Medabots

Medabots, known in Japan as Medarot (メダロット, Medarotto), is a role-playing video game franchise developed by Natsume and published by Imagineer in Japan in 1997. The video game franchise was later adapted into a Japanese anime television series produced by Bee Train. Spanning 52 episodes, the series originally aired on TV Tokyo from July 2, 1999 until June 30, 2000. Medarot Damashii, a thirty-nine episode sequel to the anime series that was produced by Production I.G, aired from July 7, 2000 through March 30, 2001. Both the series and its sequel are licensed by Nelvana. The Nelvana English dubbed version of Medabots aired on the Fox Kids network from September 1, 2001 through November 2, 2002 and was one of the channel's highest rated new series at the time. Medarot Damashii followed a year later, airing from September 13, 2003 until March 7, 2004.

A manga series, written by Rin Horuma (credited as just Horumarin) was also produced by the series. It was serialized in the shōnen magazine Comic Bom Bom in Japan and then published into collected volumes by Kodansha. The manga based on the first game, Medarot, was never translated into English. The manga based on the sequel, Medarot 2, was licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media, simply under the title Medabots. Further sequels Medarot 3, Medarot 4, Medarot 5, Medarot G, and spin-off manga Medarotter Rintarō and Medarot Navi were never licensed for release in the US. Medarot 2, 3, and 4 have, however, been translated into English for distribution in Singapore by Chuang Yi.

Medabots (video game)

Medarot 2: Kabuto Version and Kuwagata Version (メダロット2 クワガタバージョン・カブトバージョン) are 2D top-down role-playing video games developed by Natsume and published by Imagineer for Game Boy Color exclusively for Japan on July 23, 1999. It's a follow up the 1997 Game Boy title Medarot and is a part of the Medarot series of video games.

A remake of the game, titled Medabots: Metabee and Rokusho (メダロット弐CORE クワガタバージョン・カブトバージョン, lit. Medarot 2 Core: Kabuto Version and Kuwagata Version), was released for Game Boy Advance in Europe in 2002, and Japan and North America in 2003. This is one of only three games in the series to be released outside Japan, the other two being Medabots AX and Medabots Infinity. The GBA version was later re-released on Wii U Virtual Console in Europe on October 1, 2015, with a North American release is now available on December 10, 2015.

Plot

Ikki Tenryou is a young boy who's obsessed with Medabots, just like every other kid, however he doesn't have one yet. One day, his mother asks him to buy some dinner, but instead he gets talked into buying a Medabot instead with the money. However it turns out it's missing a medal, a vital part to make a Medabot work. However, a strange mysterious man called the Phantom Renegade gives a medal to Ikki's father and tells him he should give it to his son. Now Ikki will finally be able to also take part in Robattles and compete with other fellow Medafighters. But whoever loses the battle must submit one of their Medabot's Medaparts to the victor.