Spider Riders

Spider Riders (スパイダーライダーズ ~オラクルの勇者たち~) is a series of science fiction novels first published in December 2004, published by Newmarket Press written by Tedd Anasti, Patsy Cameron Anasti and Stephen D. Sullivan (books 2–3). The series was adapted into an anime series, produced by Bee Train and Cookie Jar Entertainment. It was the first show from the latter company that was placed under the control of their then new action adventure brand Coliseum. Three novels for the series included Shards of the Oracle, Reign of the Soul Eater and Quest of the Earthen. The series was broadcast on Teletoon, This TV, and used to be broadcast on Kids' WB. Koichi Mashimo co directed the staff at Bee Train with Takaaki Ishiyama. Writer Yosuke Kuroda adapted the novels. Robert Pincombe and Shelly Hoffman wrote the English version.

Eleven year old Hunter Steel searches for the legendary inner world by following instructions in his grandfather's journal. He enters a pyramid where he finds a mysterious manacle that attaches to his arm. A spider startles Hunter, who falls into a hole to the center of the Earth and into the subterranean world of Arachna. There, he discovers a small group of elite warriors struggling to survive and to save Arachna from the attack of Invectids, a race of insectoids. The warriors are children/teenagers, each fighting with the help of their own 10 feet (3 m) battle spiders. They call themselves "Spider Riders". In the English TV series, the ages of the characters were reduced. There is a prophecy that says a surface dweller or Human, like Hunter, will bring disaster to the Inner World. Sparkle mentions it at the beginning of the TV series. When Princess Sparkle finds out she says, "I wonder if he will bring doom to us or to them."

The animated series debuted on March 25, 2006 on Teletoon in Canada. Kids WB! on The CW began airing it during the 2006 2007 season. The last Spider Riders episode was shown in Canada on April 29, 2007. The series was repeated on weekdays and Sunday from June to August 2007, and was not shown for the 2007 08 season. It is broadcast on Kix sky channel 627 from 12 June. From September 1, 2008, Teletoon is repeating the anime on weekdays. From November 2008 until September 2011, it was shown on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV.

The music depends on where Spider Riders was aired. In Japan, there were different opening songs for each season, along with two ending themes in season one and one ending theme in season 2. There is only one opening and ending theme in North America, and a Spanish version of the same theme for South America.

Opening Theme #1: "Alright" (eps. 1 26)
Opening Theme #2: "Brave Heart" by Saeko Chiba (eps. 27 52)
Ending Theme #1: "Twilight Time" by MCU (eps. 1 13)
Ending Theme #2: "Koi no Keshiki" by Tamaru Yamada (eps. 14 26)
Ending Theme #3: "Towards a Dream" by Takashi Kondo and Sanae Kobayashi (eps. 27 52)

Opening Theme: "Calling All Spider Riders" Theme song words and music by Grayson Matthews Audio (Elizabeth Taylor, David Borbara, Tom Westin, Jason Gleed); performed by Jason Gleed, Jason Dantes Balde "Clip", and Annelise Noronha.

Common Sense Media rated the show 3 out of 5 stars.

On May 31, 2006, the Spider Riders manga premiered at TV Tokyo's ani. tv website, illustrated by Junji Ohno of Studio 23. The seventh and final volume was published between 2006 11 29 and 2006 12 27. Previous volumes were removed on 2006 11 29. Starting on December 27, 2006, the manga was republished under the Monthly Fang Comic site, when two more chapters of the manga were later released. The web comic was first published in paper form on June 19, 2007, by the Monthly Fang Comic publisher LEED Publishing Co., Ltd.; the online chapters were removed soon after. Currently, the manga is not available. The web manga has an alternate beginning, where Hunter Steele enters a spider shaped monument and discovers the manacle floating above a spider web. Hunter wears the manacle when it flies to his hand and falls into Inner World through a gap between web strings. Inside the Inner World, Hunter discovers Shadow after peeking at the bathing Corona and after trying to rescue a cart of caged humans. Each chapter of the web manga ends with the Sparkling Sparkle section, following the adventures of Princess Sparkle and Hortala in a 4 square manga format. In the Boy's Fang manga version, certain scenes are re edited; for example, Corona is now naked instead of in underwear when Hunter first met her in chapter 1, an illustration is added at the beginning of each chapter, and Sparkling Sparkle segments have been removed.

Tribal Nova produced a tie in online game based on the show, available on the official site.

On July 29, 2006, the Anime X site published Spider Catcher and Oracle Daifugo, downloadable phone games based on the show for the FOMA enabled cell phones. A third game, Jumping Spider, was released on August 9, 2006. Each game cost 105 yen.