Zoobles is a Japanese/Korean Anime adaptation of the toyline of the same name produced by Dong Woo Animation in Korea with Japanese producer Mitsuko Oya in charge of the anime's production and both Kazuya Hayashi and Nam Jong-Sik in charge of the character designs. The series began airing on Korean broadcasting station SBS in May 18, 2011, with an official Japanese dub version airing in Japan in TV Tokyo beginning on February 5, 2012.
The series itself is set in the sweet and sugary world of Candy Land, where all Zoobles live. The story revolves around the three main Zoobles: Chevy, a Cat Zooble with an Orange Flavor, Coron, a Rabbit Zooble with a Strawberry Milk Flavor and Panky, a Panda Zooble with a Blueberry Yogurt Flavor. The three of them live in Candy Town, living and playing together with their friends and getting in serious misadventures as they learn to solve each problem they face. With each problem they face, the three ask for Kumanpa's advice for their solutions on them and their friends' problems, but with mixed results.
Not to be confused with Zoobilee Zoo. No, seriously.
Tropes used in this series:
- Ageless Birthday Episode: "What Day is it Today?" for Maron, "Lou and the Balloons" for Lou, and "Chevy's Birthday" for, you guessed it, Chevy. None of them have any mention of a specific age, but one can assume that Lou turned one year old.
- Beach Episode:
- "Flower of Love Blooms", where Chevy and co. visit the shore of the Rainbow Sea to meet Chip and Tap, where the former reveals to have a crush on Mikey.
- "Mel, Rin, and the Rainbow Sea" is where Chevy and her friends meet Mel and Rin and venture to their underwater home.
- "Combi-Dissolution? Chip and Tap" is another episode where Chevy and her friends visit the duo at the beach, but this time it involves a quarrel between the two.
- Be the Ball: The Zoobles can curl up into their ball forms for traveling long distances, expressing their emotions or anything in between.
- Big Ball of Violence: Most of them involve Chevy.
- Chevy gets into one with Blacky in "Is Coope a Lucky Girl" while both of them and Coope were lost in a cave.
- Most of the Zoobles invited to the tea party in "Arl's Tea Party" get into one when fighting over the treats.
- When Tinny and Chevy fight in “A Flea Market for Everyone”.
- In “Beware of Love Fortune Telling”, Chevy and Mikey get into one after Chevy tries taking something from Mikey’s bento box.
- At the end of “The Black Candies’ Revenge” when Chevy gets into a fight with the Black Candies.
- When Chevy and Panky fight over pouring the equal amount of strawberry milk in two glasses in “Crew and Kumanpa”.
- Forced Transformation: Chevy, Coron, and Panky are accidentally turned into frogs by Saku in "The Young Apprentice Wizard Girl".
- Fun Size: The Zoobles themselves.
- Gratuitous English:
- Often does Chevy say “Let’s go!”
- "Dancing Zoobles" has several instances.
- Rather than the Japanese word "odori" when mentioning a dance, the Zoobles use the katakanized word "dansu".
- The Black Candies and Chevy exclaim "Let's dance!"
- In “Operation: Blind Date”, Em says “thank you” in English.
- Merchandise-Driven: The Animated series is driven by the toys more than anything else, similar to another Sega/Spin Master toy franchise.
- Ocular Gushers: The Zoobles have these whenever they're crying.
- One-Word Title: Named for the creatures that inhabit its setting.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode "Mirror oh Mirror" is a spoof on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Maron talking in the mirror as if it were a magic mirror and faking death by pretending the Apple she ate was poisonous and playing dead. She ends up tricking the trio and other Zoobles as they use different methods to "wake her up" until they decide to throw her at a tree, much to her dismay.
- Sphere Factor: The Zoobles travel around in their ball forms.
- Sugar Bowl: In this case where it's a literal land of sugar.
- Team Mom / Team Dad: Em, well obviously being Lou's big brother and babysitter at the same time.
- Theme Naming: Only in the East Asian version of the franchise. Each of the Zoobles are based on candies and sweets as opposed to the Western version of the franchise.
