Anime: Medarot

Anime based on some product are made solely to advertise it and start an addiction to its possible consumers (usually nerdy kids with loaded parents). As such, most game –based anime are quite lame, with childish scenario and carton characters being just an excuse to shovel us flashy techniques or strategies of the soon-to-follow game. Although this is sort of a scam, at least Medarot has a few jokes up its sleeve and becomes bearable at times. But in all, it is nothing more than a cheap trick to promote a videogame and miniature toy robots.

ART SECTION: 3/10 [The amoeba syndrome strikes again!]
Awfuly minimalistic and 2D sketches are filling the screen. Did the animators even try to draw while they were sober? Did they even try at all? It is terrible if you freeze the picture and observe the unexisting proportions, the ridiculous explotions, the invisible shadowing and the really low-frame animation. Some action scenes during key-episodes get a lot more attention but in all, it is quite lame. Some may find the style appropriate with the satirical feel of the series but that does not mean the artwork is good. It is cheap as heck.

SOUND SECTION: 5/10 [Round One. Fight!]
The music themes were beaty enough to be considered bearable. Voice acting was relaxed but quite funny because of the nature of the series. Nothing great as a whole; they just cover the basics of what a good show could have beed all about.

STORY SECTION: 4/10 [Got to catch them all… The medallions, that is.]
In a world were …
- 8 year olds are free to buy war machines from hardwear stores
- equip them with deadly weapons
- have them dual each other for fun
- while wrecking entire neighbourhoods
- without their parents minding at all
… a hapless boy gets one and plans to… yes, you guessed it … become the best medarot player in the world.
The story ain’t that much different from Pokemon. Get a robot, insert a medallion, customize its weapons and fight other kids with robots, so the winner can get points to use them for championships and extra shopping. Of course, like in Pokemon, the series is not only about dueling; it blends Coming-of-age stories, personal dramas, some social issues … and your typical secret organization that plans to rule the world by using huge versions of the robots. Although most situations play out quite humorous and rather interesting for the younger audience, they are overall pathetic and weak as a story. At some points it packs really wowing revelations concerning the origin of the robots and of the bad guys that makes it seem not-completely-bull but most of it is silly comedy and easy going missions.

CHARACTER SECTION: 5/10 [The circus came to town.]
The characters look awfuly simplistic because of the low quality of the graphics, yet they are very funny-looking because of the slapstick humor. They have really jerky motions yet their extreme facial grimaces make up for it. As personalities they are simple; just a quirk to separate them from cardboards. The dorky male lead, the edgy robot partner, the serious girl reporter, the butchy female rival, the mysterious thief, the lone wolf robot, the comic relief underlings… There is a huge variety of stereotypes and most seem to be parodies of various other shows which makes them even funier and easier to be memorable. Especially that referie who for some reason appears out of the blue all the time. Truth is they don’t really develop beyond trusting more each other and using bigger weapons later on, so they never stand out as anything else other than funny parodies of stereotypes.

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 5/10 [It was funny at many points; I admit that.]
Most stand-alone stories had a good moral message, behind some wacky sense of humor. And some battles were really about strategy and not plain power-ups and raw power to determine the winner. That made it somewhat bearable to wfollow for awhile but it is eventually tiresome for teenagers and above and lacks cool visuals to keep even the toddlers.

VALUE SECTION: 2/10 [Value your money and stay away from this example of cheap anime.]
It is the funniest amongst game-advertising series but there are tons of similar anime out there wih far more to offer other than blunt parodies and cheap production values. Digimon is a much similar yet better in overall series, Gintama has a better sense of parody, while Dennou Coil takes the whole concept to new heights.