Video Game / Medabots

In 22nd century Japan, there is no gravity.

"Then it's agreed! I officially declare this match a submission robattle! As such, I, Mr. Referee, will act as referee so no one gets hurt. Medafighters ready? Medabots... Robattle!"

Medabots, also known as Medarot, is a Japanese video game franchise that's better known in the States as an anime series. The first game of the series was released in 1997 for the Game Boy and went on to spawn many sequels and spin-offs, as well as the aforementioned anime and a four-volume manga.

The series's main gimmick is that its Medabots are fully customizable. Every Medabot consists of four parts: head, right arm, left arm and legs that can be interchanged between battles (and in the anime, even during them). Every time you win a Robattle, you take one of the opponent's Medaparts, adding to your collection and battle options. Furthermore, every Medabot is powered by a medal, which serves as its brain, and allows it to use powerful moves called Medaforce. Most games are released in two versions, similar to Pokémon, with certain parts and medals exclusive to one version, encouraging players to trade and battle each other.

Mainline Games

All except the Parts Collection games come in Kabuto (Metabee) or Kuwagata (Rokusho) versions:

Games starring Henry/Hikaru Agata

• Medarot (Game Boy)
  • Medarot: Perfect Edition (WonderSwan) - Enhanced port of Medarot.
  • Medarot Parts Collection (GB) - Companion game to Medarot that features an Excuse Plot but speeds up the process of collecting Medaparts.
  • Medarot Parts Collection 2 (GB) - Second companion game to Medarot.

Games starring Ikki Tenryou

• Medarot 2 (Game Boy Color)
  • Medabots (Game Boy Advance) - Remake of Medarot 2.
  • Medarot 2 Parts Collection (GBC) - Companion game to Medarot 2.
• Medarot 3 (GBC)
  • Medarot 3 Parts Collection: Z-kara no Chousenjou (GBC) - Companion game to Medarot 3.
• Medarot 4 (GBC)

Games starring Koishimaru Tensan

• Medarot 5: Susutake Mura no Tenkousei (GBC)

Games starring Azuma Amakura

• Medarot DS (Nintendo DS)
• Medarot 7 (Nintendo 3DS)

Other 3DS games

• Medarot 8 (3DS)
• Medarot 9 (3DS)

Spinoffs

• Medarot R (PlayStation) - Console spinoff starring Ikki with traditional gameplay and 3D battle scenes.
  • Medarot R: Parts Collection (PSX) - Companion game with simplified plot.
• Medarot Card Robottle: Kabuto and Kuwagata (Game Boy Color) - A digital adaptation of the Medarot card game.
• Medarot Navi: Kabuto and Kuwagata (Game Boy Advance) - A spinoff with light strategy game elements.
• Medabots AX: Metabee and Rokusho (GBA) - Fighting game.
• Medabots Infinity (GameCube) - Console action game.
• Shingata Medarot: Kabuto and Kuwagata (GBA) - Very loose reimagining of the original Medarot.
• Medarot Dual: Kabuto and Kuwagata (Nintendo 3DS) - Arena battle game.
• Medarot Girls Mission: Kabuto and Kuwagata (3DS) - Fanservice-laden sequel to Medarot Dual.
• Medarot S: Unlimited Nova (Mobile Phone Game) - Allegedly Free Game featuring traditional gameplay.

Two anime series, loosely based on the second game in the series, aired on TV Tokyo in Japan from 1999 to 2000. The first ran for 52 episodes while the second (titled Medarot Damashii) ran for 39. They take place in 22nd century Japan, where everybody and their grandmother has a Robot Buddy, manufactured by the Medabot Corporation and creatively called Medabots, robots powered by medals which effectively serve as their brains. Ikki Tenryou is a plucky ten year old whose parents won't buy him a Medabot, and he refuses to save his allowance for one. One fateful day, he finds a medal in the river near his house. He takes what little money he does have and buys an extremely outdated model called Metabee from the Hop Mart store clerk Hikaru (Henry in the dub), and promptly activates it. It then proceeds to quite beautifully not work. Up until the point where Ikki calls him a "piece of junk" and quickly realizes why you shouldn't call Metabee that. The worst part is that Ikki can't even eject Metabee's medal to make him stop. The good news, Ikki finally got his Medabot. The bad news, the Medabot has a serious attitude problem. Wacky robot hijinks ensue, including characters with multiple identities, flashbacks, and a Tournament Arc. The second series follows up on the first anime's story, with Metabee given a Next Tier Power-Up.

Both shows were adapted into English by Canada-based Nelvana as a single series, and the first 39 episodes were re-ordered. The dub aired in the United States from 2001 to 2004; the first 26 episodes premiered on Saturdays on Fox Kids while the rest premiered on weekdays on ABC Family. This version can currently be found on the Tubi app. The entire series in both English and Japanese has been released by Discotek Media on Blu Ray.

Not to be confused with medibot or the Real Life Humongous Mecha Megabots.

For tropes about the game (which also was the only main series game released overseas), click here.

---

TV Tropes! Ro-Battle!:

• Aborted Arc: Subverted. The anime seems to have intended to develop a sub-plot around one of it's Canon Foreigner characters, a Spear Carrier named Brandon, but never got it off the ground. In his main appearance, he mentioned to be The Ace and is the older brother of a classmate of Ikki's; he then appears during the last few seconds of the Takoyaki episode unexpectedly. ...And then he shows up completely without warning during the finale.
• The Abridged Series: A rather... surreal one known as Metabridged which re-imagines the series as an attempt to make a web-series.
• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The Student Council in Ikki's school is an averted version of this. Not only the Student Council President's Doctor Study/Dr. Bokchoy lost to Kikuhime/Samantha's Peppercat, and lost their Council Room... they also reccur to Ikki to recover it from them.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: For several Medabot players in the anime. The original games didn't usually follow the idiosyncratic one-on-one pairing of the anime, and instead every dedicated battler owned an entire team of Medabots, none of which had a definite personality. For instance, Ikki owned Metabee, Rokusho and Blackbeetle (the last of which is even fully Adapted Out of the first anime), while Koji had Sumilidon and Warbandit.
• Adaptational Badass: Some Medabots were more powerful in the anime than the games. In the games, Beast Emperor and Baby Blue had high stats giving them an edge over most but otherwise were just stronger than average Medabots that could be beaten in a 3-3 without too much grief. In the anime their bigger and far more dangerous. They face Beast Emperor 3-1 and it No-Sell their attacks until they fire 3 Medaforces at it. Its legs also contain a a strong whip, where in the games leg parts couldn't be equipped with weapons. Baby Blue meanwhile is a Humongous Mecha and requires another Humongous Mecha to fight it. The Medaforce is also far more powerful in the anime, in the games it might be a stat boost or a single stronger than standard shot, in the anime it's frequently a one hit kill/I win button.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Baron went from being an easy, gimmicky boss to being able to be taken out in one shot. Though both versions were Paper Tiger JokeCharacters .
  • The Rubber Robos were surprisingly threatening BunnyEarsLawyers/NotSoHarmlessVillains in the games, and utterly ineffectual goofballs in the anime... with the exception of Dr Meda Evil who might be MORE competent and his evil plan works the way he intended instead of blowing up in his face.
• Affectionate Nickname: Some characters who have strong friendships with their Medabots, will give them a name, aside from just referring to them as their official serial type/number; the greatest example from the anime is Arika, who calls her SLR-1 Sailor-Multi, "Brass". In the games' universe Ikki himself is another great example; Without Medals, Medabot bodies literally are just parts, as the medals themselves house the mind & soul of a Medabot. Ikki NEVER uses any other medals besides his original KBT-type Rare Medal, which was first used in the outdated KBT-1 Metabee, and through said body he and the soul inside of the medal became the best of friends, with the latter unofficial adopting the name of its first body. As a result, to Ikki, KBT-50 Saikichis, KBT-4 Arc-Beetle, and KWG-10 Sanjuro, are all "Metabee". Kirara is another example carried on in the videogames, since her Sailor-Mate is called "Alumi".
• Affectionate Parody: The anime starts as an affectionate parody of the Mons genre, only to gradually become more of a Deconstruction.
• Alternate Continuity: The franchise runs entirely on this. The anime looks like it fused some elements of the first game and Medarot 2. The manga slightly differs, as well, running on the videogames stories' as basis (though they retell the same main plot with alternate settings). Some of the spinoffs are also alternate continuities of each other (Shingata being a retelling of the original game with new characters, Medarot 8 following a more crime and mystery-oriented story, but with Roborobos as villains as well).
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Medarot uses "Chie to Yuuki da! Medarot" as opening and "Yappari Kimi ga Suki!" as ending, meanwhile Medarot Damashii uses "SUPER GUYS" and "Toshi Shita no Boku." The American dub, however, used this theme for both opening and (an instrumental version) ending for both series.
• And the Adventure Continues: For the first two seasons of Medabots: After Dr. Meta-Evil's plans had failed, he left with Dr. Hushi to explore the stars. The last scene in the episode was that of a reformed Victor robattling Ikki again. In the Japanese dub, the ending animation revealed bits and pieces of the aftermath of the Grand Finale: Ikki lost in that re-match with Victor, Metabee and Rokusho continue to pursue remnants of the Rubber Robo Gang, Arika and Karin sort out the bag of medals left behind by the Rubber Robo Gang, and Henry who was revealed to be the Phantom Renegade left town and went on the run.
• And Then What?: When the Rubberrobo Gang tricked Metabee into thinking Ikki abandoned him, they tempted him with a chance to revenge. It wasn't enough as Metabee asked what he'd do after that.
• Animation Bump: "Welcome to Ninja World," 7th episode of the second dub season and 14th of the first Japanese season, has a noticeably different art style and animation tone, with the characters moving much more exaggeratedly and the battle being way more dynamic and detailed. Consequently, a good chunk of the English opening uses action scenes from this episode, much more so than any other single episode.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Invoked with Baron (the Screws Gang's big boss) and his Medabot, Banisher, who through the episode they appear are made up to be fearsome opponents. The actual robattle ends as soon as Metabee shoots Banisher. Once. (His special ability is having a Strong Appearance). In the games, Banisher could only deal damage by counterattacking, and since Metabee headshot it (and Metabee is deceptively strong), he presumably dealt enough damage to knock him out. (Either that or the robot is just too weak to fight, and Baron instead tries to scare opponents into submission.)
• Anti-Hero:
  • Kaitou Retort/Phantom Renegade. Despite being a thief, he has his own motives to rob medals, and he has done some heroic things in the process, such as rescuing Rokusho from the Roborobo/Rubberrobo Gang, and helping out Ikki and his friends in the Final Battle.
  • In the games, Retort's role plays as a help for the main character (Ikki or Azuma when the former assumes the Kaitou Retort identity) because he also wants to stop the Roborobo (or their later incarnations). Lady Retort/Phantom Lady also falls for being a sidekick of sorts to Retort (though she does not appear in Medarot DS nor Medarot 7).
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Victor, leader of the world-champion Team Kenya and all around Jerkass.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In Episode 35, "The Rubberobos took your mother - and ate our dinner!"
• Art Evolution: From Horumarin's Medarot designs used in the first videogame in 1997, through the manga adaptation and for the next 7 years, his art has changed notoriously. Even more when you see Medarot DS designs that he worked in 2008-2009.
• Art Shift:
  • Episode 14 ("Welcome to Ninja World") was drawn and animated in a much different art style. The episode's director was no one other than Hiroyuki Imaishi, of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fame.
  • Spirits received two of these, the first occurring at the beginning, as production switched from Bee Train to Trans Arts. Then again about midway from traditional cel animation to digital coloring.
• Audience Shift: Medarot Girls Mission was clearly not made for kids due in no small part to the Hotter and Sexier nature of the game.
• Back from the Dead: Metabee in the Grand Finale.
• Badass Normal: Ikki, Hikaru/Henry as Phantom Renegade/Space Medafighter X, Koji, Victor.
• Batman Gambit: Dr. Meta-Evil's ultimate plan to awaken the Medabots' memories of their ancient history is pretty much this. He would need two Medabots possessing rare medals to fight each other to the limit in order to trigger the antenna's radio waves that allow him to control the entire world's Medabots. It is not easy to imagine any realistic scenario how he could plan in such a way that he could anticipate that Victor's Warbandit and Ikki's Metabee will end up fighting each other to their limits.
• Battle Aura: The Medaforce.
• Betty and Veronica: Hikaru's relationship with Kirara and Nae in Medarot- Kirara is Betty and Nae is Veronica. Of course this change after the events of Medarot 2, since Hikaru is in a relationship with Kirara.
• Bishie Sparkle: Lampshaded Exaggerated with Kouji.
• Boom, Headshot!: A Medabot ceases to function when its head unit has been destroyed.
• Bottomless Magazines:
  • In the games, a Medabot's head and each arm has a unique ability or weapon. The arms can use their respective power or attacks endlessly (e.g. Metabee's revolver and submachinegun), but each Medabot's head has only a limited number of uses for its specific ability.
  • This is usually faithfully followed in the anime (or, at least, certainly never contradicted, since the Medabots use their Head-part powers only sparingly), but it's Subverted in Spirits, where Medabots spontaneously developed the ability to run out of ammo. The Kilobots and their owners "cheat" by reloading ammunition in the middle of a fight.
• Bowdlerize:
  • In the 1999-2001 series, the part where Hikaru tells Ikki a story that he is forced to destroy his own Metabee's medal is omitted, as his backstory is already dark to begin with.
  • There are notable scenes in Spirits that got removed in Episode 4 ("Delivery Boy").
    • During their first scene, the duo of robbers brandish a pistol before leaving their getaway cars to do a robbery. In the dub, this is replaced with a scene of two robbers already inside a sewer^note The scene that happens after the police were alerted with his lackey stating they are low on ammo. Their pistols are edited out as a result, the firearms for the police remain unedited however.
    • The lead robber suffers Amusing Injuries, courtesy of Gingkai's Sherwood shooting a Tankbank's Tribuster at the guy's rear, forcing his lackey to carry him while his boss has a cross bandage on the part he is shot.
• Broad Strokes: The original anime is derived from Medarot 2 and the original Medarot games, while Medabot Spirits is a derivative of Medarot 3 (which kind of justifies its more dramatic retooling of the premise).
• Broken Ace: Downplayed with Uchuu Medarotter X/Space Medafighter X, who seems pretty copacetic with life. Hikaru Agata was a great medafighter when he was a kid, but when the "Ten Days of Darkness" happened, he not only lost his best friend (Metabee) but his friendship with American representative, Joe Swihan, and Egyptian representative, Patra. He had to lower his profile and became a Convenience Store clerk (and a Phantom Thief). Other incarnations of Hikaru don't play with this trope, though. He is more of a Retired Badass... but people don't believe he was a good medafighter.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: When God-Emperor/Mega-Emperor proves to be too much for the tired Arc-Beetle and utterly exhausted Metabee even with backup from Sumilodon, the Phantom Renegade has Arc-Beetle hold it down while he manually removes its Medal. Then the cliff they were on breaks...
• Bruce Lee Clone: Ikki robattles one (Dragon Ryuuchirou) in episode 27.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • To a smaller extent, Cyandog/Krosserdog and Iwanoi/Spike; Cyandog is a poor fighter because his medal isn't of the properly compatible type. A monkey medal, no less.
  • Mr. Referee, somehow, is never hurt by any of his own antics.
  • While the Rubberrobo gang have their moments, Seaslug was the one that took the cake too many times, mostly since he was the leader of his squad, becoming one of the reasons he was then demoted from this role.
• Can't Stand Them, Can't Live Without Them: Ikki and the "defective" Metabee.
• Canon Discontinuity:
  • The Tenryou family in the anime is actually quite different from the games. In the original games, for example, Chidori is rather stern with Ikki, enough to surprise anyone who only knows her through the anime, though in Medarot 4, her personality was retconned to be the same as her anime counterpart.
  • Medarot Damashii has some problems regarding its predecessor series' canon. There is not a clear explanation nor mention of what happened with the World Tournament, or the dissapearance of some of the supporting cast or any of the events of the Grand Finale. And it gets more confusing to the international viewers because the original series contained an epilogue in the ED sequence of the last episode (which only details that Hikaru leaves).
  • The Spirits ending sequence have cameos of the previous series characters (even Kirara who was Adapted Out from the anime), but it was directed by the previous character designer of the anime, who was mostly not involved in Spirits. Justified considering that these ED sequences aren't completely canon with their anime.
  • Somebody on the writing staff for Spirits apparently forgot to watch the original anime, as Mr. Tenryou is explicitly shown to have a desk job for some corporation... in blatant contrast to his work in the original show.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • Rintarou and his partner Kantaroth immigrated to the anime from the Medarotter Rintarou manga. In his home series' canon, Rintarou notably designed Arc-beetle.
  • Subverted. bizarrely enough, in Spirits, where Rintarou and Kantaroth appear, but only in what appears to be an in-universe Animated Adaptation of Medarotter Rintarou.
• Catchphrase:
  • Dub only (and just about entirely for Metabee). "Dude... I rock."
  • "Kiss your bot goodbye!"
  • The dub also flirted with "a Metabee-boppin'", even going so far as to have other Medabots offer to provide them on his behalf.
  • Arika's "What a scoop!" exclamation is used quite a bit, especially in early episodes.
  • The Phantom Renegade is known to indulge in a "Man, I'm good!" every now and again. Often right before something goes horribly wrong.
• Cat Girl: The CAT series models: Peppercat, her (videogame in-universe) predecesor, Magentacat, Noctocat and Noir Katze.
• Cerebus Syndrome: After episode 25, the show got much more serious. Especially the parts involving the "Ten Days of Darkness".
• Charlie Brown from Outta Town:
  • Space Medafighter X is definitely not the Phantom Renegade, who is definitely not some store clerk who is definitely not a former top Medabot fighter.
  • Inverted during the Tournament Arc, when the identity of Space Medafighter X is used by several different people to act as the third member of team Japan. This is probably cheating, but whatever.
• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Team France in the World Medabot Championship. They apparently won all of their matches by default by having their opponents kidnapped, and as soon as Team Japan manages to break out of their kidnapping and actually fight them Team France runs away.
• Chekhov's Gun: Every single medapart that Metabee wins, can serve as part of a fighting strategy later.
  • In Episode 8, Metabee wins a Decoy Claw from Norbert's Kuraba, a Medapart that's effective for hand to hand combat - which makes it a perfect match for Cyandog's Monkey medal.
  • The Invisiarm he wins from Multikolor in Episode 17 allows him to counter Sumilidon's Shadow Sword attack in Episode 34.
  • The web shooting arm won in Episode 20 comes in handy in Episode 32, when Metabee sticks down one of Shrimplips' Medabots, meaning it couldn't dodge an incoming attack from one of it's teammates - funny, considering Ikki won the part from Shrimplips in the first place.
• Cloak of Defense: As his name implies, Redmatador is a defense-focused Medabot modeled after a matador. He uses his cape as a shield against attacks.
• Clock Discrepancy: At one point in the anime, the villain doctors footage of a fight between Metabee and his Kilobot to make it look like Metabee is cheating. The footage of the fight is broadcast live, but due to the doctoring, it's delayed a minute. His plot is uncovered when Arika points out to everyone watching that the timestamp on the footage was one minute behind the "actual" time.
• Collective Identity: Space Medafighter X is a registered member of Team Japan for the world cup, but circustances preclude him from making proper appearances. So Ikki's friends and the Screws take turn wearing Paper Thin Disguises of his outfit.
• Combat and Support: Medabots and their Medafighters make a pretty obvious pair of this, but there are several tiers of this, such as Dr. Aki and the Medabot Corporation being support to heroic Robattling teams.
• Combat by Champion: In "Ban All Medabots", some Medabots owned by punks broke into the school the main characters attend. When the students called their medabots to defend it, an all-on-all battle ensued until Rokusho interrupted it and suggested each side selected a champion to have less wounded than an all-on-all fight would have.
• Combat Referee: Mr. Referee, naturally. As mentioned elsewhere on the page, it's advised against attacking him on the grounds that he has access to a Kill Sat that will shoot a tranquilizer dart at the offender. Seaslug, of course, learned this the hard way.
• Combat Tentacles: Used as weapons, of course.
• Comic-Book Adaptation:
  • The videogames led first to the creation of a manga adaptation published by the defunct Comic Bon Bon, running in type I and II. The original main series was drawn by Horumarin, the characters' designer of the original games. Medarot DS was later published by Dengeki Nintendo for Kids.
  • A manga tie-in for Medarot 7 was being published, now by Shueisha, in Saikyo JUMP and V-Jump, drawn by Yasuki Tanaka.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: And how. Most of the time, the AI will rig the RNG to land a critical hit on the Head Part. And it is always a Frankenbot of sorts that has that acursed piece that destroys any part in one hit.
• Confusion Fu: Space Medafighter X's shtick... sort of. The real X's Arcbeetle is simply ferociously powerful, but during the Tournament Arc a different Medafighter impersonates him in each round, making his strategy difficult to predict as "he" brings a different Medabot to each match.
• Continuity Reboot: Medarot 7 reboots everything that happened in Medarot DS (even if it carries a "7" as serial number). It is explicitely established that whoever Azuma gets on either version of the game (Metabee or Rokusho in Kabuto or Kuwagata, respectively) is his first medabot.
• Cool Mask: Kaitou Retort/Phantom Renegade (and by extension, Space Medafighter X)'s mask. Also counting, in minor degree, Lady Retort's in the videogame.
• Cool Old Guy:
  • Dr. Aki is a fairly self-aware example, clearly under the impression that he is at least as cool as everyone thinks he is.
  • Mr. Referee's absolute dedication to his job has earned him many a fan.
  • The school principal really, really wants to be this (He's hip. He gets it.), and he does get a moment or two; his medabot Samurai is a good example, too.
• Crack is Cheaper: According to the anime, medabots are pretty expensive to get and maintain. Getting a tin PET is one thing... getting a medal is another AND getting the armor (or even replacements of some armor parts) is a complete different story. Apparently, according to the manga adaptation of the videogames, finding a female tin PET is rare, and purposely more expensive to get. invoked
  • Subverted in the games, where Medabot parts all perfectly in range of a child's allowance, ranging from four to less than twenty dollars in most cases.
  • Also subverted in the anime with Metabee, whose armor was not only old but discontinued; Henry only offered to sell the parts to Ikki in consideration of the fact that Ikki was too impatient to save his allowance for anything worthwhile. Ikki also tends not to buy new parts, rather using the spare parts he's earned elsewhere and maintaining Metabee's parts himself.
• Crapola Tech: In the very first episode, Ikki felt this way about Metabee because he wouldn't start up during a battle. Metabee later on paid him back for the insult...violently.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Karin can be a nice little Moe, but she's always ready if you need to climb a wall, cross a bridge taken by a bully or even blow up a security door.
  • It Runs in the Family because in the first season finale, Karin's uncle, Dr. Aki knew that Dr. Meta-Evil would use a giant Medabot to conquer the world. So, he secretly constructed a giant Metabee.
• Creepy Child: The Ankle Biters and Kam from Spirits.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Played for Laughs in Spirits. Kilobots have no non-violent abilities or programming, so if you need to do something like, say, halt a speeding truck to keep yourself from falling out of the back, your kilobot will be unable to help you — "stop the truck" isn't an attack. Seems to become subverted after this incident as the Kilobots begin getting smart enough to at least speak whole sentences, most likely because Kam wouldn't be able to sell them if they seemed too dangerous.
• Cultural Translation: Borders on Gag Dub at times. Notable in that most characters' names were kept, and the location of the show was clearly stated to be Japan in the dub. (Amusingly, the localized Medabots GBA game pretends the main characters are all American).
• Curse Cut Short: In Episode 6, where Metabee is tied up to attract aliens for Erika's news story.
  Metabee: I'm gonna get sassy on your-
  (cut to Henry's shop)
  Henry: -bad mode central.
• Cutting Off the Branches: While most games come in both Kabuto and Kuwagata versions, the anime assumes Kabuto as a starting point, allying Ikki and Metabee.
• Darker and Edgier: Although the anime is generally comedic and light-hearted, it still has several serious and dramatic moments that are way darker than anything you'll find in the games. The murder of of Fushihara and the Ten Days of Darkness being prime examples.
  • Sort of a mix in Medabots: Spirits when compared to the original series. The original series features the Rubberrobo gang and Dr. Meta-evil, stealing medals as part of a global domination plan. The revelation of the truth behind the Ten Days of Darkness was the darkest moment in the entire anime series. While it is true that Medabots: Spirits involved smaller and more personal stakes, as a result of that, the villains (especially Kam) were portrayed as particularly mean-spirited. Unlike the Rubberrobo gang who were practically medal thieves, Kam had no qualms with destroying his opponents' medals, an event that was only invoked once in the original series.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Rokusho gets his own spotlight episode in "I Dream of Hushi", where we learn about his past and helps a widow defend her husband's Oak Tree with Ikki and Metabee as supporting characters.
  • Both Spike and Cyandog have their own spotlight episode in "Cyandog Bites Back".
• Delinquents: The Screws gang. While their former boss is the most classic example of a Banchou.
• Demoted to Extra: When Medarot 2 was released and it was put into a Time Skip of twelve years by the end of the events of the first game, Hikaru and Kirara were demoted as side-characters to make room for Ikki and co. Meanwhile other characters were put to Out of Focus, Hikaru served as a clerk and mentor to Ikki, while Kirara was put in the Medarot Corporation (and both take the identities of phantom thieves, Kaitou Retort and Lady Retort). This formula got repeated when Medarot DS was released to make room for Azuma, as the new main character, while Ikki and Arika became supporting characters.
• Depending on the Artist:
  • Horumarin has been the primary art director for the Medabots themselves throughout the franchise's history, so the bots all tend to look the same in most installments. He also designed the humans in the many of the pre-DS games and their respective manga adaptations (he returned to robot design for Medarot 7).
  • Tokuyuki Matsutake, on the other hand, was the primary designer for the anime and related media, and his designs were used for the graphics in Medarot 3 and Medarot 4, too.
  • Medarot 7 introduced a new artist for the humans. Check out art for Ikki, Arika, and the Rubberrobo Gang^note Adjusted for a few years of growth, of course from the game, for example. And then compare it to the art of the same from Medarot DS (yikes!).
  • Medarot Navi's primary artist used much more detailed designs for the robots; notably, he was also the main artist for the Medarotter Rintarou side story manga.
• Deserted Island: In the manga adaptation of Medarot 2, the final battle between Dr. Hebereke and Ikki and friends happens in an Island that was formerly a property of the Select Corps.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: During the lead-up to the final round of the tournament, Chidori accidentally meets Victor when her car soaks him with a splash of rain water, and she insists on making it up to him by doing the cleaning herself. Ikki comes home later and finds Victor sitting at his table in heart-print pajamas while his mom is serving dinner. In an attempt at making conversation, Chidori does a little bragging on Ikki's behalf, talking about how he's in the world cup and that he'll easily beat whats-his-name in the finals, so they might as well celebrate early. And then she learns that Ikki's opponent's name is Victor, who also happens to be the guest; she promptly excuses herself from the house to go run errands.
• Discard and Draw:
  • In the transition to Medabot Spirits, Metabee and Ikki learn that their Medaforce is completely useless against even low-level Kilobots, but later Metabee gets to upgrade to the new Saikachi model, which comes complete with an action mode (read: vehicle form) that gives them extra tactical options.
  • Later, Spirits attempted to undo this by "explaining" that Metabee's Medaforce had been too weak and now might now actually do some damage to Kilobots. They successfully manage to do 1% damage to Redrun's head. It's then subverted later when all attempts to use the Medaforce later on do major levels of damage, as a team or alone.
• Disproportionate Retribution: One episode has a group of old women want to round up the Medabots of every kid in school. They were manipulated by one... simply because the Roborobo gang ran over one's beauty products. Once the rest found out that they did all that work just to get revenge for 40 bucks of beauty supplies they turned on her.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Downplayed. Originally, the Metabee and Rokusho from Medarot 2 were the same as the original Metal Beetle (KBT-0) and Head Scissors (KWG-0) models in Medarot. Later materials differentiated them as independent units in the same production line, KBT-1 and KWG-1.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Junko Takeuchi, the Japanese voice of Metabee, also sings the Japanese opening theme "Chie to Yuuki da! Medarotto".
• Doujinshi: While there is always the usual that the fandom do, there is some special credit to Meda 2043, drawn by the game's designer/manga artist Horumarin under the pseudonym of Horu0rin. It was made around 2007-2008 when the Medarot franchise was in limbo.
• Dramatic Irony: Basically everything Phantom Renegade, starting with his identity.
• Dressed All in Rubber: The Roborobo (dub: Rubber Robo) gang.
• Drill Mole: Digmole, Coach Mountain's Medabot, is a construction Medabot with drills for hands and on its nose.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole:
  • Nelvana, in an attempt to streamline the first portion of the story, siphoned thirteen episodes that it considered filler out of place and dumped them back into the plot after the Big Bad's first major gambit, causing more than a few continuity issues. This resulted in (A) Metabee having parts he was never shown earning in battle, (B) the "short" recess before the World Tournament, (C) some random appearances of Rokusho that have little to do with his by-then-established role in the plot, (D) misplacing the formal introduction of the Roborobo Gang (which felt especially out of place since they were already well-known villains), and (E) the sudden dissapearance of recently introduced concepts and supporting characters.
  • Nelvana discovered a little belatedly all the details of Henry's significance to the plot, and so tripped over themselves during the final stages of the World Tournament arc, establishing a retcon that Henry is an assumed name and that he named Metabee (in the dub's first episode, Ikki names Metabee himself); this is especially apparent in episode 46.
• Dub Name Change: There are countless examples, going from medabots and characters, but here are some examples-
  • Arika = Erika
  • The Screws, Kikuhime, Iwanoi, and Kagiyama, became Samantha, Spyke, and Sloan respectively
  • Kaitou Retort = Phantom Renegade
  • Lady Retort = Phantom Lady (Only in the games)
  • Robo-Robo Gang = Rubber-Robo Gang
  • Sakekaasu = Seaslug
  • Beast-Master = Robo-Emperor
  • God Emperor = Mega Emperor
  • Saint-Nurse = Neutra-Nurse
  • Pure-Mermaid = Oceana
• Dub Text: Non-sexual example. If intentional, Metabee's aforementioned portrayal as an angry black man comes off as a sort of twisted lampshading of the master/slave relationship present in most Mon shows.
• Energy Weapon: Pretty much all over the place.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: The school principal has his own samurai medabot... appropriately named "Samurai".^note Complete with a katana and armor to boot.
• Evil Laugh:
  • The Phantom Renegade has an excellent one, his calling card.
  • Warbandit in Episode 50, when it turns out he can use the Medaforce.
  • The Roborobo gang also have a tendency of doing this (with one of them being particularly demented in that area).
  • Victor in the Japanese version. The dub version of the scene has his laughter punctuated with mockery.
• Evolution Power-Up: Medabot parts don't "evolve", but the medals themselves do. The anime doesn't really pay much attention to it (Metabee's medal evolves when he gains access to the Medaforce, but Henry claims that all medals can change like that), but in the games, a medal's evolution usually means a new Medaforce attack for it to use.
• Excuse Plot: A deliberate choice of the Parts Collection games, which are laser-focused on teaching the player the intricacies of the main games' battle system and handing out sets of Medaparts at a much faster rate than the mainline games. For example, the original Medarot's companion games feature Paddy and Yuuki traversing fantasy worlds to rescue either other, while Medarot 2 Parts Collection has Ikki collecting pieces of a stone from the Rubberrobo Gang after being abducted by aliens.
• Expy:
  • Most Medabots in the same "family" (KBT-types, for example) clearly share similar designs. This is justified on the grounds that they're all in the same production line.
  • Sumilidon and Warbandit stand out as Expies of Rokusho and Metabee respectively, reinterpreted as Panthera Awesome. Sumilidon uses a blade attack and a hammer attack, but trades Rokusho's scouting ability for an anti-gunner trapping ability; Warbandit has both a rifle and a chain gun like Metabee, but instead of an extra attack like Metabee's missiles, he has the ability to boost his movement speed.
  • Rintarou's Kentaroth is another model in the KBT line close to Metabee's design, and caused some confusion when Rintarou got into fights with everyone around town. Ikki is incensed to learn that people think he's been brutalizing everybody's Medabots, especially since Kentaroth is covered into designs that Metabee doesn't share.
  • Roks in Spirits looks enough like Rokusho (who had been Put on a Bus) to invite confusion; that he has the same Voice Actor and Leitmotif doesn't help. It gets even worse later on, when several Kilobots end up being pretty blatant redesigns of season 1 and 2 'bots Sumilidon, Warbandit, Arcbeetle and others. Justified as in the games, they're all later models of these medabots.
  • In the games, this is a Must-Rule, since it is an RPG, and it's somehwat in the same veins as the Pokémon games. Especially in the trio of troublemakers. Kikuhime, Iwanoi and Kageyama from Medarot 2 and the anime) are these to Iseki, Yanma and Kubota from the original Medarot game (this also includes their respective medabots!). This is also repeating in Medarot DS, with the Willows and even Azuma takes the role of ther leader later in that game!.
• Fanboy: Rintarou is an illustrative example in the anime. He is mostly an Space Medafighter X fan... to the point that he gets annoying. He was also the only one to guess at the first time that X was Hikaru Agata, because he was also a fan of him before being a medarotter... however, without implying that he was also Hikaru-nii-chan... hilarity ensues.
• Flashback: There are plenty of examples. Which includes Rokusho's Memories with his master, Professor Hushi, and any flashback involving the "Ten Days of Darkness".
• Flat Character: Notably, the vast majority of the Medabots not named Metabee lacked any resemblance of personality and for the most part are Satellite Character roles serving their Medafighters.
• Foreign Re-Score: The English dub of the anime replaces the soundtrack with a new drum 'n' bass/industrial score composed by Daniel Fernandez and Jack Procher.
• Freak Out: In Episode 24, Koji's fear of bugs manages to go overboard after bumping into a whole hoard of the critters and he pretty much freaks the hell out and orders Sumilidon to attack anything which so much looks like a bug which, unfortunately, appears to be everything Koji sees in this state.
• Freudian Excuse: After his mom died when he was little and his father put more importance into his work rather than spending time with him, Kam is driven to create the most strongest Kilobots.
• Friendly Enemy: Spike, who tends to be the most pathetic of the Screws, is friendly with Ikki and Arika on occasion. Later, he is followed by the rest of the Screws.
• Friendly Rivalry: Ikki and Koji. Except about Karin.
• Fun Size: Three foot tall robots. Justified in that Robattling is treated as a competitive sport; any Medabot larger than human size is fairly obviously a weapon of war.
• Furry Reminder: Downplayed. The medals almost all correlate to some animal or another and every now and again will feature some indication of it in Medabot behavior.
  • The anime loves playing with the fact the Metabee's a rhinoceros beetle (kabutomushi). Henry tricks him at one point by setting a trap with the watermelon as bait and Metabee can't help but crawl eagerly towards it on all fours. When especially angry or upset, Metabee will also make a squeaking "Gigi! Gigigigigigi!!" noise. In the past, he also had a favorite tree.
  • In one episode of the anime, Spike (of the Screws) is having problems winning with his Medabot, Cyandog. This turns out to be because Cyandog's body is built to be a Long-Range Fighter, but Cyandog's medal is actually a Monkey-type, which is suited to grappling battles^note According to the dub, at least; in the games, MNK medals are about disrupting enemies (Spike chooses to keep this the way it is). Monkey-Dog enmity is a longstanding item in Japanese Animal Jingoism.
• Gag Dub: Zig-zagged. The translation is very close to the original but Nelvana put their own spin on some of the dialogue and even threw in a few ad-libs too, likely to help with cultural references. Don't worry, it's not 4Kids levels of excessive (they make it expressively clear this takes place in Japan) and actually makes a few of the jokes funnier.
• Gainax Ending: The ending of the pre-Spirits anime. The final stages of the Tournament Arc are complicated by hints about the Ten Days of Darkness and the origins of the Medabots themselves, and Metabee has a dream of his own past... Dr. Meta-Evil proceeds to recycle his Humongous Medabot plan with the hilariously out-of-place Babyblu (which looks — and sounds — like a giant blue baby), which Dr. Aki counters with a made-to-order Humongous Metabee piloted by Metabee and his friends, with obligatory Power of Friendship chatter. Then Dr. Hushi suddenly appeared at the end of the giant battle, revealing that he is not dead and has somehow created an utopia for medabots in an alien spaceship. Dr. Meta-Evil's cat also talked for the first time, revealing himself to be part of the original Medabot civilization. Last but not least, Brandon, an almost never-seen character whose sole addition to the show was to be the crush-object of two different girls in filler episodes, reappears and turns out to be an alien. All these events go completely unmentioned in the next season.
• Gentleman Thief: Phantom Renegade is a parody of these characters, especially Kaitou Kid and Tuxedo Kamen. His manga counterpart's suit gives a Shout-Out to Kamen at least in design... Replace Kaitou's facemask with Kamen's domino mask, throw in a rose for flavor, and voilá.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: For the anime:
  • The Screws gang was introduced as if they would become Ikki's recurring antagonists, but quickly devolved into the butt of jokes and (mostly) a punching bag for other Medafighters after the 2nd episode. As a bonus, Samantha was regularly portrayed as a sycophant.
  • Interesting, inverted with the Rubberrobo gang. They are practically the Medabots' more threatening version of Team Rocket, and over time it is shown that they had higher goals (Their true leader Dr. Meta-evil, at least) of world domination and their threat level actually went up as the series goes by.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: The franchise somehow manages to make this classic Mons trope both a central mechanic and completely optional at the same time. Major robattles usually require the ante of one Medapart to the winner of the match, but they're only potential tactical options; there's no requirement or insistence that every part of every model be collected. As the dub put it:
  More Medabots. More Power.
• Graceful Loser: In the Grand Finale, after all of Dr. Meta-Evil's plans fell apart, he swore revenge. Brandon and Dr. Hushi intervened to reason with Dr. Meta-Evil. His cat Michael was revealed to be able to speak, and was strongly implied to be the true descendant of the original Medabot civilization and the true mastermind behind the world domination plot! Michael thanked Dr. Meta-Evil for sticking up for him, and decided that he shall not force the Medabots to revolt if they don't want to. He ejected his own medal, reverting himself back into an ordinary cat.
• Grand Finale: For the seasons before Medabots: Spirits. Dr. Meta-Evil's grand plan to re-enact the Ten Days of Darkness failed, the Medabots woke up and rejected his offer. Dr. Meta-Evil sent out his attack drones but the audience and participants of the World Robattle Tournament responded with all their Medabots, tearing down the stadium in the process. Dr. Meta-Evil remained defiant and sent out Babyblu, his biggest and most powerful Medabot, but that was also destroyed in a tough Behemoth Battle. Dr. Meta-Evil left with Dr. Hushi to explore the universe, effectively leaving the Rubber Robo Gang without a leader. Gillgirl, Shrimplips, and Squidguts got fed up and quit the gang for good, bidding Seaslug farewell. A still-infatuated Ms. Caviar offered to join the Rubber Robo Gang and Seaslug relented. In the Japanese ending sequence, it was also implied that Henry was exposed as the Phantom Renegade and therefore went on the run.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: In the GBA game, the Rubber Robo gang takes over Rosewood Private School and sets up a guard out in front. Ikki and Koji get in by demanding the guard go and fetch Koji's homework, going into such detail about the assignment that the guard complains about hating numbers and tells Koji to go fetch it himself.
• Guile Hero: Downplayed with Chidori Tenryou, who uses her wiles mostly to get her "children" (the family basically adopted Metabee) to do what she wants. She's been known to get the boys to stop fighting by either "weeping openly" or smothering them with kisses.
• Guns vs. Swords: The KBT series and KWG series of medals represent the respective sides. (Technically, the original Rokusho has a hammer in his other arm, but his signature weapon is clearly his Blade Below the Shoulder).
• Hair-Trigger Temper:
  • Metabee. Played for both laughs and drama.
  • Ikki and Arika, usually with each other.
• Headbutting Heroes: One of Team Japan's problems early in the World Tournament is that Ikki and Koji both want to be leader.
• Healing Factor:
  • In the games, Medabots are constantly renewing damaged body parts by using nanomachines. In the anime, the parts must be maintained by the Medafighters themselves.
  • At one point, Ikki and Metabee were confronted by a challenger using a draconic Medabot called Spitfire, which is able to regenerate its damaged bodyparts in the middle of combat, making it very difficult to defeat. Because Spitfire's eyes would glow every time it used its regeneration, Ikki correctly deduced that the healing module is situated in the head, allowing Metabee to destroy the tough enemy.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Victor, who was in the Tournament to take revenge of what happened to his village in the "Ten Days of Darkness"... with the help of the Roborobo, realizes his mistakes when he discovers that their leader was the one responsible for all that.
  • Kam from Spirits. After all of the trouble he caused, Metabee, Roks, Arc-Dash, Tyrrellbeetle, and Blakbeetle (as Gryphon) save him from the fire in his father's company building that he caused. While at the hospital, everyone, including Blakbeetle, not only forgive him, but it looks like they will become his friends.
• Heroes Love Dogs:
  • Ikki has Salty in both the anime and videogames. Hikaru had Bonaparte at least in the first videogame (and manga adaptation).
  • Another example is Spike and his Medabot Cyandog/Krosserdog, who ironically is powered by a monkey medal.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Dr. Meta-Evil, until episode 38.Which was subverted at the end of the episode. Where we discover that the Dr. Meta-Evil we saw was a robotic duplicate. The real Dr. Meta-Evil won't show up until episode 50.
• History Repeats: After the events of his own childhood, Ikki too begins to work at a convenience store.
• Humongous Mecha: Part of the Grand Finale.
• Hotter and Sexier: Medarot Girls Mission has much more Fanservice in the game than past entries, with Clothing Damage as one of its features. Fans were not pleased.
• Hypocritical Humor: All over the place.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: (English dub only) When Ikki, Erika and Metabee pretended to be students of Rosewood Academy (a private school for rich kids) to sneak in there and the doorman asked why they weren't wearing their uniforms, they told the doorman that they spilled caviar on it and their butler would bring them later. The Screws tried the same excuse but their leader ruined it by stating they spilled caviar on their butler.
• Identity Amnesia: While every medal is the brain of a Medabot, it's a plot point that the anime's "Rare" medals are actually artifacts not made by human hands. And yet, none of the known Rare Medals ever seems to have any further information to provide on the subject. It comes to light during the finale that the Medabots were originally a utopian society that got caught up in excessive warfare that continued to grow and grow until it consumed an entire galaxy. Metabee's personal backstory is especially poignant — he's heavily implied to have been the winner.
• Identity Impersonator: When Space Medafighter X's identity as Kaitou Retort/Phantom Renegade was blown up, not only the select Corps increased their security for the tournament, but he couldn't just get out of the it because the rules established that if one of the contestants of any team was absent it would be an immediate disqualification. This meant trouble for both Dr. Akihabara and Hikaru. The best solution was that Hikaru would be calling anyone of the kids to take his X identity during the matches (and decided to be at the event as well as a clerk to not rise any suspicious behavior). While X was present at the day of the match of Japan vs USA, those that were with the mask were Karin, the Screws and Ms. Caviar.
• Idol Singer: The Sweden Team, the Charming Musume (probably a parody to Morning Musume) who are the non-Japanese example in the series, who were doing trap thanks to their... well, charms. Until... you know...
• Image Song: Though "Chie to Yuuki da! Medarot" and "Yappari Kimi ga Suki!" are the respective opening and ending of the original Medarot series, they are also sung by Metabee and Arika's voice actors, and they could be considered image songs of them. The series also counted with several releases of character songs: Karin, Rokusho, while the Screws, Ikki & Metabee, and the Roborobos also had theirs.
• Incoming Ham: Phantom Renegade and Phantom Lady own this in the games.
  Phantom Renegade: Set the table with finery.
  Phantom Lady: Let the flower of rice bloom!
  • Inverted in the anime, where Renegade's actually more of an Stage-Exiting Ham instead, covering his escapes with explosions.
• Informed Attribute: Space Medafighter X goes out of his way to teach Kouji and Sumilodon how to use the Shadow Sword, which is touted as an ability that can counter the Medaforce... and then Ikki finds a way to overcome it in its debut match. Indeed, Sumilodon's "specialty" is never seen to work as advertised; it could be that Kouji keeps misusing it on non-Medaforce opponents (some of whom even block it) or even that X is simply using Kouji as part of a gambit meant to get Ikki to keep from relying solely on the Medaforce and to start thinking tactically again (which is the actual result of the episode).
• Instant Death Bullet: This can be evoked by AI or Player. Usually a part with high Accuracy and some luck (Or, in AI's case, a little of RNG modification) can land a critical damage to the Head Part. In Medabots, it's an instant kill.
• Instant-Win Condition: In many of the games, the first selected Medabot (positioned at the top of the field) is considered the leader; destroying them is enough to win the match regardless of how the rest of the team is doing.
• Japanese Beetle Brothers: Rivals type. Almost every game in the franchise comes in Kabuto (Metabee) and Kuwagata (Rokusho) versions, with each version dictating the hero's partner. You'll see it in the anime, too. In addition, Arcbeetle, based on the Hercules beetle, can be seen as an honorary third brother of sorts.
• Japanese Delinquents:
  • The Screws' ex-leader and Banisher are stereotypical looking Banchou.... but completely useless and anticlimatic during their introduction.
  • Ikki and Arika disguise as these just to help Cyandog to show Spike/Iwanoi that he could improve his skills to both become better partners.
  • In episode 18, the Roborobos are dressed like them and even act like them. It is implied that Sakekaasu/Seaslug used to be a delinquent (or just wanted to be one) when he was younger.
• Jerkass: Victor, who gets better by the end, though. And nearly anyone with a Kilobot in Spirits.
• Ki Manipulation: The Medaforce in the anime is basically treated as a massive burst of Medabot Ki, and using it will leave a Medabot physically exhausted and on the verge of shut-down.
• The Kid with the Remote Control: ...And teenagers, and adults, and old ladies, and...
• Killer Rabbit: There's an episode featuring a group of pre-schoolers, the Ankle Biters (the Crushers in the original Japanese), and their medabot named Churlybear. As one would expect, said machine looks like a big, cute teddybear - until provoked into battle... Its eyes then narrow and start glowing red, and the unfortunate opponent finds out Churlybear is armed with an extremely powerful beam cannon, and a gravity beam which essentially reduces the enemy to a puppet in the Medabot's hands. Said gravity beam should be handled with care though...
• Killer Robot:
  • Just about every medabot on Earth once the Big Bad gets his hands on Warbandit's rare medal and uses it to make them Brainwashed and Crazy.
  • In the manga, when a medabot releases its Medaforce, it becomes Ax-Crazy and (sometimes) mindless, as if they are possessed by something.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Ikki mostly averts it in the games. Rather than provide inconsequential fluff text for scenery like most other RPGs would, the game has Ikki remind himself to "stop acting like a thief".
• Kung-Shui: The manga is crazy with this, the Medafighters constantly doing Robatle not in an appropriate place, constantly injured (they use ACTUAL BULLETS), but Police didn't even react...
• Left Hanging: Assuming an episode order that follows the original Japanese dub, the ending of the first seasons of Medabots feels like this. Dr. Aki was framed by the Rubber Robo gang for the alleged murder of Dr. Hushi, triggering Rokusho to attack him. Metabee came in to stop Rokusho. This is where the concept of the Medaforce and Rare Medals was introduced, where Rokusho who had a Rare Medal used the Medaforce to knock out Metabee. A short while later, a revived Metabee was revealed to have a Rare Medal as well when he too was able to tap into the Medaforce. The season ended with the revelation that Metabee became the new target of the Rubber Robo gang.
• Legacy Character: Kaitou Retort in the videogames, as it gets revealed during Medarot DS and/or Medarot 7, when Ikki takes the role of Kaitou Retort from Hikaru.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Did we mention these were ten-year old kids running around with missle-launching, spark-using, and hammer-weilding robots?
• Lighthearted Rematch: The final episode and final scene, where Victor asks Ikki and Metabee to have a rematch after that tense final match from the Tournament.
• Like an Old Married Couple: The best way to describe Ikki and Arika's relationship.
• Limit Break: The Medaforce.
  • In the games, Medaforce attacks are learned and mastered when a medal reaches a certain level and evolves (not unlike Pokémon), and usually come in sets of three specific to the medal type. Unlike normal attacks, these powers can only be used by charging a sufficient level of Medaforce, but they are also immune to counters and traps.
  • In the anime, the Medaforce is reserved only for robots with Rare Medals. Attacking sinks all the robot's energy into one strike, but the attack is very risky. During its debut, it's established that the user can't fight after losing their power, leaving them defenseless. In some cases, using it may even damage the Medabot's own body. Also, unlike in the games, a robot using the Medaforce does not master it immediately, Metabee was unable to use it except in times of great need, though eventually he became able to invoke it freely.
  • In the manga this is played... awfully. Not only does the Medaforce absorb all energy of the medabot's, but they suffer backlash from it that might destroy them (it boils them if it's not controlled). Not mentioning all the jazz about them becoming Ax-Crazy and mindless.
  • Sumilidon taps into it during the penultimate fight in the Tournament Arc, earning an Oh, Crap! reaction from pretty much everyone. It happens again during the final against Team Kenya, but Warbandit survives it by using Rhinorush as a shield.
• Little Miss Con Artist: In episode 41, our heroes in Team Japan see a cute little girl (named Kahlua in the Japanese version, and Coconut in the English dub) being attacked by Team Caribbean pirates led by Captain Gene, since they're accusing her of stealing their chocolate. Naturally our heroes come to the little girl's defense, and she fawns over and hero-worships them for saving her. Out of the goodness of their hearts, our heroes even invite the little girl to watch their training session and give her their autographs. Then when Team Japan is set to Robattle Team Caribbean, the little girl appears behind Captain Gene, and at first Metabee assumes Captain Gene must have captured her. Nope, actually she's Captain Gene's daughter; the pirates were only pretending to attack the little girl earlier, it was all a plan for her to spy on Team Japan so she can report their weaknesses to her father and give him an edge.
• Loners Are Freaks: Played straight with Kam from Spirits.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • The Robattle Association doesn't count repeat Robattles when calculating a Medafighter's battle score... but it does count the different guises any Medafighter might assume as independent Medafighters entirely. So this causes Ikki all sorts of trouble when the Rubber Robo Gang bosses start challenging him under their civilian identities.
  • The American team reveals late in the World Tournament that they've developed a variant of Medawatch transport technology that allows their robots Teleport Spam abilities. Dr. Aki admits that it's technically allowable on the grounds that the technology is still too new to have had any official rules handed down against it.
• Love Dodecahedron: The Ikki-era Love Triangle (Erika secretly likes Ikki who has a crush on Karin) is complicated by Koji, who also likes Karin and considers Ikki a rival for her affections. This is further complicated by Samantha's gushing admiration for Kouji in the anime and, in the games, Princess Margarita gaining her own crush on Ikki, though nothing's likely to come of it for... reasons. And then, according to Medabot Spirits, Ikki gets a different crush on Nae.
• Love Triangle: Most if not all of the main series games have a Love Triangle centered on the each of the four main protagonists. Depending on your choices during gameplay, you can usually choose which girl you have a Relationship Upgrade with.
  • In the first game, Hikaru could choose between Kirara and Nae, but later canon says that he ended up with Kirara.
  • As mentioned above, Koji complicates the Ikki-era Love Triangle between him, Erika, and Karin.
• MacGuffin: The Rare-Medals in the anime. They are described to be from an ancient civilization of Medabots eons ago. Also, Rare-Medals have the ability to give Medabots a power known as the Medaforce. The only Medabots known to possess Rare-Medals are Metabee, Rokusho, Arc-Beetle, and Warbandit.
• MacGuffin Melee: The introductory scene of the anime is the Rubber Robo Gang's attempt to steal a Rare Medal being interrupted by Phantom Renegade.
• The Man Behind the Man: The Grand Finale of the original anime series strongly implied that Dr. Meta-Evil's cat Michael is the true mastermind of the world domination plot and the actual descendant of the ancient Medabot civilization.
• Manipulative Bastard: Dr. Meta-evil gets this award for tricking Rokusho into attempted murder of Dr. Aki.
• Manipulative Editing: At one point Kam doctors footage of a fight between Metabee and his Kilobot to make it look like Metabee was cheating. The footage of the fight was broadcast live, but due to the doctoring it was delayed a minute. His plot was uncovered when Arika points out to everyone watching that the timestamp on the footage was one minute behind the "actual" time.
• Mascot Mook: Metabee and Rokusho are the two most iconic Medabots (and Metabee in particular, where one was given a co-starring role in the anime).
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy:
  • Tomboy Arika is much more rambunctious and straightforward than Ikki.
  • Screws gangleader Samantha is much more prone to violent outbursts then, er, anyone.
• Masquerading As the Unseen: Ikki and Koji are expected to represent Japan in an international Robattle tournament alongside Space Medafighter X, but X never turns up for any of the matches. To avoid disqualification, they have their friends dress as X and substitute for him, which works because the only thing anyone knows about Space Medafighter X is that his true identity is a mystery and he always wears a mask.
• Meaningful Name: Doubles because of the Theme Naming but the real names of the Roborobo gang in the Japanese version and English Dub happens to be punnames of their aliases.
  • Sakekaasu = Kasukabe Sakenosuke (Seaslug = Seymore Slugbuttom).
  • Surume = Takasu Rumi (Gilgirl = Gilda Girnikova)
  • Sarami = Sara Mitsuo (Shrimplips = Shrimpy Lipowitz)
  • Shiokara = Shioka Raizou (Squidguts = Guido Gudalucci)
• Meditating Under a Waterfall: Rokusho does this in "Welcome To Ninja World", as part of his peaceful training.
• Meda-Guy: Well... everyone really (sorry).
• Megaton Punch: DVL models are incredibly strong and destructive, and in the games are reserved as Elite Mooks. In the anime, Belzelga (DVL-2) is a Super Prototype capable of wrecking almost any Medabot with just one punch, which makes it a perfect target for the Rubberrobo Gang. Blackram (DVL-1) should be capable of similar feats, but the only two to appear in the anime are subjected to The Worf Effect in Metabee's debut episode.
• Mind Screw: The season finale for the original series, which involves two different alien races and a Humongous Mecha in the shape of a fetus.
• Mon: Mostly Type I with a few shades of Type II. Medabots is a clear example of Follow the Leader, since Medarot (1) (Game Boy) was released a year after Pokémon Red & Green. Unlike most Mon games, however, the franchise instead focuses on collecting parts that you can swap in to create a Mix-and-Match Man out of your original bot; the games also offer romantic sub-plots for the main character, something you don't see in Pokémon (until Gen V & VI games, where it is at least implied).
  • The anime is a clear follower, with Ikki usually avoiding the whole mix-and-match mechanic unless a specific strategy calls for it or when he doesn't have Metabee's parts at hand.
• Mooks: The Rubberobos seem to have an endless supply of Noctobat Medabots.
• Multilayer Façade: Hikaru/Henry with his Phantom Renegade and Space Medafighter X disguises.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • Attacking the Referee after a Robattle gets a knock out dart fired from a SATELLITE IN SPACE.
  • Dodgeball, too.
• My Little Panzer: You have preteens playing around with robots whose firepower can crater steel and smash concrete and some of them (lookin' at you, Metabee) have no qualms about firing on their controllers. How is this kid-safe again?
• My Master, Right or Wrong:
  • Blackbeetle to Kam.
  • Sumilidon to Koji as evidenced during the Freak Out at Episode 24.
• Mysterious Protector: Phantom Renegade's constant intersections with the Rubber Robo gang allow him to play this for Ikki and company, especially in the games. Phantom Lady plays it for Ikki against the Select Corps.
• National Stereotypes: About two-thirds of the representative teams in the World Championship are full of these (medabots included!). The anime basically just picked a random theme and ran with it.
  • In Toros y Flamenco style, te Spanish team has Redmatador, a bull-centaur with bullfighter traits, as their medabot model. They lack flamenco, though.
  • The Mexico team consists of the Amigo brothers, three sombrero-wearing hombres who carry guitars and have machine-gun cactus-bots for partners. About the only thing they say aside from "Amigo!" is when greeting people. "Saludo!" If you want, you could interpret that as a Shout-Out to Saludos Amigos.
  • The French are thieving Dirty Cowards, each with a Maurice Chevalier Accent. They kidnap their opponents in every match so that they win by default, and when they do try and fight, they get their butts handed to them.
  • The Caribbean Team consists of A Pirate 400 Years Too Late and his scurvy crew and his daughter, who spies on the enemy team for him.
  • The American team is a less blatant example, considering it has Joe Swihan on it, but it does consist of a a white woman, a black man, and a native American man... and their three Braids, Beads and Buckskins medabots.
  • Team Sweden is a trio of Sexy Scandinavian Teen Idols. Subverted when they turn out to be male Gonks from the Rubberrobo gang.
  • Team Iceland gets a pass for being the most developed of the teams^note Team Kenya doesn't count, as Team Kenya basically amounts to Victor plus Two Flunkies, but consists of a trio of Nice Guys who like fishing, and their leader, Brenton, is introduced when he strikes a hot spring. Incidentally, Erika gets a massive Precocious Crush on him, Played for Drama rather than laughs.
• Next Tier Powerup:
  • Metabee undergoing an Evolution Powerup and using the Medaforce for the first time, which also kicks off the anime's first major arc.
  • Kouji attempts to earn one for Sumilodon with the Shadow Sword, not that it's ever shown to work. Sumilodon later gets the Extreme Shadow Sword as a personal Medaforce attack.
  • In Spirits, Metabee ends up being upgraded from his original KBT-1 body (Metabee) to a KBT-5 body (Saikachis, though still called "Metabee"). This can get confusing, since Spirits also features Roks (KWG-5), as an Expy of the original anime's Rokusho (KWG-1) (with the same voice actor, no less).
• No Mouth: Most, if not all, medabots. The main cast alone can fill this.
• Non-Standard Character Design:
  • A rare robot example. Robo-Emperor's design has more in common with an EVA unit than a regular Medabot.
  • Rintarou, but that is more in the side of being a Canon Immigrant of Medarot R for both the anime and the main serial manga adaptation.
• Numbered Sequels: The main series. Medarot (1) through 5; while it is not officially claimed as such, Medarot DS could be considered 6, Medarot 7 (A Continuity Reboot of DS) and Medarot 8 (not completely affiliated to the serials' canon as Medarot Dual, but).
• Ocular Gushers: And Metabee doesn't even have real eyes to do it with!
• Oh, Crap!: Dr. Meta-Evil's reaction to when the giant Metabee was about to ram him in the season finale.
• Older and Wiser:
  • Hikaru is this to Ikki in the videogames mostly, since he was the original protagonist of the first game. He also leads this role (somewhat) in the anime series.
  • Ikki is this himself when he is older in Medarot DS and Medarot 7, to a more younger protagonist, Azuma.
• Once per Episode:
  • Mr. Referee pops out from a random place and does his standard pre-battle speech, as seen at the top. This includes; coming out of the ocean, flying down from a helicopter/airplane, crawling up a burning rooftop, and already appearing to begin with.
  • Also, the chicken-seller, whose sales pitch is inevitably mistaken for Yoda-esque wisdom. He upgrades to rabbits for the final arc of the first season.
• One Game for the Price of Two: The games play this straight, then subvert it with the Parts Collections. The Parts Collection games were Gaiden Games with slightly different rules (normally winning a match gets you 1 randomly-selected part the opponent used, in Parts Collection you get a complete set of parts for a specific bot) designed specifically to get around the obstacle of not knowing anyone with the other edition.
• One of the Kids: Hikaru plays straight this in both the anime and the videogames.
  • In the anime it is assumed he is in his late-teens (there is not an official age given) but since he has been interacting with young medarotters at the Hopmart, he sometimes acts like someone of their age.
  • In Medarot 2, after being demoted from the main protagonist, he is described as in being in his early 20s, studying for college, trying to balance his love relationship with Kirara, working parttime in the Convenience Store, being a Phantom Thief at night... and overall, he still likes to play with medabots.
• Opaque Nerd Glasses: The student council members.
• Out of Focus: In Medarot 5, Ikki and co. are put through this to make much more focus to a new protagonist. However, the game still develops around the same town as Ikki's adventures went through in Medarot 2 - 4 and about some months later after the events of Medarot 4. This was the first game since Medarot 2 to use a new protagonist.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • The Phantom Renegade, whichever incarnation of him it is, should be immediately recognizable by his hairstyle, which is usually unhidden. The first Renegade pulls this off slightly better, as Renegade II has a head full of Anime Hair.
  • Exaggerated and parodied with Space Medafighter X, whose mask is almost identical to Phantom Renegade's, but in a nice golden hue. Not one member of the cast is able to make this connection until X takes a hit in the face and his mask splits open... to reveal the Renegade's mask directly beneath it. All this silliness actually helps distract from the fact that Henry is in fact legendary Medafighter Hikaru Agata, especially in the Japanese original, where Henry's name is still Hikaru.
  • Ikki Tenryou was a part of the DLC in Medarot Dual (look at the selection marked 5 to see him standing next to Arika). If you'll look at other selections on the page, you'll see two other figures with a very familiar hairstyle.
• Paper Tiger: Banisher, the robot of the Screws' ex-leader Baron Von Banish, looks big and tough, to the point that its "special attack" is said to be its "strong appearance". However, when put in an actual battle, Metabee drops it in one shot before it can do anything. In the games, Banisher is based on using counterattacks, so presumably Metabee critically injured its head before it got a chance to use any counterattacks.
• Percussive Maintenance: In Spirits, Metabee's head circuits get scrambled after getting wrecked by Redrun and he loses his memories, something not even Ms. Nae can fix. A reformed Ginkai has his Arcdash piledriver Metabee, which does the trick.
• Playing with Fire: ...and ice, and thunder, and missiles, and gravity, and...
• Police Are Useless: Zigzagged, depending on the continuity.
  • Averted, especially in the manga. The Select Corps are always behind the strange stuff that happen in the city, such as the presence of the Roborobos or Kaitou Retort doing his stuff. While the police is always there protecting the city and the country, the chief almost all the time gets stressed by these happenings...
  • In the anime series, on the other hand, they only show when serious stuff REALLY happens. When the Roborobos (the mooks, especially) or Kaitou Retort (being a well known thief) get serious, of course.
  • In the games, however, it's played straight. The Select Corps aren't particularly shown to be that useless or harmful, but they constantly fail to achieve anything, tend to be a massive inconvenience, and the chief will often take credit for busts and successes he had absolutely nothing to do with.
• Portmanteau: This show has a particularly awkward use of Gratuitous English. The dub ended up correcting a lot of them.
  • The Medarot title from Japan is a portmanteau of Medal Robot. Medabots, used by the Nelvana dub and almost everywhere else, is a better blend of the same two words.
  • Robottle = Robot Battle (changed to Robattle)
  • Medarotch = Medarot Watch (Medawatch)
  • Medarotter = Medarot Fighter (Medafighter)
  • "Metabee" (and other several medabots) has also a bit of this. In Medarot (1), it's the portmanteau nickname of "Metal Beetle", the first model of KBT used in the franchise, but when Medarot 2 is released, Metabee is used as the name of a new model of KBT. In the anime, since there is no original model of KBT (and KWG) used in the first game, Hikaru goes with the name of Metabee's model as "Metal Beetle", and lately named it as "Metabee".
• The Power of Friendship: Ikki and Metabee. All the time. When they're not at each others' throats.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: In the games, players name Medabots based on their Tinpets in the first two games, then their Medals in subsequent games. Since the anime doesn't delve into the mix-and-match elements of Medabots in the same way that the games do, Medabots are simply named after their Medaparts set. This is much of the reason why the two multi-version games that relased internationally changed the version names from the mascots' Medals (Kabuto and Kuwagata) to their completed models (Metabee and Rokusho).
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Hikaru, main character of the original Medarot games, shows up in games where Ikki is the main character as a convenience store clerk in college. Ikki does the same after he grows up.
• Pungeon Master: Phantom Renegade likes making explosion puns. Usually punctuating his explosives.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Averted. There are both male and female Tinpets that can wear only male or female Medaparts respectively.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Anime: Pretty much everybody save Ikki, Metabee, Arika, and the Screws come Spirits.
  • Videogames: Everyone, save Ikki, Metabee (in a new body), Arika, Nae and Dr. Akibahara, who are seen 9-8 years after Medarot 5 concludes, in Medarot DS.
    • The Bus Came Back: Almost if not all the main characters and side-characters of the main series of games reappear as DLC characters for Medarot Dual.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Roborobo (dub: Rubber Robo) Gang, clearly inspired by the one-and-only Team Rocket; in the anime they introduce themselves as the local Goldfish Poop Gang, but towards the end their individual names and personalities and unique appearances are revealed just as they're finally discovered to be Not So Harmless Villains.
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: Medabot arms and legs are detachable, and in addition the loser of a battle must give a part of his bot to the winner. Thus, occasionally one might see Medabots with mismatched arms and legs that don't fit the body at all, either for strategic reasons or because they lost the original parts to someone.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ikki and Kouji, Metabee and Rokusho.
• Rescue Arc: The Rubberrobo gang takes two hostages near and dear to Ikki in the lead-up to the big bad's first major gambit, one right after the other. The second one necessitates Ikki's friends and even the Screws coming together to form a Badass Crew.
• Retool: Medabot Spirits. Everyone who isn't Ikki, Metabee, Erika, Brass, or the Screws might as well not exist (ignoring brief guest appearances by Dr. Aki and the Tenryou family). The Medaforce is So Last Season, and all the significant Medabots are upgraded to or replaced with new models that can Medachange into "Action Mode", a weaponized vehicle form. Also, while the Rubber-Robo gang aspired to use Medabots to Take Over the World, X-treme Tech aspires to create Kilobots, soulless weapons that are meant to replace Medabots entirely. The Select Corps are also a no-show, despite the Kilobots being a prominent threat (which had the consequence of retconning Juzuo Tenryou's status so that he is never part of the group).
• Returning the Handkerchief: How Ikki met Karin.
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Kouji and Ikki are rivals for Karin's feelings. Too bad she doesn't seem to notice their feelings.
• Right-Hand Cat: Subverted. The cat is the brains of the operation.
• Ring Out: How Spyke's Krosserdog took out Team Egypt's T-Mummy Medabots in the World Robattle Tournament, saving Sumilidon and allowing a one-on-one match between Metabee and Cleobattler.
• The Rival:
  • Metabee and Rokusho (and their myriad alternates and upgrades) are often presented as this, dueling or competing in opening cutscenes or promotional materials.
  • Medarot 2 introduced Sumilidon and Warbandit as Kouji's main Medabot; he has the saber-tooth tiger Sumilidon in Metabee version and king lion Warbandit in the Rokusho version. Since the anime took Metabee version as its basis, Kouji stuck with Sumilidon and Warbandit ended up with Victor of Team Kenya.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Due to a series of accidents with a Batman Gambit thrown in: Karin finds Rokusho's old friend. Rokusho asks to help the parrot just before seeing it's Baton, who was one of Dr Hushi's creations. Karin and Rokusho go to Dr. Aki, who was one of Hushi's assistances, and see if they can fix Baton with Aki's technology. Upon partically fixing Baton, Baton's memory kicks in and Rokusho hears that it was Aki who burned Hushi's home to the ground. Aki runs in with an axe on accident to alert Karin that Rubber-Robo Members were stalking around the house. Cue rampage with paranoia.
• Robot Buddy: The main idea of the show. In the anime, the main cast are all arranged in individual Medafighter-Medabot pairs that highlight a specific relationship between them; in the games, the Medabots have no established personality at all and are usually arranged into teams of "Leader Medabot and two supporting Medabots". (The anime usually chooses the leader Medabot to be the anime partner).
• Robotic Undead: One episode of the anime has a vampire-inspired Medabot called Dracudon. Kam infects it with a computer virus that wipes a Medabot's personalities and transforms them into robotic zombies that exist only to attack other Medabots and spread the virus.
• Robot War: The "Ten Days of Darkness", an event where nearly every Medabot in the world went crazy and almost destroyed it, eight years ago. This event almost repeated itself if it wasn't for the efforts of Ikki and Metabee.
• Running Gag:
  • Mr. Referee, who always manages to always be where the principal characters are in order to officiate the robottle about to happen. A few occasions, he also appears in a fitting guise or place. It's lampshaded in the Tournament Arc when the WMF announcer cites this as what Mr. Referee is known for.
  Ikki: "I wonder what he does when he isn't refereeing..."
  • No matter how awesome his heists are, Phantom Renegade is almost incapable of pulling one off without goofing something up; he'll get distracted and do things like drop his loot or bash his head on something hard. He's like a gymnast who can't stick the landing.
• Ship Sinking: In the games' universe this happens at least twice. Hikaru has a close relationship with Nae and Kirara in Medarot, but canon-speaking, he ends up with Kirara in Medarot 2. In Medarot DS, after long 9 years of absence since Medarot 4, it is implied that Ikki maybe does not show so much of feelings towards Arika, besides being 'friends... it is justified, though, since they were sided as helping characters rather than protagonists, and Karin does not fit in the equation either (there is not even a mention of her in the game), as neither does Nae.
• Ship Tease:
  • Ikki and Arika in some episodes. The original Japanese ending, Yappari Kimi ga Suki! (Still I Love You!) by Arika's seiyuu Eri Sendai herself, is about Arika's feelings for Ikki.
  • On the other hand, "Toshi Shita no Boku", the Japanese ending for Medabot Spirits, is about Ikki's crush on Nae (which is not canon to the games, admittedly).
  • Despite the fact that Karin is technically a member of Ikki's love triangle, she comes with her own competing suitor, Kouji. In the games, Kouji is overprotective of Karin due to her heart's condition. In the latter half of the original anime, while Kouji struggles with the fact that he and Sumilodon Can't Catch Up, Karin goes above and beyond in her efforts to help him out or cheer him up^note Though she runs smack into Unwanted Assistance in her overenthusiasm once or twice.
  • In the video games, there are side-quests that will produce a Relationship Upgrade for Ikki with either Arika or Karin.
• Shout-Out:
  • On one occasion in the dub, Ikki asks if Medabots can dream. Metabee chips in, saying he dreams of electric sheep.
  • Coach Moutain was once looking for Groundskeeper Billy. He also at one point manages to obtain "A Fistful of Dollars".
  • Robo-Emperor was clearly inspired by EVA: 01.
  • During an episode where he was "training" with Dr. Aki (read: dusting his house), Ikki mentions seeing a movie where a kid learns karate from a wise old mentor by doing chores for him, and thinks Dr. Aki is doing the same thing.
  • From episode 27, medafighter Dragon Ryuuchirou is obviously not an expy of Bruce Lee.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: This is a world where children are allowed to operate robots with built-in sub-machineguns with no problem.
• So Last Season:
  • Anime: The Medaforce, supposedly the strongest expression of Medabot power, is shown to be completely useless against Kilobots in the first episode of Spirits until later on.
  • Videogames: Ikki's KBT Medabots, in contrast to the anime where he holds dear Metabee's medal and body, in the games he mostly cares about the medal, so it's pretty much guaranteed that he will upgrade Metabee to a newer KBT model between games:
    • KBT-0 Metal Beetle — Medarot (Which was actually Hikaru's "Metabee")
    • KBT-1 Metabee — Medarot 2
    • KBT-50 Saikichis — Medarot 4
    • KBT-4 Arc-Beetle — Medarot DS
• Spell My Name With An S:
  • Some people tend to get confused as to whether to call Ikki's best friend Arika, Erica, or Erika^note it doesn't help that some Nelvana episodes still pronounce her name "Arika" anyway.
  • As with all things anime, trying to figure out what non-native words the Japanese are trying to use is often a challenge. Sumilidon, for example, would probably have been better translated as Smilodon.
  • Roborobo? Robo Robo? Rubber Robo? Rubberrobo? Rubberobo? (For what it's worth, The Other Wiki lists it as "Rubberrobo").
• The Stoic:
  • Sloan, though he can get unnerved at times. Rokusho, Victor, and Kam from Spirits are more straight examples.
  • Rokusho does this with a mentor-like twist. However, when his friend Baton falsely says that Dr Aki killed his old master...
• The Stormbringer: During the International Tournament Arc, a Canadian Robattler arrives in town to challenge Ikki, at the same time a massive snowstoom hits. He claims that he brought the storm with him, causing Ikki to briefly question if such a thing was possible. The challenger then admits that, no, he didn't cause the storm, people can't control the weather.
• Straight for the Commander: The robattle win condition in the video games is to take out the enemy commander (and more specifically, the commander's Head unit), but woe unto you if you neglect to account for the enemy's support.
• The Strategist: Most competent medafighters need to be this by necessity. For a Mons show for kids, it's impressively tactical.
• Sunglasses at Night:
  • Dr. Aki rarely gets his own pair of sunglasses off. Though this is often dismissed in the manga adaptation of the games.
  • The Roborobos' Sinister Shades. When things got really, really serious, they would take them off to reveal their real identities just to fight as proper medafigthers.
• Super Prototype: The first Robo Emperor. It was too powerful, and stuck in storage while newly designed, nerfed versions were put into production.
• Support Party Member: There exist several Medabots which cannot inflict damage, such as the healing and shielding Neutra-Nurse and Dr. Bokchoy, whose sole purpose is scanning for the location of enemies, thus detecting invisible foes and improving the accuracy of teammates.
• Taking Up the Mantle: In the game universe, Ikki becomes the new Phantom Renegade in Medarot DS, as well as working at the Hop Mart, to outright placing Metabee's medal in an Arc-Beetle.
• Tangled Family Tree: In the anime, Karin (who is Ikki's age) is Dr. Aki's niece, while Nae (who is Henry's age) is his granddaughter.
• Teleport Spam: The secret weapon of the American team in the World Championship.
• Team-Based Tournament: This is how the World Tournament was set up. The top 3 Medafighters of their respective country are selected to be part of teams of three in order to compete in the tournament.
• Terrible Trio: The Screws, consisting of Samantha, Spyke, and Sloan, are a gang of Medafighters at Ikki's school. Samantha commands a Peppercat, Spyke has a Cyandog, and Sloan a Totalizer. They also have a once-seen "boss" in Baron von Banish, who turns out to be a complete pushover. Once he's dispatched, the Screws carry on without him.
  Samantha: Put the Screws to 'em!
• Theme Naming: Each one of the members of the Roborobo Gang is named after some kind of seafood. Dub-wise, the Screws all have names beginning with "S", and the Rubber-Robos have had their names changed to simple sea creatures.
• Three Laws-Compliant:
  • In the games, they're called "The Three Laws of Medabots." A boy at Rosewood Private School indicates that Medabots are not allowed to harm humans on purpose. He wonders if that makes it okay if it happens on accident.
  • In the anime, Metabee doesn't really have a problem with unloading everything he's got in Ikki's general direction.
• Time Skip: This is played between the first game (2010) and the second (2022), where twelve years have passed. And, it also happens again between Medarot 5 (the fifth game of the series) and Medarot DS/Medarot 7, with another 9-8 years.
• To Be Lawful or Good: During the International Tournament Arc, Mr. Referee isn't remotely pleased to be required to uphold the new rule that requires contestants to ante their Medabots' medals each match.
• To Be a Master: Double Subverted. Ikki doesn't really take an interest in such things until it turns out he's #3 in all of Japan, and even then his friends are as concerned about him becoming a master as much as he is (possibly even more so). Before that, the series was more about his episodic clashes with the Rubberrobo Gang.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl:
  • Arika and Karin; Arika is such a tomboy that she's still wearing overalls when she's 19 years old. Kikuhime/Samantha also plays Tomboy to Arika at times.
  • Fubuki and Hiyori for Navi's main cast.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak:
  • Samantha, leader of the Screws, takes ballet lessons.
  • In Medabot Spirits, Erika keeps a secret garden, which she doesn't want to tell anyone else about since she's afraid that (A) the boys will turn it into a Robattle arena and (B) they'll start thinking of her as a Girly Girl Tagalong Kid.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Ikki and takoyaki. A one-off example is Hikaru using a watermelon to bait Metabee, who is lured in because he has a kabuto-type Medal and beetles like sweet fruits.
• Transforming Mecha: While some early Medabots (like Landrotor) could transform into cars or jets, the main example of this is in Medachange.
  • Medachange was introduced in Medarot 3 and allowed a handful of Medabots (the newest generation of mainstay Medabots, natch) to transform into alternate modes, replacing their ability to charge the Medaforce. Some Medabots have the "Shift Transform" ability, which isn't as powerful, but has no other drawbacks, while others have the "Power Transform", which costs Medaforce.
  • In Medabot Spirits, Medachange works slightly differently. Most Medabots can transform into their basic alternate form, here called Action Mode (jp. Reckless Mode), which lacks all of their attack abilities it had in the game. These missing attacks are later gained when the Medabots start gaining access to Demolition Mode (jp. Crafty Mode), which is usually a heavily-weaponized alt-mode. Not all Medachange-capables have a Demolition Mode; Arcbeetle-Dash and Tyrelbeetle, for example, perform a Fusion Dance to become Master Beetle instead.
• 20 Minutes into the Future:
  • The videogames (Medarot to Medarot 7) and the manga develop between 2010-2033.
  • Though it is an Alternate Continuity from the original source of the franchise, the anime series is debatably happening around the 2020s in the original version (the timeline of Medarot 2 through 4, where the anime is sort-of based on, happens in that decade) but changed to the 22nd century in the English dub.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Applies for Episode 51 of the original Japanese dub - With regards to the revelation of the truth behind the Ten Days of Darkness and the real history of the Medabots (The English dub glossed over some details since it was particularly dark and intense compared to the rest of the episodes in the series). Team America and Team Egypt had previously accused Hikaru of causing that event, but Hikaru cleared it up - He was the one who actually stopped it: By killing his own Medabot who was the first Metabee (Not Ikki's), and the chaos took 10 days to end due to him hesitating and delaying until he could find no other alternative. Hikaru made it very clear that it was a Character Death, that the original Metabee was gone forever since his current Arcbeetle had the original's repaired medal but none of the personality and memories. Victor was about to do the same to Warbandit before Ikki stopped him. Meanwhile Metabee recalled his past life which was so unexpectedly bloody and violent that he suffered a brief Heroic BSoD.
• Un Reveal: When mysterious Space-Medafighter X's golden mask is split to reveal... the equally-mysterious Phantom Renegade's white mask. (Of course, the Dramatic Irony is that only the cast members are in the dark about him).
• The Unfettered: Kam and his underlings deliberately invoke this in Spirits, challenging Medafighters to street brawls where the free-for-all rules include things like swapping out damaged or spent weapons for new ones as needed and attacking the enemy Medafighter directly, which takes them out of the category of Jerkass and puts them directly into Terrorist.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Ikki, Kouji, and Kagiyama during their match against Team Sweden, who are presented as a trio of beautiful Idol Singers, but who are actually Roborobos... MALE Roborobos. UGLY male Roborobos.
• Unwanted Assistance: For a brief moment, Spyke (as Space Medafighter X) and Krosserdog tried to help but as expected, end up hindering Ikki and Koji. Although this trope was subverted in the end when Krosserdog miraculously did a Ring Out on himself and two of Team Egypt's Medabots.
• Verbal Tic: This is applied in both versions of the anime, but it's more noticeable in the Japanese one with the Rubber-Robo Gang, since they usually end their sentences with the word "robo".
• Video Game Remake:
  • The original Medarot game for Game Boy was released as Medarot: Perfect Edition for the Bandai's WonderSwan in 1999 and Medarot: True Type (or Shingata: Medarot) for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 (with whole different characters and redesigns, and whole different graphics and music compared to its original game, using the engine of Medarot 2 CORE).
  • Medarot 2, originally released on the Game Boy Color, got this treatment too, released as Medarot 2 CORE in 2002/2003 for the GBA. This version was one of the only games to make it to western shores, under the names Medabots: Metabee Version and Medabots: Rokusho Version. It should be noted that the remake is also a Recursive Adaptation, integrating bits and pieces from the anime back into the story.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Kam, from Medabot Spirits, who in the first five episodes or so of the show uses his Kilobots to destroy Medabot medals, and even has one chase Nae's truck with the heroes inside, actually shooting at the vehicle the whole time... making him both a serial killer and a terrorist.
• Villain Decay:
  • Played straight with the Screws gang in the original anime series. They were major threats to Ikki in the first two episodes, and quickly devolved into mostly punching bags for other Medafighters including Ikki for the rest of the series.
  • Inverted for the Rubberrobo gang in the anime. While the recurring four members (Seaslug, Gillgirl, Squidguts, Shrimplips) remained largely comedic in their roles, they also remained just as difficult for Ikki to overcome. In fact once it is revealed that Dr. Meta-evil is in charge and had world domination plans, their threat level goes up.
• Villains Out Shopping: Near the end of the World Tournament, the Phantom Renegade interrupts an argument between the Screws. He happens to be riding a bike with some groceries in the basket, suggesting he'd been out shoppin in full Renegade regalia.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • This is the basis of the friendship between Ikki and Metabee in the anime, since they often fight as if they were siblings.
  • In the first manga adaptation, Hikaru and his Metabee act more as friends or siblings, instead of an owner and their pet.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Several Medabots have this attack. A prime example is Arc-Beetle's signature attack, the Prominence. The Medaforce also acts like this.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the introductory episode, the Rubberrobo gang and Phantom Renegade clash over the medal that Ikki would later find in the river, but no details are given over the man who was transporting the medal or why he was in the first place.
• White Mask of Doom: Phantom Renegade and technically Space Medafighter X, whose mask is identical to the Phantom's, but colored gold.
• Wild Card: Phantom Renegade's goal is to steal all rare medals, usually bringing him into conflict with the Rubberrobo gang, but he's also got his eyes on Metabee, whom he tolerates due to the growing bond Ikki shares with him. While his true allegiances are revealed by the end of the first season, Nelvana released an out-of-order episode in the second season where he was still in his wildcard phase, causing the scratch of many a head.
• Wild Take: Taken over the top at times. Ikki freaking out over Kouji being above him in the national rankings is a good example.
• "With Our Swords" Scene: There is a scene where Metabee has been badly damaged, so he borrows Sumilidon's super-fast legs, and the Arm Cannons of Krosserdog and Rokusho.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Upon meeting Dr. Aki and asking him to help train, Ikki and Metabee are asked to clean his house. Ikki believes they are acting The Karate Kid, the chores they do are actually fighting moves. When they enter an actual battle, Dr. Aki states it was just dirty and he needed cleaning, even asking Ikki how he thought cleaning had anything to do with a fight between two robots.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In Episode 51, Dr. Meta-Evil fired his henchmen and said that he only used them to have all the world's Medabots dominate the earth.

---

FUNCTION CEASED!

---