3 days Ago By Misael Duran
Warner Bros.Some kids’ animations crawled under the radar during a specific era to become almost entirely forgotten. So few people actually remember watching it that it is difficult to imagine that anyone did.
Spider Riders lived in that magical time in the Kids WB timeframe where cartoons were trying to cash in on the Pokemon craze and get that sweet collectible monster money. It came in relatively late to the Pokemon mania, and was one of the last few shows to air when Kids WB was still on television, also airing in Canada on Teletoon (now rebranded as Cartoon Network). The series aired from 2006 to 2007, a year before the block discontinued and became CW4Kids and Toonzai, which was never the same afterwards.
Spider Riders couldn’t take advantage of the peak era of Kids WB like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Cardcaptors were able to enjoy. It came in too late to become an animated classic and was also slow in taking advantage of the monster collecting phenomenon sweeping the States. The unorthodox animals the show chooses to center its premise on were also divisive, given how terrified people are of arachnids.
Nonetheless, Spider Riders is a nice throwback to the period of animation that companies no longer do, and the series can be viewed in its entirety, for free, on Tubi.[RELATED – ’90s Kids Will Never Forget This Fox Kids Dinosaur Transformers Anime by the Gundam Studio]Cookie Jar Entertainment/Bee TrainSpider Riders Was An Early Western Anime CollaborationThe Beginning After the End is a 2025 anime that became notorious for its perceived mishandling of a webcomic written by a non-Japanese author. While Japanese studios are constantly adapting classic Western literature into anime, The Beginning After the End felt as if it was breaking new ground by adapting a more recent work by an American author.
However, Spider Riders was a much earlier example of a Japanese studio adapting a modern American work. Spider Riders was based on a trilogy of American books by Tedd Anasti, Patsy Cameron-Anasti, and Stephen D. Sullivan.
The books and cartoons were fantastical adventure series that took place in a subterranean world called Arachna. A group of elite warriors fought off the opposing race of insectoids while riding on top of giant spiders. Protagonist Hunter Steel came from the surface world and may fulfill a prophecy that could endanger Arachna.
The series was a co-production between Canadian studio Cookie Jar Entertainment and the Japanese studio Bee Train (known, among other things, for Medabots), making it a rare 2000s Western and Japanese co-production.Cookie Jar Entertainment/Bee TrainWhatever Happened with Spider Riders?Right away, the clearest hurdle for Spider Riders finding any success remotely on the same level as Pokemon stems from its mere premise. Spiders are inherently one of the most feared creatures in the world.
Arachnophobia is one of the most common phobias, especially among children. While the titular giant arachnids in Spider Riders are purposely exaggerated and colorfully armored, appearing more like over-the-top crustaceans than spiders, they still retain their eight legs and giant torsos that sell the idea that they are arachnids. Spider-Man may be one of the most beloved superheroes in the world, but the idea of collecting a set of oversized tarantulas seems comparatively unappealing.
Even though Mattel, the same company behind Barbie and Hot Wheels, officially announced it gained the rights to Spider Riders merchandising, I couldn’t find images of any existing toys. Despite the lack of merchandise, the show received a full two-season run with a total of 52 episodes, which is more than what many other shows had at the time. The series has charm, and the spiders were a unique spin on the classic monster-hunting trope.
There’s something about 2000s animation that isn’t done anymore in modern television, with the series’s entire aesthetics making it dated in an enduring way, and the spiders actually do look cool. Spider Riders is a show I’m almost confident hardly anyone watched, yet it deserves more recognition. Maybe if enough people rediscover the series again, we may finally get those toys from Mattel.
H/T: ICv2The post This Kids WB Spider Mecha Anime Can Be Streamed for Free (And You’ve Never Seen It) appeared first on ComicBook.com..
