Bakugan: Battle Brawlers

WORK IN PROGRESS, THIS IS MY VERY FIRST ENTRY ON KYM, THERE ARE NOTABLE ERRORS AND THE LACK OF EXTERNAL REFERENCES THAT I HAVE TO GET USED TO IT. SORRY :P

About

Bakugan is a Japanese-Canadian franchise created as a joint between Sega Toys and Spin Master in 2006. The strategic game that came out uses spherical, spring-loaded figures, which represents a Bakugan that would pop open when rolled into a special metal Gate card. It's main objective is to capture three Gate cards and win. It is very popular with children, becoming one of the top rated toys ever and sold thousands of them.

Anime

In 2007, an anime adaptation called Bakugan: Battle Brawlers aired in TV Tokyo in Japan and Cartoon Network in the US, produced by TMS Entertainment, Dentsu Inc. and Nelvana Animation. The story follows Dan Kuso, who one day sees cards fall from the sky and grabbed one, giving him and his friend Shun an idea to invent the game, which they called "Bakugan", and form the group "Bakugan Battle Brawlers". One day though, there dragged into fighting for the fate of the home dimension for the Bakugans, Vestroria. It's up to them to save their home from the rogue Bakugan named Naga, who absorbed too much negative energy that destabilized the dimension. The anime spawned 3 sequels, all of them aired before Japan, but the last season is only aired exclusively in America.

Revival

In 2015, Spin Master revealed the plans to relaunch the franchise, which was later announced in 2017 to occur in the first quarter of 2019. Bakugan: Battle Planet, a reboot to the series, aired on TV Tokyo and Cartoon Network once again, on November 2018, focusing on the new group of characters called the "Awesome Ones", led by Dan Kouzo, Shun Kazami, Wynton Styles, Lia Venegas, and their dog Lightning. It recieved a second season in 2020, called Bakugan: Armored Alliance, aired on Teletoon and Cartoon Network, but in Japan, it was released exclusively online since April 3rd.

Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia

Champions of Vestroia is an upcoming action role-playing game being currently developed by WayForward of Shantae fame and will be published by WB Games exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, set to release on November 3rd, 2020. It will expand the story of the reboot anime with a new character.

During the 2020 Nintendo Treehouse livestream, the game was officialy revealed with an announcement trailer shortly after the Paper Mario: The Origami King stream was over, which then transitions into the first look of the gameplay. The reaction of the reveal and gameplay generated shock and confusing, some calling it a cheap Pokémon rip-off and some questions the franchise's relevance despite being popular. As of July 10th, the reveal currently has 3k. dislikes on Youtube, while the gameplay look has 4k. dislikes.

Other Media

In 2010, it recieved a Japan exclusive manga for CoroCoro Comics titled Baku Tech! Bakugan, which focuses on a brand new cast of characters that are not releated to the anime series. It recieved an anime adaptation that aired in 2012 as a segment for the show Oha Coro. It also recieved a sequel called Baku Tech! Bakugan Gachi, which aired for the rest of 2013.

Online Presence

The /r/Bakugan subreddit was created in December 2008 with currently 4.680 followers, while the official Twitter account was made in November 2018 to coincide the release of the anime reboot.