Zoids: Chaotic Century (known in Japan as "Kiju Shinseiki Zoido") was a manga written and illustrated by Michiro Ueyama, and published in Coro Coro Magazine. It was later published in North America by Viz, who gave it the same title as its anime adaptation. It outlasted its anime adaptation for several months until eventually being cancelled around the same time as the New Century anime. Ueyama continued the story in the form of an unofficial doujinshi, but it too remains unfinished.
This series provides examples of:
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Happens virtually twice a story arc, with Van's Liger recieving one from the arc's Big Bad, before it receives some kind of powerup and is able to give the villain a curb-stomping of its own. Of note is the Death Stinger, which makes the Blade Liger look like a joke, until its core is transferred into a Liger Zero, which is able to dismember the Death Stinger quite easily. Equally matched battles in this series are the exception rather than the norm.
- Embarrassing First Name: Raven's real name is Joyce Chen.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being smaller than a regular Zoid, Zeke is capable of defeating even medium-sized Zoids such as the Zaber Fang, (though heavily armoured Zoids like the Red Horn prove more troublesome.)
- Mecha Expansion Pack: The Berserk Fury acquires its own CAS- the Shadow Edge - prior to the series' final battle.
- Midseason Upgrade: Van gets three. After his Command Wolf self destructs to beat the Zaber Fang, he acquires a Shield Liger, named Caesar. Caesar later metamorphoses into a Blade Liger, and then has its core installed into a prototype Liger Zero, which itself gets a Mecha Expansion Pack in the form of the Liger Zero Caesar CAS.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Berserk Fury vs. Geno Breaker is this, combined with an epic Curb-Stomp Battle, as per usual. After shrugging off the Breaker's particle beam, the Fury charges the Breaker and effortlessly cuts it apart in an instant; the fight is over before the chunks even hit the ground!
- Toy Less Toyline Character: Has several, primarily the Liger Zero Caesar and Berserk Fury Shadow Edge CASes, and the Stealth Dragon, the manga's mid-season upgrade for the Stealth Viper. There are also a few minor ones, such as transport Zoids Leviathan and Kraken, the two-headed Pteras Gemini, Precios the custom Brachios, and the wild Solbatross Zoids. The Precios appears to have been given a Continuity Nod in the form of Dark Nessios in the Rebirth Century line.
