Anime of the Childhood #18: Dinosaur King

古代王者恐竜キング, Kodai Ōja Kyōryū Kingu, literally “Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King” / 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, literally “Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King DKidz Adventure” (first season) 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, lit. “Ancient Ruler Dinosaur King DKidz Adventure: Pterosaur Legend” (second season)

In 2007, 4Kids Entertainment brought Dinosaur King to North America (specifically, the United States) using much of the same cast from their previous mon success, Pokémon. You can watch it on Netflix or KidsClick as of February 2018, and Discotek Media acquired the home video license later that year. The anime features the adventures of Max, Rex, and Zoe, a trio of dinosaur-loving kids who search for dinosaur cards scattered all over the world before the Alpha Gang can retrieve them. Today, we’re talking about Dinosaur King, another Anime of the Childhood. The anime was heavily edited for broadcast (see the YouTube videos for seasons 1 and 2).

Story

In the anime’s first season, 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 stones with the symbols for lightning, wind, and grass on them and a card with a picture of a Triceratops on it. The Triceratops, later named Chomp is accidentally activated when Max rubs the card on the stone. The D-Team meets their new enemies in the Alpha Gang consisting of Dr. Z, Ursula, Zander, Ed, Seth, Laura, Rod, Helga, and the Alpha Droids. The Alpha Gang plans to obtain the Dinosaur Cards that were lost when their time machine exploded and stranded them in the present. Rex activated a Carnotaurus card which was named Ace and Zoe activated a Parasaurolophus which was named Paris. The D-Team and Alpha Gang often clash for possession of dinosaurs that are activated when their cards are activated. In the finale, Seth turns on his comrades with his Black Tyrannosaurus which is ultimately defeated. Seth attempts to bring Chomp back to the past which fails and Seth is sent into the past alone. The D-Team surrendered their dinosaurs to Rex’s original parents, with many tears.

In the second series, the Alpha Gang and the Ancients return. While the parents are talking, they are kidnapped by Gavro, a member of the Spectral Space Pirates. This causes the Alpha Gang and D-Team to join forces against the Space Pirates in their plot to obtain cosmic jewels known as the Cosmos Stones. Seth later returns as an ally to the Spectral Space Pirates after they save him from the time portal. 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 a trick to get the two Cosmos Stones in D-Team’s control, even though he attacks and defeats his comrades two episodes later. In the end, although the Spectral 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 to their own time as the Spectral Space Pirates are floating around in a pod.

Characters

L → R: Ryuta/Max, Rex and Tatsuno/Zoe

D-Team (Protagonists)

• Ryuta Kodai (古代 リュウタ, Kodai Ryūta) / Maximus “Max” Taylor is the son of a paleontologist Dr. Spike Taylor. He is the unofficial leader of D-Team. Max is mostly seen wearing a visor that has Triceratops horns which double as flashlights. He is very brash, impulsive, and does not generally think his actions through. Max deeply cares for dinosaurs and hates how the Alpha Gang abuses them. His partner is a Triceratops called Chomp, which he named because he chomps away on anything he can get his mouth on. Besides having Chomp, Max owns most of the lightning and water wild dinosaurs that they claim. In the English dub, Max is the Satoshi/Ash Ketchum of Dinosaur King, but without any Poké Balls. Max has brown spiky hair and dark blueish-gray eyes. He wears a red visor with Triceratops horns, a red and yellow short-sleeved jacket, red fingerless gloves, orange cargo capri pants, white socks that have red parts on the ankles and toes, and red Chuck Taylor-inspired sneakers. He is voiced by Megumi Matsumoto in Japanese and Veronica Taylor in English.
• Rex Owen (レックス・オーエン, Rekkusu Ōen; True name in the 4Kids dub: “Rex Ancient”) is Max’s best friend. Rex was found as an infant by paleontologist Dr. Owen in an egg-like container within a dinosaur exhibit in New York. Rex is now 11 and has been left with Max and his family while his father goes searching for fossils with Dr. Owen being a family friend of the Taylor family. It is revealed in one episode that Rex was left at Max’s house because his father wanted him to be near a real family. Rex’s partner is a Carnotaurus he named Ace. Rex also owns most of the fire and wind dinosaurs. Rex is a good-hearted boy and is relatively quiet, but also quite short-tempered from the beginning. At the end of the first series, it is revealed that Rex’s real parents are Dr. Ancient and Dr. Cretacia and he reunites with them. In the finale, Rex, the Alpha Gang, Seth, Chomp, Ace, Paris, and the Ancients return to the year 2126. He is also the Takeshi/Brock of the series. Rex has blond hair and blue eyes. He wears a blue jacket over a white T-shirt, a dinosaur tooth necklace, light brown cargo pants with blue accents, white socks, and gray and blue Chuck Taylor-inspired sneakers. He is voiced by Matsuri Mizuguchi in Japanese and Sebastian Arcelus (Yoh Asakura’s original English voice actor in Shaman King as well as Hao “Zeke” Asakura, before being replaced with Abby Trott and Erica Mendez respectively in the Shaman King reboot) in English.
• Malm Tatsuno (竜野 マルム, Tatsuno Marumu) / Zoe Drake is the younger sister of Dr. Reese Drake whose sunglasses double as a camera. Zoe knows when to keep focused and cares deeply for her friends. Zoe sometimes seems to be excessively fond of some stars. She owns a Parasaurolophus called Paris and also most of the grass dinosaurs. Zoe’s parents are both veterinarians and own an animal hospital. In the dub of the episode “Vaccination Vacation,” the Drakes’ home as well as the family was transported onto Zeta Point. She is considered to be the Kasumi/Misty of the trio, as she and Misty both wear midriff tops and short shorts and in the dub, she was given a “valley girl” speech. Zoe has pink hair styled in spiked pigtails and purple eyes. She wears a black midriff top, a yellow and red waistcoat/vest that is always worn open, yellow and red shorts, black thigh-length socks, and green and yellow sneakers. She also wears a green choker and a dinosaur tooth necklace, as well as green wristbands. She is voiced by Tomoko Kobashi in Japanese and Kether Donohue in English.
• Dr. Kenryu Kodai (古代剣竜博士, Kodai Kenryū-hakase, lit. “Ancient Stegosaur Doctor”) / Dr. Spike Taylor is Max’s father and a paleontologist. Like Max, Spike is obsessed with dinosaurs and runs the D-Lab. He wields a whip that often gets caught on things that are generally things he is not aiming for. Dr. Taylor can also be over-reactive when a dinosaur appears. He also saves the D-Team when they are cornered by the Alpha Gang, catches the new cards, and reclaims the lost Dino Holders from Seth. His name is a pun on “Spike Tail” (a nickname for Stegosaurus). In the “Mesozoic Meltdown” episodes, the Taylors, the Ancients, and the Drakes get captured by Spectral Space Pirates. Dr. Taylor is based on Indiana Jones. He is voiced by Naoya Uchida in Japanese and David Wills in English.
• Riasu Tatsuno (竜野 リアス, Tatsuno Riasu) / Dr. Reese Drake is a scientist who is Zoe’s older sister, Dr. Spike Taylor’s assistant, a certified pilot, and the creator of the D-Team’s Dino Holders. She maintains a calm personality at all times when around others and has a rather monotonic voice even when angry or embarrassed. Zander has feelings for Reese which she may or may not return given that she couldn’t recognize Zander without her glasses. Reese stays at the D-Lab in the Mesozoic Meltdown with Rod and Laura and is later taken hostage by Seth and his Cryolophosaurus. She is voiced by Eri Komiyama in Japanese and Rachael Lillis in English.

Alpha Gang (Antagonists, first season)

• Dr. Sonoida (Dr.ソーノイダ, Dokutā Sōnoida) / Dr. Z is the zany, egotistic, and incompetent mad scientist who is the leader of the Alpha Gang and the grandfather of Laura and Rod. Dr. Z plans to use the dinosaur cards in his plans to rule the world. He also seems to know the history of these cards, though he was not the creator as the method was created by Dr. Ancient and Dr. Cretacia. Dr. Z did invent the Move Cards that Dr. Ancient had been dissatisfied with. When Dr. Ancient and Dr. Cretacia wanted to return to the year 2126 to raise baby Rex, Dr. Z, and Seth jettisoned their pods into the timestream and tried to do the same for baby Rex only for the intervention of Jonathan to prevent that. This accident caused the Alpha Gang to end up in the present day and the dinosaur cards were scattered throughout the Earth. Sakaki/Giovanni from Pokémon is his equivalent. He is voiced by Tetsuo Goto in Japanese and Eric Stuart in English.
• Usarapa (ウサラパ, Usarapa) / Ursula (no relation to the Disney villain, nor the supporting character of Majo no Takkyūbin/Kiki’s Delivery Service) is a member of the Alpha Gang. Ursula works with Zander and Ed to obtain dinosaur cards for Dr. Z. She is often very conceited, acting like a queen in front of her two cohorts and possessing an elevated, almost delusional, opinion of her beauty. Whenever a failure occurs with the three, Ursula thinks that it is not her fault (even when it is), but blames the other two who keep bringing her down. A running gag is that she is often called an “old lady” (usually by Zoe, “Obasan” in Japanese, meaning grandma or grandmother; in a similar manner to the Pokémon anime) which drives her crazy, and she always knows when somebody calls her that no matter how far away they are. Musashi/Jessie from Pokémon is her equivalent. She is voiced by Misa Watanabe in Japanese and Rachael Lillis in English.
• Noratty (ノラッティ～, Norattī) / Zander is the tall sunglasses-wearing member of the Alpha Gang. Zander works with Ursula and Ed to obtain dinosaur cards for Dr. Z. He is usually the one who comes up with a plan that always goes wrong. Zander is also the person who buys the Alpha Gang’s vehicles and has to deal with the consequences when they are destroyed or lost. He tries to act smart and sophisticated but is nervous, awkward, and cowardly most of the time. In episode 30, he develops a crush on Reese. Kojiro/James from Pokémon is his equivalent. He is voiced by Kenyuu Horiuchi in Japanese and Darren Dunstan in English.
• Edo (エド) / Ed is the short chubby member of the Alpha Gang. Ed works with Ursula and Zander to obtain dinosaur cards for Dr. Z. Despite his cowardly behavior, he follows the other two anywhere even if they end up in a dangerous predicament. Ed likes cute girls and enjoys eating bananas though he is something of a glutton and is very fond of eating in general. Ed is the funny one on the team and is rather stupid. His only sign of intelligence is in “The Forest Fire Effect” when he shows them what kind of damage would be done by the fire the fight against the Spectral Space Pirates caused in the Jurassic Period (which resulted in sentient plants and giant insects). Team Rocket’s Meowth from Pokémon is his equivalent. He is voiced by Junichi Endo in Japanese and David Wills in English.

Spectral Space Pirates (Antagonists, second season)

• Spectre / Jark (ジャーク, Jāku) is the leader and captain of the Spectral Space Pirates. He uses dinosaurs to collect the Cosmos Stone. Spectre is the one who supplies his henchmen with the dinosaur cards, Move Cards, and Spectral Armor Cards. Spectre is often seen with a small Apatosaurus named Brontykins in his arm. He is a horrible singer. He is voiced by Katsuhisa Houki in Japanese, Maddie Blaustein (deceased) in “Coliseum Clash”, and Sean Schemmel in the later episodes in English.
• Gavro (or Gabbro) / Gunenco (グーネンコ, Gūnenko) is a large and strong red-skinned simple-minded alien. His Dino-Card Activator is on his chest armor and his altered dinosaur was Gigas the Tyrannosaurus. He is voiced by Yasuhiro Mamiya in Japanese and Marc Diraison in English.
• Foolscap / Zapper (ザッパー, Zappā) is a slender alien who ponders agility. His Dino-Card Activator is on his headband and his altered dinosaur was Armatus the Stegosaurus. He is voiced by Setsuji Satō in Japanese and Marc Thompson in English.
• Sheer / Mihasa (ミハサ, Mihasa) has a beautiful semblance, but a ruthless heart. Her Dino-Card Activator is on her necklace and her altered dinosaur was Maximus the Triceratops. During the Ancient Japan arc, Sheer had amnesia and joined the kunoichi. She is voiced by Asuka Tanii in Japanese and Lauren Weisman in English.

I find that “old lady” gag is very funny (season 1, season 2). I watched Dinosaur King several times when it was first aired. Dinosaur King is available on Netflix (though it has geolocation restrictions as I don’t recommend using a VPN at all). I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you stayed home during black Friday.

Thanks for reading this article on Medium. Cory out.