One of the wildest, most offbeat reinventions of the Avengers in recent years has been the anime series Marvel Disk Wars, from Toei Animation, the Japanese animation studio behind the massively popular Dragon Ball franchise. Running for 51 episodes from 2014 to 2015, the animated series presented Earth's Mightiest Heroes as figures that can only be summoned digitally for a limited time.
With everyone from Blade to Doctor Strange showing up in the anime series, CBR is taking a closer look at the show, which classic characters appeared and where the animated series was broadcast during its original run.
What is Marvel Disk Wars?
Serving as a tie-in anime series to help promote a new line of merchandise and a video game manufactured by Bandai, Marvel Disk Wars sees Tony Stark developing a new device in Japan with the help of local scientist Dr. Nozomu Akatsuki. The Digital Identity Securement Kit (DISK) is used to digitally trap villains within the device. However, while the Avengers are presenting the device to the supervillain prison the Raft, a breakout ensues, with Loki obtaining his own version of the DISKs.
After Loki traps the Avengers within the DISKs, Akatsuki's children Akira and Hikaru team up with children Jessica, Chris, and Edward to free the heroes in their mission to recapture the fugitive villains. However, the DISK technology only allows the heroes to freed for five and a half minutes at a time through use of digital biocodes that link the children to a respective superhero as part of their ongoing adventures, with additional Marvel heroes and villains introduced over the course of the anime.
The Heroes and Villains of Disk Wars
The initial lineup of the Avengers captured by Loki through DISKs included Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and the Wasp. Interestingly, Spider-Man is the only hero present at the beginning of the series who evades Loki's DISKs, after serving as a lab assistant to Tony Stark and Dr. Akatsuki on the DISK project who returns to assist the children against Loki for the fate of New York City. More superheroes would appear over the course of the anime series including the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Blade, War Machine and the X-Men. Human hero allies like Pepper Potts, Nick Fury, Phil Coulson and Maria Hill also appeared to help the kids out.
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Among the villains broken out by Loki included Abomination, Green Goblin, Tiger Shark, the Wrecking Crew, Crimson Dynamo, Baron Zemo, M.O.D.O.K. and the Absorbing Man. Additional villains would be recruited by Loki over the course of the anime, including Juggernaut, Lizard, Sabretooth and the Sentinels to combat the heroes. Following Loki's defeat, the Red Skull replaced the God of Mischief as the new primary antagonist for the remainder of the series, gaining control over the DISK technology through his use of the Dimension Sphere.
Where You Can Find Disk Wars
Marvel Disk Wars originally premiered on April 2, 2014 on Japan's TV Tokyo, directed by Toshiaki Komura, with veteran Dragon Ball character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro redesigning the iconic Marvel superheroes and villains. The anime ran in Japan for 51 episodes, ending its original televised run on March 25, 2015.
After the original broadcast run on TV Tokyo, Walt Disney Japan produced an English dub of the series, broadcast throughout Southeast Asia on Disney XD, which is a premium cable network throughout the region including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, premiering on July 16, 2015. Disney Channel Asia would also broadcast the anime series to the Philippines and Taiwan simultaneously. To date, Marvel Disk Wars has never received an official North American release despite the existence of an English dub of the entire series.