Darwin the Merman

Darwin the Merman (Ashtalaian: Trytoną Darwin) is an Ashtalaian animated series created by Studio SPANK! for Ashtalaian Radio and Television (until late 2014 Cartoon Network Development Studio Vilvek). The series focuses on the life of a group of three merpeople, Darwin, Kevin and Bea, who in early seasons live in an underwater city with elements of Ashtalaian pop culture. In recent seasons, the series switched to an unexpected Ashtalaic cultural format, with episodes focusing more on individual characters and their secrets, turning it from a comedy into a borderline animated drama series.
For a few years the series was viewed as a national symbol for and by Ashtalaians, to the extent where the series was considered to be a cultural icon, it was also syndicated to networks worldwide during its first few years until the series changed hands and merchandise disappeared overnight. Due to a million-dollar international contract with Cartoon Network, the series benefitted from such heavy syndication.
The series aired on ART 3, ART’s dedicated youth channel, with first-run episodes airing since 2014, until then first-run episodes were on Cartoon Network (first on pay operators and later on DTT), ART 3 had to premiere the series on a delay. The series officially concluded in September 2018, while subsequently a couple of televised miniseries followed, expanding the lore. These miniseries are supposed to be aimed at young adults.
==Premise==
Earlier seasons depicted Darwin as a hyperactive, fun merman living in an underwater suburbian neighborbood with his brother Kevin and his sister Bea. From the middle of the series, it started dealing more with royalty, Kevin's romance with an Emeraldian princess and Darwin's connections to the royal family. This caused the show to get less child viewers.
In the last few seasons, the series had dropped the "fun" aspects of before. Storylines were more serious and even entire episodes lacked comedy.
==Characters==
*Darwin: the titular character. Darwin in earlier seasons was comparable to other optimistic characters like SpongeBob and Milo (from unrelated television series) but in later seasons has become a lot more serious (according to showrunners, he "matured"). It was later discovered that he had blood ties with King Darwin, as his name suggests, and ends up becoming a part of the royal family as a regent.
*Kevin: Darwin's older brother. Initially he was slightly neurotic and practiced boxing quite often but in later seasons he became more of a "father" to Darwin. He has an obsessive crush on an Emeraldian girl from their royal family. By the series finale, he becomes the king of the Emerald Kingdom.
*Bea: Darwin's fashion sister. In recent seasons she had dropped her fashion side.
*King Darwin: the king of Darwinia, who looks slightly like Darwin.
*King Triton: the king of Atlantis.
*Fincher: A secondary character in the first two seasons, that was eventually wroten off due to conflicts with a Hopelandian artist. The character is displayed as a merman with a shark's tail for "attitude".
==Development==
===Concept and creation===
The creator pitched a pilot for an ART animation project (Action Animation Ashtalaia 2006). Action Animation Ashtalaia was (from 2002 to 2009) a project similar to What-A-Cartoon! where ART pitched thirteen ideas for animated series from independent production companies, with the aim of continuing the 90s wave of diversified animation production other than followed by pre-school or educational principles, boosted by the launch of ATK in 1991. SPANK!, a studio that had worked with ATK and ART before, had an idea for an animated series depicting a merman named Darwin (after Charles Darwin), whose personality was inspired by an eight-year old child he saw following the drawing of the first sketches.
The pilot aired on ART 3's Akcija Animacija night on January 11, 2007. The pilot showed Darwin as a hyperactive merman who did nothing but slack off, play video games and play with toys all day, with a vivid imagination, going contrary to Kevin and Bea, who at the time had no names and were there to educate Darwin. The personalities of the latter two characters were changed. The pilot was approved, but they had to look for another studio to pitch the series with success. The studio approached the idea of Darwin the Merman to Cartoon Network Development Studio Vilvek. Up until then the studio barely produced television series of a certain length. The series was then approved in September 2008.
Work for the series started in 2009. The first episode aired on ART 3 on April 5, 2010 at 17:35 to good reviews from the viewers. At CNDS Vilvek, the animation was made using Toon Boom, the first Ashtalaian series to use such a software. Following the transfer, the series was made using SmithMicro program Anime Studio (Moho from 2016), again, pioneering the use of this program.
As more and more foreign channels have lost interest in showing, the show became more Ashtalaian in aesthetic, even though signs and episode titles in the export version were all kept in Ashtalaian, a rare ocurrence in the exportation of a television series.
The first English dub was made at a facility close to Cartoon Network Studios in Los Rios amd first aired in the USS in July 2010. The second dub carried on where CN's left off.
===Setting===
Until 2013, when the series was an international hit, Darwin the Merman's setting was a vague underwater city, yet featuring traces of modern Ashtalaia. Later seasons revealed that the city was, in fact, a part of the Kingdom of Darwinia, revealed to have formerly been a part of Atlantis (as a landmass, not the kingdom bordering Darwinia) before the two sank about a thousand years before the setting. The series, while set in contemporary times (relevant to the show itself), still contains elements from ancient Ashtalaic kingdoms.
There is a backstory about the sinking of Atlantis and Darwinia, loosely based on the real-life myth of the sinking of Atlantis by King Triton. It is not known if the Atlanteans were living in a highly-developed world, and the exact causes are not known in the series.
===Political turmoil in 2016===
During the 2016 Ashtalaian political scandal, an anti-Flarland president was elected and the animators hurrily made a song against Flarland. An anti-Flarlandian news channel said that Milo of the Deep, Darwin's prime competitor in the show's height, was "Flarlandian propaganda". There was even an anti-Flarlandian cartoon made by the Darwin the Merman team. This stopped following his impeachment process in October 2017.
===Cancellation===
On September 29, 2016, it was announced that the series would conclude in 2018, after the airing of its tenth season. The producers said that the series was deemed unstable due to the "changes to Ashtalaian television".
The last episode was broadcast on September 3rd, 2018. To celebrate, ART reminisces about the show's past. The last episode features a conflict between Darwinia and the Emerald Kingdom and ends with Darwin being given to the royal family, becoming King Darwin's son.
Before and after the special aired on both Ashtalaian and Hayastelari-speaking channels, there was a special live chat on television.
==Episodes==
===Season 1===
===Season 2===
===Season 3===
===Season 4===
===Season 5===
===Season 6===
===Season 7===
===Season 8===
===Season 9===
===Season 10===
*Yra Pabaiga (It's The End): Darwin's relationship with Bea and Kevin ends after so many years during a conflict in which the Darwinians won. Darwin and Bea now live with King Darwin and Kevin is now the king of the Emerald Kingdom.
The series finale was viewed by 1.2 million people, including former viewers.
==Reception==
Darwin the Merman's apex was in 2011, when the series was largely aimed at kids and was shown on Cartoon Network, which at the time was terrestrial in Ashtalaia. Within less than a year, the show's international deal with Cartoon Network feeds worldwide sparked international interest to terrestrial channels worldwide, where it was dubbed into dozens of languages. The producers reported that the series was among the most-watched animated series in at least 46 countries. It was the first Ashtalaian animated series to surpass productions from countries like the United States in Flarland, Asrael, Aoshi, Armandina, Alavia, Radaurobia, Orience, Lenapore, Northulia, South Bulungi, Huasco, Hopeland, the Michillies and so forth. By 2013, international interest (outside of the Ashtalaic countries) started to dwindle and most international feeds of Cartoon Network dropped the show without warning. In 2014, the four-year deal with Cartoon Network was not renewed and ART and SPANK! became responsible for international sales, even though, at this stage, almost nobody was interested.
During its apex, the series generated tens of millions of dollars (converted from the Ashtalaian alta) in licensing and merchandise, though when the series decreased in revenue, a recent animated adaptation of Wanguržen that premiered during Darwin the Merman's lifespan managed to exceed, partly due to the quality of the animation.
The success of Darwin the Merman has led to a KCA-esque ceremony being handed over to Cartoon Network in 2011, and Darwin the Merman won a number of awards. The last such awards ceremony to run on Cartoon Network was in 2013. The following year, Darwin the Merman stopped winning awards.
The 2013/2014 cancelling triggered a massive domino effect in its licensing. In the early 2010s, Darwin was seen as a mascot for many products and was generating hundreds of millions of dollars.
Another factor was that, upon the end of the contract, the producers wanted to concentrate more on complex storylines that the prior form of the series was unable to tackle. Moving the series away from kids channels caused the character's international projection to tumble down.
Production of the series finished in 2017.
==International broadcast==
*Alavia: Cartoon Network, 2X2
*Aoshi: Cartoon Network, Anistation
*Armandina: Cartoon Network, Canal 11 (2011-2013)
*Ashtalaia: Cartoon Network (2010-2015), ART 3
*Asrael: Arutz HaYeladim
*Astiniria: Cartoon Network, Telefe (2011)
*Asunción: Cartoon Network, Telefuturo
*Bengalia: Channel 7
*Castilla: Cartoon Network
*Chemheria: Henarisen
*Étienne: Cartoon Network
*Flarland: Cartoon Network, K-Zone
*Great Scorria: Cartoon Network, TV2
*Hartung: Cartoon Network, kabeleins
*Hellenia: Star Channel
*Hindustan: Cartoon Network (season 1; later seasons 1~2 with Hindi localization)
*Hopeland: Cartoon Network, IBS
*Iragua: Huiche Televisión
*Ishigaki: Cartoon Network (seasons 1~3)
*Iteria: Cartoon Network, Iteria 1
*Jaheria (at the time a sovereign country): Cartoon Network, KTK
*Jaheria (as a region of Omdalia): TV Jaherija +/TV Jaherija 2
*Jeznogoria: JRT 1
*Keithland: Teletoon
*Latin Sierra and Vera Cruz: Cartoon Network
*Lenapore: Cartoon Network (seasons 1-3), Okto (seasons 1-4 starting from November 1, 2011)
*Malaya: Cartoon Network, NTV7 (both seasons 1-3)
*Michillies: Cartoon Network, A Two
*New Michillies: Cartoon Network, TV2
*Nimarania: Cartoon Network, Viva Nimarania (2012-2018)
*Northulia: Cartoon Network, 9Go!
*Omawate: Fun TV
*Omdalia: Cartoon Network, Hyper, IRGE TV (since 2021)
*Orience: Cartoon Network (seasons 1~3)
*Pakifas: Pakifan Screen
*Radaurobia: Cartoon Network
*Real: RTR 3 (Portuguese), NTR Three (English), Cartoon Network (English until 2013)
*Reitanna: Cartoon Network, Next Kids, RBC Zone
*Salvenia: Cartoon Network, Unitel
*South Bulungi: Cartoon Network, SBBC 1
*Swilatia: Cartoon Network, Puls 2
*Tarania: TNT 2
*Ugraine: PlusPlus
*United Mussulmenic Emirates and the Mussulmenian region: Cartoon Network Arabic, Cartoon Network Bulungi (English)
*United States of Sierra: Cartoon Network (seasons 1~5, season 5 was unfinished by the channel)
*Vydoria: Cartoon Network, VTV 1
*Wajichazi: NTV
==Related media==
===Comic books===
===Feature film===
There were talks of Darwin the Merman being adapted into a feature-length theatrical film, but without Cartoon Network's involvement. Eventually, the show's decrease in popularity meant that development for the film had to stop. It was announced in July 2018 that the film was no longer oficially planned, as the animators have left working for the series.
===Spin-off series===
Despite the cancellation of the series, Darwin the Merman continued under a number of spin-off productions aimed at a predominantly adult demographic. A few miniseries were produced since 2019.
===Darwin's Bedtime===
A pre-school series started in October 2021 where Darwin reads Ashtalaic tales to his new younger brother. So far the series is seen in Ashtalaia
==Merchandise==
===Physical media===
The series had a handful of DVD releases under Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Ashtalaia, including entire season boxsets. These arrangements stopped when Cartoon Network's responsibility for the series ended.
===Kids' meal toys===
In November 2010 (a month after Cartoon Network became a terrestrial channel in Ashtalaia), a deal was signed with McDonald's Ashtalaia to provide toys for its Happy Meal, concentrating on Darwin. In December the deal extended to Jaheria, Omdalia, Jeznogoria, Vydoria and Flarland (including the Henleys).
In the summer of 2011 new toys featuring Darwin, Kevin and Bea were released in over a dozen countries.
===Video games===
Two Darwin the Merman videogames were released in the early 2010s.
===Other merchandise===
For a number of years, even after the change of direction of the series, merchandise featuring Darwin the Merman is still being sold, some of it as of late without the CN tags due to the 2014 cut.
Darwin the Merman toys are still manufactured and sold in some countries.
There was a monthly comic magazine sold in Ashtalaia between November 2010 and February 2014. Publication ceased when Darwin the Merman was on the verge of being handed over to ART.
===Other appearances===
An Ashtalaian Railways train and a Vilvek tram were decorated with Darwin the Merman characters in October 2011, to celebrate the first anniversary of Cartoon Network as a terrestrial channel in Ashtalaia.
The Ashtalaian participant of the 2011 Junior Eurectivision Song Contest (then aged 10) took a Darwin the Merman toy (at the time his "lucky charm") to Harkitsban.
During the 2018 Eurectivision Song Contest, the Ashtalaian contestant claimed to be a fan of Bea.
In 2022, K-Zone announced that it had regained the rights to broadcast the series in Flarland, and the channel, in a symbolic representation of the reopening of diplomatical ties between Flarland and Ashtalaia (following a few years of constrained relations) had Darwin (representing Ashtalaia) hugging Milo (representing Flarland) and the phrase "It's great to be together again". This coincided with ART 3 starting to provide at least four hours a day of content in English, including, in retribution, Milo of the Deep (one of the four hours of content in English according to the June 2022 decision must be allocated to children's programming). ART posted the same illustration.