All spoilers for Juukou B-Fighter are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Ten years after the Jamahl Empire fell, a new threat, the Melzard tribe, emerges. At the revamped Earth Academia called Cosmo Academia, Takuya Kai and Guru work on a new generation of Insect-Powered Powered Armor suits. When the Melzard launches their first attack, two of the suits are immediately entrusted to Kengo Tachibana and Ran Ayukawa. The third is soon entrusted to Ordinary High-School Student Kouhei Toba. With the new team in place, the Melzard's schemes for Earth have reached a dead end.
The New Generation B-Fighters:
- Kouhei Toba/B-Fighter Kabuto: The Hero; an Ordinary High-School Student who becomes involved in the fight against evil.
- Kengo Tachibana/B-Fighter Kuwaga: Big Lancer; a student initially bitter with Kouhei for taking the mantle of B-Fighter Kabuto instead of him. However, he does warm up to our hero.
- Ran Ayukawa/B-Fighter Tentou: Smart Chick; she is so involved with technology that she is naive on natural matters.
Our heroes are soon joined by:
- Mac Windy/B-Fighter Yanma: A Funny Foreigner from New York, very much Sanguine.
- Julio Rivera/B-Fighter Genji: A Peruvian archaeologist, love interest for Ran, who taught her to experience the beauty of nature. Played by legendary suit actor Seiji Takaiwa, in one of his only face roles.
- Li Wen/B-Fighter Min: A Chinese elementary schoolteacher and Technical Pacifist.
- Sophie Villeneuve/B-Fighter Ageha: A French violinist and love interest for Kouhei; responsible for wakening the Astral Saber.
Melzard Tribe:
- Mother Melzard: The Big Bad
- Dinosaur Warrior Raija: The Saurian-Armored Dragon.
- Deep Sea Fish-man Dezzle: Raija's fish-armored brother and arch-enemy.
- Insect Swordswoman Miola: The Insectoid-armored Dark Action Girl.
- B-Crushers: The Psycho Rangers:
- B-Crusher Deathcorpion: A Noble Demon.
- B-Crusher Mukaderinger: The Dirty Coward.
- B-Crusher Killmantis: The Master Swordsman.
- B-Crusher Beezack: A Master of Disguise and Killmantis's partner-in-crime.
Recurring Metal Hero tropes include:
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Cho Juko!" ("Super Heavy Shell!")
- Humongous Mecha: Two giant Kojin ("Shell Gods") appear in the series on either side, Kabuterios for the heroes and Kuwaga Titan for the Melzard.
- Standard Evil Organization Squad: Mother Melzard and her four children, who serve as generals of the Melzard Tribe. The B-Crushers form their own sub-squad.
B-Fighter Kabuto provides examples of the following tropes:
- Back from the Dead: Raija and Dezzle are slain at different points midway through, but both return in Episode 36 complete with new superpowered forms.
- Bee Afraid: Beezack's armor motif.
- But Not Too Foreign: Except for Mac (played by the American Reuben Langdon), all the New B-Fighters are played by Japanese actors. Sophie's actress is half-Spanish, even though she’s French.
- Crash-Into Hello: Kouhei first meets Sophie when she accidentally runs into him.
- Creepy Centipedes: Mukaderinger's stolen insect power gives him this motif.
- Crossover: The first B-Fighters appear to aid our heroes for some episodes.
- De-power: After Guru dies the original B-Fighters lose their powers a few episodes before the finale. In the actual finale the new B-Fighters do as well after their victory. Though by the time of Gavan vs Dekaranger their powers seem to have been restored as Kouhei and Takuya are shown transformed again when they are scouted for Space Squad.
- End of an Era: This would be the last Metal Heroes to have a serious plot. While the franchise continued on for two more seasons in B-Robo Kabutack and Tetsuwan Tantei Robotack, both were much much more light-hearted.
- Everybody Cries: In #47, after Guru dies, the old and new B-Fighters all weep around his body.
- Final Battle: The final episode is fittingly named the "The Last Battle" and features the final battle between the B-Fighters and the Melzard Tribe.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: The Will of Light, the source of the Insect Medals, the Shell Gods and several of the other power sources both generations of B-Fighters used. It created them originally to defeat the Will of Darkness, after which they would be used to battle the descendants the Will of Darkness left behind.
- Heel–Face Turn: Kuwaga Titan joins the good guys in the finale in order to battle Mother Melzard's final form.
- Japanese Beetle Brothers: B-Fighter Kabuto and B-Fighter Kuwaga, like their predecessors, are a Type A. There's also the two rival Humongous Mecha, Kabuterios and Kuwaga Titan, each of which serves a different side.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The B-Crushers, what with names like Des/Deathcorpion and Killmantis.
- Organic Technology: A lot of the weapons and vehicles the Melzard Tribe use resemble technology, but are living organic creatures.
- Power Trio: Kabuto, Kuwaga and Tentou, like their predecessors.
- The Psycho Rangers: The B-Crushers, opposites of the four New B-Fighters created by the Melzard Tribe.
- Rookie Red Ranger: Kouhei Toba is the youngest and most inexperienced of the B-Fighters, but earned becoming one after showing his courage.
- Scary Scorpions: Descorpion's armor motif as a result of his Scorpion Medal.
- Sequel Series: It's a direct follow up on the previous B-Fighter show.
- Serial Escalation: Compared to the original B-Fighter, who only had one unofficial Sixth Ranger in the form of Kabuto, this series adds Four of them. The same goes for the Evil Counterpart. The original series had Black Beet. This series introduces a full team of them with the B-Crushers.
- Slaying Mantis: Miolra, a deadly mantis-themed warrior woman fighting for the Melzard Tribe. And with the B-Crushers we have the aptly named Killmantis.
- Super Soldiers: The New Generation of B-Fighters, who were developed to combat the Melzard Tribe when they invade.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Sophie in her debut is simultaneously stated be 14, and have it written on a monitor that she was born in 1979. Even if this wasn't 5 years in the future, Sophie would be 16 in the events of the series with that birthdate.
