YMMV / Zoids: New Century

• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Bit's rematch against Leon in the Royal Cup Tournament was disappointingly brief, most likely due to the fact it took place towards the end of the episode. What could have been an epic confrontation between two evenly matched rivals turned out to be a quick and rather disappointing victory for Bit.
  • Jack Sisco is easily defeated by Bit in the Royal Cup Tournament in a fight that shamelessly recycles the same footage from their first battle. This was despite Bit failing to even touch him in their previous battle.
• Awesome Music:
  • The themes that play whenever the Strike Lazer Claw or Liger Zero Jager are used (i.e. tracks that basically play Once an Episode) do an excellent job of catching the light-hearted, but intense mecha-action atmosphere of the series.
  • The entire soundtrack of the anime, ranging from the opening sung by Nanase Aikawa to the ending. It helps that the composer is the same one behind Gundam Wing and Shadow of the Colossus.
• Badass Decay:
  • Jaime's Wild Eagle alter ego is a One-Man Army in his debut that takes down dozens of Zabats on his own and nearly brought down a Whale King. In his later appearances, he's shot down in every single battle, and more often than not it's against ground targets.
  • Brad using the Shadow Fox nearly defeats the Blitz Team single handedly, fighting evenly matched with Bit and the Liger Zero Yager before the fight is stopped. He never achieves the same level of success in future battles, getting easily defeated by the Berserk Fury in both encounters with it.
• Die for Our Ship: Two Words: Harry Champ. While not for Les Yay shippers (unless you count Leena/Naomi), he is often portrayed as an evil villain in Bit/Leena fanfiction, where he will resort to anything to get her, to the point of even becoming a rapist.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • While Bit himself is another trope entirely, his lancer Brad is paired with Naomi. Their ship teasing moments don't help matters.
  • There's also Leon/Naomi.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Mobile Fighter G Gundam, as both animes have tournament-fighting robots. Interestingly, the anime has also some similarities to G Gundam's sucessor. A mecha named Zero? Check. Another mecha with loads of guns? Check. Kow Otani as the composer? Check? Dubbing by The Ocean Group? All Check.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • One of the most used Zoids fanfic plots involves a new character joining the Blitz team. It is not uncommon for this new character to be a Mary Sue of some sort; a gifted, multitalented pilot with a special, high-performance Zoid, which is frequently portrayed as an Ultimate X. Typically, the character will pilot a popular Zoid that never appeared in the New Century anime such as the König Wolf, Liger Zero X or Dark Spiner, or some kind of popular game variant Zoid like the Trinity Liger or Geno Hydra, though Custom Zoids are also commonly used. An Organoid partner is almost obligatory. Fanfics of this sort tend to exist simply for the author to showcase their badass fan character and/or custom Zoid; expect to see the canon characters reduced to background noise, jobbers, love interests or some combination of the former.
  • This type of Zoids fanfic plot involves taking the New Century characters and throwing them into a more "serious" plot reminiscent of Guardian Force, with the Blitz team getting drawn into some kind of epic, world-spanning conflict following the events of the Royal Cup, be it some asshole villain rampaging about in a powerful Zoid or a war between factions; a common trope is for the Blitz team to become "soldiers" and the Backdraft to become warmongers. Also expect to see plot devices from Chaotic Century suddenly crawling out of the woodwork, such as Organoids or the Death Saurer. Though Post-Royal Cup Doomfics were a dime a dozen back in the day, they aren't as ubiquitous as they used to be. However, they continue to litter the landscape of Zoids fanfic archives such as fanfiction.net and Anime Admirers.
• Fanon: Quite popular, usually in the form of connections between New Century and Chaotic Century. For example, it's commonly accepted that Liger Zero is a further evolution of Van's Blade Liger and Zeke, and less commonly believed that the Berserk Fury is similarly Raven's Geno Breaker and Shadow, despite neither even being implied in the series (the former has more basis since Van's Liger does become the Liger Zero in the Chaotic Century manga but not the anime). The red Blade Liger is also believed by some to be Van's Liger and Zeke, if the Liger Zero isn't.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The Western fanbase has a lot more love and nostalgia for New Century than the Japanese fandom does on account of it being aired before Chaotic Century. New Century was also the only Zoids anime that aired in Canada, though the Chaotic Century DVDs were sold there. That said, the Japanese fandom seems to like New Century well enough, if the numerous anime variants in Kotobukiya's High-End Master Model Line are any indication.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Bit Cloud is paired off with just about everyone in the show, with Leena, Brad, Leon, Liger Zero, Pierce and arguably Naomi being some of the most notable. Even more funny considering that - his English voice actor is the same as Ranma Saotome.
• Moral Event Horizon: Altile crosses it when after Bit refuses to join the Backdraft Group for money, he threatens to have the Liger Zero destroyed if Bit doesn't compete in an against Elephander. Bit didn't have access to Liger Zero's CAS so he had no chance of winning, Altile had the safety devices of the Liger Zero removed and had the arena surrounded by flames made it clear he wasn't just setting Bit up to lose, he was setting him up to die.
• Nightmare Fuel: The "Chainsaw Man" episode.
• Ron the Death Eater: Harry Champ suffer from this in fanfictions.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • After his second battle with Bit, Stoller fades into the background. You'd think he'd at least appear for a rematch in the Royal Cup, but nope.
  • As Jack and the Lightning Team are the only opponents we see defeat the Blitz Team, it looks like the series is setting them up as the main rivals, but they pushed aside in favor of Vega and the Berserk Fury, characters only introduced in the final episodes of the show.
  • Vega's backstory is left unexplored. How did a kid his age become the top pilot in an organization like the Backdraft Group, why he's so talented a pilot, and why the closest thing he seems to have to family is his manager Sarah. Given how late the series he's introduced he appears to have been imagined as an obstacle for the Blitz Team and little else.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • There are actually a number of intriguing plot threads that go unresolved throughout the show's run. What happened to Leena and Leon's mother? How did the Backdraft Group come into immense power? Where the hell is the origins behind the Ultimate X Zoids like the Liger Zero and Berserk Fury? These are introduced as major elements to the show's plot but are never expanded upon or even answered by the time everything wrapped up.
  • Naomi is implied to have romantic feelings for Brad, but beyond the Ship Tease they never goes anywhere.