Ray (Scott Wolf of Party of Five and V note) and his two friends, Allie (Kari Wahlgren who also lends her voice to Phineas and Ferb) and Gabe (Phil LaMarr from Pulp Fiction, Young Justice, Futurama and so much more) are three friends who live a fairly average life. They go to school, they hang out, and they get bullied. Ray likes to spend a good bit of time daydreaming and drawing crazy creatures in his notebook. Pretty normal, that is, until a particularly rough bully session that causes one of the drawings in Ray's notebook to come to life and attack the bigger kids.
Ray, Allie and Gabe are quickly scooped up and taken into a strange dojo where they learn of a race of monsters that used to live on Earth until humans rose up against them and banished them to a parallel universe. Over the years, there have been people who spend their lives keeping the two universes apart and, if necessary, calling upon these monsters in order to fight against those that want to use the creatures for ill purposes.
As it turns out, Ray is a natural at Kaijudo, a martial art that involves summoning these creatures and controlling them in fights. While it takes some doing, Allie and Gabe are also inducted into the ancient fighting style. Of course, the trio has a lot to learn, but Ray starts rocking the boat when he doesn't pay attention to all of the rules. For one, the Duel Masters, the heads of the order, harp on the fact that the monsters are dangerous and should never be touched. Ray, on the other hand, seems to have no problem getting close to them and touching them. This, combined with the fact that he was able to summon an extremely powerful monster called Tatsurion the Unchained (David Sobolov) and actually sparked a friendship with the massive beast, leaves many of the other Kaijudo fighters wondering if there are changes on the wind.
Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters: Creatures Unleashed contains the first five episodes of the series. The first three, "The Natural" parts 1, 2 and 3, introduces Ray, Gabe and Allie to Kaijudo as well as the order's enemy, a group called the Choten led by a former Duel Master. By the end of these three episodes, Ray and Tatsurion, affectionately nicknamed Bob, have begun their friendship and can fight well together, while Allie and Gabe have got a handle on the skills they need to call creatures and fight with them.
The fourth episode has the kids on their first mission. They must track down a small fire creature that broke out of the parallel dimension. They are each given a water-based monster to help them in their task, and they will have to hunt all over the city in order to put a stop to the little guy. Along the way, the kids, and Gabe in particular, will learn that what could seem like a lame monster can in fact turn out to be a great asset when you learn what its special talents are.
The last episode on the DVD has the kids stumbling upon a Choten operation and rescuing a baby Legionnaire Lizard. The episode is all about them keeping the creature safe until they can get back to the dojo, while the Choten forces hunt down the missing creature. This particular episode teaches Ray that even he has a limited amount of mana he can use to summon creatures. This becomes obvious when he keeps calling Tatsurion to help him with menial chores, but when he really needs to fight, he can't summon anyone to help. In the end, it will be just him and the baby creature working together.
Besides a variant of a Kaijudo trading card, the only special feature on this DVD is a featurette called "A Look at Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters." In it, everyone from the show's creators to the voice actors and character designers are interviewed as they discuss how the show came together, what it's like working on the show, and what went into its visual style. It's an interesting bonus for those that seek out that kind of added information, but I would imagine most kids watching the DVD wouldn't give it a second look, or a first look, really.
Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters: Creatures Unleashed kicks off what promises to be a fun series. While the show is based on the card game, I am pleased by the fact that you don't really have to have a lot of knowledge of the CCG in order to understand or get into the animated series. Similar shows, like Yu-Gi-Oh!, are heavily dependent on the source material and they are either only interesting to those who are already familiar with the game, or aren't necessarily easy to follow if you don't also play the game.
