#beyblade overanalysis

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An analysis on Beyblade types/parts/naming

Beys are very personal to their bladers. And since fiction likes using objects with emotional importance for characterization, I thought I’d give it a look

Valt: Victory, God, Winning, and Cho-Z (which translates roughly to “excellence”) all represent Valt’s overconfident personality he had at first. Ironically neither Victory, Winning, not Cho-Z won their most important battles. Strike and Slash are neutral. Strike was named by Raul rather than Valt, which is why it diverts from the established theme. Slash was made when Valt was much older and more mature. Then, Brave and Savior both indicate heroism, hinting at Valt’s roles in those seasons. Finally, Ultimate seems to be a return to the original overconfidence, but Ultimate Valkyrie means “the best of the Valkyries” rather than Winning’s “Valkyrie that wins battles.” Ultimate Valkyrie is Valt saying he has surpassed his past self

Shu: Storm is a neutral name, like Slash, hinting at how Shu doesn’t see himself as undefeatable like some other characters. Legend, like God, shows ego, which Shu most definitely had during this period. Requiem is named after a requiem, a mass or musical peace dedicated to the dead. Requiem is Red Eye’s way of saying “Shu is dead.” Also it’s a JoJo reference. Cho-Z points at Shu’s opinion of himself, which is that he can “fix” Aiger and defeat Phi. He does neither of these, with Phi himself accidentally saving Aiger and Shu losing. World seems like a neutral name, but also not at the same time. World implies a large scale, but not power. Shu built World to counter Lucifer because while Shu sees himself as far-reaching, he feels powerless against Lain’s flare. Also JoJo reference. Astral Spriggan implies Shu has “ascended.” Shu’s opinion of himself post Evolution is much higher than in season 1

All of the Kiyamas: Rising doesn’t mean powerful, but that it will become powerful. Rantaro sees himself as being on the right path, but not achieved his goal yet. Blaze is a neutral name, probably due to how the events of season 1 made him reevaluate his own power. Crash indicates fighting spirit, which Ranjiro most definitely has. Glide was probably named by Rantaro since Glide sounds graceful, as opposed to Crash’s violence. Finally Cyclone, which is another neutral name. I don’t know exactly why it was named Cyclone, but if Ranzo was cocky before, he certainly was brought down after fighting Bell

Lui: Lost Longinus is weird. Lui clearly sees himself as the best blader around, who puts others in their place. So why Lost? I don’t get this one. Nightmare is more straightforward. Lui is his opponent’s nightmare. Bloody is a violent name, like Lui’s aggressive nature. The same goes for Rage. Guilty, like Lost, is strange, but I can at least make a guess. Lui sees himself as one that can judge other people, and would’ve named his bey Judgement Longinus if it weren;t for a certain gambling clown. Speaking of which...

Joe: Judgement Joker has a 50% of dealing massive damage with its attacks and a 50% of it backfiring horribly. Joe sees his bey as the one passing judgement on him and his opponent. Joker is a vessel for Lady Luck to make her calls. Joe has no control over the outcome, and he likes it

Lodin: Since I did Lui I thought I might as well do the other Longinus user. Zwei means two in German. He named his bey Two Longinus, either because he’s the second Longinus user or because Zwei Longinus has 2 big contact points. Lodin is very simplistic in nature and I can see him naming his bey after something so straightforward

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Zac, despite his public persona of cheery pop star, is ruthless when it comes to other people. Specifically, people that he percieves as threats (Akira being the main example). So, I hereby present characters that Zac would feel extremely threatened by

1. Akira Yamatoga: This one happens in canon. Akira is a rising star in both the music and blading worlds, both of which Zac currently dominates. Akira is one of the few people that can challenge Zac in both fields. Zac is still more experienced however, and manages to convincingly defeat Akira in a battle (as far as music goes, we are never shown, but Zac probably stayed on top)

2. Orochi Ginba: I know they get along well in canon, but we are never shown how they met. Orochi is known for his hearing, being able to tell how close a bey is to bursting while in the crowd. Logically, he should be able to sense people’s heartbeats and breathing patterns. Zac puts up a fake personality because he cannot let people know his true intentions. Orochi senses his heartbeat accelerating and breathing getting faster when Zac feels threatened, but Zac might be able to play it off as excitement rather than fear

3. Valt Aoi: Another one that’s canon. Like Akira, Valt is a rising star that can take Zac on in a battle, but Zac can handle that. What makes Valt a threat is the exact opposite reason Orochi is a threat. Valt is oblivious to other people’s emotions. Zac needs to get rid of the threat without letting the public know he means to get rid of the threat, and Valt is simply too dense for Zac to do that. By the time Valt realizes what Zac is doing, everyone else already figured it out. Zac cannot get rid of Valt without letting his true intentions show very clearly

4. Joshua Burns: Joshua, like Zac, craves fame. Unlike Zac, Joshua is willing to sacrifice effectiveness for spectacle. Joshua throws the first round to up the tension so that when he wins, it’s more satisfying. If he faced Zac, Zac may or may not see through Joshua. If Zac does not, then Joshua loses the first round and Zac is caught off guard in the second. If Zac does see through Joshua however, Zac would freak out. Joshua is so confident he’s basically going “I can beat you with my eyes closed, and to prove it, I’ll put on this blindfold.” Zac would not be able to intimidate Joshua because Joshua’s ego is just that big. And to Zac, this means that Joshua is powerful enough that he can fight Zac while handicapped

5. Laban Vanot: Like Orochi, he’s too perceptive. Laban can look into people’s souls, and would be able to tell Zac’s not as pure as he presents himself. But since Zac is at worst, a massive dick, Laban probably wouldn’t care much. Laban doesn’t care about Kyle for example, despite Kyle being extremely shady. He only cares about Phi because Phi is downright evil and possibly not even human. I see Zac and Laban getting along after a while since Laban doesn’t want the spotlight

6. Hyde: Hyde is a showman, just like Zac and Joshua. Zac would see some guy that’s good at getting the crowd excited and would percieve him as a threat. Hyde and Zac have the same goal: Being the strongest while having fans because of it. Zac can handle losing if his image stays intact (look at his loss to Valt), but Hyde ridicules his opponents. Zac could not handle losing to Hyde because if he does, Hyde will taunt him on TV until Zac shuts him up in a rematch

7. Fumiya Kindo: Fumiya wants fame. That alone makes him a threat to Zac. Fumiya and Zac both tell the audience “look at how awesome I am,” albeit Zac is more subtle. Zac would probably deal with Fumiya like he dealt with Akira

8. Pheng Hope: Pheng, like Laban, can look into people’s souls. Laban can tell what kind of person someone is, while Pheng can tell what their current state is. This means that Pheng is more similar to Orochi, but replace “heartbeat and breathing” with “chi.” And ulike with Orochi, Zac cannot play it off as anything because Pheng’s perception of people’s states is even deepter than Orochi’s. But like Orochi and Laban, Pheng doesn’t care about fame so when Zac realizes that, he’ll stop worrying

9. Blindt DeVoy: Like Laban, Blindt can tell what your soul looks like. Like Laban, he does not care for fame. This would play out very similarly to how it would with Pheng since Blindt prefers to be away from crowds of fans

10. Arthur Peregrine: Zac’s worst nightmare. A guy whose only goal is “sway public opinion to believe that I am a god amongst men.” Zac has 2 options. He either opposes Arthur or sides with him. Zac would never side with Arthur for multiple reasons (Arthur is obviously evil. Zac would be a “servant” of Arthur). If Zac opposed Arthur, Arthur would simply physically obliterate him while streaming the battle online. Zac can recover from physical defeat if his image is intact, but Arthur goes out of his way to paint his opponents as fools who dared defy a god. And the fact that Arthur livestreams his battles is, like Joshua, saying that he is confident he will win. The only way Zac can beat Arthur is defeating him in battle, like with Hyde. Arthur embodies the most dangeroud traits of several of Zac’s biggest threats all combined into one. I wish Zac was in Rise just so I could see his reaction to Arthur, because I’m sure it’d be priceless

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Beyblade character design analysis: Masamune Kadoya

Last time I covered Madoka. Today, it’s the self-proclaimed number 1 blader, Masamune

Starting with the hair, it’s black with a white outline. The shape of it is spiky, as if Masamune had received an electric shock. The single red strand looks like a unicorn horn. His hair shows both his bey’s powers (electricity) and its spirit (unicorn)

He wears an orange shirt under a green jacket. That shirt is too low to be practical and the only way I see it being wearable is if it has thin straps akin to a low-cut tanktop. I don’t see why this was included. His bey has nothing to do with the color orange and and design of it is fairly plain. My best guess is that it’s one of those design elements that were added for aesthetic purposes only

The jacket itself is green and blue, the same colors as his beys (Ray was green and Blitz was blue). Way to foreshadow

Masamune’s fingerless gloves look too big for him. Masamune, throughout most of Masters, saw himself as the best in the world despite not being there yet. Masamune sees himself as better than he really is, and the oversized gloves fit that perfectly. He sees himself as fitting the big gloves even though he doesn’t

The belt holds his launcher in the back. Also the orange things I assume are part of his “shirt” which makes me more confused. I don’t understand why he has orange so I’ll keep assuming it’s for aesthetics

His beige shorts habe blue lightning designs on them. His bey does lightning. It’s fairly straightforward. The shorts are also oversized, just like I covered in the gloves

Masamune wears green shoes with yellow lightning designs. The shoes also have some blue. His beys are green and blue and have electric powers. Again fairly straightforward

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Hilary Tachibana rant

It’s no secret I have issues with V-Force. Tyson’s character regressed without good reason and the blader-of-the-week formula got stale fast. Buut my single biggest issue was Hilary in how she was written and utilized throughout V-Force

Let’s look at what Hilary brings to the cast. She acts as the voice of reason for the Bladebreakers (mainly Tyson) while not being a blader herself. In G-Revolution she is also the BBA Revolution’s manager. The problem is that all of these roles were already filled. Kenny was the voice of reason for the first season and doubled as the Bladebreaker’s coach and manager. Hilary becomes redundant when everything she does can be done, and has been done, by another character

Not only does Kenny already do most of what Hilary does, he does it better. Hilary has absolutely no knowledge of blading at the start of V-Force but still lectures the world champion. If anyone is to lecture the world champion, it’s his teammates or his coach. And if not them, then at least someone that knows what they’re talking about

I get that they wanted to add a female character to the main cast, but when Mariah and Emily already exist, it’s proof that this show can write female bladers well. If you want Hilary in a non-blader role, you have Judy, who doesn’t battle but is still involved in blading. Even Frankie, a one-off opponent at a tournament, was better than Hilary. V-Force then introduced Mariam, Salima, and Queen. And again I ask myself why was Hilary not a blader? Or if she absolutely needs to be in a support role, why not make her good at it?

G-Revolution gave her a better role as manager, but only because Kenny started battling more. G-Rev basically went “yep. Hilary is just a backup Kenny” instead of showing how qualified she is for her job. When has Hilary at any point shown her competence at being a manager? It’s like the show expects the audience to think she’s competent and qualified, despite the series doing everything it can to prove the statement “Hilary is a good manager and important member of the team” wrong

The worst part is that Hilary could’ve been a great character. She could easily have been shown to be a great manager whose presence really matters, but instead she was treated as a joke

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Beyblade character design analysis: Doji

Last time I went over Masamune’s design. Now for Doji (requested by Anon)

Starting from the top, Doji’s hair is spiky with a single golden streak. Doji often combs this part of his hair, showing that he cares about his appearance. However, he only combs one streak. His hair is just like the Dark Nebula. There is one important member (Ryuga) and no one else really matters (at least in the long-run, since he planned on disposing of all of them, including Reiji). He has a weird piece of hair on the back, which isn’t considered a “formal” hairstyle. Doji has class, but he’s not boring. Doji had several quirks to his personality that separate him from a stereotypical “boring businessman”

Doji’s glasses usually have one side reflect light and the other not, making only one eye visible. Which side is not consistent, so its not that he has special glasses that have glare only on one side. From a design standpoint, this seems almost nonsensical, but it works for Doji’s character. Doji’s glasses are like his hatred of cacti. It’s strange. There’s a reason for that. And no, the show doesn’t tell us the reason. It also makes the moments when both of Doji’s eyes are visible (like against Phoenix) somewhat unsettling, as seeing both of his eyes is uncommon at best

He wears a white shirt with a red tie. He also wears a purple suit with golden buttons. This works to present Doji as formal, but again, not “boring.” He’s like the guy that shows up to a business meeting wearing a tie with the Supreme logo. Formal? Yes. Fitting societal expectations of formality? No

He matches the purple suit with purple pants and black shoes. Doji isn’t boring, but he’s not as over the top as many other characters. This matches his reserved personality, where the only thing she shares about himself are his strange quirks like orange juice but doesn’t talk to anyone about his past or the reasons he thinks reviving Nemesis is a good idea

In Fury, Doji wears a top hat that hides his eyes and while his clothes stand out due to looking out of time, it’s very low-key, compared to his flashier previous design

And here’s why he wears the top hat. He has a scar over his right eye and a monocle over his left. His hair is also grey vs the black it used to be. Basically, he peaked in Fusion and knows it. His right eye presumably doesn’t work anymore and he looks much older. While he never outright states it, he despises his new look because it’s a reminder of how Ryuga defeated him. The biggest blow to his pride he has ever faced left permanent, visible effects. His Fusion design showed his cared about his image, and now he’s ashamed of his image and can’t change it, so he decides to hide it

Doji also needs a cane in Fury. Another constant reminder of when Ryuga betrayed him

He wears a grey trench coat, a white cravat, black gloves, and black pants. Other than the cravat, most of this seems to be an attempt at hiding himself. It’s possible he has scars on his hands (he has one over his eye, which he covered with a hand when Ryuga attacked him). The cravat is there probably to give Doji style. He cares about his appearance, and here he’s hiding what he’s ashamed of, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to stand out at all

Doji’s robot body is weird. It seems that it was mostly designed with effectiveness in mind. It was meant to be a weapon in case Kira failed and he set it up so that the DNA headquarters would self-destruct if the body went offline. However, the body has Doji’s face on it, without the scar and wearing a pair of glasses. The hologram he projects also resembles his Fusion design. Doji is proud of who he was, but ashamed of who he became once Ryuga betrayed him. Simply put, Doji considers Ryuga turning on him to be his biggest failure and he wants to erase all traces of it. His hologram is also often seen with a glass of orange juice, even though Doji states that he cannot taste in his new body. Doji wishes to maintain the illusion that he is the same as he was in Fusion, even though he acts differently. Doji is more unhinged compared to his calm self in Fusion, due to the events towards the end of Fusion and Fury. Essentially, Doji wants to go back to how he was but is unable to, both physically and mentally

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Doji as a character is strange. No matter how much I look into him I still have no idea what Doji is actually like as a person. While “the writers didn’t actually think this character through” seems like a valid explanation, I just can’t help but find Doji’s character to be incredibly interesting

Doji’s character can be divided into 4 main personas. The evil businessman, the cultist, Shogun Steel, and his “true” self. The evil businessman we saw for most of Fusion is a villain focused on world domination. Well executed, but nothing groundbreaking

The cultist we saw in Metal Fury. The Hades cult’s main belief is fairly simple: Man defied the “will of the heavens” by defeating Hades. Defying the heavens is a bad thing that needs to be corrected. Doji’s businessman persona was a front to further his “real” goals, with the cult. While this adds another layer to Doji, it’s still barely underneath the surface

Shogun Steel focused on an important aspect of Doji’s character, that we saw before but never this much. Doji enjoys simple, material pleasures. He likes eating pizza and drinking orange juice. He has a fascination with the needles of cacti, and how they hurt when you pet them. This goes directly against his involvement in the Hades cult. If Doji thought “I enjoy these things in life, but am willing to sacrifice these pleasures for the sake of a higher goal,” he’d be a layered, but still pretty standard character. But it’s the fact that in Shogun Steel, Doji didn’t care about the defeat of Nemesis. He didn’t even care that he was dead, except for the fact that since he’s dead he can’t feel pain or taste food

Doji values simple, material pleasures over the Hades cult. That’s fine. But then why would he devote so much time and resources in helping the Hades cult when it directly interferes with that which he holds above the cult?

Doji is the equivalent of a guy who wears a mask over another mask over another mask. So what happens when you strip Doji of his outwards presentation and find what he really is like? So far, the closest I have to a concrete answer is “a man whose innermost desires are whims, and whose whims are of divine proportions.” Every “deep” thing that comes out of Doji’s mouth and every “important” action that he takes are ultimately meaningless to him. To Doji, resurrecting a god is like trying a new recipe, while eating a good dinner is what truly brings him joy

When others devote their entire lives to understanding how the universe works, or to making a change in society, Doji devotes his life to pricking his fingers on cactus needles. Ans when others spend an hour making dinner, Doji spends an hour finding out how to bring about the apocalypse. If humans have layers like onions, then Doji is an onion turned inside out. But he doesn’t want people to know that. The reason he helped the Hades cult, knowing its success would mean the end of his orange juice, was because Doji is so used to hiding his true self that he would let his fake persona harm his real self if it meant keeping the disguise working. The thing about the onion is more like “an onion turned inside out, which is wrapped around another onion.” Doji created an extremely complex, yet impossible to truly understand, character to hide who he really is

So back to my original question: What is Doji really like? The answer is that we have no idea. Doji has made sure no one ever gets so much as a hint to his real self, and as a result, essentially created the character that we see on screen (who is easily one of the most evil characters in the franchise). The only thing I can say about Doji’s “real” self is that he’s extremely evil (which is why he chose to make his fake persona evil, to commit evil acts behind a mask), and is an emotional wreck (which is why he shies away from all reality). I believe his battle with Phoenix is the only time his true self appears, and it seems (to me at least) like someone that’s extremely unstable, and not at all the cold, calculating, manipulative bastard we always see (even in Shogun Steel he was patient and planned meticulously)

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Beyblade character design analysis: Madoka Amano

Last time, I went over Hilary’s design. Breaking the recent streak of original series characters, today I will cover Madoka

She wears goggles, which she only uses when repairing beys. The goggles both serve a practical purpose and convey her role as a mechanic (much like Kenny in the original series)

She wears a white shirt with the B-Pit logo. While the B-Pit never has much plot relevance (at least not on the same level as Koma Village or Hades City), it is a location where characters will often be in. It’s easy to forget that it’s Madoka’s place specifically (unlike the bey park, which doesn’t belong to any one character)

She wears a pink sleeveless vest with a hoodie and yellow details. Due to Madoka not being a blader (she does have a bey it’s only used once), there is no need to match the color scheme of a bey. The pink + yellow combination was probably picked because no one else would use it, since no bey uses that color scheme. Pink is already exceedingly rare in beys, so it makes sense to give her pink

She wears fingerless gloves, which are so common in this franchise that I’m starting to doubt if it’s even worth mentioning

She has a brown belt with a pink case. That case is the same one many bladers use to store their beys, and I can only assume the other side holds a launcher. Despite only battling once, she is still a blader

She wears a pair of dark blue shorts. Like the vest, it’s meant to make her color scheme different from any bey. Pink is already rare, but pink with yellow and dark blue is even more so

White and pink thigh highs because it looks good. Generally speaking, with beyblade anything below the belt is just “there” when it comes to character design. Either it just looks aesthetically pleasing or it reinforces ideas introduced before

Pink and yellow boots because they are practical and the colors match the vest

In Fury she gets a rework. The goggles are still the same but the rest is not

She has a white and pink shirt. While the colors are similar to before, it lacks the B-Pit logo. Probably because Fury didn’t have the characters in the B-Pit nearly as much

The vest is slightly different and lacks the hoodie. I don’t know why, but it seems like something more practical for travel (which they do a lot in Fury)

The gloves look a slightly different color, but I’m not sure if it’s just the lighting

Her belt seems to only have minor changes. Even though she doesn’t use her bey at all

Her shorts are replaced with a skirt of the same color. Seeing how the vest became more practical, this change is odd. While skirts are great, they are not as good as shorts for the kinds of things they do in Fury

The white thigh highs are now dark blue. Reason? Not sure, but it’s probably just because it looks better

Brown boots that are the same as before except for the color. I don’t get the reason for this change, but it does match the dark socks better

In Shogun Steel, her goggles are replaced by a headband. She is now working for the WBBA is is no longer a mechanic. It wouldn’t make sense for her to keep the goggles but since her hair was designed with the intent of having something on it, they put a headband on

She has a pink necklace now. She has very little pink in this design, but it’s still present in minor details

She wears a cream shirt with a yellow vest. The color and design changes were made to give it a more “business” look, suiting her new job running the B-Pit instead of being a mechanic at it

She wears a pink bracelet, which like the necklace, keep some pink details in her design

She wears a black skirt, which only reinforce the “business” look the rest of her design goes for

She wears brown boots like in Fury, but these look more formal. Again, it fits her new role

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Beyblade character design analysis: Tyson Granger

Last time I covered the metal saga’s main character, Gingka Hagane. This time, I’ll cover the original series main character, Tyson Granger (aka Takao Kinomiya)

Tyson has a blue and red baseball cap which he wear backwards. Despite Dragoon being white, it often has blue and red accents. Tyson also has dark blue hair that at the front, somehwat resembles Kai’s. This image doesn’t show it but he also has a ponytail. Tyson, I get that your character was created in the late 90′s but most of your series ran (and took place) in the 2000′s

He has a yellow shirt. Tyson’s clothes are the primary colors. Main characters often wear primary colors in a lot of media for some reason. Also, he tucked his shirt in his shorts. They’re shorts ffs. Why would you do this?

He wears a red jacket. Probably because when you have a shirt and a jacket the jacket is more visible, and having only the shirt would be too much of the same color

Tyson has a pair of brown fingerless gloves. I could copy-paste “[character] wears fingerless gloves” onto most of these posts. What is it with beyblade and fingerless gloves? I do like it though

Blue shorts because Tyson wears primary colors. I do like the blue though because Dragoon has blue in it’s color scheme (something I can’t say for the yellow)

Tyson has somewhat long white socks. Not sure what the point of that is

Red and yellow shoes because primary colors

Ignoring the art style change, his V-Force isn’t that different. He keeps the hat and hair

He still wears a yellow shirt under a red jacket. This time however, the shirt has long sleeves and the jacket lacks the yellow buttons And his shirt is no longer tucked. Overall, Tyson wears more yellow in V-Force

His brown gloves have been replaced by blue gloves This is probably to compensate for the fact that his blue shorts are gone and blue is integral to his design

He wears long grey pants instead of blue shorts. Because of this, I don’t know how long his socks are

His shoes are now grey and red

I genuinely have nothing to say about Tyson’s G-Revolution design

The top half is based on season 1. Hat, short sleeved yellow shirt, red jacket. The only difference is that it isn’t tucked into his pants

His pants are grey and are basically unchanged from V-Force

His shoes are the only noticeable change. They’re red and white. If only that was some sort of symbolism

Conclusion: Tyson’s design was a bit dissapoiting to be honest. There wasn’t much symbolism or outrageous fashion like other characters. He is a product of Beyblade’s early years (before even the manga) when it was still trying to figure ut what it wanted to be