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Bakugan, or Bakugan Battle Brawlers, is a Japanese anime television series which first aired in 2007. The whole story is based upon the adventures of creatures called Bakugan, and the brawlers who possess them. It has become quite popular in North America and a large portion of Europe.
The premise is that in an alternate but parallel world named Vestroia, an evil and powerful Bakugan named Naga tries to absorb all of the energy from the balanced cores of power which maintain peace and harmony on Vestroia. He absorbs too much power from the negative energy core called the Silent Core, which of course only furthers his evil intentions. This also forces Wavern, a good Bakugan, to absorb the positive energy from the remaining core called The Infinity Core.
The first season starts off with six friends who find strange metallic cards that have fallen to earth all the way from Vestroia itself. They decide to name themselves the Bakugan Battle Brawlers. Subsequent shows and seasons explore the interactions of the battle brawlers Dan, Shun, Runo, Marucho, Julie, Alice. More characters and battle brawlers join the main characters throughout the different seasons, helping them learn more about the origin of the Bakugan, Vestroia, and the continuing struggle against Naga and his minions.
There is a lot of Bakugan merchandise, anywhere from alarm clocks to watches, and everything in between. A wide range of games for various game consoles have also been released. Of course there is also the strategy game called Bakugan, developed by Sega Toys. The game can become quite involved with many variations on play, cards and players. There are also several styles of play, from regular to Big Game style play, which essentially doubles the card counts players use, and the number of Gate cards a player must capture in order to win is also doubled.
One of the most popular games based on the Bakugan series is still the Nintendo DS called Bakugan Battle Brawlers. Bakugan also won the 2009 Property of the Year award from the Toy Industry Association. Along with the many console games, there is also Bakugan Dimensions, an online version of the Bakugan strategy game, which went into beta testing in June of 2010. In September of 2010, Nelvana Entertainment announced a fourth series of Bakugan Battle Brawlers titled “Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge”, ending the speculation that the series was finished.
So if you just like the show, the online game, or prefer to battle it out with your friends with your very own battle brawlers on your basement floor, Bakugan has you covered, and continues to provide great adventures and fun year after year.
