Love your big post about 2002, Psykick B. It is just a really, really weird and bad series. And we're talking "weird and bad" in the context of an anime that is always weird and often bad; the weirdness and badness of 2002 is surely the zenith of those qualities in the franchise.
You can even tell how terrible it's going to be from the opening sequence (Off the Chain), which is completely lifeless and dull, and focuses solely on the Bit Chips. There's even a shot of that stupid Bit Analyzer thing or whatever. It seems like part of Takara's strategy with 2002 was to make the Bit Beasts themselves into marketable characters, but considering how swiftly they seemed to abandon that strategy, my guess is that it didn't work out.
I watched the first episode of the original series subbed the other night (it's criminal that this is the only subbed episode), and I ... like it? A lot?
What I really like about that episode is that it's humble and somewhat relatable. Yeah, sure, there's probably no evil kid in a bandana stealing Beyblades in your hometown, but the thought of traveling to a neighbouring town for a BeyBattle with a friend, or defending your friends' honour by developing a new technique and overwhelming your opponent ... I feel like that's something that kids can relate to, or at least aspire to.
These are the parts of the original Beyblade anime that resonate with me most. The other one is when they go to Max's place and he has a huge Beyblade-dedicated basement. That's awesome! That was living the dream. When I saw that scene for the first time, it made me feel an instant yearning for something similar.
Summoning giant dragons and birds and blowing arenas up? Not so much.
The grandiosity works for the franchise, of course — its utter insanity is one of its key features — but I've always been puzzled at how quickly they want to leap into that grandiosity. By episode 2 (!) Takao gets his Bit Beast and also shoots his Beyblade through two concrete walls. Why? We could've gotten at least a few more episodes of schoolyard Beyblade politics and I would've loved it.
I do wish, however, that the way Takao wins his battle against Hiruta (Carlos) had been better written. Making the Winder longer makes sense (and is also illegal, but I guess it's an in-universe explanation for the Dragon Winder), and his running technique looks kind of cool but makes absolutely no sense.
Why not have him swap out his Weight Disk for a wider one, sacrificing his defensive ability for the pure speed he needs to win? (I know that Grip Attacker comes with Wide, but bear with me. It doesn't have to in the show. It gets destroyed in the next episode anyway.) This would've been a great opportunity to teach kids about customizing and bring some of the real-world strategy of Beyblade into the TV show, something it almost never does (to, IMO, its detriment).
One final thought on that: the music in the original series is just ridiculously, mind-blowingly beautiful. What did Beyblade do to deserve such a transcendent soundtrack? It's like you're watching the most beautiful mecha series from the 80's or something. When Kai shows up at the end of the episode and Takao challenges him, the music makes it feel like such a legitimately dramatic moment.
Finally, I actually think the weird, kinda-ugly style that the original series has works to its favour; it looks a lot more interesting than the later seasons, if not necessarily better.
LOVE IT 10/10
@[Bey Brad] @[Kai-V] After seeing your comments about the soundtrack I decided to do what I thought would be rewatching the dubbed first season,but as it turns out I apparently only began watching with v-force (and re-runs out of order of this season). The plot arc in this one is almost eerily similar to G-Revolution. However, this one has a bunch of weird issues with the dub. Like Rey says the "beystadium has a pool" where he clearly meant to say hotel instead of beystadium and there are a ton of inconsistencies as well. Like sometimes Kai is named as the returning world champion sometimes the returning champion of just whatever country it is they are all from, etc. Additionally, there are so many plot holes. I guess over time either my mind remembered the later two seasons more fondly than it should or it really shouldn't even be considered an anime (in the same way that no one thinks of Pokemon as an anime) and more of just a huge promotional tool for the game itself. Although, you're definitely right about the soundtrack.
Yeah, the first season and G-Rev have either the same writer or director? G-Rev's plot is obviously better but the complete insanity of the first season is hard to top.
I don't really get why my comments about the original soundtrack relate to the dub?
And I do not know why I was tagged but sure, the soundtrack (and honestly everything) for the original is very great, especially compared to the dub. Nelvana did a much better job with the Metal Fight Beyblade dub, in terms of at least staying true to the original concept.
The best would be if I could either understand Japanese fluently, for subs to exist, or lately I have been thinking about paying for someone to sub them hah. It was such a disappointment when Nelvana falsely advertised their latest Beyblade DVD collections as having Japanese original audio (and subtitles) but that there was none of that.
By the way, while I am here in this topic, I recently discovered and was rather shocked to realise that the characters might be named based on their associated colour : Takao (aoi = blue), (a)Kai (akai = red), Rei (midori = green, and they do pronounce Rei oddly in Fighting Spirits, like ree) ... I could not find anything for Max and mukarasu however, even though the sounds are definitely there, if you decompose Max as makkusu.
We always wondered what the meaning behind the names were, especially Kai's, and that could definitely be it ...
(Jun. 13, 2015 11:46 PM)Bey Brad Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah, the first season and G-Rev have either the same writer or director? G-Rev's plot is obviously better but the complete insanity of the first season is hard to top.
I don't really get why my comments about the original soundtrack relate to the dub?
@[Bey Brad] is the soundtrack on the dub not the same?
@[Kai-V] my bad, for some reason I was thinking you were the one having the conversation with Brad on the previous page
Speaking of the original series there was quite a few teams(Only naming the few that's been in a series of episodes, 1 episode battling teams I didn't name, if I did then most teams would be from Season 1):
- Blade Breakers/ Eventually G-Revolutions
- Blade Hunters
- White Tigers
- All Stars/Eventually into PBB Allstars
- Majestics
- Demolition Boys/Blitzkreig Boys(Added member Kai, removed member Ian)
- Saint Shields
- Team Psykick
- Zagart Team
- F-Dynasty
- Barthez Battalion
- Bega Bladers
At the very core it's some big ol'good ol' teams while Team Zagart is my favorite, I cannot decline the iconic Majestics. Though personal preferences.
Time Wrote:@[Bey Brad] is the soundtrack on the dub not the same?
I'm not sure about the standard BGM for character scenes, but Nelvana commissioned custom songs for during the fight scenes (Switchblade, Rise Above the Storm, etc etc)
(Jun. 14, 2015 6:00 PM)Wizard Wrote: [ -> ]Time Wrote:@[Bey Brad] is the soundtrack on the dub not the same?
I'm not sure about the standard BGM for character scenes, but Nelvana commissioned custom songs for during the fight scenes (Switchblade, Rise Above the Storm, etc etc)
Japanese dub songs:
- Blasting storm
- Cheer Song
- Fighting Spirits
- Jet
- Off the Chains
- Urban love
- What's the Answer
- Go ahead
- Identified
- Caze No fuku
- Oh yes
- Sign of wish
So there is your list of tracks. I know I'm missing the V-Force movie soundtrack but I haven't watched the Japanese dub of it in forever.
"Sign Of Wish" is the best Beyblade soundtrack ever made, no competition!
I also like Go Ahead and whatever the second G Rev OP was, Sign Of Wish is better than "Swing Low", "Rise Above The Storm" and "I'm not going down" COMBINED!
(Jun. 14, 2015 7:29 PM)J.I.N.B.E.E! Wrote: [ -> ]"Sign Of Wish" is the best Beyblade soundtrack ever made, no competition!
I also like Go Ahead and whatever the second G Rev OP was, Sign Of Wish is better than "Swing Low", "Rise Above The Storm" and "I'm not going down" COMBINED!
That song got so god d**n annoying in G-Revolution.
Swing Low? Haha it was a song that they probably used to signify a bada** battle, I forgot how many times that was played though I never remembered it being overplayed.
(Jun. 14, 2015 7:34 PM)J.I.N.B.E.E! Wrote: [ -> ]Swing Low? Haha it was a song that they probably used to signify a bada** battle, I forgot how many times that was played though I never remembered it being overplayed.
A little to much, don't want to venture into seeing how many battles it played in (Won't count season 1 since it was introduced there)
The conversation atm is terrifyingly relevant. I have been listening to Beyblade music all day. Gotta say, "I'm not going down" is a fave.
(Jun. 14, 2015 10:27 PM)Hale Wrote: [ -> ]The conversation atm is terrifyingly relevant. I have been listening to Beyblade music all day. Gotta say, "I'm not going down" is a fave.
Stuck re-watching V-Force currently.
Also made this video a while back, quite surprised a lot of people don't go on the same boat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2frVCahK0m4
The background music is entirely different in the Japanese version of Beyblade. It's not just the openings and endings; there are hundreds of original tracks across the first 3 seasons. Season 1 has by far the best soundtrack.
Beyblade 2002's music was very underwhelming. I don't think it ever even got an official release like the original series and G Revolution did.
And over ten years later, I still can't believe that piano song that played after Brooklyn used his "King of Darkness" attack on Kai was left off the G Revolution OST. Smh.
Good chance that it was stock music not composed specifically for the series if it wasn't in the OST release.
(Jun. 15, 2015 7:50 PM)Paper Lung Wrote: [ -> ]And over ten years later, I still can't believe that piano song that played after Brooklyn used his "King of Darkness" attack on Kai was left off the G Revolution OST. Smh.
The one from the episode 48 preview ? I worked so hard trying to piece it together hah. I cannot recall if I ever came close to completing it ... Someone with piano skills might actually make a better result though.
For some strange reason I seem to love rewatching episode 43 G-revolutions japanese preview.
(Jun. 15, 2015 8:07 PM)Bey Brad Wrote: [ -> ]Good chance that it was stock music not composed specifically for the series if it wasn't in the OST release.
Makes sense. I actually remember hearing the music a few years ago on some random television show, lol.
(Jun. 15, 2015 8:08 PM)Kai-V Wrote: [ -> ] (Jun. 15, 2015 7:50 PM)Paper Lung Wrote: [ -> ]And over ten years later, I still can't believe that piano song that played after Brooklyn used his "King of Darkness" attack on Kai was left off the G Revolution OST. Smh.
The one from the episode 48 preview ? I worked so hard trying to piece it together hah. I cannot recall if I ever came close to completing it ... Someone with piano skills might actually make a better result though.
No, Episode 42.
FYI, the first three series all had completely different teams. As for an explanation as to why
G Revo is similar to
2001? Probably because the staff just understood the series they were dealing with. There's a lot of tongue-in-cheek stuff in
G Revo; every one of Kai's battles ends with tournament staff extinguishing the fires, and the Barthez Soldat storyline is basically an answer to
2002's adults-using-kids-for-world-domination absurdity.
G Revo is so strong, I think, because they let the show be the silly top show it's supposed to be.
2001 is a good median; the characters
take things pretty seriously, but it held off on "save the world!" for as long as it could. I do think it was to
2001's advantage that it was so sincere, though; it's a good marker of how earnest and bright-eyed actual children are, so considering that's BBA Team at their youngest and least experienced, it works.
And then, you know,
G Revo at least pretended that the Bladers could utilize strategies out of their ridiculous powers(special attacks as decoys, using stadiums/arenas to their advantage). And that one time they applied a bearing base to Daichi. And on the completely other end of that spectrum, that tongue-in-cheek attitude comes back with things like Kyouju needing Daichi to stall while he CRUCIALLY-AND-SERIOUSLY must replace a cracked gear in Dragoon GT the size of a salted nut.
G Revo knew what it was doing and never thought you were stupid.
+1 on
2001's score being the best, as well. A part of me wishes the series could've recycled tracks as it went on, but
2001's orchestra probably would've clashed a lot with
2002's jazzy techno, lol.
Team Psykicks team was the best team of them all. Such wonderful build up in there formation and the doom that they could posses.
hahaha, please write more intensely thoughtful posts about the Beyblade anime
(Jun. 16, 2015 9:12 PM)Bey Brad Wrote: [ -> ]hahaha, please write more intensely thoughtful posts about the Beyblade anime
I concur. You should submit some reviews to MAL or something, Psykick B.
I think what I liked so much about the first season of Beyblade was that it was a team tournament anime. Takao, Kai, Rei, and Max were all strong Bladers in their own right, so when the BBA Team was formed, you knew they were going to be a force to be reckoned with. I also liked how it was a best of three, making it always interesting to see who would battle and in what order. I remember Kai hardly ever participated, but when he did, it was always epic.
And it wasn't just a basic tournament anime, it was a grand adventure across the world. Each member had a chance to shine in their respected countries, which was awesome. It also gave us more insight into each of their pasts as well. Lots of memorable supporting characters, too.
For a children's show that was meant to sell toys, it was pretty damn enjoyable. The dub definitely could've done without Dizzi, AJ Topper, and Brad Best, though.
I know I remembered that girl with purple hair and a fishing rod, oh how I use to wish she was in G-rev... but that was a few minutes ago and I'll be ready to move on.