The Rock-afire Explosion Show (Johnsonverse)

The Rock-Afire Explosion Show is an American animated series developed by Tim Johnson and Aaron Fechter, based on the eponymous band by Creative Engineering, Inc. It has aired on Netflix since December 16, 2016, and all of the band's voice actors reprise their roles.

The show has been critically acclaimed for its fluid, detailed animation, its voice acting and writing, and its songs. It has been renewed to Season 8, and has been nominated for an Emmy award for Best Drama, Comedy and Limited Series in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Synopsis
The Rock-Afire Explosion experiences various adventures, sometimes with Munch's Make-Believe Band and/or Ho-Kago Teatime.

Rock-Afire Explosion

 * Aaron Fechter as Billy Bob, Looney Bird, Rolfe DeWolfe, Earl Schmerle, and Sun
 * Burt Wilson as Fatz Geronimo and Antioch
 * Rick Bailey as Beach Bear
 * Duke Chaupetta as Dook LaRue
 * Jeff Howell as Uncle Klunk and Moon
 * Sarah Locke as Mitzi Mozzarella Jr.
 * Shalisa James as Mitzi Mozzarella Sr.

Munch's Make-Believe Band

 * Jaret Reddick as Chuck E. Cheese
 * Carolyn Richardson as Helen Henny
 * Jeremy Blaido as Jasper T. Jowls
 * Earl Fisher as Pasqually T. Pieplate
 * Chris Hill as Mr. Munch

Ho-Kago Teatime

 * Stephanie Sheh as Yui Hirasawa
 * Cassandra Lee Morris as Ritsu Tainaka
 * Cristina Valenzuela as Mio Akiyama
 * Shelby Lindley as Tsumugi "Mugi" Kotobuki
 * Christine Marie Cabanos as Azusa Nakano
 * Xanthe Hyunh as Ui Hirasawa
 * Michelle An Dunphy as Jun Suzuki
 * Laura Bailey as Nodoka Manabe

Development
The idea of a Rock-Afire Explosion cartoon was first floated in the late 1980s, and was one of the reasons Fechter refused to sign over the rights for the characters to ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc., in addition to SPT's assumption that Fechter would do so for free.

Production began in earnest in 2016 after months of negotiations. Johnson and Fechter made sure that the series would not be an advertisement for ShowBiz Pizza Place or its products, instead opting to make it an incidental location within the series. Johnson and Fechter serve as executive producers alongside Kathleen Helppie-Shipley, known for her work with Warner Bros. Animation.

Writing
The writing team consists of Johnson, Fechter, Wilson, regular Johnson writers Robby Victors and Jennifer Tennville, Rachel Ramras, Animaniacs writers Sherri Stoner and Paul Rugg, former Simpsons writer John Swartzwelder, Happy Tree Friends writers and former Sonic the Hedgehog English translators Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, and former SpongeBob SquarePants writers Merriwether Williams, Aaron Springer, Dani Michaeli, Kent Osborne, Zeus Cervas, Richard Pursel, and Paul Tibbitt, while Springer also serves as the story editor.

Casting
All of the voice actors for the Rock-Afire Explosion, Munch's Make-Believe Band, and Ho-Kago Teatime reprise their roles for the series. The Rock-Afire Explosion's voice actors record at the Creative Engineering headquarters in Orlando, Florida, and Ho-Kago Teatime's voice actors record at 4K Studiopolis in Los Angeles, California.

Animation
The animation is produced by Johnson Television Animation; with a budget of $150 million per season, this is one of the highest-budgeted productions from the studio. Veteran animator Eric Goldberg is one of the directors, alongside Rich Moore, Terry Lennon, Darrell Van Citters, Milt Gray, former animator Greg Duffell, and Chuck Jones protege Stephen Fossatti, while Derek Drymon and Jeff Degrandis serve as supervising producers.

Before production began, many artstyles were proposed and/or tested, before it was decided to narrow down to [[Media:D8uo8ab-7d4bce3b-0fae-41f9-8d69-1e578de391c9.png|three]] [[Media:Mitzi Mozzarella Jr. concept art.png|possible]] [[Media:The mice of showbiz by theantleredwolfie ddcwuu0-fullview.jpg|artstyles]]; the second one, which was Mitzi Jr.'s original concept art from 2015, was ultimately chosen. The K-On! characters are animated separately by Kyoto Animation using their original artstyle.

Critical response
The series has been critically acclaimed. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a score of 100%, and

Ratings
Ratings for the series have been consistently high since its first season.