Western Animation / Magi-Nation

The Dream Team.

''Your two worlds are colliding
You feel the tension rising
No time for hesitation
Gonna fight for the Magi Nation!

Gotta hit 'em hard with the Animite!
Gonna battle on 'cause you just might
Be the Final Dreamer!

Come on it's a generation
We're fightin' for the Magi Nation!
Callin’ in for some competition
Gonna battle with the opposition
One day there’ll be salvation
Callin' out from the Magi Nation
Yeah!

MAGI-NATION!

— theme tune

Magi-Nation is a Canadian–Korean animated television series based on the trading card game of the same name. It diverges considerably from its source material to the point that it could be considered an In Name Only adaptation that also tries to be Edutainment too. The show has 2 seasons with 26 episodes each, though the last 12 episodes of the second season never aired due to low viewership and cancellation.

It aired on Kids' WB! early in the morning, and for kids with no cable or internet at the time, it was pretty enjoyable, aside from the aforementioned cancellation. In its home country of Canada, it appeared on CBC Kids.

As for the summary of the show itself: Three thousand years ago in the Moonlands, the evil Shadow Magi Agram was sealed inside the planet's Core by the Core Glyph and the Dreamstones which provided its power. Now he plans to escape by using his Shadow Geysers to weaken his prison in order to bring the Moonlands under his control, and only a Magi known as the "Final Dreamer" can stop him. A young boy from Earth, Tony Jones, is summoned into the Moonlands as he is believed to be this Final Dreamer. He joins forces with the apprentice Magi, Edyn, and the Shadow Stalker, Strag, on a mission to gather the Dreamstones before Agram is set free. Using the Book of Elders, the three travel through the Moonlands while combating the forces of Agram and gaining an ever-growing collection of Dream Creatures from the Moonlands that they visit.

Season two has another quest taking the Dreamers around the Moonlands, this time to collect the guardian hyrens and merge them together to form the Final Hyren and stop Agram's influence once and for all. It contains a bit more plot in relation to Strag and Tony.

This series contains examples of these tropes:

• Action Dad: Orwin.
• Action Girl: Edyn's not shy about getting in the middle of a fight. In her second appearance, Trup'Tika shows that she's one too as she fights pirates and liberates her fellow prisoners.
• Adaptation Decay: Compared to the games it's adapted from, the show contains far fewer characters and doesn't explore the wonderful world building of the cards.
• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • Formerly blond Tony now has brown hair.
  • Ugger got some combination of this and Race Lift. Originally a very ugly Core creature, it was turned into a (debatably) cute Naroom plant beast.
• Adaptational Villainy: Nimbulo
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Spencer does this to Tony.
• All-Encompassing Mantle: Emperor Chur.
• Alien Hair: Underneathians have segmented mushroom caps for hair. Some D'Reshians have scales on their heads rather than hair.
• Aliens Speaking English: Unlike other parts of the franchise, Tony doesn't need a translator to understand his new friends.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The people of Paradyn are light green. The people of Nar are a blue. The people from the Depths of Orothe are a different shade of blue. And the people from Bograth are a dull green.
• Ambiguously Brown: Strag and the majority of other Underneathians aside from Inara are considerable darker than the majority of Moonlanders with human like skin tones. Most Kybar mountaineers are also fairly brown. Edyn and a few other Naroomis are a lighter brown that's leagues darker than some but still noticeably lighter than the darker human toned races. D'Reshians are also in the solidly brown category. As are the Kybarites.
• Animated Adaptation
• Anime Hair: Lots. Edyn has enormous orange hair that stays in a fixed shape. Strag has odd thick two toned hair like the rest of the Underneathians that's due to fungus growing in it. Bo'Asha, the leader of The Weave, has corded hair with bits that come off like pigtails although it doesn't make sense with how her hair is sectioned off.
• Animesque
• Anti-Anti-Christ: Strag as Agram's direct descendant and according to Agram, a perfect apprentice.
• The Artifact: The "Gonna battle on 'cause you just might be the Final Dreamer" bit in the theme song doesn't really make much sense anymore in Season 2 when we already discovered that Tony, Edyn, and Strag are all the Final Dreamers.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: Strag
• Bag of Holding: Unlike Tony and Edyn who carry bags reasonably big enough to hold all their stuff, Strag keeps relics and animite in his gloves. Most of these relics are as long as his hand or longer and non-foldable. A regular chunk of animite is roughly the size of a person's palm and Strag has more than a dozen dream creatures. All of this fits in gloves that stop at mid forearm. Frame by frame shows him pulling the objects out of the very fabric of the gloves.
• Bald of Evil: Chur and Togoth sport this look.
• Barrier Warrior: Freep, a turtle-like Mon, can generate energy shields to protect himself or his magi or use them as projectiles.
• Becoming the Mask: In order to find the Bograth Dreamstone Tony, Edyn, and Strag infiltrate a training camp of shadow magi. Strag tells the others that they have to stay in character every moment lest they be found out. Several hours later his friends start to question if he's still acting. The next day Strag is ready and willing to burn down the huts of innocent villagers and attack his friends after they accidentally blow their cover.
• Befriending the Enemy: Tony, Edyn, and Strag with Gazean and later Chur.
• Beneath the Earth: The Underneath, as indicated by the name, is a large region that exists in the form of caves, caverns, and tunnels underneath the Moonlands.
• Big Bad: Agram.
• Big Fancy Castle: Agram lives in one.
• Bounty Hunter: Shaelax, who's fond of capturing other magi's dream creatures.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Strag under Gazean's command is ordered to attack Edyn and Tony and incapacitates Furok and Ugger when they act to defend their magi. While under control of a bounty hunter, Shalax, the trio's Mon partners attack them several times as well as hold them hostage.
• Calling Your Attacks: "I cast X Spell!"
  • Also used for all the dream creatures' attacks, by their partners.
• Catchphrase: Each of the three main Dream Creatures has one.
  • Freep's is some variation of "Who's noggin needs knockin'?"
  • Furok uses "Let the fur fly!"
  • Ugger's is "TIMBER!"
• Chain of People: The Dreamers make one to grab the dreamstone of Cald.
• Cleavage Window: Agram surprising and distractingly. Emperor Chur's guards.
• Clothing Damage: Strom and the rest of the Underneath rebels display this after slaving in the mines for awhile.
• Combat Tentacles: Ugger primarily uses his vines to attack.
• Compressed Hair: The base of Edyn's ponytail has a diameter around the size of her skull yet it can vanish completely then she puts on a hood to hide her identity.
• Corrupt Politician: Nimbulo.
• Curtains Match the Window: Strag's purple eyes match his purple head-mushroom. Tony's brown eyes match his brown hair.
• Cry into Chest: All three main characters have done it at least one.
• Dark Action Girl: Inara in her first appearance. Warrada/Warrador.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Underneath and Bograth. One is associated with caves, bats, and darkness. The other is associated with filth and nocturnal creatures. Neither are more evil than anoth of the surface realms.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Emperor Chur.
• Distressed Dude: Out of the three, Strag has been kidnapped, injured, and mind controlled the most.
• Dragon Rider: Orwin's primary Dream Creature is Shirdor, a dragon whom he often uses as a steed.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Tony sometimes has prophetic dreams. This ability is shared by his grandfather.
• Dream Spying: Agram gave up his eyesight for the ability to enter dreams.
• Dreadlock Warrior: All Weavians have corded hair, the majority that we get to see are warriors ready and able to defend their homes. Bo'Asha and Ashio are named examples.
• Edutainment Show: The show certainly isn't entirely edutainment, but every episode will have at least one moment where the characters discuss some random bit of educational matter for the viewers to learn. Depending on the episode, this can seem completely natural (before going into the desert, the characters discuss Real Life desert survival techniques), a little forced (describing ecosystems with the mad zookeeper), to totally anvilicious (discussing what shooting stars and supernovae actually are while watching a magic astrological event).
• Eldritch Location: The Core. Locations in the core are constantly moving, some parts faster than others. There are oddly shaped satellites hanging about in the "sky".
• Even Evil Has Standards:Agram is very against destroying the Moonlands. Mercenair won't harm an innocent old woman who knows nothing about the conflict going on. Chur keeps his promises and upholds his truces.

• Evil Laugh: Agram has a nice one that gets some use. Several other shadow magi have them as well.

• Exposed to the Elements: Chur hails from the high mountains and wears a fur bikini. The Dreamers when they go to Nar and early visits to Kybar's Teeth; exposed arms, heads, etc., to freezing conditions with only a loose cape to keep warm
• Face–Heel Turn: At an unspecified point after Strag left the Underneath, Inara became a Shadow Magi. Orwin becomes a Shadow Magi after being put under a willingness spell so that he would be unable to resist the corruption. Strag himself has had several close calls with changing sides. In season 2, Strag does go full Shadow Magi for awhile. Spencer Jones gets turned into a Shadow Magi by Chur.
• Fantastic Nature Reserve: Gazean's hideout under The Weave is one. In it he has dream creatures and plants from every region as well as a few magi.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Chur's arm and leg bands.

• Fiery Redhead: Edyn's big orange hair is pretty easy to spot and she can have quite the attitude.
• Fighting for a Homeland: Inara, Strom, and the other Underneathian rebels since before Welcome Home Strag part 1 to Son of The Underneath. Strag after the events of Welcome Home Strag to Son of The Underneath. All the members of the Magi Alliance are fighting for their respective homelands as well as the Moonlands as a whole.
• Fighting Your Friend: Happens here and there when good guys get turned into shadow magi.
• Fungus Humongous: Extremely large mushrooms, puffballs, and cup fungi grow in the caverns of The Underneath forming forests. Underneathians build their homes out of the larger mushrooms.

• Friendship Denial: Tony when Edyn called Shalax his new friend.
• Friendship Moment: Tony and Edyn comforting Strag after drama with his family. Strag and Tony comforting Edyn after Orwin gets turned into a shadow magi. Tony and Shalax bonding over taxonomy.
• Garden Garment: Edyn wears a skirt made of living leaves. Belts of living vines are common accessories.
• Gender Flip: Chur was a lady in the cards and a dude in the show. Scarador is the show's version of Hrada who is male in the card game and has a female character design in season one and then a male design in season 2. Evu was male in the cards and a lady on the show. Ashgara is a lady version of Good Ol' Ashgar from the cards.
• Genius Bruiser: Strag is and incredibly muscular teen trained to be a warriors and also quite knowledgeable in tracking, battle strategy, ecology, history, relics, and many other things.
• Ghost Pirate: As the result of a cursed relic on the Realm Raider ship.
• Good Costume Switch: Chur goes from spiked fur bikini to a more covering tunic.
• Good Feels Good: Chur in Allegiance Lost.
• Guardian Entity: The Guardian Hyrens. Snout and Peepers for the Book of Elders.
• Group Hug: Happens occasionally and very satisfying when they occur.
• Heel–Face Turn: Inara is changed back into a regular magi to save Strag from being turned into a Shadow magi. Later, after about 6 episodes under the thrall of Agram, Orwin gets the Core magic expelled from him by the council of elders. Chur gets a brief one before changing back into a shadow magi but he no longer serves Agram. Mercenair gets one from Chur's fully charged Allegiance relic. Gazean after he got some sense talked into him. Shalax, semi-reluctantly.
• Heroic Build: Strag and Halstead are weirdly buff for their age. Ranger Dex.

• High Collar of Doom: Strag as a shadow magi.
• Home of Monsters: The Dream Plane, where dream creatures go to recover their energy.
• Hope Bringer: Chiroptera for the Underneath and later Strag for the Underneath too. The Dreamers for those in the Moonland who believe in them.

• Honorary True Companion: Trup'Tika, Inara, Halstead, and even Gazean eventually. Temporarily Chur.
• Hunter of Monsters: Strag and his fellow Shadowstalkers. For Strag it's definitely personal and he has a hatred so strong for Shadow Magi, he's loathe to form truces with them even for the greater good.
• Hypocrite: Tony at times, especially during the second season where he got on the others about getting distracted from their quest when him wanting to save his grandpa was a big enough distraction that the Cald hyren refused to join them on their quest for it.
• Ice Palace: Sikan has one in Nar.
• Identity Amnesia: Strom's punishment for betraying Emperor Chur and trying to free his people.
• "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Strag's strategy for getting Inara back to the side of good. He risks his allegiance, life, and mission on it and it works. Edyn tries it on Orwin and nearly gets mowed down for her troubles.
• In Name Only: As an adaption of the cards, there's so many plot, character, world changes that it's this.
• Instant Allegiance Artifact: Strag's Allegiance Relic can change the allegiance of the victim to that of its caster but only if the victim willingly accepts. If not, the relic turns its power on its castor and changes their allegiance to that of the intended victim. The relic doesn't differentiate between actual willingness and willingness due to mind control or brainwashing.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Tony and Strag with Orwin. Tony, Strag, and Edyn with Evu, Shimmer, and Gazean.
• Interspecies Friendship: Both Tony and Spencer with their Moonlander friends.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Strag's dad Strom.
• Kaiju: The Cawh, especially the shadow version of it. As well as Evu's rarely seen Corillian Titan and the guardian hyren of the Cald.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Most definitely Ranger Dex.
• La Résistance: The Underneath resistance fighting against Emperor Chur's rule.
• Limited Wardrobe: No one changes outfits aside from Tony gaining some Naroomi clothing to fit in.
• Mayfly–December Friendship: Eliwan live for centuries, humans do not. Dream creatures live even longer than their magi.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Strag's Piercing Howl Relic is a necklace made of the fangs of several powerful dream creatures that grants its user the howl of whatever fang they touch.
• Magic Skirt: Everyone who wears one.
• Manly Tears: Strag, Tony, and Gazean.
• Master of Illusion: The guardian hyren of D'Resh.
• Mind-Control Device: Gazean owns one and uses it to control wild dream creatures and magi. It works by placing a magic grass bracelet or band on the target that syncs them up with a control switch. A bounty hunter working for Agram uses a relic to control Furok, Freep, and Ugger.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Strag's normally purple eyes turn red while under Gazean's mind control.
• The Mole: Ranger Dex occasionally spies on Agram's forces with the help of a disguise spell. Inara has spies among Emperor Chur's guards.
• Mons: The Dream Creatures whose elements, appearance, and abilities are based on their native region.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Strag is noticeably stronger and heavier than Edyn and Tony. Halstead has a similar build to Strag and we get to see him climb up an ice wall with no equipment while racing a giant centipede-like creature.
• Mushroom Man: Underneathians have a close mutualistic relationship with fungi in their realm. They incorporate fungi into their clothing and their bodies to the point that instead of hair they have mushroom caps growing from their heads.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: The extremely large shadow magi, Togoth, appears to have this. Best evidenced by the inexplicable ability to bounce an energy attack off with nothing but his abs.
• Never Mess with Granny: Evu is no defenseless old woman. If you mess with her you'll have to deal with her Corillian Titan.
• No Brows: Agram lost his after being trapped in The Core.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Furok, Ugger, and Freep to the Dreamers. Tony, Edyn, and Strag consider their go-to Dream Creatures their friends and do summon them outside of battle for the company. Edyn and Ugger have the closest bond of the trio, Ugger has many pet names for his magi including "sweet pea of the forest and essence of all leafy goodness". Gazean and his Blade Hyren, Bladella.
• Not Quite Flight: Ugger is capable of this in environments with very tall plant life by using his vines to swing around.
• Olympus Mons: The Guardian Hyren who protect their individual region's Dreamstone.
• One Size Fits All: Arderialite guard armor can fit Strag as well as a guard taller and broader than him.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The hyrens. Best examples, the guardian hyren of The Weave is a green anthropomorphic chicken, the guardian hyren of Naroom is a winged plant-cat, the guardian hyren of the Underneath is a bat-wyvern, and the guardian hyren of The Deeps of Orothe is a giant squid-like creature. The fog and mist hyrens of Bograth are made of water vapor. Snout and Peepers are closer to a traditional Western dragon, but two headed with an uneven number of eyes and nostrils per head.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Orothians have blue skin, human-like hair, and fin-like ears. All those shown have fish tails with horizontal flukes. These tails can turn into legs for locomotion on land.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: The wererodents of Bograth that transform whenever it's dark and spread by spewing clouds of Void energy tinged rodent breath on their victims.
• Palette Swap: The most noticeable difference between a magi and their shadow version is a change in color scheme.
• Parental Substitute: Orwin to Edyn as he actually raised her.
• Papa Wolf: Orwin, Strom, Spencer.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Edyn disguised as Iyori by wearing Iyori's hooded cape. Iyori has bright green skin as a Paradywnian, Edyn has light brown skin.
• Planimal: Several animal-like Dream Creatures from Naroom and Paradwyn often have branches or leaves growing out of their body. Plenty of animal-like creatures from The Weave are partially made of grass. The guardian hyren of Bograth is a dragon partially made of wood and moss.
• Pelts of the Barbarian: Kybar Mountaneers who like for folks to consider them to be stupid barbarians. Chur.
• People Zoo: Gazean's hideout under The Weave. He has at least two people people and dream creatures are sentient.
• Pointy Ears: All Naroomi have pointed ears. Most of the Bograthians have pointy ears that droop downward. Arderialites have ears with two points at the tip that make their ears looked notched.
• Power Trio: Tony, Edyn, and Strag.
• Psychic Powers: Strag's Moonsense is a form a clairvoyance.
• Ranger: By the way their talked about Shadow Stalkers would be this in universe. Unfortunately the only one that we get to see is Strag.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Orwin. Later Shimmer of Arderial.
• Really 700 Years Old: Agram, Korg, and Zed are all over 3000 years old and haven't particularly aged a bit.
• Rebel Leader: Inara for the Underneath resistance. She later passes the torch to Strom.
• Rebel Prince: Strag is Agram's descendant and possible heir to his throne.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning:When Agram's vision is temporarily restored we get to see that he has red eyes.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: The Moonlanders. The Moonlands is explicitly a different planet/moon from Earth and we do get to see it from space. The people from the Moonlands look more or less like humans, some have wildly different skin tones, some have pointed ears, and at least one race has living fungus for hair.
• Saturday-Morning Cartoon
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Strag, it's a part of Shadow Stalker training.
• Secret Test of Character: Standard among the Guardian Hyrens.
• Siblings in Crime: Warrada and Hrada/Warrador and Hrador.
• Sissy Villain: Chur.
• Slave Collar: Tony, Edyn, Strag, Trup'Tika, and all the other people captured by the Realm Raiders get these in the form of anklets to prevent them from using magic.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Many, including Strag, Ashio, and Halstead. It's especially noticeable in Halstead's case since he lives in the Arctic conditions of Nar.
• Snark Knight: Tony, but even more so for Edyn.
• Spikes of Villainy: The spikes on Togoth's shoulder pads and boots. Chur's spikes on his shoulder pads.
• Space Elves: Show takes place on the moon of the faraway planet El and the inhabitants of the Moonlands are inhabited by the elf-hobbitlike race known as the Eliwan.
• Summon Magic: Magi can magine dream creatures if they have a chunk of their animite.
• Staff of Authority: Orwin's staff which later turns out to be part of the Realm's Honor relic.
• Tailfin Walking: The mermaid-like Orotheans in "The Depths of Courage". Which is strange since in the other two episodes they appear in they are shown to be able to transform their tails into legs.
• Tears of Joy: Edyn at the end of Son of The Underneath.
• The Ace: Strag is the champion of the Magi-Dream Creature League. Has the most dream creatures, so many that he can afford to turn down Underneathian creatures who want him as their magi. Can sprint faster than Tony, who is a trained runner. He has also one shotted a minor Olympus Mon once without using a dream creature.
• The Chosen One: Orwin and many others believe that Tony is The Final Dreamer. Eventually it's proven that he, Edyn, and Strag together are the Final Dreamer.
• The Corruption: Core energy/magic. In high enough concentrations it can turn dream creatures into shadow creatures and Magi into Shadow Magi.
• The Corrupter: Agram. Judging from the looks and behavior of the bulk of his forces, his preferred targets are teens.
• The Dragon: Chur before he got replaced by a Orwin, temporarily, and Mercinair.
• The Mentor: Orwin, the Elder of Naroom, fulfills this role for Tony, Edyn, and Strag. If Orwin's unavailable then Evu acts as the team's mentor.
• The Power of Friendship:A running theme.
• Third-Person Person: Togoth only refers to Togoth as Togoth.
• Terrible Trio: Chur, Ashio, and Warrada work together more often than not and prove to be a relatively competent team.
• Tulpa: What dream creatures are.
• Tragic Villain: Chur after Allegiance Lost.
• Tricked-Out Gloves: Strag's palm and finger less gloves that he uses to store his relics and animite.
• Trickster Mentor: Evu's idea to teach Tony that he's not stuck in the shadow of his grandfatheris to put a spell on the Book of Elders, rendering it useless. Then sending the team to the bottom of the ocean, having Tony be publicly humiliated by a belligerent merman, and let a kaiju be freed from its can.
• True Companions: Edyn, Tony, and Strag.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Chur as emperor of the Underneath.
• Under the Sea: The Deeps of Orothe are far far under the surface of the ocean.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Chur and Ashio after being helped by the heroes.Likely a trait common to all shadow magi.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Agram to Strag in Fear the Gear.
• Villains Want Mercy
• Vine Swing: Ugger can use his vines to get up and around quickly in the forest or among the super sized grasses of The Weave.
• Voice of the Legion: A trait of Chur and Agram occasionally. Tony while possessed by the Book of Elders.
• World in the Sky: The region of Arderial which rests on solid clouds.
• You Have Failed Me: Agram's feelings about Chur after he got dethroned in the Underneath.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Shalax.
• Your Size May Vary: There is no such thing as consistency in size.

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