Brave (franchise)
Yūsha (or Brave, also known as the Brave series) is a toy and animation franchise that began after Takara had ended the animated "Generation One" storyline in Japan. Following a decline in the series' popularity that led to the cancellation of the OVA series Transformers: Zone, Takara struck a cooperative deal with the animation studio Sunrise (known for its mecha series, most notably Gundam) to develop a new franchise and set of toy lines.
Overall mechanics
All of the main hero robots' mechanical (or mecha) designs in the Brave series were those of prolific Sunrise mechanical designer Kunio Okawara. In most of the Brave series, there is a main hero robot (usually the most or next-most expensive toy in the line), backed up by one or two support combiner teams and later receiving one or two combiner partners, upgrading the hero to more powerful forms. (The most or second-most powerful form of the hero robot is usually known as its "Great" form.)
Relationship to Transformers
A number of supporting characters and enemies across the Brave Series had designs or remolds derived from earlier and then-present Generation One Takara TF designs, most notably those of Zone and Battlestars (the latter never having its own animated series). The enemy "Geister" characters in Brave Exkaiser (save for their leader, Dino Geist) were actually remolds of Dinobot toys, for instance.
