Anime / Bakugan: Battle Planet

Bakugan: Battle Planet is a Continuity Reboot of the Japanese-Canadian Bakugan franchise, a joint production of the Toronto-based toy company Spin Master, Corus Entertainment's Nelvana in Canada, and Japanese producers TMS Entertainment and Studio Hibari.

The story begins when Dan and his friends accidentally set off First Contact with the eponymous Mons while exploring the remains of Great Collision.

Man of Action Studios is on-board as story editors, with scripts being written in Los Angeles. Cartoon Network, who broadcast the original Bakugan Battle Brawlers in the United States, serves as a co-producer for Battle Planet. At their request, the series is produced as a Quarter-Hour series with more comedic elements. They will also handle the Bakugan licensing program through Cartoon Network Enterprises.

The series premiered in the United States on December 23, 2018 and in Canada on Corus' Teletoon on December 31, 2018. Cartoon Network will also broadcast the series in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. It later premiered in Japan on April 1, 2019.

As of 2023, the series had a total of five seasons. "Armored Alliance", the second season, premiered in 2020, the third, titled as "Geogan Rising" premiered in 2021, and the fourth, named as "Evolutions", premiered in 2022. A fifth and final season under the title of "Legends" premiered in 2023.

On June 16, 2023, another reboot, simply titled Bakugan (2023), was announced to air shortly after Battle Planet's Grand Finale, set to air on September 1st, 2023 on Netflix.

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Bakugan Battle Planet contains examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Just like the previous incarnations, the Bakugan are the most obvious example of this, but this time around, all of the Bakugan are rendered in 3D.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In the original series Shun was, depending on the dub you watched, a stoic lone wolf in the English dub, or a gentle kid dealing with grief in the Japanese dub. Here he's a Lonely Rich Kid who wants to be friends with the brawlers, similar to Marucho. He also uses the Aquos element instead of Ventus.
• Adaptational Name Change: Minor example, Dan's last name is now "Kouzo" as opposed to "Kuso".
• Adults Are Useless: The only adults actively involved with Bakugan issue so far are villains with the exception of Benton Dusk, who ends up as The Mentor and Reasonable Authority Figures until and after his possession by Tiko. Following the end game of season 1, this becomes subverted as some of the adult antagonists such as Philomena and Kravitz become supporting allies throughout the story.
  • Usually averted with Veronica and Wynton's parents, who show support and help in their kids' lives when they need it. Played straight with Dan's parents, who falsely believe that Bakugans are a nuisance to Dan's health and grades (this in spite of Drago not only saving their lives, but also after that Dan has already published tons of videos of himself around the planet and walked the Earth with his friends, implying they had no idea what he was doing at all during all this time in spite of being gone for what appears to be weeks at the very least). It doesn't help that their role gets diminished even more after season 1, Bill practically only making cameos and Barbara's last relevant scene telling a brainwashed Dan to water the lawn after he gave her attitude.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: This applies to both the Bakugan and their partners.
• Automobiles Are Alien: Drago thinks the bus eats people. Dan corrects him.
• Back for the Finale: Season-wide, all previous antagonists show up in Legends, with Hanoj's use of Nova Energy allowing him to restore Bakugans to power they only accessed circumstantially as well as summoning villains from the past (including ones that shouldn't be free to roam).
• Big Bad: Hanoj is the sole antagonist of Legends, with every previous antagonist Demoted to Dragon.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • In Season 1, AAAnimus, Col. Tripp, Kazami International Holdings, and Tiko. Tiko eventually takes over the former two as the sole Big Bad during the second half, forcing them into an Enemy Mine with the Awesome Ones in order to take back their respective companies.
  • In Season 2, Storm, McQ, Sophie, Everett, and Ebony until Haavik unites them under his command.
  • In Season 3, Gregorious Reed is the human Big Bad with McQ, Everett, Strata, and newcomers Jenny Hackett and Crystal Blue working under him while Viloch is the Bakugan Big Bad. Viloch recruits Reed and his group so he can have them battle the Awesome Brawlers in the Battle Judgment before betraying them and revealing that his true goal is the complete destruction of Earth.
  • Season 4 has Wrath, who is trying to use Elemental Energy to grow all powerful, and the Gate Crushers, who are trying to cut off Earth from Vestroia by any means necessary. Wrath sabotages the Gate Crushers and becomes the sole Big Bad.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Magnus attempts several times to pretend to be an ally wanting to join the Awesome Ones or to get into their good graces through disguises. It doesn't last long, mostly due to his impatience and anger.
• Bittersweet Ending: Dan and Drago manage to beat Hanoj... but Vestroia and Earth are still separating, meaning it'll become harder and harder to get energy from Vestroia on Earth, harder for Bakugans to heal or recover from battles, and eventually they might perish. This forces all Bakugans, as they did in the original show's first season finale, to return to Vestroia and separate from their human friends. However, with Buzzy's teleportation powers, Bakugans and humans can transport themselves between planets again, meaning while they don't get to live together anymore, humans and Bakugans can still reunite for a brawl or to hang out once in a while.
• Bland-Name Product: The kids post on ViewTube. Later on, Cubbo calls it BakuTube, suggesting either a community fandom name, a rename or a whole new video website with the same interface.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Zig-zagged. Krakelios suddenly squirts ink when he sees a shadowy Bakugan appear.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: The Rowdy Reds trio gets eliminated from the Bakugan Battle League after it's revealed they’ve been disguising themselves in the stadium by dressing up the same.
• Children Are Special: In the beginning, only children born after the Great Collision could summon Bakugan. Teens and adult antagonists are trying to get around this using special devices that allow their bodies to use them, and when they're banned in season 2, criminals resort to stealing children's Bakugan to let them play.
• Color Motif: Darkus Bakugan and their partners tend to be villainous. Lightning is a notable aversion.
• Calling Your Attacks: As in the previous series, this is a staple for Bakugan.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The Bakugan's most predominant color matches their Faction. Interestingly, their partners usually wear clothing that also matches the Bakugan's Faction.
• Competitive Balance: More present in the game than in the show, but every faction has their own advantages and disadvantages. Pyrus Faction are Glass Cannons, with low B-Power, but high damage. Haos Bakugan focus on stockpiling as many BakuCores while Ventus focuses on gathering energy cards quickly.
• Composite Character:
  • As stated above under Adaptational Personality Change, this show's version of Shun Kazami is more akin to being Marucho but with Shun's name. He also has Shun's troubling relationship with the rest of his family from the Adaptational Backstory Change in the show's dub, except with the family roles changed (having tensions with his father, as opposed to his grandfather regarding his mother's coma).
  • Magnus follows Bakugan's tradition of having a masked antagonist and shares several traits with some of his predecessors. He is a Darkus brawler like most of them were, has a younger sister like Spectra, and wears a half-mask like Marduk from the first Bakugan video game. His partner Bakugan, Nillious, being a two-headed dragon is reminiscent of Masquerade's Hydranoid and Spectra's Helios.
  • Lia is Dan's close female friend, similarly to Runo, but she has a design that resembles Julie's (though the hair color is closer to Runo's blue).
  • Athena is a particularly complicated case. Her blonde hair, eye color, glass frames and intelligence would easily make her a taller, female version of Marucho, but her expertise in the system of Bakugan brawling, as well as having a somewhat close bond with a Bakugan researcher who turns out to have an evil split personality makes her closer to Alice. Her harsher personality, combined with her glasses, blonde hair and an instance of Blood Knight tendencies, as well as being a general foil and rival to Dan, make her out to be closer to Masquerade (and by small proxy of being a Pyrus Brawler, to Spectra as well, though she lacks either's amorality).
• Continuity Reboot: To the original franchise.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Magnus' battle with Dan in episode 18. They're both even at first, until Nillious is evolved into Hyper Nillious, and the match goes downhill from there.
  • Shun and Hydorous also receive one at the hands of Masato and Serpenteze in episode 35. In the next episode, Shun evolves his Hydorous and pays him back with interest.
• Darker and Edgier: Legends ups the stakes by having the main villain absorbing natural energy and actually using this power to destroy several locations, and scoring wins against the Brawlers, even as they get more powerful.
• Deconstructor Fleet: The reboot takes a much more realistic tone by addressing the implications of Bakugan being integrated to Earth's society compared to the original's final season which shrugs off most of them.
  • Bakugan can be rolled out in the Drome, which protects it from damage in the real world. But now that they can be rolled out in the real world, anyone can and has taken advantage of that. These range from:
    • AAAnimus using the revamped Exit Team as propaganda for their company, staging attacks and disasters from the shadows, and then stopping them from happening while saving people.
    • The military taking advantage of their status to limit people from certain locations and using Bakugan as a tool for misconduct, notably with Colonel Tripp.
    • Businesses such as AAAnimus, Kazami Holdings International, and to a more beneficial degree, Dusk Industries taking advantage of Bakugan for profit through selling, experimenting, and enforcing control collars, generating propaganda towards their own organizations, and using the energy resources from the Core Cells.
    • Starting with Armored Alliance, adults have started using and stealing Bakugan to commit crimes such as robbing banks. According to Kravitz and Mangus, not only has this become more frequent after the ban on using Bakugan for commercial and military gain, there are running organizations dedicated to selling Bakugan devices to criminals.
  • The Awesome Ones are the first to discover Bakugan from the second Great Collision. Discovering them and becoming the first to unveil their existence to the world via YouTube makes them instant stars as they keep gathering information and teach people about the game. It also gives them a massive target on their back with the Big Bad Ensembles keeping eyes on their every move and development.
  • An episode after the premiere is dedicated to being careful to avoid collateral damage, and cleaning up the damage you do make. Dan has to teach the triplet kids to battle only in the Drone since their Bakugan nearly destroyed the park.
  • Under Philomena's orders, Kravitz is able to make the citizens of Los Vamos believe Bakugan are dangerous by using a device that summons the Bakugan out. Ten foot tall sentient monsters being summoned in random places without safety or reason is going to sway the unassuming public that they are dangerous.
  • Philomena actively attempts to subjugate the Awesome One's Bakugan to add to her research and stack in the benefits for herself. However, the merging of Earth and The Maze later revealed to be parts of a fragmented Vestroia resulted in nearly anyone finding their own Bakugan, thus the need for an organization and brawlers to actively search down and hunt for new members that arrive on Earth.
    • Benton's solution to help the Awesome Ones out; dropping a satellite onto the city is admittedly extreme (and is called out for his actions later). However, with no other options to protect the city from such a catastrophe in such a short, the populace has no other option but to rely on the Bakugan to save them and counter Kravitz's plans.
  • In the final 24 episodes of season 1, Tiko takes control over Benton, established as one of the smartest characters in the world, has a strong social standing as an ally of the protagonists, and is in charge of a company with access to very powerful financial resources. Combine that with taking over AAAnimus, and in a few episodes, Tiko goes from just having Mangus and Strata as puppets and a strong Hydranoid that can provide minor damage to a Titan Level Bakugan at best, to being able to regulate and detain all Bakugan, manipulate the public in trusting him, and copyrighting the Awesome Ones' videos when they attempt to warn their fans and the public about Tiko. Suddenly world domination becomes much easier.
  • In both Seasons 2 and 3, the Awesome Brawlers are either the first or one of the first to learn of new abilities and mechanics (Baku-Gear, Faction Fusion, Geogan, etc). But in season 4, because they only had Drago and no other Bakugan at first, they didn't know about elemental energy and elemental evolution until a while after its discovery (enough for a whole academy centered around elemental brawling to be founded), so they don't have the advantage this time. We see how much it cost them to catch up to Faustus and other brawlers who had much more time to get used to both elemental evolution and Nanogan.
  • Also in Season 4, the Awesome Brawlers have a relatively easy time learning to summon and control Nanogan, because mastering it is mostly a case of Don't Think, Feel, and they already have a deep bond with their Bakugan; elemental evolution, on the other hand, is much more tricky to understand than previous abilities (Baku-Gear requires reaching a damage threshold, Faction Fusion is mostly about the bond of the Bakugan fusing, summoning Geogan was mostly random and with not a lot of rules behind it) requiring both a good state of mind and a deep understanding of the elemental energy.
  • Season 4 also showed that even when they couldn't roll Bakugan at first, there were a lot of researchers and scientists studying Bakugan theory and habits since their first appearance, so after the Season 3 finale with them getting the ability to use them, it makes sense that applying their deep understanding in brawling theory and studies gives them an edge over the youngsters, especially with a whole new power set in the form of elemental energy.
  • Several events across the first four seasons involve Earth and Vestroia being almost separated, with the Brawlers stopping them at the last possible moment. At the start of Season 5, all the stress has caused the two to actually separate, rendering the Gates inoperable.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Dan, twice. First time has him goad Haavik into freeing Drago at the end of the second season, even though Drago could go toe to toe with Sabrus, simply because the brawl is so uneven it's boring, and giving Dan a fighting chance to save his planet brings in actual stakes. Second time has him and Drago convince Hanoj to spare the planet in exchange for extra energy if they win against his Battle Judgment, which Hanoj agrees to initially not knowing they were planning to trap him again with a new Nova Reflector and merely buying themselves time by keeping him busy with the Battle Judgment.
• Don't Wake the Sleeper: Gorthion, Trox, and Drago learn to regret waking Lia up.
  • Invoked by Ajit, who sends Pincitaur to ravage Strata's Bakugans by calling him a scorpion.
• Eldritch Location: The Maze counts as this.
• Entertainingly Wrong: At the beginning of Evolutions, due to his previous brawls against Tiko, Haavik, Viloch and so many other villains that exploited Bakugan abilities for their own gain (and some of his jealousy at losing the spotlight), Dan accuses the Elemental Brawlers, namely Faustus, of being behind the Elemental Storms as a ploy to make themselves famous and look good in the eyes of the public, believing them to know far too much about Elemental Energy for it to be coincidental. In a twist of events, while assuming it was to be famous was wrong, Dan somehow was right about every other aspect, once Evil Faustus reveals he's been sending Elemental Brawlers to empower Wrath and take over the world after that the experiment with the Elemental Inductor went awry.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: Bakugan don't wear clothes, but their body is naturally covered in armor.
• Evil Knockoff: Appear in Outer Demons, although the doppelgangers have different affinities and personalities from the originals.
• Fair-Play Villain: Hanoj in the 5th season agrees to a Tournament Arc to decide whether he and the Swarm can steal all the energy from Earth and Vestroia, and does restore it if he loses. His only flaw is that he insists that several of the Brawls be 2-on-2 matches, due to impatience. It gets subverted with the reveal that he was going to take all the energy later anyway and only allowed the tournament as a distraction to absorb Nova Energy.
• First Contact: Dan, Lia, and Wynton are the first humans to meet a Bakugan.
• Five-Token Band: The main cast so far, although they only have one female lead. If the male to female ratio becomes an even three for three, they'll be golden.
• Follow the Leader: In-universe example. Whenever a new gimmick happens, the Awesome Ones/Brawlers are almost always the first ones to showcase it to the public, leading to both fans and enemies alike to mimic them or follow the info they share. Duran insists to be taught evolution after seeing the footage of Drago evolving, the Exit were first hired to cash in on the Awesome Ones/Brawlers' popularity at the time Bakugans became public knowledge, Haavik's games and events often following the Awesome Brawlers' own, Viloch allowing partners after seeing the possibilities in combat it gives Ferascal and Lightning... the list goes on.
• Fountain of Youth: Played straight in All Jungled Up.
• Forced into Evil: Bakuzons, Haavik's followers and their Bakugans, Bakugans belonging to Brawlers using devices, Geogans, victims of Elemental Rage... the list goes on.
• Fusion Dance: Faction Fusion in a nutshell. Ultimate Viloch and Nanogear also apply. Wrath pushes the limits by fusing with Faustus, allowing him to switch between human and Bakugan form at will, making it a first in the franchise since all fusions up until now have been strictly between Bakugans and/or equipment, but never human Brawlers.
• Goggles Do Nothing: What, exactly, is the purpose of Benton Dusk's goggles?
• Heel–Face Turn: Most of the antagonists and some of the Bakugan become allies later on.
  • Cyndeous starts out as the partner of an arrogant and narcissistic kid, who uses him to lord over other kids. After Cyndeous gets tired of being pushed around and goes on a rampage due to not following the orders of his partner, he ditches him for Dan and the AOs.
  • Masato started off intending to flat out murder his cousin Shun and become the next heir to Kazami Holding Industries, becoming increasingly condensing and insane, taking advantage of an unstable Core Cell and almost blowing up Kazami island with all the protagonists, his family, and company works out of spite and power. After being trapped in the Maze for 10 years, learning from his mistakes with the help of Serpenteze and Aurelus Goreene, he returns as a much likable presence. He tries to prevent his uncle from abusing Goreene as a power source, assists the others in fighting Tiko in the endgame, and in season 2, becomes the next president with a much healthier relationship in his family.
  • Magnus was a Noble Demon amongst AAAnimus generals, working for Philomena as their ace brawler in order to for them to support him and his sister financially. After finally losing to Dan at the end of the Awesome vs AAAnimus arc, recruiting China, Tripp, Aay, and Kurin, losing his sanity when he resorts to using a corrupted Core Cell to achieve Titan Evolution, and is Brainwashed and Crazy by Tiko, he becomes an ally when Dan is able to free him from Tiko's control. He joins the heroes as an Aloof Ally, and in season 2, becomes a Vigilante Man to hunt down the criminals using the now illegal Bakugan devices to commit crimes with Bakugan.
• Innocent Aliens: The Bakugan don't know that humans need to sleep, eat, and practice hygiene- all Bakugans really need is battle. They go along with it though, after some mild persuasion, and indulge in some of it themselves. Some quirkier ones, such as the Bakugans from Junk Island (or Ramparian) do have those as habits.
• Intelligent Gerbil: Some Bakugan designs fit this trope.
• Mascot's Name Goes Unchanged: Bakugan: Battle Planet replaces several of the Bakugan characters. For example, Marucho is replaced with Wynton, while both Runo and Julie are replaced with Lia. However, Dan is still around with Drago as his Bakugan, even though he has a new design.
• Mon: Type 2. Drago says that Bakugan are born to battle.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: The majority of Bakugan this time around appear to be biomechanical, or at least very heavily armored. They even get holographic Tron Lines when using their special moves.
• Mind-Control Eyes: A Bakuzon's iris and sclera will turn red when being manipulated.
• Mind Manipulation: Bakuzons are victims of this.
• Myth Arc: Several.
  • In season 1, someone's invented a device that control Bakugan. Also, there's a mysterious Bakugan possessing other innocent Bakugan and turning them into zombies.
  • In season 2, there's a distributor selling Bakugan devices, resulting in criminals using them to commit crimes.
  • Season 3 centers around Vestroia and Earth's now unstable connection, the first half focusing on the effect it has on Earth and how battling has become riskier now that defeated Bakugan are lost because they return to Vestroia, while the second focuses on the former, exploring more of its mythos and lore while trying to repair said connection.
  • Season 4 focuses on both the new elemental energy that empowers and evolves Bakugan, the elemental burst caused by it, and the fact that adults are now able to freely roll them, alongside a shady figure trying to use said energy for their own good.
• Mythology Gag: The reboot has quite a few nods to the Legacy series.
  • Armored Alliance introduces the Baku-Gear, which resemble the Battle Gear from New Vestroia/Gundalian Invaders.
  • Geogan Rising introduces the titular Geogan creatures, which, unlike regular Bakugan, aren't round and come in various shapes. This essentially makes them a new version of Bakugan Traps from Battle Brawlers, and many of them either have toy designs directly based on the originals, have similar designs, or even just have the same names. The season also introduces the 7 in 1 combiners, being them Geo-Forge Dragonoid and Ultimate Viloch, bearing a resemblance to Maxus Dragonoid and Maxus Helios, respectively, from the Legacy series.
  • In Geogan Rising, with the Drome rendered non-functional, Shun has it replaced with a “Gate Card”, which is activated with the familiar “Gate Card, set!” from the original series.
  Wynton: It’s just like the old days.
  • Evolutions introduces Nanogan, which were based in the Baku Nano/Nano Gear from Mechtanium Surge. At some point, the creatures gain the ability of fusing with their respective Bakugan, earning the name of Nano Gear — directly referencing the gimmick from the Legacy Series. The season also introduces Wrath, a tiger-based Bakugan that resembles Tigrerra.
• Non-Elemental: Aurelus Bakugan do not represent a specific element, and do not have any Ability Cards dedicated to them. Instead, they represent Gold Bakugan. After the introduction of Gate Cards in Geogan Rising, it starts being treated as its own element.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Wynton, who doesn't want the extra pressure to do more that would come with revealing exactly how smart he is.
• One-Winged Angel: What Bakugan Evolution is now; a temporary power-up that happens when it absorbs energy directly from a Core Cell.
• Outside-Context Problem: The creature, later revealed to be Tiko, that took control of the Bakugans' Core Cell is this to the main cast. The Bakugan can't tell the main cast what that thing is due to their own memories being suppressed. Even if they could, they don't know that the creature is lying underneath the crater from the Great Collision.
• Plucky Girl: Lia Venegas.
• Poor Communication Kills: Happens on numerous occasions due to the protagonists being a bunch of children:
  • The Awesome Brawlers go through several steps to make rice curry for Ajit behind his back while he's melancholic about it. It turns out while he was sad about not spending time with Storm anymore, he also didn't actually like curry. Luckily for him, he did enjoy what they made (specifically, he realized he did like curry, just not Storm's excessively spicy version).
  • When Hackett obtains a battery that might revolutionize the world, due to knowing her as an enemy in the previous season, Ajit assumes her to be up to no good and eventually brawls her with Dan and Wynton, which she happily obliges. If she had just explained to them that it was a phone battery for Crystal Blue (so that they could win at a limited-time roll gacha game without their phones running out of power too soon), it wouldn't have taken Faustus to stop all three boys from ganging up on her and her Bakugan (not that she seems upset about it throughout the whole ordeal).
• Psycho Rangers: The Exit and other AAAnimus Brawlers (unofficially dubbed "Awful Ones" by an episode title) are essentially this. In the Endgame for season 1, Tiko forms a group of brainwashed brawlers to combat the Awesome Ones alongside him, each with their own pre-established rivalry: Tiko fights Dan and Drago due to his hatred for the latter and the former meddling in his plans while Dan/Drago equally blame Tiko for the damage done to both Vestroia and Earth. Tripp brainwashed Wynton before and has attempted to steal his Bakugan on numerous occasions, and now has Lupitheon to make Wynton fight his own partner. Toshi and later President Kazami have a personal connection to Shun as his caretakers. Brakken fights Lia as she was the only one to get through to him. And Callous pairs up against Lightning as both servant and owner to Brakken and Dan respectively.
  • Second season includes Haavik's followers, with Everett countering Lia (due to her humiliating him and continuously rejecting chances at becoming a more moral businessman), Sophie against Wynton (for tricking her into believing they would listen to her, only to later learn she was ignored), McQ against Shun (for his family tanking the former's business), Storm against Ajit (for abandoning his Phantom Thief ways and leaving Storm without an apprentice to give a legacy to), Ebony against Lightning (for merely nothing more than disagreeing with her way of seeing things because of how she was abused) and finally, Haavik himself against Dan (for Dan causing him endless frustrations, but also eliciting interest the more Haavik realized he actually enjoyed being a Brawler).
  • Viloch's Battle Judgment teammates, composed of Reed (with Strata as replacement), Hackett, Crystal Blue, Everett, McQ and Magnus also count.
  • Hanoj's own Battle Judgment candidates (composed of Storm, Everett, McQ, Reed aided of a brainwashed Nova Viloch from the past, Tripp aided of a brainwashed Nova Tiko from the past, a hive-minded Wrath present both as Faustus' human body and as his own Nova form, Haavik, and none other than Magnus once again) also warrant as this.
• Quarter Hour Short: Unlike the original series, Battle Planet is produced as such, with episodes broadcast in 30-minute blocks. This is synonymous with Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon shows in The New '10s, but it has also become common for Merchandise-Driven anime and South Korean shows to follow this format. Unlike most of the others, most of the episodes serve as two-parters or are connected to one another.
• Reformed, but Rejected: After Professor Faustus returns to take back the Bakugan Academy, Coach Short, three students and Professor H have a hard time trusting him after the actions of his Split Personality. As such, when he successfully reclaims his post, they all leave (though Professor H says he’ll return once Faustus proves he’s serious about being The Atoner).
• Revisiting the Roots: Kids find a bunch of aliens who fight for them.
• The Shameless: Everett Ray, one of the Awesome Brawlers' most recurring foes. He's a sleazy Young Entrepreneur who engages in everything from dirty business dealings, propaganda films that paint Bakugan in a negative light, and even sham contests and games that steal the Bakugan of those who enter, all with an unapologetically smug air. Even when the AB call him out on his reprehensible actions, he just lets it roll off his back, not caring one bit what they think of him.
• Shout-Out: Cubbo seems to be one to Zoobles, a spin-off of the original Bakugan toyline aimed at girls.
• Third-Act Misunderstanding: Near the end of Season 1a, the heroes find out Benton was the one who dropped the satellite after Duane and Philomena hinted Benton wasn’t as trustworthy as he seemed. The group decides to work for Philomena only to then realize she was playing them from the start and Benton's intentions, while extreme, ultimately were useful and helpful in the long run.
• World-Healing Wave: The dromes that are set up for Bakugan battles erase any damage that occurs afterward. This does not apply to any damage that occurred before. However, in season 3, most of the dromes are now susceptible to being broken, now making battles even more dangerous and risky in the real environments, though this is soon fixed with the creation of the Gate Card.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: In the latter half of Armored Alliance, while trying to accomplish his goal of making his modified Fusion Bakugan, Sabrus, more powerful, Haavik needs to use the power of an Aurelus Bakugan. To that end, he goes after Tiko, largely due to his corruption from the V-Virus in season 1. When he finds that Tiko has taken a Heel–Face Turn, he simply exploits the weakened Pyravian and uses her to fuse with Sabrus.