Pazudora- A Guide
What’s this massively-long-running kids anime, reaching near 250 episodes that you’re probably not following?
This is a guide I’ve been meaning to write for a while for Pazudora, a neat kids show which has been ongoing since 2018 and basically no one talks about.
Pazudora is the second anime adaptation of the Puzzle & Dragon mobile game, following Puzzle & Dragons X. And yes, they take place in a shared continuity, but familiarity with one is not at all necessary for following the other. The two series are vastly tonally different, with X being a rather-serious story set in a fantasy world. Pazudora is mostly a comedy, but can get serious when it wants to, and it’s set in our world. But then wait, how do they share a continuity? Because it turns out one of the main characters was Isekaid from the world of X to our world. And yes, there is a crossover episode at some point and various references to X scattered around.
As you might be guessing from that explanation, Pazudora is bizarre. How should I describe it? If you’re at all familiar with the Battle Spirits franchise, it’s a lot like Heroes, but on even more acid. Pazudora is centered around various tournament arcs, where pro gamers intend to become the best in the world. But when they’re not in the middle of a tournament (and heck, sometimes when they are), the rest of the show is pure ridiculous filler. After about 100 episodes in, the series switched to short format episodes (rather, half is a live-action variety show where a bunch of comedians play Pazudora and Ninjala.) This lack of screentime for serious plot apparently led the writers to take a plan B. Make it even more ridiculous. It actually worked to great effect. Although, many characters suffered greatly reduced roles as a negative side effect, including some who were quite prominent previously.
And now, a brief introduction of the cast.
Starting with the Pazudora Club:
Taiga Akashi (cv. Asuna Tomari)- The main character. His family runs a takoyaki business, and he dreamed of being no. 1 at takoyaki-making. After seeing a Pazudora match with the popular pro-gamer, Matsuhara-Pro, he becomes enamored and decides to switch fields... not losing his objective at being the best in the world. And to be fair, it’s not like he drops takoyaki for Pazudora. He still takes the business very seriously. And he’s able to utilize his skill at flipping balls of flour and octopus to help him become better at playing mobile games. Yes, seriously. Taiga is also ridiculously smug, and it’s funny. He’s not a goody-two-shoes hero, which does make him stand out from some generic shounen protagonists.
Toragon (cv. Tetsuya Kakihara)- Taiga’s partner. He’s the character in question who was isekaid from the world of X. His normal form is that of a tiny round tiger (but he’ll insist that he’s a Toragon- part tiger, part dragon) and he eventually evolves to a more mature looking form that he only takes during battle.
Sakura Uzuki (cv. Honoka Inoue)- Taiga’s neighbor and childhood friend. Her family runs a cake shop. Sakura is a member of the Pazudora club along with Taiga, and while she does initially strive to be a pro-gamer, she decides she doesn’t want to, and plays more of a support role as team captain. She’s quite good at the game, and will still play on occasion, but rarely does these days. Sakura begins the series with a crush on Matsuhara-Pro, but gradually develops feelings for Taiga, and a lot of her character arc is her coming to terms with. Many of the ED animations focus on this relationship. An interesting note- Sakura is voiced by Honoka Inoue, daughter of Kikuko Inoue, who voiced Sakura’s mother.
Whip- Sakura’s partner monster. Whip is initially one of the only monsters besides Toragon who will appear out of battle. She’s cake-themed, and something of a glutton. Unlike many characters who got reduced roles when the show switched to short format, Whip actually landed several focus episodes, which tend to be trippy even for this show’s standards.
Yukichi Tokuzawa (cv. Chie Koujiro)- Taiga’s friend, and co-Pazudora Club member, who is incredibly rich. He admires Taiga like a brother. Although not as skilled in Pazudora as others, he does eventually get his pro-gamer license. Still, he rarely makes it far in the tournaments. His main rival since childhood is Tsukasa Oujo, who is another rich kid. His partner monster is some sort of thunder god thing. It doesn’t appear enough for me to remember its name. It gets a chibi form that can appear out of battle when the series switches to short format.
Ryuji Matsuhara (cv. Yusuke Kobayashi)- The main rival character, and kind of an edgelord. To be fair, Ryuji has a serious inferiority complex going on, being that he’s the younger brother of the great Matsuhara-Pro. So he grew up always being second best, and when he ends up with the Pazudora Club, he also finds himself being second best to Taiga. Throw in the writer’s love for pulling the Warf-Effect on him, and he gets messed up to the point that he temporarily leaves the team and goes off to America to work out issues. With a little help from Oujo, he comes back a lot better. His family business is calligraphy, and his partner monster is a blue sea dragon. Like Yukichi’s, it’s not very relevant.
The Adults
Gen-san (cv. Taketora)- A fellow restaurant owner in Taiga’s home town, and the most frequently appearing adult character, even in the short episodes when the rest of his idiot trio get demoted to extra. He still gets a somewhat reduced role, it’s just not as bad in comparison. Gen is, as I’ve implied, not-too-bright, and he’s basically one of the kids, often joining the Pazudora Club on their adventures. His archrival is Maeken, who he sees as a rival for Yukiko-sensei’s love.
Ken “Maeken” Maeyamada (cv. Anri Katsu)- Taiga’s homeroom teacher. If you only watched the short format episodes, you would not even realize he’s a character, as he barely exists anymore. He’s a lot like Gen-san, and the two have a mutual rivalry (and mutual love for Yukiko-sensei), although they actually do really see each other as friends. They’re just tsundere about it.
Yukiko-sensei (cv. Yukiyo Fujii)- The school nurse at Taiga’s elementary school. If not for the fact that she’s referred to as “sensei”, you’d be forgiven for not even realizing she’s an adult, as she’s one of the most childish characters in the show, is oblivious beyond reason (she has no clue that Gen or Maeken are crushing on her hard), and has a tendency to just be doing silly stuff that makes no sense even in context. She does in fact have a split personality, but her evil side is only seen on one occasion. She loves Taiga’s takoyaki, although her favorite food is actually strawberry cake, and she later becomes bros with Musashi, who actually trumps her in the braindead department.
Toki (cv. Taiten Kusunoki)- A grumpy, reclusive old guy who becomes the eventual coach of the Pazudora Club. He’s something of the “big good”, if this series actually has one. This due to the fact that he’s the longtime rival of the “big bad” Kashiwaki. Despite their rivalry, it’s really not hard to mistake the two as exes. The fact that Toki is voiced by Taiten Kusunoki (Number Nine) and Kashiwaki is voiced by Sho Hayami (Garudos) makes it hilarious. And yes, there’s one episode where the only relevant characters are the two of them and the omniscient announcer voiced by Rikiya Koyama (Otherworld King). It’s a Battle Spirits villain convention.
Kashiwaki (cv. Sho Hayami)- A shady guy who’s trying to revolutionize pro-gaming. He coaches a team consisting of Shin, Death Binen and Black Rose. While obviously ambitious and portrayed as the ultimate “villain”, it’s more that he’s misguided, and he gradually comes to care about his team and shift priorities.
Chisato Akashi (cv. Akemi Okamura)- Taiga’s mother. She’s the one mainly in charge of the takoyaki shop. She is married, but her husband is usually away.
Hitomi Akashi (cv. Miki Narahashi)- Taiga’s grandmother who also runs the takoyaki shop. Actually a pretty cool old lady.
The Rivals
Ryuichi Matsuhara, a.k.a. Matsuhara-Pro (cv. Hirofumi Nojima)- Older brother of Ryuji, and known as the strongest pro-gamer. Taiga admires him, and this eventually becomes a mutual thing. He cares about Ryuji a lot, despite tensions in their relationship.
Iwao Harima + Gon + Yasu (cv. Kimiko Saito/Iwao + Miki Narahashi/Gon)- Local bully and his groupies. Iwao has a big crush on Sakura, who just finds him repulsive. Fortunately their appearances are rare these days, as they were just a particularly annoying Team Rocket. However, it is noteworthy that Gon looks like Akira from Drive Head. And that Akira’s seiyuu Takashi is one of the comedians who appears on the live action parts.
Nekota Nekoyama (cv. Ayumu Murase)- Basically the pre-teen boy equivalent to a crazy cat lady. Becomes one of Taiga’s early opponents when he tries to kidnap Toragon, due to him being a cat, technically. His partner is another cat-like creature like Toragon. I don’t think he ever became a pro-gamer, but might’ve just blocked it from my mind. Either way, he’s not at all relevant these days.
Tsukasa Oujo (cv. Atsushi Abe)- Our resident rich pretty boy. He has fleets of fangirls who follow him to every tournament. He definitely has the tendency to be a pretentious snot, but does show a kinder side now and then. Eventually gets his pro-gamer license and becomes a tournament regular.
Honoka Himeno (cv. Nanami Yamashita)- The idol pro-gamer. She loves to be in the spotlight and can definitely be manipulative. She values her career as a pro-gamer just as much as her idol career, which has led to problems with her management. However, her two teammates are also idols and pro-gamers. Also, she’s a massive butt monkey. Notably, she’s an expy of Garnet from X, down to the same seiyuu.
Eina (cv. Chika Anzai)- One of Honoka’s teammates. Mainly just notable due to getting a win in on Taiga, something Honoka’s never managed.
Zi Chao Li (cv. Kazue Ikura)- Some Chinese martial artist pro-gamer whose existence I completely forgot. Needless to say, he doesn’t appear much anymore.
Shin Kanzaki (cv. Natsuki Hanae)- The psychic pro-gamer. Yes, on Shin’s debut he’s shown to have the power to mind-control his opponents into losing, making him way too OP for his own good. He starts to play fairly later. He’s the strongest member of a pro-gamer team assembled by Kashiwaki.
Death Binen (cv. Kenji Nomura)- The second member of Shin’s team. A brutish man who speaks in grunts and displays animal-like behavior. This is actually all a stage persona. He can talk and behave like a normal person.
Black Rose (cv. Natsuki Aikawa)- The third member of Shin’s team, and the lone female. Nothing is known about her. She never even gets a speaking part until well over episode 200 and is relegated to off-screen matches.
Musashi (cv. Jun Fukushima)- The most brain-dead pro-gamer ever to live. Seriously, I don’t know how he’s a pro-gamer, because he’s a total joke character. Does a lot of funny stuff through his cluelessness.
HIDETO (cv. Tatsuhisa Suzuki)- A rock-star gamer who writes his name in all caps. Completely irrelevant.
Hayato (cv. Takuto Yoshinaga)- He’s one of the first rival pro-gamers Taiga faces after getting his license. Despite being made out to be a main rival, he quickly fades into the background, but sometimes turns up in crowd scenes.
Shinsengumi (cv. Chiharu Sawashiro/Soji + Masafumi Kimura/Isami + Makoto Furukawa/Sanosuke)- Another rival pro-gamer team, where all the members are named after the Shinsengumi members. Although competent and make a good showing for themselves when they appear, they mostly get ignored these days.
Hibiki Kobe (cv. Kokoro Kikuchi)- A newbie player who admires Taiga. Appears in the short-format episodes only. Some of the earlier stories there involve teaching him the game. He partners with a bastet monster who always follows him around out of battle.
Leo Hashiba (cv. Ryohei Kimura)- A major character who doesn’t show up until the short-format episodes. He’s roughly Taiga’s parallel, as a smug-but-generally-friendly pro-gamer and restaurant owner who uses a lion theme rather than tiger.
Black Toragon (cv. Tomokazu Sugita)- Leo’s partner. Exactly what it says on the tin, he’s a Toragon but black. However, he’s much more stoic than the zany Toragon.
Minami Mido (cv. Ami Nakano)- Leo’s assistant, and fellow pro-gamer. She’s kind of like his much-more-serious handler at times. Ends up becoming friendly with Honoka. Sadly, she doesn’t go into space with most of the cast, so hasn’t been relevant for a while.
Ginga (cv. Minami Takayama)- Initially a minor recurring character, but later becomes part of Taiga’s main circle. He’s an alien, but a very human-looking one. Like Ryuji, he has a bit of a complex involving his much-more-competent older brother.
Void (cv. Hiroki Takahashi)- Ginga’s brother. He’s a cold and stoic type, and an extremely powerful player. Serves as the main antagonist during the space arc, but it seems there’s a larger threat at play.
Dusk and Rip (cv. Koji Ishii/Dusk + Fumiko Orikasa/Rip)- Void’s only two named teammates so far. Dusk is the one who trained both Void and Ginga in the past. Rip is Void’s guard and she has a huge thing for him.
And yes, there are lots more characters I didn’t include here.
.....
Where to watch: And here lies the problem. There are torrents up to about ep. 123. Then nothing since, barring maybe one or two episodes someone randomly released. The episodes are streamed on YT every Thursday, but deleted after two weeks. I do have some saved, but probably only dating from less then a year back, so I’m still missing a chunk myself. I might upload those to a Mega when I get the time.
The show airs Sundays at 6PM Japan time. For how much longer I have no clue, but it can easily be live-watched.
There are also no subs except for one episode, which features a cameo of Potato from Pui Pui Molcar.