Dragon Striker, the latest animated arrival on Disney streaming and cable channels, is making its debut this weekend. This new series focuses around farm boy Key discovering his talent for an imaginary sport called gorotama, a soccer (or football for non-Americans) based sport involving magic. Dragon Striker is animated in France. This fantasy sports animation takes inspiration from Japanese anime styles. Similarly Western animation such as Toonami’s My Adventures with Superman and Invincible Fight Girl have drawn inspiration from Dragon Ball Z.
The eleven episode Dragon Striker series first appeared on Disney+ streaming on June 10. It will be making its linear debut on Disney Channel the weekend of June 12 – June 14. Disney Channel will be airing four episodes from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM eastern on Friday June 12 and Saturday June 13 with the final three episodes from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM on June 14.
On Disney XD, the entire Dragon Striker series aired in a binge format from 5:00 PM-10:30 PM on Tuesday June 9. This marathon aired just after a new Phineas and Ferb short, Locker Diaries episode “Ferb I Blew Up the Frog” and the Disney XD premiere of the 2020 Pixar movie Onward from 2:45 PM – 5:00 PM. A second full series marathon aired on Wednesday June 10, from 11:00 AM – 4:30 PM. Episode 1 aired made its non marathon debut at 9:30 PM on June 10. Episode 2 aired on Thursday June 11 at 9:30 PM. Episode 3 will be airing Friday June 12 at 9:30 PM. After these primetime airings, the series will make its debut as part of Disney XD’s Saturday morning anime schedule.
Dragon Striker will be making its regular schedule debut on Saturday mornings beginning June 13. Disney XD’s usual Saturday morning anime continue their runs. At 6:30 AM, Bakugan airs episode 25, “Don’t Fight For Me / Destroy It All” nearing the end of yet another rerun of the latest 26 episode series. At 7:00 AM, Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush airs a rerun of episode 33, “Jurassic Plastic” as the reruns of season 1 reach the second batch. At 7:30 AM, Beyblade X continues its recent return to premieres, with episode 83, “Partner”. As the next episode preview promised after last week’s Sigrid vs Multi rematch, Robin Kazami is having issues with mastering the new Bey Multi Nanairo made for him, Reaper Incendio. He trains on the beach with his mentor Meiko Myoden. Making its Saturday morning debut at 8:00 AM, Dragon Striker airs for a full hour from 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM with episode 1 “the Awakening” at 8:00 AM and episode 2 “Welcome to Kal Asterock Part 1” airing at 8:30 AM.
Later on Saturday June 13, from 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM, a mini-marathon of five episodes will air. It begins with the first three episodes airing again, before episode 6, “the Fifth Banner” at 2:30 PM airs for the first time since the full season marathons. At 3:00 PM, episode 4, “the Armorer of Maestras” makes its first airing since the full binge format airings as well.
On Sunday June 14, the weekend timeslots of the anime finally synchronize with Saturdays after being a half hour off for years. At 6:30 AM, Bakugan finishes another run with episode 26, “Lesser Lifeforms / Exploding Sphere”. A new run will begin on June 20 at 6:30 AM from episode 1. At 7:00 AM, Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush airs episode 34, “Are You Kitten’ Me?” continuing the storyline of the Great King of Terror. At 7:30 AM, an encore of the previous day’s Beyblade X “Partner” episode 83 airs. At 8:00 AM, Dragon Striker continues its run from Saturday morning with episode 3, “Welcome to Kal Asterock Part 2.” It is followed up by Armorsaurs from 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM. From 9:30 AM – 10:00 AM, Chibiverse, which used to follow Beyblade X, now airs in a later timeslot. After Disney XD finishing out the weekend with comedy programming for the rest of the day, 11:00 PM – 12:00 AM provide the final reruns of episodes 1 and 2 of Dragon Strikers.
No news yet on whether Dragon Strikers will join the weekday action block lineup. Given its brief 11 episode run, it may not be suited for weekday afternoons. However, recent social media rumors from X fan press including the Disney Beat suggest a possibility of Pokemon rejoining the Disney XD lineup this year. Currently, the weekday afternoon schedule as of June 12 includes Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush at 2:30 PM before an hour of Beyblade X from 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM. If Disney XD added Pokemon, a full two hour weekday anime block would be achieved for the first time since the death of Toonami Rewind in late 2024.
Are you looking forward to Dragon Striker, the latest show on Disney Channel and Disney XD?
