Beyblade Burst

I am very much approaching this with the attitude that this is a kids show, and I will thus not take it completely seriously for that reason. I mean, the first episode is as generic and introductory as a first episode can actually get. It introduces a couple of main characters with the general concept of what we're watching; the outcome of this episode feels unearned, unfortunately, but I understand it's likely a set up for future so I won't hate everything based off of just this small snippet of what's to come. I think this has potential to just be silly, but I just hope that letting Beyblades rip isn't the only thing that ever happens - what I mean by that is, I hope we get some character and overarching plots on top of the main concept of what's happening.

A lot of action went on this episode, and I'm not mad about it. It's as dramatic as ever and I will never hate dramatics, so that's by no means a negative. I'm still not exactly invested in what's happening - we're just doing a bunch of world building as of current so there's not a lot to be excited about - but it's still nice seeing the world expand upon itself piece by piece. Next episode is being set up a little to be rather intense (I feel), so I hope it can kind of keep this vibe up since it's not an entirely abhorrent watch.

Okay, I'm starting to get used to the pacing and general structure of this series right now and, I will admit, the cliff-hanger is annoyingly compelling. I wouldn't say that I'm invested in anything right now, but the characters are starting to develop their own personalities and quirks bit by bit, so I hope that they develop further in episodes to come. Overall, I enjoyed this more than the pilot just because the overarching episode arc felt more rounded and coherent so, if the further episodes follow a similar structure to this, I won't be criticising everything too much.

As final episodes go, this one was pretty solid. The whole match was generally really fun to watch, and the individual rounds all had something to them. The ending was an unexpected one and one where I actually understand Luis' feelings completely because I would feel the same in that same scenario (never thought I would empathise with the evil Labubu but here we are). Our little sequence of normal, daily life after the battle wasn't the most interesting thing to watch; it was just some scenes meant to remind us of the friendship/dynamic between our characters, but I feel like that could have been written with just a little bit more fun and comedic flair to it to round out the series on a more clean and satisfying note. I don't necessarily agree with how the nationals was left off - again, this is where Luis and I have a very similar mindset - but I understand why everything happened the way it did so it's not necessarily a criticism because it does all make sense. For a children's show, this does hold up surprisingly decently as an adult who's never had exposure to any of it before. Not the best children's show to watch as an adult since it is very obviously aimed at those early teenage years and kids younger than that, but there was a strange sense of enjoyment I managed to get from it all despite that.

A lot of this episode was just preparation for the final match against Luis, working on new techniques and trying to get strategies under way so as to stand the best possible chance against this evil Labubu. Nonetheless, once we finally start the match, it ends up going a little bit less ideal than planned for one party, and the other party probably is going to have to reassess their options and think how to best approach the situation. The new trick/technique that Valt's planning - I'm not a massive fan of it, I don't understand the specific benefits of it, and I think it'd be extremely risky to use it against Luis. Of course he's going to - that's why he was practicing it - but it doesn't seem like an intellectually good idea to do it, if you know what I mean, especially because it's very under-rehearsed so it'll kind of come down to luck. Still, final episode and conclusion next episode, which should be an interesting match to watch fully play out. Edit: after realising what exactly the point of his new technique was (which is essentially just to strengthen the base skills and fundamentals), I'm not that skeptical/mad about it because it's not going to be a thing he uses in battle probably. Still, I'm keeping that part in the review because I don't feel like it was made super, super clear what we were doing and we spent a while doing it anyway - or maybe I simply zoned out for a second when they explained it.

This was absolutely heart-breaking to watch. I had no hope, then the show proceeded to give me hope and completely demolish it. I knew that plot point involving Shu and his Beyblade was going to come back, and it came back with a vengeance. My head was in my hands at the conclusion of the battle and I couldn't believe what I'd just seen. It feels unfair but fair at the same time, and is generally and genuinely an overall really spectacular watch - probably the best battle in the show thus far in every aspect; visuals, emotional weight, drama, subversion of expectations, you name it. The post-match scene with Valt and Shu was also just really sweet to see, and I'm completely rooting for Valt to win in the finals now. Also, I have to mention it, Zac is iconic for what he did this episode. He's so extra, so dramatic, so funny for no reason, and I feel like after the showing (even if it was a brief one) he gave us in this episode, I can forgive him for retiring with a slam poetry piece in the prior episode. Overall, no real massive criticisms, which is a shock to hear from someone as critical as me.

I don't know why I feel compelled to give it this score specifically, but I just do so that's what I'm going to do. Generally a strong episode following the battle between Naoki and Valt with ups and downs all over the place and just a lot of vibing. I honestly don't have all that much to say because we just sort of had the battle, and then proceeded to see Naoki analyse just about everything about the battle after the fact, claiming it all for the sake of science or whatever. His character is rather decent and can have some funny moments, so I don't immediately hate him or anything. The same can't be said for Jin, our resident zombie, who is already kind of not a good character (in canon) and he's said about three lines. No one trusts him and I sure as hell don't, but we'll probably be encountering him soon, so let's see what he's got.

Genuinely a really compelling final. The referee claiming something like this had never happened before or whatever he said is for sure not true (I don't believe him), but the outcome is actually a very pleasant surprise to me. I like the direction they went with it even if I don't like the outcome on a personal level, and it makes sense in the greater context of the story. I feel like some drama/rivalry is spawning because of this result, and I want to see that all coming to fruition and imploding. It's been a while in this series since I've sat and thought, "Damn, I wasn't expecting that, but it's actually kind of a vibe," so I'll give them their props. Also, I did completely forget this was the team nationals and we still had the solo nationals to go, so I guess we know what the next tournament is going to be.

A good sequence of events, and a very fun start to our finals. I think the matches we got to see were genuinely a lot of fun to watch, and the talking interspersed everywhere was actually enjoyable. I think the battles themselves are weighting my score because all of the lead up to the finals was rather meh, literally just following our characters training or otherwise, and I hate a training arc with fervour. Nonetheless, Ryota joining the main cast is arguably (definitely) the best thing that happened this episode; that is my child, I will hear no slander or hatred towards this adorable and pure being. Yeah, there's not very much more to it all - oh, apart from the biggest menace to society continuing to be a menace to society and just slandering everyone. God, is Luis insufferable.

A slight nothing burger of an episode, with the only thing being a conclusion to the semis, and then the school's film club decide to document the Bey Club and their thoughts to approaching the competition. It just sort of ends up following them through their day-to-day, with a comedic training segment with Gabe's team at the Beyblade training gym. Luis also pulls up and just annoys everyone - including me - for the sake of it, then has some hallucinations and does a villainous laugh at the end of the episode. It's basically filler, and that is a little annoying over time because, instead of doing anything interesting with the characters, their development, their friendships, the general world, or whatever else, we fall back on just exploring a new location that we'll probably never see again, or just having the same old, same old conflicts rehashed. I want more for this show, but I don't think we'll get it.

Not the most inventive, creative, or unpredictable episode, but not everything needs to be crazy and do God knows what shenanigans to be entertaining. Many a match happened this episode, leaving on a cliff-hanger where it could genuinely go both ways depending on what they want to do with the story. Zac was out here doing what he does best (being a girlboss), Valt has stopped throwing so much of a fit over Ken being on the opposing team, Ben was being his unhinged self (and not in a good way), and then Gabe was there trying to have a tough upbringing and a cold backstory but it didn't land for me. I actually kind of want to know how the conclusion to this semis battle goes, so you'll see be tomorrow to write about how things (hopefully) turn out in the exact way I want them to.

For a filler episode, it was halfway decent, although we didn't have enough of Zac. For what I hope is only an episode, we've taken a break from the main tournament to go to a party which gives us some funny gags, and a battle on a new and interesting stadium. Still, even that could carry me through the frustration I felt every time Wakiya and our new character, Lui, opened their mouths. I really like Wakiya as a character but how he's been acting the past couple of episodes has been irking me a lot, so introducing someone new whose personality is entirely what I've been hating about Wakiya isn't going to bode well for me. Those two just need to get over themselves and wake up to reality; stop being so stuck up and start acting like a normal human being, please. Let's hope we get over this whole "our team isn't working" subplot we've got going because I genuinely might crash out soon.

You know, there were one or two moments that annoyed me a tiny bit while watching but, overall, a very solid way to start this arc. We sped through God knows how many matches and all of the main ones that were showed felt like they happened in the way they should. It was obvious which teams would progress through to the next stage based on who had the most NPCs on their team but, still, I enjoyed myself. Xander is kind of terrifying, I have to say, and our main characters' team is sort of awful; I assume the next episode is going to be working on that because, if they don't, we can all expect the credits to roll sooner than later.

A silly episode, but a rather wholesome one at the same time. We end up continuing the mini training arc we started in the last episode, except we focus primarily on Wakiya this whole episode and on developing him in terms of how he acts generally and to his friends. All in all, it's just kind of a fluffy episode and got a lot of laughs out of me because Wakiya was just being bratty and entitled in an endearing way. We also got one of my favourite lines in this episode: "Watch me, I'm really good at walking" - absolute cinema. Honestly, just a good time, and the focus on my second favourite character helps make it enjoyable for me.

Very chill, this episode was. Essentially, we just have a little training arc which includes our newly formed and complete Bey Club, all indulging in Wakiya's wealth (as they should, the kid has so much disposable income under his name). Genuinely, there's not much else to say apart from that because they just established the way the team competition would work in the future arc and did a simulation of it to practice. I can't even comment on the comedy because there wasn't all that much of it; it was just a relaxed episode doing what it says on the tin and, sometimes, an episode doesn't have to be much more than that to be enjoyable.

A couple of fun things happened this episode, and it was a fairly enjoyable watch. We not only had my two least favourite characters losing miserably (I'm thrilled, honestly), but we had the complete conclusion to Daigo's storyline, which was handled in a way that genuinely natural and realistic. I wouldn't say it's necessarily what I wanted from the storyline - some more drama and worse consequences would have been better, as well as more emotional conflict - but it's not like it was done badly so this isn't a complaint necessarily. All in all, we've set up the next plot point as well, Shu finally accepting his place in the Bey Club (they've been warming his seat since, like, episode four, it's about time), and I wonder just what the actual next part is going to be about since we don't have a lot of information regarding specifics.

You know, I was trying to find a reason not to give this five stars, but there wasn't really any glaring issues I had with this episode so I'll give it its stars. We had a couple of rounds and battles this episode, all of which ended in a rather appropriate and fitting way in my opinion. I don't adamantly hate anything that happened in this episode (aside from Orochi getting given lines, still hate the guy), and it also got a decent amount of laughs from me. I appreciate some sort of reasoning as to why Valtryek is evolving and all of that stuff, but I still think it's giving too much credit to pure luck rather than Valt's skill levels, so I'm not the happiest with that. Nonetheless, Zac is earning a very large spot in my heart; he's goofy as all hell, and he's only gonna get better, trust.

Better than the last episode, but not entirely amazing. I felt as if there were a lot of ups and downs, a lot of high moments which were very quickly followed by a lot of low moments. The pacing was so off in this episode - everything happens way too quick and we basically skip the first round of the new tournament because, yes, we're just immediately getting into it with hardly any set-up. Valt's match, I hated it; ridiculously unsatisfying for me and didn't feel earned because, again, it felt like they rushed through it. Lowkey, arguably the main thing that carries this episode is Zach - he's funny as anything and just goofy without even trying to. I'm sure now that the main cast have all defeated the NPCs then the tourney will slow down and we'll be back to regular pacing, but it was just ridiculous this episode with how rapid everything happened.

A rather disappointing episode in a multitude of ways. There was one standout moment - that being Ken's second round against Xander - but the rest of the episode was fairly naff. The conclusion to the battle tournament arc thing was absolutely not rewarding at all emotionally, since we simply didn't see a "real" battle in the way we should have. Furthermore, Valt this episode was just disappointing, and the whole Valtryek thing is so cheap, I can't lie. I hate that it's happening the way it is because it essentially takes all agency away from Valt and claims everything as a supernatural power, in a way. Ken's arc was also closed in an unsatisfying way, and I don't see the point in his leaving. In conclusion, if I had one word to sum up this episode, it would be either "unsatisfying" or "unfinished".

All right, so, half the episode was padded with flashbacks of our departing friend, Ken, and it did nothing but pad out the runtime and make the whole thing more annoying to watch. Nonetheless, a very satisfying set of battles. I guess it makes sense for Ken to shine the way he did considering these are (possibly) his forever leaving episodes. More than anything, I'm so satisfied with the conclusion to Yugo's battle (the twat needed humbling), and we seem to be in for a couple good matchups next episode. The reason we're rating low is mostly due to the flashbacks; I cannot overstate how annoying they actually were.