Marblegen is a French animated series co-produced in 2018 by Monello Productions and Studio Red Frog, with the partecipation of Rai Ragazzi, TF1 and Canal J. In France, this series has been transmitted on TF1 starting from the 4th November 2018.
In a not-too-distant future, marbles competitions have become popular all over the world, with players using alchemy-powered marbles that contain the powers of magical and mythological figures. Every year, a competition is held among the best Marblegen players in the world, with the prize being a particularly powerful and prized marble.
In this world, orphans Cosmo and Samuel and high-class schoolgirl Aissa are recruited by the young alchemist Luna to take part in the current year's tournament. Luna is the heir of the Costello, a family of alchemists who were disgraced when they lost the mythical marble Mercury, and this improbable but highly-spirited team will need to get past all competition in order to thwart the plans of the corrupt business tycoon Marcellus King, who wants Mercury for his own nefarious ends.
Tropes:
- Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: There are ways of permanently connecting oneself to the spirit world, as discovered by characters from the graphic novels such as Cagliostro and Tanzang. While Cagliostro got the short end of the stick by remaining stuck to where his marble was, having become a Marblegen and becoming condemned to eternal loneliness until the Meteors showed up, Tanzang instead relished in his newfound immortality after reaching the Ethers through meditation and befriending three free spirits (Monkey, Sandy and Pigsy).
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Poor Aissa's been living this trope for years, her birthdays always turning to nightmares. It's only during episode 11, where things initially are as sucky as every birthday, that she's able to anticipate the troubles ahead and turn her horrible day into a happier one.
- Alchemy Is Magic: Marblegens are created through complex alchemical procedures and contain the power of mythical figures.
- Amnesiac Resonance: After losing his memory to Lethe, Cosmo finds out he still loves playing Marble Games, pulling out good Sniper moves even if he doesn't fully know what he's doing.
- Animesque: The animation, art style, characters, fights, and general premise wouldn't be too out of place in an anime series like Pokémon: The Series or Yu-Gi-Oh!.
- Bait-and-Switch: In the Marblegen Origines manga, as Saba, Zumeo and Marco enter the Ethers where Majaji's soul is kept prisoner as a gift to Quetzalcoatl, Zumeo is given an item to write what spirit he wants to get in exchange for his victory in the soul tournament his team participated in. To Saba and Marco's distraught reaction, Zumeo demanded to get the spirit of Chronos, the Marblegen that can control time, instead of their fallen friend's soul... all so that Zumeo could not only free Majaji while Quetzalcoatl is frozen, but also all the souls captured by the Rayo family, making it so that they wouldn't be the only one benefiting from this victory and allowing all the other participants to leave with the souls of their close ones back to them.
- Big Bad: Marcellus King, a greedy businessman who wants his team to win the Marblegames in order to gain Mercury and add its power to that of Jupiter.
- Big Brother Instinct: Cosmo is this big time for Sam whenever the latter finds himself in danger.
- Call-Forward: Many of the Marblegen Origines characters are either characters we see as adults (such as Zumeo's friend Idris) or related to the modern-day Snipers (such as Ricky Bombek, a bounty hunter whose clan members meet Cosmo in "Cosmo Forgets").
- Daddy's Little Villain: Kali is Marcellus' daughter and willingly assists her father in his plans.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: In the Marblegen Origines manga, Zumeo pulls this feat big time, tricking Quetzalcoatl into giving him the key to freeing all of his victims at once.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Marcellus is a good father to Kali, and Kali is likewise devoted to her father.
- Fish out of Water: Aïssa appears to be this. The first episode shows her getting along well explaining strategies to fellow Marble fanatics, but she rarely ever makes friends outside of the Meteors and even at the beginning, kids on the playground call her the "new girl". The first graphic novel somewhat explains why: due to her parents' work, she moved around a lot and has only been in Olympia for less than a year, hence why she's familiar with Marble Games but has only met Cosmo, Luna and Sam at the beginning of the show.
- Foregone Conclusion: The Marblegen Origines manga predates the incident in which Zumeo loses Mercury. While he, Saba and Marco do manage to rescue Majaji and go home safely, the reader knows that this happiness is only temporary, as Zumeo will one day be disgraced and lose the luxurious family life he has. And given Marco's resemblance in name and appearance to King, it's only a matter of time before Zumeo finds himself friendless as well.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Cosmo as the sanguine, Aissa as the phlegmatic, Sam as the choleric and Luna as the melancholic. Most of the time, Zumeo also counts as eclectic.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Invoked by Kali in episode 19, switching appearances with Aissa to steal the Meteors' secret techniques and Marblegens. It takes some thinking from Aissa and Sam to not only outsmart King who captured them, but also find a way to gain her body back. The whole mess ironically plays in their favor, as Kali inadvertently gives them a lead on how to unlock a new Marblegen, but Aissa herself finds the actual solution within King's office.
- Generation Xerox: The Meteors are this to the "Astres" (French for "celestial body"), a trio formed of Zumeo, Marco and Saba. Uniquely for this trope, both Cosmo and Luna seem to succeed to Zumeo, as he was both the team alchemist (albeit never creating marbles or using any alchemical component but rather using his knowledge in Battles) and a Sniper, but considered himself more of the former. To add on to parallels, Zumeo also relies on Remus and finds himself fighting against Quetzalcoatl in the Ethers, which Cosmo himself does in similar circumstances.
- Giant Spider: Sam's pet spider Rachnida gets enlarged to monstrous size in Episode 3. She gets better.
- Girlish Pigtails: Aissa, as a contrast with Luna's Tomboyish Ponytail.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Subverted with Luna, who actually needs those goggles to protect her eyes during alchemical experiments.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Jupiter, as revealed in the finale, has only allowed King to take hold of him and use his marble's powers to enrich himself so that King would lead him to the other Marble Origins and that they'd reconstitute the emerald table. Once King's team has lost, Jupiter takes over his body and loses all pretense of cooperating.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Episode 11: The opponents for that day, the Shadows, have a particular Marblegen that houses the power of Chronos, the god of time. Every time Cosmo and his friends get close to winning, their opponents use Chronos' power to rewind time and repeat the day, the implication being that they'll continue doing this until Cosmo and Aissa let them win. It takes some serious outside-the-box thinking to keep the Shadows from invoking Chronos.
- Impostor Forgot One Detail: While pretending to be Kali, Aïssa feigns having captured Sam so that King assumes she came back home after the mission of infiltrating the Meteors failed. Only her calling King "Dad" tips him off, as Kali normally calls him "Father".
- Knight in Shining Armor: The Purple Knights from Episode 4 adopt this motif for their team. But they certainly don't live up to it.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: While bonding with Lethe, a Marblegen who has the power to erase memories (made by Zumeo to erase the memory of losing Mercury, before he realized it'd also mean forgetting Luna and his wife), Cosmo finds himself unable to remember who he is, what Marblegens are, how they work and who his friends and foes are, which King takes advantage of. It's only after Luna bests Lethe in a riddle to regain his memory and Cosmo gets over his fear of Remus to bond with him again that he finally recalls who he is.
- Muggle Best Friend: Sam is this, never participating in any Battle and only occasionally using (or being the victim of) a Marblegen outside the game. The second graphic novel expands on this, revealing him to be the spiritual successor of Tanzang, a Chinese warrior who didn't bond with any spirit, but befriended them regardless. To the point said spirits not only brought him to the Ethers where he met Tanzang, but he was likened to a reincarnation of the monk. He remains a member of the Meteors, serving as everyone's intel guy and occasionally as Luna's assistant.
- Noble Wolf: Cosmo and Aissa's favorite marble spirits, Romulus and Remus, take the form of two wolves.
- Orphanage of Fear: Cosmo and Sam grew up in one before running away. Cosmo was forced to play illegal marble games to enrich the director, or else poor Sam would be locked into a closet as punishment. And the director shows up about halfway through the show to take them back.
- Pals with Jesus: Generally what happens whenever a Sniper bonds with a high-ranking spirit, but special mention goes to the Meteors. Not only do Luna and Aïssa actually meet the God Hermes himself, but Mercury manifests in the finale to grant Cosmo and Aïssa the right power to defeat Jupiter once and for all. The graphic novels also have them meet numerous Marblegen spirits and humans who don't live in the real world on good terms.
- Poor Communication Kills: To literal levels. Luna refuses to listen to her dad when he warns her against using Uroboros fangs, and she does so out of defiance, without realizing the venom inside those fangs is making Cosmo and Aissa ill. Zumeo later realizes if he had bothered to explain to Luna why it's a bad idea instead of jotting it down, she wouldn't have almost poisoned her friends (or at least been made aware that the antidote was in front of her the whole time).
- Rags to Riches: If Zumeo's childhood friend and fellow Sniper Marco does happen to be Marcellus King, it would appear he got out of the slum and street thug lifestyle to become an evil businessman instead.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Quetzalcoatl embodies this to the fullest. Not only is he the reason why the Voodoo Lovers and the Rayo family in general sacrifice souls, but in the present time, he tricks Kali while she's in the Mental Palace, making her believe he's her servant, when in reality he's just buying himself time to capture her, Cosmo and Remus into his domain within the Ethers so he can feast on their souls.
- Riches to Rags: Zumeo was a rich young heir to the Costello clan, as seen in the Marblegen Origines manga, before Mercury gets stolen. In the present day, he lives in an old workshop with his daughter, with no sign of the rich lifestyle he used to have.
- Ship Tease: A very small, inconsequential one in the first episode, has Sam tell Cosmo and Aïssa to give each other a kiss to make peace. Neither responds and the scene proceeds.
- The Marblegen Origines manga has several between Zumeo and Majaji (who Zumeo obviously fancies), but also between Zumeo and Saba due to the latter being more present throughout the story. The fact both sisters have a dark complexion hints that one of them may have become Luna's mother.
- Something Only They Would Say: Invoked by Aïssa several times after that Kali uses a Marbletech to switch their bodies. She manages to convince Sam, Luna and Cosmo of her true identity by letting it drop that Sam has a bag of chips under his bed and that Cosmo once burned off his eyebrows using Remus, requiring Aïssa to draw him fake eyebrows with a marker so that no one would notice, the annoyance of both boys being enough to prove her identity. She also deliberately speaks like Kali by yelling rude things at King's henchmen, which they fall for (and ironically end up capturing the real Kali at the end when she tells them the Meteors are right there).
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Director Bombi brings child abuse and exploitation into a light-hearted show about alchemy-powered marbles.
- We Used to Be Friends: Implied, but Marcellus King's stark resemblance to Marco, Zumeo's childhood friend, indicates that they'd eventually go their separate ways if Marcellus and Marco do happened to be the same person. The first episode narration confirming he used to be an alchemist for the Rayo family, previous owners of Jupiter and first arc antagonists of the Marblegen Origines manga, would indicate that he eventually had a change of heart and preferred power over friendship.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: Episode 25 is this, featuring the Meteors and the Olympians trapped inside a nightmare created by the Marblegen Phobos. They must fight their fears and either fail the trial (and return to the real world empty-handed) or remain fearless until the end and claim victory against all the horrors they're put through. Cosmo ends up earning Phobos thanks to his courage and will to save his friends, even when it means fighting an image of Sam.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Heights for Cosmo, spiders for Aissa.
