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Meta Runner is an Australian computer-animated web series created by Kevin and Luke Lerdwichagul.

It is produced in-house by Glitch Productions, along with production funding provided by Screen Australia, financed with support from Crunchyroll and AMD, and financed in association with Epic Games.

Meta Runner was first teased at the end of the SMG4 episode, "War of the Fat Italians 2018", depicting the character Theo and the date 5 December 2018.

The months following had similar teasers of different Meta Runner arms before the official trailer for Meta Runner was uploaded on 5 December 2018.

It premiered on YouTube on July 25, 2019, with season 2 premiering on the channel GLITCH on October 16, 2020.

The third and final season, known as Meta Runner: The Final Season, premiered on July 22, 2022.

The series takes place in a Futuristic society where entertainment and lifestyle are based around video games and esports.

The best of the best gamers in this society are known as "Meta Runners", many of whom replace one of their arms with a cybernetic arm also called a "Meta Runner" arm in order to optimize their gameplay performance.

The series focuses on an amnesiac cyborg girl named Tari, who discovers that she has the ability to warp inside video games, and comes across and helps an undercover group called MD-5 in their mission to expose the corrupt company TAS Corp.

As revealed in a video titled "The Making of Tari" uploaded by Luke and Kevin Lerdwichagul on 14 February 2019 on the YouTube channel SMG4, the concept of Tari's character started when Kevin and Luke asked their younger sister, Tish, who was drawing in her sketchbook, if she had any ideas for a new character to add to their channel's titular machinima series; she drew a "gamer girl" character who would become Tari.

The first early design of Tari was for her to be a robot instead of a cyborg, an antenna on top of her head, headphones, a simple jacket with a love heart stitched onto it and a d-pad for her right eye.

Eventually, Tari was redesigned as a human cyborg with a white vest with the Meta Runner emblem, which was based on the blue jay’s wing.

She was also given a blue hoodie with blue jay wing patterns on each shoulder starting from "Sequence Break" (episode 4).

On 18 March 2019, it was announced that Meta Runner was one of many projects to receive funding from a $500,000 grant from Unreal Engine.

On 25 June 2019, it was announced that Meta Runner would be funded by Screen Australia, Epic Games and AMD.

On 20 July 2019, Glitch Productions announced that they had partnered with Crunchyroll to produce the series.

A pilot for a spin-off show titled Ultra Jump Mania, based on the fictional video game of the same name in the show, was released on 4 September 2020.

However, as of September 2023, it has not been picked up for a full season.

In Silica City, all media and entertainment are mostly based around video games, not just serving as entertainment, but also jobs in live streaming and lifestyle.

Among members of society are Meta Runners, individuals who have replaced their limbs with cybernetic arms that allow them to boost their gaming performance.

The series tells the story of Tari, a Meta Runner who was the subject of an experiment called Project Blue, led by Dr. Sheridan, a scientist who was commissioned by TAS Corp. After waking up in an abandoned lab, Tari finds herself in Silica City with amnesia.

The last thing Tari can remember is a sudden accident causing an explosion in the lab that seemingly kills Sheridan and his patient, Lucinia Porter.

On 20 April 2020, Screen Australia announced the funding of Meta Runner season 2.

The second season aired from 16 October to 18 December 2020.

A third season was announced by the creator Luke Lerdwichagul a few weeks before season 2 was completed, before being formally announced on November 29, 2021.

A teaser trailer was released on May 6, 2022.

The teaser confirmed that the third season will be the final season and will be released the summer of the same year.

On June 24, 2022, the official trailer for season 3 was released, confirming it would begin on July 22, 2022.

It ended on September 9, 2022.

The series has not continued since the final episode, however it has been referenced in the primary SMG4 series, with the recurring leitmotif being heard in the SMG4 Movie "Western Spaghetti".

The SMG4 counterpart of Tari was also redesigned to resemble her Meta Runner equivalent.

After the finale on September 9, 2022, a comic series, entitled "Meta Runner: Source" was announced, appearing to go through the backstory of Lucinia Porter.

It was also promoted through a pre-video announcement for the third episode of SMG4's Lawsuit Arc, "SMG4: If Mario Was In... Splatoon 3", released on September 10.

A trailer dedicated to the comic was released on September 11 on the GLITCH channel.

All episodes were written by Kevin Lerdwichagul and Jasmine Yang, and Luke Lerdwichagul served as creative director.

All episodes were written by Jasmine Yang and directed by Luke Lerdwichagul.