Medarot Damashii
Medarot Damashii (メダロット魂 Medarotto Damashii, known as "season 3", Medabots Spirit and Medabots Spirits in English) is an anime series and the sequel to the original Medarot anime. The series was produced by Trans Arts with assistance from Production I.G and started airing on TV Tokyo on July 7, 2000. As with the original series, it was licensed by Nelvana for its western localization and aired as a third season of the anime outside Japan.
Unlike its predecessor, the series is much more an original story but brings some elements from Medarot 3 and Medarot 4, such as the concepts of Medachange and some of the Medarot designs from these installments. The story has Ikki and Metabee (in a new body) taking a stand against Kokuryuu Kamizake, who wants to replace every Medarots with emotionless Death Medarots.
For various reasons, the series is highly controversial with fans of its predecessor and the Medarot franchise at large.
"Does the spirit of a Medarotter burn within you?" - Tagline
--Official Japanese website
Sypnosis
Sometimes after the events of the previous series, Ikki meets Nae, a kind and gifted Medarot mechanic who gives him a new Medarotch model and upgraded Saikachis parts for Metabee. Ikki's world is upended when is he targeted by Ginkai, a vicious and cheating Medarotter who uses Death Medarots. The Death Medarots are a new type of Medarot who lack emotions and individual personalities due to their generic Medals, and who obey orders without questions, including those that ignore the rules of Robattle. The distribution of the Death Medarots is spearheaded by one Kokuryuu Kamizake, a callous young boy.
Kokuryuu hatchs various plots to discredit Ikki and Metabee and destroy Metabee in an effort to prove the superiority of Death Medarots. Further complicating this situations is the arrival of the Mysterious Medarotter, a skilled individual who is on a quest to destroy all Death Medarots, but whose ruthless methods makes him little better than what he claims to despise.
As the series progresses, various twists and turns upend the conflict. After repeatedly antagonizing Ikki and Metabee, Ginkai renews with his long-buried sense of honor and changes side, dedicating himself to becoming an exemplary Medarotter with his partner Arc-Dash. The Mysterious Medarotter is revealed to be Ikki's new classmate and son of the Death Medarot's inventor Yuuzuru, who blames the Death Medarots for his strained relationship with his father.
Intrigued by Metabee's power, Kokuryuu designs a new Death Medarot named Blackbeetle. Unlike other of her kinds, Blackbeetle is equipped with an experimental Medal that gives her a personality and emotions, though Kokuryuu treats her as just as disposable as his other creations. Eventually, he puts her Medal into the extremely powerful and experimental model Grain, whose power requirements are far too much for her medal to handle. Ikki, Ginkai, Yuuzuru and their medarots go to the Death Medarot Company HQ to rescue Blackbeetle and a fight ensues, which ends in a destructive fire. The Medarots and Blackbeetle team up to rescue a trapped Kokuryuu. Touched by their actions, Kokuryuu renounces his ways and finally accepts Blackbeetle as his friend.
Characters
Episodes
| Episode Number | Original Title | Translated Title | English Dub Title | Original Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 爆走！新型メタビー | Roar! A New Type of Metabee | Kilobots Rising | July 7, 2000 |
| The new Medarotch developed by the Medarot Company has been released. However, Ikki and Metabee forgot to make a reservation and were unable to get their hands on it, being at a loss. Meanwhile, while Kikuhime and the others got the new Medarotch and were checking its performance, the self-proclaimed Death Medarotter Ginkai appears. | ||||
| 2 | 禁じられた戦い | The Forbidden Battle! | Fighting Temptation | July 14, 2000 |
| Nae asked Ikki to keep Metabee's new parts. He is then advised not to fight against Ginkai and a Death Medarot until the parts are repaired. However, Ginkai appears with Kokuryuu before Ikki and Metabee, and challenges them to a fight. | ||||
| 3 | 謎のドークス使い | The Mysterious Dorcus Master | Who is the Mystery Medafighter?! | July 21, 2000 |
| Kokuryuu carried out a simultaneous attack by Death Medarots on all Medarots. When Arika was about to be attacked by the Death Medarot army, a mysterious Medarotter with a Medarot named Dorcus appeared and defeated the Death Medarot army in an instant. | ||||
| 4 | 届けもの大騒動 | Delirious Delivery | Delivery Boy | July 28, 2000 |
| Ikki and Metabee happen to encounter Ginkai while delivering important documents to their father's office. He ends up making Ginkai angry due to an unexpected incident. He runs away from Ginkai, who is forcing him to compete against his Death Medarot in a Robattle, but... | ||||
| 5 | 激突！ スクープ合戦 | Clash! The Scoop Battle | Scoop of the Century | August 4, 2000 |
| The school proposes that Arika's newspaper club merge with the broadcast club, but neither party will budge, and the decision will be made through a popular vote. Arika immediately rushes out to find a scoop. At that time, Kokuryuu gave a Death Medal to Masuizumi from the broadcasting club. | ||||
| 6 | 怪談・夜の理科室 | Ghost Story: The Science Classroom at Night | Robbed Zombies | August 11, 2000 |
| Kokuryuu invites a boy, who was depressed after losing a Robotle, to his house, saying he will make his Medarot the strongest. Arika heard rumors about a mysterious monster that appears every night, attacking Medarots, and the attacked Medarots lose their power and turning into zombies. | ||||
| 7 | プールでロボトル | Robattle in the pool! | Lights, Camera... Robattle! | August 18, 2000 |
| Ikki and Metabee have been scheduled to appear on the popular program "Charge!! Kids Show." Knowing this, Kokuryuu and Ginkai plan to use the TV broadcast to nationwidely show off the power of the Death Medarots. | ||||
| 8 | 戦士の絆・前編 | The Bond Between Warriors, Part One | Dark Alliance (Part I) | August 25, 2000 |
| Kokuryuu gives Unitris, the strongest Death Medarot, to Ginkai. Ginkai, who was previously defeated by the Mysterious Medarotter, demands Ikki and Metabee to Robattle against him in order to test the power of Unitris. However, Metabee is on the verge of running out of battery!! | ||||
| 9 | 戦士の絆・後編 | The Bond Between Warriors, Part Two | Dark Alliance (Part II) | September 1, 2000 |
| The Mysterious Medarotter abandoned Dorcus and became the master of the Death Medarot Excise, ignoring the spirit of Robattle and attacking both Ginkai and Metabee. Has the Mysterious Medarotter, who said that it was his job to destroy Death Medarots, really become a Death Medarotter? | ||||
| 10 | 暴走！ 赤い悪魔 | Red Devil Rampage! | Redrun-Away | September 8, 2000 |
| On a stormy night, one of the strongest Death Medarots, Blossomail, escapes due to an accident during transportation. Due to a mistake during development, Blossomail no longer stops attacking anyone it considers to be an enemy until they are destroyed, and it goes on a rampage throughout the town! | ||||
| 11 | アリカの花園 | Arika's Garden | Erika's Secret Garden | September 15, 2000 |
| Arika, alongside Brass, have been diligently tending to a secret garden without telling Ikki and the others. However, in the flower garden, a Robattle starts surrounding the Mysterious Medarotter, and the flower garden is ruined. Arika becomes disillusioned with the Mysterious Medarotter, who doesn't care about the flowers. | ||||
| 12 | 盗まれたメタビー | The Stolen Metabee | Metabee's Out of Body Experience | September 22, 2000 |
| Dr. Medarot called Ikki and the others to playback Metabee's memory device and analyze the data from the battle with Blossomail. Then, in order to fight against the dangerous Blossomail, the doctor shows off the new Medarot Arcbeetle-Dash. | ||||
| 13 | ハニー救出大作戦 | The Honey Rescue Operation | The Bee Rescues the Honey | September 29, 2000 |
| Honey disappeared while delivering a Medarot part that Nae had repaired. Nae, Ikki, and Metabee go looking for Honey and find Ginkai acting strange, and when they follow him, they find that Ginkai was trying to initialize Honey's data and erase her memories. | ||||
| 14 | メダロット墓場 | Medarot Graveyard | A Night in the Medabot Junkyard | October 6, 2000 |
| Recently, Kagamiyama and Keithturtle have been losing to many Robattles. Feeling responsible, Keithturtle leaves Kagamiyama. Keithturtle wanders around the city and ends up at a garbage dump for Medarots abandoned by their masters. | ||||
| 15 | 立て！ ギンカイ | Stand Up, Ginkai! | Once a Medafighter... (Part One) | October 13, 2000 |
| Ginkai remembered the time when he was little, when he and Bayonet had fun playing Robattles, and was having doubts about Kokuryuu, who said that once Blossomail was completed, Excise would be useless. However, he suppresses those feelings and participates in the town Robattle tournament, where he fights against Ikki in the finals. | ||||
| 16 | コクリュウの逆襲 | Kokuryuu Strikes Back | Once a Medafighter... (Part Two) | October 20, 2000 |
| Ginkai had no choice but to betray Kokuryuu. Ginkai's Unitris is attacked by Kokuryuu's stronger Blossomail. Unitris is incapacitated. Ginkai holds back his sadness and bids farewell to Unitris. | ||||
| 17 | 大空の戦い | Battle in the Sky! | Title Flight | October 27, 2000 |
| Ikki was flying Nae's biplane. Then, it collided with the new Death Medarot Fly-Falcon that Kokuryuu was conducting a flight test. The biplane breaks down, and Fly-Falcon malfunctions and flies away, taking Metabee with it. | ||||
| 18 | カンニング大作戦 | The Cheating Operation | The Agony of the Cheat | November 3, 2000 |
| Ikki's parents discovered the test with a score of 20 he hid in the trash can, and he is prohibited from participating in Robattles until he gets a score that he can proudly show. Ikki, who can't get a good score, involves Yuuzuru on his plan to cheat. | ||||
| 19 | 守れ！ 男のプライド | Protect a Man's Pride! | It's the Medafighter Way! | November 10, 2000 |
| Wakaba is a competitive Medarotter who hates losing. Wakaba is persistent, and continues to attack even after winning against a kid in a Robattle, so Ginkai uses Arc-Dash to attack Wakaba's Put-Cat. The tenacious Wakaba and the cunning Kokuryuu get revenge on Ginkai. | ||||
| 20 | 仕掛けられた罠 | The Planted Trap | Fall from Grace (Part One) | November 17, 2000 |
| Finally, Death Medarots like Unitris and Excise have been released. Additionally, a Death Medarot shop has been built on the outskirts of town. Ikki and his friends sense a crisis. Meanwhile, Kokuryuu was plotting a plan for the arrival of the Death Medarot era. | ||||
| 21 | トリックをあばけ！ | Expose the Trick! | Fall from Grace (Part Two) | November 24, 2000 |
| Ikki and Metabee were taken in by Kokuryuu and turned into villains. In order to uncover the trick that was set up in the video broadcast on TV, Arika enlists the help of Masuizumi from the broadcasting department and stands up! | ||||
| 22 | ユウヅルの正体 | Yuuzuru's Secret Identity | Mystery Medafighter Unmasked? | December 1, 2000 |
| Bansho is asked by Kokuryuu to lend his help in uncovering the true identity of the Dorcus user. Bansho accepts the offer with one condition, and uses Blossomail to begin attacking Medarots one after another. | ||||
| 23 | ナエのお見合い | Nae's Blind Date | The Truth About Charlie | December 8, 2000 |
| When Ikki and Metabee learn that Nae, whom they admire, is going on a matchmaking date, Ikki and Metabee are strongly against it!! The other person appears to be a Medarot researcher whom Nae admires, but the man has set a Robattle on Ikki and his friends using a Death Medarot. Is Nae being deceived? | ||||
| 24 | ドークスの奇跡 | Dorcus's Miracle | Roks Reborn | December 15, 2000 |
| Kokuryuu once again asks Bansho to defeat Ginkai's Arc-Dash and the Mysterious Medarotter's Tyrrell Beetle. Nae advises Yuuzuru, the Mysterious Medarotter, that he should activate Dorcus' Medaforce in order to defeat Blossomail, who is under Bansho's command. | ||||
| 25 | ワカバの誘惑 | Wakaba's Temptation | I, Kilobot | December 22, 2000 |
| Wakaba wants a henchman who will do whatever he says, so she seduces Tateyama, who is new to Robattles and is worried about becoming stronger, by offering to lend him a Death Medarot, and becomes strong enough to rival Ikki. | ||||
| 26 | 燃えろ！熱き魂 | Burn, Fiery Soul! | Thanks for the Memories | December 29, 2000 |
| Arika looks back on this year and interviews Ikki and Ginkai in order to publish an article about Robattle in the Amazake Newspaper. Ikki says that Death Medarotter's appearance in the peaceful Ginjou Town was the major thing that happened, and recalls his encounter with Ginkai. | ||||
| 27 | 男イワノイ大勝負 | Do or Die for Iwanoi the Man | How Spyke Got His Style Back | January 5, 2001 |
| Kikuhime was humiliated in a Robattle against the Death Medarotters Hanabishi and Kintora, and Iwanoi, feeling responsible, vowed to take revenge with Bluesdog. Advised by Nae that he must have his own Robattle style, Iwanoi decides to research the secret to Ikki's strength. | ||||
| 28 | 激走！ 一直線レース | Flat-out Run! The Straight Line Race | The Medabot Straight Line Marathon | January 12, 2001 |
| Metabee found a map in the book he borrowed from Nae. It was a map of the straight line race Medarot competition that had been passed down to the children of Ginjou Town. So Wakaba decided to win this race so she can be on the front page of the Amazake Newspaper. | ||||
| 29 | メタビーの大特訓 | Metabee's Training | Kung Fu for Thought | January 19, 2001 |
| After a small argument, Ikki and Ginkai decide to compete in a new Robattle field created by Nae. However, Ikki ran out of his pocket money and realized that he couldn't replenish his ammunition. Nae lent Ikki and Metabee some old parts when they were out of ammo. | ||||
| 30 | アリカ一発逆転！ | Arika Turns the Tables! | Erika to the Rescue | January 26, 2001 |
| Ikki, who was invited by Arika to the Ginjou Amusement Park, complains that it's old-fashioned and like children's play. Just then, Hanabishi and Kintora suddenly arrive to get Kokuryuu to acknowledge their strength. They challenge Ikki to a Robattle. | ||||
| 31 | 炎のアークダッシュ | Fiery Arc-Dash | Rough on a Hot Tin Cat | February 2, 2001 |
| Thanks to her secret training, Kikuhime easily wins against two Death Medarots! On the other hand, the defeated Hanabishi and Kintora received one last chance from Kokuryuu and handed Kikuhime a letter of challenge for a Robattle match on Mt. Doburoku. | ||||
| 32 | 失われた友情 | Lost Friendship | Meda-Forced | February 9, 2001 |
| In order to analyze the Medaforce, Kokuryuu uses Hanabishi and Kintora as bait to kidnap Dorcus. He then connects the emotional circuits of Dorcus and Blackbeetle, links their Medal data, and attempts to take in the power of the Medaforce. | ||||
| 33 | ナエさん MY LOVE | Nae-san, My Love | Poor Miss Nae | February 16, 2001 |
| Nae attended a class reunion for the first time in a while. Everyone was looking forward to seeing Nae, as when she was in high school, she was a madonna, but everyone was surprised by Nae's transformation when she arrived in her work clothes without any fashion. Momoko, her best friend, becomes worried about Nae and goes to her factory. | ||||
| 34 | 父への想い | Feelings for Father | The Mystery Medafighter... Revealed! | February 23, 2001 |
| One after another, the number of Death Medarotters is increasing in Ginjou Town. Then, the Mysterious Medarotter began a ruthless hunt for Death Mmedarotters in order to stop it. Nae advises Yuuzuru, the Mysterious Medarotter who holds a grudge against the Death Medarots that transformed his father, to face his father head on, but... | ||||
| 35 | メダロットは友達 | Medarots are Our Friends | Winner Take All | March 2, 2001 |
| Worried about the Mysterious Medarotter Yuuzuru who had revealed his true identity, Nae goes to see Yuuzuru's father, Dr. Maizuru. Dr. Maizuru insists that he was right in pursuing only strength. Nae asked the doctor to remember the wonderful words he said to Yuuzuru a long time ago. | ||||
| 36 | たった一人の逃亡者 | One Lone Fugitive | Transfusion Confusion | March 9, 2001 |
| Kokuryuu orders Uragasumi to dispose of Blackbeetle after she was defeated by Arc-Dash. However, Uragasumi advised to give Blackbeetle another chance. Kokuryuu decides to let her fight Metabee on the condition that she will be dismantled if she loses. | ||||
| 37 | 禁断のデスメダル | The Forbidden Death Medal | Gryphon-Doom | March 16, 2001 |
| The strongest Death Medarot, Grain, had the problem of becoming uncontrollable and going wild. Blackbeetle feared that she could no longer be herself if she is combined with Grain. With Uragasumi's help, she escaped from Kokuryuu. | ||||
| 38 | コクリュウの過去 | Kokuryuu's Past | Final Goodbyes | March 23, 2001 |
| Grain is completed. Ikki and his friends, including Dr. Maizuru, try to rescue Blackbeetle before she is attached to Grain. But before that, Nae goes to Uragasumi thinking that there might be something she can do. | ||||
| 39 | 輝け！希望の魂 | Shine, Spirit of Hope! | Into the Fire | March 30, 2001 |
| Ikki, Metabee, Ginkai, and Yuuzuru infiltrated the Death Medarot research institute and found Blackbeetle's body in the storage area for Death Medarots that would be disposed of. Kokuryuu appears and says that if Ikki and his friends fight against Grain and win, they can return the Neo Death Medal to Blackbeetle. | ||||
Production
Medarot Damashii was produced by a different studio than the first series and saw a near-complete turnover in staff beside the voice actors and the director of the ending credits animation.
The show is initially animated with traditional cel-based techniques before switching to digital ink and paint starting with episode 17.
Continuity
"A work that carries on the title and characters should not ignore its predecessor!" - Trans Arts producer "Sato"
--Message on Trans Art's official website
Despite being a sequel. Medarot Damashii contradicts or ignores various aspects of the setting established by its predecessor. No justification is given for these changes. A possible reason is that Damashii having a different crew and had its production overlap with that of the original series (being ready to air one week after the end of its predecessor), Medarot Damashii's production staff may have not been informed of story decisions made on the previous series while writing their own show.
- Various major characters from the previous series, most prominently Kouji, Karin and Mr. Uruchi do not appear outside of brief cameos in the Japanese ending animation. Their absence is not explained or noticed in any way.
- The Medaforce is explained as being ineffective against Death Medarots due to it targetting a Medarot's emotional component. This is despite the original series depicting the Medaforce inflicting very real damage to objects and human targets.
- The Medaforce is also portrayed as something that can be done on-command rather than something that happens as a result of a strong emotional buildup in a Medarot, though Arcbeetle-Dash's Medaforce awakening in Episode 31 is portrayed similarly to how it happens in the original series.
- The previous series ended with Kouji's Smilodonad using the Medaforce despite having a regular mass-manufactured medal. Damashii ignores this development and sticks with the idea of only Rare Medals and the new concept of First Medals being able to use the Medaforce.
- The Select Corps does not appear to exist: Ikki's father is shown working as a regular salary man and when Blossomail rampages through town, conventional police forces are the one to respond.
- The show inconsistently portrays the relationships between a Medarot's body and its medal. While many episodes accurately portray the medal as holding the medarot's personality and memories, Episode 17 has Ikki acting as if Metabee is dead after his body is seemingly destroyed, despite holding his medal in his hands. Characters are also shown to be disproportionately agitated when an inert medarot body is attacked or pounced on after its medal has safely ejected.
- While the original series showed Medarots being used by adults and Medarots having non-combat utilities, Damashii portrays them as near-exclusively used by children beside Nae having a personal assistant in the form of Honey. Part of Episode 23's plot hinges on a man being viewed as creepy and suspicious for robattling children as an adult, despite this scenario happening multiple times in the original series with no apparent stigma.
- The Death Medarots Excise and Unitris are obviously based on Smilodonad and Warbonnet, iconic medarots in the previous series. The ressemblance is not commented on in-universe nor is it explained how the Death Medarot Company is able to market designs clearly derivative of its competitor's products.
- The practice of giving one of the loser's part to the winner of a Robattle is never shown.
English dub
As with the original Medarot, the series was licensed by Nelvana and aired as a third season of Medabots from 2003 to 2004, continuing the episode numbering. Unlike the original series, all of Medabots Spirit's episodes were aired in the same order as they were in Japan. Not all markets that aired the original series aired Medabots Spirit.
The English dub continued the translation and editing style of the previous series' dub, though some practices were heightened in the process of localizing Damashii:
- The series saw heavier censorship than the original series, with various scenes of more intense violence being cut and Ikki & Metabee expressing attraction to Nae being removed. Episode 23 had its scripts heavily rewritten from a story about Ikki mistaking Nae to be in an arranged marriage to one about being Ikki upset that Nae is going away on a summer job as a Medabots researcher. According to dub script writer Rob Tinkler in an interview, the localization staff were concerned about the appearances of a younger woman like Nae seemingly being engaged with an older man.
- Medabots Vital Stats screens are used far more frequently than they were in the original series, seemingly in an effort to pad runtime due to other scenes being cut. Medarots such as Arcbeetle-Dash and Comadog get as much as five such screens throughout the run of the series, even in episodes when they have little screentime and no importance to the plot.
- The final's episode ending credit montage is cut and replaced with a scene of Nae narrating over stock footage of the series main characters.
- Some characters have considerable changes in voice types and speaking patterns:
- Blackbeetle has an heavily-modulated, demonic-sounding voice in the English dub while her voice in Japanese is no different than that of other medarots.
- Kintora has a squeaky, high-pitched voice contrasting with his heavyset appearance, while the English dub gives him a deep, bassy voice.
- Wakaba no longer speaks in the third-person outside of a few lines in Episode 31.
Reception
When it first aired in Japan, Medarot Damashii saw an extremely negative reaction from older fans of the previous anime with complaints centering around its continuity issues, the quality of the animation and the writing, darker atmosphere, and the perceived unflaterring and out-of-character portrayal of characters carried over from the previous series. The backlash saw a Trans Art producer (signing under the name "Sato") post an impassioned letter on the company's official website acknowledging the negative reception and the show's lack of ties to the previous series.
Not all impressions were negative and in the years following its airing, some viewers have praised Damashii as improving significantly in its second half[1]. This reappraisal is far from universal, however, and as such Damashii remains a contentious chapter of Medarot's history.
Differences with the games
- As mentioned before, Medarot Damashii focuses on an original story, so it doesn't directly follow the events of Medarot 3 or 4. Rather it uses some of their elements like Medachange and some new Medarots.
- As usual, the anime follows the story of Ikki as a protagonist who chose the Kabuto version. Due to this Dorcus appears as the Medarot of a new character.
- However, while Metabee himself received his Saikachis model appearance, the anime's Dorcus is an entirely new character unrelated to Rokusho.
- All new characters, with the exception of Nae, don't exist in the games.
- Most of the changes from the previous anime remain true here. This includes most battles being 1v1 rather than 3v3. However, there are cases like Yuuzuru Oozora who uses two Medarots at the same time and for that he needs two Medarotches (One from each arm). In games this is unnecessary, a single Medarotch is capable of giving commands to three Medarots at the same time.
- Some new Medarots are called Death Medarot in the anime, and are said to have different architecture and medals incompatible with regular Medarots. This doesn't exist in the games and all these models are simply Medarots.
- Unlike the previous anime, the final boss here is the same from the games, Grain from Medarot 4. However, the context of Grain as the final enemy is completely different in the two stories. Particle's existence is omitted in the anime.
- Damashii portrays Medarots as having limited ammo for all of their ranged weapons and not just their head parts as is the case in the games. The Death Medarot's ability to reload mid-fight is explicitely called out as cheating.
- In the games, Medarots are stated to have self-rebuilding nanotechnology and highly resistant armor. While the topic of medarot maintenance is not brought up much in the first anime, Damashii portrays medarots as needing to be repaired and maintained by dedicated mechanics.
- As with the previous anime, male Medarots are able to use female parts and vice-versa without issue.
- Some Medarots display different qualities than they do in their game of origin:
References
- ↑ Medarot Dictionary page on the series, describing its reception among the domestic audience. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
External links
- Official japanese website (archive)
