Turning Mecard (터닝메카드) is a South Korean-Japanese animated series based on the Sonokang line of products of the same name. It was directed by Hong Heonpyo, with character designs from Yoo Bong-hyun and mecha designs from Ji Tae-ok and Kim Min-jun. The show was produced by Choirak Content Company, a division of Sonokang.
The writing team consisted of Atsushi Maekawa (head writer), Yasunori Yamada, Yasushi Hirano and Deko Akao. Animation was outsourced to Heewon Entertainment, Paprika Entertainment, Production Reve and SynergySP.
Na Chan is a young boy with an affinity for vehicles. His world changes when all of a sudden, mysterious mechanical beasts sealed in cards materialize out of nowhere, becoming a fad against the populace. A game quickly develops around the globe called Turning Mecard that has kids collect cards and pit monsters against one another.
Chan hopes to polish his skills and become the world champion of the sport. Around the same time, a beautiful transfer student named Isobel also happens to join Chan's school - and it looks like she might have a link to the beasts and the strange happenings around them...
The first season originally aired from February 3, 2015 to February 5, 2016, ending at a total of 52 episodes, with a second season airing from May 19, 2016 to November 19, 2017 and a remastered version airing from February 6, 2024 to October 1, 2024.
It has an official website
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- Turning Mecard W (터닝메카드 W)
- Dino Mecard (공룡메카드)
Tropes
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The English theme song is different from the Korean one.
- Animal Mecha: The aptly named "Mechanimals" are vehicles that assume the form of Earth animals when dormant and can be tamed by human masters. They're actually beings from another dimension that were made to stop a war, and Isobel has arrived to collect them all and take them back.
- Birthday Episode: Bandain's birthday is the focus of one episode, with Dave and Dana setting up a surprise celebration for him.
- Green Aesop: In Season 2, the primarily conflict occurs from the mass of pollution caused by excessive Turning Mecard battling.
- Gratuitous English: While the animation is from Korea, some English terminology are used such as "cars" for vehicles.
- Medium Blending: The show is animated primarily in 2D format, but the cars and their mecha are animated using CGI.
- Merchandise-Driven: The show was made to promote Sonokang's line of toys and constantly advertises them as collectibles.
- Mons Series: The series focuses around kids who battle with playing cards (Mecards) that are able to combine with vehicles (Turning Cars) against one another.
- Soft Reboot: Turning Mecard R takes place in the same continuity and references prior events that happened, but has a new setting and cast of characters. For example, Na Chan's mother in the reboot is a writer who wears glasses, though herself in the original Turning Mecard series does not have detailed lores and wear glasses.
- Time Skip: Season Two is set three decades after the ending of the first.
- Transforming Mecha: The Mechanimals can transform between animal and vehicle modes.
- Voiceover Translation: When the series was aired in Lithuania, a voice-over narration was used as opposed to a proper dub.
- World of Technicolor Hair: Many characters have deep pink, dark green, navy blue, light purple and icy blue hair, which everyone treats as normal.
