Chouseishin Gransazer

The first of Toho and Konami's ChouSeiShin trilogy, Chouseishin Gransazer debuted in 2003.

About 400,000,000 years ago, there was an Ancient Civilization of humans who were wiped out by the Warp Monarch alliance. When the Warp Monarch returns to destroy all modern life on Earth, 12 descendants of the ancient humans awaken their powers as the Zodiac / animal-themed "Sazers". Divided into four elemental tribes, the Sazers are initially turned against each other by Karin, a representative of Warp Monarch. However, once they get over their differences, the Sazers stand together against the villains.

The Fire Tribe:

 * Tenma Kudou/ Sazer-Tarious (Sagittarius): The hotblooded hero; The Archer in his eagle armor.
 * Mika Shidou/ Sazer-Mithras (Aries): The Lancer and Ken's Cool Big Sis; in her Flamingo-based armor, she wields metal fans of doom.
 * Ken Shidou/ Sazer-Lion (Leo): The Smart Guy and Mika's brother; he wields two swords in his condor-based armor.

The Wind Tribe:

 * Akira Dentsuin/ Sazer-Remls (Gemini): A victim of Love Makes You Crazy for Karin, and a Sugar and Ice Personality; his Rhinoceros-Beetle armor comes with a BFG.
 * Ryoko Amemiya/ Sazer-Velsou (Aquarius): The smart girl who first saw Karin for what she really was; she has twin-bucklers in her butterfly-based armor.
 * Jin Hakariya/ Sazer-Dail (Libra): A showoff who also believes in The Power of Friendship; he has two axe-tonfas as his Stag Beetle-armored alter-ego.

The Earth Tribe

 * Naoto Matsuzaka/ Sazer-Tawlon (Taurus): The Big Guy, The Determinator and the Ineffectual Loner; he has two shoulder-mounted BFG in his Bull-based armor.
 * Ran Saotome/ Sazer-Visuel (Virgo): The MacGuffin Girl; she has some mean claws as the leopard-based Visuel.
 * Go Kamiya/ Sazer-Tragos (Capricorn): A By-The-Book Cop; he has a mean drill when he activates his goat-based armor.

The Water Tribe

 * Makoto Sorimachi/ Sazer-Gorbion (Scorpio): A photographer and Team Dad (an Ineffectual Loner outside the perceptions of his tribe); he uses a Cool Sword upon activating his Shark-based armor.
 * Ai Uozumi/ Sazer-Pisces (take a guess): The Chick and youngest of all 12; her Orca-based armor is equipped with a small gun.
 * Tappei Mikami/ Sazer-Gans (Cancer): A Friend to All Living Things who has a crush on Ai; his Manta Ray, not Crab, based armor is equipped with yet another Cool Sword.

The villains

 * : A disguised alien of the Akelon race. Tries to use her disguise to put the Gransazers against eachother. When she is exposed, she goes One-Winged Angel, but is defeated.
 * The Impactors: A Proud Warrior Race trio consisting of Henshin Villains. They consist of:
 * Logia: The leader of the trio. A Gun Slinger who mainly uses dirty methods to get what he wants. Also likes to use the trope 'Unexplained Recovery' multiple times.
 * Radia: The hotheaded Brute. Uses an ax as weapon. Subtlety is NOT his preferred method.
 * Lucia: Almost as equally hotheaded as Radia, but completely devoted to please her leader Logia. Wielder of a Boomerang Blade.

This show features examples of:

 * Absentee Actor: Unless needed, all 12 Gransazers don't appear in the same episode. Some are justified that they're all doing separate jobs--Jin working on his fashion line, Akira and Ai working at the hospital--but others aren't excusable.
 * Animal-Themed Superbeing: Everyone.
 * Fire Tribe: Birds.
 * Big Badass Bird of Prey: Tenma (eagle) and Ken (condor).
 * Wind Tribe: Insects.
 * Japanese Beetle Brothers: Akira (rhinoceros beetle) and Jin (stag beetle).
 * Earth Tribe: Mammals.
 * A Load of Bull: Naoto.
 * Panthera Awesome: Ran (leopard)
 * Water Tribe: Aquatic animals.
 * Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Subverted with Makoto, save if you're a bad guy.
 * Combining Mecha, Humongous Mecha and Transforming Mecha: The Chou Sei Shins, who transform from mecha animal to robot, and combine together to form Daisazer.
 * In a neat twist, the tribes' four transforming mecha merge with a humanoid to form a dragon-shaped robot instead of a bigger humanoid.
 * Disappeared Dad: Ai's father.
 * Dogged Nice Guy: Jin and Tappei.
 * Elemental Powers: We have:
 * Playing with Fire: Fire Tribe
 * Dishing Out Dirt: Earth Tribe
 * Making a Splash: Water Tribe
 * Blow You Away: Wind Tribe
 * Energy Absorption: The Bosquito's modus apparatus.
 * Everybody Calls Him Barkeep: The mysterious benefactor who kept an eye on Ai addressed imself as Mr. Bear.
 * Freudian Trio: Each tribe is composed of one.
 * Geodesic Cast
 * In the Blood: Subverted; it's revealed that the Gransazers, and possibly all humans, are.
 * It's Personal: Ai personally wants to take down Lucia
 * Lost Technology: The Ultra Star Gods, Cloud Dragon and gunthras.
 * One-Hour Work Week: Subverted; many times we see the Gransazers doing their jobs (Tenma being a delivery service, Jin a fashion designer, Akira and Ai both working at the hospital, etc.)
 * One Steve Limit: Averted; two successive victims of the week were named Shinji.
 * Precursors: Ancient Humanity.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Impactors.
 * Rousing Speech: Tenma usually gives these to the members of the Water Tribe, explaining that the Gransazers are fighting together and it's nothing about tribes.
 * The Smurfette Principle: An interesting play: While each tribe has exactly one female Sazer to play the trope straight, the subversion comes when they all got together. The ratio is still the same though.
 * Superpowerful Genetics
 * Taking the Bullet: Subverted. Go tries to do this agaisnt Logia
 * Token Romance:
 * Unexplained Recovery: Impactor Logia. He clearly committed a suicide attack and when he returned, no real explanation was given apart from that Logia wanted vengeance.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A Victim of the Week has a far greater survival rate if he is a human than if he is an alien.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Tenma asks what Go was thinking
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue