History Anime / DaiGuard

''Dai-Guard'' plays a lot of standard trope arrangements, but approaches them from both ends. It puts a [[RealRobotGenre Real Robot]] in a [[SuperRobotGenre Super Robot]] package and drops it in alongside the standard [[MonsterOfTheWeek crazy monsters from another dimension]]. It uses [[PowerTrio common character arrangements]], but avoids many anime stand-bys, employing relatively little FanService or {{UST}}. It alternates its focus between the day-to-day "realities" of a company utilizing a giant robot and said giant robot punching things in the face.

* PowerTrio: Akagi, Ibuki, and Aoyama.

* ThemeTuneCameo. Cellphone ringtones. Baa, ba ba Baa, ba ba Baa, ba ba Bara rara rara ra...

* NobodyCanDie: Everyone is ''always'' evacuated before the Heterodyne (or Dai-Guard) can start smashing the place up. No one's ever caught in the crossfire, and the few times someone ''does'' get trapped under falling rubble or somesuch, don't worry, rescue crews will be along shortly. Justified as Japan is known for having a ''really good'' disaster alert and response system to begin with, and within ''weeks'' of the pilot episode they've isolated the warning signs that precede the arrival of Heterodynes. Episode 8 is simply [[ADayInTheLife A Week In The Life]] of the Dai-Guard team during which they get nothing but repeated false alarms... and have to stay at their posts for hours on end waiting for the threat to emerge to no avail.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Pretty much the main appeal of the show. Fighting with a giant monster destroys the city? Insurance claims and repair costs quickly follow. Trying to equip new parts and weapons on your HumongousMecha? Have fun trying and failing to properly align the weapon slots on your 150 ton mecha. Hell, sometimes the equipment is ''so'' new all of the bugs aren't quite worked out, sometimes it isn't even ''painted'' yet! Just put a drill arm on Dai-Guard? The massive torque causes the robot to lose control like crazy.

* RealityEnsues: Pretty much the main appeal of the show. Fighting with a giant monster destroys the city? Insurance claims and repair costs quickly follow. Trying to equip new parts and weapons on your HumongousMecha? Have fun trying and failing to properly align the weapon slots on your 150 ton mecha. Hell, sometimes the equipment is ''so'' new all of the bugs aren't quite worked out, sometimes it isn't even ''painted'' yet! Just put a drill arm on Dai-Guard? The massive torque causes the robot to lose control like crazy.

* RealityEnsues: Pretty much the main appeal of the show. Fighting with a giant monster destroys the city? Insurance claims and repair costs quickly follow. Trying to equip new parts and weapons on your HumongousMecha? Have fun trying and failing to properly align the weapon slots on your 150 ton mecha. Just put a drill arm on Dai-Guard? The massive torque causes the robot to lose control like crazy.

* GunsAreWorthless: Dai-Guard uses only physical melee weapons, stemming from the limitations that A) the 21st Century Defense Corporation isn't the military or the police (and this is Japan) and B) Heterodynes can only be destroyed with an accurate strike to their Fractal Knot, which melee weapons are better at.

* HeelFaceTurn: Shirota eventually loosens up and comes around to the protagonists' way of thinking.

** Ultimately abused but recognized in early episodes where simply walking around too much could threaten to shake Dai Guard to pieces and punching Heterodynes only broke his own arms.
** Even later episodes reference it, as Dai-Guard tries to move as little as possible. One of the things its military counterpart does is re-work and reinforce the hell out of the robot's internal structure to account for this.

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!!These tropes can be seen in individual episodes of ''Dai-Guard'':

* ChristmasEpisode: One with a decidedly western (that it, non-romantic) feel to the holiday.
* DaddysGirl: We see in one episode that Ibuki used to be one until her father died in the first Heterodyne attack. When she realizes her biological father only studied the Heterodyne ForScience, she has a HeroicBSOD in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izAdFAkz_MI very next battle]]. When she realizes her stepfather's heroism is real, she's one all over again.
* FlashBack
* HeyWait: "Your lens cap is on."
* HeroicBSOD: Ibuki after [[spoiler: she learns the truth about her father]].
* NeverTellMeTheOdds: Inverted when the odds are so bad, Saeki refuses to tell the pilots what they are.
* OffModel: The entirety of episode 23.
* TheOnlyOne: For several episodes, the military replaces the normal pilots with three "simulator jockeys," as Aoyama calls them. They turn out to be utterly useless in a fight because they don't understand [[ThePowerOfFriendship teamwork]] or have the proper intuition to pilot Dai-Guard.
** Averted once the military realizes that idealism is ''not'' for kids. Akagi's mecha piloting teacher and classmates are right there with them kicking ass in the final episodes.
** It doesn't help that the "simulator jockeys," in the same episode where Akagi wants to leave the sleeping Hetrodyne alone (which turns out to be a very '''good''' idea, since if it's destroyed [[spoiler:there would be a larger-than-Kyoto crater under Kyoto]]) they decide to [[spoiler:wake it up so they can fight it]]. If they ''were'' heroes, we've have had a fun big-time case of NiceJobBreakingItHero.
* RamenSlurp: Domeki usually does this while hunched over in her HackerCave, analysing the newest Heterodyne or designing parts for Dai-Guard.
* RecapEpisode
* RightBehindMe
* RocketPunch: Not an actual mechanical ability, but the next best thing: Dai-Guard takes off its hand and ''throws it at the monster''.
** Faithfully recreated in ''VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}} 2'' as part of the drill arm's animation against air units.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: In the series finale [[spoiler:Shirou Shirota disobeys orders to stop a [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo Over Explosion Bomb]] from being dropped on Tokyo to stop the MonsterOfTheWeek from covering the world. His plan works, but the bomb might not have.]]
* TakingYouWithMe: A hilarious subversion: a Heterodyne falling into the ocean grabs Dai-Guard's hand. Akagi just detaches it.
* TenMinuteRetirement
* ThemeTuneCameo. Cellphone ringtones. Baa, ba ba Baa, ba ba Baa, ba ba Bara rara rara ra...
* ThisIsADrill: And drills are AwesomeButImpractical. [[ArtisticLicensePhysics Ever heard of "torque"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Domeki?]]
** It's even Lampshaded. After their first attempt at using it everyone's reaction was "Why the hell did we think that would work?"

* WhoWantsToLiveForever (the line, not the trope): Akagi whips this one out when it looks like Dai-Guard will plummet three miles to Earth and certain death. Ibuki and Aoyama protest that they would very much like that.

* ThisIsADrill: And drills are AwesomeButImpractical. [[YouFailPhysicsForever Ever heard of "torque"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Domeki?]]

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: In the series finale [[spoiler:Shirou Shirota disobeys orders to stop a [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo Over Explosion Bomb]] from being dropped on Tokyo to stop the MonsterOfTheWeek from covering the world. His plan works, but the bomb might not have.]]

* BusterPower: Dai-Guard's Knot Buster, a PileBunker used for the precise, powerful attacks needed to destroy a Heterdyne's Fractal Knot in a single strike.

* RunningGag: Early in the series, Dai-Guard loses an arm in basically every fight.

** Faithfully recreated in ''VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}}2'' as part of the drill arm's animation against air units.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: In the series finally [[spoiler:Shirou Shirota disobeys orders to stop a [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo Over Explosion Bomb]] from being dropped on Tokyo to stop the MonsterOfTheWeek from covering the world. His plan works, but the bomb might not have.]]

* AttackItsWeakPoint ForMassiveDamage: Hitting a Heterodyne in its its central Fractal Knot instantly destroys it and causes its body to either melt away, or explode into [[DefeatEqualsExplosion a huge fireball]] or [[DisappearsIntoLight white light.]]

* NamesTheSame: The monsters share a name with the family of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' characters. Almost certainly a coincidence.

* TalkingToHimself: Aoyama with [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Lockon Stratos]] [[spoiler:both of them]] and then later [[LightNovel/FullMetalPanic Kurz Weber]] in VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}}2.

** Then they upgrade their arms to simply house their main weapons to [[GenreSavvy get over the hassle of having to rip Dai Guard's arms out all the time.]]

* ScaryShinyGlasses

* SquareCubeLaw: Ultimately abused but recognized in early episodes where simply walking around too much could threaten to shake Dai Guard to pieces and punching Heterodynes only broke his own arms.

* VideoGame/SuperRobotWars: Making an unexpected debut in ''VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}}2''.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: Aoyama.

* TalkingToHimself: Aoyama with [[MobileSuitGundam00 Lockon Stratos]] [[spoiler:both of them]] and then later [[LightNovel/FullMetalPanic Kurz Weber]] in VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}}2.

** Dai-Guard itself in a meta-sense. Despite the SuperRobot setting and [[{{Kaiju}} enemies]], what the heroes are piloting is very much a RealRobot without any PsychicPowers, GreenRocks or even AppliedPhlebotinum to their name.

* RealRobot: One of the most credible RealRobot series out there, SquareCubeLaw aside.

* BadAssNormal: Dai-Guard's pilots may only be Public Relations office workers, but they eventually prove themselves to be better than the military's pilots.

* TalkingToHimself: Aoyama with [[MobileSuitGundam00 Lockon Stratos]] [[spoiler:both of them]] and then later [[FullMetalPanic Kurz Weber]] in VideoGame/{{Super Robot Wars Z}}2.

* AHouseDivided: Surprisingly, the Heterodyne are a serious threat for only the first nine episodes... out of ''twenty-six.'' At the end of episode nine, the behavior and weaknesses of the Heterodyne have been figured out, and one gets [[OneHitKill one-shotted]] for the first time in a repeatable fashion... only for Shirota to stab the team in the back and assist in the military's attempt to hijack the operation. It takes four more episodes to iron out the mess, after which they pull off a perfect Heterodyne elimination with ''zero collateral damage...'' only for the [[PointyHairedBoss company executives to screw things up in an even more spectacular manner.]] It takes four ''more'' episodes to clean ''that'' mess up, just in time for things to go ''international;'' EagleLand purposefully interferes with a Heterodyne attack in the hopes of capturing one for study, then spins the resulting near-attack on their spy plane into a diplomatic incident and threaten Japan with war while they continue the capture attempts. While a Heterodyne is wandering around that can ''freeze entire cities solid.''Safe to say, the Dai-Guard team spends at least as much time arguing with megalomanical authority figures as they do fighting monsters.

** Dai-Guard itself in a meta-sense. Despite the SuperRobot setting and [[{{Kaiju}} enemies]], what the heroes are piloting is very much a RealRobot without any PsychicPowers, GreenRocks or even AppliedPhelebotium to their name.

** Dai-Guard itself in a meta-sense. Despite the SuperRobot setting and [[Kaiju enemies]], what the heroes are piloting is very much a RealRobot without any PsychicPowers, GreenRocks or even AppliedPhelebotium to their name.

* TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: No mention is ever made of Heterodynes appearing ''not'' in Japan.
** Justified in that the dimensional warp is caused by unique tectonic action in Japan.
** It's mentioned in the comic that there are Dai-Guards stationed around the world, as the warps are related to earthquakes - Japan just happens to have a lot of them.

* RealityEnsues: Pretty much the main appeal of the show. Fighting with a giant monster destroys the city? Insurance claims and repair costs quickly follow. Trying to equip new parts and weapons on your HumongousMecha? Spend several seconds trying and failing to properly align the weapon slots on your 150 ton mecha. Just put a drill arm on Dai-Guard? The massive torque causes the robot to lose control like crazy.