Beyblade Burst

Note: I watched all of the beyblade generations and this is by FAR the best one.

There are a LOT of shonen animes that try too hard to be unique, but most of them fail. Beyblade burst keeps things simple while really focusing on its characters and their interactions, unlike the previous generations who were just about battling and yada yada. In this season the beyblade battles are more of a plot device for the characters to fully interact with each other, and it works perfectly.

Animation and voice acting is good, it gets better in the next season (especially the CG) but it's a pretty popular ... show in Japan so of course the budget is pretty big. What sets this anime apart though is that there are SO MANY good soundtracks. In a 4-cour anime of course there's bound to be a lot of good music but giving almost every character their own theme was outstanding.

The op fits this season well, they're more emotional than the Beyblade Burst God or Beyblade Burst Chouzetsu ones, since like I said battling is not that important here, the characters are.

I've watched over 200 anime and honestly I love this with every inch of my body.

So this was my first venture into subbed Beyblade territory (as Beyblade X is still ongoing and I’m still watching that). And I see that despite X and Burst having two separate writing teams, the propensity for rage quit moments still existed all the way back in 2016. This show has enough decent Beyblading action to keep you satisfied-ish for 51 episodes but unfortunately what lets this show down is the characters are far too one dimensional. With a main character whose brains reside in his guts, the opportunity for characters to have good development is completely nonexistent with 11 year old children just being ... swollen balls of pride and ego, way more than is acceptable for children their age, and a main character whose brains reside alternates between being a talented blader and a complete idiot with the IQ of mud. The show’s writers also have no idea what audiences want because at least twice they took the completely wrong story direction which is disappointing. Still got another 5-6 seasons left to go of Burst.

SPOILER FREE

Where have the years of enjoyable Beyblade gone? As a huge fan of the original series, the contrast between that and this is painful. That isn't to say that this series in simply bad but it is simply worse than both the original and metal series. With little excitement, weak main characters and a story that only gets exciting after 30 episodes and introducing several new characters, Beyblade Burst instant charm.

What is good about the anime is (sadly) the side characters. In this series it is easier to enjoy the appearance of supporting characters (such as Xander and Zac) rather than the main character ... Volt; but there's a lot more to be said about that later on. The animation is pretty nice and clean and the dubbed voices are pretty good. But yet my largest criticism is the lack of enjoyment throughout the first half of the series.
However managed to finish the series after all, so it can't be all that bad.

Analysis time;

Story: 3

Whilst writing this review I've constantly finding myself changing the score for story due to it's ridiculously luck based nature and repetitivity. Cliche and predictable, I found myself guessing the results of every match with a 90% success rate. However this wasn't the case so much in the end, instead battles were decided by injury or luck. Skill (or logic) no longer prevailed.
What really disappointed me is the shift that the series has undergone. Originally, characters would improve through hard battles, training and important life events. In Beyblade Burst the "power of friendship" and "bonds with your Bey" seem to overcome all talent or skill. Worsening this is the confusing format of events such as tournaments, with participants only consisting of certain characters, and locations for events strangely close (yet there's a boat trip??) creating a mass confusion throughout.
If you're a Beyblade fan this underdog story may be bearable otherwise it's hard to watch.

Art: 7

Not much to be said really. The characters do look great and the battles look great two. The effects in battles are nothing special but are easy to follow and rather nice. Not perfect but rather pleasing. Often I found things clear, but others who I watched it with saw it unclear when burst scenes occurred and thought some of the colours washed together at times so you don't know who's bey burst.

Sound: 5

What this series has a pretty good dub. Besides Volt's 5 year old voice, every other character has a voice that suits their character well. The opening is bubbly but not memorable and the sound of Beyblades colliding is decent.
What it lacks however is a main character whose voice I can bare for 51 episodes. Often after watching more than 1 episode, I found myself feeling irritated at the overly loud and childish voice of Volt.
All that said, 5 isn't a bad score, it's just okay.

Characters: 5

Zac, Xander, Lui, Shu, Orochi and a few other characters found themselves really likeable and created something for me to enjoy in the series. These characters in particular became favourites of mine. It's a huge shame that of these only Shu is a main character. That said, the majority of the main characters either have inconsistent backstories (Rantaro), bad morals (Daigo), or unbearable attitudes (Wakiya). What happened to making your main characters likeable? I truly believe a flaw in this series is that the side characters are 10 times more interesting than the main ones.
Above all, characters (beside from Daigo and Ken) see no development. Each character has a moment from time to time where they learn something, only to be forgotten about the next episode. All this said, it was hard to score it above a 4, but due to personal likeness I pushed it up one.

Enjoyment: 4

This series of Beyblade just doesn't have "it". Throughout I found myself wondering why I would watch this instead of another Beyblade series. There are exciting moments at times and episodes can be fun, but the majority of the arcs lack anything special or unique that made me want to look at the screen.
Thee series it's moments but certainly will not re-watch as I hardly kept my eyes on the screen the first time.


Overall: 4/5

Well Beyblade Burst probably isn't the worst thing I've seen, but it is the worst Beyblade series undoubtedly. It has nothing likeable that the original or the metal series doesn't have.
All in all, I can't recommend Beyblade Burst to others, unless you're a hardcore fan.