Archive for the ‘ TV News ’ Category

YTV takes a chance with Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal starting June 2

The English theme song for this show is catchy, but pretty bad. I’m warning you before I post it that this is Sonic Colors bad. I wheep for the ears of children when this and Monsuno air back to back.

Zap2it listed the series premiere, but a post by a moderator on YTV’s message board confirms it – Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal will premiere on YTV beginning June 2 at 1PM EST. The series will take the spot of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds in the afternoon anime lineup. Will YTV air the remaining episodes of 5Ds? Probably not, but who knows, though 4Kids (the franchise’s licensor in the west) didn’t dub the entire series.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal is the fifth Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series and follows Yuma, a would be Duel Monsters champion who has the heart, but not necessarily the skills to make his dreams come true. This is when the mysterious spirit named Astral barges into his life and takes Yuma onto a wild trading card game adventure. The series is a lot more Saturday morning-esque than its predecessor, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds which took place in a post-apocalyptic world starring a older protagonist. Zexal on the other hand takes place in the near future, with Yuma being young enough to where schoolyard bullying can happen. Read more

2012
05/25
CATEGORY
4Kids Frenzy
Dub News
lol YTV
Super Anime Lineup
TV News
5 comments

There goes those Toonami dreams

Remember when I got all excited over the prospects of original content on Toonami? Well, I was wrong. Jason Demarco, vice president of strategic marketing and promotions for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim said this in regards to that press release:

That was PR-speak that ended up being confusing. Sorry about that. NO ORIGINALS. Just new acquisitions.

Well, that makes Toonami Canada less of a guarantee. The New Toonami will be a low budget affair which makes the lack of original programming understandable.

2012
05/23
CATEGORY
Oh Teletoon
TV News
1 comment

Cookie Jar licenses Scan2Go

Toronto based Cookie Jar Group has licensed the 52 episode somewhat anime, Scan2Go, from Japan’s d-rights. The show is a global production spanning from the Middle Eastern toy company NewBoy, Korean broadcasting company SBS, Korean Stone Bridge Capital, and of course the aforementioned Japanese d-rights. The series takes place in the near future when Earth has made contact with other planets in our galaxy. The pass time of Scan2Go racing has become an intergalactic phenomenon and players around the galaxy compete for big prizes. Earth is apparently one of the last planets to get involved with Scan2Go, and thus a team is formed to encourage participation from the citizens of the planet. Basically, it’s a show meant to sell rev up racing cars, tracks, and cards that activate special gimmicks on the cars ala the Cyber Planet Keys from the Transformers Cybertron toyline. If the art reminds you of Bakugan, there’s a reason for that. Mitsuo Hashimoto is behind this series, he’s worked on a whole bunch of anime series, including Dragon Ball, Beyblade and yes, Bakugan. Read more

2012
05/21
CATEGORY
Dub News
TV News
6 comments

Monsuno premieres this Saturday on YTV

Remember Monsuno, the US-Japan co-production that I highlighted a few years ago as a way to bring anime back to North American television? Well, a few months after its February 2012 Nicktoons US premiere (which led me to expect the show would either be picked up by Teletoon, or Nick Canada, not YTV) the show is now heading up North, according to YTV.com’s schedule that is. The series is set to premiere Saturday May 5 at 1:30PM EST in the block of programming I’ve unofficially dubbed the “Super Anime Lineup” featuring the likes of Beyblade Metal Masters, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, and Power Rangers Super Samurai. Read more

2012
04/30
CATEGORY
lol YTV
Super Anime Lineup
TV News
6 comments

BakuTech! Bakugan likely won’t be brawling outside of Japan, but Beyblade Zero-G probably will

BakuTech! Bakugan premiered this past weekend in Japan on TV Tokyo. It’s the newest series in the long running franchise. This particular entry is based on a manga series from CoroCoro Comic, which stars Harubaru … and his rival Raichi? I honestly don’t know what it’s about. There isn’t an English plot synopsis anywhere on the net, and I don’t understand Japanese. The first episode, Critical K.O. sees Harubaru and his Flare Dragaon (yes, that is how it is spelled) save a kid named Tatsuma from getting hit by a car. Now with a soon to be sidekick at hand Harubaru confronts his rival Raichi in an epic Bakugan battle. It’s the most down to Earth Bakugan series as it doesn’t feature galatic battles and the usual Vestroia links. But there’s a problem with this. BakuTech! Bakugan is a 5 minute CG series. Yes, you read that right. Read more

2012
04/11
CATEGORY
Dub News
Editorials
TV News
8 comments

Has Nelvana’s Medabots anime license expired?

With the recent news that Amazon Instant Video was headed to PS3 I decided to be a bit nosy and look around the US Amazon website to check out their library of content. I don’t know why I would do that since there isn’t even a Canadian equivalent of that service for me to bemoan about the lack of content on our version. Anyways, one of the Amazon Instant Video titles I remember being slightly salty about not being here at all was Medabots. Medabots was a video game based anime series Nelvana licensed in the early 00s and aired to some success on YTV, and abroad. It was about a bunch of kids in the near future who had robots they could battle with. The show was a lot of fun, and definitely one of the highlights in regards to Toronto dubbed anime. While the first series got a Canada-only VHS, and DVD release (courtesty of Kaboom), alongside a complete U.S. release from ADV, and a partial DVD release from Shout! Factory the second series (known as “Medarot Damashii” in Japan) never received a DVD release here. That’s why Amazon Instant Video interested me. You see, that was the only legal way someone could watch those episodes, though given that’s the terrible part of the series I’m not sure why anyone would want to watch it… Anyways, the news of the PS3 application got me interested in checking to see if it was compatible. Instead of finding out my American buddies could watch the misadventures of Ikki Tenyrou and Coach Mountain, I was greeted with this: Read more

2012
04/04
CATEGORY
Dub News
TV News
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Nelvana officially announces Beywheelz, Baku-Tech Bakugan suspiciously missing in action

Remember Beywheelz? Well, okay none of you could forget given it was the last thing posted on this site. Anyways, it’s basically a filler run of 13 North American exclusive episodes of the Beyblade anime series to fill in an episode order gap due to the third cycle of Beyblade in Japan having a reduced run time. Nelvana has now released their MIPTV (Children’s television tradeshow) lineup which finally officially announces the series. Read more

2012
03/27
CATEGORY
Dub News
Super Anime Lineup
TV News
3 comments

Nelvana funds a western exclusive Beyblade series while Japan goes Zero-G

Evidently, kids are still doing it across the nation, and by “it” I mean buying Beyblades by the truckload. At this year’s New York Toy Fair western Beyblade licensee Hasbro had something interesting to announce. They announced a subseries to the Beyblade universe called BeyWheelz, which as the name implies are more like Flywheels than normal Beyblades. Bladers (BeyWheelerz?) would launch their BeyWheelz off of ramps, and play games of target practice. Now, taking a step into Toys “R” Us or any where that sells Beyblades would tell you Hasbro isn’t afraid to push off random Beyblade subseries from the likes of the XTS series with hidden weapons, or the every popular shelf warmer giant electronic Beyblades that have lights and sounds. What sets BeyWheelz apart from the other sublines is simple – it’s getting an animated series. Yes, Hasbro and Nelvana have officially, but not so officially announced a Beywheelz animated series. The Writer’s Guild of Canada tells us the series will run a paltry 13 episodes, which is abnormally short for a Beyblade animated series. There’s a reason for that. Read more

2012
03/19
CATEGORY
Dub News
lol YTV
Super Anime Lineup
TV News
2 comments

Teletoon and Turner partner up to bring Cartoon Network to Canada

First it was Nickelodeon Canada, then it was Disney XD Canada, and now it’s the long awaited – Cartoon Network Canada. Teletoon and Turner Broadcasting have announced a brand new partnership that will see Teletoon and its sister channels become the exclusive home to Cartoon Network, and [adult swim] programming, alongside 2000 half hours of classic Cartoon Network, and [adult swim] content. But that’s not all, together the two have announced a brand new ad-supported digital specialty channel called… Cartoon Network! How original! How Canadian! Read more

2012
02/02
CATEGORY
Oh Teletoon
They have video on computers now?
TV News
21 comments

Mix Master: Final Force picked up by Studio Licensing

Almost anime

Toronto’s own Studio Licensing seems to be expanding their portfolio after losing their lucrative Nickelodeon deal. The company has picked up Mix Master: Final Force for North America, the 39-episode sequel series to Mix Master, a series based on an MMO animated by Korea’s Sunwoo Animation. The first animated series also ran for 39-episodes, but was picked up by France’s Moonscoop (Code Lyoko, etc.), and was dubbed in Vancouver with on-demand, and online streaming given to their own Kabillion division. Studio Licensing’s going to be working with a Los Angeles produced dub, which will make getting the series a Canadian broadcaster even a bit harder than what one would expect. Read more

2011
12/25
CATEGORY
TV News
5 comments
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