Yes, the whole concept seems moronic....Who would have thought that you could stretch a storyline about spinning tops to three 51-episode long seasons and a spin off sequel? But it worked (at least for the first three seasons, MFB's a totally different story)!
Story:
It might not be the most creative storyline out there, but I must give them kudos for making a story about spinning tops somewhat interesting. I did watch the English dub, so I can't say for sure what I may have missed out on due to editing, but for the most part the storyline was enjoyable, albeit mostly predictable. Kind of like Pokemon, but with spinning tops.
Art:
The art in this season isn't a style from anime that I typically like; the characters, especially Tyson, can sometimes look kind of grotesque and just strange...In fact when I started seeing the artwork of the second and third seasons unveiled, I thought that the first season was a version specifically created by a western company, because it was so different from most other animes in terms of colouring and design. But, in the end, when compared to the other two seasons, I do like this one the best, and I am upset that they decided to change the art each season. I like the characters' designs the best in this first season. And yes, like many other fangirls of the franchise, I did fall in love with Kai and Tala, whose designs this season were the most appealing to me out of the three.
Sound:
I watched the English dub for all three seasons. I heard the Bladebreakers' voices once in Japanese and refused to EVER watch it in Japanese. I really liked the way they sounded more mature in the English dub, and their voices suited them well. Yes, I also enjoyed the music...the English sk8tr boi music...some of it is pretty decent.
Character:
The characters MADE this series. If they had chosen a less bishounen group (case in point--METAL FIGHT BEYBLADE) this wouldn't have been so successful in the fan community. It's the characters that made me want to keep watching the series to find out what happened to them, how things turned out for them and so on. I found that even characters I wouldn't typically like I ended up loving--there was no one in the series I can genuinely say that I hated. Plus, I would be remiss if I didn't give this category a 10 for Kai alone....
Enjoyment:
The fact that this was such a huge part of my life means of course I enjoyed it! But obviously I wouldn't recommend this anime to just anyone. It's kind of difficult to enjoy unless you had some connection to it while you were younger. For example, if you're 25 and began to watch Pokemon for the first time in your life ever, you would be pretty weirded out to say in the least.
Overall, I really did enjoy this anime, and yes this season holds a soft spot like no other season of Beyblade (especially Metal Fight *shudder*). I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, as it's such a strange concept for a storyline that I really don't know anyone who would understand it...But the characters definitely make it worth your while.
