Burst was way better than we give it credit for. It did a perfect job of setting up lots of fundamental aspects while keeping it interesting by using the hobby anime genre to its advantage. A lot of it seems basic on paper, but actually watching it is super fun. I'm also a big fan of how it progresses and sets up future plot points.

God was really good to be honest, but the low points are more noticeable than Burst's. At least half of the season has very poorly executed pacing that makes it feel like it drags on. The final act definitely kicks things up a notch, but not all these things are good. The core Red Eye plot line and how every major Blader is impacted by it in the tournament, is good, but everything else muddles it up. There was no reason for Free to leave BC Sol only to come back, like, the next episode, just a waste on time that muddies up a good plot line.

Chozetsu is a victim of biting of more than you can chew. There is just way to many characters here. The first few arcs still feel pretty good, but as time goes on you realize the series cannot juggle them all at once, and each side characters potential is snuffed out until its just Aiga, Phi, Hearts, and the returning cast. Phi and Hearts were alright, but I still think they are not compelling antagonists. They are very cool aesthetically, but nothing else about them interests me in the slightest. Also Aiga's Dark Resonance was an insane low point. What it does for Aiga's character is fine, but its impact of the rest of the cast (the fact that he can just beat everyone is battles now) is awful.

GT is low-key my personal favorite Burst series. Overall it feels like its not going for as much of an impact as God or Chozetsu in some aspects, but that also means it does its fundamentals very well, even better than Burst. The main cast is a blast to watch and character relationships and overall progression is a blast to watch. I understand that if you didn't click with any of the new characters GT wouldn't do much for you, but I think if you do, this series' consistently good plot and characters will leave an impact. Only major complaints is forgetting Pot (I understand not every Blader will be a main cast member, but come on, he's a member of the GT 3). Also I would have liked the writers to let Gwyn's character appear earlier, not because his characters felt rushed, he's amazing, but I think if he could be even better.

Sparking is the prime of example of the highest highs and lowest lows. I've neglected to mention is but Burst's visual quality steadily rose over time, and it peaked here in 2020. This series is a love letter to the entire Burst generation, and I feel like it somehow manages to do good by every single main cast member, except for the protagonists and antagonist. I actually like Lane alot, but he also had the Aiga problem early on, where him defeated others worked for his character but reflected poorly on everything else. Also the Asahi Brothers are pretty solid, not particularly good but not bad either, but good enough. But they could have actually been stand out if they just carried over their development from the manga, something that still infuriates me.

DB also feels way better in retrospect. As far as visuals go they definitely declined here, but not in as bad of a way as that should sound. They just went from amazing to good, not as great as Sparking but still awesome overall. Bell's character was a fun change of pace and didn't annoy me too much, but felt very repetitive. Again, I wish they character over hi development from the manga here. Everything else was actually pretty good though, but I'm sad that I didn't notice it while it was on air. As far as actual character writing goes there are ore compelling antagonists than Rashad, but the actions he takes are easily the most commanding, chaotic, and engaging in my opinion. Basara and Ilya also really impressed me. It felt pretty wild to see a simple but clean friend to rival pipeline executed so seamlessly, and they stood by it too. Nothing crazy on paper, but worked very well. Only big complaint is Pain, I don't think his needlessly took up space, his arc was fun, but I still don't think he needed to exist if he was going to disappear so quickly. Also, quick side note, the power scaling did feel a bit janky. It wasn't bad, pretty consistent over all, but needed more build up to make it feel consistent. Most of it is good (outside of some moments like Valkyrie breaking Belial out of nowhere) but I won't lie the raising of the power floor and ceiling felt very sudden as the series progressed, but the roles within that space felt consistent.

I don't feel like reviewing Quadsrike but shout out to it. Animation got way less consistent, ranging from good like DB to mediocre (a first for Burst), but writing was great, albeit a little slow paced at the start.

Despite losing, Bird is absolutely getting stronger, literally and as a person. This is due to other aspects of the game that go beyond the end result. This is cool conceptually, but I don't like the execution. When he gets stronger it feels like it has no weight other than being a vague idea. I think this is because the reason he gets stronger is because he 1. has the trait to evolve quickly and 2. is battling above his league (pun intended). The problem is that he can gain experience far beyond his level that gets him to new heights through losing, and losing means he can't climb up. But he does, due to being carried by the seasoned pro Ekusu and genius Multi.

This is essentially an infinite loop. Bird's on a new floor above his level, Bird loses and gains a lot of experience, to ascend to the next level his teammates win and carry him there. This means that Bird has to keep losing to get stronger but unless this loop breaks (it doesn't) he never gets a full chance to show the fruits of his labor in a real significant way by winning. This isn't a literal loop, if the others for some reason couldn't carry him they could just wait, challenge another team, and now Bird with the experience he's gained on that floor could show off his new power. But the pace of a monthly serializing year long season has to be pretty fast, so the manga never lingers on one spot for long. This should also be why it skips tons of floors at a time.

So far Beyblade X has stuck to a power system based on grounded aspects. So compared to the other series, there is no Resonance and the like, and you cannot directly control your Beyblade. This means that it really just has things like Launch types, Angles, Movement Patterns, and types/frequency of X Dashes. This is cool but there isn't much to expand upon because of how concrete these concepts are. Specific Beyblade gimmicks will bring mix ups into this by introducing a new factor, but every single battle will not introduce an all new Beyblade gimmick. I'm thinking that eventually under this system the same general best strategies would develop over time, just like a meta irl. Even in Season 1 Ekusu wins most of his battles by spamming a basic X Dash. Unless this structure gets shaken up I think in the future fights will end up stale.

- Tenka doesn't look responsive to the idea of joining Team Persona. Based on everything we know about her battling wise, she has no reason to decline, so this is probably due to an outside aspect. Perhaps she has obligations to the Shiraboshi Style school she can't shake.

- Already went over this but I hope we get some more introspective Bird in the manga soon. It's been over a year and he has a 0% win rate, so I feel like for the average reader the manga should probably look deeper into how that would affect his character by now. He's having fun but that doesn't erase the losses because of how much they matter for a competitive player. Especially since X has 3 man teams, the Tenka joining could bring up the concept of him getting replaced. I'm assuming they can just add a sub spot to the team MFB style but as long as the concept of his worth and growth is looked into idc about the means that much.

- The Shining Dragon being teased in the anime has me hyped. I'm assuming it's an avatar but it's also fun to think about the other possibilities. Definitely getting this idea from Duel Masters but what if this is the first Bey Spirit? As in, the Avatars are computer generated visuals but the dragon is a real living creature. The juxtaposition between the two once a Bey Spirit would first hypothetically be introduced would be cool. The idea is supernatural which would be a first, but given that Evil Organization stuff X might be leaning in a less grounded direction now. Whether what Ginro said was fully true or not isn't elaborated on, but we know it can't be fully false. Men in black suits showed up to his house using force, and they're specifically using Beyblades. So there is some devious Beyblade Organization out there.

We now know X is significantly changing battle results thanks to Bird's latest fights. He didn't win, but finally getting 2 points is still a significant advancement plot wise that the manga does not have. The X anime was previously doing a pretty by the books adaption, simply expanding on the manga, adding but not subtracting. Burst was doing this as well until around halfway into Chozetsu, then things got more drastically changed (leading to very good and very middling results). Since the X team is also the Burst team, I wonder if they adjusted to less changes for the X anime compared to previous seasons due to backlash, but are now going back into the previous style (at least leaning into it) due to entirely new backlash. Me personally, I don't like it, I think giving concrete points to Bird gives more impact to his characters journey. I talked about the Bird cycle in the first thought, and while this doesn't break it, it's getting pretty close.

We know Multi is fighting Karura next chapter, and should realistically beat her as a debut for her new Knight Helm. I'm assuming she'll get Bird's star back with her win. Also, Ghost Circle debuts, so might as well follow up with fighting the next member of Karura's team, the owner of Ghost, Rei. Ekusu ran off somewhere but I'm sure he'll return somehow, and then fight (and surely defeat) Rei. While it hasn't been explicitly stated in the manga, Karura's special move name Crimson Maneuver is still a direct reference to Burn. Because of this I assume she still has a connection to him here. I assume he'll be brought up, but idk in what capacity.

This fight is important for Tenka since it's a gauge of Team Persona's power. From this perspective Bird would be the only weak link here, so I'm thinking that she could starts training him, since she is an instructor after all. Bird will hopefully have a journey to his first win this season, so this is a good idea for it. At the moment this is, in my opinion, the most convenient and reasonable answer for him. It also would address his biggest challenge, the X Tower. He's a rookie thrown into the pro world but cannot acclimate to each level. This is because, thanks to his teammates, he keeps climbing at a beyond extraordinary rate. So a 1 on 1 tutor that helps him grow step by step outside of the tower climb would be ideal.

Impact Dragoon also debuts, but with 2 battles in December I'd push its proper debut to January, alongside whatever is in that month's booster. I still haven't seen a source for the Chrome render, so I won't cover that aspect of his character, though I'm sure he's returning in some capacity. I hope he fights either King or Burn though, since those 2 haven't had time for a battle yet (maybe Burn as a follow up to the idea of him being brought up previously). He has a rivalry with Ekusu specifically, but fighting him would most likely provide some resolution for him. For him to have the most amount of screen time possible, this specific fight will probably be prolonged to later.