Glitch Techs

Glitch Techs is an American animated web television series created by Eric Robles and Dan Milano for Nickelodeon and Netflix. The series premiered on February 21, 2020 on Netflix, with a second season releasing on August 17.

Glitch Techs
Promotional poster
Created by	Eric Robles Dan Milano
Directed by	Phil Allora Chris Graham Ian Graham
Voices of	Ricardo Hurtado Monica Ray Scott Kreamer Dan Milano Luke Youngblood
Theme music composer	Brad Breeck
Opening theme	"Glitch Techs Theme" by Brad Breeck and Melody Carrillo
Composer(s)	Brad Breeck
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	9
Production
Executive producer(s)	Eric Robles Dan Milano
Producer(s)	Debbie Steer Lisa Thibault Woods
Running time	23 minutes 46 minutes (episode 1)
Production company(s)	Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Distributor	Netflix Streaming Services ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks
Release
Original network	Netflix
Picture format	HDTV 1080p
Audio format	Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
Original release	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21) – present
External links
Website

Premise

Glitch Techs centers on teens Hector "Five" Nieves and Miko "Me-K.O." Kubota in the city of Bailley, where a group of people are secretly dealing with glitches that cause video game characters to manifest as energy beings into the real world that operate based on the coding of their affected games, and thus create havoc. To stop such Glitches, these Glitch Techs, working at a local game store as a front, must use their gamer logic with their equipment to counter and win. Only then can they be able to capture the Glitches, and proceed to fix any damage and erase any memories to prevent further panic. Now, after unexpectedly becoming the newest Glitch Techs, Hector and Miko will have to use their skills as gamers to help out.

Cast

Hinobi Glitch Techs

• Ricardo Hurtado as Hector "Five" Nieves/Hi-5, one of the two main characters. An avid gamer with confidence issues who grows with Miko's friendship.
  • Liam Ramos voices a young Five
• Monica Ray as Miko Kubota/Me-K.O./ミK.O., one of the two main characters. A sporadic gamer with energy to spare, she brings Five and herself into the Glitch Techs after remembering a Glitch event. She has also bested Five in numerous online co-op games. She is also the only known person that is somehow impervious to the Glitch Tech's memory wipe.
• Scott Kreamer as Phil, Five and Miko's supervisor and trainer. Having an exhausted but calm demeanor when at peace, he has the experience needed to guide his trainees.
• Dan Milano as BITT, the Binary Intelligence Tech Trainer, which serves as Phil's robotic assistant and information provider for Five and Miko.
  • Milano also voices Ally, Miko's glitch-turned-companion pet, as well as other computers.
• Luke Youngblood as Mitch Williams, the number one Hinobi gamer in the city, as well as Five's and Miko's inhospitable and egotistical senior Glitch Tech who tends to abuse his authority.
• Sandeep Parikh as Haneesh, one of the senior Glitch Techs. He is a proficient hacker, skilled Raid player, and part of Mitch's Team.
• Zehra Fazal as Zahra, one of the senior Glitch Techs. She is a skilled support type specialist, aloof, and willing to casually give an honest answer.
  • Fazal also voices Sabrina, a little girl who occasionally witnesses the Glitch Techs.
• Greg Nix as Nix, a senior Glitch Tech who mentors and is partner to Bergy during the Castle Crawl mission.
• Josh Sussman as Bergy, another n00b of Glitch Techs and a fast friend to Hi-5 and Me-K.O. after they join him on an XP Quest.
• Felicia Day as Emma, a specialist in training companion pets for Glitch Techs
  • Day also voices Simi, a blonde teen around town who also witnesses the Glitch Techs.

Hinobi Corporate

• Betsy Sodaro as Inspector 7, "Bookworm" Barbara. A former Glitch Tech from Phil's time, she inspects his store to ensure it operates within desired ranges. Covertly, she is to monitor Miko primarily given to immunity to memory reset, and Five as well being her friend.

Other characters

• Eric Lopez as Papi, Hector's father and owner of a Taco food truck.
• Stephanie Sheh as Mrs. Mayumi Kubota, Miko's mother.
• Dee Bradley Baker as Miko's dad.
• Rachael Russakoff as Nica Kubota, Miko's big sister. Once a gamer who taught Miko how to play, now a social self conscious high schooler.
  • Russakoff also voices the Glitch Tech gauntlets in the series.
• Haley Tju as Lexi Kubota, Miko's little sister. A sports perfectionist who knows about Miko's Glitch Tech activities, saving recordings since Miko's start.
• Catherine Taber as Nancy McGillicutty, Lexi's rival in Karate.

Production

Glitch Techs is produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio in the United States, with animation services provided by Top Draw Animation and assistance from Flying Bark Productions in Australia. The series was announced on May 25, 2016.[1] On January 12, 2019, it was reported that production on the series was stalled and crew members were being laid off. However, Robles later said that Glitch Techs had not been cancelled.[2]

In early 2020, it was confirmed that the series had moved to Netflix, and would premiere on February 21, 2020.[3][4][5][6] On July 22, 2020, it was announced that the second season would be released on August 17.[7]

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Storyboard by	Original release date [8]	Prod. code [8]
1	"Age of Hinobi"	Ian Graham	Dan Milano	Ben Choi, Chris Graham, Ian Graham, Phil Jacobson, Ben Juwono, Sung Kim & Sarah Partington	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)	101–102
A day after Glitch Tech Mitch Williams captures the "Zoid" glitch and resets witness memories, Hector "Five" Nieves rushed to the Hinobi Game Tournament, while Miko "Me-K.O." Kubota sneaks out of a family function to remote play. After a rough start, they both go co-op out of distain for Mitch's unsportsmanlike conduct. Reaching the final platform, a Glitch occurs, so Miko gives Five her ball to score the goal. But IRL, the Glitch manifests in front of the tournament audience, so Mitch's team defeats it and reset everyone's memories. However, Miko is immune to the memory reset and escapes being grounded to seek out Five. Together, they track down Mitch and confirm their suspicions, but confronting him releases the Zoid glitch into an arcade. Mitch locks the pair in his van, allowing them to activate BITT and Five to remember the tournament. Both adorn Glitch Tech gear to capture the glitch, now 'Chomp Kitty', but it soon goes viral manifesting other Glitch entities and eats Mitch. Five gets the idea to reverse a power-up into a nerf and derezzed Chomp Kitty, saving Mitch, who pleads they not reveal his tournament loss, so they are compensated with jobs at the company.
2	"Tutorial Mode"	Chris Graham	David Anaxagoras	Phil Jacobson, Sung Kim & Sarah Partington	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)	103
Phil has Five and Miko undergo "The Tutorial" in the simulator, which leads to an irate Miko to break and hard reboot the console. Seeking their tutorial file, they instead locate the full catalogue of all Hinobi games, and procrastinate playing the infamously unsold "Gross Out." Meanwhile, Phil, having ignored BITT's earlier warnings, is met by old friend "Bookworm" Barbara, who is to inspect his store because of the tournament Glitch, aiming to reset employees and close up if he fails. While playing, Five and Miko realize "Gross Out" was unsold because it was a glitched game, and release "Garbile" who forces the duo out of the simulator. Not wanting Phil to fire them, they lure Garbile into the trash compactor, mistakenly augmenting the glitch. When Phil and Barbara encounter them, Garbile unleashes his Max-Level fury, but Five and Miko get the idea to summon Garbile's game nemesis, Sanitron, to co-pilot for a win. An impressed Barbara decides not to shut down the store and a thankful Phil still has them complete the tutorial. Elsewhere, Barbara informs a superior about Miko and Five's progress, as said superior believes the duo can locate the reclusive "Bolypius."
3	"Going, Going, Gauntlet!"	Phil Allora	Ashly Burch	Benjamin Carow, Ben Choi, Michael Fong & Sheldon Vella	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)	104
On their inaugural day, Miko & Five get their first gauntlets, but Miko looses hers to a teleporting bird, and panics remembering her mom's "Focus" lecture. Confronting the bird again, it eats Miko's gauntlet to fire derez blasts, informing Five that it replicates powers from whatever it eats. The duo get the idea to use the mung bean sandwich lunch Miko's mom gave her to a trigger gag reflex, forcing the gauntlet free. Five scans the bird, who Miko names "Ally," and finds it was unstable after eating another Glitch, identified as Ginko, which grew to the size of a small building in a few short moments. Miko breaks her gauntlet just defending Five and Ally, but they learn Ginko's pattern. After they devise a plan using Ally to attack Ginko's power source, Five gives Miko his gauntlet to take the shot using a timed dive bomb to derez giant Ginko and earn 10,000 XP. After reseting witness memories, Phil repairs Miko's gauntlet, and the duo turn in their XP for prizes, but decide to instead list Ally as a companion pet in their team's resources. At home, Miko's mom tells her how proud she is about getting her job.
4	"Smashozaurs"	Chris Graham	Jeff Trammell	Phil Jacobson, Sung Kim & Sarah Partington	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)	105
As Five and Miko lose another glitch snag to Mitch's kill steal, Five races to see his friend Casino at the arcade for a reunion, after a two year split. As they play their favorite 'Smashozaurs' game, an ultra rare "Possessor" Glitch appears and fuses Casino to his favorite character avatar. To protect Casino from Mitch, Five escapes with him while Miko runs interference with Mitch, who later explains that the Possessor Glitch is an XP goldmine before stunning Miko to chase Casino. At a junkyard, Five and Casino smash junk before hitting an argument as Five wants to remove the Possessor and restore Casino. BITT explains to Miko that, if not removed soon, the Possessor could be a permanent fusion and turn viral to humans. Remembering how the Smashozaur games have end levels on bridges, Miko stalls Mitch once more as Five intercepts Casino and tries to reach his friend inside. After a brawl where Five and Miko are hurt, Casino regains his sense of self and forces out the Glitch; Mitch arrives to capture the Possessor and takes his leave. Following Casino's memory reset, Five and Miko return to the arcade to just play games uninterrupted as friends.
5	"Castle Crawl"	Phil Allora	Sandeep Parikh	Ben Choi, Michael Fong & Sheldon Vella	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)	106
After Nix and Bergy and two other teams go AFK on a glitch capture, Five and Miko are sent in to resolve the Mapper Glitch, which overlays a game setting atop real environments, finding the interior to be a massive castle from "Castlestein." Once inside, Miko and Five are locked in the game and shut down their gauntlet to save batteries. Seeking the game boss, Nogrog, they encounter a mini-boss, who Five struggles to fight as Miko spectates. He admits to never finishing the game, having lied out of feeling left out. Miko surmised this, and pulls him out to continue, saying she doesn't think less of him. Reaching Nogrog, they learn his pattern to win, but realize the still active game is unbeaten, thus there's an unseen component. Remembering his riddle, Five uses a random drop key he found earlier to access the next step, and they reach the "unreachable" Loot Drop from a mystery chest: a spork. At the true final round, Five realizes the statue behind Nogrog is his weak point, and the spork becomes a magic super sword, which allows them to co-op a win, catch the Mapper Glitch, and free the other Glitch Techs.
6	"Alpha Leader"	Chris Graham	Ashly Burch	Sung Kim, Phil Jacobson & Sarah Partington	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)	107
Five & Miko, going by "Dream Team," aid Mitch's Raid Squad to derez a Glitch swarm, but Mitch gets an infection from the boss Glitch and is quarantined. Elsewhere, four MMO Avatar Glitches manifest in an abandoned amusement park, so Five is made Dream Team's Raid Leader with Haneesh and Zahra as add-ons. However, Mitch convinces Five's to "act like a leader", making Five replicate Mitch's toxic Leadership style, and dismissing Haneesh and Zahra's advice. After Miko destroys a Control Point Rod, their victory is short lived when all four MMO Glitches retaliate, forcing Dream Team to retreat. Once Five derezzed one of the Glitches, he learns they can respawn via a command ship, which Haneesh tried warning about all mission. Five realizes his team's capture is his fault, and with Ally's help to free Dream Team, Five makes amends so they can strategize to destroy the Respawn Ship. While Five fights the MMO Glitches, Dream Team use one of Haneesh's hacks to mod the control rods and destroy the respawn ship. With the glitches defeated, Dream Team commends Five for his leadership and being himself; Haneesh and Zahra decide to rotate leadership on missions to better their command skills.
7	"Collection Quest"	Phil Allora	Jenny DeArmitt	Ben Choi, Alex Chiu & Michael Fong	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)	108
When Five realized he forgot to pre-order limited edition swag, BITT informs him there's a saved copy in the Loot Locker for XP trade-in. Dream Team co-op with Bergy for a timed crystal quest to get the XP needed, but Miko is concurrently forced by her mother to take Nica along for "bonding time," mandating a selfie every ten minutes for confirmation. Five and Bergy collect the first crystal from a game turtle, but fail to reset a witness, while Nica explains to Miko how her classmates mocked a random student after a misunderstanding, so Nica feels pressure. After Five and Bergy get more crystals, they reluctantly invite Nica as they seek more crystals at a car-wash. In Five's haste, he opens a hole in the ground to reveal a treasure trove and a 'Narwhalrus' Glitch, the boss from an app game Nica plays: "Crystal Crush." Nica proves the gems around them are ammunition, so they use it to attack the Glitch by destroying its projectiles. Sacrificing their crystals to wear down Narwhalrus, Dream Team weaken it so Five can land the finishing blow and collect 500,000 XP; the Kubota sisters later take another selfie, after the fun day together.
8	"Adventures in Pet Training"	Phil Allora	Jen Bardekoff & Dan Milano	Ben Choi, Michael Fong & Myriam Fourati	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)	109
While pursuing a "Ka-Zoom" Glitch, Ally badly glitches out causing Miko to get increasingly worried. At HQ, Phil directs the duo to Emma, Hinobi's pet trainer, who portals Five and Miko into a custom map based on Ally's native game to help find a solution, but the game glitches to trap them inside and on opposite ends of the map. Struggling to cross a lava river, Miko and Ally find an underground path against a caveworm, and after giving Ally a fruit, Miko realizes she needed food native to her game to restore her, and activates Ally's Phoenix Form. Elsewhere, Five has difficulty bypassing gate sentries, but encounters the mech golem Alpha, who helps him through in exchange for repairs. Once fixed, Five and Alpha become friends, and tank rush their way to reunite with Miko and Ally at the summit. Atop the tower, Dream Team encounter the Guardian, but are losing time to win and exit the sim, so Alpha sacrifices itself to help them escape. IRL, Emma explains the entrapment was intentional to teach them, with Miko grateful for understanding Ally better, and Five realizing pets are indeed unique, thus Emma restores Alpha to be Five's personal pet.
9	"Karate Trainer"	Phil Allora	Eric Acosta	Ben Choi, Michael Fong & Sheldon Vella	February 21, 2020 (2020-02-21)	110
At Miko's home, Lexi reveals to her having knowledge of Miko's work being a Glitch Tech to ask her help for training before her Karate finals. Miko agrees, and calls in Five for help to sneak into the simulator at HQ by swiping Phil's access card and explain Lexi to Five. Activating the "Karate Trainer 4" dojo, Lexi struggles to learn the skills for the martial arts styles until Miko demonstrates as Five elaborates. Exiting the "Monkey" stage, Five learns from BITT that the simulator is under repairs, and won't deactivate as Lexi's training belt remains in use. At the Karate Finals, after Lexi looses to Nancy McGillicutty and the Kubotas leave, Dream Team try to derez the glitched Dojo training belt. However, it instead materializes the Dojo and The Master, who overwhelms Five and Miko. Lexi hears Master's words and realizes that, as the "student," she needs to beat the Master instead. Five and Miko watch as Lexi uses the martial arts she gained from the game to overpower and defeat the master, ending the Glitch and earns a perfect combo game trophy. The sisters go home to play more games, with Lexi comfortable with winning or losing.

References

1. Terry Flores (May 25, 2016). "Nickelodeon Greenlights Season 2 of Loud House, Picks Up New Game-Themed Toon (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
2. Amid Amidi (January 11, 2019). "Nickelodeon Froze Production, Laid Off Significant Crew On Its Upcoming Series 'Glitch Techs'". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
3. Nickelodeon Animation [@NickAnimation] (January 22, 2020). "You'll never look at video games the same again when Glitch Techs hits @netflixfamily in February" (Tweet). Retrieved February 11, 2020 – via Twitter.
4. Nickelodeon Animation [@NickAnimation] (February 7, 2020). "Releasing the Glitch February 21st on @netflixfamily!" (Tweet). Retrieved February 11, 2020 – via Twitter.
5. Taimur Dar (February 10, 2020). "Nickelodeon's GLITCH TECHS coming to Netflix". Comics Beat. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
6. "Video: Glitch Techs New Series Trailer - Netflix Futures" (Press release). Netflix. February 7, 2020. Retrieved February 22, 2020 – via The Futon Critic.
7. Nickelodeon Animation [@NickAnimation] (July 22, 2020). "Get ready for even MORE Glitch Techs when Season 2 drops August 17th on @Netflix !" (Tweet). Retrieved July 22, 2020 – via Twitter.
8. "Glitch Techs Episode Listings". The Futon Critic.

External links

• Glitch Techs on IMDb