Dinosaur King
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The promotional image for Dinosaur King: Mesozoic Meltdown

Dinosaur King (古代王者恐竜キング Dキッズ・アドベンチャー Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu Dī Kizzu Adobenchā, JPN. Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King DKids Adventure) is the anime series based on the Dinosaur King arcade game.

Plot summary[]

Original Series[]

1200px-Dinosaur King

D-Team and their dinosaurs

Max Taylor, son of the paleontologist Spike Taylor falls out of bed early one morning and witnesses a meteor fall from the sky, setting out with his friends, Rex Owen and Zoe Drake, into the forest where the meteor crashed. There they find the Lightning, Wind and Grass Stone Tablets. Chomp, a Triceratops, is accidentally activated when Max rubs its card on the Lightning Stone. The D-Team meet their new enemies, the Alpha Gang, when they come to catch Chomp using Terry, their Tyrannosaurus. After this, Max and Chomp become good friends, Rex and Zoe find their own dinosaurs (respectively Ace the Carnotaurus and Paris the Parasaurolophus), and the D-Team, along with Dr. Taylor and his assistant Reese Drake, now have the mission of saving the Dinosaur Cards appearing all over the world from being captured by the Alpha Gang for their nefarious schemes.[1] [2]

Mesozoic Meltdown[]

Dinosaur King: Mesozoic Meltdown (古代王者恐竜キング Dキッズ・アドベンチャー翼龍伝説, Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu Dī Kizzu Adobenchā: Yokuryū Densetsu, jap. Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King DKids Adventure: Pterosaur Legend) is the second season of the anime. Some moments after Rex, his parents and the Alpha Gang go to the future, they return and tell about the attack they suffered by aliens with a technology more advanced than theirs. While the kids' parents are talking they get kidnapped by Gabbro, one of the aliens, who are know as the Spectral Space Pirates. The D-Team then joins forces with the Alpha Gang and travel through the past in order to put a stop to the Pirates' plot to obtain the seven Cosmos Stones while also rescuing their parents.

Episodes[]

Main article: List of Dinosaur King Episodes

The series has 79 episodes split between the unnamed first season (first 49) and second season Mesozoic Meltdown (final 30).

Terms[]

The terms "season" and "series" are varied in their history. Dinosaur King is definitively divided into "part 1" of episodes 1-49 and "part 2" of episodes 50-79, but "part 1" has been further subdivided in some sources. The 4kidsTV website's Dinosaur King page first listed episodes 1-26 under the "Season 1" heading, with episodes 27-44 and 46-49 under "Season 2", skipping the Christmas-themed episode 45, which was later added under "Season 1" while episodes 50 and beyond were added under "Season 2". This was later altered to the current 1-49 "Season 1" in order, while "Season 2" only extended from 50-74, neither 4kidsTV's website nor YouTube channel including 75-79, before the website eventually fell defunct and shut down (some of its YouTube episodes have also been made Private, but most are still viewable, though are not uploaded in order). In response to the initial division of "Seasons" by the 4kidsTV website, this Wiki invented "Series 1" for 1-49 and "Series 2" for 50-79 for clarity, the idea of following the split headings being that "Season 1" ("Series 1" part 1) would be 1-26, "Season 2" ("Series 1" part 2) 27-49, and the expected "Season 3" (="Series 2") 50-79, before 50+ unexpectedly joined 27-49. This 2-series/3-season concept has since fallen out of usage, but some page formatting and text retains the "Series" terms instead of "Season", though it is implied they are of equivalent meaning (and can be capital or lowercase), though "season" is now the primary term and "series" an artifact of this convoluted history.

Characters[]

Main article: List of Characters
See also: Dinosaur King English Voice Cast

Production[]

The anime is a kodomo or kodoshōnen, an anime that is aimed and targeted mostly towards young children and primary elementary-school aged kids and uses traditional and CG animation. It was produced by Sunrise and began airing on TV Asahi on February 4, 2007. It is released on DVD in Japan.

4Kids Entertainment has licensed the anime and it was distributed on DVD by Shout! Factory in the US with the DVDs showing only the North American edited TV version and no uncut DVDs. It was launched on September 8, 2007 on 4Kids TV. In September 2008, it began airing on The CW4Kids (starting at episode 27, likely partly influencing the initial season division), and was already shown on Canada's YTV since September 8, 2008. As of November 2008, it was set to air in Mexico, South Africa, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe with the dubs adapted from 4Kids. Even Italy would receive the adaptation from 4Kids and set it for young children in Italy aged 6–11. The anime aired on UK network CITV every weekday starting from March 2, 2009. The initial last English episode, 47, aired on The CW4Kids on March 28, 2009, having also skipped airing the Christmas-themed episode 45. Even though the original series had 49 episodes, it was unknown if the last two episodes would be shown, or be exclusively released on DVD; they were eventually included after a rerun and continued into the second season, advertised as "Dinosaur King: Mesozoic Meltdown", though the new name never appeared in the theme song nor was it used in ads while actually airing. Episodes 1-7 were eventually aired upon reruns, but 8-26 were never shown on The CW4Kids, only the 4KidsTV website and other channels.

The English script follows the Japanese script closely, although occasionally a joke will have its meaning changed due to profanity and other inappropriate material (which are appropriate for the young target audience in Japan) or simply for being based on Japanese culture unknown in the West or a language-specific pun that doesn't translate. While the D-Team's country of origin is not explicitly stated, 4Kids had left in key elements that identify it as being Japan (such as being a daytrip from Tokyo in episode 28), the same as in the original, despite being infamous for forcibly "relocating" the plots of other anime they dubbed to America (the multitude of plot-significant maps shown onscreen likely played a role). The second season, Mezosoic Meltdown, had 30 episodes and aired between February 3, 2008 and August 31, 2008 in Japan.[3] Its initial English airing had two stop-and-recycle points before continuing through with new episodes.

Differences with the Arcade and DS[]

The Anime does not implement the Rock-Paper-Scissors scheme from the Arcade, but instead uses real-time battle mechanics. Therefore, each Dinosaur can use a Move Card at anytime they wish, but those that are "controlled" by foreign users (Humans and Spectral Pirates, etc.) use a Move whenever their "master" swipes a card.

Many Dinosaurs don't appear in the Anime at all. Some Move Cards are also absent, and others vary in their effects in battle: Cyclone, for example, is used as an attacking Move in the Anime instead of as a status effect; however, unlike the DS Game and TCG, the Anime adds no new Moves of its own, though it does introduce the idea of Fusion Moves. The Anime continues adapting new Dinosaurs and Moves from the Arcade game as its releases go on, but never completely adapts the old or new content, and stops before it can adapt the last stretch of Arcade content.

Some of the characters of other media are missing (Alpha Droid types, Goma) or have less intelligence than their counterparts in the games (the Alpha Trio, most notably). Of course, the Anime does not follow the story given by the games, therefore creating a new canon with premade characters, including many new characters (both family and guest stars) not featured in other media.

Most Dinosaurs seen in the Anime don't use the roars from the Arcade in the English version (most probably for realism), with many related species sharing roars.

References[]

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