General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Mix Master (카드왕 믹스마스터)

Mix Master (카드왕 믹스마스터, also known as Mix Master: King of Cards) is a South Korean animated television series co-produced by the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and Sunwoo Entertainment, based on the Korean online game Mix Master.¹^•² The story follows children in the town of Gamebridge, where the real world has blended with a game world, as they summon and combine game-world monsters called Henches through cards to solve strange events and fight an evil prince plotting conquest.¹^•³

Key fact	Detail
Original title	카드왕 믹스마스터 (Card Wang Mix Master); English title Mix Master: King of Cards¹
First broadcast	October 4, 2005, KBS2, Tuesdays at 6:10 pm, following My Friend Ubi Boy 2²
Production	KBS, Sunwoo Entertainment, and Beijing Omni Culture Exchange; 39 episodes at a production cost of 4.6 billion won²
Source material	The domestic online RPG Mix Master by CyMedia³
Format	24-minute episodes, rated TV-Y7; genres include action, adventure, fantasy, and science fiction¹^•⁴
Second season	최강합체 믹스마스터 (Mix Master: Final Force), 39 episodes, January 2010 to March 2011¹
Government support	Selected for the KOCCA Star Project in 2004 and 2005; 850 million won granted, repaid from distribution revenue within six months⁵

Spoilers

Premise

The series is set in Gamebridge, a town that has become mixed up with a magical game world in which monsters run wild and an evil prince plots world conquest.¹ English-language listings describe the heroes as the youthful Ditt Lee and his companions, who have to take part in the game in order to bring back order and keep their home safe from menacing monsters.⁶ The Korean press described the premise as a comically toned adventure in which the heroes mix and evolve the game world's Henches (monsters) through cards to resolve the strange events occurring in their town.³

The card-mixing mechanic ties the show to the trading card game genre. Industry observers compared its concept to card-game animations such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and Digimon, whose popularity they cited as a possible factor in the show's ratings.⁷

Franchise strategy and related businesses

Unlike Sunwoo's earlier hit Top Blade (Top Blade), which built licensing businesses after the animation succeeded, Mix Master was planned from the start as a multi-media property spanning animation, an online game, toys, publishing, and stationery.⁸ An online trading card game (TCG) based on the series launched commercial service at the end of 2005 and passed 100,000 registered users within a month.⁸ A related online card game, カード王ミックスマスター (Card King Mix Master), was also operated in Japan alongside the broadcast there.¹

Production and funding

The animation was a co-investment by KBS, Sunwoo Entertainment, and the Chinese company Beijing Omni Culture Exchange, produced as 39 episodes at a cost of 4.6 billion won.² Producer Lee Sun-joo of KBS described the project as an unusual case of adapting a domestic game into animation and as a "one source multi use" (OSMU) project designed to exploit the characters across media.² Japanese and English database listings additionally credit Japan's Nippon Animation as a co-production partner, with Chinese companies also investing.⁴^•¹

Government support. The project was selected in both 2004 and 2005 for the Star Project of the Korea Culture Content Agency (KOCCA, under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), a program that supports content with export and OSMU potential.⁵ The total production budget was 4.7 billion won, of which the agency committed 850 million won, 18 percent of the budget, paid in three installments; under the agreement Sunwoo shared revenue with the agency up to 110 percent of the grant.⁵ In February 2006, six months after the government support began, Sunwoo announced it was already returning revenue from domestic and international distribution, which the company called an unprecedented case for the program.⁵ Distribution rights for the Americas and Europe had been sold to Taffy Entertainment.⁵

Broadcast and reception

The series premiered on KBS2 on October 4, 2005 in the Tuesday 6:10 pm slot.² Its early rating of 3.5 percent was reported as a near-blockbuster result for the slot, where animated series had averaged 1 to 2 percent; the trade press attributed the performance to the distinctive card-game concept, a solid scenario, and the lingering popularity of card-game animations.⁷ The series also aired on Cartoon Network across Asian regions from Southeast Asia to South Korea.⁴

Second season: Mix Master: Final Force

A second season, 최강합체 믹스마스터 (Choegang Habche: Mix Master, released in English as Mix Master: Final Force), ran for 39 episodes; TheTVDB lists its run as January 2010 to March 2011, while the anime database DonOtaku lists a start date of May 26, 2010 with the same March 16, 2011 end date.¹^•⁹ In this season Ditt has lost his memory of being a Mix Master and, when a new threat emerges, regains his abilities with new friends against the villains Eva and Babel, then the Red Knight, a former hero corrupted by his own quest for power, and finally the Blue Fox, who seeks the Dark Mix Masters.¹⁰^•⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Animated television series (individual series) › Children's animated adventure and fantasy series › Fantasy and magical series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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