Friday, February 3, 2017

Do you still know...





Let's look back a bit. At the start of the new millenium Nelvana licensed three anime series: Card Captor Sakura, Medabots and Beyblade. Apparently Beyblade was the most successful of these, leading to Nelvana winning several awards. But in 2005 it ended in the United States after it already ended in Japan in late 2003 and in some European countries such as Germany in 2004. Most likely soon after Beyblade ended Nelvana entered into talks with Spin Master to create a toyetic series which could replicate the success of Beyblade. As early as in September 2006, just a bit more than one year after Beyblade ended, Nelvana announced Bakugan on its Investor Day which was by then annual. Probably one year later, when Bakugan only unsuccessfully aired in Japan and soon after in Canada, Nelvana entered into talks with d-rights to revise Beyblade. Beyblade: Metal Fusion was officially announced in April 2008 shortly after Bakugan started in the U.S. and started turning into a massive hit. In April 2009 Beyblade: Metal Fusion started in Japan, the same time Bakugan: New Vestroia started in North America. From 2008 to 2011 Nelvana announced a new season of Beyblade or Bakugan on their Investor Day. In 2012 Bakugan ended in North America and was, ironically, continued in Japan the country it never was as successful as in North America, with BakuTech Bakugan. At that time Beyblade was as well declining, as Shogun Steel ended in Japan in the end of the same year. However Nelvana still wanted to continue Beyblade and even created three western exclusive series. While Beywheelz was still successful, the ratings heavily dropped with Beywarriors: Beyraiderz and Beywarriors: Cyborg even never aired in North America. In November 2014 Battle of the Planets was announced, seemingly an attempt to establish another toyetic anime in Nelvana's portfolio. Obviously d-rights originally took the initiative and expressed interest in reviving a successful American adaptation of a Japanese anime series from the 70s. However an official confirmation that Battle of the Planets is still planned has yet to be made. Corus Entertainment still doesn't list an Investor Day or another event which could be an opportunity for an announcement. So we still have to wait and it's still unknown whether Nelvana will be involved in anime in the future.

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