopsis about the first 26 episodes.

The New Vestroia series in Japan, aired on the TV Tokyo Network on March 2, 2010, at 7:00PM. The opening song, titled "Cho! Saikyo! Warriors" is once again done by Psychic Lover, while the first ending, "Bang! Bang! Bakugan!", is done by Yoshifumi Ushima and the second ending "Communication Breakdown" by Crush Tears.

Gundalian Invaders

Publicly announced through Bakugan.com, the official My.Bakugan.com community, and other media, Spin Master announced a third series, titled Bakugan Battle Brawlers Gundalian Invaders (爆丸バトルブローラーズガンダリアンインベーダーズ, Bakugan Batoru Burōrāzu Gandarian Inbēdāzu). It premiered in Canada on May 23, 2010, and aired in the United States on May 29, 2010. The Japanese version premiered on April 3, 2011 and ended in January 22, 2012, before being replaced by the Japanese dub of Zoobles! in its initial timeslot. The new series ties into the online game Bakugan Dimensions through the use of special heat-reveal DNA codes on the new series of Gundalian Invaders Bakugan.^[4][5]

The first opening song "Ready Go!" is done by Sissy, while the second opening, "Mega・Meta", is done by Yu Kobayashi, who is Dan's voice actor. The first ending song, "Love the Music", is done by LISP, while the second, "Tan-Kyu-Shin", is done by KREVA, and the third is "Love Go! Courage Go!", which was performed by TAKUYA.

Mechtanium Surge

In September 2010, Nelvana Entertainment announced a fourth and final season to the Bakugan series titled Bakugan Battle Brawlers Mechtanium Surge (爆丸バトルブローラーズメクタニウムサージ, Bakugan Batoru Burōrāzu Mekutaniumu Sāji), which launched on February 13, 2011 in Canada and in United States on March 5, 2011. It was originally set for 26 episodes but was later extended to 46. As of February 18, 2012, there have been no announcements whether or not this will air in Japan. Also, in this season Kubo helped to Hashimoto for some episodes. However, late in 2012, Taiwan and Hong Kong did air a version based off the original Japanese version, though using a modified version of the Bakugan Battle Brawlers: New Vestroia Opening and Ending animations and songs.

Baku Tech! Bakugan

In September 2010, Japanese children's anthology magazine CoroCoro Comic began serializing a Bakugan manga by Shingo Maki titled BakuTech! Bakugan (爆TECH！爆丸, Bakuteku! Bakugan). The series starred a new cast of characters not related to the anime series. As of August 2011, three volumes have been collected.^[6] The anime adaption of Baku Tech! Bakugan was animated by Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment and began aired on TV Tokyo from April 7, 2012 to March 30, 2013 as a segment on the show Oha Coro. It was followed by a sequel called Baku Tech! Bakugan Gachi which aired from April 6, 2013 to December 28, 2013.

Baku Tech! Bakugan Gachi

It is the sequel to Baku Tech! Bakugan which aired from April 6, 2013 to December 28, 2013 on TV Tokyo.

Bakugan Reboot

Spin Master currently has plans for a reboot of the franchise. The release date for the reboot is currently unknown.^[7]

Games

Strategic game

A strategic game called Bakugan was developed by Sega Toys and Spin Master and released in conjunction with the anime series, albeit beginning a year before the anime even started (2006). The game uses spherical, spring-loaded miniature figures, representing the Bakugan, which pop open when rolled onto special metal Gate cards. The objective of the game is to capture three Gate cards. You can change the rules of battle with ability cards.^[8] Battle is engaged when opposing Bakugan magnetically pop open on the same Gate card. Each Bakugan has an attack strength called "G-Power", which can be modified by the Gate card landed on, Ability cards from players' hands,special optional pieces called Traps and some Bakugan carry Battle Equipment and bakunano. To win a Gate card, you need to use the gate card's G-power boost added to the G-Power score of your Bakugan. The Bakugan with the highest combined G-Power wins the battle and captures the Gate. Some bakugan are called Mechtogan. These are bakugan action figures, they do not fold up to a ball, but instead, you slap the card onto its back to show its secret functions and G-power. Your bakugan's G-power combine with the Mechtogan's G-power to make the total g-power, e.g.: bakugan g power; 600g, mechtogan g-power: 150g = 750g, so you will have 750g power

The game can also be played with up to four people. The rules remain the same as a regular game. Bakugan may also be played in Big game style where players use six Gate Cards, six Ability Cards and six Bakugan, instead of three of each as in a normal game. Instead of capturing three Gate Cards, a player must capture six to win the game.

The game has spawned numerous accessories, such as carry clips to store three Bakugan marbles at a time, launchers to fire the marbles at the game arena, soft plastic and hard plastic play area mats and special gauntlets (based on the ones used in the second season).

Attributes

There are a total of 6 attributes: Pyrus (fire), Aquos (water) and Haos (light) make the power triangle. Opposite them, the trio of Darkus (darkness) , Ventus (wind) and Subterra (earth) make the triangle of power. Battle gear and Bakunano come in gold, silver, and copper.

Power Sources

There is the Infinity Core, Silent Core, The Sacred Orb, The Attribute Energies, The Code Of Eve and others. They are power sources. They contain enough power in them to bring life to anything in the Bakugan world. They contain light and darkness to keep the world balanced.

Special Treatment

Special Treatment Bakugan exist, such as Clear, Dual Attribute, Pearl, Translucent, and White. In the game, most Special Treatment Bakugan have multiple attributes or can take on the attribute of an opposing Bakugan under certain circumstances. Note that special effects are NOT attributes except for Clear and White.

Reception

Bakugan marbles have been one of the top rated toys for children, winning awards and selling thousands of marbles a year. The original series 1 and 2 (B1 Bakugan) were smaller, and all Bakugan after series 3 called Bakupearl (B2 Bakugan) are larger and the current size.

According to IGN, it was one of the leading kids games for the Nintendo DS in 2009.^[9] The Toy Industry Association gave Bakugan Battle Brawlers the 2009 Property of the Year award, recognizing the property that has had the greatest success spreading its brand throughout the industry that year.^[10]

Card game

The card game is played with a deck of 56 cards, consisting of 5 each of ranks 1-10, plus six additional cards which have special abilities in addition to a rank. There is no suit distinction. Although it's conceptually a trick-taking game, the player who wins the trick only saves one card on his score pile, discarding the rest; this allows for special cases where there is no single winner. At the beginning of each hand, each player rolls one die to determine the target number of captures. At the end of the hand, that player accumulates a penalty score equal to the difference between the target number and the actual number captured. The game lasts until some player has scored ten points, and the lowest score is the winner.

Product promotions

Toys and electronics

In August 2009, Digital Blue announced a line of Bakugan branded electronics for the 20-55 (as confirmed in an interview of popular toys marketed at kids) age group. Products include branded digital cameras, alarm clocks and other electronics. The line was released in retail in Spring 2009.^[11]

Video games

On June 6, 2010, Spin Master announced on Bakugan.com that they were working on the online game 'Bakugan Dimensions' which would be released online for all Operating Systems that supported Adobe Flash. It was released for open Beta on June 2, 2010 but the beta was shut down on June 30, 2011 because the season for Gundalian Invaders had finished.

The DS, Wii, PlayStation 2 and 3 and many other systems also had a Bakugan game developed and follows the story of your character with a Bakugan who came from the Doom Dimension. It acts as an alternate plot to the series.

Food product promotions

• In 2009, Frito-Lay introduced a set of 26 Bakugan tazos in packages of Cheetos in India. The promotion, which ran from June 10 to August 10, 2009, included a contest in which consumers could win other Bakugan prizes.^[12]

References

External links

• Official Website
• Nelvana's Bakugan website
• Bakugan Battle Brawlers (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Baku Tech! Bakugan (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia