Ranked #2736

Medabots

Time to review one of my favorite Anime geared towards kids. Every episode I've seen has been from the dub version since there aren't any known subs and I thought the dub was well done.

Just so you know, in certain areas, only aired 26 episodes despite that all 52 episodes were eventually dubbed. From episodes 1-39, they cut 13 so some of you might have missed some episodes. This was confusing when I revisited the series but most of the episodes they cut were "filler" episodes which isn't so bad. I skipped a lot of these episodes to get to the plot and the ending which is why I haven't finished the series at the time I am writing this though I'll definitely get to finishing it.

Story: To me, it seems like a parody of Pokemon and possibly mecha Anime. The story's basically Pokemon with robots. Many of the episodes consist of the mains having their Medabots fighting other random Medabots over a misunderstanding or some dispute. Pretty basic for a Pokemon/Digimon-like series. There are a few good plots here and there that were very entertaining as the show progresses. The best episodes (At least to me) are when the Rubberrobo Gang gets serious and whenever Rokusho shows up. However even the "filler" type episodes have merit in that the character interactions provide lots of laughs and while not much happens, they're still a good watch. This is a kids dub so older viewers will notice corny jokes and dialogue but there are dubs that are way worse so it's no big deal. Although I will admit that the dub sometimes doesn't make everything 100% clear to the viewer and they made a mistake with how Metabee got his name later but whatever. There's another part where one character obtains *Spoiler* when the character shouldn't be able to. They never go back to explain why. The character just has it. After watching the ending, I have so many unanswered questions that can only be answered through playing the Game Boy games this show is based on. One thing that bothers me about adaptations is that if something's weird or doesn't make sense people will say "You didn't read the book/comic." or "You didn't play the game." I shouldn't need to do either of those things to understand a show. Why can't the show tell me? I guess Medabots is still good enough that the flaws won't kill the score but one character's past is so interesting that he should have his own spin-off so they can explain everything instead of me having to track down ancient games.

Art: This is where I have a serious problem with this show. I thought it was really old when I first saw it but on this site, it says Medabots aired in 1999. For its time, the animation would be considered "bad". There are a few episodes that looked pretty good but some scenes looked pretty horrible. The art is incredibly inconsistent and you'll notice it between episodes. There is also a major abuse of reused scenes. It's really annoying and it's one of the biggest things that bother me about the animation of Anime besides vertical black lines under a character's eyes. Now, remember how I said that I saw this show as a parody? I don't know if this is making fun of mecha Anime that tend to abuse stock footage but it just gets really annoying to see the same thing over the course of around 40 episodes parody or not.

Sound: I checked out an episode in Japanese and the dub used a different soundtrack so I'll use the dub's music for this review, although there isn't much to say. None of the music is really bad or annoying, but I can't say I really like any of the tracks either. A couple of them stand out like Rokusho's theme and this Eye of the Tiger thing. The American theme song is actually okay. Lyrics are small in amount and not exactly the best but at least it isn't a pirate rap. I do have to make a note about the Japanese opening, it is awesome. It's a badass song sung by Metabee's voice actor: Takeuchi Junko who I'm sure most of you would recognize as Naruto's voice actor. It's really worth a listen as it's a kind of song that gets your blood pumping and the opening sequence fits the song pretty well.

The dub voice actors are pretty good. No one is incredibly annoying and most of the voices fit well. The characters and voice actors section on this site is severely lacking for this show which is unfortunate. I'd really like to know who played Rokusho, Seaslug and the Phantom Renegade because their voices really stuck out and being good actors, they were very entertaining to listen to.

One thing I'd like to tack onto the abuse of stock footage and reused scenes thing is that the dub seems to reuse certain soundbytes. I mainly notice this when Metabee uses a *Spoiler* attack or wins a fight with a "Dude, I rock." line. It wouldn't be so bad if they re-recorded the voice actor saying the quotes but at times, it sounds really unnatural and annoying especially to someone who has seen many episodes. Actually, this pretty much only happens with Metabee. Even in normal conversation you'll hear a familiar "What!?" or "Oh, now I'm really angry!" because it probably is the same one you heard some episodes ago. This is the first time I've heard of "stock dialogue".

Character: I liked a lot of the characters. I'm sure most people would like Metabee, Rokusho, Henry and his personas. They're all badass and whenever they show up you know it'll be awesome. Who could forget Mr. Referee and his out of nowhere appearances. Of course there are annoying characters too but at times they do contribute to the comedy of the show so it's not that bad. There isn't that much character development unfortunately besides the usual "got better at Robattling" because they needed to. An 8 here because they make "filler" enjoyable which is quite a task.

Enjoyment: I didn't really enjoy the final 13 episodes of the series that much because most of the fights only last 3 minutes which means they spent a little less than 20 minutes doing other things. If you get that far, you'll see what I mean. The fights aren't that amazing despite what the plot is at that time and these last episodes seemed sloppily written. There are also inconsistencies like Metabee's messed up in some way but can fight fine a few minutes later. I can't forget to mention the large bunch of reused scenes. Finally, there is a severe lack of Rokusho after 39 which is a disappointment. You really want him to participate and they totally could've used him at the time too. Despite that, this has to be one of the best dubs I've seen among kids Anime. The show makes me laugh without trying too hard and while they aren't skyscrapers tall, the Medabots are very cool so this deserves a 9.

Overall: I certainly think it deserves a spot higher than the 2400s but it did beat out most of the Pokemon stuff which is nice to see. There isn't really a type of Anime viewer I would recommend this to. I played a disc of this when I was hanging out with my friends. They couldn't stop watching and they laughed throughout the episodes. This is a very fun series to watch and the dub deserves lots of credit. They made very little cuts for a kids dub, didn't eradicate all traces of Japanese words and the plot seems somewhat consistent with the original. Also most of the names of the characters are kept from the Japanese version along with the pronunciations which is very cool. Best part might be calling the series "Medabots" instead of sticking with "Medarots". They're robots that make use of "medals" which makes them "medal robots" and both names make sense but seriously "Medabots" sounds so much better. Even though the averages don't add up to it, I'm calling it an 8 but I'd like to give it a 9.

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more

Okay guys, let's talk about Medabots, the American consumerist Super robot competition series. I'll start by saying this: Fuck Yeah Medabots.

This is a show that stands the test of time against all odds. Other toy marketing series like Beyblade, B-Damon and Bakugan were ephemeral things, they existed just to push their products and then were forgotten immediately as soon as a new things popped up. That's because the shows sucked. They had no heart, no personality. Other franchise series like the old seasons of YuGiOh, Pokemon and Duel Masters, however, are remembered fondly by the people who watched them so many years ago. That's because those shows rocked. They had interesting characters, stories and wacky hijinks. Medabots is part of that club too.

The premise is that everyone who matters in the world has their own companion fighting robot that helps them do chores and commit acts of arson and assault. It's fucking cool. I mean, Pokemon lets kids have giant dragons and stuff, but this shows premise is literally "everyone gets a midget-sized Mazinger". People have a tendency to have their robots duke it out (in public) to settle disputes and get swag. Why can't the real world be this way?

And so the story revolves around this kid named Ikki. He's a lovable little runt with an attitude. He's also a loser because he's the only one at his school who doesn't own a pet robot armed with missiles, guns and other deadly weapons. Well one day he breaks open his piggy bank and buys one at his local 7-11 (convenience stores are badass in the 22nd century apparently), and thus Metabee is born. Ikki then goes on misadventures with his new pal for 50 or so episodes, fighting evil, battling dudes from all over the world, etc.

Sweet premise aside, the characters are what shine in this show. Medabots has a very big cast full of colorful and entertaining characters. Ikki is cool lead. He's a do-gooder, but he's also a 10-year old. He's a sarcastic hotshot who likes his women and really just wants to kick ass at what he does. His partner is Metabee. Metabee is an asshole. He's a freeloader, a know-it-all, talks like a black dude and is generally awesome in every way. He's like Pikachu from the first episode of Pokemon, if he sounded like a jive surfer Darth Vader. And he stays that way. He grows and works well with Ikki over time, but he never loses the flair that makes him fun to watch. When he fights, he has catchphrases like "Dude, I rock." It's impossible to not love Metabee.

All of Ikki's friends are pretty entertaining. Between the hotblooded reporter girl who follows him around, the incompetent bullies, the rich kid rival and his dense, but ever-loving rich girl crush, there's no lack of personality in the main cast. There's also this epic thief bro named the Phantom Renegade, whose secret identity is one of the most intriguing and intricate mysteries I've ever seen in anime.

The bad guys are the RubberRobo Gang. They're the best villains I've seen in this kind of show. They're like a mix between Team Rocket and the Monarch's henchmen from Venture Bros. All of their interactions and silly secret identities are witty in their absurdity, and they grow gradually as characters throughout the series.

Rounding out the pack is Rokusho. Rokusho is his own Medabot, a manly wayward smaurai-type character whose name is treated as majestically as it should be by the rest of the cast. He mentors Metabee in the art of firing huge fucking lasers out of his fists.

Oh yeah, did I forget Mr. Referee? Mr. Referee is a deity who has the power to teleport wherever he's needed on the planet, showing up where you least expect him to. He shows up every episode to provide critical commentary on whatever fight is taking place. Truly one of the most iconic parts of this series.

On the writing side, Medabots is almost never serious. It's never wacky or over the top either. Most of the comedy comes from the characters being themselves and interacting, while the rest comes from a self-awareness the show has about what's going on. It doesn't take itself seriously, but still manages to deliver solid characterization and story for a shounen battle series. It doesn't treat the viewer like they're stupid, and doesn't pretend to be deeper than what it is.

Medabots (Or as the Japanese wrongly call it, Medarot) is an American series. A lot of what's good about this show is the result of Westernization, not just due to pieces of script and acting, but the series itself. America rearranged the order of the episodes entirely, and it works out pretty well for the most part. In the Japanese version, it's basically 30 straight episodes of "battle of the week" before the story kicks in, but America remade it so the show has two distinct arcs that are paced nicely.

It does create a tiny hole or two though. Four episodes in particular shoud have been in the first half of the series, but in order to cleanly make two 26-episode seasons, they had to be moved round. You can watch them in the first season if you want, but the only holes they create are things like Ikki having a certain part or one of the side characters having a new bot which show up in the season 1 finale, but the episodes where those things first appear are in season 2.

One of things that sticks out most about Medabots is the art style. Everyone has this kind of roundy-boxy cartoonish look to them, but it's kind of cool and stylish. I like it, it's unique and visually pleasing too. The designs for the robots are unlike any other anime, they're distinctly "Medabot". The animation is generally nothing stunning, but it's consistently good. The cinematography is dynamic and keeps things on screen looking cool or exciting regardless of what's happening. It reminds me a bit of Gainax's stuff in that respect, though obviously it's not as jaw-dropping. There's something about the choice of colors too, I think they used predominately warm hues in this show, kind of like FLCL. It's just pleasant.

Music? Are you kidding me?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzPMAsYkGMo
Shows from this era had a thing about catchy rock anthems to get the kids all excited, and this hit the nail on the head. The BGM and sound effects were always satisfying. Bullets and explosion noises, rock beats in the background, etc. You're not going to be scouring the internet for an OST, but it gets the job done well.

So yeah, Medabots. It's kind of like a super robot show, it's kind of like a sports series, it's kind of like a shounen action romp, and it's all good. It's the perfect mixture of humor and badass, and though all of the toys and video games are long gone, it's still a distinctly good and watchable show for any fan of battle or classic fight of the week super robot series. Marketing series nowadays could learn a lot from it.


read more