Galactik Football

"On every planet in the galaxy you?ll find the Flux, a powerful, magical energy. Here on Akillian we call it the Breath. The Flux is so strong that it had to be banned, except in Galactik Football, the most spectacular sport in the universe. But fifteen years ago a mysterious explosion rocked Akillian, swept the Breath away and destroyed our chances in the Galactik Football Cup. Fifteen years without a decent team and nothing but snow and ice. Now, hope lives again. Young, new players to revive the Breath of Akillian. Our fate is in their hands.

—Aarch, opening credits

Galactik (sic) Football, is a French produced animated series that mixes conventional 2D animation with 3D motion-capture. Think The Mighty Ducks in space, but not THAT The Mighty Ducks in space.

The story centres around a group of misfit teenagers recruited by veteran footballer Aarch, to play in the Galactik Football Cup. His new team, The Snow Kids, must face off against a host of magically endowed alien teams and more teen angst then you can shake a stick at if they are to have any hope of advancing in the competition.

Notable because while the team is often surrounded by intergalactic conspiracy, corporate evil and the occasional off-screen genocide, the the Snow Kids are usually mostly unaware of the grand space opera brewing around them and are more concerned with team squabbles and perfecting their dribbling then they are with the evil conspiracy out to get them.

A third season premiered in Summer 2010.

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Tropes used in Galactik Football include:

• Aesop Amnesia: (D'Jok's ego problems always get sorted by the end of the season and always return by the start of the next.)
• All Girls Want Bad Boys (Mei and Sinedd in season 3)
  • Which came out of nowhere.
• Asian and Nerdy (Thran)
• Beneath the Mask (Sinedd after learning he has a real family and something worth living for turns out to have a sensitive and innocent side)
• The Big Damn Kiss (D'jok and Mei at the end of season 1)
• Big No (Multiple)
• Break the Haughty (Sinedd)
• Broken Aesop (Veteran player Warren stresses to Rocket that the Snowkids have to win as a team... shortly before pulling off a performance that's like that Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs is in a game of baseball and playing all the positions.)
• Cardboard Prison: In season 2.
• Character Development (most of the teenagers, especially D'jok, Sinedd, Rocket, Mei )
• Chaste Hero (Rocket initially despite Tia's best efforts. Of course there might be another reason
• Chest Insignia (Shouldn't that be "Aa" Aarch?)
• David Versus Goliath (Season 1. Obviously not so much in season 2)
• Did Not Get the Girl (Season 3. Mei ends up with Sinedd, D'jok's biggest rival )
• Determinator (Sinedd in season 2, because who cares about broken ankles and Smog poisoning?)
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: (Addiction to the smog is portrayed like a drug addiction.)
• Down to the Last Play
• Dynamic Character (D'jok, Mei, Sinedd, Rocket)
• Dysfunction Junction (The Snow Kids are pretty bad but they can't compare with the previous Akillian team.)
• Earn Your Happy Ending (at least some of the cast don't have it that easy)
• Every Year They Fizzle Out (Oh for the days of the great Wambeezan dynasty Zoran old pal!!)
• Eyes of Gold (Rocket)
  • Maya and Keira, too.
• Femme Fatale (Mei attempts to be this. Not that it will do her much good. See below.)
• Fun Personified: Micro-Ice.
• Fun T-Shirt: Artie is seen wearing a Micro-Ice t-shirt, as well as a Snow Kids cap.
• First Girl Wins (Aarch and Addim again.)
• Five-Token Band (Snow Kids)
• Foil (Sinedd is D'Jok's Evil Counterpart, although they are Not So Different)
• Fortune Teller (Maya, armed with an obligatory Crystal Ball)
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: It is hinted in season 1 that Keira never became a famous actress because she didn't sleep with her agent.
• Groin Attack: With a ball, no less.
• Group Hug (Final of season 3, taken a bit to the extreme)
• Happily Adopted (D'Jok)
• Happily Married: Norata and Keira, when they finally get back together.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist (Clamp and Artegor on Paradisia. Clamp also wears socks with Sandals.)
• Heel Face Turn (Artegor halfway season 2 and Sinedd at the end of season 3)
• Heroic Wannabe (D'Jok apparently learns his lesson at the end of season 1 but is at it again in season 2)
• Heroes Want Redheads(Aarch wants Addim. Microice wants Yuki.)
• Hidden Depths (Sinedd, Artegor)
• Ho Yay (Most of the male cast, but most obviously Artegor and Aarch. They ran off to 'play for the other team' together and when Aarch went back to his own team Artegor never forgave him. He once greeted Aarch by saying "can't live another moment without me?")
• Ineffectual Loner (Sinedd in season 2. In Season 1 he's mostly a Jerkass. Also subverted Rocket is a very effectual loner)
• Infatuation At First Sight: Micro-Ice with Mei and Zoelin in season one, and Yuki in Season two. Justified by the fact he's very young and clueless.
• The Ingenue: Keira.
• Was It All a Lie? ( Sinedd's fake parents)
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold (Sinedd)
• Jumped At the Call (D'Jok)
• Law of Alien Names (Subverted. The aliens tend to have names like Warren and Nealy while the human characters are called Micro Ice, Aarch and D'Jok.)
• Limited Wardrobe: (Partially averted with the Snow Kids, who tend to wear the same clothes day to day, but also are seen throughout the series in their uniforms, training gear, pyjamas, party outfits, dressing gowns, swimsuits and underwear. Playes straight with almost everyone else, most glaringly with Aarch who wears his coat in the Akillian Blizzard and the tropical Wambas planet, and Norata, who wears his gardener's gloves EVERYWHERE.)
  • Finally averted in season 3 where the adults who make it to Paradisia get a costume change to account for the warmer weather.
• Love Redeems (Sinedd in season 3)
• Love Triangle (D'Jok, Mei, Micro-Ice. D'Jok, Mei, Sinedd)
• Luke, I Am Your Father (Twice. Once with D'Jok and Sonny Blackbones and once with Rocket and his mother Kiera
• Married to the Job (In the past this pretty much decimated Aarch's relationships with Norata and Addim.)
• Meddling Parents (Mei's mother is extremely ambitious on her behalf, even going so far as to encourage her daughter to use her feminine wiles to create a rift in D'Jok and Micro-Ice's friendship.)
• Miracle Rally
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal (When Sinedd reached the Despair Event Horizon the Shadows told him to forget it and get beck to work)
• Mundane Utility (Flux gives super-strength, super-speed, super-agility, teleportation, hypnosis and possibly flight but is used only to play Soccer. A Jedi Council is in place to rigidly enforce this rule.)
  • Somewhat lampshaded, since in the backstory, Flux was used to fight savage wars, so the restrictions are seen as necessary.
• Nobody Thinks It Will Work ( Sinedd and Mei)
• Nonhumans Lack Attributes: Warren is designed to look like down to the suit he wears for public appearances. However his appearance differs from Dr. Manhattan in regards to one large attribute.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries (Averted with the Shadows. Played straight with pretty much everyone else.)
• Off-Model: Season 3, especially episode 2.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket (D'Jok and Sinedd)
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You (Sinedd to D'Jok in The Duel.)
• Parental Abandonment
• Perpetual Frowner (Sinedd in seasons 1 and 2. Not so much in season 3)
• Pet the Dog (in the final match of Paradisia Cup Sinedd saves D'Jok's life)
• Phantasy Spelling
• Please Don't Leave Me (Sinedd and Mei in episode 15 of season 3)
• Plucky Comic Relief (Micro-Ice attempts to be one, with no avail)
• Power Glows (All non-evil fluxes)
• The Professor (Clamp)
• Protagonist-Centered Morality (Rocket despite what he did while playing Netherball everyone forgave him the moment he came back to the Snow Kids)
• Proud Warrior Race Guy (Luur and the Xenons)
• Real Villains Wear Pink (Right Harris?)
• Remember the New Guy? (Apparently everyone knew Mark before he joined the team and at one point he was set to replace Micro-Ice.)
  • Crosses over into Ass Pull. Supposedly, he was up for consideration when Micro-Ice had left with the pirates, but if that was the case, Aarch would have had him play instead of using a clone, as the clones at that point could have been beaten by a crippled 5-year old. They should just have had him be a friend of the players that had been away during the last cup.
• Punny Name (D'Jok is the Jock. Sinedd performs the Face Heel Turn. Who knows what Micro-Ice is a pun of.)
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits (The Snow Kids)
• Rapunzel Hair: Mei
• Rebel Relaxation (Sinedd)
• Rebellious Rich Kid: Tia.
• Rivals Team Up (the All-Stars match, especially Sinedd and D'Jok)
• Second Love (Sinedd and Mei in season 3)
• Shirtless Scene: Several characters
• Sixth Ranger: Sinedd in the last episodes of season 3, which also makes him an Eleventh-Hour Ranger
• Slipknot Ponytail: Rocket, in season 2.
• Smug Snake (Sinedd)
• Space Pirates (The heroic kind, though Corso is the only one who says 'Aarrgh!')
• Stock Footage (Used so much this troper is surprised it wasn't mentioned earlier.)
• Sunglasses at Night (no to mention in space, right Artegor?)
• Talking to Himself (It's a pretty small cast.)
• Team Spirit
• Teens Are Short: Rocket, the tallest of his team, is still one head shorter than his dad.
• This Is Your Brain on Evil (The Smog for Aarch and Sinedd. Strangely it didn't seem to bother Artegor much until he came off it.)
• Those Two Guys: (Zoran & Wotan, Sydney and Harvey)
• Time Skip (supposedly between season 1 and 2 there's a 4-year time skip, despite the fact that the characters don't age at all, not to mention change their clothes. Of course, they might be Older Than They Look)
• Timm Style
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tia and Mei.
• Troubled but Cute: Sinedd
• Twin Banter: (Ahito & Thran)
• Underdogs Never Lose (Even after they become the overdogs.)
• Unwitting Pawn: Sinedd can inadvertently further someone's plot for Galactic domination just by sitting quietly in his room. Rocket and D'Jok aren't immune to this either.
• Welcome Back, Traitor (D'jok after defecting to Team Paradisia and Sinedd to the Shadows both return to the Snow Kids)
• We Used to Be Friends (Aarch and Artegor)
• Worthy Opponent (Warren of the Lightnings)