Let's start with the opening. It's pretty decent, it's got a nice rock theme and a good amount of energy to it. Oddly enough, it sounds... nostalgic to me, I can't explain it but it sounds like a classic kids anime opening from the early 2000's. I'm not used to it yet so it hasn't fully caught on to me, but like any other openings, a few listens and I'll remember it, so I won't fault the opening for that.
Now, let's talk about Bell, I am liking him so far. Bell feels different from the other protagonists. He's not just another lame "idiot hot head rookie", this one is slightly more mischievous, he's very cocky and confident and has a fun personality. The closest resemblance he has is to Aiga, both being very cocky. However, whereas Aiga became a super talented blader in a seemingly short time after being a rookie, Bell is actually talented from the start of the series, so his amazing victories feel justified. He also seeks powerful bladers to battle, it seems. This is just my impressions with him so far, and I hope to see more from them and their character.
Anyway, the plot revolves around two kids, Basara and Hanna explore a creepy looking mansion, the standard, kids wandering around creepy mansion type plot. I must say that the mansion setting and the green skies looks great, I genuinely dig the setting and it's very vibrant. I like that Hanna is the one who's more brave, despite most likely being younger.
The mansion itself isn't that creepy looking, it's actually very clean, but it is justified since this is Bell's house. Bell scares the two and drops them into the arena room via a trap door, it certainly has a spooky game show feel and I like it. Bell challenges Basara and... well... obviously wins, considering Basara uses a previous system bey and isn't Valt levels of skilled.
The next episode focuses on Bell vs Lui, Lui still uses Rage Longinus which is so weird, but only because Burst rarely ever crossgens outside of generic bladers, and honestly, we need more crossgen battles. Lui does pretty well against Bell by uppercutting him constantly, but Bell does end up being able to counter Raging Upper and beats Lui. This is the earliest loss Lui has ever faced in a season, earlier than Chouzetsu and Sparking, and the first time he lost in his debut battle in the series too. It makes sense, Lui is using a more than likely inferior beyblade (in-universe I mean).
I don't mind this loss with Lui because, again, Lui isn't using a current gen system (in-universe, new gen beats previous gen most of the time), and Bell is established to be talented, not a rookie who randomly got talented quickly.
Random note, but it's so weird that the 2D chassis is used for generic bey fodder now, especially when that chassis belonged to the main villain right before, it's not even the non- barrier version.
It's overall a decent episode and a good start to this season, and without the pressure of legendary bladers, I have hope this'll be better than Sparking.
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