Medabots (Anime)

Medabots known in Japan as Medarot (メダロット) is a Japanese anime television series produced by Bee Train. Spanning 52 episodes, the series originally aired on TV Tokyo from July 2, 1999 until June 30, 2000. Medarot Damashii, a thirty-nine episode sequel to the anime series that was produced by Production I.G, aired from July 7, 2000 through March 30, 2001. Both the series and its sequel are licensed by Nelvana Limited. The Nelvana Limited English version of Medabots aired on the Fox Kids network from September 1, 2001 through November 2, 2002 and was one of the channel's highest rated new series at the time. Medarot Damashii followed a year later, airing from September 13, 2003 until March 7, 2004. The series centers on a boy name Ikki Tenryo and his Medabot name Metabee.

Plot
As an injured scientist staggering away from his flaming car clinging to his silver briefcase. When he collapses, his briefcase is grabbed by the Rubberobo gang. They open it to find a very rare beetle medal. Before they have time to examine it more, the Phantom Renegade appears and takes it away. He then disappears into a cloud of smoke. Before the Phantom has a chance to celebrate, the medal slips out of his hands and falls into the river...then so does he. (Tee hee, butter fingers!)

At Riverview Junior High it's a submission Robattle (meaning the loser must give up a Medapart)! The Screws versus the Student Council. Ikki is right up front watching and dreaming of getting a Medabot of his very own. Arika is there filming the event. Kikuhime, boss of the Screws, with her Medabot Peppercat is battling the Student Council President and his Medabot, Dr. Bokchoy. Dr. Bokchoy is fast, but no match for Peppercat. Kikuhime wins.

As they are walking home from school, Arika asks Ikki why he doesn't just ask his parents to buy him a Medabot. He explains that they told him he must save his money. Arika continues homeward while Ikki daydreams on a bridge overlooking the river. Suddenly, something shiny catches his eye. He races to the river and fishes out the rare Beetle Medal.

That evening the news is telling kids to be on the lookout for a group of rockers tricking people into Robattles, and then taking their Medaparts. Iwanoi, part of Kikuhime's gang, ends up one of their victims. When the Screws come face to face with the Rockers, Arika is caught in the middle after being discovered watching. They take her camera, and try to initiate a Robattle with her Medabot, Brass. Ikki knows he must do something! He runs off, grabs whatever allowance he has, and purchases Metabee. It turns out that Metabee is an older model, but when Ikki puts that rare medal in him, he is unstopable. With much coaxing from Ikki, Metabee defeats the Rockers Medabots, Phoenix and Blackram. After that battle, Ikki learns the hard way that Metabee has a mind of his own! Therefore Metabee shots Ikki with bullets as everyone present looks on in shock.

Ikki is forced out of bed by his mom and cannot find Metabee. He goes into the living room and finds Metabee sitting next to his father reading the comics in the news paper. Ikki gets mad and says that Metabee is his Medabot and that he cannot do anything until he says so. Ikki's mom asks Metabee to take out the trash; Metabee, much to Ikki's charign, complies eagerly. Ikki falls over and asks Metabee why he listens to his mom and not him. Metabee says he feels like he owes her for the room and board. Ikki orders Metabee to put down the trash but Metabee says he does not take orders from him.

Metabee follows Ikki to school before he is reminded that Medabots are not allowed in school. Henry appears and he says that the Medal might be why Metabee is acting up. Henry tries to open Metabee's back but he gets angry and says that no one can touch his Medal. Metabee starts shooting at Ikki and Henry, and Henry tells Ikki to use his Medawatch to eject the Medal. However, there is an error in the ejection of the Medal as Metabee continues to go crazy in rage.

Ikki finally gets to school but gets there late so he tries to climb over the wall. Unfortuneately, he is caught by Coach Mountain. He tries to get Ikki to do 20 push ups, but the principal comes up and tells Ikki that he is the star of the school. Ikki sees the school news paper and he and Metabee are on the cover. A bunch of people gather around Ikki and ask how he won the Robattle. He said it was nothing, but Metabee shows up and says he did all the work. Some kids start to whisper that maybe Metabee is defective; Metabee happens to be listening as he hears this insult and starts shooting at them in retaliation.

Later, Ikki tells Metabee that he needs to calm down and then Iwanoi appears in front of them. Sloan challenges Ikki to a Robattle and Metabee agrees. Iwanoi calls out his Medabot, Totalizer. Before the Robattle even starts, Coach Mountain appears and grabs Iwanoi's Medabot in a neck-lock. Coach Mountain asks who started the Robattle and Metabee throws a fit about having his Robattle being stopped. Ikki grabs Metabee and they run.

Ikki asks Metabee why he came back to the school after he told him to go back home. Metabee says Ikki's mom asked him to bring Ikki's notebook to him but he saw that it was dirty, so he ran it through the dishwasher, which ruined the notebook. (In the Japanese version, Metabee got the notebook dirty by falling into a puddle). Ikki tells Metabee to leave and that he never wants to see him again. Ikki finds a love letter in his locker that says to meet someone behind the gym after school.

Ikki goes back there and finds out it's the School Council that wrote the love letter. They ask Ikki to Robattle for them so they can get the Student Council room back from the Screws and that they will make Ikki vice president of the School Council.

Metabee is walking down the street when he sees a watermelon which is on top of a net. He goes to get it but gets caught in the net which was set by Henry.

Ikki meets up with The Screws near a water fountain and Kikuhime agrees to Robattle Ikki. Kikuhime calls Peppercat and Ikki tries to follow suit for Metabee, but his Medawatch says there is no Medal loaded and Ikki remembers that it is still in Metabee. Ikki hurries to go find Metabee.

He speaks to Metabee through his Medawatch but Metabee says that he is busy right now. The weird chicken seller tells Ikki to stop running around and to look around and he might find what he is looking for. Henry walks by with Metabee in the net over his shoulder. Ikki takes the chicken guy's advice the wrong way and gets Metabee back from Hikaru. Ikki tells Henry to drop Metabee but Henry asks him why he wants a defective Medabot. Ikki says he doesn't want a defective Medabot but that Metabee is all that he has right now. Henry gives Metabee back to Ikki.

Ikki goes back to the water fountain and everyone is just laying around. He says that he is ready to Robattle. Peppercat keeps shocking Metabee; Ikki tells Metabee to shoot the water fountain. When Metabee shoots the water fountain, a big spout of water hits Peppercat. This weakens Peppercat and Metabee uses his rocket launch on her. Her Medal pops out and Ikki wins the Robottle. Kikuhime says they are done for and that the big cheese, Baron von Banish, will be mad that they lost.

The Baron appears and challenges Ikki to a Robattle with his Medabot, Banisher. Metabee shoots Banisher once and Banisher's Medal pops out. Everyone is surprised that Banisher did nothing to defend itself or attack Metabee rather than just stand there. The student council president comes up and says thanks to Ikki. He then tells Ikki that he is now the vice president. Metabee hears this and thinks that Ikki used him. Metabee gets mad and starts shooting at Ikki once again.

Ikki and the Screws are forced into a harsh exercise lesson by their gym teacher, Coach Mountain. When the kids notice the Coach involved in some suspicious activities, they vow to expose his evil plot. But as its turns out, the Coach has been battling gangsters for the rights to build a park for the downtown children... and now he may need Ikki and Metabee's help!

Ikki and Erika meet Koji and Karin, two rich kids from the nearby private school. When rumours spread that a Legendary Medafighter is at the school, the pair decide to sneak in. Could there be any link between their new friends and the mysterious adversary or is it all a coincidence?

A day at the beach turns into basic training when Ikki and Metabee employ the services of a mysterious old man in order to avenge a loss.

Ikki and his friends must stop the screws from going into space. However can the stop the bad guys from getting a outer space metal.

When Koji has his Sumilidon's Medal stolen in the woods, Koji, Ikki, Erika, and Karin band together along with Henry to search for the scary Gimme Ghost, a spectre that steals Medals.

Episodes

 * 52 (Season 1)
 * 39 (Season 2)

Theme Songs

 * Opening


 * Wisdom and Courage! Medarot (Season 1)
 * SUPER GUYS! (Season 2)
 * Closing


 * Still I Love You! (Season 1)
 * Toshi shita no boku (Season 2)

Voice Cast

 * Japanese


 * Junko Takeuchi as Metabee
 * Michiru Yamazaki as Ikki Tenryou
 * Eri Sendai as Arika Amazake (known as Erica in the U.S)
 * Ryo Naito as Hikaru Agata aka Phantom Renegade (known as Henry in the U.S)
 * Masami Suzuki as Ikki's Mom, Super-Multi aka Brass & Kikuhime (known as Samantha in the U.S)
 * Shigenori Yamazaki as Iwanoi (known as Spyke in the U.S)
 * Yoshiko Iseki as Kagamiyama (known as Sloan in the U.S)
 * Mariko Nagahama as Student Council President
 * Mika Ishibashi as Peppercat
 * Hiroshi Shimizu as Mr. Referee
 * Reona Yokomaku as Koji Karakuchi
 * Maaya Sakamoto as Karen Junmai
 * Isao Shinohara as Rokusho
 * Tadashi Miyazawa as Professor Fushihara (known as Dr. Hushi in the U.S)
 * Ren Tamura as Dr. Hebereke (known as Dr. Armond/Dr. Meta-Evil in the U.S)
 * Masami Iwasaki as Sakekaasu (known as Seaslug in the U.S)
 * Norik Namiki as Surume (known as Gillgirl in the U.S)
 * Kei Majima as Salami (known as Shrimplips in the U.S)
 * Harî Kaneko as Shiokara (known as Squidguts in the U.S)
 * ??? as Ms. Caviare (known as Ms. Starfish in the U.S)
 * English


 * Joe Motiki as Metabee
 * Samantha Reynolds as Ikki
 * Lisa Yamanaka as Erica (known as Arika in Japan)
 * Jamie Watson as Henry/Phantom Renegade (known Hikaru Agata as in Japan)
 * Susan Laney Dalton as Samantha (known as Kikuhime in Japan)
 * Robert Tinkler as Spyke (known as Iwanoi in Japan) & Seaslug (known as Sakekaasu in Japan)
 * Darren Frost as Sloan (known as Kagamiyama in Japan)
 * Sergio Di Zio as Student Council President
 * Julie Lemieux as Ikki's Mom, Super-Multi aka Brass, Peppercat & Gillgirl (known as Surume in Japan)
 * Denis Akiyama as Mr. Referre
 * Joanne Vannicola as Koji
 * Ashley Taylor as Karen
 * Mark Dailey as Rokusho
 * unknown as Dr. Hushi (known as Professor Fushihara in Japan)
 * the late Len Carlson as Dr. Armond/Dr. Meta-Evil (known as Dr. Hebereke in Japan)
 * Paul Haddad as Shrimplips (known as Sarami in Japan)
 * Terry Mcgurrin as Squidguts (known as Shiokara in Japan)
 * ??? as Ms. Starfish (known as Ms. Caviare in Japan)

Trivia

 * Junko Takeuchi (Metabee) sings the opening theme song for season 1.
 * Eri Sendai (Arika) sings the closing theme song for season 1.
 * Fans sees this series as a mini version of Transformers.
 * The franchise started as a series of videogames in 1997, which later expanded to a manga series and an anime adaptation in 1999. However, it was the anime that made it first to get released out of Japan in earlier 2000s giving the popularity of similar Mon series such as Pokémon & Digimon.
 * Rintarou made his debut on Medarotter Rintarou way before getting into the anime and the manga series.
 * The first anime series was released as a whole in DVD by ADV Films, back in the day. Some years later, in 2008, Shout! Factory released the series again... though they only released the first half of the series (with a misleading cover of Saikachis/Metabee on the front).
 * Karin and Rintaro's friendly relationship takes another light when you find out that Maaya Sakamoto and Chieko Higuchi went to sing together in an Idol Singer duet called "Whoops!!".
 * Chieko Higuchi (Rintaro) and Takayuki Kondo (Kantaroth) would share another kind of familiar relationship than just mere partners, as Trucy Wright and Phoenix Wright in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, respectively. There's also Eiji Takemoto (Warbandit) as Miles Edgeworth in the games (and Drama CDs). Masami Iwasaki would do Detective Gumshoe in the 2016 anime series.
 * Many of the Japanese voice actors in the original anime cast would get into The Prince of Tennis (the anime was originally made by Trans Arts, who also did Medarot Damashii): Takayuki Kondo (Kantaroth), Kenjiro Tsuda (many extras), Masami Iwasaki (Sakekaasu), Satoshi Tsuruoka (Sumilidon), Eiji Takemoto (Warbandit), Ryo Naitou (Hikaru), Chieko Higuchi (Rintaro), Shigenori Yamazaki (Iwanoi), and Akira Nakagawa (Patra Tawarama) would eventually be middle-school tennis players.