Dan is the leader of the Battle Brawlers and obsessed with Bakugan—maybe too much so. He's impulsive and gets frustrated easily, which gets him into trouble more often than not. His big goal is to be the world's number one brawler, something he actually achieves by the end of the original series. He tends to charge into battles without thinking, desperate to prove himself against anyone willing to fight. Early on, this meant a lot of complaining whenever he had to lay low, though he mellowed out considerably by season three and started helping others without all the attitude.
Dan's real weakness used to be his approach to battles. He relied purely on raw power and didn't care much about strategy or consequences—a mindset that caused a serious falling out with Drago when Dan threw him in a river in anger. After losing to Ryo and reconciling with Drago, Dan figured out that Bakugan is about more than just brute force. That lesson stuck with him. He developed actual tactics and used them to beat Ryo in a rematch and later to take down Chan Lee, the third-ranked player in the world.
In the original series, Dan first appears riding his bike to challenge Shuji at the park. He crushes him easily, but Shuji comes back for revenge with a Darkus Bakugan that catches Dan off guard. During the battle, Dan has a vision of Drago fighting Fear Ripper, and when the vision ends, both Bakugan materialize on the field. Drago wins, giving Dan the victory. Dan brushes off the whole talking-Bakugan thing as his imagination.
By New Vestroia, Dan is 15 and reunited with Drago after the Perfect Core separates from him. They end up in New Vestroia alongside Marucho, where they join forces with Mira, Ace, and Baron to fight the Resistance against the Dimension Controllers keeping Bakugan locked in ball form. Ace doesn't trust Dan at first and makes him prove himself in a brawl that ends in a draw.
In Gundalian Invaders, Dan's still the main character. He's moved to a new town and befriended Jake Vallory, their new Subterra brawler. His partner is now Helix Dragonoid, and he wields the Battle Gear JetKor. Things get complicated when he meets Fabia Sheen—she throws him (twice) before they sort out a misunderstanding about the Neathians. He initially sides with Ren Krawler's story that the Neathians are invaders and tells Fabia to stop using Bakugan for war, which doesn't go over well.
After defeating Barodius, Dan returns to an expanded Bakugan Interspace now plagued by rival teams trying to dethrone the Brawlers. More troubling are the recurring visions he and Drago share of a masked man called Mag Mel and a mysterious Bakugan named Razenoid demanding their power. When Dan battles Ben from Team Anubias, he wins easily—but Drago loses control mid-battle and nearly destroys the arena, a sign that something bigger is coming.
The turning point comes during a crucial brawl when Dan unleashes Pyrus Dragonoid's full power. The surge is so massive it tears a hole between worlds, sucking Dan into an alternate dimension and throwing both his world and the parallel dimension into chaos. Humanity itself hangs in the balance.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
