“Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters” is a cool, stylish, well-written and exciting action-packed animated series worth watching! And if you are a parent or the young at heart who loves the card series or just wanting an exciting animated series, I definitely recommend “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Creatures Unleashed” on DVD!
Image courtesy of © Hasbro Studios LLC. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Creatures Unleashed
TV AIRDATE: 2012
DURATION: 110 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen, English and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, English subtitles
COMPANY: Hasbro Studios/Shout! Factory
RATED: TV Y7 FV
Release Date: December 4, 2012
Written by Andrew Robinson, Henry Gilroy, Brandon Auman, Mark Hoffmeier, Marty Isenberg, Joseph Kuhr
Producer: Haven Alexander
Executive Producer: Stephen Davis
Supervising Producer: Gary Hartle
Music by Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis
Edited by Michael William Miles, Matt Barrios
Art Direction by David Colman
Featuring the following voice talent:
Phil LaMarr as Gabe Wallace
Kari Wahlgren as Allie Underhill
Scott Wolf as Ray Pierce-Okamoto
David Sobolov as Bob
Dee Bradley Baker as Gargle
Oded Fehr as The Choten
Andrew Kishino as Grandpa
Freddy Rodriguez as Chavez
Grey DeLisle as Alakshmi
John Di Maggio as Nigel
Jason Marsden as Fingers
Rachel Robinson as Megaria
Ray, a 14-year-old who lives with his mom and grandfather, has been recruited by the Duel Masters to study KAIJUDO – “The Way of the Creature.†They chose Ray for his natural talent as a creature tamer and duelist. Along with pals Allie and Gabe, Ray learns to work with the magical creatures… in their world. Each duel he fights yields new experience and allies in both worlds. The Veil, which has divided the two worlds for a thousand years, is crumbling. Hope lies with those who can masters the art of KAIJUDO.
In 2012, Hasbro’s subsidiary Wizards of the West Coast released the Kaijudo collectible card game.
With the popularity of the “Duel Masters” franchise, Hasbro Studios with South Korean animation company Moi Animation, created “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters” developed by Henry Gilroy and Andrew Robinson of Wizards of the West Coast.
The series premiered on The Hub in June 2012 and with close to two dozen episodes aired on television since, the first five episodes of the animated series will be released on DVD titled “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Creatures Unleashed”.
“Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters” is a series that revolves around three friends: Ray Pierce-Okamoto is half-Japanese and lives with his mother and his elderly Japanese grandfather. Ray hangs out with his good friends Allison Underhill (who looks tough but has a soft heart for cute things) and his tech-loving friend Gabriel Wallace.
He and his friends are often bullied in school, mostly Ray and is teased about being half Japanese and half Caucasian. And despite being bullied, his grandfather tries to give him advice to bob and weave if he is ever attacked by the bullies.
Meanwhile, in town, monsters have been coming into the human world through a rift. And Duel Master Hector Chavez of the Fire Civilization is seen trying to send the monsters back and closing the rift. It appears that The Choten, a former Duel Master and now evil genius has went rogue to pursue his own goals of enslaving the creatures, so he can take over Earth.
One day, one of Ray’s drawings of a creature comes out of the rift and in the process, the Duel Masters wonder how is it that this young boy is able to draw these creatures out to the real world.
When taken to the Kaijudo Temple, the Duel Masters sense something special within Ray and want him to become a Duel Master, but Ray will not join unless his two friends become Duel Masters as well. And so, the three must prove themselves deserving of this new power and to train and learn the basics of creature dueling.
But while these three train, the antagonist known as the Choten has his own plans by creating chaos through bringing the creatures to the real world. Can Ray and friends stop him and the creatures for hurting anyone?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Kaijudo: Rose of the Duel Masters” is an animated series that has an anime style, but thanks to its Korean roots of animation, definitely its own unique style when it comes to character design. Character designs are well-done and also the art backgrounds which compliment the action which happen in various locations throughout the series. Animation is vibrant on DVD and as for dialogue, the dialogue is crystal clear via Dolby Digital.
While it would be nice to hear a more immersive 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, I was quite pleased with the voice acting. You have solid talent involved with this series such as Scott Wolf, Kari Wahlgren, Oded Fehr, David Sobolov and others that bring a cool, exciting overall feel to the animated series.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Creatures Unleashed” comes with the following special features:
- A Look at Kajiudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – A six minute featurette with the crew discussing how the animated series came to be and also interviews with the voice talent.
Exciting, action-packed and a great compliment to the popular “Duel Masters” card game, “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters” is awesome!
Sure, it may receive comparisons to “Pokemon” or “Digimon” through its young characters being able to access creatures with special abilities during battle but the series definitely has a style that will attract younger viewers as well as older viewers.
For one, the monsters are not necessarily cute and cuddly and created for the sake of stuffed animal merchandise to appeal to young children. These creatures are created for the sake of battle and for the card battles, when people compete, they want to use a creature that is powerful.
And so, the series has creatures that can be deadly or menacing. And unlike “Pokemon” where the creatures are often going against each other, the antagonists are evil people, so bad that Ray and friends are often targeted and their lives can be at stake. Granted, I doubt the writers would put these young characters into any harm but you will see a character like Alkashmi with an evil puppet like creature with razor sharp claws and throwing these bladed claws towards Ray and friends. You have one scene where a demon burping creature is trying to destroy a bridge where the train goes through and with help, Ray and friends must try to find a way to defeat the monster and prevent a major, tragic disaster.
So, these creatures can cause harm to humans and also, these human characters fight back. Unlike a series such as “Pokemon” where the trainer tells the monster what to do, the human owners/trainers must also take part in battle and even become part of the action against the antagonists.
And what I also enjoyed about the series is how it takes normal people and put them in situations where they must grow up and learn about each other. One of the things that surprised me is how the bullies picked on Ray especially for being half-Caucasian and half-Japanese. As an Asian American, the topic of being “hapa” (half) is always something that I have known friends struggling with, when it comes to identity to also being teased by others. And the fact that Ray is a person who was bullied by it but yet respects both sides of his heritage is a positive character role. And the series also features his friends such as Allie, who sticks up for her friends and Gabe who is African-American yet is smart with technology. So, it’s great to see this diversity in an animated series.
I watched the series with my nine-year-old and he absolutely loved the series and I also enjoyed it as well. It’s full of humor, action and the five episodes included on the DVD are quite exciting. And as marketing for the collectible cards, even my son was intrigued as he is a Pokemon collectible card collector and now is interested in “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters”.
I can only hope that the complete series will be released on Blu-ray and DVD because it’s a very well-written, cool animated series!
Overall, “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters” is a cool, stylish, well-written and exciting action-packed animated series worth watching! And if you are a parent or the young at heart who loves the card series or just wanting an exciting animated series, I definitely recommend “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Creatures Unleashed” on DVD!
