When you find yourself trying to remember a show (or any works) that's on the tip of your tongue but just out of reach, come here - the collective brain of the TVTropes community can probably help. Post all the details you can remember (examples help). If you're looking for a trope, head over to Trope Finder. Have general questions about tropes? Visit Ask The Tropers!
Andariel
(Long Runner)
2021-08-09 12:31:56
I haven't seen either of these shows, but judging by the description both Huntik: Secrets & Seekers and Monsuno involve Mons and a main character with a missing father
jormis29
Since: Mar, 2012

Show KINDA like magi-nation, chaotic, and Spiderriders but not any of them, as far as I can tell. The main character is a black-haired teenager who finds some type of invention of his dead/missing father's. I think this invention has something to do with finding and obtaining purple crystals but I'm not sure.
Anyway, the invention creates purple portals to a scary, fictional world where the main character can either link with some of the creatures there or they are also after the crystals—I can't quite remember. The first creature he links with or wants the crystals is, I think, a spider, but he never rides the spider.
The main villain, I think, was someone who used to work with the main character's dad who wants the invention/the power of the crystals.
I have looked through archives of a bunch of cartoon networks that ran cartoons like this from 2000-2010. I'm hoping this is a yu-gi-oh/pokemon clone I am remembering that somehow was so much less popular than all of the other clones that it faded into complete obscurity. Because I remember this so vividly and I remember thinking it was better than the other shows like it. I just hope I'm not combining memories somehow into a show that never existed.
The main character looked kinda like the main character from Chaotic, but there was no videogame involved and the artstyle was different. He touches crystals (maybe) and can possiblt bind with animals like in Magi-nation and Spiderriders, but he never keeps one familiar or forms a strong bond, I don't think.