The Drillimation Series

The Drillimation Series (ザ・ドリメーション・シリーズ) is a Japanese media franchise comprised of mostly anime and video games, as well as toys, novels, manga, and even feature-length films. The series generally revolves around the adventures of drillers, hackers, and bishoujo characters.

As The Drillimation Series is one of the biggest anime franchises of all time, it is the fifth highest-grossing video game series of all time behind Nintendo's Super Mario and Pokémon franchises, as well as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, and Tetris. The anime and games have been immediately successful across the globe and have been translated into more than fifty languages while being broadcasted in more than seventy countries. As of 2015, the franchise has entertained more than 300 million people and sold more than 1.2 billion copies worldwide.

The franchise has been inducted into the Guinness World Records a total of seven times, with one being Most Successful Video Game Franchise Based On A Cartoon Series in 2006, another being Most Prolific Shooter Game Series By An Indie Developer for the Touhou Project games, and another for Most Favored Couple In A Cartoon Series for the duo of Susumu Hori and Konata Izumi.

In 2015, Drillimation announced that a new anime was underway, with Drillimation reimagining some of their older, lighthearted anime into some darker and edgier settings. This would eventually become The New Star Trigon, set 20 years after the events of Mr. Driller Drill Spirits. The anime began airing in 2018.

Anime

 * Main Article: The Drillimation Series (anime)

The Drillimation anime is one of the two core assets that make up the popular franchise and spans six anime series. The stories revolve around the adventures of Susumu Hori and five others in their respective series, who must overcome dangerous obstacles and defeat a source of evil causing trouble in their homeworld. Dr. Manhole was the original villain in Star Trigon, Lucky Star, and Mr. Driller throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. After Manhole's crushing, ruinous defeat in Mr. Driller Drill Spirits, he has been absent in any Drillimation series that followed.

Since the creation of the Chuhou Project, Takumi Hearthcliffe has become the franchise's villain ever since. Since the rise of Crunchyroll, the entire anime can be streamed for free with advertising on their choice of dubbed (exclusive to premium) or subbed versions.

Games
The Drillimation Series is also one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time and was created in 1986 after Namco bought Drillimation in 1985.