Nostalgia Anime Review: Beyblade
Ah Beyblade. An anime from my youth. Today I managed to finish my rewatch of this series, which was born out of a three-hour break between classes and the discovery that I could access Youtube from my phone. Regardless, it was a good way to kill 20 minutes when I didn't have anything else to do, or wanted to procrastinate on my papers. Mindless nostalgia was generated.
Beyblade is the story of one Tyson Granger, a 13 year old boy who loves to beyblade. After winning the Japanese regional tournament, he teams up with best friends Kenny, and Max, newcomer Ray, and rival Kai, in order to challenge various tournaments and eventually win the world championships.
While fairly straightforward, the series scores in the ridiculous department when one realizes that a beyblade? Is a spinning top. A super-powered spinning top with a magical beast inside which gives it a super attack, and is apparently so powerful that government funding is needed to research the technology, because these things can be used to take over the world. I really wish I was kidding about all of this. And yet surprisingly, as a younger viewer, I really liked this anime. A lot. To the point of writing fanfiction about it and getting obsessed with the characters. Yes. I admit this freely, and it's why it led to the rewatch. Of course, for full nostalgia, it was watched dubbed.
In terms of plot, this anime is standard shonen tournament. The series can easily be divided into five arcs, each ending in a tournament. It's pretty basic storytelling, but since this is an anime targeted at kids, it makes sense and the arcs fit well with the story, One of the really interesting things about the arcs, however, is that along with needing to win the tournament in order to advance to the world championships, they also tended to focus on a character's backstory. And this, I think, is one of the most endearing aspects of the series, and what drew me in as a younger viewer. Although one could easily say the show is ultimately a commercial for the toys it sold, it focused a lot more on the characters than on the tops themselves.
And the characters themselves were interesting enough. Each one getting their backstories fleshed out through an arc, and Tyson being the one to hold everyone together. Granted, as a younger and older viewer, Tyson remains my least favorite character. I always found him annoying. Regardless, they were good characters, and ones worth following The pacing of these arcs was also very good. The series is only 51 episodes, and each episode usually features a battle, but the only battle that actually lasts more than 1 episode is the final battle at the end of the show. It's a well paced show, with some episodes that could be considered filler, but most actually move the plot in some way.
One of the things that I really noticed this time through, however, was the number of plot inconsistencies. Since I just watched the dub, and not the sub, I don't know if this is something consistent, or just the fault of the dub. It's probably the latter, but I'll leave it open. But holy cow, the plot inconsistencies. It was like the writers couldn't decide if Beyblade was something new, or been around for a long time, that Kai was the world champion, or not, that people knew about the Demolition Boys, or they didn't, it was honestly ridiculous. And if I may get on a rant for a moment, very confusing. So the Demolition Boys are the world champions? Then why has no one heard of them? At all. You'd think that someone, somewhere, would have said something? It just really didn't make sense.
That being said, I'll move onto the animation, which is alright. While fairly consistent, there are some scenes that seem a bit weird, like they missed some colour or something. Seriously, Kai, one of the main characters, wears these red arm guards, and sometimes, it looks like they forgot to colour the part on the forearm, making it look like he has metal fins growing out of his arm.
If the animators have any problem, it's definitely with the scale, and this is something that my younger self noticed as well. The animators can't seem to decide how big a beyblade is. It's either palm sized or smaller than a palm but nothing seems to stay the same, and it's different every episode. Not to mention that they can't seem to figure out how big it is in regards to the launcher. As well, the battles themselves aren't very interesting, since the beyblade designs are rather bland. That being said, I do remember this improves considerably in the later two seasons.
Music wise, it's forgettable. The background music tracks are alright and easy listening, but nothing really stands out. The series also makes use of a number of insert songs, which are not very good rock songs about how awesome beyblading is. Easy to get stuck in your head, not very good listening. The opening is also very annoying, but again, will remain in your brain.
Overall, Beyblade is a relic of nostalgia for me. It was a series that I liked, but unfortunately the rewatch served to reveal all the weaknesses of the show that really made the experience different for me. I was over most of these characters and not very invested in their stories. It's not really something worth recommending, unless you really like tournament shonen, or just want a laugh, or are looking for a good anime to show to a younger, say 10 year old, audience. It simply exists as nostalgia.
Beyblade is available from Viz Media and Nelvana Limited. The original manga by Takao Aoki is also available from Viz Media (and isn't that great. One of Viz's flops in the translation department). Beyblade also possesses two sequel series, Beyblade Vforce and Beyblade GRevolution, as well as a spinoff series, Metal Fight Beyblade/Beyblade Metal Fusion, all of which will be subjects of future reviews.
But for now, I'll be taking my leave of nostalgia, and picking up again with some regular anime with Zoku: Sayanora Zetsubou Sensei. It'll be nice to watch something I've never seen before.