Why Takao is my Favourite Beyblade Character
**NOTE: This essay focuses only on the Beyblade anime. The English dub anime is what I grew up with; I was well into my 20′s before I ever got my hands on any of the Beyblade manga volumes. The anime is my canon.
(When I first started watching Beyblade, Rei was my actually my favourite character for a short while, before I had any idea of who the characters were as people. I liked Rei purely because I thought his design was cool. I was 11 years old, slowly evolving into a huge otaku weeb, and he was a cat-boy. ReiMao remains one of my favourite het ships to this day).
By the end of Beyblade 2000, Takao had firmly become my absolute favourite for several reasons. He was funny, he was the first anime character I’d encountered that could arguably be called chubby and, though Max was the friendliest and Rei the most mature, it was Takao who was the glue that bound the group together. I loved his enthusiasm for everything and how he was able to befriend anyone even with his short fuse temper. I liked how he never gave up on trying to include Kai in the group no matter how many times he was shot down. I liked how tactile he was with his friends, always hugging and wrestling with them. He ate too much and slept in late (things I still definitely relate too!). Takao was the kind of person I wished was my friend irl.
By the time G-Rev rolled around years later I was struggling with my mental health and despite our personalities being wildly different I saw a lot of myself in Takao. I saw Takao’s mood swings, the cripplingly low self-esteem that he masked with his ego, his fear of losing his friends, and I understood.
I know some people think that Takao was very selfish/toxic during G-Rev and they’re right. He was. I’m not making excuses for him. Takao needs to seriously work on himself as a person to begin to make up for his actions. Poor mental health is never an excuse for being a shitty person. But it can help us understand why, maybe, a person acted in the way that they did.
I think Takao is a genuinely good person. He has his moments of surprisingly astute empathy. He’s a good judge of character, and his capacity to forgive those who need forgiveness (Kai, Yuri, Zeo and Brooklyn) is boundless while remaining steadfast in his sense of justice (refusing to join Boris Balkov and BEGA). But he’s also deeply, deeply flawed. I’ve always believed that he has abandonment issues, stemming from his mothers death, his father and brother leaving him with his Grandpa, Hiro training Brooklyn and the biggest trigger of all; Kai, Max and Rei leaving to join other teams. When Kai, Max and Rei leave for other teams, Takao doesn’t have a team at all. They ARE his team. Takao may be able to make friends with just about anyone, but they aren’t truly ‘friends’; there’s no one else he can call on outside his immediate circle. He has Kenny and Hilary, but only Kenny is a blader and certainly not at Champion-level, and he’s only just met Daichi, a little kid who he doesn’t even get along with. Takao is dealing with a severe handicap with the added pressure of having to defend his title. It’s an awful situation for anyone to be in, let alone someone who thinks his title is the only thing left that gives him worth. It is, after all, the reason his friends are gone.
Takao is basically a child celebrity that’s been growing up with the idea that his self-worth depends on him winning and being Champion. The seeds for this development have been sown since the first episode of season 1; way before Takao turned pro, he was the best Beyblader at his school and his defeat by Carlos and Kai and his encounter with Max threw that into question. There’s also the fact that, several times now, the fate of his friends, their Bitbeasts and/or the world has depended on Takao’s skills as Beyblader. These situations leave no room for doubt or weakness; he has to believe he can win because the consequences for losing are too dire. Takao has ended up with this combination of a huge ego with very fragile low self-esteem (which is surprisingly common among celebs; John Lennon, Marilyn Monroe and Mike Tyson all admitted to being this way) which result in his violent mood swings when he feels his worth is being threatened. His ego is a protective mask and he thinks his value is in how he’s perceived by others.
Kai, Max and Rei have been subjected to the same trials as Takao, but they have coping skills and support systems that Takao simply doesn’t have by way of their personalities and backgrounds. Rei has the White Tigers and his village, Max has his parents and the All Starz, Kai already had his arc battling his inner darkness at the end of season 1 with the Bladebreakers friendship and support to help him through it, and has mended his relationship (more or less) with the Blitzkrieg Boys. Takao has no ‘backup’ team and the Bladebreakers being scattered is exactly the problem. He has his Grandpa, but he doesn’t even have that for himself anymore as Daichi starts treating the dojo as his home and acting as a better grandson by doing chores. His brother Hiro has returned but anime-Hiro firmly believes in tough love, which may work on bettering Takao as a competitor in the long run, but ultimately does more harm than good when it comes to his mental state (and Brooklyn’s too).
I’m going to use a specific example that I think really captures Takao mindset during G-Revolution. When he encounters the White Tigers after his loss to Rei in G-Rev episodes 10 and 11, a few things happen in this scene that I think are either representative of Takao’s mounting panic attack or even a moment of dissociation (or both). When the White Tigers approach Takao, from that moment we see the scene through Takao’s eyes.
The Tigers are seen moving and talking in slow motion as they celebrate their victory. They’re simply enjoying the win, but it’s framed as if they’re mocking him. When Rei stares at Takao, we hear Rei’s thoughts; he doesn’t even think the match counts because he knows Takao is off his game. He knows Takao is stronger than this and simply wants to battle Takao again when he’s at full strength. All things considered, Rei is very understanding and kind regarding Takao’s loss.
But Rei’s expression does NOT match his inner dialogue, and I personally interpret this as Rei being angry that the match didn’t count because he knows Takao can do better but doesn’t hold it against him, and Takao misreads Rei’s intense look as fury or disgust, implied by the dark nightmarish colour palette that we are still looking though Takao’s eyes .
Then we hear Takao’s thoughts; while wearing a look of panic that still calls back to his nightmare he thinks ‘Don’t look at me with those eyes!’ Takao has just been blaming Daichi in their private moment for their loss but he’s doing it in a desperate attempt to protect himself. When actually face to face with Rei he thinks only of his own failure. The shame is too much for him and he bolts.
I read this scene as a prime example of negative self-talk, which is commonly linked with mental health problems. Despite the fact that Takao is a good blader with two Championship wins under his belt, his reaction to this single loss is intense and overblown. It’s like being given 10 compliments and 1 negative comment; he ignores the 10 good things and only focuses on the 1 bad, blowing it way out of proportion. Takao has set the bar for himself impossibly high. He’s terrified of being seen as weak, because that will mean he no longer has any value and there will be no reason for his friends to seek him out anymore. Takao’s entire world revolves around Beyblading, but not in the same way a professional player dedicates themselves to their sport. In Takao’s mind his friendships, his brothers attention, his place in the world, and his value as a person all hinge on Beyblade, and if he loses then he has nothing.
When I compare the Takao of season 1 with season 3 I feel deeply sorry for him. He went from this hot-headed but sweet and excitable kid who Beyblades for the love of it, to having frightening temper tantrums and panic attacks over not being good enough and nightmares of being abandoned by his friends. In hindsight, becoming Champion was the worst thing that could have happened to Takao. Even though it was a team effort the world (and the shows writers) put the spotlight on Takao alone and Takao, being who he is, enjoyed the attention that ended up ruining him. He was 13 years old.
G-Rev is Takao’s struggle to regain the simple enjoyment that he’s lost. Takao is now in the same position as many of the previous antagonists- so wrapped up in winning and achieving their goals that they’ve forgotten how Beyblading is supposed to be fun. At the end of G-Rev we see Takao blading against Brooklyn symbolically among the ruins of the institution that pushed them both to their mental and physical limits. When Takao blades against Kai on top of a grassy sunlit hill, he is free to enjoy the game without the pressure of titles and rank. He still wants to win, but no longer feels like he has to win. His friendships are restored and he has a new purpose in helping rebuild the BBA. It’s like going back to the beginning. I could imagine him losing to Kai on that hilltop and taking it in stride rather than throwing a temper tantrum.
Yes I know it’s probably ‘not that deep’. This is a shounen series who’s target market is young boys and whose aim was mostly to sell Beyblade toys. The show and the characters are basically reset every season. I doubt the creators went into this anime with the intention of portraying the protagonists with deep psychological issues that arc over entire series, even though the clues were there in the source material (which Aoki is now beginning to elaborate on with the Blitzkrieg Boys backstory in Rising). Everyone has their own interpretation of Beyblade, and this is mine. I don’t expect people to like Takao; in fact I know it makes more sense for him to be hated and I can see why 100%.
But when I look at Takao I see the sweet, loyal friend he once was and can be again. We see flickers of the old Takao shine through during G-Rev. If pride comes before a fall, then Takao hit rock bottom (and smashed through it). I see a kid that has incredible potential for growth but needs help to heal. Yuri, Zeo, Brooklyn and Kai were badly hurt and badly hurt others in return, and Takao forgave them. It’s ironic that so many can’t seem to do the same for him.
I love Takao for all the reasons that most people find him unlikable. I see my own struggle with mental health within him. I see a sad, scared teenage boy lashing out because he doesn’t know how to cope. The Beyblade anime, perhaps unintentionally but still, ended up doing what the Steven Universe cartoon did years later; it gave us a realistic depiction of what years of stress, expectations and trauma (aka. ’adventures’) can do to a young boy.
Special thanks to @littleshechan for beta reading and always being there to listen to my insane ramblings on Beyblade <333
and to @ressyfaerie. This essay started as a DM reply to a conversation we were having, which then grew far too long to be confined to a single message.
areudirty
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