Medabots Spirit

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Medabots Spirit, also known as Medabots Spirits or simply Medabots season 3 or part 2, known in Japanese as Medarot Damashii (メダロット魂), is the sequel of the Medabots anime series. It was produced by TV Tokyo and NAS, and animated by Trans Arts with the cooperation of Production I.G. Medabots Spirit has 39 episodes.

Synopsis

A new company led by Kam Kamazaki started producing Kilobots, a new type of Medabot. Unlike the friendly Medabots, the Kilobots are aggressive and cold-hearted machines developed only to win Robattles at any cost, including cheating, and they began to become popular among Medafighters. To promote the Kilobots, Ikki and Metabee became their major targets, as their bravery and bonds represent the true spirit of Robattles.

Digital and home releases

Medarot Damashii 2010 DVD-BOX 1 artwork.

The Japanese version was released in ten VHS volumes during the original airing. It was also released on two DVD boxes by Super Vision in 2010 and in a single DVD box by Happinet in 2020.

The dub only received a home release on May 2021 as a SD Blu-ray disc by Discotek Media.

The series is also available online on Niconico in Japanese and on Amazon Prime Video in English.

Differences from the original anime

Some of the photos in the Japanese credits.

Although Medabots Spirit is a sequel to the previous anime, with Ikki being mentioned to be the finalist from the World Robattle Cup in some episodes, its setting takes a parallel path from the predecessor, which was criticized. Changes include:

• Several recurring characters, like Koji, Karin, Rokusho, Mr. Referee, and the Chick Seller, disappeared without explanation, without even having a mention to them, except for:
  • The Japanese ending credits shows photos with Koji, Henry, Seaslug, Miss Caviar, Belmont, and Victor. Henry left town, and the latter two likely returned to their home countries. Of note, Kirara appears with Henry in the photos, this being her only appearance in the anime.
  • Rintaro and Kantaroth have cameo appearances as characters from a TV show, with a design similar to Medaroter Rintarou!.
• Most of the returning characters have slightly different personalities, such as Ikki being more childish, Erika being more spiteful and Samantha being more conniving and opportunistic.
• Despite the prior series having established the Select Corps as a means of managing dangerous and illegal actions pertaining to Medabots, they seemingly do not exist in this series despite the Kilobots being legitimate threats. There is also seemingly no ruling body that governs or enforces the official rules for Robattles, and Mr. Referee is also completely absent.
• Ikki and Metabee both took a liking to Nae, appearing to have forgotten Karin and Oceana.
• There are no submission matches, so no new parts are acquired in Robattles during the series, with Ikki and Metabee rarely being seen using parts they already have (Delivery Boy) or borrowing parts (Kung Fu for Thought). However, changing parts would leave Medachange unavailable. Also, as the Kilobots are the primary antagonists, which are frowned by them, there were few opportunities for serious Robattles between Medabots, and it is implied that there are a few compatibility issues between Medabots and Kilobots:
  • In Fighting Temptation, a Kilobot battery is shown to be too powerful for Medabots, with Samantha's Peppercat overloading. In the same episode, the Kilobot Tankbank is shown using Goriongo's leg parts, so Kilobots appear to be able to use Medabot parts without issue.
  • In The Bee Rescues the Honey, a Kilobot cable could not be used on a Medabot.
  • In Who is the Mystery Medafighter?! and Dark Alliance (1), Samantha tried using Kilobot parts won with deals she made with Kam, which Peppercat is unable to use properly, but instead of compatibility, those are due to other issues, like inexperience using the new part or it being too heavy for the Medabot.
• In Medabots Spirit, Medabots are portrayed as being only for kids, this being most notable in A Night in the Medabot Junkyard and The Truth About Charlie, with Nae and Charlie being the only adults seen with a Medabot, with Nae noting in the first episode that without one she cannot test the parts she fixes. Although the term Medarotter was translated as Medafighter in English, Medabots can have a wide range of uses besides Robattles, also appearing as job assistants for adults in the games and in the original anime, such as the Medabots from Mr. Richards and Seamus MacRaker. The World Robattle Cup also showed several adults participating in Robattles.
• Although Medabots have an automatic repair system, this was not present in Medabots Spirit, with Medabots often requiring manual repairs, with Nae acting as the mechanic from most characters. Also, the Mystery Medafighter breaks Kilobots, something that would be pointless if they could repair themselves.
  • However, it is unknown how effective the automatic repair is in the anime. While the games depict parts exploding to pieces and returning to normal after each Robattle, and the manga had a strong Medabot that fell from the top of a collapsing building (with debris hitting it) to the bottom of the ocean and stayed offline underwater for years until the automatic repair finished, Medabots were still shown breaking and requiring repair in the original anime, examples including Use the Medaforce and Beetle Mania. It is implied that the time required for automatic repairs to complete depend on the damage taken, being faster for normal Robattles and slower (and in the worst case, not possible) for heavier damage. Broken parts were also shown being replaced, with Cyandog being upgraded to Krosserdog (but Metabee still won one of the broken parts, suggesting that it was not beyond repair), and Warbandit receiving a copy of his parts. As Kilobots are stronger than Medabots and most of their Medafighters are also cheaters, it is not unlikely that doing manual repairs would be more effective than letting a Medabot suffer while relying on a slow automatic repair, if it was present in Medabots Spirit.
    • Of note, Ikki is shown giving a tuneup to Metabee's body in For Better, For Worse - Part II after his defeat in the tournament. In For Better, For Worse - Part I, Ikki mentioned that he never even polished Metabee since his purchase, as Metabee never allowed Ikki to remove his Medal to do maintenance, and it never left his body until this episode. As Metabee is an old model (Ikki laughing when first suggested to buy Metabee's parts, and the package was full of dust), got in a number of Robattles (taking damage in some, and he overexerted himself during the tournament), and also went to the beach before (being unknown how resistant Medabots are to sand and sea water), this gives an idea of how sturdy Medabots are and how effective their automatic repair may be.
• While ammo is more limited in Medabots Spirit and is mentioned more often, the concept of Medabots having ammo was previously mentioned when Metabee and Warbandit ran out of ammo during their long match in the episode Altered States, and when Hikaru's Metabee ran out of ammo in the final chapter from the first Medarot manga. Of note, those applied to arm parts, which in the games can be used unlimited times during a Robattle, with only head parts having a limited number of uses, being automatically restored alongside any damage done to the parts after a match.
  • Of note, the first episode of Medabots Spirit only showed head parts running out of ammo in the original Japanese, but the changes done to Desperado in the English dub made the Kilobot's arm parts run out of ammo instead. The second episode is the first to show arm parts being reloaded in the original.
• In Medabots Spirit, the Medaforce does not work on Kilobots. The reason for that was not explained in the Japanese version, and in the dub it was said that the Medaforce acts on the target's personality, being unable to damage Kilobots due to their lack of personality, causing little to no damage. In the original anime, the Medaforce is shown to be able to damage inanimated objects, like a bridge, a cave, and the Medadome. The latter took heavy damage even without the Medaforce hitting a Medabot. Also, this was contradicted in Roks Reborn, where the Kilobot Redrun was taken down by the combined power of two Medaforces.
• In the last episode from the original anime, Metabee's Rare Medal awakened the dormant power within all clone Medals, inferring that all of them became able to use the Medaforce, with Dr. Aki comparing the event with atavism in the original Japanese. However, in Medabots Spirit, no Medabots other than the ones with Rare Medals and First Medals are able to use the Medaforce.

The dub also did some changes to the original, overall changes being listed on the first episode and indiviual changes on each episode.

See also

• Medabots Episodes

External links

• Medarot Damashii official TV Tokyo site (archive)
• Medarot Damashii official Trans Arts site (archive)
• Medabots on Amazon Prime Video
• Medarot Damashii on Niconico (Japan only)