News

Hasbro Has No Release Plans for Duel Masters Manga, Anime

R.E. Dalrymple, the Kaijudo Global Brand Director at Hasbro, told the retail news source ICv2 that his company has no future plans to release the Duel Masters manga and anime in the United States. Hasbro relaunched the Duel Masters trading card game (TCG) franchise in the country this past summer with the Kaijudo TCG.

To support the game, Hasbro Studios produced a new animated series called Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters in the United States. The series premiered on The Hub, the new television channel from Discovery Communications and Hasbro, in June.

Dalrymple explained that Hasbro will not license the Duel Masters anime again "in order to keep the consumer message focused on the new story of Kaijudo and reduce possible consumer confusion."

In Japan, Duel Masters has spawned nine television anime series since 1999: the first Duel Masters anime, Duel Masters Charge, Shinseiki Duel Masters Flash, Zero Duel Masters, Duel Masters Zero, Duel Masters Cross, Duel Masters Cross Shock, Duel Masters Victory, and most recently, Duel Masters Victory V (pictured right). The Cartoon Network ran the first anime series in the United States, but none of the later anime came to North America.

There have also been four long-running manga series in Shogakukan's Monthly CoroCoro Comic magazine: the first Duel Masters, Duel Masters FE, Duel Masters SX, and the ongoing Duel Masters Victory. There have also been various manga spinoffs in Monthly CoroCoro Comic and its sister magazines. None of the manga have been released in North America.

Dalrymple offered a further explanation of Hasbro's reasons for focusing on Kaijudo in lieu of the Japanese manga: "When we created Kaijudo, we felt it was very important to create an emotional connection between a new generation of kids and the mind-blowing creatures of Duel Masters and Kaijudo.  Our goal is for kids to discover their own personal favorite creatures from the TV show, or online, and then dive deep to collect and play their favorites in our great, fast TCG.  Given that change in story approach, we currently do not have plans to license the Duel Masters manga in the U.S."

Image © 2012 Wizards of the Coast, Shogakukan, Mitsui/Kids, Sho-Pro, TV Tokyo