Battle Spirits: Shonen Gekiha Dan

The second anime inspired by Bandai's Battle Spirits trading card game, following Battle Spirits: Shounen Toppa Bashin. The series recycled certain concepts and character types from the first series, but focuses on an entirely separate cast, and has a much more serious storyline.

The protagonist, Dan Bashin, is a red-headed hero who uses the red attribute, just like Toppa of the first series. However, rather than going through a normal life, he's taken from Earth to the world of Grand Rolo, where he learns he's one of the chosen core soldiers. With the help of his friends and comrades, Zungurii, Magisa, Clackey, Mai and Suzuri, he battles to stop the evil Otherworld King.

The series was followed up by another 50-episode series, Battle Spirits Brave (named after the newest type of card at the time), wherein Dan and some of his old allies travel to the future. Because it is a direct sequel with many of the same characters, tropes for Brave are included on this page.

Also see Battle Spirits Heroes, for the 4th series in the franchise.

Tropes used in Battle Spirits: Shonen Gekiha Dan include:
  • Action Girl: Mai.
    • In Brave, she's been more of a Faux Action Girl. However, once she parted ways with Dan and the rest, returning to the mazoku capital with Barone, she regained full Action Girl status.
    • Brave does introduce Flora, at least.
  • Adaptation Dye Job: Galaxy, the one character to appear in both Toppa Bashin and Gekiha Dan (albeit an entirely different version of him) has blond hair in the first series, but it's white in this one.
  • Adorably Precocious Child: Kenzo. Especially in Brave, where he becomes one of the planet's most significant scientists (at the age of 11) and stops playing Battle Spirits to focus more on his work.
  • All-Star Cast: Daisuke Ono, Ayako Kawasumi, Takahiro Sakurai, etc… and considering Shounen Toppa Bashin got mostly new, unknown actors, wow.
  • Aloof Ally: Suzuri
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Mai gives one to Dan during their battle, afraid that he's going to die soon.
  • Art Shift: Regular anime-style to CG during battles.
  • Ascended Meme: It's been a bit of a joke on Japanese sites that Dan is near abusive of Bladra, due to regularly summoning it just to use it for cost reduction. Cue episode 13 of the unrelated Battle Spirits Heroes, which features a whack-a-mole machine with the "moles" being Bladras terrified of having their cores taken away.
  • Bait and Switch Credits: Dan never uses The DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Magisa. Zazie is a male example.
  • Battle Butler: Serge
  • Big Bad: Otherworld King
    • In Brave Zazie
  • Big Eater: En and Fant must be bottomless vacuums when it comes to food.
  • Bishie Sparkle: Clackey, Belga
  • Bishounen: Yuuki, Clackey, Suzuri, Serge, Belga
    • In Brave, Barone and Zazie.
  • Biting the Handkerchief: Flora tends to do this.
  • Bittersweet Ending: To Gekiha Dan. Otherworld King is defeated, but the core soldiers have to return to the real world, leaving their comrades from Otherworld behind. Also, Kajitsu is unable to be saved.
    • During Brave, it's revealed that there were even more negative side effects. In particular, mazoku remaining in the real world and reshaping the Earth, which will eventually reset itself.
    • Then there's the actual Brave ending, which is even worse. The world is saved from being reset, but Dan may not have survived.
  • Bland-Name Product: Anymate, rather than the anime retailer Animate.
  • Bloodless Carnage: When Lucretia is fatally stabbed there's no blood to be seen.
  • Blush Sticker: Kenzo's are permanent.
  • Body Double: Otherworld King used a Pantera body in place of himself to fight Yuuki and Kajitsu.
  • Bottle Fairy: Magisa
  • Brother-Sister Incest: Yuuki and Kajitsu. Somehow, this show airs on a Sunday morning kids block.
  • Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Butterflies are extremely symbolic to Kajitsu. Of course, that's because she's a reincarnation, and she dies again and is reborn as Flora.
  • Calling Your Attacks: But they’re playing a TCG, so…
  • Catgirl: Anyone from the Mimi Tribe
  • Char Clone: Shula
  • Cheerful Child: Zungurii
  • Chick Magnet: Clackey
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Clackey
  • Christmas Cake: Magisa
  • Conspicuous CG: Most of the spirits. The Great Angelia Sophia is a notable exception, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that Clackey is in love with her.
  • Collectible Card Game:
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Apparently, all major characters must use the type of card their hair color indicates. Exceptions include Kazan, who’s blonde but uses purple (but he wears purple), and Yuuki, who has light blue hair but uses white. Still, his is close enough.
    • Not the case at all in Brave, as Youth uses red rather than blue, Plym uses white rather than red, etc.
  • Cool Airship: The Violet and The Beautiful Sophia, among others.
  • Cool Shades: Galaxy, Jin
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: Dan, Zungurii, Kenzo, Fant
  • Cute Clumsy Girl: Flora
  • Cute Ghost Girl: Mira
  • Cute Monster Girl: Flora
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Mai uses purple.
  • Dark Magical Girl: Kajitsu. Not really a traditional mahou shoujo, but she does have powers.
  • Dark-Skinned Blond: Clackey, Kazan
  • Death Course: Dan and Suzuri end up in one.
  • A Death in the Limelight: Leon. Although he doesn't actually die, once he gets his backstory explained, Otherworld King sends him back where he came from, and he's never heard from again.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Mainly with Dan and Kenzo.
  • Demoted to Extra: Kenzo in the manga.
  • The Determinator: Dan
  • Distress Ball: Mai goes to take on Pantera by herself, in order to protect everyone else, with no one but Serge knowing. This leads her to getting captured and spending several episodes locked in a cage. She makes up for it as soon as possible.
  • Damsel in Distress: Kajitsu in the manga version.
  • The Dragon: Kazan (Yuuki's dragon) in the early episodes, Leon (Otherworld King's dragon) later on.
    • In Brave Duc takes this role.
  • Duels Decide Everything
  • Empty Shell: After losing to Otherworld King This happens to Dan temporarily.
  • Emotionless Girl: Kajitsu at first
  • Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: A couple times. Everyone seems to have amazing martial arts skills.
  • Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Many red spirits
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Kajitsu is often referred to as a princess, though she isn't one. She's the reincarnation of the green world's princess, though
    • There's also one-shot character Seiru.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: Zungurii, and the rest of his race
  • Everything Is Better With Penguins: The Pentan Empire
  • Evil Old Folks: The Otherworld King Until he has his youth restored.
    • Also, considering the way mazoku age, any of them might fit into this. Though, that's actually a case of Really 700 Years Old.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: In Brave, Mai has long hair, and has also changed a lot since the last time Dan saw her. She changes her hairstyle again once she decides to fight for the mazoku, and then cuts it at the end of the series, after losing Dan.
  • Expressive Mask: Zazie
  • Expy: Compared to the original series, Dan to Bashin, Yuuki to J, and Mai to Suiren. To a lesser extent, Kajitsu to Kyouka.
    • At times, Yuuki and Kajitsu’s relationship bears very striking similarities to Lelouch and Nunnally’s from Code Geass. Since they’re both Sunrise series released at around the same time period, it may not be a coincidence.
    • In the first episode of Brave, look-alikes of Jun and Maaya from the spin off manga, Batosupi! appear. Those two characters are already gender-bent expys of J and Bashin from the original series, respectively.
    • Speaking of Brave, Stella is one to Magisa, Gaspard is one to Serge, Barone has definite similarities to Yuuki, both Rugain and Youth could be expys to Suzuri (purely aesthetically), and Flora is a Kajitsu expy (which is quite justified.) Rugain's mother, Shima is probably one to J's mother, Miyako in the original series.
  • Eyecatch: A shot of one or two of the main characters. Dan has several. Clackey, Mai, Suzuri, Kenzo, Zungurii and Magisa have one, while Yuuki and Kajitsu share one. There’s also a group eyecatch. It changes based on who the episode’s main character is.
    • Brave is following the trend of unique character eyecatches, with Dan having the most.
  • Fan Service: Not much, but mostly courtesy of Magisa in Shounen Gekiha Dan, and Gilfam in Brave. And Barone provides a bit of fanserve for female viewers.
  • Femme Fatalons: Queen Gilfam
  • Fingerless Gloves: Galaxy, Dan
    • Youth in Brave
  • Finger-Suck Healing: Yuuki does this to Kajitsu.
  • Flower Motifs: Roses are very significant to Yuuki and Kajitsu. And then of course, there's Flora.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Leon.
  • Good Costume Switch: Yuuki and Kajitsu each get one around the time where they switch sides
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Zolder
  • Gratuitous English: A lot during battles.
    • Also, Clackey tends to throw in bad Engrish a lot
  • Hair Decorations: Mai. She also states that she customized her battle form (including adding little devil horns) because it wasn't cute enough.
  • Heel Face Turn: Kenzo, Kajitsu, Yuuki and Kazan
    • In Brave, Barone, Flora, Eolus and Rugain.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: From Dan and the end of both Gekiha Dan and Brave. The first time he's saved, but the second time is left up in the air.
  • Hot-Blooded: Everyone. Especially Dan and Zolder.
  • Hot Witch: Magisa
  • I Kiss Your Hand: Belga tends to do this
  • Ill Girl: Kajitsu
  • In Medias Res: A few times such as episodes 25 and 39 of Gekiha Dan.
  • Interspecies Romance: Clackey has a harem of cat girls from Grand Rolo when he first meets Dan. Well, at least they're more humanoid than some other inhabitants.
  • Jerkass: Julian
  • Jumped At the Call: Subverted. Although Dan jumped to protect Zungurii's village in the first episode, when told of his purpose in Grand Rolo, he wasn't interested at first.
  • Kid Hero
  • Killed Off for Real: Pantera, Kajitsu and Otherworld King
    • Lucretia in Brave. Also, seemingly, Geraid and all of Duc's squad aside from Duc himself.
  • Even Heroes Have Heroes: Dan is reduced to this whenever he gets a new red dragon into play. At least, in the first season.
    • Suzuri goes crazy over X-rares, even if it's his opponent using them.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Yuuki. And his sister Kajitsu is probably a gender reversed version.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Duc gets this, erasing parts of his former identity.
  • Light Is Good: Clackey, as a yellow user. Also, this could apply to core's light in general.
  • Lightning Glare: Kenzo and Stella.
  • Lotus Eater Machine: Episode 42 involves one where Dan, Mai and Clackey are trapped, and start to forget their role, until Kajitsu interferes.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Yuuki’s entire motivation is pretty much for Kajitsu’s sake.
  • Magical Girl: Magisa
  • Magical Land: Grand Rolo
  • Magic Skirt: Mai’s, though it’s actually a dress. See ep. 12 and watch logic be defied.
  • Massive-Numbered Siblings: Both Zungurii's family and Rugain's are like this.
  • Meaningful Name: Kajitsu’s name, probably, since it means “fruit.” She’s a green card battler, and one of her signature green cards is The Fruit of Wise Tree.
    • Dan’s last name is Bashin, most likely a tribute to Toppa Bashin of the original series, as the two characters are quite similar, both in appearance and personality.
    • Magisa.
    • Barone and Duc, to sound like baron and duke.
    • Plym Machina, because she's a mechanic of course.
    • Youth, probably, because he's young and immature compared to the returning characters.
    • En and Fant.
    • Flora
    • The 'Ray' in Clackey Ray is probably a reference to rays of light.
    • Mai's name is spelled with the kanji for demon, in reference to the type of cards she uses.
    • Kenzo's name is written with the kanji for blade, in reference to The BladeKingBeast Byak-Garo, his signature spirit.
  • Merchandise-Driven
  • The Messiah: Dan
  • Mons: The spirits
  • Mood Whiplash: Some episodes in this show are about Suzuri being possessed by the ghost of an onmyouji, or a monster trying to marry Magisa. Others involve characters dying depressing deaths.
  • Morality Pet: Kajitsu to Yuuki
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Magisa regularly calls Kenzo anything but his name, making him crazy.
    • Stella continues the trend in Brave.
  • Never Mess with Granny: Magisa
  • Nice Hat: A couple. There's Clackey in Brave, and Queen Gilfam. Of course, Suzuri's hat When he's king as well.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Gilfam
  • Non-Human Sidekick: Zungurii
  • Oddly Visible Eyebrows
  • Official Couple: Naturally, Duc and Shima. Also, Dan/Mai and Yuuki/Kajitsu.
  • Off-Model: A couple episodes look very off, especially if they're right before or after a great looking episode.
  • "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase: Some variation of "Let's go! Attack step!"
    • When Galaxy does it, he uses "Galaxy Step."
  • Otaku: Suzuri is a card collector otaku to creepy levels
  • The Other Darrin: Although Suzuri was voiced by Daisuke Sakaguchi for the majority of the series, and in Brave, Nobuhiko Okamoto voiced him in the first episode.
  • Parental Substitute: Dan basically becomes this for En and Fant.
  • Pet the Dog: Barone, when he helps a human child.
  • Petting Zoo People: Most inhabitants of Grand Rolo
  • Personality Powers: Several of the characters main attributes fit with their personalities.
  • Playing with Fire: Most red cards are fire based.
  • Portmanteau Series Nickname: Like the first series, Batosupi, and it’s used as an in-universe example for the TCG, likewise.
  • Power Gives You Wings: Dan's 2nd battle form and Otherworld King
  • Power Glows
  • Promotion to Opening Titles: The OP animation is modified later into the series, adding Kenzo, Leon, Pantera and Otherworld King.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Barone, when he lets it down.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Magisa is really 4029 years old
  • Redemption Equals Death: Pantera
  • Redheaded Hero: Dan
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Dan is the red. Yuuki and Barone take the role of blue in their respective series.
  • Reincarnation: Firstly, Yuuki and Kajitsu are reincarnated royals of Otherworld. Then, in the future timeline, they're reborn again as Zolder and Flora, respectively.
  • Rose-Haired Girl: Magisa, Flora
  • The Rival: Dan vs. Yuuki
    • Belga vs. Yuuki, in a one-sided way from Belga.
    • In Brave, it's Dan vs. Barone and more comically, Kenzo vs. Stella.
    • Youth also seems to have a one-sided rivalry with Dan.
  • Running Gag: Magisa can never say Kenzo's name correctly.
    • Neither can Stella, who happens to have the same seiyuu as Magisa.
    • Clackey falling in love with every girl he meets probably counts.
    • Also, Suzuri obsessing whenever he sees an X-rare card.
    • En and Fant are rarely seen without food. If they are, they're usually begging for food.
  • Serial Romeo: Clackey
  • Siblings in Crime: Yuuki and Kajitsu in the beginning.
  • Shipper on Deck: Clackey wants Zolder and Flora to get together.
  • Ship Tease: Dan and Mai in Brave.
    • They have a little in the first season too, but not to the same level, and there's also a bit with Mai and Serge.
    • Zolder and Flora get ship tease too.
  • Shotacon: Mostly just from the fandom.
    • Kenzo’s character design is pretty much shota-bait.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Mai is the only female core soldier. Kajitsu isn't really the green soldier. She's a special case, actually bearing Mother Core, which the others have to protect.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Kajitsu and Geraid both live in the manga versions.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": While Clackey seems to be the official spelling, according to Sunrise's Brave website, Krakki, Kurakkii and Cracky have been seen on official sites and in the anime, and numerous other spellings of his name have popped up on assorted fansites. Fortunately, said website has released official spellings for most characters.
    • Also the first fansubs used Prim rather than Plym, and Duke rather than Duc. The later of each are used on the Sunrise site. While Prim makes more sense than Plym, Duc probably is the legitimate spelling, as it's French for duke.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Leon. Flora's battle form has these too.
  • Spoiler Opening: Both the OP and ED show that Suzuri will join the main group. He doesn’t until episode 36.
    • Additionally, the Italian dub includes the 2nd version of the OP theme from the start of the show, which reveals That Kenzo is the green soldier, and also shows Dan's 2nd battle form, and the identity of Otherworld King.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Kousuke.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Yuuki and Kajitsu, or at least who they were in past lives
  • Tagalong Kid: En and Fant
  • Take My Hand: Happens a few times.
  • Team Chef: Zungurii
  • Those Two Bad Guys: Kazan and Crown can be like this in early episodes.
  • Too Soon: A short scene was cut from the TV version of episode 28 of brave (but included on the DVD release) which showed Barone and Zolder looking at the wild waters caused by the Earth's reset. This was likely due to the closeness in airing to the 9.0 Earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The broadcast of episode 26 was also pushed back a week, as was most other anime that were airing at the time.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Dan and Curry
    • Revolver and Green Curry
  • Transformation Sequence: Most characters undergo one to get into their battle form
  • True Companions: Dan, Zungurii, Magisa, Clackey, Mai, Kenzo, Kajitsu, Yuuki, Suzuri
  • Tsundere: Mai is type B towards Dan. At least in the first series.
    • Suzuri is a male example.
  • Unusual Ears: Most inhabitants of Grand Rolo
  • Western Zodiac: Plays a major role in Brave, where X-rares representing each sign of the zodiac have to be collected.
  • Whip It Good: Kazan
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Zazie
  • Winged Humanoid: Kajitsu appears to be this, but the wings aren't real.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Yuuki, Serge and Suzuri have actual blue-hair (albeit three different shades of it.) Mai has purple, Magisa has pink, and Kajitsu and Kenzo have green.
    • Brave gives us Youth and Rugain with blue hair, plus Duc with green, Gilfam and Lucretia with purple, and Flora with pink.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Otherworld King basically does this to Leon
  • You Killed My Father: Youth has a moment like this with Geraid, who led the attack that killed both his parents. Though, he can't actually bring himself to take revenge.
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