I really liked the voices in this, especially Thomas'. It comes off as so kid friendly. I think the animation might be getting better. It's nice to see this labeled as a drama. It still has comedic moments though. Really everything does nowadays.
Attack mode? I think those were the cards from "Yu-Gi-Oh!". Nice little shout out. Oh, and this has great action scenes too. The animation kind of reminds me of Jhonen Vasquez.