Editing Brave (franchise)

'''Yūsha''' (or '''Brave''', also known as the '''Brave Series''') is a [[franchise]] that [[Takara]] and [[Wikipedia:Sunrise (company)|Sunrise]] created after the [[Generation 1|Generation One]] anime ran its course in Japan. The Brave Series consists of eight individual series that were released one after the other from 1990 to 1998 with corresponding TV shows in Japan.  

Although none of the series storylines are connected to one another (except through occasional brief cameos), the basic format of each series is similar. Usually a kid befriends/creates/becomes a sentient robot, and together they fight a great evil threatening the Earth. The main robots combine with supporting vehicle to form larger robots, and will able to combine with other robots to become much larger robots in later episodes. Additional teams of sentient robots combine amongst themselves to form larger robots as well.<!-- Also, one of the additional team consists of three members in the begining.--><ref>This concept was originated from the protagonist trio: [[Star Saber (G1)|Star Saber]]/[[Victory Saber]], [[Road Caesar]], and [[Landcross]] from ''[[Victory (franchise)|Transformers: Victory]]''.</ref> It has been described as a cross between Transformers and the Super Robot genre of the late '70s and early '80s.

Toys for these robots were created in two sizes: DX ("deluxe") versions that contained more gimmicks and more complicated transformations, and STD ("standard") versions that contained fewer gimmicks and more limited transformations, but often also higher [[show-accuracy|accuracy]] in reproducing the look of the robot from the anime series.  Generally, the transformation of the robots was created by Takara, while the look of the robots was created by Kunio Okawara, a legendary Sunrise mecha designer.

==Relationship to Transformers==

The initial concept designs for ''Brave Exkaiser'', the first Brave Series, were intended to be Transformers designs. While the Brave robot Ultra Raker was very far along at this stage, the Max team and King Exkaiser bore little resemblance to their final designs.

There are also similar design elements between the Brave toys and ''Generation 2/Beast Wars'' Transformers, which were released around the same time as the Brave toys. For example, many of the ''Brave of Legend'' toys have [[light-piping|light-piped]] eyes thanks to transparent pieces of plastic in their heads, a design element which many ''Generation 2'' Transformers share. The ''Goldran'' DX toyline contains many projectile launchers, something Generation 2 shared as well. In particular, the ''Goldran'' toy "Advenger" contains a rotor-launching gimmick identical to that of ''Generation 2'''s Rotor Force. Lastly, the elbows of Leon from DX Leonkaiser contain ball joints, a design element that gained much broader use during ''Generation 2'' and even more so during the ''Beast Wars'' toy line.

The Brave Series also reused character designs and toys from previous ''Transformers'' series. (A complete listing of those reuses follows in the section below).

Similarly, subsequent ''Transformers'' lines have also been influenced by the Brave Series. The Japanese [[Mini-Con]] [[Kingbolt]]'s coloration and characterization are homages to the Brave series ''Exkaiser''. Also, the [[Cybertron (cartoon)|''Cybertron'' cartoon]] featured many homages to the Brave series ''King Of Braves GaoGaiGar'', most notably the concept of the combination between [[Optimus Prime (Armada)|Optimus Prime]] with [[Leobreaker]] and [[Wing Saber]], which is similar to the way GaoGaiGar combines with Goldymarg and Stealth Gao respectively. The cinematography for ''[[Energon (cartoon)|Energon]]'' Optimus Prime's stock-footage combination sequence with his Prime Force limbs is also very reminiscent of Brave series stock footage.

One striking difference between the Brave Series and ''Transformers'' is that very few villain robots were released for the former. This is in sharp contrast to most of the ''Transformers'' series, for which heroes and villains were and are released in relatively equal numbers (with the exception of ''Zone'' and ''Battlestars''). Generally speaking, the lack of villain toys is more the norm for such toy lines in Japan, with the various ''Transformers'' lines (save for aforementioned two) being the exception there rather than the rule.

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==Toys and character designs recycled from ''Transformers''==
* ''Ptera Geist - [[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]]''
* ''Thunder Geist - [[Sludge]]''
* ''Horn Geist - [[Slag]]''
* ''Armor Geist - [[Snarl (G1)|Snarl]]''
* Red Geist - [[Deathsaurus]] (missing the Eagle Breastplate)
* Hiryu - [[Sonic Bomber]]
* ''Mega Sonic - [[Sonic Bomber]]''
* Goryu - [[Dai Atlas]] (missing handle for his shield)
* ''Atlas Mk.II - [[Dai Atlas]]''
* ''Atlas Epsilon - [[Dai Atlas]]''
* Shadow-maru - [[Sixshot]] (featured significant remolding to incorporate a ninja motif)
* ''Kagerou - [[Sixshot]]''
* The Micromaster Stations <small><sup>[[Hot House|1]][[Ironworks|2]][[Greasepit|3]][[Airwave|4]]</sup></small>(sans Micromaster and including non-Transforming Brave Police figures)
* ''Revibaron - Hybrid of [[Deathsaurus]], [[Sonic Bomber]], and [[Dai Atlas]]'' 
* ''Zazorigun - [[Scorponok (G1)|Scorponok]]''
* Death Garry Gun - [[Sky Garry]] (canabilized trailer launchers)
* Thunder Dagwon - [[Galaxy Shuttle]] (significant remolding, including a an additional motorcycle/robot that combines for the shuttle's robot mode)
* Dag Base - [[Grandus]] (significant remolding, does not combine with Star Convoy)

'''Note:''' ''Italicized names'' are non-toy characters.

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==Note==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[[Wikipedia:Brave series|Brave Series]] at [[Wikipedia:Main Page|Wikipedia]]

*[http://www.yusha.net/ Official Sunrise Brave Series website]

*[http://gaogaigar.wikia.com/wiki/GaoGaiGar-Betterman_Wiki The GaoGaiGar-Betterman Wiki].

*[http://mamao2.cside.com/ MAOMAO2's Room (Japanese)]

*[http://www.geocities.com/evattype01/ EvaTType01's Brave yuusha mecha database fansite]

*[http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=98174 The TFW2005 forum Brave thread]


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