Given how popular shows such as Pokemon and Yugi-Oh are, it’s something of a surprise that we don’t see more parodies of these properties. Battle Counters redresses this situation somewhat by being a family-friendly musical about using games to save the world.

The plot is exactly what you’d expect. A terrible tyrant controls the world through the game of counters, and it’s up to Cal Counters, a humble kid from Letterville, to save the day. The game itself is ‘throwing counters on the ground and counting them’, which honestly sounds like the next playground craze to us.

The framing mechanism is two friends watching an old TV series; which allows Battle Counters to play with the fourth wall a bit; the show addresses the audience directly, but doesn’t actually interact with the audience, because it’s meant to be a TV show. This is a fun running gag that pokes a bit of fun at other shows that might lean a little too heavily on audience participation to work.

Performers John Chisham and Christian Loveless are well matched, with Chisham as our ‘Ash Ketchum’-like a hero, Cal. He finds the sweet spot between ‘corny hero’ and ‘children’s TV presenter’ very quickly and has all the best songs. Much of the humour of the show comes from the silly premise and how ‘gosh darned charming’ Cal is meant to be. Christian plays pretty much everyone else, mostly through a collection of wigs. Given that Cal acquires a lot of allies during the story, Christian is very busy throughout.

This is a well-observed and friendly parody of a well-loved genre. The songs are okay, and the plot is appropriately pointless; the sort of thing this is based on doesn’t really have a plot other than a series of easy-to-animate action scenes, and Battle Counters somehow turns this into a fun show.

Battle Counters lacks polish, but it’s a fantastic premise for a show performed with love. Terrific.

Find out more about John and Christian here.