This Week in Anime

Robots in Plain Sight

But you know I'm also always down for some rules-lawyering. We've covered Korean content here before, and Transformers fans are seeking out solid robot toys from that neck of the woods anyway, and it turns there are some interesting anime connections besides in some of these series!

Also, you seen the state of the world? I could really do with talking about some big stupid plastic robots about now.

Transformers has also found its own fandom there too. So I shouldn't be surprised that South Korea has their own home-grown versions in CGI animated series (with accompanying toylines, natch) that have been running for a while now.

And yeah, you can absolutely see the shared DNA in their handling of designs from both countries. There's a a reason Metal Cardbot has so strongly caught the eye of robot otaku as of late. It's got all the toyetic sensibilities that made series like Brave and its antecedents such big hits, handled with the modern quality and playable engineering you'd hope for from kids' toys in 2026.

Can't imagine why.

For my part, I'll confirm my household has also been afflicted by the Cardbot craze. The irony being that while the cartoons of these series are generally understood the be advertisements for the plastic products, the toys work so well on their own merits that watching the show was unnecessary. But did get me wondering what the context for these guys even was.

Hence some actual animation we could look at in our anime column! Turns out Cardbot the show, like Cardbot the toys, isn't too far off from Transformers after all! The robots are mechanical lifeforms from an alien planet, they disguise themselves alongside human sidekicks, and the official English dub is about as atrocious as the infamous Omni Productions dub of Transformers: The Headmasters.

This is one of the first ways Cardbot differs itself, though. There aren't really "factions" of the robots locked in consistent battle, and nobody's enemies forever. Each new toy 'bot can be sealed by Jun in a sorta-Pokémon style to become allies.

The structure really rings familiar to a lot of kids' anime you might've seen, and as you said, stays breezy enough. Though I'll be honest, that dub was so rough to me that after checking out a few episodes I switched over to the Korean with YouTube's machine-TL'd subtitles.

Still far from perfect, but at least it was far more listenable, and let me check out some of the episodes of current season Metal Cardbot W they've got uploaded. None of which had Tachy, unfortunately.

I do find it funny that both the dub and autosub term what's very clearly a Metal Brace(let) as "Metal Breath" though. That's the kinda jank you oughta get from watching robot cartoons on YouTube.

But Yamaguchi's storied career is another anime connection with these Korean cartoons. It's neat to see there's that much crossover between the work of the two countries with all this, what with a Japanese writer on this show and a South Korean design team also doing work on legendary Japanese anime robots. Maybe that's why they're comfortable borrowing robot and Ranger stylings for other entries.

With just a little Obari for flavor, of course.

Still plenty of attitude though.

He's named "Sonic" of course, and he is also, of course, terrible. I love him.

Seriously though, Tobot, which comes to us courtesy of Young Toys, has been in this game for significantly longer. Their offerings were some of the first fresh South Korean Transformers alternatives I remember being enamored with YouTube videos of back in the 2010s. So established is it, that SAMG's Metal Cardbot was originally termed a "Tobot killer" before it started coming for our Robots in Disguise!

I gotta say, I was pretty taken with Tobot though, myself! The solid dub probably helped a lot, but even starting with the latter-day season that is the streaming Tobot: Heroes of Daedo City, it had a charm and characteristic humor about it that made it extremely easy to get into. I could absolutely see myself watching more of this. Or at least getting super-into it when I was 11.

Like I know no one here has seen J-Decker, but believe me when I tell you that this meeting of guy-with-police-car and girl-with-fire-truck is just J-Decker.

That said, I think it's important to note that SAMG doesn't just receive influence, they provide it as well! Like we said, Transformers collectors have been turning to these guys' output more and more lately, and while there's no way to confirm the head honchos have taken notice...well, this week, TakaraTomy revealed Rexblade, the newest figure in their Transformers: Wild King line...

...And here's Miniforce's Rex Kaiser.

Homework, copying, etc.

You're right though, that every transforming 'toon robot is going to be someone's first, whether they see it on a shelf or a screen. That's what gets new fans captured by the mecha magic at a young age. And jank dubs aside, it's neat that SAMG has their stuff easily accessible on YouTube for kids to find. The action in these shows is generally a cut above so many of Transformers' anime outings from before (hell, it's outclassing what I've seen of the Wild King animated shorts).

And with Transformers being unsatisfying to some these days as you said, to say nothing of a conspicuous Super Sentai shaped hole as of this year, it's nice that fans old and new have alternatives to look to in Metal Cardbot and Miniforce.