Kirby: Right Back at Ya!

Kirby: Right Back at Ya! He's more than you think, he's got maximum pink! Genre: Fantasy Action Adventure Comedy Country: Japan Release Date: JP: October 6, 2001 – September 27, 2003 NA: September 14, 2002 – December 9, 2006 Network(s): CBC TBS Kids Station Tokyo MX Teletoon Pop Fox 4Kids Created by: Masahiro Sakurai Distributed by: 4Kids Entertainment Starring: Makiko Ohmoto Sayuri Yoshida Rika Komatsu Kenichi Ogata Naoki Tatsuta Episodes: 100

Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, known in Japan as Hoshi no Kābī (星のカービィ, Kirby of the Stars) is an anime series based on the Kirby franchise. The series was produced by Warpstar Inc., a company formed between a joint investment between Nintendo and HAL Laboratory, Inc.

Plot

The series is about the adventures of Kirby and his friends after his Starship crash-lands on Planet Popstar, in the country of Dream Land. In this series, Kirby is a legendary Star Warrior destined to save Dream Land from destruction by eNeMeE. King Dedede, the ruler of Dream Land, wants to drive Kirby away, and orders up fearsome monsters from eNeMeE's company, Nightmare Enterprises. The monsters usually end up attacking Kirby and the people of Dream Land, but Kirby and friends always save the day.

Kirby: Right Back at Ya! uses the characters and concepts from the preceding game series as a basis rather than copying the games' events and lore word-for-word. It is best viewed as an alternate universe, having no direct connection to timeline of the events in the games. Being self-contained, it is easier for those unfamiliar with the game series to understand it.

The series is rifled with satire and parody, some of it self-referential in nature. Homages to old movies are common, as are references to modern popular culture, politics and news events.

Why It's The Star Of The Show

1. Despite the obvious censorship to make it more kid-friendly during the transition from east to west, it actually ended up being one of the best and most successful 4Kids dubs (far better than the 4Kids dub of One Piece to say the very least), with all 100 episodes being dubbed.
2. Awesome voice acting from both the 4Kids Dub and the original Japanese dub; Ted Lewis as King Dedede and Escargoon's voices in the 4Kids dub are hilariously over the top, fitting their characters in this regard, as well as Dan Green doing an amazing performance as the NME Sales Guy.
3. Many likable characters (good or bad) like Kirby, Tiff, Tuff, Meta Knight, Chef Kawasaki, and King Dedede; They are also surprisingly three dimensional as well (or at least way more than just one-dimensional).
4. The show has lots of humorous moments, but isn’t lacking in emotional and/or heartwarming moments.
   • The song, "Dedede: Comin' at Ya!" is an extremely funny take on the show's theme song, which became an internet meme.
   • Another funny moment comes from the episode The Hot Shot Chef, where King Dedede and Escargoon are forced to eat Kawasaki's Toxic Atomic Curry for their actions, resulting in them catching on fire in the highest level of spiciness, and are cartoonishly reduced to piles of ash.
5. The entire soundtrack, regardless of which version, is really good.
   • As catchy as the original Japanese theme song is, the 1930s-style theme song for its 4Kids dub is even catchier, which really fits its comedic tone.
6. Not only does most of Kirby's well-known Copy Abilities return (including Fire Kirby, Stone Kirby, and Sword Kirby), but new ones are also introduced in the show, such as Water Kirby.
7. Some of the moments, and even episodes, can be surprisingly dark and mature, without resorting to changing to a grimdark tone like in Berserk.
8. There were a lot of many good and memorable episodes:
   • The first episode, "Kirby Comes to Cappy Town/Deta! Pinku no Hōmonsha" is a pretty good way to start off the series and introduce ourselves to the new cast.
   • The last episode called, "Fright to the Finish" was a great way to wrap up the series, anti-climactic defeat of the ultimate villain aside.
   • Cartoon Buffoon is a great episode that shows audiences how the animation industry works. Speaking of which, there is a Reanimated Collab remake of said episode available on Newgrounds! (and it also spawned a sequel episode called "Tooned Out")
   • Other memorable episodes include:
     • "The Big Taste Test" (Episode 11)
     • "Dedede's Snow Job" (Episode 20/18)
     • "A Princess in Dis-Dress" (Episode 21/19)
     • "Hour of the WolfWrath" (Episode 26/24)
     • "The Hot Shot Chef / A Spice Odyssey" (Episode 29/27)
     • "Abusement Park" (Episode 30/31)
     • "The Kirby Derby" (Episodes 35 & 36/31 & 32)
     • "Monster Management" (Episode 40/37)
     • "Prediction Predicament" (Episodes 41 & 42/38 & 39)
     • "Sheepwrecked" (Episode 43/40)
     • "Fitness Fiend" (Episode 61)
9. It is one of the best video-game-to-TV-show adaptations of all time; It doesn’t hurt that it was made as an anime from Japan and the creator of the Kirby game series, Masahiro Sakurai, alongside Nintendo and HAL Laboratory themselves (as a joint investment between the two known as Warpstar Inc.), gave a helping hand in the anime’s development.
10. The anime has inspired things to later be included in some games such as the aforementioned Water Kirby being implemented in Kirby's Return to Dream Land and had even included cameos of characters who were from the anime.

Bad Qualities

1. Tokkori is the only remotely unlikable character, who is always a complete and utter jerk to Kirby and the others all the time.
   • Even Tiff and Tuff can be unlikable at times, with Tiff whose always got a stick up her butt, and Tuff can be a major brat at times.
   • In some episodes King Dedede acts as a Karma Houdini without gets any consequences for his actions.
     • In "Flower Power" for example, he manages to trick Kirby causing him to fall asleep for 100 Years and is never seen again for the rest of episode (except in a flashback) and gets off scot-free.
2. The pacing isn't very good in some episodes like Hail to the Chief and Kirby's Pet Peeve.
3. In some episodes, Kirby doesn't get as much screen time as the other characters, and usually shows up at the climax.
4. The animation is a mixed bag. While the 2D characters looks good for early 2000's standards, the CGI models either look passable or poor in quality, especially with Dyna Blade's model.
5. The setting is boring compared to the games. Since the majority of the show has a more "monster-of-the-week" formula, instead of journeying through different wondrous landscapes, every episode takes place in Dream Land and Cappy Town, and the anime's version of Dream Land isn't half as colorful than in the games.
6. The show as a whole has a bit of an identity crisis. It never seems to decide whether or not it wants to be a lighthearted sitcom with monster of the week anime elements, or it wants to be an action-adventure series with character-development and world-building. It often feels like two different shows hastily stitched together. It’s tones and stories are often at odds with each other.
   • Tonal differences between certain episodes led to Dedede being the most inconsistently written character in the entire show. While there are various different portrayals of him that wildly differ on how incompetent/malicious/sympathetic he is, the two most common types of portrayals of him can’t work at the same time:
     • 1: There’s a King Dedede who is a manchild and oblivious to the weight of his actions, which is why he causes trouble. He gives into his childish impulses and that’s what causes for conflicts to arise. He doesn’t realize he’s a bad person. This Dedede can be seen in "Prediction Predicament" and "D'Preciation Day". This King Dedede, despite all his problems, is capable of being sympathetic character, feeling remorse and doing good deeds. This King Dedede is actually an interesting character. The thing is, this King Dedede shows up in less than 10% of the episodes of the entire show. This characterization pops up primarily in more serious, “important” episodes, which are extremely uncommon. Then there’s
     • 2: Dedede who is COMPLETELY aware of how awful he is and even calls himself a dictator. He relishes in his bad actions and what’s he is doing. He’s a completely one-dimensional antagonist who’s main quirk is that he’s very petty and pathetic. This version of Dedede is much more frequent in this show. You may say, that these are just different sides of the same character, but that can't be true. This is just blatant case of incohesive writing. Same character can’t be oblivious and self-aware at the same time at their moral alignment.
     • And there’s where the main problem with anime Dedede lies. You can’t truly be invested in him, because, in the end, nothing matters with him. He can be entirely different person depending on different episode. He can go from wanting to mildly bully Kirby to straight up wanting to kill him to being depressed over the thought that HE MIGHT’VE killed him and none of that fits together in the slightest. In some episodes it feels like he genuinely cares about Escargoon, in other episodes he verbally and physically abuses him. The anime's version of Dedede had the potential to have his own growth (as the true overarching antagonist is Nightmare), much like he did in the games, but unfortunately, that potential was squandered.
7. It’s overall influence on how people perceive characters in the games was terrible. This show is the only reason why people still think Dedede wants to "clobbah dat dere, Kirbeh," despite all the development he went through in the games. This show is the only reason why unaware people ridicule the idea of Kirby speaking in normal sentences and having intelligence not of an infant but of a preteen. Adaptations can and should take creative liberties, absolutely, they don’t need and don’t have to be 1:1 to the source material, they must stand out on their own merits. But if the goal of an adaptation is to advertise a product and get people invested in it, then changing so many elements about it to the point where it barely resembles it is counterproductive.
8. While the 4Kids dub is great, some may be frustrated by some uncommon instances of censorship. Speaking of censorship, one of the most hilarious scenes was left out of the 4Kids version due to it obviously not being suitable for young children because of the involvement of guns.
9. In the 4Kids dub, all music that references tracks from the games are removed.
10. The only truly bad episode that exists is "Shell-Shocked".

Videos

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