Spider Riders

Did You Know?

• The English opening theme is "Calling All Spider Riders", performed by Jason Gleed, Jason Dantes Balde "Clip", and Annelise Noronha.
• In the English TV series, the ages of the characters were reduced compared to the novels.

Plot

Eleven-year-old Hunter Steele follows his grandfather's journal to find a legendary inner world. Inside a pyramid he discovers a manacle that attaches to his arm; a spider startles him and he falls into a hole leading to the subterranean world of Arachna. There he meets a small group of elite warriors—children and teenagers—who fight with the help of their 10-foot battle spiders and call themselves Spider Riders. They struggle to survive and to save Arachna from the Invectids, a race of insectoids.

A prophecy states that a surface-dweller like Hunter will bring disaster to the Inner World; Princess Sparkle mentions it early in the TV series, wondering whether he will bring doom to them or to the Invectids. The Oracle Keys are fractions of the Oracle's power, split into cards that can be divided in two. The Invectids seek them for Mantid, who wants to rule Arachna. The Spirit Oracle Key passes its power to Hunter and Shadow, granting new armor, weapons, and abilities.

To activate a key the holder must shout "Oracle's Light!"; two keys combined create more powerful armor and weapons. The wielder must have a sincere desire to protect without arrogance, or the keys malfunction. Mantid used two Oracle Keys to power himself, plunging the Inner World into darkness and preventing Hunter from using his own keys. The first key is taken from the Oracle's shrine by Hunter and Shadow; the second is brought by a page from Nuuma; the third is kept in a sanctuary in Nuuma and is taken by Aqune for the Invectids but ends up with Hunter and Shadow during the final battle.

Broadcast history

The animated series was unveiled at L.A. Screenings in May 2005 as a 52-episode Canada-Japan co-production. The first three episodes debuted as a 90-minute special on March 25, 2006, on Teletoon in Canada, with regular broadcasts starting May 14 and the finale on April 29, 2007; reruns continued until August 26, 2012. It also aired in French on Télétoon. In the United States it launched on June 17, 2006, on Kids' WB; the first 11 episodes aired before removal, then returned after The CW rebrand on January 20, 2007, with episode 20 as its final broadcast on March 31, 2007.

From November 2008 to September 2011 it aired on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV. In the United Kingdom it began on Kix! on June 12, 2008. In Japan the first 26 episodes aired as Spider Riders: Heroes of the Oracle on TV Tokyo from April 5 to September 27, 2006; reruns on Kids Station began October 7, 2006, and the last 26 episodes aired as Spider Riders: The Resurrected Sun from April 14 to October 13, 2007.

Web manga

A web manga premiered on May 31, 2006, on TV Tokyo's ani.tv website, illustrated by Junji Ohno of Studio 23. The seventh and final chapter was published between November 29 and December 27, 2006; previous chapters were removed on November 29. The web comic was published as a tankōbon on June 19, 2007, by LEED Publishing Co., Ltd.; online chapters were removed soon after, and the manga is currently not available. The web manga has an alternate beginning: Hunter enters a spider-shaped monument, finds the manacle floating above a spider web, and falls into the Inner World through a gap between web strings.

Inside, he discovers Shadow after peeking at the bathing Corona and after trying to rescue a cart of caged humans. Each chapter ends with the Sparkling Sparkle section, a 4-square manga following Princess Sparkle and Hortala. In the Boy's Fang manga version, certain scenes are re-edited—Corona is naked instead of in underwear when Hunter first meets her, an illustration is added at each chapter's start, and Sparkling Sparkle segments are removed.

Merchandise

Mattel acquired the master toy license in June 2006 but ultimately released no products. Funimation announced home video rights in June 2006 and released a single English-only DVD with the first seven episodes in September 2007, distributed in Canada by Vivendi Visual Entertainment Canada. Vivendi later released volumes 2–5 (first thirty-five episodes) exclusively in Canada between January and December 2009, along with a concurrent French release.

In Japan, BMG released the first twenty-six episodes across 7 DVDs in a boxset on July 25, 2007, with rental discs distributed between that date and September 26; the last twenty-six episodes followed in a similar set on December 19, with rental release through February 20, 2008. TV Tokyo's Anime X service published two downloadable games for FOMA-enabled cell phones on July 29, 2006—Spider Catcher and Oracle Daifugo—and a third, Jumping Spider, on August 9, 2006, each costing 105 yen.

Tribal Nova and Frima Studio produced an online game, Spider Riders: Battle for Arachna, launched on the official website in May 2007.