Mix Master

Plot

The series takes place in the town of Gamebridge where, through the accidental opening of a portal from the fictional Mix Master video game world of Atreia, the peaceful little town is invaded by the funny and sometimes dangerous game creatures, known as "hench", as well as the game world's evil Prince Brad. The main protagonist, 11-year-old Ditt Lee, is given a card shuffler by the eccentric Dr. Joeb, and now must "mix" those hench (as learned from the fictional video game) to achieve peace and safety, while he grows into his destiny to become the one true "Mix Master".

The series presented over two hundred henches from different species. They can be fused or 'mixed' together to form a new, stronger hench. Henches are ranked from 1 (low) to 7 (high) depending on their power. Animals and plants are present. To be mixed, henches must be of the same rank and species. Henches are shown to be like humans, as they can sleep, eat, talk and tire out if they are overused. They bond with humans who show honesty and friendship. They have to obey the orders of the person who owns their card shuffler, even against their will. They seem to grow old and die.

Although Henches are ranked as high as 7, above level 7 one hench is known as the Ultimate Hench and is the most powerful. Ultimate Hench exists when all the 8 Henches of Rank 7 are fused with the help of the Mix Master and The Master Hench. According to legend, the Master Hench has to find one human friend whom it trusts above all else, and that human becomes the Mix Master. It appears that the Master Henches are somehow related, as Pachi's brother was the previous Master Hench. The Master Hench can be mixed to become the ultimate Hench that can defeat Giara.

Characters

Broadcast

Mix Master: King of Cards debuted in South Korea on KBS2 on October 4, 2005. It ran for 39 episodes before concluding on July 18, 2006. Reruns would air on Nickelodeon, Tooniverse and other channels in the country. The first episode from the series was screened in Japanese at the Korean Cultural Center in Tokyo in 2009. To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the series received a 16:9 high-definition remaster which began airing on Cartoon Network in South Korea in February 2025. It later ran on other channels (including Laftel) before being uploaded to its own dedicated YouTube channel.

Taffy Entertainment acquired the international distribution rights to the series from Sunwoo Entertainment in October 2005. In September 2006, the company sold the series to Nickelodeon in Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain. In the United States, the series debuted alongside the launch of the Kabillion service in January 2007. In the United Kingdom, it began airing on Nicktoons in May 2007. The series premiered that same month in Singapore on Kids Central. It also aired in Australia and New Zealand on Cartoon Network. An English subtitled version of the Korean series aired on KBS World from 2010. The HD remaster of the dub was initially uploaded to its own dedicated YouTube channel from January 2025 to January 2026. Kartoon Channel began streaming it (along with Final Force) on August 22, 2025.

Merchandise

Following the debut of the series in South Korea, Sunwoo Entertainment had signed deals to launch over 100 different products tied to the show. This included a line of comics published by Jaemi Books from November 1, 2005. Hanbitsoft published a physical trading card game. Samsung released educational software themed around the series.

In September 2006, it was reported that Upper Deck had acquired the rights to print an English version of the trading card game. A year later, Taffy Entertainment clarified that this was erroneous as while discussions had taken place, nothing was finalized. Taffy would use Amazon's CreateSpace service to release the series across three manufacture on demand DVD sets in North America in October 2013.

Video games

The animated series is based off of the Mix Master massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Originally developed by Xai Media and published by Samsung, the game launched as an open beta in South Korea on April 15, 2003. It debuted in Japan on April 28, 2004. In 2006, Japanese games publisher SeedC acquired all rights to the title. SeedC and successive rights holders would then directly launch or partner with local companies to run versions of the game in China, France, Germany and other territories. The English server, operated by SeedC's Australian division, launched on May 18, 2007. It had shutdown by early 2011. In July 2008, SeedC produced the Mixmaster QR app for au mobile devices in Japan, offering several mini-games.

Aurora Games, the then newly established video game division of Korean toy manufacturer Aurora World, purchased the property in 2009. SeedC sold off their Japanese publishing rights to the game in 2010 to BIGLOBE, before acquiring it back in 2012. Under BIGLOBE, that version of the game was renamed to reMix Master on December 21, 2011. SeedC then sold their gaming business to Global Systems in 2015. They operated the Japanese game until its closure in April 2017. In late 2014, Aurora Games was absorbed within its parent company and the game transferred duties to Joyple. Joyple would relaunch the English, French and Japanese versions in January 2017, August 2017 and February 2019, respectively.

In conjunction with the animated series, Sunwoo Entertainment and HiCocoon developed Mix Master TCG, an online trading card game that launched in open beta in South Korea on August 25, 2005. The game ended service in late 2006. SeedC published the game in Japan, with it launching on May 24, 2006 before it shutdown on June 30, 2007.

Alongside the reveal of the second animated series in July 2009, Mix Master 2 was confirmed to be in development with it intended to launch alongside the show. In late 2013, Aurora Games announced Hench: The Mix Master, a fully 3D sequel to the original developed using Unity. The company hoped the game would run for 10 years and inspire spinoffs into other media, with two mobile games in development. The open beta launched in South Korea on February 13, 2014 but was not successful, being attributed to the publisher losing ₩1.3 billion in the first six months of the year. Service ended three months later. Joyple relaunched the game as Monster World through a one-month public beta on February 12, 2015. Joyple and OGN Studio retooled the game again under the name Mix Master 2. Global Systems launched this version in Japan on September 24, 2015, before service ended on August 31, 2016. Joyple operated it in South Korea between August 2016 and August 31, 2017.