Tenkai Knights (season)

The first season of the Canadian-Japanese anime series Tenkai Knights was originally broadcasted in Canada and United States on Teletoon and Cartoon Network, while in Japan on TV Tokyo.

Story
Saving the world is serious business and should never be taken lightly. It is only for the brave of heart. Guren, Ceylan, Chooki, and Toxsa were not planning on being heroes when they accidentally stumbled into an inter-dimensional portal. Ripped through space and time, they reemerged on another world as Bravenwolf, Tributon, Lydendor, and Valorn… the legendary Tenkai Knights!

Development
In May 2013, an anime subcontracting studio, Studio Wanpack, listed the at that time unannounced anime known as Tenkai Knights as a current project without revealing background information. The involvement of Studio Wanpack led to speculations that Studio Bones, which never had animated a children's anime before, was also involved. Almost one month later, it was announced that Spin Master, who previously worked on the Bakugan franchise and after that failed with the French-Canadian co-production Redakai, commissioned the anime together with Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, which is involved in several notable anime, like Duel Masters. On the same occasion, the American broadcast in Fall on Cartoon Network was announced. Also, first details of the plot were revealed. In late July 2013, Voice Actor Todd Haberkorn tweeted that Tenkai Knights will start its run on August 24, 2013. On August 10, a trailer was uploaded on the YouTube Channel of Tenkai Knights and zap2it listed the first episode at 7:30 AM. Five weeks after the US-American premiere, licensemag.com revealed that Tenkai Knights will start its run in Japan in early 2014. At the same time Tenkai Knights premiered in Canada. In early December 2013. there was an article in which the Japanese broadcast was said to be in April 2014. On February 20, 2014, TV Tokyo announced that Tenkai Knights will start airing in Japan on April 05, 2014 at 9 AM (JST) taking over the timeslot of Shogakukan's Oha Coliseum and Robocar Poli. On the occasion of the end of BeyWarriors: BeyRaiderz, Tenkai Knights moved to an earlier timeslot on Cartoon Network, from this time airing at 7 AM. As Season 1 was drawing to an end, fans waited for the announcement of a second season. But as of then, no new season had been announced. Therefore, it became more and more unlikely that there will be a second season. In May 2014, fans learned that new episodes of Tenkai Knights, starting with Episode 39, won't air in the US throughout June. This was interpreted as a sign that a new season is in production but can't be broadcasted before October. However, Canada didn't take a break at the moment and continued to broadcast Episode 39 on June 01, 2014. On June 25, 2014 it became known that new episodes of Tenkai Knights on Cartoon Network are delayed throughout July. Fans feared that Tenkai Knights probably even will be cancelled as several further anime by Cartoon Network. Another theory was that a new season is in production and TV Tokyo in Japan wants to broadcast it first, but of course not before April 2015, so the English Dub may have to take a break. Since there were still re-runs on Cartoon Network, this theory was not considered to be absurd. On July 01, 2014 finally a second season was inofficially announced on Facebook. The Official Facebook account of Tenkai Knights stated that Season 1 won't end before November, which confirmed former rumors. On September 06, 2014, Tenkai Knights finally returned to Cartoon Network assuming the 6:30 AM slot. In several countries Tenkai Knights also took a break, but already after Episode 26. It is currently unknown when Tenkai Knights returns to the other countries. It was thought that Season 2 airs in Japan first after Season 1 ended. However TV Tokyo dissolved its weekdays anime slot and thus Calimero and GON took Tenkai Knights slot. It is now expected that Season 2 starts in Fall 2015 and moves from Cartoon Network to Boomerang. But nothing is confirmed yet and a cancellation of Season 2 could happen as well.

Trivia

 * The credits at the end of every episode said that Tenkai Knights is named Tenkai Knights 1 Project in business relations. This suggested that later seasons were already planned and will also be produced if the first season is successful.
 * On January 21, 2014, the Official Twitter Account for Tenkai Knights responded to a fan question, that while this season goes up to 52 for the whole series they aim for 1,000 episodes. This was interpreted as an early sign for at least a second season, which wasn't impossible due to the good ratings Tenkai Knights had, constantly beating shows that showed up to an hour later than it, even with re-runs.
 * On July 01, 2014, the Official Facebook Account of Tenkai Knights stated that Cartoon Network is very satisfied with Tenkai Knights and also unofficially announced a second season.
 * The Chinese title, 展開騎士 (Tenkai Kishi), which can be noticed under the English title at the end of the English opening theme of the show, in English, can translate into "Knights expansion" or "Expand the Knight".
 * Although Tenkai Knights was announced as 52 episodes, it technically just has 51, since "Looking Forward, Looking Back " exists only in the dub and consists entirely of re-used and re-dubbed material. This episode was even not released on DVD in Japan, unlike all other unaired anime episodes. This makes it totally unlikely that Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions ever intended to produce 52 episodes and that Spin Master later inserted the episode to meet the number of announced episodes.

English Cast

 * Brian Beacock – Mr. White, Mr. Black
 * Steven J. Blum – Mr. Nash, Boreas, Granox
 * Johnny Yong Bosch – Guren Nash / Bravenwolf
 * Ben Diskin – Toxsa Dalton / Valorn, Notus, Mr. Dalton, Orangor
 * Crispin Freeman – Vilius, Mr. Yuzo / Slyger, Tenkai Knight's A.I. System
 * Todd Haberkorn – Ceylan Jones / Tributon
 * Kyle Hebert – Beag, Eurus
 * Colleen O'Shaughnessey – Ms. Fenwick
 * Bryce Papenbrook – Chooki Mason / Lydendor
 * Kate Higgins – Wakamei Dalton, Mrs. Jones
 * Mary Elizabeth McGlynn – Mrs. Dalton
 * Yuri Lowenthal – Gen / Dromus
 * Nika Futterman – Beni / Venetta
 * Matthew Mercer – Zephyrus
 * Laura Bailey – Kiiro
 * Michael Sorich – Scorpidon

Crew

 * Mary Elizabeth McGlynn – Voice Director
 * Jamie Simone – Voice Director, Producer

Links

 * http://www.ltwmag.com/news/latest_news/new_tenkai_knights_to_air_on_cartoon_network.aspx
 * http://www.licensemag.com/license-global/spin-masters-tenkai-takeover
 * http://tbivision.com/features/2013/12/asias-super-heroes/194471/