wait remember Spider Riders first starting off as a book series that was then adapted into an
anime series that is all about yeah you guessed it spiders that are rideable during the mid-2000s
there seemed to be shows like this popping up left and right but it was how you differentiated
yourself to stay in the mind of all the kids finding their next favorite thing to watch
and obsess over or become an adult and look back onto your childhood from nearly 20 years ago with
Nostalgia you didn't know you had until you see an image and go oh yeah Spider Riders I remember
that so in this case Spider Riders was something that has spun this little web of memories within
my brain since the first time I saw it giving me now the urge to go back and check it out see
everything this show really had to offer I must relive how and why these anime looking anime
characters ride spiders it's basically an isakai it has a little bit of Digimon a little bit of
Ben 10 and a lot of bit of spiders so let's take a bite out of Spider Riders count the amount of
times I say spider in this video an adventure to a land in the center of the Earth spider
Spider Riders is exactly what it looks like you're going to get our main character we follow here is
Hunter Steele that is the most main character name I've ever heard who thanks to his grandfather's
old Journal begins his search for this legendary inner world of our world during his expedition
a strange device lands on his wrist called the manacle as he eventually gets surprised and scared
by a regular Spider as he then falls through a hole that leads to the Center of the Earth as
one would naturally happen to accidentally fall in but this place turns out to be the inner world
with the name of arachna that's on brand now being stuck in this world he finds himself in
the middle of whatever the heck is going on down there quickly meeting these young Warriors who
fight back against the real evil of this world the invectids did I mention that just like every
other anime or popular kids media that was similar our main character is 11 years old and the group
that he joins up with are all young as well and yeah they have to stop all the evil to save the
arachnid-filled world of arachna and they all ride spiders yeah there are a bunch of unique 10 foot
and size spiders that they ride can you understand where the show gets its name from now does it make
sense to you good I'm just checking of course the show isn't complete without a prophecy that
states someone from the surface world or someone they call earthens will come to arachna and cause
disaster but will it be the destruction of the Spider Riders and the natural way of life down
there or would it be to those who seek destruction themselves and against the Spider Riders it's a
little trope-filled but hey what can you do right this Arrow was filled with kids from somewhere
else who was a savior of some sort or some Legend of Prophecy as we meet some quirky characters
along the way get some interesting World lore and some sort of mechanic specific to the show
with the spiders that in fact they do ride being the big special selling point here but my favorite
part about the spiders is that they are these cool mechanical beings that can speak and that's how
we start this bonding connection of Hunter and his spider companion shadow where once they do Bond he
gets his cool outfit as well well so now we enter a world full of action adventure and mechanical
Creepy Crawlers as a prophecy May unfold a world needs to be saved and spiders oh you betcha
they'll be ridden the elite Warriors are on the loose in Spider Riders you're watching an all-new
Spider Riders here on Kids WB Spider Riders would start off as a series of books that started coming
out in December of 2004 with the series of books being shards of the Oracle reign of the Soul Eater
and quest of the Earthen Ted anasty Patsy Cameron amnesty and Stephen D Sullivan were the writers
of the series with New Market press publishing the series B train and cookie jar entertainment would
come in to adopt the series from pages and turn them to frames cookie jar wanted to Branch off a
specific action-oriented branch of their own shows with Spider Riders becoming the first series to be
branched under Coliseum and with the popularity for Spider Riders growing in the territories it
would Premiere first being broadcast in Canada on Teletoon and TV Tokyo in Japan but on June 17 2006
spiderwriters was coming to the U.S via Kids WB spiderwriters was a big deal to everyone working
on it it was their biggest project at the time but having someone like koichi mashimo who knew how to
direct and Lead projects was sure helpful since he was the one who founded ran as the CEO and
directed A lot of the projects for B train they really wanted to roll out this show with style
in the US knowing that with the fan base growing in these other places the U.S market should be a
solid bet working with syndication on Kids WB with special hour-long Premiere blocks to eventually
the following month getting a regular spot for new weekly episodes brand awareness was super
important so pumping out a lot of content to get a new audience interested would be the plan and then
pulled back to a dedicated release time so those people and hopeful new fans know when to tune in
plus it gives it a chance to catch up a bit with where the show is at in other territories the next
part of the US release was bringing access to an online Spider Riders game or on the website you
can log into this immersive online experience that would hope to bring a rich competitive environment
going under the term of mmog it's like an MMORPG minus the role-playing aspect giving users all
over the world a chance to play the game with international access by no November of 2006 the
game would see around 1 million signups and even winning a silver level award from the W3 Awards
which is a web design and marketing competition award that was By Invitation Only and judged by
the International Academy of the visual arts to receive the award it did it beat out around 2 300
other entries from around the world now the show in general for me is a lot of fun I think the lore
is pretty cool and the spider concept definitely is really enjoyable but there are some things that
hold this show back greatly and a few of them are specific to the English version that I watched
while the voice acting comes off in a less than convincing way I feel this was more so the fault
of the script and any sort of Direction the voice actors were given while there isn't this problem
every minute of every episode it is something prevalent throughout the entire series with it
really being more noticeable during important story beat moments more emotional scenes and
moments that should have had more tension filled into them but again I just love the look of this
show yeah it can blend in a bit to the the other anime out there at the time but the outfits that
The spiderwriters Have and the spiders themselves really have the standout factor that makes me want
to watch the series and collect a lot of toys if they would produce toys for it why didn't they
make action figures for the show it was supposed to be part of the plan apparently the series
was popular enough and had plenty of episodes why didn't action figures come out right away
something to think about there with arachna itself the world was a lot of fun to explore especially
when understanding the conflicts that involve really cool characters and creatures with designs
that really stood out all backed by a well-paced narrative that is perfect for what this show was
to keep you returning for the next episode while the dialogue can be a struggle sometimes the
characters themselves are genuinely pretty fun to follow along with Hunter voiced by Julie Lemieux
it's an interesting enough main character that has that talking to yourself slow to pick up on
what's going on but determined to save the day protag energy that you'd expect to see here he
already has this adventurous side to him thanks to how we meet him at the start of the series
he is brave sometimes he gets scared of spiders but to be fair who is it I just hear the person
typing now Jordan I'm not scared of spiders I love spiders every time I see a spider I pick it up pet
it and give it a kiss on the head go ahead you'll finish typing it post your comment good all right
let's continue on throughout the series he is able to become this Brave Warrior that stands with the
Spider Riders as they battle the invectives taking him from this more goofball attitude into a more
strategic mindset especially with his relationship to Shadow voiced by Joseph motiki where at first
once they do Bond and start fighting together as partners he really viewed this Mecca spider
as a tool and a weapon more so than a reliable companion Shadow is clearly a bit pushed backy on
Hunter due to his mistrust of humans and wasn't really looking to Be Tamed personality wise I
enjoy his character probably the most seeing him go from being walled off to more open and
caring towards Hunter and even taking the time to develop traits from Hunter like his goofball
ways but it's not just all about them of course we have the other Spider Riders that we like Corona
voiced by Stacy de pass who brings a charming and Lighter Side to a tough and Powerful spider
Rider her and Hunter build this relationship from early on to where later in the series it
becomes a more prominent thing maybe to just have some sort of romance plot in general but with her
feeling like the second string right behind this lead I enjoy what she brought to the show along
with her spider Venus voiced by Carolee Larson who is more reserved and quiet in comparison
to Shadow but don't make the mistake of counting out her power igneous voiced by Tim hamaguchi is
the other main Shadow Rider that we focus on and he's the tougher more ego-fueled character that
judges you if you don't live up to the efficiency he believes to have making him a harder character
to like overall but at least we have different personalities floating around through the show
which adds a level of Comedy to the fact that his spider flame is voiced by no one because he
doesn't talk and he just stares at you menacingly other Riders of the spiders that we meet are
characters like magma a more lone spider Rider that has a lot of Brute Force as we see the lore
of the World building out with it having its own royalty hierarchy as well with the Spider Riders
that are specifically in the arachna military reporting to this Prince of the land Prince Lumen
as we also meet his sister Princess Sparkle and within this world there are things called Oracle
keys that draw in this Oracle power through these cards that can effectively be used in giving these
upgrades or new abilities and all you have to do is say a catchphrase that's so cliche but it's
perfect Beyond this for the story however we have to touch on the invectives and the whole conflict
between them and the Spider Riders of course it is mainly over resources like food within the land
but we don't only see it from the Spider Riders being the good guy's point of view and that's
really all thanks to akune voiced by Alison Court a spider Rider herself that was captured by the
invectives and had her mind re-altered to stand with them and their fight but she has this deep
care for everything living in general not ever pushing the boundaries past where they need to
be if in a conflict and seeing the struggles of both sides out she's a real interesting character
that adds a lot to the story more so than many of the other characters because of her position
in everything it helps set a different tone for the situations at hand the leader of the infected
Lord mantid voiced by Lawrence Bane is really just this looming presence throughout the show
never really being this menacing Force outside of a conversation until the end of the series in the
meantime he has his big four underlings do his bidding buggies grasshop Stags and B Reign these
four have a larger Arc in their characters throughout the show since we spend more time
with them over the main big bad but he's becomes the show's rival for Hunter grasshop is a funny
character that is pretty interesting stag is a bloodthirsty Warrior who always is looking for
a great fight that he wants to solo and B Reign is sadly just kind of there not really having too
much of a personality for their time on screen and that really brings me to my last personal
gripe with the show which is them not building up Lord mantid more like the whole concept of
a master villain in the shadows until the end is fine and it does work enough but giving the
villain a chance to be more involved to build up his threat rather than having him be unassuming is
a risk with the character that I think would have worked better here if they had him more involved
but it wasn't something that made or broke the show speaking of the show what would come of it
after having a lot of faith in the franchise before it started and trying to expand it a
little bit beyond that where did Spider Riders go fighter Riders all new today at 10 30 on Kids WB
awesome so unfortunately Spider Riders was not the big hit franchise that cookie jar and their
working Partners thought it would be I mean they still produce something really cool and had a
great Global launch in the different territories it did Premiere in but with not enough brand
awareness and a limiting of certain expansions outside of the show Spider Riders didn't get the
exposure it could have had leaving it to have a waning interest as the show went on and really the
lack of marketing Beyond its launch really didn't do much in the way of helping the series grow or
at the bare minimum stay afloat without any plans being fleshed out and acted upon the property was
unable to find this wider audience leading to the show coming to an end after two seasons
with 52 episodes which is par for the course for an average length show but it just felt like they
wanted to have more ambition with continuing it but never getting the chance to fully do
so while only starting off as a book series the show would also produce a web-based manga series
through TV Tokyo's affiliate website with junji Ono illustrating the seven volumes published the
monthly Fang another comic site would later adopt the manga over there adding in two new chapters
to boot but thanks to them going to paper print from online the manga was taken offline at the
time aside from that nothing else really came from Spider Riders despite the mmog from their website
the only other video games would be a series of three 2006 cell phone games in Japan releasing
for 105 Yen each so it's interesting that no full-fledged larger game or even something like
a Nintendo DS game were released cookie Jar's senior president of digital media at the time
Ken Locker wanted this to be an all-encompassing franchise immersed Spider Riders within both the
online gaming and Wireless World I wish this was implemented further when it came to things like
I mentioned earlier action figures honestly I feel that Spider Riders is a well-crafted
anime that deserved a bit more attention than it initially received at least for longevity's
sake the World building characters and storyline were all highlighted strengths for me that kept me
engaged and while sure it did have its flaws with the tonal Direction the voice acting was take and
some of the tropes were very predictable I still found it a fun and engaging show like I said sadly
it did come to an end it fell short of where it wanted to be as a franchise but also failed to
connect enough with audiences ongoing leading to less viewership and support heading into
the second season of the show on its own Spider Riders was pretty cool I do like the setting and
the ideas that we see in the series so I would love to know what you think about the show were
you a fan of Spider Riders how many times did I say spider in this video and let me know all your
thoughts in the comments section below thanks so much for watching like And subscribe later
thank you