Monster Coins (anime)

Monster Coins is a Japanese-Canadian-American anime series and proposed toy franchise that first aired on TV Tokyo stations across Japan in 2008. Cartoon Network XD began airing the anime in the United States upon its launch as one of its first original series on February 2nd, 2009. Due to the anime's status as a Cartoon Network XD original series, AuraAnime Licensing has the perpetual master license in North America, despite home media rights being sub-licensed by Cartoon Network XD to Bandai Entertainment prior to the latter's 2012 shutdown.

A 12-episode anime, titled Monster Coins: Reunion, was announced by Studio Comet in late 2017, with character designs by Jewelpet character designer Miyuki Okumura. Switching animation studios aside, nearly all of the show's original production staff returned, except for the 2009 anime's character designer, Cartoon Network XD staff (who were replaced in the production phases by NickFamily Studios staff), and Veronica Taylor as Justin Mel (Bryce Papenbrook was cast as the new English voice actor for Justin in March 2018). The new anime was aired between January and March 2019 in Japan and was simulcast by Crunchyroll in North America and Netflix in Australia.

In June 2019, in addition to Nickelodeon Family's AuraNightfall block acquiring the syndication rights to the first anime, it was announced that Monster Coins: Reunion would also air on AuraNightfall. Reunion is also syndicated on SurgeAnime Extra in the United States. Aura acquired the rights to the first two seasons in Germany in 2019, with Finale to allow in August 2020. All three seasons would run on the channel in both English and German. In April 2020, Kabillion acquired the on-demand rights to the first series, making its first on-demand appearance since its brief Nick on Demand release in 2013. Kabillion's on-demand rights would later revert to AuraNightfall effective October 1st, 2022. Flare+ acquired the North American and UK/Ireland streaming rights to the dub in November 2020, also marking the anime's first European release outside of Wales and Germany.

Due to overwhelming support, a third and final anime of Monster Coins was greenlit by Studio Aura I (Finale: Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei) and premiered on April 4th, 2020 on all TXN stations as well as TV Akihabara. The season was simulcast by Crunchyroll in North America. The new series is aimed at the seinen audience who grew up with the series in the late 2000s. AuraNightfall began airing the season in the United States in July 2020.

In May 2020, the staff behind Monster Coins have noted that Sega Toys and Studio Aura are in talks to make a Monster Coins spin-off anime project for spring 2021. In July 2020, Monster Coins ReStart!, featuring a separate storyline from the original series, was announced for a spring 2021 airing on TV Tokyo. Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Flare+ will simulcast the reboot anime in North American territories, while Flare+ will exclusively simulcast the series in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In December 2020, it was announced that AuraNightfall will broadcast the reboot on linear cable in the United States beginning in July 2021, like the previous Monster Coins series before it. AnimeCore Extra would also re-broadcast the anime beginning July 2021. The reboot is listed at 24 episodes, split into two cours of 12 episodes each to air in April and October respectively. In August 2021, the first half debuted on Aura Germany as one of the last shows to air on the network bilingually (English-German); Aura Germany is set to become a monolingual (German-language) network in January 2022. On September 7th, 2021, AuraNightfall and Studio Aura announced that they were co-producing a sequel to ReStart! (later announced to be titled Monster Coins ReFINAL) to release via streaming on Niconico in Japan (becoming the first Monster Coins series to debut via streaming before being broadcast on television in Japan) and via Crunchyroll, and Flare+ in North America (with Funimation also planned to do so before its content was announced to move to Crunchyroll), with a linear broadcast of the dub in the United States on AuraNightfall set for July 2022. BS TV Tokyo and TV Akihabara started broadcasting the series in July 2022. Studio Aura mentioned that ReFINAL would be the final Monster Coins anime series animated by Studio Aura facilities, as well as Studio Aura Tokyo C's final anime production before the facility is set to be sold off to Venga Animation Team later in the year; MonsterShifters, a semi-sequel/replacement anime, is scheduled to run during the cour-long hiatus of ReFINAL. In Southeast Asia, AnimeCore Asia licensed both ReFINAL and MonsterShifters for broadcast, and later every Monster Coins installment excluding Changing our Lives and Monster Coin World (the latter of which would later be licensed as of March 18th, 2023).

An epilogue feature film, Monster Coins: Epilogue, will serve as the final installment of the original Monster Coins continuity and was released in 2021 in Japan. The film was produced by Studio Aura with animation by C-Station, Gaina, Telecom Animation Film, Studio Comet, and Studio Signpost, with 3DCG animation by Boundary. Funimation Films handled theatrical distribution of the film in North America.

In March 2021, AuraNightfall announced that it had ordered a four-part anime miniseries set in-between Finale and Epilogue, titled Monster Coins: Changing our Lives, which premiered on television in the United States on October 2nd, 2021. Crunchyroll, Funimation and Flare+ streamed the anime in North America, with Flare+ additionally streaming it in the UK and Ireland. TV Akihabara will be the exclusive broadcaster of Changing our Lives in Japan.

On December 4th, 2022, AnimeCore Extra mentioned that they were developing a 26-episode spin-off series, Monster Coin World, to air in spring 2024 following the franchise taking a year-long break for 2023 in order for staff to work on Cardrise Showdown. It was also revealed that said spin-off would feature different protagonists from previous Monster Coins series and would be animated at TMS Entertainment; Crunchyroll and Flare+ would return to simulcast the series as it airs on AnimeCore Extra. The series would also air on Tooniverse, Télétoon+, and Biggs in South Korea, France and Portugal respectively. TV Akihabara and BS TV Tokyo would air the series in Japan. The series is slated to air for two consecutive cours.

Characters

 * Raki Tamino (known as Justin Mel in the English dub) (Saki Fujita (Japanese), Veronica Taylor (English; 2009 anime) , Bryce Papenbrook (English; Reunion & Finale) )

TBA.

Plot
11-year old Justin Mel is brought in to test out a new product developed by several corporations, called "Monster Coins". However, several spirits possess the coins, which turns the thought-to-be-harmless coin-based game into a massive free-for-all between users of Monster Coins.

Episodes
Main article: List of Monster Coins episodes

Videogames
Videogames based on both Monster Coins: Reunion and Monster Coins: Finale were developed by Now Production in association with Aura Games, who acquired the publishing rights in North America. The Reunion game was scheduled for Japanese release in April 2020, but was delayed to July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the delay in the Japanese market, both games were released digitally for the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch platforms by Aura Games in North America in April 2020. The Finale game was released in Japanese markets in October 2020, while physical releases of the Switch ports were released in January 2021 in North America. In September 2022, both games were delisted from the Nintendo eShop worldwide, and physical copies for the Switch put out-of-print in Japan and for the 3DS in all regions; physical copies for the Switch would go out-of-print in North America by the end of December 2022.

In November 2020, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced they would be taking over Now Production's involvement in the Monster Coins videogames as part of a deal with Aura Games, beginning with a videogame adaptation of ReStart!, which was released for the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch platforms in late 2021 in North America. In 2022, a sequel to the ReStart! game was announced, based on ReFINAL. The ReFINAL game would be the first (and so far only) Monster Coins-based videogame released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch as a result of the Nintendo 3DS discontinuing production. The game released in March 2023.

Home media
Throughout 2010, Bandai Entertainment released the series in 4-episode volumes and in 2011 announced a DVD boxset set for 2012. The DVD boxset was later cancelled due to Bandai Entertainment's closure.

NickFamily DVD Distribution released two DVD boxsets, one containing the 2009 anime and the other containing Reunion, in fall 2019. Funimation co-distributed the Blu-ray release in one boxset in December 2019.

NickFamily DVD Distribution and Funimation co-distributed a Region A Blu-ray boxset for Monster Coins: Finale in November 2020.

For Monster Coins ReStart!, Aura DVD Authoring (known as NickFamily DVD Distribution for the release of Part 1) and Funimation would release the series in two parts, with the release of the second part being the final physical release as part of the Aura-Funimation joint venture as a result of Funimation parent company Sony buying Crunchyroll.

Aura DVD Authoring and Crunchyroll would distribute Monster Coins ReFINAL on Blu-ray in two parts.