Retro anime fans, this one is for the Saturday-morning-cartoon crowd. RetroCrush is set to stream the Medabots anime on its free ad-supported television, or FAST, channel starting June 7.
For Malaysian and SEA fans who grew up around the early-2000s anime boom, Medabots sits in that same nostalgic zone as toy-battler and monster-battler shows that used to dominate after-school TV. It was robots, battles, upgrades, and very toyetic designs — basically the kind of series that made kids imagine customising their own little combat bot before gacha games and live-service loadouts became the normal thing.
The move is part of RetroCrush’s wider retro-anime push. The service is also adding Night on the Galactic Railroad and Spider Riders, while Cineverse has also released Spider Riders and other game-based animated television series through a partnership with WildBrain.
The original Medabots, known in Japan as Medarot, began as a game before inspiring a TV anime by Bee Train in 1999. A follow-up series, Medarot Damashii — localised as Medabots Spirits — followed in 2000. In North America, ADV licensed the series, while Nelvana produced the English dub for the first anime. That dub aired on Fox Kids in 2001 before shifting to ABC Family, with Medabots Spirits later airing on ABC Family in 2003.
RetroCrush is not completely new to Medabots either. The platform previously added the anime to its streaming library back in August 2020. This June 7 FAST channel rollout gives the title another window, this time in a more channel-style format where viewers can tune in without picking individual episodes like standard video-on-demand.
That said, Malaysian viewers should take note of one important thing: RetroCrush is officially described as a free, ad-supported video-on-demand service available in the United States and Canada. It has apps across iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, smart TVs, and browsers, but regional access is still the big question for fans outside those markets.
So why should SEA fans care if the service is mainly US/Canada? Because retro anime licensing trends often matter beyond one platform. When older titles like Medabots, Spider Riders, and Night on the Galactic Railroad keep getting surfaced by streaming services, it signals that there is still value in these back-catalogue shows. That can eventually influence availability on other platforms, regional FAST channels, YouTube licensing, or future catalogue deals that reach Southeast Asia.
For anime fans here, especially those who grew up with dubbed TV anime before simulcasts became the default, Medabots is also a reminder of a very different era. These were shows built around games, toys, and weekly TV slots — but many still have a charm that modern seasonal anime sometimes lacks. The pacing is simpler, the designs are loud, and the whole thing feels like it came from a time when every kid wanted a battle partner robot.
RetroCrush itself launched in March 2020, with its FAST version launching through STIRR in July of the same year. Cinedigm later acquired Digital Media Rights, the parent company behind RetroCrush, AsianCrush, and Midnight Pulp, in January 2022.
For now, Medabots’ June 7 FAST channel return is mostly a nostalgia win for viewers who can access RetroCrush. For Malaysia and the wider SEA anime crowd, it is worth watching because retro anime is clearly still alive in the streaming conversation — and bro, if that eventually means more legal access to classic shows from our childhood, we take those wins.
Source: Anime News Network