Nelvana, the Canadian company that packaged Cardcaptors for the WB network, has licensed the anime series Medabot: Techno Robot Battle Adventures from Kodansha.  Nelvana has acquired worldwide distribution and merchandising rights (not including Italy and Asia) for the 50-episode series that was produced by Kodansha in association with TV Tokyo.  The Japanese series, known as Medarot, debuted on TV Tokyo in 1999.

 

Set in the twenty-second century, the series depicts a world controlled by high performance robots.  The robots have special 'medallions' which provide specific super powers -- and as with Pocket Monsters and Digimonsters, the anime features a huge number (about 375) of different creatures (robots in this case), each with special powers and aptitudes.  Obviously this means that the series has enormous marketing potential if it catches on with kids.  In Japan a Medabot toy line moved some four million units in just over two years.

 

 

Nelvana has forged an alliance of sorts with Kodansha by licensing Cardcaptors and now Medabots from the Japanese company, which in turn publishes Nelvana Babar books and has helped Nelvana get its Babar and Elliot Moose cartoons shown on Japanese TV. No word on just when or where the Nelvana Medabot series will appear on U.S. TV.   Nelvana is currently shopping the series at MIP-TV, the international video market held in conjunction with the famous film festival at Cannes, France.