Bakuten Shoot Beyblade

If you look at this show as a whole now, it a pretty average show that might seem forgettable to many who watch it now. If I were to give it an objective score then it would be 6/7 across the board since the show is pretty average.

But for me and many other people from my generation, Beyblade will always hold a special place in our hearts. This is one of the best things that I got to see as a child.
It takes me down nostalgia lane and that is part of the reason why I have given it an unreasonable 10/10 when it comes ... to enjoyment.

Story:- (7/10)
The story is plain and simple. A guy likes playing with spinning tops called Beyblades so he goes around the world to become the best there is.

There is no epic backstory or prologue, it's just some spinning tops with superpowers cause why not? Considering that the target audience, this is a perfect power fantasy that kids can buy into since it is not too complicated for them.

Art:- (7/10)
The art is pretty average for the time in which this show was produced but the designs were very over the top and catchy. The characters in the show are not trying to be shown as realistic anyway so the creators went all out to make them all as unique and edgy as possible while maintaining the cool factor.

The Beyblades and the bit-beasts themselves are quite appealing which is apparent from the number of Beyblades that were bought by children around the world after this show aired.

Sound:- (7/10)
The Rock soundtracks are classic and reflect the same approach as most shows around that time had taken but I have to say that the English versions very memorable and I can instantly start vibing to them to this day.

Characters:- (6/10)
The characters don't really have a lot of depth or realism but considering the target audience, I suppose that is justified.

The creator obviously wanted them all to be very different from one another so that the viewers could at least relate to some characters and frankly speaking it totally works as planned. When I think of the word "cool" Tyson is still one of the very first characters that comes to my mind.

Enjoyment:- (10/10)
This show was one of my childhood favourites and I can still appreciate it and enjoy it a lot but realistically speaking, if a new viewer were to watch it then their enjoyment would be around 6 because there are so many options now.

Overall:- (10/10)
It should be 7.5-8/10 realistically but I'm gonna be subjective and give it 10/10 regardless.

P.S: "Never gonna take me down" is still one of my favourite tracks to this day.
LET ITTTT RIPPPPPP!

Story 6/10

This is another anime geared at selling a product - essentially 51 20 minute adverts that gain ad revenue. Absolute genius marketing. However, a fair amount of effort seems to be put into this. While the overarching plot is about as generic as you can get from a sports anime with supernatural powers in the mix, what makes the story shine is the interactions and development that the 4 main characters of Tyson, Kai, Ray and Max have on each other.

The sport of Beyblading isn't exaggerated, and is portrayed similar to sports in the real world. There are regional and international tournaments where ... the athletes (beybladers) compete for trophies. Some of these bladers have mystical beasts inside their spinning tops that help them in battle.

The story follows the previously named main characters, all of which I imagine to be 12-14 years old, on their quest to win trophies. Along their way, they deal with many very realistic themes which make you more emotionally invested in these characters and thus makes you care about this show about spinning tops. There's an arc where Max has to deal with the divorce of his parents and earning the respect of his mother; Ray has an arc where he has to deal with his old friends thinking that he betrayed them, and Kai has to deal with some very traumatic events regarding his upbringing which leads him to some very conflicting decisions.

Art 4/10

The artwork is not great, and average at best. Comparing it to other anime at the time (2000), such as Pokemon, it does not stack up well. While the bitbeasts have great designs, they are held back by their extremely clunky animation - if you can even call it that. The human characters look fine - nothing particularly great and as if you'd find them from a "how to draw manga" book. The beyblades themselves look like coloured anime triangles.

Sound 7/10

I only watched the English version, so I can only give an opinion for that, but the soundtrack was great. Soundtracks covering battles had lyrics and a pop punk sound that sounded as if Sum 41 made them. This certainly hit the mark of its time, and fills the viewer with nostalgia of the 90s and early 2000s when the songs start. They also work very well to give the show a flavour of attitude.

The non-vocal soundtrack seems pretty generic and average when compared to other anime, but it does its job decently nonetheless by painting the mood well for the scenes that they play in.

The voice acting can be off at times, especially near the beginning of the series, but there are some funny lines which can make you feel like a kid again. While clunky at first, the voice actors consistently do a good job of portraying the characters how they should be.

Characters 8/10

As said before, the show derives most of its value from how likeable the characters are thanks to their realistic personalities, ordeals and interactions with one another. At surface value, they seem like cliche shounen anime archetypes: Tyson is supposed to be the generic protagonist; Max is the super friendly weaker minded one; Kai is the archetypal rival to Tyson, and Ray is the cool, strong and silent type.

However, it gets a lot deeper than that. Ray has a facade of confidence which he uses as a coping mechanism formed by coming from a purely meritocratic society. He initially equates his self-worth with his skills and has a strict moral code. Kai is a dick for most of the series, but his personality is explained by his upbringing. He hides his emotions and finds it difficult to trust people and form bonds. He is also the most knowledgable and reliable in terms of skill and offers harsh realism. Max brings a well needed carefree friendly attitude which contrasts Kai. He has to deal with his parents' divorce during one arc, and through this gains his much needed confidence boost. Tyson somewhat is your typical shounen protagonist, and his development comes in later seasons. However, he does seem far more believable and realistic than many others of his archetype from the way he speaks to his interactions with his friends. He cares a lot for his friends and helps them get over their internal struggles.

Overall, the characters are fun to watch grow and help each other become more well-rounded human beings. It's more about this than the actual sport of Beyblading.

Enjoyment 9/10

I watched this as a kid, and then again as a teenager and enjoyed it even more the second time round. Full of nostalgia, a fun soundtrack and very relatable and likeable characters. It is a fun watch that can get you surprisingly emotionally invested.

Overall 7/10

Money. We want money. Adults have money. Adults have kids. Kids like toys. Kids watch cartoons. We can make toys. We can make a TV show. We can make a TV show about the toys.

Kids. What do kids watch? What do kids like? Kids like friends. Kids like competition. Kids like superpowers. Kids like heroes. Most importantly, kids like toys. So the show can be about this sport where these kids compete with their toys which have superpowers and eventually, they save the world from evil and preach about friendship every single episode.

And then it worked. Those poor little rascals never saw it ... coming. They definitely bought the toys. And I am one of them too.

Looking back at Beyblade it is fairly obvious that this form of binary logic was used. I remember how much I liked the show and how interesting I found the toys. I definitely did not understand why. I was young, naive and impressionable, and Beyblade was an experience I have never had before. And even now, even if after rewatching it I see it as something that was built with the purpose of selling toys, I still remember it fondly and can still enjoy it for what it is. There's two things that I enjoy about it as it is now. How these attempts at being "cool" fail miserably, how the english dub can get quite silly at certain points and seeing how much of the show was built around selling Beyblades to kids.

How much of the show is dedicated to selling the toy? Well, pretty much the entire thing. And the binary logic I used extends further to it but I won't have you suffer through it again. First of all, to ensure that Beyblades will be considered cool by kids, in the show they will be associated with other things they find cool. In most cases, it will be animals, as every Beyblade has a bitbeast, which is this thing that gives them superpowers which is essentially a spirit. The main characters bitbeasts' are designed after the Four Saint Beasts from chinese mythology, with each representing an element. in the mind of me as a child they were essentially: A dragon, a tiger, a phoenix and a turtle. Turtles were cool at the time because ninja turtles were popular. They also get to live 100 years and have solid shells, so shut up. But the beyblades were not only associated with animals, but with other things kids found cool. Like for instance, there are beyblades themed after sports, after historical warriors, and so on. There was even a beyblade that was drawing its power from rap. Yeah, I told you, the show can get quite lame at times and it really just tried to associate things with things kids might find cool and that appeal to them.

Afterwards it tried to overexagerate characteristics associated with these things, like making the beyblades able to use those four elements or giving the beyblades unrealistic abilities or features. Like having beyblades wrapped in wool cloth because they have a sheep bitbeast.

Aside from associating beyblades with "cool" shit to give them more appeal to kids, the series also tries to make beybladed feel like they have a lot more value, by having the characters learn valuable life lessons mostly concerning friendship. They are also added the weight of good vs evil, where the main characters have to defeat the ominous evil. It isn't something with much depth, just the generic importance of friendship plotline.

Another element that beyblade likes to present a lot is the fact that beyblades as toys are customizable, through the guise of needing a strategy to win. So essentially this means that every time you have to optimize your beyblade based on your opponent so that it will perform optimally against them. This in truth is supposed to have the effect of: Having every character change their beyblade from time to time, this creating even more toys to sell in various different other variations and not keeping the kids bored once they have bought it, since if their beyblade doesn't do well or is not that impressive, buying another and combining its parts might fix that.

In truth, Beyblade is an experience you can only enjoy as a child or someone that has watched it when they were a child. Because that is who it is marketed towards. Having these same tactics applied on an adult, would fail miserably because they would not fail to see it through. Its story is nothing you haven't seen before, it's kids playing with their toys to defeat evil and become better at the game they play as well as better friends. The world of beyblade is exaggerated and focuses as beyblade as an international sport and a historical grand reaching activity that has been practiced since ancient times. Every episode the characters learn a lesson about friendship or being sportsmanlike. It is enjoyable to see how it has not aged well since as I have said, it has a lot of lame into it. It is filled with corny lines and things an adult thought might sound cool to a kid at the time s well as a lot of Sum 41 knock off songs that are replayed in almost every battle. It's the "swag yolo" attitude of the 90's that carried in the early 2000's.

I recommend watching Beyblade to people that have watched it as children, since as I have said, that experience was made for you when you were a kid. It is a show of its time, and you might be surprised at how much lamer it was compared to how you might remember it. Don't get me wrong, I am still fond of the series, I still found it entertaining because it is one of the first shows of its type that I have ever watched to completion. And even if I find it lame now, it's entertaining to see what was thought ot be cool at the ime and aimed to get me to be like "WHOA THAT IS AWESOME DAD BUY ME ONE!" In any other context, this is just a lame show about the power of friendship and defeating evil that tries to sell a product to kids. If you haven't seen one by now, you can give it a go to see what tactics are used when trying to do so. Other than that, you're better off watching the show that tried to sell you toys initially to see that it tried the exact same thing on you. Or maybe I am wrong and there are shows that have more to them than that that also sell toys.