Invincible Fight Girl

Last updated
Invincible Fight Girl
Invincible Fight Girl logo.png
Genre Action comedy [1]
Created byJuston Gordon-Montgomery
Voices of
Composer Mike Reagan
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes4
Production
Executive producers
Producers
  • Sophia Monico
  • Rochelle Perry
EditorPaul Douglas
Running time22 minutes
Production company Cartoon Network Studios
Original release
Network Adult Swim
ReleaseNovember 3, 2024 (2024-11-03) 
present

Invincible Fight Girl is an American animated television series created by Juston Gordon-Montgomery. [2] The series premiered on November 3, 2024, in the United States on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block and on the streaming service Max shortly after its initial broadcast. [1]

Contents

Plot

A young girl named Andy, living in Wrestling World, endeavors to become the best pro-wrestler ever, and takes on the alias of "Fight Girl" to make herself known. [2] [3] [4]

Characters

Main characters

Recurring characters

Other characters

Episodes

No.Title [7] [8] Directed byWritten byOriginal air date [2] [7] US viewers
(millions) [9]
1"I Am"Alan WanJuston Gordon-MontgomeryNovember 3, 2024 (2024-11-03)0.19
Andy is a young girl living on Accountant Isle, in a world that is centered around wrestling. Pressured by her parents' expectations, she studies to become an accountant at the Junior Accountant Academy, but secretly dreams of becoming a wrestler. One day, the academy students are unexpectedly pressed into doing the taxes for incoming wrestlers. Andy becomes excited at the prospect of meeting wrestlers for the first time, but is barred on account of her poor grades and performance. Nonetheless, she sneaks inside and meets a group of wrestlers called the Perm Gang. She asks them if anyone can become a wrestler, only for them to laugh at her. The Perm Gang begins wreaking havoc after their receipts are lost. Standing up to them, Andy challenges their leader, Immaculate, to a wrestling match, which she narrowly wins. Andy is then confronted by her parents, who are horrified.
2"Dreamers and Busters"Matthew Bordenave M.A. Larson November 3, 2024 (2024-11-03)0.15
Immaculate attempts to continue the match with Andy, but is forcibly stopped by an elderly wrestler. At home, Andy admits to her parents that she wants to become a wrestler; though initially shocked, they encourage Andy to follow her dream. Andy's parents send her off to a gym in the city of Rustburn in order to train, only for her to find it long-abandoned. While in Rustburn, Andy meets a swindler named Craig, who destroys her phone. She also meets a group of failed wrestlers called "Busters", who run a saloon of the same name. When Andy mentions her wrestling idol—Quesa Poblana—to the Busters, they tell her that she lives just outside of the city. The Busters take Andy to Poblana's house, where she discovers that Poblana is the elderly wrestler from before. Andy asks Poblana to become her trainer, only for Poblana to close the door on her.
3"Friends"Alan WanBen JosephNovember 10, 2024 (2024-11-10)0.22
Poblana stops Andy from entering her home, but she believes that stopping her was a "test," which Poblana denies, and then ties her up. As Poblana drives into town to get supplies to fix her roof, Andy meets Craig, who was hiding out in the nearby barn. He claims he is a nephew of Poblana and later asserts his "real passion" is training wrestlers, conning her into dragging items to sell at a market in the Tenderizing District of the city. He points out a nearby wrestler and claims that that is the wrestler he knows. She comes across Mikey, an eight-year-old kid with muscles, annoying Andy, that he scammed her again. Mikey invites Andy to be a tenderizer and she tests her wrestling styles, while Mikey reveals he wants to be sports journalist that covers wrestling instead of being a wrestler. After that, Mikey's father takes him away so he can train, like his brothers. She challenges Mikey's dad to a wrestling match and ends up beginning a fight with Mikey's brother, Mbrandon.
4"The Way of the World"Matthew BordenaveShaene SidersNovember 17, 2024 (2024-11-17)TBD
Andy battles with Mbrandon and with Mikey's help, she almost wins, but he draws her into a trap. While Mikey's dad is overjoyed, Andy, who is helped by Craig, tells Mikey to not give up on his dream, making him think back to what his mother once said to him. However, it appears that Mikey doesn't leave and decides to stay with his family. Later, Andy tells Craig she needs to find a teacher, but Craig says he was inspired by her, and offers to be her manager, but she walks away. She comes back when he claims he will get Poblana to train him. Following this, Mikey appears to the surprise of Craig and Andy, and he suggests coming with her, which she accepts.
5"The Perfect Strike"TBATBANovember 24, 2024 (2024-11-24)TBD
6"Behind the Wall: The Finger & the Toe"TBATBADecember 1, 2024 (2024-12-01)TBD
7"Bertie Unbound"TBATBADecember 8, 2024 (2024-12-08)TBD

Production

In May 2022, the series was originally announced to be a new original animated series for HBO Max (later Max) [2] and Cartoon Network. [3] [10] [11] It was later stated that Cartoon Network Studios was producing the series, and asserted again in 2024. [12] [13] [14]

In June 2023, an animatic for the series premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. [15] At San Diego Comic Con TVfest on February 7, 2024, the first episode of the series premiered. [2] At the AfroAnimation Summit, held from April 10 to 12, 2024 in Burbank, California, Gordon-Montgomery had a panel entitled "How I Got My Show Made: The Underdog Story of Invincible Fight Girl". [16]

An early series preview was released on July 25, 2024. [17] [18] The event, hosted at Savannah College of Art and Design, also included a talk with Juston Gordon-Montgomery, the show's art director (David Depasquale), [19] and supervising producer (Bryan Newton). [20] [21] Later, Sam Register was described as a executive producer of the series. [12] [13]

Prior to the series release, Juston Gordon-Montgomery told The Verge that he wanted his love for pro-wrestling's Attitude Era to show in Andy's character and the series overall, noting the influence of wrestling on his life, inspiration of Pokémon , Naruto , and Hajime no Ippo and added that there are many things that haven't been done in animation in the U.S., like in Japan, and saying they could do the same if they "get the shot" to do so. [22] In another interview with Cartoon Brew, he noted the show's anime influences, the show's development process, challenges caused by bigger changes in the studio, and limitations of a 10-episode season. [23]

The series had half-hour animated episodes which premiered on Adult Swim beginning on November 3, 2024, and then released on Max shortly thereafter. [2] [1] [24]

Reception

The series was positively received by critics. Rendy Jones of Den of Geek said that the series is a cross-between My Hero Academia and WWE, saying that the narrative keeps the story grounded, with strong world-building, and has characters which resemble "familiar faces and figures from wrestling culture". Jones, who reviewed the show's first four episodes, said it follows a similar plot to many action-adventure anime, noted that for a Black female protagonist such as Andy to have the "same skeleton" as anime characters like Monkey D. Luffy and Ash Ketchum, said that Andy's character is a great addition to powerful Black female animated characters along with Lunella Lafayette in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur , described Craig's character as "exhausting to watch", but said this is balanced out by other characters, while praising the series depiction of wrestling fights, animation style, and storyline. [6] Charles Pulliam-Moore of The Verge said the series echoes shonen series like Dragon Ball Z and One Piece , and argued that the series blend of different influences comes "together as soon as its characters step into the ring". [22]

In a review for CBR, Daniel Kurland wrote that the series will lead to a "wide range of sports-based cartoons" among Western animation, comparing it to the wide range of sports anime, praising the protagonist as empathetic, relatable, and with an "endearing found family", lauded the animation for being "sumptuous" and "meticulous" and argued that the series remains aspirational while subverting class and gender norms, while sharing a "powerful message of independence, acceptance, and strength". Kurland also pointed to the anime influences like Kinnikuman , Tiger Mask , Megalobox , Yu Yu Hakusho , and Dragon Ball , and compared the series with Ballmastrz: 9009 . [25]

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References

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