Exciting and action-packed! What happens when Allie’s father is kidnapped? Watch Ray and friends try to save Allie and her father in “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Darkness of Heart”.  Recommended!
Image courtesy of © 2013 Wizards of the Coast/Shogakukan/Mitsui-Kids. Hasbro Studios LLC. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Dragonstrike
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: September 24, 2013
Directed by Gary Hartle, Frank Squillace
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, Mark T. Collins
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
Recruited by the mysterious Duel Masters, young Ray, joined by his best friends Gabe and Allie, must use the powerful art of Kaijudo to defend his home dimension from the sinister mastermind known as the Choten, whose own skills in The Way Of The Creature allow him to summon vicious beasts from a parallel dimension to wreak havoc across Earth.
What happens when Allison’s father, Arthur Underhill is kidnapped by Choten’s crew? Can Ray and friends save her and her father from trouble?
Find out in the third volume of “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Darkness of Heart” available in Sept. 2013 from Shout! Factory.
What is “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters”?
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?
In “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Darkness of Heart”, the DVD contains the following episodes (spoilerless summary):
- EPISODE 8 – Shaw K’Naw – A string of robberies are taking place in the city, Ray, Allie and Gabe investigate.
- EPISODE 9 – The Taken – Ray with the help of Master Kimora look into the disappearance of the Mighty Shouters tribe.
- EPISODE 18 – Duel Hard – Ray and Allie take on Alakshmi, Heller and Saguru, meanwhile the Choten try to steal the Helm of Ultimate Technology.
- EPISODE 19 – Heart of Darkness – Master Jaha, Master Chavez and Master Nadia lead an expedition to the Darkness Civilization to rescue Allison’s father.
- EPISODE 20 – Darkness of Heart – Allison becomes a prisoner of Megaria and Ray and friends try to find a way to rescue her and return back home with the Shield of Unity.
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 – Darkness of Heart” comes with the following special features:
- Triple Strike Deck – (3:36) The card revealing from the Kaijudo Triple Strike Deck in Redmond, Washington.
- King Tritonus – (3:29) Ryan Miller unveils the King Tritonus card as Leaders in Bakersfield, California. Discussion of Clash of the Duel Masters.
EXTRAS:
“Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Darkness of Heart” comes with a “Memory Swarm – Cyber Virus” card.
The adventures of the Duel Masters continues in “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters – Darkness of Heart”!
Exciting, action-packed and a great compliment to the popular “Duel Masters” card game, “Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters” is awesome!
And with the latest “Darkness of Heart” volume you get five episodes (episodes 8-9 and 18-20) from the first season. The storyline definitely picks up with the Allison-driven storylines as she does anything to rescue her father who has been kidnapped by the Choten. But she realizes that assisting them the Choten is someone that is quite close to her.
Sure, “Kaijudo” 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.  And the choten trying to cause trouble for the group as blasts are constantly being shot at them. But no different from the Saturday morning superhero cartoons that I grew up with and the series is quite safe for children to watch.
I watched the series with my ten-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”. And with this volume, a “Memory Swarm” card is included.
I can only hope that the complete series will be released on Blu-ray and DVD someday in the future but for now, these volumes have five episodes and while not in order episode-wise, fans will enjoy these DVD’s for now.
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 – Darkness of Heart” on DVD!
