I have reviewed the OG Beyblade before but not it's other series, I'll save V-Force for a bad day and go straight to G-Revolution.
Tyson having twice become world champion is helping some kids learn Beyblade when he gets challenged by a scrappy kid named Daichi, the young Beyblader proving to be a match for Tyson. At the same time, the next World Championship is announced, Bladebreaker teammates Kai, Max and Ray decide to return to their homes with the intention of taking Tyson's title much to his surprise, left having to team up with Daichi, Tyson will face rivals old and new to reclaim his title, but a force known as BEGA awaits to disrupt the sport.
G-Revolution has no business being this awesome, it takes an already silly premise of battling spinning tops and turns it into a proper sports anime, it ups everything up to eleven with the battles, the characters and the ultimate edgelord Kai Hiwatari.
This is how you make your cheese world class, the type of cheese you only have with the finest wine.
Dub is still excellent and the commentators Brad Best and AJ Topper remind me of such duos as Wiz & Boomstick of Death Battle and Arin & Dan of Game Grumps.
Final Verdict: Ignore every other Beyblade season and just watch this one, you'll never see cheese like this ever again.
Like any other reasonable adult in this day and age, I hold down a job, but what are the best jobs to have in anime? Well lets find out with this new Top Ten List.
Oh I'm not going to do a worst list because everyone knows that the worst job in Anime is a Soldier.
Honorable Mentions
Maids & Butlers: Has a tendency to deviate from the core principles of the whole maid thing, being a Butler also has the same issue. Best shown in Black Butler, Hayate the Combat Butler and He is My Master.
Yakuza/Mafia Member: A Yakuza in an anime is not as scary as the real thing but that's because everyone of these people seem to have an attractive daughter who gets involved in marriage. Best shown in My Bride is a Mermaid, Nisekoi and Arcana Famiglia
Scientist: The pursuit of Science is always a challenge especially in a world where that kind of stuff is everywhere but needless to say it's a respectful profession even if it does have it's evil side. Best shown in Steins Gate, Elfen Lied and within reason Neon Genesis Evangelion.
10. Medical Doctor or Nurse
Someone has to fix Shonen Jump heroes and their unbelievable injuries, while in other cases you have the hands that can save anyone from death. Best shown in Blackjack with honorable mentions to the unseen doctors and nurses who actually have to heal Shonen Heroes.
9. Shrine Maiden
Guaranteed a Shrine Maiden has played a role in some sort of anime, those spirits can do some damage, and in other cases they are your most trusted allies. Best shown in Shaman King along with equal roles in spiritualism and I recommend any other series that has a Shrine Maiden as it's lead or main cast character.
8. Police Officer
The best thing about being a Police Officer is that you can get away with collateral damage, you can even be a specialist police officer with your own mecha and special weapons. Best shown in AD Police, Patlabor and Burn Up Franchise, Dirty Pair Franchise also gets a tentative nod for being similar to a future Interpol.
7. Weapon Smith
If you've ever seen an iconic weapon on screen, then someone has to have made it at some point. Alucard's guns, Gourry's Sword of Light, Son Goku's Extendable Pole, Guts' Dragon Slayer Sword, pretty much every weapon has a name attached to it and you've got some pretty sick weapons on display. Best shown in The Sacred Blacksmith & Berserk but any fantasy anime can qualify if it has an awesome weapon.
6. Idol Singer
It's a popular job for all aspiring young girls as Idol Singing pretty much makes up the core of shojo anime and is still insanely popular along with number 5 on this list. Best shown in Super Sonico and all Mainstream Idol shows and honorable mention to Vocaloid.
5. Fashion Designer
All those amazing costumes need a designer, they don't make themselves. Any Magical Girl show, Idol show, in fact pretty much any anime with awesome clothing will have a designer behind them. Best shown in Fancy Lala, Aikatsu and PriPara for specific stuff but general rule any anime with awesome clothing counts and lets not forget Kill La Kill.
4. Chef
Food is big business in Japan and attached to every food anime is a quest to make the tastiest food around, remember that Food Wars is literally Food Porn and don't get me started on the solar hands that can make the legendary breads. Best shown in Yakitate Japan, Food Wars and Toriko.
3. Toy Shop Owner
Is your product a Beyblade, a set of trading cards, a Bakugan or even a fighting toy robot or doll? Chances are your either a billionaire or paying off tons of legal fees for all the injured children. Best shown in Angelic Layer, Medabots, Beyblade and pretty much any anime with a children's toy.
2. Teacher
If you are in the teaching profession, you get away with a lot of things and even in the worst schools you still get students to listen, watch an episode of Kill La Kill or Tenjo Tenge and see how much the students get away with murder yet still take lessons. Saying that being a teacher has it's perks as well, you can even qualify as early as 10 years old, attractive teachers tend to get closer to their students, literally and even Gym Teachers can raise world beating sports teams. Best shown in Great Teacher Onizuka, Happy Lesson and Onegai Teacher, quick mention to most school anime with named teachers, sports anime that start in school and any teacher brave enough to teach students who can probably kill them with one punch.
1. Engineer
But the only thing that can top being a teacher is being an Engineer, you don't get much thanks for it unless you are named specifically but guarantee that the marvel that you brought into the world has saved more lives than anything regular armed forces can come up with. Every Giant Robot, Every Space Battle Ship, Every Human Like Robot has an Engineer attached to it. Best shown in Gundam, most Mecha and Sci Fi Anime along with anyone who has built such a realistic robot.
Remember when Beyblade used to be awesome? Well lets review it and see how well it's aged.
Beyblade is about Tyson, a Beyblader who gets drawn into a world competition of battling spinning tops after a run in with a few notable players including Kai, Max and Ray. These spinning tops contain bit beasts that get summoned during a match to fight, it's kind of like Pokemon with one monster.
After the first initial tournament, Tyson and his new found friends form a team to take on the world as each area in the world looks to test each individual character.
Toy anime is a bit sad looking nowadays, kids have grown wise to the idea that the shows from Japan that market toys such as Beyblade and Bakugan are only going to market toys and it's biggest weakness is that the same types of characters turn up, what made Beyblade stand out from these, at least in the 1st Generation of Beybladers is while there is the same protagonist, the supporting cast don't match the normal standards of anime of this genre.
Max reminds me of Tails without the tech knowledge.
Ray looks like he belongs in Xiaolin Showdown.
While Kai looks like a reject from Final Fantasy.
Put these in a team along with Kenny and you get one of Anime's best teams, and just when you think it focuses too much on the lead Tyson it surprises you with quite a decent plot for each character, yeah it does get cheesy every now and again but it's common for this type of anime, and if it weren't for the third season being insanely awesome this would be the best of the toy anime, even more so than Yu-Gi-Oh.
Dubbing is decent, special mention goes to the commentators Brad Best & A J Topper along with DJ Jazzman for making the experience that much better.
Final Verdict: In this day and age, a toy anime like this has no business being a series to begin with, that said it's still amazing what the Japanese can do with the most mundane things and Beyblade is proof of that ability, so the next time you see a popular toy turned into an anime, it might be worth a look.
Welcome to another Endless Wardrobe feature with more things that don't need a full post for.
I'm Back!
After an ugly event on Tuesday I've been on hiatus but now I am back and ready to post again.
On My Schedule Today
You might see as many as five posts in the next 48 hours, so lets see what's coming up.
Lilo Stitch Anime for Cartoon Vault
An American Tail also for Cartoon Vault
Two New entries for Walk of Fame
A review on web anime novel Okashina Futari
At least two top ten lists
On hold
Shezow Review for Cartoon Vault
Working on
New World, should be finished next week.
A video games feature within Retro Retrospect.
Dirty Pair Week, which should premier around August if all goes to plan.
Cancelled
Top ten list surrounding common complaints with anime that were unjustified, cancelled due to lack of material.
So what is a Dranzerstorm?
I've been asked this a couple of times and I'm going to tell you.
The right question would be how do you make a Dranzerstorm? You see when Beyblade was first distributed they were spinning tops made with a number of plastic & metal pieces which could be switched for the best combination.
You start with Dranzer's base, you then use Dragoon's weight disk, the next bit is important; Most Beyblade tops had a right spin gear but Dragoon's uses a left spin gear so it's important when making the Dranzerstorm that it spins left, you then finish with Dranzer's attack ring, although a G-Revolution spec works just as well, and presto you have a Dranzerstorm.
Other successful prototypes are the Dranzershield, Dranzerslash which uses Draciel & Driger parts respectively or my personal favorite the Dranzer Ice Storm which uses Wolborg's weight disk & Dragoon's left spin gear.
