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Developed by Leo Espinosa on behalf of DIC Entertainment and AG Properties, the weekly, half-hour cartoon series Sushi Pack vigorously emulated the Japanese anime format despite its North American origins. The series took place in Wharf City, where four anthropomorphic pieces of sushi (you heard right--sushi) and a wad of wasabi joined forces to fight crime on the docks of Bento Bay. These delectable do-gooders included Ikura Maki, a fearless, orange-colored salmon, the "hothead" of the team who shot sticky salmon balls at his enemies and feared nothing in the world--except, understandably, hungry bears; Crabby Crab, a klutzy, hard-shelled pink queen crab, who used the claws growing from her head to render the villains helpless in her trademark "Pincher" hold; Maguro Maki, a tough purple-hued tuna, the spirtual guru of the quartet, whose great strength lay in her intense powers of concentration; Tako Maki, an artistically-inclined blue octopus, who wanted nothing more than to live in peace, but was fully prepared to defend himself by shooting multi-colored ink at his opponents; and Wasabi Pow, a yellow-colored "super hottie", the smallest member of the team, who made up for his lack of verbal skills with his fighting prowess. The principal villains of the piece were the members of the Legion of Low Tide, led by a sneerish catfish known as the Titanium Chef. His stooges included the fatty tuna Toro, the mutated electric eel Ungai, Fugu the blowfish, Uni the evil sea urchin, and Mochi Mochiato, the first talking frozen ball of rice-coated ice cream in TV history. First telecast in the US on November 3, 2007, series' 52 fifteen minute episodes were doled out in weekly rations of two episodes per half-hour program. Produced and cowritten by TV animation stalwarts Tom Ruegger and Nicholas Hollander, Sushi Pack was part of CBS's "KEWLopolis" block, a three-hour manifest of FCC-required children's programs which the network's affiliates were permitted to telecast either on Saturday or Sunday mornings.