Medabots



""Then it's agreed! I officially declare this match a submission robattle! As such, I, Mr. Referee, will act as referee so no one gets hurt. Medafighters ready? Medabots... Robattle!""

Medabots was originally a Japanese video game series (called Medarot, whose first 'generation' was released for the Game Boy in 1997. The last sequel, Medarot DS was released in 2009 for the Nintendo DS. The next sequel, Medarot 7, is going to be released in September 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS) that was later released as an anime. It's supposed to be about robots who fight each other, but most of the show is just wacky hijinks. It's the heartwarming tale of robot dog fights, ridiculous plot devices and poorly edited on-screen text. It stands out from other 90s dub anime for its surprisingly dark undertones, relatively solid plot, and the fact that it wasn't afraid to poke fun at itself.

In 22nd century Japan, everybody and their grandmother (literally) has a Robot Buddy, manufactured by the Medabot Corporation and creatively called Medabots. Because they are robots powered by medals which effectively serve as their brains.

Ikki Tenryou is a plucky ten year old whose parents won't buy him a Medabot, and he refuses to save his allowance for one. One fateful day, he finds a medal in the river near his house; teaching children that if you want something badly enough, you won't have to work for it! He takes what little money he does have and buys an extremely outdated model sitting in the back of the local 7/11 Hop Mart, and promptly activates it. It then proceeds to quite beautifully not work. It eventually kicks into action after he calls it a pile of junk, teaching children that if you insult somebody they will be more helpful! However, it soon sought retribution, teaching children not to insult anyone carrying weapons. The worst part is that Ikki can't even eject Metabee's medal to make him stop.

Wacky robot hijinks ensue, including characters with multiple (and mistaken) identities, long repeated flashbacks, and a of course a Tournament Arc. Oh, and they save the world at one point. From... Themselves.

A sequel series, Medabot Spirits (Medarot Damashii) followed up the original, but is largely considered to be inferior due to a majority of the characters being dropped without any explanation, while Ikki and Metabee (the latter given a Shonen Upgrade) remain the main characters.

Not to be confused with Medibot.

TV Tropes! Ro-Battle!:
"Metabee: I'm gonna get sassy on your-
 * Ace Custom: In the anime, Arc-Beetle is one of the strongest Medabots in the world and has never lost a single Robattle. It should be noted the Arc-Beetle is powered by a rare medal and his Medafighter is Space-Medafighter X/Phantom Renegade
 * Affectionate Nickname: Some characters who are in strong friendships with their Medabots, will given them a name, aside from just referring to them as their official serial type/number; the greatest anime example is Arika, who calls her SLR-1 Sailor-Multi, Brass. In games universe Ikki himself is the greatest example, as his friendship with Metabee is limited to the medal itself, so the bodies KBT-1 Metabee, KBT-50 Saikichis and, are all Metabee to him. Kirara is another example carried on in the videogames, since her Sailor-Mate is called Alumi.
 * Alternate Continuity: Boy howdy, does the franchise ever run on this. Not only do the anime and manga's plots slightly differ, but the games pretty much retell the main plot for each sequel (if a different cast of characters isn't involved)!
 * Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Medarot uses Chie to Yuuki da! Medarot as opening and Yappari Kimi ga Suki! as ending, meanwhile Medarot Damashii uses SUPER GUYS and My Young Boy. The American dub, however, used this theme for both opening and (an instrumental version) ending for both series.
 * And Then What?: When the Rubberrobo Gang tricked Metabee into thinking Ikki abandoned him, they temped him with a chance to revenge. It wasn't enough as Metabee asked what he'd do after that.
 * Angrish: Metabee, in the English dub at least, generally accompanied by the "Ki!Ki!Ki!" noise he makes when excited or under stress.
 * Angry Black Man: Metabee is played as one in the dub.
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Victor, leader of the world-champion Team Kenya and all around Jerkass.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In Episode 35; "The Rubberobos took your mother - and ate our dinner!"
 * Art Shift: Episode 14 was drawn in a much different art style. Given that the Episode was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, of Gurren Lagann fame.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: The one time Mr. Referee is attacked, he strikes back with a Medabot IN ORBIT.
 * Back From the Dead:
 * Badass: Several.
 * Badass Grandpa: Dr. Aki and Dr. Meta-Evil
 * Badass Normal: Ikki, Phantom Renegade/Space Medafighter X, Koji, Victor.
 * Batman Gambit: See Roaring Rampage of Revenge down below.
 * Battle Aura: The Medaforce.
 * Berserk Button: Do NOT call Metabee defective.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Mister Referee.
 * Bishie Sparkle: Lampshaded Played straight, but over-the-top.
 * Bruce Lee Clone: Ikki robattles one (Dragon Ryuuchirou) in episode 27.
 * Butt Monkey: To a smaller extent, Cyandog/Crosserdog and Iwanoi/Spike; Cyandog is a poor fighter because his medal isn't of the properly compatible type. A monkey medal, no less.
 * Don't forget Mr. Referee. Somehow, he is never hurt by any of his own antics.
 * The Rubber-Robo Gang have their moments, especially Seaslug.
 * Canon Discontinuity: Spirits gets this a lot.
 * Cannot Stand Them Cannot Live Without Them: Ikki and the 'defective' Metabee.
 * Combat Referee: Mr. Referee, naturally.
 * Creepy Child: The Ankle Biters and Kam from Spirits
 * Catch Phrase: Dub only. "Dude... I rock."
 * "Kiss your bot goodbye!"
 * Catgirl: Peppercat.
 * Charlie Brown From Outta Town: During the Tournament Arc, the identity of Uchuu Medarotter/Space Medafighter X is used by several different people to act as the third member of team Japan. This is probably cheating, but whatever (this is technically an inversion).
 * Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Team France in the Tournament Arc, who kidnap their opponents in every match so that they win by default. When they do try and fight, they get their butts handed to them.
 * Chekhov's Gun: In Episode 8, Metabee wins a Decoy Claw from Norbert's Kuraba, a Medapart that's effective for hand to hand combat - which makes it a perfect match for Cyandog's Monkey medal.
 * This applies to many of the Medaparts Metabee wins. The Invisiarm he wins from Multikolor in Episode 17 allows him to counter Sumilidon's Shadow Sword attack in Episode 34.
 * The web shooting arm won in Episode 20 comes in handy in Episode 32, when Metabee sticks down one of Shrimplips' Medabots, meaning it couldn't dodge an incoming attack from one of it's teammates - funny, considering Ikki won the part from Shrimplips in the first place.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Victor. Is not above using his teammates' Medabots as sacrifices to either take out an enemy Medabot or protect Warbandit.
 * Combat Tentacles: Used as weapons, of course.
 * Confusion Fu: Space Medafighter X's shtick....
 * Cool Old Guy: Dr Aki
 * Don't forget Mr. Referee.
 * Crazy Prepared: Karin can be a nice little Moe, but she's always ready if you need to climb a wall, cross a bridge taken by a bully or even blow up a security door.
 * It pretty much runs in the family because in the first season finale, Karen's Uncle, Dr. Aki knew that Dr. Meta-Evil would use a giant Medabot to conquer the world. So, he secretly constructed a giant Metabee.
 * Cultural Translation: Borders on Gag Dub at times. Notable in that most characters' names were kept, and the location of the show was clearly stated to be Japan in the dub.
 * Curse Cut Short: In Episode 6,

(cut to Henry's shop)

Henry: -bad mode central."

"Ikki: "I wonder what he does when he isn't refereeing...""
 * Delinquents - The Screws Gang.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: One episode has a group of old women want to round up the Medabots of every kid in school...simply because the Roborobo gang ran over one's beauty products.
 * Actually it was one women manipulating the rest. Once the rest found out that they did all that work just to get revenge for 40 bucks of beauty supplies they turned on her.
 * Dressed All in Rubber: the Roborobo gang.
 * Drill Mole: Digmole, Coach Mountain's Medabot, is a construction Medabot with drills for hands and on its nose.
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Ikki, Kouji, and Kagiyama during their match against
 * Dub Induced Plot Hole: The reshuffle of episodes that Nelvana considered filler later in the series. This not only affecting the 'one week before the World Championship' thing, but also some minor things as the introduction of Oceana (who became a victim of Die for Our Ship by viewers for the ship of the Metabee/Brass pairing), the random appearances of Rokusho after, the introduction of the Roborobo Gang (seriously, who felt a bit uncomfortable that there were merchandising of them as aliens if they were villains before?) or the sudden dissapearance of recently introduced secondary characters, especially Rintaro.
 * Also the most facepalmed example of all, the naming of Metabee. It was clearly in the original version that Hikaru named him, meanwhile in the dub it wasn't Henry but Ikki... come 45 episodes later and Nelvana tried to fix their mistake in the dub...
 * Dub Text: Non-sexual example. Metabee's aforementioned portrayal as an Angry Black Man comes off as a sort of twisted lampshading of the master/slave relationship present in most Mon shows.
 * Evil Laugh: The Phantom Renegade has an excellent one, his calling card.
 * Also, Warbandit in Episode 50, when it turns out
 * The Roborobo gang also have a tendancy of doing this (with one of them being particularly demented in that area).
 * Victor in the Japanese version.
 * Expressive Mask: Phantom Renegade and, to an unexplained lesser extent, Space Medafighter X.
 * Expy: Roks in Spirits looks enough like Put on a Bus Rokusho to invite confusion. It gets even worse later on, when several Kilobots end up being pretty blatant redesigns of season 1 and 2 'bots Sumilidon, Warbandit, Arcbeetle and others.
 * Finishing Move: Metabee's Reaction Missles, replaced halfway through the series by the Medaforce when they become So Last Season.
 * Five-Bad Band: The Main Members of the Rubber-Robo Gang consists of...
 * Big Bad: Dr. Meta-Evil
 * The Dragon: Seaslug,
 * The Brute: Squidguts
 * The Dark Chick: Gilgirl
 * The Evil Genius: Shrimplips
 * Flashback Nightmare
 * Four-Man Band:On the human side...
 * The Hero: Ikki
 * The Lancer: Koji
 * The Chick: Karen
 * The Smart Girl: Erika
 * On the Medabots side...
 * The Hero: Metabee
 * The Lancer: Sumilidon
 * The Chick: Nutra-Nurse
 * The Smart Girl: Brass
 * Freak-Out: In Episode 24,
 * Freudian Excuse:
 * Friendly Enemy: Spike is friendly with Ikki and Arika on occasion. Later the whole Screws gang becomes this.
 * Friendly Rivalry: Ikki and Koji.
 * Fun Size: Three foot tall robots.
 * Gentleman Thief: Phantom Renegade is a parody of these kinds of characters, especially Magic Kaito.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Oh, did they ever have fun with the Screws gang...
 * Furthermore, in the second episode, Metabee finds a watermelon in his way. He suddenly can't resist temptation and crawls over to it while laughing, "kekekeke!" Did we mention Metabee has an African-American voice actor? Of course this is covered over with Metabee being a beetle-type medabot who can't resist watermelons and sounds like a beetle.
 * Girl of the Week
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: Metabee. Played for both laughs and drama.
 * Ikki and Arika as well.
 * He Who Must Not Be Seen: Dr. Meta-Evil, unitl episode 38.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Hey, It's That Voice! / Retroactive Recognition:
 * Junko Takeuchi provides her voice to Metabee.
 * Maaya Sakamoto is Karin. Her 'Whoops!!' partner, and later Tomo Takino, Chieko Higuchi is Rintaro.
 * Say, Matsuda is a convenience clerk AND Kaitou Retort?
 * I didn't know that Arika get to be another Genki Girl in Futari wa Pretty Cure. Or that she could be a Broken Bird as Tsubaki Kasugano.
 * Iceland Team's Belmont is Ryohei Kimura, better known later as Akira Takizawa in Eden of the East, and is one of the protagonists in Sakamichi no Apollon pretty recently.
 * Nojiko, the girl that sells takoyaki is Kae Araki.
 * Takayuki Kondo was Kantaroth's voice... and later became a tennis player, was a duelist and an ace attorney (at least in a TGS 2005 trailer).
 * Hot Mom: Ikki's mom. Oh God, Ikki's mom.
 * To illustrate: her lazy son won't get out of bed. Solution? Get in bed with him (and make the sweetest face in history). Amazingly, it worked.
 * She also got Ikki and Metabee to stop fighting once by kissing them repeatedly on the cheeks. Metabee didn't seem to mind as much...
 * Humongous Mecha: Part of the Grand Finale.
 * Hypocritical Humor: All over the place.
 * I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Ikki, Erika and Metabee pretended to be students of Rosewood Academy to sneak in there and the doorman asked why they weren't wearing their uniforms, the told the spilled caviar on it and their butler would bring them later. (It was a school for rich kids) The Screws tried the same excuse but their leader ruined it by stating they spilled caviar on their butler.
 * Idiot Hair: Henry/Hikaru's impossible hair.
 * Ill Girl: In the manual for one of the games, Karin is said to have a heart condition where she will die or at least go into critical condition if her heart rate gets too high.
 * Intrepid Reporter - Arika.
 * Jerkass: Victor. He gets better by the end, though.
 * And nearly anyone with a Kilobot in Spirits.
 * Killer Rabbit: There's an episode featuring a group of pre-schoolers, the Ankle Biters, and their Medabot named Churlybear. As one would expect, said machine looks like a big, cute teddybear - until provoked into battle... Its eyes then narrow and start glowing red, and the unfortunate opponent finds out Churlybear is armed with an extremely powerful beam cannon, and a gravity beam which essentially reduces the enemy to a puppet in the Medabot's hands. Said gravity beam should be handled with care though...
 * Killer Robot:
 * In the manga, when a medabot releases its Medaforce, it becomes Ax Crazy and (sometimes) mindless.
 * Kung Shui: The Manga is crazy with this, the Medafighters constantly doing Robatle not in an appropriate place, constantly injured (and I mean by ACTUAL BULLETS), but Police didn't even react....
 * Let's Get Dangerous: Did we mention these were ten-year old kids running around with missle-launching, spark-using, and hammer-weilding robots?
 * Lighthearted Rematch: Final episode, final scene.
 * Like an Old Married Couple: The best way to describe Ikki and Arika's relationship.
 * Limit Break: The Medaforce. Normally reserved only for robots with Rare Medals, the Medaforce puts all the robot's energy into one attack. However, problems arise from it. As shown from 's use, the Medabots is no longer able to fight because of their lack of energy, thus leaving them up for attacks. As a possible side effect,
 * It happens again during the final against Team Kenya, but Warbandit survives it by using Rhinorush as a shield.
 * Loners Are Freaks: Played straight with Kam from Spirits.
 * Mad Scientist: Dr. Metaevil of the Rubber Robo Gang.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Dr. Metaevil gets this award for  Once more, see Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
 * Meda-Guy: Well... everyone really (sorry)
 * Medaton-Punch: One particular Medabot, Belzelga. When a member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad took control of the prototype, it proceeded to display it's punching ability. As in, it OHKO'd any part of whoever it hit. (again, sorry)
 * Blackram, which is of the same model, supposedly has similar punching abilities. We see two of them in the anime, but sadly, neither of them lasts long enough to showcase their power.
 * Mind Screw: The season finale for the original series.
 * Mistaken for Profound: Some of the smartest things are said by people meaning compeltely different things.
 * Mistaken for Servant: When Ikki first saw Karin cleaning at the school and mentioning about going to clean a toilet, he assumed she was poor and needed to do menial work to pay for tuition..
 * Mon: Type I. In the case of the videogames, it pretty much follows the leader, since Medarot 1 (Game Boy) was released a year after Pokémon Red & Green. But it differs in certain things: the player collects parts of other medabots to build much better ones, and there are certain relationships to rise with the main character's female friends.
 * Though the anime follows it directly (and also have strikes of Type II), Ikki just only collects parts of medabots to conveniently use them in battle's strategies or when he doesn't have the parts of Metabee at hand.
 * Mooks: The Rubberobos seem to have an endless supply of Noctobat Medabots.
 * Mundane Made Awesome: Attacking the Referee after a Robattle gets a knock out dart fired from a SATELLITE IN SPACE.
 * Dodgeball, too.
 * My Little Panzer: You have preteens playing around with robots whose firepower can crater steel and smash concrete and some of them (lookin' at you Metabee) have no qualms about firing on their controllers. How is this kid-safe again?
 * My Master, Right or Wrong: Blackbeetle to Kam.
 * Names to Know in Anime: Junko Takeuchi as Metabee, Maaya Sakamoto as Karin.
 * The main animation studios in which both series were done: Bee Train & Production I.G (who took the mantle in Damashii, alongside Trans Arts).
 * No Mouth: Most, if not all, Medabots. The main cast alone can fill this.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Henry uses this even while playing the Big Brother Mentor.
 * Oblivious to Love: Karin is oblivious to Ikki's and Kouji's feelings for her.
 * Off-Model: Several times throughout the series, the human characters' hands switch between five and four fingered hands due to the (rather) blobby art style.
 * Ocular Gushers: And Metabee doesn't even have real eyes to do it with!
 * Oh Crap:
 * The Ojou: Karin, who is also just the sweetest little girl you've never met.
 * Once Per Episode: Mr. Referee pops out from a random place and does his standard pre-battle speech, as seen at the top. This includes; coming out of the ocean, flying down from a helicopter/airplane, crawling up a burning rooftop, and already appearing to begin with.
 * Also, the chicken-seller, whose sales pitch is inevitably mistaken for Yoda-esque wisdom.
 * One Game for the Price of Two - The games play this straight, then subvert it with the Parts Collections. The Parts Collection games were Gaiden Games with slightly different rules(normally winning a match gets you 1 randomly-selected part the opponent used, in Parts Collection you get a complete set of parts for a specific bot) designed specifically to get around the obstacle of not knowing anyone with the other edition.
 * One of the Boys - Kikuhime/Samantha.
 * One-Liner: Dub-Metabee, all the time.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Hikaru/Henry takes this trope to new heights, not only somehow managing to keep everybody in the dark about how, but also that he's
 * Though, him being, it could be Fridge Logic used in the original version of the anime, too.. since the kids
 * Phantom (Thief) Renegade
 * His japanese name is, technically, Kaitou Retort: Phantom Thief/Bandit Retort.
 * Playing with Fire: ...and ice, and thunder, and missles, and gravity, and...
 * Pokémon-Speak - Team Mexico is composed of the Amigo Brothers. About the only thing they say aside from "Amigo!" is when greeting people. "Saludo!"
 * The Power of Friendship: Ikki and Metabee. All the time.
 * Put on a Bus: Anime and Games:
 * Anime: Pretty much everybody save Ikki, Metabee, Arika, and the Screws come Spirits.
 * Video Games: Everyone save Ikki, Metabee (in a new body), Arika, Nae and Dr. Akibahara are seen 10 years later in Medarot DS.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Roborobo Gang.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ikki and Kouji, Metabee and Rokusho.
 * Rescue Arc
 * Returning the Handkerchief: How Ikki met Karin.
 * Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Kouji and Ikki are rivals for Karin's feelings. Too bad she doesn't seem to notice their feelings.
 * Right-Hand-Cat: Subverted.
 * Robot Buddy: The main idea of the show.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
 * Ruined FOREVER: Spirits tends to elicit this reaction.
 * Running Gag: Mr. Referee, who always manages to always be where the principal characters are in order to officiate the robottle about to happen. It's lampshaded in the Tournament Arc when the WMF announcer cites this as what Mr. Referee is known for.
 * Running Gag: Mr. Referee, who always manages to always be where the principal characters are in order to officiate the robottle about to happen. It's lampshaded in the Tournament Arc when the WMF announcer cites this as what Mr. Referee is known for.


 * Scarf of Asskicking: Uchuu Medarotter X/Space Medafighter X wears one. If that wasn't necessary to show how badass he is. Counting double since his complete outfit is a Shout-Out to Kamen Rider.
 * So Last Season: Anime and Games:
 * Anime: The Medaforce, supposedly the strongest expression of Medabot power, is shown to be completely useless against Kilobots in the first episode of Spirits
 * Video Games: Ikki's KBT Medabots, in contrast to the anime where he holds dear Metabee's medal and body, in the games he mostly cares about the medal, so it's pretty much guaranteed that he will upgrade Metabee to a newer KBT model between games:
 * KBT-0 Metal Beetle -- Medarot
 * KBT-1 Metabee -- Medarot 2
 * KBT-50 Saikichis -- Medarot 4
 * KBT-4 Arc-Beetle -- Medarot DS
 * School Newspaper Newshound: Arika.
 * Ship Sinking: For the games universe,.
 * Ship Tease: Ikki and Arika in some episodes.
 * Ever heard of memetic Misty's Song? Just a tip of iceberg for Shipping-themed song. Yappari Kimi ga Suki! (Still I Love You!) by Sendai Eri herself, the Seiyuu of Arika/Erika, and did I mention it's the ORIGINAL! JAPANESE! ENDING?!
 * Hence, fuck out another ship-song about Ikki's feeling of Nae, that one in the Medarot Damashii? It's not an in-game Canon.
 * Shock and Awe: Peppercat.
 * Shorttank: Arika and Kikuhime/Samantha.
 * Shonen Upgrade: Spirits, again.
 * Shout-Out: On one occasion in the dub, Ikki asks if Medabots can dream. Metabee chips in, saying he dreams of electric sheep.
 * Coach Moutain was once looking for Groundskeeper Billy.
 * Robo-Emperor was clearly inspired by EVA: 01.
 * During an episode where he was "training" with Dr. Aki (read: dusting his house), Ikki mentions seeing a movie where a kid learns karate from a wise old mentor by doing chores for him, and thinks Dr. Aki is doing the same thing.
 * From episode 27, medafighter Dragon Ryuuchirou is obviously not an Expy of Bruce Lee.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Poor Arika. Or is it Erica or Erika? (Although the latter two variants really only show up if you're using the dub as a basis...)
 * Spoiled Sweet: Karin.
 * The Stoic: Sloan, though he can get unnerved at times. Rokusho, Victor and Kam from Spirits are more straight examples.
 * Rokusho does this with a mentor-like twist.
 * Stoic Spectacles: Victor.
 * Super Prototype: The first Robo Emperor. It was too powerful, and stuck in storage while newly designed, nerfed versions were put into production.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Spirits' Nae serves as Karin, Dr. Aki, and Henry's replacement. She's Dr. Aki's granddaughter (as opposed to his niece), becomes Ikki's older Oblivious Love Interest, provides Metabee with upgrades and plays Cool Big Sis.
 * Taking Up the Mantle: In the game universe,
 * Talking to Himself: Common in the dub; but in both Japanese and English, Kikuhime/Samantha and Brass are played by the same voice actress.
 * Expanded a little bit in the Japanese version too, since Kikuhime and Brass also share the seiyuu of Ikki's mom.
 * Teleport Spam: The secret weapon of the American team in the World Championship.
 * Terrible Quintet: The Roborobo Gang's inspiration is obvious in this regard, though towards the end their individual names and personalities and unique appearances are revealed just as they're finally discovered to be Not So Harmless.
 * Time Skip: Between Medarot 2 and Medarot DS, 10 years have passed.
 * Too Dumb to Live: The Roborobo Gang once mistook a Medabot for having a rare medal simply because it won a battle without moving. They apparently didn't see the fact that Ikki had made Metabee a series of paper "aeroparts" (Medaparts that allow the user to fly) and Metabee couldn't control them.
 * In episode 26, after the Phantom Renegade introduces himself to the Rubber-Robo Gang, Gilgirl commented that they already know who he is and said that they're not dumb enough to fall for his tricks. Then the Phantom said that the Rubber-Robo gang are geniuses. Then, the Phantom quickly says, "Look, it's the Phantom Renegade!" and the Rubber-Robo gang turn around and said "Where?". Then, the Phantom Renegade threw a smoke-bomb and fled off with Rokusho. Man, are the Rubber-Robo gang Dumb.
 * The Kid with the Remote Control: ...And teenagers, and adults, and old ladies, and...
 * Theme Naming: Each of the members of the Roborobo Gang is named for some kind of seafood. Dub-wise, the Screws all have names beginning with "S", and the Rubberrobos have had their names changed to simply be sea creatures.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Arika and Karin. Kikuhime/Samantha also plays Tomboy to Arika at times.
 * Tomboyish Name: In the English dub, Samantha.
 * Tournament Arc
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Ikki and takoyaki. A one-off example is Hikaru using a watermelon to bait Metabee, who despite being a robot and not even having a mouth, is somehow lured in because he has a kabuto-type Medal and beetles like sweet fruits.
 * Can get a bit uncomfortable watching that scene in the dub...
 * Tsundere: Arika is somewhat of a Type-B. Kikuhime/Samantha is a Type-A who is a little heavy on tsun and very rarely shows her dere side...
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: The videogames (Medarot to Medarot DS) and the manga happen between 2010-2033. Medabots were partially developed during the 70s...
 * Though it is an Alternate Continuity from the original source of the franchise, the anime series is debatable happening around the 2020s in the original version (the timeline of Medarot 2 through 4, where the anime is sort-of based on, happens in that decade) but changed to the 22nd century in the English dub. Also a proof of Technology Marches On, since the anime series was done in 1999-2001... and there are still VCRs in the future?
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Metabee and Ikki again, who fight like brothers.
 * Wave Motion Gun: Several Medabots have this attack. A prime example is Arc-Beetle's signature attack, the Prominence. The Medaforce also acts like this.
 * White Mask of Doom: Phantom Renegade and Space Medafighter X.
 * The White Prince: Kouji attempts to be like this and mostly succeeds, though he does sometimes slip into Upperclass Twit territory.
 * Why Did It Have To Be Bugs: Kouji. In a party he even freaks out and destroy everything in sight.
 * Wrench Wench - Nae, from Spirits.
 * You Are in Command Now: Dr. Meta-Evil put Shrimplips in charge of the Rubber-Robo Gang after Seaslug made too many failures.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:

FUNCTION CEASED!