jidougames (also known as jidouSPORTS) is an animated series from Hong Kong created by Jidou Studios. It premiered in 2004 and has been exported in several different countries, including in Asian (such as in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines), European countries (such as in Cyprus Greece and Spain) and in the US.
The characters began as mascots for the company jidou, who manufactures automated vending machines. To further promote the vending business, the company started to make various media, like short animations and comics, based on its characters. The characters were popular enough for the company to branch out into making more comics for the characters as well as making and selling figurines that were sold through their vending machines. They later created a new brand line called jidousports, where the characters compete in different sporting events. This was later expanded upon as a full animated series where it premiered in its native Hong Kong and later overseas.
The series follows the adventures of Jidou, his friend Jazz and their rivals Jude and Dr. Jeff, the participants of an Olympic-style competition called jidougames. During the titular event, the two teams would travel to 26 different locations around the world and competing in 26 sporting events. The winning team of an sporting event gets a Mystic Orb each time and whoever team collects the most Orbs overall becomes the Grand Slam Champions. Here's the catch: at the beginning of the games, Jidou and Jazz found a mysterious weird-looking golden cellphone that gives vaguely clues on how to win the final round. Can our duo unravel the mystery behind the golden phone during the games or can their rivals foil their chances of winning before that happens?
A sequel to jidougames called Jidougames: Secret of Atlantis is also being produced for Chinese audiences sometime after the original series had ended. There's no information on whether a foreign dub of this show exists.
The full English dub of the first series is currently viewable in their official YouTube channel
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This series provides examples of:
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode follows the alphabets and is named after the sporting event that took place as well as where it held at (usually a real life location). For example: A for Archery in Athens; B for Boxing in Bangkok; C for Cycling in Cairo and so on.
- Meaningful Name: In Japanese, "Jidou" means automation, and in Chinese, it means self-empowerment. Word of God stated that's why they named their company (and later the show and their mascot Jidou) to reflect these values.
Characters
Characters who have appeared on jidougames.- TBA
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Trivia
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: Episodes of the English dub were scarce until the series was rereleased in their official YouTube channel over the course of six years, from 2015 to 2020. Its original dub, the rest of the Greek dub and other possible foreign dubs remain missing however. The sequel's status is much worse as no episodes have appeared online (for its english-speaking video sharing sites at least).
For Future WIP Reference
- Full English Series
- You Know That Show...
- Work Pages Are a Free Launch
- How to Create a Work Page
- Jidou Games Wiki
- https://web.archive.org/web/20040805062327/http://www.jidousports.com/bio.html
- https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/82E3%83%8982E3%82E3%83%9D83E3%83%84
