Cinedigm is again looking to expand the reach of one of their properties as they’ve now brought the first one hundred episodes of Zatch Bell onto the Hulu/Yahoo streaming service. There’s another forty-six dubbed episodes out there, which are currently streaming on Crunchyroll, but bringing out the first hundred puts the show in front of a lot of audiences that use Hulu, especially for kids with lots of on-demand viewing.
The series comes from the manga Konjiki no Gash Bell!! from Makoto Raiu which ran for 37 volumes through December 2007. The anime started in 2003 and ran for 150 episodes while getting some decent distribution on TV over the years as well from Cartoon Network to YTV and to Toon Disney. Cinedigm through New Video Group has released the first 100 episodes dubbed on DVD in two complete season sets.
Plot concept: Every thousand years, mamodo descend upon earth to conduct the ultimate battle. The winning mamodo becomes the king of the mamodo world. In order for the many mamodo to use their powerful spell books, they need a human partner. Kiyo is a brilliant but aloof 14-year old. Kiyo’s father, an archeologist, finds a mamodo child named Zatch unconscious in a forest. He sends the goodhearted Zatch to be his son’s mentor. It is up to Kiyo and Zatch to discover this together. The unsuspecting Zatch and Kiyo must defend themselves against the ambush of mamodo-king wannabees.
