Robozuna is a Netflix original series.
Teenager Ariston lives a nomadic life with his adoptive mother Feronia and their workbot Mangle. They make their living drilling for machine oil, a trade technically illegal since their desert wasteland of a planet is under the control of an oppressive regime that lays claim to all its scarce resources. When Ariston sneaks out with Mangle one day to watch his new friends do a practice session of the popular bot-fighting sport Robozuna, his caravan is attacked and Feronia is taken prisoner. Feronia leaves Ariston a chip that upgrades Mangle's intelligence, and Ariston joins his friends' Robozuna team while searching for a way to save Feronia.
This show provides examples of:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Mangle and Ariston when they start getting their own fans.Chike: (listening to the fans cheering) They really like us!Mangle: Nuh-uh. Like Mangle.
- All-CGI Cartoon
- Calling Your Attacks: Combatabots do this during Robozuna games. It's part of team branding.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Danuvia's father is Caesar Mallam, the supreme leader and Big Bad of Corvus.
- Expy: Mangle's voice, face, expressions, and protectiveness of his human are strikingly similar to another robot...
- Happily Adopted: Ariston. He's never met his birth parents, but it doesn't bother him in the least. He knows Feronia loves him and thinks she does a great job.
- Hulk Speak: how most of the robots speak.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The armor Ariston and his friends don to battle Corvus. It only partially covers their faces and the robots are still obviously themselves, yet it keeps them disguised and even fools Feronia.
- Parental Substitute: Feronia is the closest Ariston has to a mother. He never knew his birth parents.
- Price on Their Head: After their attempt to break Feronia out of the Corvus prison, Corvus puts out a big reward for the Freebot Fighters. It's briefly tempting to Chike's new friend Chandra.
- Robot Athlete: The combatabots.
- Robot Buddy: Mangle. Ariston explicitly calls him his best friend on several occasions, even before the upgrade.
- Theme Naming: A lot of Latin names, and all the Robozuna teams are named after Latin words for animals (Veredus = Horse, Natrix = Snake, Volpes = Fox, and poor Team Blatta is named after the cockroach).
- Many of the characters also have Latin names. Poor Commander Vermis...
- Third-Person Person: Mangle, and many of the other robots refer to themselves by name rather than using personal pronouns.
- Took a Level in Badass: Mangle after the upgrade. He goes from strong but limited in functionality and speech to being able to learn and even developing a sense of humor.
- Wrench Wench: Livia, and Feronia, as well as most of the female Robozuna competitors. Basically, most people who work with robots have some proficiency in repairing them.
Episodes of this series provide examples of:
- Bandage Mummy: Poor Slick, the Robozuna game announcer, keeps getting beat up by his robot partner Spanner. At the start of Season 2, Slick displays this trope.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: More jealous than clingy, but Livia becomes one to Ariston in "Lightning Harvesters" when Tesh shows up.
- Moonwalk Dance: Spark does this in "Hacked".
- Rescue Arc: Episodes 3-5 of season 1.
- Shout-Out:
- In "Hacked", Spark moonwalks and asks, "Who's Bad?"
- Something Else Also Rises: In "Lightning Harvesters", Mangle's Battle Blocker pops open when Ariston's "pretty friend" Tesh hugs him and he sheepishly tries to cover it.
- Wham Shot: In "Endgame Part II", Feronia is revealed to be working with the Corvus Imperium.
- You Didn't Ask: Happens in "Hacked".Ariston: You knew where to find him. Why didn't you tell us?Mangle: Ariston not ask Mangle.Ariston: Hm. Good point.
