Beyblade is just one of those franchises I love. The toys are great and the franchise is still ongoing with new content today with the Burst series and the Beyblade Rising manga. I got into this franchise in the days of Metal Fight watching everything up to Zero G. However as a kid I had no access to the original series as it was never rerun on Cartoon Network circa 2010 so I didn’t even know it existed until my mother got me this pack of cards based on Beyblade V-Force which got me interested in the original generation. Now as an adult after getting back into the toy line, after finding an official release of the first 2 seasons on YouTube with G-Rev currently in the process of being uploaded I decided to give this original generation a try.
Story 7/10
Beyblade Season 1’s storyline is rather simple with Tyson, Kai, Ray, Max and Kenny traveling around the world to compete in Beyblade tournaments to get better at the game and reach the top. It’s a rather simple storyline but it’s really effective. This anime unlike Yu-Gi-Oh was made after the toy line came out in Japan with the release of Ultimate Dragon and Ultimate Frostic Dranzer and the Beyblade Game Boy Color game being released in 1999 and the anime being released in 2001. Even though this is a promotional anime it doesn’t affect the story too much. Characters upgrading their Beyblades to the newer models is done naturally in the story and even though yes this is a cheap marketing tactic, it’s really cool to see how these changes affect how the characters play the game and how it enhances the power of the bit beasts that represent the fighting spirit of the Blader. It’s a very generic storyline I’ll give you that but it’s still a damn good one especially if you are a fan of the toys and love the cast of characters.
Art 7/10
Animated by MADHouse the art is at a consistently good quality and the animation on the Beyblades themselves is done in the same style as the characters. In later series the Beyblades are CGI so it was rather refreshing to see the Beyblades drawn in the style of everything else in the show. Outside of the Beyblades themselves the characters are drawn in a smooth and rounded style. Very few characters have super sharp edges outside of the eyes and hair on certain characters. Characters have rather large irises in their eyes with defined pupils and highlights. There are lots of very thin line details as well, however on the official streams being in 480p some of these line details can be crushed and or become very pixelated. Overall the art is pretty good but due to the resolution of the official stream, I feel that the artwork itself suffers as it isn’t as well defined as it’s supposed to be on the line edges. Besides how generic the story is there is one other problem with the show that pops up in the writing. In the English dub besides some out of date lingo being used to be cool with kids in 2001, the dub also decided to change a lot of character names while keeping the original nationality so you end up with Chinese characters who were isolated from the rest of society being named such western names as Gary and Mariah. Also the dub decided to replace Kenny checking on his computer and relaying information to the Bladebreakers with a bit beast named Dizzi stuck in his computer which does everything for him probably to replace the text on the computer. That was dumb
Sound 4/10
This is a bit of an awkward one. There is no legal way to watch this show in Japanese so I ended up watching the show in English. The dub has to be one of the worst dubs I’ve heard from a native English speaking region of the world. Nelvana made some really bad decisions with the casting and directing. While most anime and cartoons will use adult female actors or men with higher pitched voices to play child characters, Nelvana made the decision to cast all the characters with age appropriate actors. However this led to some problems. The character voices around very still especially for these younger characters and when your main characters are 5 11 year old boys it becomes extremely noticable when they can’t hit emotional moments and screams very well. Some of the adult voices also sound rather stiff but it is much worse with the kids. I looked at the Japanese cast a little bit and it seems much better but I cannot judge as I am unable to view this version. One of the biggest strengths of the dub though is the music. The opening theme song “Lets Beyblade” is an absolute banger with those sick guitar riffs and those cheesy lyrics. The battle music is also really intense for the generic themes, but when the dub hits an insert song it also has that same cheese as the intro that is just amazing to jam out to. I’d reccomend looking for the Let it Rip CD if you like these songs as it has some of the songs from all the seasons as well as some extra songs from popular American bands from around the time the show came out. However the dub quality itself being so bad outweighs the great music leading to this poor score.
Characters 7/10
The characters in Beyblade is one of the strongest parts of the show. Tyson is really excitable and aggressive in his battling which can be to his detriment at times but his spirit shows through in how much he is willing to do for his friends. Kenny is the smart one who analyzes all of the opponents of the BladeBreakers and is the brains of the team. He doesn’t play very much but he is always willing to help the team from the sidelines by analyzing opponents and upgrading everyone’s beyblades with new parts. Max is a half Japanese-half American Beyblader who is always enthusiastic and optimistic and plays with a defensive approach. Ray is a calm and levelheaded member of the team but can get really fierce in battle. He’s probably the most mature out of the team. Kai is a bit of a jerk. He’s arrogant and self centered and doesn’t really care about his team. This leads to tension throughout the show as he especially doesn’t get along with Tyson. Later episodes will test the strength of the bond of the team as you see the team grow closer together as they take on challenges big and small and in the Russian Championship arc you will get to see the main characters have something thrown in their dynamic that messes things up for a few episodes. Throughout the show the Bladebreakers will meet all sorts of opponents from all over the world with all sorts of crazy bit beats and a few of the teams have direct links to the Bladebreakers and their members that shed light on their pasts. Even if these characters aren’t the most fleshed out they are fun characters that are lovable for their simple traits and their unique play styles. Ray and Kai ended up being my favorite characters for their personalities but I’m also slightly biased and Dranzer is my favorite Gen 1 Beyblade Evolution line and Kai is just a badass with how rarely he plays but how devastating a punch he deals with Dranzer.
Overall I honestly really enjoyed Beyblade Season 1. I had a lot of fun watching it even through all the issues it had especially in the dub I watched. If I were to rate my enjoyment in a scale of 10 I would give it a solid 8. My critical score for the show is a 7 as it is a very very flawed show and those dub related issues really hold the series back, but I feel it isn’t as bad as the score on the site would make the average MAL user think. You gotta keep in mind this anime is a promotional anime made to sell toys first and foremost and is aimed at kids around ages 7-11 so it isn’t like the deepest anime. I generally feel it is necessary to give a little leeway for kids shows regarding this as first and foremost these anime are meant to be fun and enjoyable for audiences of all ages. Definitely give Beyblade season 1 a watch if you love the toys, you just might want to search out some Japanese subs as those will probably be the better product overall. I’m not sure about the Español Latino and the Brazilian Portuguese Dubs and their quality but they are based on the Nelvana English dub so I would expect a few of these same issues to carry over but don’t let that hold you back from enjoying the show. Enjoy it in whatever form you see best just maybe prioritize the original language track
