Beyblade

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Beyblade was a rather formulaic sports anime set in present day. It focused on the trials and tribulations of the Bladebreakers, a team of Beybladers who all came from different backgrounds and countries. In short, it was partly a Mons series, too, in that most characters had a "bit beast" in their Beyblade. Said beasts were able to control various elements.

Beyblading, you see, was just spinning tops. But turned up to 11.

The show ran for three ~50-episode seasons. Season 1 dealt with the formation of the Bladebreakers, and gave us looks into their various pasts (Ray's defection from his team in China, Kai's hellish upbringing in Russia, etc.) This season was pretty much one Tournament Arc after another. The format was as follows:

  • 1. Meet a new team, pick a fight with them, and learn which Bladebreaker had some past issue with them.
  • 2. Play up the issue for a few episodes, as the character in question will a) doubt his place with the Bladebreakers, b) threaten to quit, and ultimately c) face the leader of his old team in a battle.

Season 1 ultimately ended with Tyson becoming the world champion after defeating Tala of the Demolition Boys, despite the fact that it was a team tournament.

Season 2 (V-Force) tried to do something different. It introduced The Chick named Hiromi/Hilary, who really disliked Tyson. She later became an assistant to the team, not taking part in battles herself but assisting the rest in training and helping to hold things together. Also, the pacing of the story was far different, as the focus of the story was mainly on the conflict between the Bladebreakers and the Saint Shields, who went from bad guys to reluctant allies, only to prove that Good Is Dumb when failing against the bad guys. There was a Tournament Arc at the very end of the season, in which Tyson yet again became the world champion of Beyblade. It changed up the beyblades to use Magnacores, magnets in the center that added a new dynamic.

Season 3 (G-Revolution) once again introduced a new part to the beyblades, the Engine Gear, a motor that gave the blades a spin boost in battle. It was a return to the Tournament Arc after Tournament Arc format, with one major twist: the Bladebreakers were no longer together. Max and Ray went back to their old teams, and Kai, in a The Only One Allowed to Defeat You situation, defected to Tala's team so he could face Tyson. The teammates faced off against each other in the various tournaments, but ultimately became allies again for the final Tournament Arc of the series. it also introduced a new main character, Daichi Sumeragi, Boris's new Quirky Miniboss Squad (BEGA), and a whole new kind of beyblade, the Heavy/Hard Metal System, which would serve as the basis for Metal Fight Beyblade. Oh yeah...and midway through the first series of tournaments, Tyson was yet again named the world champion.

Note that the anime series was adapted from the manga. Changes were to be expected such as the length in battles (the manga featured a one-battle-only mode while the anime used the best-out-of-three rounds). Furthermore, in the manga, many of the members of other teams were actually lucky if their names were even mentioned while the anime fleshed them out a bit more (to the point of giving 'every single team member' a bit beast and at least featuring them in one battle). Finally, the anime included an original final arc, the BEGA tournament one, with new enemies. To be fair though, the new enemies were taken from characters that appeared on extra artwork pages of the manga.

Years after both the manga and anime concluded, the franchise was revived again in a manga and later anime, Metal Fight Beyblade. In 2012, yet another new series was announced: Beyblade Zero G.

Tropes used in Beyblade include:
  • Adaptation Expansion: Some characters in the manga were lucky to even have names. The anime went on giving every single team its own set of bit beasts and at least one on-screen battle. Some even got to be a major point in each Tournament arc.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The dub has a different opening theme song. "LET'S BEYBLADE!".
  • Ambiguous Gender: The bit-beasts, barring Dragoon, Driger (male), Wolborg and Galux (female). Doesn't matter what the American dub claims (which refers to all bit-beasts as male).
  • Americans Hate Tingle: In-Universe example: The Russians aren't big fans of the All Starz.
  • Amicably Divorced: Max's parents. It's made more obvious that his parents are actually seperated in the manga, but the BSOD he goes into upon seeing Judy with the Allstars in the anime definitely suggests he hasn't seen her in a while.
  • Animal Battle Aura
  • Anime Chinese Girl: Ming-Ming, sometimes so much it hurts.
  • Anti-Hero: Kai
  • Artificial Human: Zeo (in the anime)
  • Art Shift: The animation style changed radically after the first season, to the point that all the main characters looked younger in V-Force despite being supposedly one year older. Fortunately, the Art Shift from V-Force to G-Revolution was more subtle, and the characters looked their age once again.
  • Babies Ever After: The last chapter of the manga. Also Honorary Uncle re. Makoto with Max and Kenny.
  • Battle Tops: The premise of the show.
  • Big Bad: Dr. Zagart, Boris and Voltaire, and that's just off the top of my head.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Team Psykick, Barthez Battalion in the manga.
  • Can't Catch Up: To put it simple, anyone without an incredibly rare Bit Beast has no chance against someone who does, regardless of skill. This line of thought reached its logical conclusion by the third series, by which time Bit Beasts had become as common as dirt.
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Yes. Yes, it was.
    • Seriously, the series must have had this just to attract some female following. And indeed, it worked.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In S1 episode 32, Ray finds a silver coin on the train the Bladebreakers are on. Later in the episode, he uses it to defeat a werewolf bit-beast.
  • The Chick: Hilary, mostly.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Saint Shields and Team Kane.
  • Combined Energy Attack: Tyson's battle against Brooklyn.
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: All four main male characters are voiced in the original by females. Averted in the dub.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Oh, yeah, you better believe it.
  • Disney Death: There was a somewhat odd example near the end of season 1. Ray's bit-beast Driger apparently sacrifices itself in order to save Ray's life. According to Kai, while Driger was able to protect Ray from taking further damage from Falborg's wind attacks, the attack was too much for Driger, which caused it to disappear after the fight. Near the end of the season finale, it is shown that Driger has returned to Ray.
    • Similarly, in G-Rev, Dranzer's bit-chip shatters and you hear it cry ... and yet, come epilogue, here s/he is again.
    • When Tyson beat Tala, Driger returned, along with all the other stolen bit-beasts ... despite the fact that Driger hadn't been stolen.
  • Distant Finale: In the manga.
  • Eagle Land: The All Starz.
  • Eighties Hair: Looking at you, Kai.
  • Elemental Powers: Water (Draciel), Wind (Dragoon), Fire (Dranzer), Earth (Strata Dragoon) and Lightning (Driger in G-Rev). Dragoon's named element in the show is Wood, but apparently Wind comes under the heading sometimes.
  • Empathic Plastic Toys
    • They're actually made of metal, in-universe. It's the official toys that are plastic.
      • Some toys come with metal parts. Some of those quite heavy, and some comes with small pieces of a material that sparks on contact.
  • Evil Twin: Black Dranzer. Also in the movie, all the Dark bit-beasts. Maybe the Cyber ones of V-Force too.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning: the whole damn premise.
  • Five-Man Band: The Bladebreakers. As a matter of fact, some of them were double examples. after they split up, they later came back together as the G Revolutions, tying in to Season 3's name and putting in Daichi as the 5th member.
  • The Four Gods: The protagonists' Bit Beasts. Specifically, Genbu (Draciel), Suzaku (Dranzer), Byakko (Driger) and Seiryuu (Dragoon).
    • Daichi's Strata Dragoon is meant to be the fifth god, in Chinese mythlogy. Yellow and represents earth.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Tyson is choleric, Kai is phlegmatic, Ray is melancholic and Max is sanguine.
    • White Tigers: Lee is melancholic, Mariah is sanguine, Gary is phlegmatic and Kevin is choleric.
    • All Starz: Michael is sanguine, Eddie is phlegmatic, Steven is choleric and Emily is melancholic.
    • The Majestics: Robert is melancholic, Johnny is choleric, Oliver is phlegmatic and Enrique is sanguine.
    • Demolition Boys: Tala is melancholic, Spencer is choleric, Ian is sanguine and Bryan is phlegmatic.
  • Functional Magic: Device Magic primarily, but Theurgy and Wild Magic come into play.
  • Game-Breaking Injury: Subverted. Always. Whatever damage the characters take is always cured in time for the next bey-battle. There was that one time Ray twisted his ankle, but it didn't matter anyway, because he and Tyson were late and Kai fought his battle.
  • Good Is Dumb: Just about any person who fought the Bladebreakers and reformed is an example. The two most glaring ones are the Saint Shields, who were legitimate threats in their first appearances, and Tala, who fought Tyson for the World Championship at the end of the first season. Then he returned in Season 3, and was demoted to Kai's second banana.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: Brooklyn, the final boss of Season 3, never practices because he has an abnormal level of natural talent. This is presented as a Bad Thing ... except you rarely see anyone else practising either. Most of the time, when someone needs to get stronger, they either get new equipment or a convenient Bit Beast upgrade.
    • But whenever they do get new equipmemt, they have to train. That was how Hilary ended up joining the team!
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Kai qualifies for this trope well.
  • Heel Face Turn: Just about everyone that the Bladebreakers fought ended up this way.
  • Heroic BSOD: Kai after losing to Brooklyn.
  • Heroic RROD: Kai after beating Brooklyn.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Min Min is voiced by Aya Hirano.
    • In the dub, she's voiced by the same woman who did Chibiusa in Sailor Moon.
  • Hot Mom: Max's mother, who also happens to be a Hot Scientist working for the Americans.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: The leader of the All Starz has one of these moments; notable in that he was an antagonist at the time.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Kai on Lake Baikal. And Zeo vs. Tyson, Salima vs Ray.
  • It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": While the dub got most of the names that stayed the same right, one name they flubbed on was that of Ray's Bit-Beast, Driger, which was originally said as "Drai-ger", but was changed to "Drih-ger"
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold Kai is as antisocial as they come, but in one episode he's willing to train a young blader.....if only it was so said blader could bring Tyson/Takao down a peg or two after his ego swelled liked a balloon.
  • Killed Off for Real: Dr B. in the second season gets accidentally killed in a fit of insanity. The death itself is offscreen but the implication is clear.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Ray. Hair almost down to his ankles. Garland. Several others count, but these two are the most magnificient examples.
  • Letter Motif: Dragoon, Dranzer, Draciel, Driger. Also evident in the White Tiger team - Galeon, Galzy, Galman, Galux - and the All Starz team: Trygle, Trypio, Tryhorn, Trygator.
    • The Demolition Boys had this for the second syllable: Wolborg, Seaborg, Falborg, Wyborg
    • Keeping the list strong with the Majestics: Griffolyon, Salamalyon, Amphylyon and Unicolyon
  • Limited Wardrobe. Everyone. All the time. Only exception I can think of is Ming-Ming, and sometimes you'd see people in their nightwear.
    • Hilary and Hiro displayed a few different outfits throughout G-Revolution.
      • Also if you count different seasons, each main character had at least 3 outfits and most returning characters had 2.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters
  • Loophole Abuse: There is a rule that you can't attack another player, but it doesn't count if you can't see the weapon. Bryan was able to seriously injure Ray by attacking him with air control.
  • Merchandise-Driven
  • The Movie
  • Multinational Team: The Majestics, from Europe, have Robert (German), Johnny (British), Oliver (French) and Enrique (Italian). The Barthez Battalion might also be this, considering the members have names of different origins, but no specific nationalities are stated.
  • Official Couple: Ray and Mariah at the end of the manga.
  • Off-Model: Anyone even only half-paying attention to the show can catch the numerous amounts of animation errors. Mostly rampant in season 1, with the animators tending to draw the wrong Beyblade in a certain scene. Seasons 2 and 3 have their fair share of this too, though.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Kai. So very Kai.
  • Parental Abandonment: When it comes to the main characters, Tyson's mother is dead, and his father is away most of the time because of his job. Kai is in a similar situation, but has it worse than Tyson. Max's parents are divorced, he lives with his father, but he does have a good relationship with both parents. As for Ray, his parents never appear and we never really hear anything about them. So, we don't really know anything about his family situation.
  • Recap Episode: Season 1's Episode 29, where Kenny recaps everything that has happened from the moment he meets Tyson until the end of the American tournament.
  • Replacement Goldfish ( Zeo/Leon in the manga)
  • Science Is Bad: Boris is Why We Can't Have Nice Things.
  • Serious Business: This series is up there with Yu-Gi-Oh! in terms of inanity. Apparently, if you want to take over the world, you have to do it with spinning tops.
    • Lampshaded by Brooklyn to Kai, who on several occasions made remarks about how serious Kai was about the game.
    • also, as seen in G-Revolution, Beyblade is recognized as an official sport.
    • Lampshaded in the German Beyblade opening, were a line in the lyrics essentially is "The whole world revolves around Beyblade".
    • Well, at one point you do see Kai's beyblade chop down about 6 trees in one go and in another situation, he demolishes 4 brick pillars so you can probably imagine what it'd do to a human.
  • Ship Tease: The entirety of the 16th episode of the first season was this for Ray and Mariah.
  • Shoe Phone: As the series goes on, it introduces more and more ludicrous ways to launch a Beyblade.
  • Shoulders of Doom: Tala. Why.
  • Sixth Ranger: Daichi.
  • Signature Device: The Beyblades
  • Slasher Smile Kai in G-Rev, with the Hellish Pupils and the Power Glows and the definite, definite not-smiling-really. Generally followed by some superhuman Crowning Moment of Awesome. Also Brooklyn, accompanied by the Glowing Eyes of Doom and followed by a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum.
  • Snap Back: Any and all Character Development Tyson went through in the 1st season was completely disregarded in seasons 2 and 3, which had him acting like even more of a Hot-Blooded brat than when season 1 started, and even back then he was much more mature.
    • White Tigers and Blitzkreig Boys from season 1 to season 3. Oh, and the Majestics. And Kai between V-Force and G-Rev, to the point where it's insanely hard to rationalise. And Ray, omigod Ray. Goes from occasionally awesome, polite, pretty sane really, to muscle-bound meanie obsessed with winning.
    • Kai's behavior in G Revolution is mostly him not speaking much, considering he did quite a bit of it in V-Force. Ray on the other hand merely became more serious about winning and got more serious.
  • The Spartan Way: Welcome to the Abbey, kids!
  • Survivor Guilt: Kai after Wyatt's version-specific fate, in his battle with Goki.
  • Summon Magic: The Bit Beasts.
  • Thousand-Yard Stare: Kai after losing to Brooklyn. Complete with flappy cloak. Also Brooklyn after losing to Kai.
  • Tournament Arc: Most of the series, with the exception of a bulk of the second season.
  • Turncoat: Kai is the king of this trope. Over three seasons, he switches sides a grand total of six times. He's allied with the Blade Sharks, the Bladebreakers, the Demolition Boys, the Bladebreakers again, then the Blitzkrieg Boys, then BEGA, then the G Revolutions [the Bladebreakers with another teammate]. Possible Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
  • Warrior Therapist: It seems like this series is rife with both kinds of this trope. Apparently, no matter how many battles you've won in the past, all it takes to get you doubting yourself is a well-timed comment.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Gee, how do we make a show about spinning tops interesting?
  • World of Cardboard Speech: This from Kai's second battle against Brooklyn:

Kai. That's my name. And I'm a Beyblader. And you might think you are but you're not. You learned from the best but you forgot a very important lesson. Beyblading isn't just about overpowering your opponent with fancy moves. That's only part of the game. There's more to it than that. Much more. That's why I have something you don't.I have learned from every battle I fought. Every friend, enemy and spectator always had something to offer me. And I'm a student to this game. And I always will be. With the hardships of training, competitions, the wins and the losses, they all taught me something. And I've taken that knowledge and used it to my advantage.That's why I can say, that I'm a true beyblader. That's what keeps me going. And that's my strength. I don't think you ever will(understand). Because you're not a true beyblader. You have the power and the skill but something is missing from inside you. You don't have the beyblading spirit! That's why I have to win this battle! Because beyblading means more to me than you could ever understant! IT'S NOT JUST A GAME TO ME! NOW FINISH HIM OFF DRANZER!"

  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Tyson and Kai both have blue hair. Mariah from the White Tigers team has pink hair, also from the White Tigers team there's Kevin who has green hair. Oliver from the Majestics also has green hair, from the same team there's Robert who has purple hair...
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