History WesternAnimation / ExchangeStudentZero

The movie tells the story of best friends John and Max, two geeky high schoolers from [[UsefulNotes/OtherAustralianTownsAndCities Perth, Australia]] who are obsessed with a Japanese fantasy card game called Battle Day Zero, with their favorite card being Hiro, Prince of Karuta. As it happens, John's family is planning to host a Japanese exchange student also named Hiro, and on the day of the meeting, a dramatic storm summons a grand spaceship that drops down the exchange student - who looks and acts awfully similar to the character from John and Max's favorite game. As it turns out, this Hiro ''is'' the one from Battle Day Zero, brought to life by a miraculous bolt of lightning that struck some cards John and Max lost during the drive to meet the exchange student. With the real Hiro's whereabouts unknown, John and Max decide to pass off their Hiro as the exchange student, allowing his peculiarities as an {{animesque}} card game hero to be passed off as foreign quirks while the two try to figure out how to send Hiro back to the card game he came from. However, things are quickly complicated by monsters and other characters from Battle Day Zero heroic and villainous beginning to appear in the real world, forcing Hiro to confront them. Life will never be the same, but then as John and Max discover, it is far more exciting this way.

The movie tells the story of John and Max, two school friends from [[UsefulNotes/OtherAustralianTownsAndCities Perth, Australia]] who are obsessed with a fantasy card game called Battle Day Zero. One day however, they inadvertently bring one of the game’s characters, Hiro, to life. Hiro is passed off for an exchange student at school and so his peculiarities are somewhat overlooked while John and Max figure out how to get him home. That is until the game that brought Hiro pours even more exotic creatures. Life will never be the same, but then as John and Max discover, it is far more exciting this way.

''Exchange Student Zero'' is an [[UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} Australian]] television film on Creator/CartoonNetwork that premiered on 16 December 2012. It is the first animated Australian made production to be commissioned by the Cartoon Network.

John and Max are two school friends, obsessed with a fantasy card game called Battle Day Zero, who inadvertently bring one of the game’s characters, Hiro, to life. Hiro is passed off for an exchange student at school and so his peculiarities are somewhat overlooked while John and Max figure out how to get him home. That is until the game that brought Hiro pours even more exotic creatures into the sleepy little Perth town. Life will never be the same, but then as John and Max discover, it is far more exciting this way.

* CloningBlues: The episode "Denmead For Denmead" after Max accidentally brings back two Denmeads from abusing the power of a card that can send away anything to another dimension one too many times, resulting in the two becoming smitten with each other, [[ScrewYourself disturbingly so]].

* {{Narcissist}}: It's shown that Denmead's so self-absorbed that he ignored Charity, his girlfriend, just to hang out with...[[CloningBlues himself]]. [[ItMakesSenseInContext Just roll with it]].

* DancePartyEnding: Courtesy of Totally Hot (a band, consisting of Happy Peach Flower's friends).

* JapaneseVisualArtsTropes: Why of course! And these include:
** AnimeHair
** MagicalGirl: [[WordSaladTitle Happy Peach Flower]] and her friends.

* MadeForTVMovie

* ValentinesDayEpisode: "Dead Cute"

* BritishTeeth: Despite having no Britons around, John's friend, Max has notably crooked incisors and buck teeth.

!!Tropes that apply in general:

%%* TheBully: Denmead.
%%* CoolLoser: John Stitt.
%%* DeanBitterman: Principal Rogerson.
%%* ExtravertedNerd: John and Max, especially for the latter.
%%* TheHero: [[PunnyName Hiro]], obviously. [[ParodiedTrope But not always]].
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: The coach's name is Tom Coach. Hence, he answers "Coach" when the principal asked for his name, ending up with Coach Coach.
%%* NonHumanSidekick: Amonsun, paired with Hiro.
%%* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Invoked.
* NonUniformUniform: {{Inverted}}. The school Charity attends does not require students to wear a uniform but she wears clothes that resemble one as if she's attending a highly prestigious boarding school, seemingly to highlight how much of an AcademicAlphaBitch she is.
* ThePigPen: One student in school looks like a goth kid with a perpetual aura of flies nicknamed Stinky.
* SupportingProtagonist: The title "Exchange Student Zero" refers to Hiro, yes, but both the movie and series focus more on John and Max.

!!Tropes specific to the TV movie:
* AbhorrentAdmirer: Happy Peach Flower to Max, which he calls out on her for though he felt bad after. [[spoiler: They eventually become a couple seeing that Max already admired her even before officially meeting her]].
* AliceAndBob: Hiro's parents and Avere's parents. If you hear them about to engage in battle, saying each other's names, spitefully, you'll notice they're...oddly standard.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Seemed to be this way in the beginning but it's eventually averted for everyone's case (see SurprisinglyHappyEnding). John manages to get his crush to finally like him in the end.
* AltarDiplomacy: [[spoiler: Turns out Hiro was in an ArrangedMarriage with Avere as a part of a peace treaty between their tribes.]]
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Whenever Charity is about to get crushed or be somewhere in the middle of harm's way, Hiro would always save her. This happens several times which causes her constant denial to his advances start to fade more and more.
* BoundAndGagged: John and Charity's parents after Avere breaks into their home. And they remain that way for some time, because the kids just either ignored or forgot them which becomes a RunningGag.

* PerverseSexualLust: In-universe. Max to Happy Peach Flower. Luckily for him, she also feels the same way towards him.

* %% TheHero: [[PunnyName Hiro]], obviously. [[ParodiedTrope But not always]].

* TheBully: Denmead.

* DeanBitterman: Principal Rogerson.
* ExtravertedNerd: John and Max, especially for the latter.
* TheHero: [[PunnyName Hiro]], obviously. [[ParodiedTrope But not always]].

* {{Nerd}}: Aside from the protagonists, most of the male student body is composed of these if not outright {{jerk jock}}s.
* NonHumanSidekick: Amonsun, paired with Hiro.
* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Invoked.

* IronicName: In an official character profile, Charity is described as the complete antithesis of her name. This is true at first when she was somewhat the {{alpha bitch}} [[TheCheerleader cheerleader]] dating the equally popular {{jerk jock}} before meeting Hiro.

An {{inversion}} of ''WesternAnimation/KappaMikey''.

* {{Fainting}}: Lucinda faints after seeing a large wave plunge down on John.

** YouGottaHaveBlueHair

* BeautyMark: Lucinda, John's love interest, has one.

* [[{{Bridezilla}} Bridezilla]]: [[spoiler: Avere]] is understandably upset over [[spoiler: Hiro leaving her at the altar.]]

* RunawayFiance: [[spoiler: Hiro]] , according to avere (who is understandably hurted over it even to this day , he left her at the altar and just about when they were going to get married in order for them to end the war bettween both their clans

* CoolLoser: John Stitt, max cameron and some of the other nerds in their school

* [[{{Bridezilla}} Bridezilla]]: [[spoiler: Avere]] is understandably upset over [[spoiler: Hiro leaving her at the altar.]] She wants her cake Gods damn it!

* CoolLoser: John Stitt, to an extent.

* RunawayFiance: [[spoiler: Hiro]]

** John and Charity's parents still bound and gagged. When Charity was talking to them in one scene, she didn't even bother to notice their plight nor even free them, for that matter. Also counts as a BrickJoke since it seemed that a few days had to pass before they're seen out of their binds.

-->'''Avere''': [[spoiler: GET AWAY FROM MY HUSBAND]]!

* ThousandYardStare: Hiro goes completely catatonic at the realization that [[CaptainObvious water is wet]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** It's rated PG and all, so this is to be expected. Also, there's the liberal usage of such words. Specifically "hell". And there's this:
-->'''Avere''': AND I WANT MY CAKE, ''[[PrecisionFStrike GODS DAMMIT]]''!!
** Avere herself shows a ''lot'' of skin.
** Max disparages on Denmead by saying, "[[HomoeroticSubtext trying to score with a bunch of dudes]]". See, [[DontExplainTheJoke because he plays football and his teammates are all guys]]!

* LandDownUnder: Averted. The setting (as the name of the school tells) is in the city of Perth. Justified, since this movie is made in Australia.

* KissOfLife: Denmead crashed in the waves after falling from his surfboard and when he's washed ashore, Max does this to him. After he wakes up, he's shown to be [[{{Understatement}} quite unappreciative]].

* CosmicPlaything: Downplayed in the sense that he isn't given much focus in the movie, but Principal Rogerson's son, Leroy, arguably gets the shortest end of the stick out of everyone else, especially compared to the actual Japanese exchange student, Hiro Tanada. [[TheWoobie Leroy]] is probably the only one who ''doesn't'' get a piece of the SurprisinglyHappyEnding.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: It's rated PG and all, so this is to be expected. Also, there's the liberal usage of such words. Specifically "hell". And there's this:

** Speaking of which, Avere herself shows a ''lot'' of skin.

* UnholyMatrimony: Arguably the result of [[spoiler: Avere and Principal Rogerson's marriage, which is why his son is very much against it]].

* AmericanAccents: All the characters from the Battle Day Zero universe, which is possibly a ShoutOut to American[=/=]Canadian English dubs of anime.

A series is in production and set for release on Cartoon Network in September 26 of 2015.

* {{Nerd}}: Aside from the protagonists, most of the male student body is composed of these if not outright {{jerk jocks}}.