The Super League's Greatest.note
Supa Strikas is an animated TV show loosely based on an Association Football-themed Comic Book of the same name that revolves around the adventures of a fictional soccer team called Supa Strikas as they try to win the Super League Trophy. They travel around the world taking on challenges, opposition teams trying to use tricks to beat them, and tackling personal issues. They play mostly against a handful of regular teams to build up rivalries between players- with the most common teams being Invincible United, Technicali, and Iron Tank. They also play against a lot of one off teams that tend to play in unique places such as a floating stadium or the top of a skyscraper or have a special skill (when they're not cheating) they use to win games.
Main characters include:
- Shakes: Arguably The Everyman of the team.
- Dancing Rasta: The Jamaican captain of the team, is prone to giving motivational speeches.
- El Matador: Shakes' partner as a striker, he is incredibly vain.
- Big Bo: The goalkeeper of the team, is considered the best in the league.
- Twisting Tiger: A player known for his 'Twisting Tornado' move where he twists his body around, animated as a Tasmanian Devil-like whirlwind.
- Cool Joe: His main obsession is everything 70s— he has an afro with a comb in it, loves disco (and owns one), and wears 70s shoes.
- Blok: An unintelligible defender.
- Klaus: A second choice striker and comical player well-versed in passing techniques.
- North: A first choice defender along with Blok. He also surfs in his spare time.
- Coach: A super competent coach, portrayed as having a tactical answer to every tactic the opposition has.
- Spenza: Friend of the team, he helps them get to the bottom of problems, especially when an opposition team is trying to sabotage them.
- Mac: The announcer of every games that Supa Strikas are in. He mostly appeared with Brenda doing their own comedies in the announcer box.
- Brenda: The second announcer of every games that the Supa Strikas are in. She is the Only Sane Man in the announcer box and is frequently annoyed by Mac's eccentricities but often finds herself joining the fun.
- Supa Fran: The eccentric fan of Supa Strikas and the president of the Supa Strikas fan club.
Supa Strikas Contains Examples of:
- Awesome, but Impractical: Some of the Strikas wanted to use a bunch of fancy moves from their movie in a match against the Sultans but Coach was against it, citing that the desert stadium's heat will quickly exhaust them.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: Invincible United used a form of hypnotic therapy to turn Dooma from a violent thug who did nothing but injure other players to a highly skilled captain who turned the team around from being way out of the running to being in the Super League finals. The Supa Strikas finding a way to sabotage his therapy and turn him back into a thug (and thus giving away crucial penalties) could be seen as a type of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
- Busman's Holiday: Whenever Strikas go on vacation, they'll be in a circumstance to be forced to play football.
- The Butler Did It: Klaus believes this to be always true from what he read in the Inspector von Spector mystery novels. Two Super League investigators share this belief. Hilariously however, both times the Butler is innocent, with the latest Butler suspect actually helping out Klaus.
- Born in the Wrong Century: When Shakes is being given a tour of a Chinese museum focused on the history of soccer, he jokes after learning about Mob Football
note that Invinicible United are playing in the wrong century. - Cassandra Truth: Happens in practically every episode. It's very common for one of the Supa Strikas (or someone associated with them) to get into trouble by being framed for something they didn't do. And their please of innocence usually fall on deaf ears until they are finally proven to be innocent.
- Celebrity Impersonator: There are a lot of El Matador wannabes and they're part of his fan club. He also has a Body Double for when the team starred in a movie. Spenza also had a go at the disguise when he saved Shakes from being brainwashed in Dooma's Day.
- Character Focus: Each episode tends to focus on a particular character, and they usually make a point of it by making the cold open have a scene that focuses on that character.
- Circling Birdies: The guys sometimes see rings of stars after a hard hit or other head injuries, such as when Bo slips on a banana peel that leads to Easy Amnesia. Sometimes circling soccer balls appear in place or stars, like when Chuck has a hard crash during a game or when Klaus is is whacked by a door and knocked off a moving train.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Klaus and El Matador sometimes, depending on the occasion.
- Conspicuous Consumption: The coaches of Sultans and Cosmos are rich and not afraid to show it. The former has lavish stadiums and skyscrapers while the latter owns a hotel that serves gold-covered sundae.
- Continuity Nod:
- In "Bringing Down the House", Supa Strikas battle the All-Stars team (consisting of at least one player from every opposing Super League club), and Rasta, Tiger, Cool Joe, El Matador and Shakes use their experience from facing off against each club (specifically, Palma, Invincible United, Hydra, Azul, Orion and Iron Tank) to their advantage to evade their opponents and score a goal.
- In "Strika Chord", the second last episode of the series, the Strikas improvise lyrics for a song in their new musical, resulting in a series of continuity nods.
- "I [North Shaw] once fought a giant octopus!" (One Super League Under the Sea)
- "When Tiger spins the fans rejoice!" (Heels Over Head)
- "And Cool Joe's got a golden voice." (Cool Aid)
- "Our captain [Rasta] surfed a submarine!" (Dat Boot)
- "Blok battled his twin machine!" (Roblok Wars)
- "I'm the guy [Klaus] who loves the strudel!" (Fly Hard)
- "And Inyo tried to fry my [El Matador] noodle!" (Mind Over Matador)
- "Spike and Big Bo have an ancient feud!" (Own Ghoul, Scare Tactics, Spirit of the Occasion)
- "Shakes is young, but a legend dude...!" (Live and Kicking)
- Critic-Proof: In-universe, the Strikas' movie "Strike Team" is panned by critics but sold out and adored by fans.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Toni Vern creates a lot of incredibly advanced and high-tech inventions. Yet seems more focused on using them in cheating for soccer matches rather than selling them off to the highest bidder.
- Dark Horse Victory: El Matador won in a Reality Show he wasn't invited to by getting lost in the set.
- A Day in the Limelight: Each Strika that tags along with Shakes or who appeared first in the episode is bound to be the main character.
- Desert Bandits: One such group captured the Supa Strikas when the team had to go to the stadium for their game against the Sultans on foot (as training for the harsh climate). They were actors hired by Coach to teach the players a lesson.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: The coach of Iron Tank, who is named Colonel von Pushup.
- Easy Amnesia:
- In "Big Bo To Go", Big Bo ends up getting a strong hit to the head that leads him to getting amnesia.
- After diving into the cold depths of the Antartica in "Dat Boot", Dancing Rasta would end up getting such a temperature shock that not only is he out of commission for a while. He would end up getting some amnesia out of it too.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Grimm FC has players that fit this but some of them subvert it by not having the brunette part down.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Supa Strikas' Coach and Professor.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The defender Blok, who, well, blocks the ball. In one episode it was revealed he has a brother called Attak, who is a forward.
- Executive Meddling: An in-universe example, Cool Joe is given a record contract but is required to change pretty much everything about his act.
- Eyes Always Shut: Most of Nakama FC's players.
- Germanic Efficiency: The team Iron Tank is German and evokes all the cliches associated with this trope, along with a certain militaristic mindset.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: During an off-season, Supa Strikas and Invincible United inadvertently booked a vacation on the same island and they ended up playing together an island-wide game of football. Upon their return, the reporters asked IU what they did and they replied honestly, which the reporters didn't believe.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Comes up frequently given that the Super League is international. Most common is the name of the news channel Futbol 360.
- Home Field Advantage: There are teams with home fields that are meant to be an inconvenience to the visiting team. It can be as natural as the weather and temperature or artificial like hidden machinery installed to improve their own team's performance or hinder the opposition's.
- I Am the Noun: According to Skarra in Dooma's Day: "I am Invincible United."
- I Know Madden Kombat: Uniquely enough, it's inverted. The Supa Strikas end up learning from martial arts to give themselves an advantage in their soccer matches.
- In "Heels Over Heads", Twisting Tiger injures his leg and is no longer able to pull off his signature move. He seeks Capoeira master to learn how to do a different version of his signature spin. However come match day he ends up over-relying on his new move (that he hasn't yet perfected) and ends up fumbling, thankfully he does remember another lesson from the masternote .
- In "Cuju Be Loved", Shakes is sent to China for a grand opening of a soccer museum and ends up discovering the titular sport Cuju. An ancient sport similar to football that also involves kung-fu. Finding out that one of the tour guides for the museum is a Cuju master.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Ura Giri is Japanese but his hair is arranged similarly to a Manchu Queue and he wears traditional Chinese men's jacket and shoes, though he also wears a stylized karate gi sometimes.
- It's Raining Men: In "Cool Joe Loses His Groove" Iron Tank decide to arrive at the ground by parachuting into it for some reason.
- Jerkass:
- Almost every team has at least one jerkass who cheats, manipulates, and/or endanger Supa Strikas members. Sometimes it's an entire team of jerkasses like Invincible United and Iron Tank with everyone complicit in their evil plans or just one member like Coach Ura Giri of Nakama who would rather cheat to win even when his players want a fair game.
- Ms. Altivo, the head of the Super League TV, who manipulates many members of the Super League team to fight each other for the huge fame and viewership.
- Multinational Team: The Supa Strikas all hail from different parts of the world, while their opponents tend to all be from one country. It seems to be a subtle promotion of multiculturalism and the idea of people from all walks of life working together to fix problems.
- Old Master: Ura Giri got the looks down, personality-wise however is another completely different story.
- Opposing Sports Team: It varies from team to team but most of Supa Strikas' opponents cheat. Sometimes the coach and players are in cahoots but there are times that the players aren't aware (usually when a player is on a Friendly Rivalry with a Strika) and sometimes when the coach isn't.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: "Sepak Attack" has Shakes temporarily playing sepak takraw for a team called Aces after the Strikas' jet was grounded in Kuala Lumpur.
- A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: El Ariete, the eccentric and reclusive heading coach, wears pirate attire and fires footballs from cannons. Although that mostly refers to him in his retirement, when he used to be a player he seemed relatively more civilized.
- Product Placement: The second season was sponsored by Caltex, so the uniforms the team wore had a large Caltex logo put on it.
- Names To Run Away From Very Fast: Would you really trust a coach if he's named Ura Giri (Japanese for betrayal)?
- Red Shirt: Literal with Strikas' bench players but subverted in that they're more like Mauve Shirtnote and downplayed, of course, since it's just football, no matter how serious.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Shakes brings up the trope name when Riano jokes that he thought he died when the papparazzi caught El Matador trying to extingiusih a burning Shakes cardboard cutout and mistook it for him drowning Shakes at the beach.
- "Super Sentai" Stance: Nakama can sometimes be seen posing like this.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Done to extreme levels. The only coaching staff is the man only known as Coach. There are no medical staff, and the players are frequently seen treating each other (or sent to a hospital). When something needs to be fixed or a mystery needs to be solved, a player (and at times Spenza, a friend of the players) take care of it which can cause them to miss parts of the game. The opposition teams do the same, with whatever mean trick they do usually done by their star player.
- Tornado Move: Twisting Tiger's signature move. "Heels Over Heads" focuses on him having a crisis when he ends up being injured and no longer able to pull the move off.
- Training from Hell: Many episodes focus on a player or players going somewhere remote to refine a skill to take on the team of the week. This usually involves an extreme (or unusual) form of training.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Sa Ming United and Colossus FC only appeared in the first two seasons and doesn't appear in the later seasons same goes for Colossus FC. Meanwhile Cognito Inc only appeared in two episodes for Season 6 and 7 respectively.
- Worthy Opponent: Orion's Coach Black shook hands with the Supa Strikas' Professor after the latter figured out that the former's formations are based on constellations. It is one of the few instances where an opposing team's coach wasn't cheating.
