Jade Armor
Jade Armor | |
---|---|
Genre | Superhero Magical girl |
Developed by | Mary Bredin |
Written by | M.J. Offen (head writer) |
Composers |
|
Country of origin | France |
Original languages | French English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 26 |
Production | |
Producer | Corinne Kouper |
Running time | 21 minutes |
Production company | TeamTO |
Original release | |
Release | 7 September 2022 present | –
Jade Armor is a French animated television series produced by TeamTO that premiered on 7 September 2022. It follows Lan Jun, a teenage girl who fights supervillains as the legendary superhero Jade Armor.
The series was renewed for second season.[1]
Premise
[edit]Lan Jun, a teenager, inherits the mantle of the mystical superhero Jade Armor. She must battle an array of supervillains, including the Crimson Lord, while dealing with the challenges of teenage life. She is aided by four Beasticons, magical animals of legend.
Characters
[edit]Main characters
[edit]- Lan Jun Ya (voiced by Elle Hallock)[2] is the main character of the series. She lives with her father, grandmother, and great-grandmother and has recently become the new Jade Armor.
- Alisha (voiced by Justine Putmon)[2] is one of Lan Jun's best friends.[3]
- Theo Khan, Alisha's brother and another of Lan Jun's best friends.[3]
- The Crimson Lord is the primary antagonist.[4]
Development
[edit]The show is inspired by Chinese mythology.[5] It was created by Chloe Miller and executive producer Corinne Kouper based on a concept by M. Pongo Kuo. It was co-developed by Mary Bredin, with M.J. Offen as head writer and Ghislaine Pujol as story editor.[6] French animation studio TeamTO began developing the series in 2011, with the pitch bible and scripts being rewritten several times during development.[7]
The original concept for the show was an action series with a male protagonist.[7] After Chloe Miller joined the show,[7] Lan Jun, who was originally created as the male protagonist's best friend, became the main character. When creating Lan Jun, the showrunners wanted her to be an "ordinary girl" who was both feminine and strong, without relying on either gender stereotypes or a "tomboy" archetype.[8] Miller and Kouper also sought to add more comedic elements to the story, and focus more on family and heritage.[7]
The series's inspirations include kung fu movies, magical girl anime, and superhero comics.[7] The series is set in a fictional city inspired by Taiwan and a Chinese cultural consultant was hired to advise the showrunners on the representation of cultural elements like kung fu.[9] Offen commented that the creative team had "gone deep" on the characterization of side characters and villains.[10] The show is intended for viewers in the 3- to 12-year old age demographic.[11]
The art style of Jade Armor was intended to have a "graphic and minimalist look". It is animated using 2D computer graphics, with sharp-edged linework designed by the series's artistic director Pierre Croco.[7]
The series was co-directed by Denis Do, a Wushu martial arts practitioner.[9] To help the storyboard artists visualize the show's action and fight scenes, the showrunners hired a stunt coordinator to film the action scenes on camera.[8] Some stunts were performed by French Kung Fu martial artists.[9] Miller said that the storyboard artists had to use their imagination to translate the stuntmen's work into the show's magical, "bigger than life" action sequences. The series's choreography was inspired by films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.[8]
The show's producers had difficulty finding Asian voice actors, and voice actors who could dub the French series into other languages. As a result of the difficulty in finding voice actors with dubbing skills, TeamTO's École Cartoucherie Animation Solidaire partnered with Frog Box and Titrafilm to create a dubbing course.[12]
TeamTO released a pitch bible and trailer at Kidscreen Summit in 2016.[13]
The series's second season began development in June 2023.[4]
Episodes
[edit]Series | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 26 | 7 September 2022 | 30 November 2022 |
Season 1 (2022)
[edit]No. | Title | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "The Gift" | 7 September 2022 | |
Lan Jun learns she's the new Jade Armor. There's a Shard in the town's clock tower that's forcing her to relive her birthday over and over again. | |||
2 | "The Mess" | 7 September 2022 | |
Lan Jun suffers bad luck when she breaks a mirror that has a Shard embedded in it. Even worse, the Crimson Lord is back. | |||
3 | "The Talk" | 14 September 2022 | |
Lan Jun's father, Liam, wants to reconnect with her. Meanwhile, the Crimson Lord uses a Shard to steal everyone's voices. | |||
4 | "Eye of the Tiger" | 14 September 2022 | |
The town's Golden Dragon statue goes missing and Jade Armor is blamed for it. | |||
5 | "Rogue Beasticon" | 21 September 2022 | |
The beasticon Xinyan returns to Ban Tang to take revenge on the humans who hurt him and his fellow animals. | |||
6 | "Gravity" | 21 September 2022 | |
A Mahjong game gone wrong causes the town's gravity to go all topsy-turvy. | |||
7 | "Puppets" | 28 September 2022 | |
The Crimson Lord uses a Shard to turn everyone in Ban Tang into his mindless puppets. | |||
8 | "Tiger Trouble" | 28 September 2022 | |
While Jade tries to save the townspeople from an amnesia-inducing fountain, Black Tiger kidnaps Baihu. | |||
9 | "Lips Are Sealed" | 5 October 2022 | |
A journal embedded with a shard starts revealing everyone's deepest secrets, making Lan Jun worry about her secret identity. | |||
10 | "Rise of Xinyan" | 5 October 2022 | |
Lan Jun gets shrunk to doll-size by a new Shard, and the same Shard makes Xinyan gigantic! | |||
11 | "The Show Must Go On" | 12 October 2022 | |
12 | "The Kitty" | 12 October 2022 | |
13 | "The Catalyst" | 19 October 2022 | |
14 | "The Skeleton Key" | 19 October 2022 | |
15 | "The Perfume" | 26 October 2022 | |
16 | "Jade-Con" | 26 October 2022 | |
17 | "The Beastibot" | 2 November 2022 | |
18 | "The Pomegranate" | 2 November 2022 | |
19 | "Monkey Mind" | 9 November 2022 | |
20 | "The Thread" | 9 November 2022 | |
21 | "The Filter" | 16 November 2022 | |
22 | "Jade Noir" | 16 November 2022 | |
23 | "La Vie en Rose" | 23 November 2022 | |
24 | "Transparency" | 23 November 2022 | |
25 | "Crimson Moon" | 30 November 2022 | |
26 | "Jade Infinity" | 30 November 2022 |
Broadcast
[edit]The series is distributed by HBO Max and Cartoon Network in Latin America,[8] Europe, the Middle East and Africa, France Télévisions, Super RTL in Germany, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and CBC in Canada. APC Kids distributes the series worldwide with the exception of China and the United States.[14]
References
[edit]- ^ Hopewell, John (2023-06-09). "TeamTO Advances on 'Jade Armor' Season 2 (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2024-08-15.
- ^ a b "Jade Armor (2022)". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 2024-01-20. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
- ^ a b Skwigly (2023-02-01). "APC Kids & TeamTO partner on action-comedy series 'Jade Armor'". Skwigly Animation Magazine. Archived from the original on 2024-01-20. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
- ^ a b Hopewell, John (2023-06-09). "TeamTO Advances on 'Jade Armor' Season 2 (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on 2023-06-22. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ TEAM, GLM (2023-01-22). "New Superheroine Jade Armor brings her Kung Fu to Cartoon Network". Gauteng Lifestyle Magazine. Archived from the original on 2024-02-11. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
- ^ Hopewell, John (2022-04-01). "WarnerMedia Swoops on Martial Arts Series 'Jade Armor' for EMEA (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on 2022-04-09. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ a b c d e f Zahed, Ramin. "Crouching Teen, Hidden Powers: All About TeamTO's 'Jade Armor' Series". www.animationmagazine.net. Archived from the original on 2022-08-30. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ a b c d Pedersen, Lise (2021-03-16). "Build in U.S. Demand Is Boosting Diversity in Animation, Says France's 'Jade Armor' Producer TeamTO". Variety. Archived from the original on 2024-01-13. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ a b c "MIFA 2022: "JADE ARMOR," A SHOW THAT BRACES FOR BROADER FEMALE REPRESENTATION - SEÑAL NEWS". senalnews.com. Archived from the original on 2024-01-20. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
- ^ "'Jade Armor' Heads to Cartoon Network and HBO Max in early 2022". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on 2024-01-20. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
- ^ "TeamTo's New Animated Comedy Jade Armor". awn.com. 16 September 2020. Archived from the original on 10 January 2024. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
- ^ "How TeamTO is training a new generation of dubbers". Archived from the original on 2023-06-09. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ "Girls take command of TeamTO's Jade Armor". Archived from the original on 2021-12-03. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
- ^ "APC Kids Partners with TeamTO for 'Jade Armor'". www.animationmagazine.net. Archived from the original on 2023-03-31. Retrieved 2024-01-13.
External links
[edit]- Jade Armor at IMDb
- 2020 French television series debuts
- 2020s French animated television series
- 2022 animated television series debuts
- 2022 French television series debuts
- Animated superheroine television shows
- Chinese mythology in popular culture
- French anime-influenced animated television series
- French children's animated action television series
- French children's animated adventure television series
- French children's animated drama television series
- French children's animated fantasy television series
- French children's animated superhero television series
- Magical girl television series
- Teen animated television series