Tari and the Meta Runners

Tari and the Meta Runners is an American-Australian animated television series produced by Glitch Productions that premiered on September 2, 2019, on Aruba Central. It about the Meta Runners, magical heroes that saved the Soft Kingdom from the evil TAScorp.

The show was created out of three different pitches, Anthony's Ultra Jump Adventures and Tari and the Battle of the Kingdom and Glitchy Boy's Meta Runner, alongside characters from Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump. All three were combined into one after Anthony Animation and Glitchy Boy Productions merge to formed Glitch Productions, as so it will be their first television series for Aruba Central.

Premise
The show is about a trio of magical girls and boys, they are the fun-loving robotic gamer Tari (Celeste Notley-Smith), the robotic smooth jazz player Lamar (Anthony Sardinha) and manic 12-year-old coconut boy Theo (Robyn Barry-Cotter), alongside their father Senbei Norimaki (Jack Black), and their fairy partners Bluejay (Rebecca Parham), Soundbite (James "TheOdd1sOut" Rallison) and Cream (Ryder "Footofaferret" Burgin) to battle the monsters brought upon by TAScorp, A evil corporation lead by Lux (David J.G. Doyle) and his generals Belle Frontiere (Lindsay Jones), Purr (Hayley Nelson) and Dr. Mashirito (Martin Burke) to restore peace to the Soft Kingdom.

Main Cast

 * Celeste Notley-Smith as Tari, Various
 * Robyn Barry-Cotter as Theo
 * Anthony Sardinha as Lamar
 * Jack Black as Senbei Norimaki
 * Lindsay Jones as Belle Frontiere, Akane Kimidori, Various
 * Hayley Nelson as Purr, Various
 * Martin Burke as Dr. Mashirito, Various
 * David J.G. Doyle as Lux, Various
 * Brendan Barry-Cotter as Masa Shimamoto
 * Rebecca Parham as Bluejay, Peasuke Soramame, Various
 * James "TheOdd1sOut" Rallison as Soundbite, Various
 * Ryder "Footofaferret" Burgin as Cream, Taro Soramame, Various

Additional voices

 * Anthony Zuniga
 * Elliott Watkins
 * Kathleen Belsten
 * Kevin Lerdwichagul
 * Luke Lerdwichagul

Ultra Jump Adventures
In 2009, Anthony Zuniga Jr., which was a student at CalArts at that time, made a short film named The Coconut Boy which started a boy that will become Theo. After CalArts, he became a key animator at Universal Animation Studios working on Quest and Paradoria. After working on the later, he left the studio to found his studio called Anthony Animation. Then, he pitched the show, now called Ultra Jump Adventures to Netflix, but they decline because they want to age the main character to 14, which he declines.

The Dr. Slump Show
One month later, he came over to Aruba Animation to work on a new series based on Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump, but he had a hard time working on the pilot, so he started planning a show that took place in the universe as RWBY called Tari and the Battle of the Kingdom, but his pitch was rejected by Lance Welch. He stated "I appreciate the man's work, I certainly do. But the boys and I came to agree that it was outlandish."

Meta Runner
In 2017, The Lerdwichagul Bros. begin development for Meta Runner, a show that has society dominated by Esports. But it was rejected by Jeff Raffarin for being "too complex".

2018-2019
In 2018, Anthony Animation and Glitchy Boy Productions merge to form Glitch Productions, Anthony got an idea to combine theirs failed pitches and the Dr. Slump characters into one show that will be called Tari and the Meta Runners. Because Aruba Rooster Teeth Holdings owned the studio, they pitch it to Aruba Central. News outlets confirmed that the crew was left speechless, however, some received it positively. In 14 months, they have completed production of a 24 episode season begins to air on Labor Day, September 2, 2019

Post-2019-
When Tari and the Meta Runners aired on Labor Day, September 2, 2019, on Aruba Central, it helped the network to its highest-rated day in 2019 and its highest-rated Monday night in the network's history. 4 days later, Aruba Central renewed the series for a second season, consisting of 24 episodes, scheduled for fall 2020.

Reception
The first season received very positive reviews from critics and Aroba fans for its animation, action, characters, and humor. However, it received some criticism for some of its humor being a little bit adult. It was right away a rating smash in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and Japan, with ratings being high in the US, in a few weeks, it became the number one show on Aruba Central.