Medarot Damashii

It's a continuation of the original but it's very different. The tone is more serious, which I preferred, but unfortunately that's as far as my praise goes when comparing it to the original. The animation is not nearly as good, but worse than that, they removed some indispensable characters like Koji, Karin, Hikaru, Rokusho, Medabot Professor, AND THE GADDAM REFEREE! The new characters are fine but it's heartbreaking seeing all the best characters of the original series go without any fanfare.

There's new antagonist, there's no Rubber Robo this time around, which is a blessing, they're schtick got old very fast in the original. There's ... less filler episodes and it's less episodic than the original.
The dub has the same voice actors, and they do a good enough job.
The music's solid.

It is worth a watch if you're a Medarot fan but the original I can just recommend to non-Medarot fans too, it's that good.

So this is the 3rd and last season to Metabot. We are following the character, but NOT the story of the previously seasons.

The story is about new types of bots, and fighting against the troubles these are making, as well a hidden secret within it all. The story is honestly very well put together as a stand alone, but i sadly wish there were more to the ending. They tried giving a little "this is what happen after" -ending, but it felt way too rushed within 1 min explanations. The season doesn't have many fillers either, maybe two, since most of it ... has a meaning to it later in the season, but I honestly wish there maybe was one last ep (even if it was a filler) which would be only dedicated to "this is what happen after".

When it comes to the music; it's the same intro and the same outro, which is in season 1 and 2 as well, BUT they did make a new intro video.

Characters in this season start showing a little bit more emotional towards each other, making the feeling of them growing up a little bit. (Like they arent in the same mental age even tho they started a new schoool year, kinda.) And we can to small degree see some hints of feelings in the air. (Im not going into these details.)

Overall, i do find this interesting, and worth watching. The story line has a lot of different patterns it can take, so u never really know what to expect, which is the main thing that made me continue watching.

If you watch this with the exception to have any connection to the previous season, i will not recommend you watching it since they aren't connected. Think of it has a new anime, not a follow up, instead before u start watching it, and enjoy! :)

Medabots Spirits is the sequel to Medabots and follows the continuing adventures of Ikki and Metabee who now have to stop the evil boy genius Cam who wants to destroy all medabots and have children play with kilobots instead. However, unlike medabots, kilobots have no emotions and are simply killing machines built to destroy with medafighters who don't play by any rules.

BTW, why in the english dub are they called kilobots? Kilo is a unit of measurement like a kilogram or a kilometer. Just call them killbots or kilabots or something.

Story 4/10

Medabots have gotten some upgrades since the original show; now medabots can ... transform into an action mode, a demolition mode, and can even fuse together into one medabot. I know that sounds awesome in theory, but in execution not really. First, with action mode, a medabot transforms into a car or hovercraft, but it isn't very useful in battle because think how useful a car is in a fight; second, demolition mode drastically increases a meadbots attack power, but Ikki almost never uses demolition mode; and finally, in the span of the entire show, they only use fusion twice. Why? You have all these great new weapons, why don't you use them? They just keep relying on the Medaforce like back in the original show.

The original show had a good balance of action and comedy, but in this version there's barely any comedy. This is due mostly to the writers writing out all of the comic relief characters like the Rubber Robo Gang, Mr. Referee, and Karen who were present in the original show and were some of my favorite characters.

Finally, the theme of this show is the importance of teamwork and friendship, but I hate how much it's hammered in. I understand this show is made for kids, but even kids get tired of listening to friendship speeches.

Characters 6/10

Cam: Cam is Ikki's new rival who wants to destroy all medabots and replace them with kilobots. What I like about Cam is how evil and cruel he is. Cam is merciless to his opponents and will keep attacking even after they've surrendered. Cam isn't kinder to his own kilobots either; if Cam feels his kilobot isn't strong enough then he doesn't hesitate to have it destroyed and replaced with another one. Cam even orders his own kilobots to destroy each other just to test which one is strongest.

However, while Cam is definitely evil, his plan isn't all that evil. In the original show, the Rubber Robo Gang wanted to take over the world, but Cam's goal is simply to get kids to play with kilobots instead of medabots. That isn't very evil, I mean in real life some people play Yu-Gi-Oh and others play Magic: The Gathering, but that doesn't mean one game is evil and the other isn't.

The Screws: The Screws gang are the three bullies at Ikki's school; I already mentioned how the writers cut out their old comic relief characters like the Rubber Robo Gang and Mr. Referee, but I think the writers tried to replace them by giving the Screws more attention. However, this was a big mistake because the Screws aren't nearly as funny. One running joke I hate is how the Screws keep trusting Cam just for Cam to betray them. Is the joke they're idiots for trusting Cam?

Ms. Nae: Nae is a new character and the medabot mechanic who continuously repairs Medabee and the others. There isn't anything bad about Nae, but I hate how her entire character seems to just be a plot device the writers can use to give friendship speeches. I guess she's suppose to replace that chicken salesman that was always giving advice from the original show.

Art 6/10

Similar to how in Pokemon there's always a whole bunch of new pokemon whenever a new generation starts, many new kilobots and medabots are introduced. One thing that makes kilobots visually different from medabots is how kilobots are clearly designed solely for battle and not for friendship. For example, the kilobot Desperado has a body that's just one giant gun and the kilobot Cutter has a body that's just one giant knife.

Overall 5/10

Medabots Spirits was a step-down from the original show. It seemed like the writers had some cool ideas, but didn't know how to use them. Personally, I think Medabots was renewed for a second season as a cash grab only to sell more toys.