Dinosaur King

Dinosaur King
古代王者恐竜キング (Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu)
TV anime
Directed by	Katsuyoshi Yatabe
Studio	Sunrise
Licensed by	4Kids Entertainment (TV), Shout Factory (DVD) Imavision CITV, Disney XD (UK & Ireland) Magna Pacific
Network	Nagoya TV, TV Asahi, Animax
English network	Fox (4Kids TV) (2007-2008) The CW (The CW4Kids) (2008-2010) Toonzai (2010) Jetix YTV (2008-present) Network Ten (2009-2010)
Original run	February 4, 2007 – January 27, 2008
Episodes	49 (List of episodes)
TV anime
Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu Dī Kizzu Adobenchā: Yokuryū Densetsu
Directed by	Katsuyoshi Yatabe
Studio	Sunrise
Network	Nagoya TV, TV Asahi, Animax
English network	Disney XD (UK & Ireland)
Original run	February 3, 2008 – August 31, 2008
Episodes	30 (List of episodes)
Anime and Manga Portal

Dinosaur King (古代王者恐竜キング, Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu^?, literally "Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King") is a card game from Sega that uses the same gameplay mechanics from Mushiking and uses super-powered dinosaurs instead of beetles. The game was revealed in JAMMA 2005 and is available in Japanese and English versions. A Nintendo DS version has also been released in North America.^[1]

In the fall of 2008, Upper Deck Company released a Dinosaur King Trading Card Game (TCG). This card game is not to be confused with the cards used for the arcade machines.^[2]

The series has been adapted into an anime TV series, Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King DKidz Adventure (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^?), which is made by Sunrise and premiered on TV Asahi on February 4, 2007. As of 2008, an English adaptation aired on the 4Kids TV block on the Fox Network[1], but moved to The CW's The CW4Kids block on September 6, 2008.

A sequel was announced called "Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King DKidz Adventure: Pterosaur Legend (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^?)." which debuted February 3, 2008 in Japan.

The show ended its run in Japan in late 2008.

Story

Card game/DS game

Dr. Taylor was on a paleontology mission in Africa with his son Max and Max's friend, Rex. Max discovers stone slabs and finds dinosaurs are calling them for help. An evil organization called the "Alpha Gang", led by the nefarious Dr. Z, traveled back in time to hunt down the dinosaurs and use them to take over the world. It is up to Max and Rex to travel around the world, defeating Dr. Z and the Alpha Gang while hunting down the dinosaurs.

Anime

Max Taylor is the son of paleontologist Dr. Spike Taylor. After falling out of bed early one morning and witnessing a meteor fall from the sky, Max sets out with his friends, Rex Owen and Zoe Drake into a forest where the meteor had crashed. They find a lightning, wind and grass stone. They also find a card with a picture of a Triceratops on it. Chomp is accidentally activated when Max rubs the card on the stone. The D-Team meet their new enemies in the Alpha Gang when they come to catch more dinosaurs. The D-Team and Alpha Gang often clash for possession of dinosaurs that are activated, when their cards are activated. In the finale, the Alpha Gang's Seth turns on his comrades with his Black Tyrannosaurus, which is ultimately defeated thanks to Rex's true parents. Seth attempts to bring Chomp back to the past, which fails, and Seth is sent into the past alone. The D-Team surrender their and catch dinosaurs to Rex's parents, with many tears.

In the second season, the Alpha Gang and the Ancients return. While the parents are talking, they are kidnapped by Gavro, a member of the Spectoral Space Pirates. This causes the Alpha Gang and D-Team to join forces against the Space Pirates in their plot to obtain the Cosmos Stones. Seth later returns as an ally to the Spectoral Space Pirates. Spectre, the leader of the Space Pirates, provides the dinosaur cards. In episode 75, Seth seems to become a traitor as he appeals to the D-Team for help, saying that they forced him to help them; however, it was really a trick to get the two Cosmos Stones in D-Team's control, despite the fact that he attacks and defeats his comrades two episodes later. In the end, although the Spectoral Space Pirates manage to catch all seven Cosmos Stones, Seth and the Pterosaur defeat the Black Pterosaur. Rex, his parents, and the Alpha Gang leave as the Spectoral Space Pirates are floating around in a pod.

Manga

Max is obsessed with dinosaurs. He knows his Tapejara from his Pteranodon and can find fossils better than a trained paleontologist. When he discovers a stone tablet that transports him to the age of dinosaurs, it's a dream come true—until it becomes a nightmare. An evil genius named Dr. Z has enslaved the dinosaurs so he can use their hidden powers to take over the world! Now Max has to defeat Dr. Z and his Alpha Gang to save the ancient beasts and life as we know it.

Characters

Main article: List of Dinosaur King characters

Cards

There are different cards to collect and use in order to play Dinosaur King. The barcodes are located on the long edges of the cards for the player to scan them in the machine. So far, there are four types of cards used in this game.

Dinosaur Cards

These cards represent the "character" for the player. This is first scanned when a player scans his/her dinosaur and move. Each dinosaur is unique in the following traits:

• Basic information (meaning of name, length, period and located where; in the back of the card)
• Critical hit type
• Element
• Technique points
• Strength value
• Type

Type

Each dinosaur type has different abilities in battle. They are as follows:

• Attack Type: Has high Move power and usually also has a strong Critical Move.
• Tie Type: Gets lower damage from a tie.
• Defense Type: Has higher stamina, but usually has a weak Critical Move.

Newer types found in more recent expansions include:

• Counter: Raise a Move's power after a loss.
• Blitz: Raise a Move's power when the counter is at 10.
• Crisis: Raise a Move's power when the player's energy turns low.
• Hunter: Raise a Move's power when the opponent is weak.
• Charge: The opponent will get more damage from a tie.
• Heroic: Moves that lose to opponent's Critical move are very strong.
• Death: Can use Death fire when HP is low.
• Revival: Revive once if deafeated in a tie.

Move Cards

These cards represent the fighting techniques of the super-powered dinosaurs in the Dinosaur King arcade game. They are only scanned once the Dinosaur Card has been scanned. Only one move card per move type can only be scanned, making a total of three possible cards that can be scanned.

Super Move Cards

These cards can teach the dinosaur a special elemental move and can cause massive damage when used. In the first edition cards there is only one card per element. As of the third edition each move (rock, paper, and scissors) has one super move card per element. More will be revealed over time. The player cannot scan an element card if the element of the dinosaur does not match the element of the Super Move. For example, triceratops will be able to use the lightning strike move card unlike tyrannosaurus. If he/she scans a "wrong" card, the game will tell the player that he/she scanned the wrong element.

Character Cards

These cards are only available in Japan, but work in English versions of the arcade game. Character Cards are cards that display members of the Alpha Gang. They can alter the game in many ways.

• 1-player: The player can choose difficulty levels without pressing all three buttons at the same time, the character on the card will be playable instead of Max, Dr. Taylor will be replaced by Dr. Z giving hints, and the player will receive an Alpha Gang level at the end of the four battles.
• 2-player: The players will play as the character on the cards.

The only way to obtain character cards is to go to Japan, get specific Japanese stamped cards, and trade them with an office. They can only be scanned before a dinosaur card is scanned.

Media

Anime

Main article: List of Dinosaur King episodes

Kodai Ōja Kyōryū King: DKidz Adventure (古代王者恐竜キング Dキッズ・アドベンチャー, Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu D Kizzu Adobenchā^?) is a children's anime series that attempts to remain true to the format of dueling and fighting super-powered dinosaurs. The anime is aimed and targeted mostly towards young children and primary elementary-school aged kids using traditional and CG animation.^[3] It is produced by Sunrise and began airing on TV Asahi on February 4, 2007. It is released on DVD in Japan by BEAM or Happinet, the same Japanese video company that released another Japanese anime, Digimon Data Squad, on DVD.

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. Two DVDs are currently available, Downtown Showdown and The Adventure Begins. The anime was launched under the name Dinosaur King on September 8, 2007 on 4Kids TV. In September 2008, it began airing on The CW4Kids, and is already shown on Canada's YTV since September 8, 2008. As of November 2008, it is set to air in Mexico, South Africa, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe with the dubs adapted from 4Kids. The last English episode, 47, aired on The CW4Kids on March 28, 2009. Even though the original series had 49 episodes, it is unknown if the last two episodes would be shown, or be exclusively released on DVD. Even Italy will receive the adaptation from 4Kids and set it for young children in Italy aged 6–11. The anime will air on UK network CITV every weekday from March 2, 2009.

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). While the D-Team's country of origin is not explicitly specified, 4Kids has left in elements that identify it as being Japan, as in the original: location, Japanese cuisine, and text remain, for the most part, unchanged. 4Kids paints out signs and text on signs, however Chinese characters are kept and in the episode Beast or Famine due to the setting of Chinatown. Despite this, characters all use Sega's official English names. An original soundtrack has been created, although 4Kids occasionally uses some of the original Japanese music. What is rather unusual is that 4Kids leaves most of the silence alone and, in fact, will sometimes add silence to scenes that originally had music playing. The show is also cropped from widescreen to fullscreen, although 4Kids has uploaded some of the episodes to their site in widescreen. The opening title sequence is brand new in the English dub consisting of scenes, shots and chips taken from the original Japanese opening title sequence, the original Japanese ending credits sequence and various American English dub episodes. The ending credits sequence in the English dub is also brand new, consisting of the same scenes used in the English dub opening title sequence along with credits.

As with other 4Kids localizations, the show has been edited to allow for North American sensibilities and to allow it to be screened for an audience demographic to receive a TV-Y7-FV rating. Edits include the airbrushing or removal of scenes containing violence or even coughing or exhalation of smoke, edits to lessen the emotional impact of scenes, and the censoring of nudity^[4]. Examples include the airbrushing of Ursula's fan service, removal of nudity, and a potty scene^[5]. A scene in the original shows Max owning a Dreamcast^[6], however this is cut out in the dub, most likely due to copyrights.

Video Game

Main article: Dinosaur King (video game)

Trading card game

The Dinosaur King Trading Card game was released in the fall of 2008 by the Upper Deck Company. Although the play mechanism follows the arcade game cards to some extent, they are not meant to be mixed.

DVD releases

Shout! Factory released the first two seasons, The Adventure Begins and Downtown Showdown, in 2008. They released the third installment, Volcanic Panic, in June 2009.

In Australia Magna Home Entertainment have released the following DVDs containing episodes from Season One:

• 04/11/09 - Pre-history in the Making: Episodes 1-10
• 04/11/09 - Volcanic Panic: Episodes 11-20
• 05/05/10 - Colossal Fossils: Episodes 21-30
• 07/07/10 - Battle Royale: Episodes 31-40

References

1. ^ "Dinosaur King Stomps Onto DS," IGN
2. ^ "Dinosaur King TCG Homepage," Upper Deck
3. ^ Ball, Ryan (2008-11-25). "4Kids Expands Dinosaur King Reign". Animation Magazine. http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/9265. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
4. ^ episode 15
5. ^ episode 3
6. ^ episode 6

External links

• Dinosaur King - The official website for the Dinosaur King game.
• Dinosaur King TCG - The official website for the Dinosaur King TCG Game
• Dinosaur King Wikia - Dinosaur King Wikia
• Dinosaur King (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Sega takes on Taito Company claims Taito's dinosaurs infringe on its insects.
• Official 4Kids Dinosaur King website
• TV.com: Dinosaur King
• German Dinosaur King The German website for Dinosaur King.