Toppa Bashin – Episode 12

Well the last one was a bloody disaster, definitely not worthy of the name “The Great Battle Spirits Operation”

So let’s hope this one does a little more justice, and I bloody hope the quality is better this time as well, the last one was an eyesore.

YES! Good Quality!

I’m happy enough to SING!

So give me a bit while I sing the opening to this anime, because I need the pick-me-up after the last one.

This episode’s titled “Unidentified Unknown Invitation”

Invite smells to me like a High Ranker Pass, I will be SEVERELY disappointed if Striker and Bashin don’t get their High Ranker Passes soon.

It seems the Nazo-Otona that fought Bashin before is asking directions from the Shopkeeper.

Also I can hear the faint noise of the ending theme playing, was that meant to be My Sunshine’s new hit single?

I have literally heard this song every god damn time I do one of these, that’s like 11 times!

After last episode I am not happy with you My Sunshine!

You cannot win me over with good music alone!

Oh good god Bashin and Striker are singing along.

RIP my ears people, please send donations so that I may buy new ears that can filter out this god awful segment.

How much money would you pay to see this kid get strangled by Meganeko?

Cuz I would certainly pay top dollar to see that punishment for his negligence.

The Shopkeeper is MAD

But regardless for what it’s for, I’m happy he’s telling them to shut their traps.

Not much they can really do without a High Ranker pass no? Unless they’re intending on earning one through the tournament itself.

*Audible Snorting noises*

They just confirmed something well in advance of when they were supposed to.

I’m actually unsure whether I should introduce it now or not, I think I’ll save it for when the cards are unveiled, but that’s not a good look for the show right now cuz that’s a huuuuuge spoiler.

You weren’t missed J you High Ranker stealing bitch.

But of course J’s here to talk about the bloody tournament the shopkeeper won’t shut the gosh dang hell up about.

Oh boy a lot to dig into here, first of all.

FORESHADOWIIIIING

Not just one thing but 2 things infact! I won’t tell you what those are though.

Secondly, we’ve got names for the Dark Nazo-Otona from before, he’s apparently named himself “number NINE”, which means I can actually call him something that isn’t “Dark Nazo-Otona”. From now on we’ll just call him “Nine”

And we’ve got one other character holding a High Ranker who we don’t recognise going by the name of “Smile”, there’s also conveniently 2 places left which makes me think that there are 2 more High Ranker passes left to be handed out?

That means times-a-wastin’ for good ol’ Bashin and Striker to get theirs.

And they finally explained what the purpose of a High Ranker pass is now.

So anyway, the purpose of a High Ranker Pass allows you to effectively ignore the results of what some people would call “Pools”, it’s a round-robin style way of organising a tournament where everyone plays against everyone and the number of wins you rack up determines your ranking, making it through “Pools” is generally how one would get to the Bracket section of a tournament, through getting to a certain ranking in those Pools.

With a High Ranker you don’t have to go through that grueling process and can just get seeded into the Bracket section.

It seems that beating a Nazo-Otona tends to be some kind of “Display of Skill” that earns you an X-Rare on first victory, which would make it significantly easier to make it out of pools, and under some circumstance that causes a Nazo-Otona to personally recognise you, you may earn a High Ranker Pass to just ignore the Pools entirely.

See, this shit is fun, talking about the game itself, none of this My Sunshine bollocks from last episode please.

YO WHAT THE FUCK!

J IS 001!?, BUT HE GOT HIS AFTER SUIREN!

SHOW YOU MAKE NO SENSE! EXPLAIN!

…Oh, the show actually explained it, thanks show!

You make me happy for once in my life.

So it seems that the Nazo-Otona Police Officer really DID have no jurisdiction on whether or not Bashin could receive a High Ranker, beating them had nothing to do with it.

A high percentage of wins is required to earn one, and that tells me that the numbering on the High Ranker means what Rank you are among the High Rankers.

With J being 001, that means he is currently the High Ranker with the Highest Winrate among all those holding High Ranker passes, while Suiren is second highest.

And if the order on the Grid they showed us is anything to go by, Smile is 003, and Nine is 004.

SHIT IS STARTING TO MAKE SENSE NOW! THANKS SHOW! KEEP IT UP!

It’s going to disappoint me soon isn’t it?

Stab one of the High Rankers and steal their pass, obviously.

Easier to do that then win in Pools.

The “Gunslinger” sounds like the word they’ve decided to name their version of “Pools”

So from now on I’ll refer to their Pools as “Gunslingers”

Round-robins are the easiest way to artificially boost your winrate given the number of games you’ll end up having to play, win a lot of them and it’s a good look for you.

Yes J, and your white hair is very white.

I need a “Captain Obvious” meme I can place here whenever J says something dumb like this shit right here.

You’ll have to get through the Gunslinger like everyone else?…

God forbid you actually have to do things the NORMAL way Bashin.

Striker’s getting serious all of a sudden.

Jesus, one of my readers was indeed correct, Striker is literally carrying this Show on his back, and one of his feet are wrecked.

Bashin questions why Striker is getting so serious.

Damn this better be some serious shit, I wonder if he’s planning to do the whole rival thing and be like “I’m going, I need to get stronger on my own”

…

…

OH STRIKER YOU POOR POOR SOUL

THAT’S PRICELESS!

Oh man!, I LOVE Jokes that take a very dumb thing very seriously.

Just give me a bit while I recover from this hilarious breakdown! Whew!

With a Trippy graphical sequence apparently.

Bashin, your overconfidence is showing, put it away.

That’s an extremely interesting way of dealing with it, firstly this is significantly different to what “Pools” are.

So to summarise it’s like a game of “King of the Hill”

• 2 players are randomly selected to battle.
• The Winner becomes “King of the Hill”
• For the duration of the time limit, the “King” will continue battling until he loses
• When the “King” loses, he goes to the back of the line, and the Winner becomes the new “King”
• Every Victory earns you a Star.
• The person with the most stars at the end gets to go to the finals

I assume in the cases of where there are multiple positions, they’ll take 2nd, 3rd, etc.

Its a system that heavily rewards players for winning a lot, and winning fast, and severely punishes people for losing.

At the very beginning of the show I’m sure Bashin said he lost in the Primaries.

Meaning he didn’t get to go to the Brackets.

That would mean he wants to get a High Ranker pass so that he can get to Bracket without having to deal with the fear of Primaries again.

Yeah, being “King” is a very good position to have, because you get to fight more often, which gives you more opportunity for Stars.

But I just love how the Shopkeeper is basically calling Bashin a god damn coward, it’s hilarious.

But if Episode 10 is proof of anything, X-Rares will only get you so far up until someone else with an X-Rare shows up, then the real battle begins and you’ll have to play carefully to take out your opponent’s X-Rare.

And suddenly the weirdest cut to a Battle begins, between Bashin and Striker.

Again…

Shoot me in the face, at least let Striker win this one or show some new cards.

Turn 12 it seems, pretty tame considering the crazy jumps we’ve had in this series already.

And both players have at least 3 lives, unsure if any lives have been taken thus far.

Oh sweet Video quality, never leave me again, I need you to survive watching this cruel show.

Striker deploys his Key Nexus, The Fruit of Life at Level 2.

I’d say “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”

But Striker hasn’t won a SINGLE game since his first day playing Battle Spirits, it’s kind of upsetting actually.

PLEASE tell me Striker is going to unveil something new! It would REALLY make my day!

Striker passes after deploying his Nexus.

And the turn gets passed to Bashin.

Bashin makes no changes to his board and swings with both Metalburn, taking 2 of Striker’s lives, letting him draw twice and gain 2 core in his reserve thanks to his Nexus.

This is a more conserved attack stance, meaning that Striker won’t be able to draw tons of cards to make his huge comeback attack, and will have to make use of the extra cards in a different way.

It’s more boring when you aren’t allowed to play.

Be careful what you wish for Bashin.

The Turn jumps 2 turns forward back to Bashin’s turn, so I will assume Striker simply passed his turn.

Second verse is the same as the first.

The Metalburn pair attack and take 2 more of Striker’s lives, granting him 2 Cards and 2 Core thanks to The Fruit of Life.

What a very uneventful game.

Badly portrayed but Bashin is basically lamenting that Striker is a bit of a one-trick pony.

I assume this isn’t the first time this situation has battled, and that they’ve battled several times offscreen as well.

Meaning Bashin is likely getting a bit bored of Striker’s typical comeback strategy.

An Extra spirit on your board would have beaten Striker before you gave him his comeback cards Bashin, by not doing so you’ve done in 2 turns what could have been done in 1 turn for the same effect.

Striker summons 2 Hercules-Geo at Level 2.

This is odd, you kind of expect him to drop anywhere from 5-8 spirits at this point but instead he’s going for Quality over Quantity.

Striker completes the formation he used on Suiren by deploying The Hermit Wise Tree at Level 2.

This means Striker will be able to use all his attacking spirits for blocking later.

Both of Striker’s Hercules-Geo attack, and drop Bashin to a single life.

And through Hermit Wise Tree’s ability, Striker refreshes all his Spirits.

Despite his interesting choice of maneuver, he’s in no better situation than he was before, Bashin only needs 1 Spirit to take out the Rest of Striker’s Life.

That’s right, Bashin himself hasn’t particularly dealt with The Hermit Wise Tree, so this is a new situation for him.

Unfortunately for Striker Bashin probably still has Dragsaurus in his deck.

Bashin responds with his X-Rare?!

That’s new, I’m fairly sure Bashin hasn’t used his X-Rare on Striker before.

Well, allow me to make a prediction at this point in the match.

Right now Striker’s main banes are anything that can stop his rush, which tends to be a lot.

But also, when he does try to take a defensive stance, it’s mainly the X-Rares that end up punching through it.

This is probably going to send Striker into a depression over not having an X-Rare.

This is a declaration of an Attack I take it, it’s hard to tell since Bashin basically screams this at the top of his 12-year old lungs if someone so much as farts in his general direction.

It seems Striker has added a new card to his deck after all. This is Binding Thorn.

Binding Thorn is a very simple Cost 2 Magic, that exhausts an opposing spirit.

This effectively renders it unable to attack or block without it having done either of those things.

Fuckup Tally… What number are we on? I think it’s 12.

Anyway Siegfried being exhausted is a condition for his attack, meaning you can’t exhaust Siegfried as he is already exhausted.

And Flash Timing can only be used after attacks are declared or after blocks are declared.

Sorry, doesn’t work in this context unless Bashin had attacked with Metalburn, which he evidently didn’t.

Apparently Bashin just kinda panicked and ended his turn after getting Siegfried wrongly exhausted at a timing that he shouldn’t have been.

Striker going in for the kill by summoning a Beatbeetle.

Both Hercules-Geo attack and are blocked by both of Bashin’s Metalburns.

But wtf is up with Bashin here? He seems so exasperated.

Beatbeetle snatches the victory.

Well we got some progress! Even when faced with an X-Rare, Striker managed to win this time around with a conventional strategy.

I still don’t know what’s up with Bashin, he’s acting like an asshole.

It seems Cap concocted a way for Striker to battle with opponents using X-Rares while he doesn’t have one of his own to deal with it.

Which is to apparently neutralise it by using Green’s speciality of exhausting it so it can neither attack nor block.

This demonstration was awful considering Striker played Binding Thorn out of timing.

Meanwhile, Bashin having been rendered unable to use Siegfried has prompted a massive temper tantrum from Bashin, with audible table slamming and being depressed because he didn’t get to use his Big Red Dragon.

Aibou with the pep talk.

I’d be more than happy for Bashin to get overly depressed over stupid shit, it lets me watch him suffer.

Yeah, make space for a real main character.

Like Striker.

Aibou proceeds to scold Bashin using the reason he lost, which was being overly-reliant on his X-Rare.

Mostly true, nowadays getting rid of an X-Rare is very easy, you’ll need a deck that can handle losing their X-Rare and still come back from it.

Bashin’s getting mixed signals though here, His X-Rare was powerful so he rightfully built a deck to make use of the full abilities of Siegfried, but now he’s being scolded for that over-reliance.

Sucks to be Bashin I guess, needs to find a balance.

Striker tries to calm Aibou down but gets interrupted by Cap.

Oof.

Cap has absolutely no filter, which for a Parrot is quite accurate.

Someone boot him off the table he’s on.

He was dirtying the table with his existence, now he’s dirtying it with his feet.

YO WHAT THE FUCK!?

WHAT?

I KNOW AIBOU WAS SCOLDING YOU FOR RELYING ON AN X-RARE BUT I DON’T THINK THIS IS WHAT HE MEANT.

AND HE JUST BUGGERS OFF…

Okay, allow me to process what the hell just occurred.

Bashin lost due to Striker rendering his X-Rare useless (Against the rules I might add)

So in response to this he decides to go to a crazy extreme of doing without his X-Rare for a while, and giving it to STRIKER.

What the hell is STRIKER going to do with it?!

So he’s going to test his limits without using Siegfried?

Well I did watch the episode preview, we can trust you won’t ruin everything while you’re offscreen.

What? Was the Show unable to handle Bashin being Offscreen for any longer than a few frames?

These guys just keep popping up like flies don’t they?

Was this Nazo-Otona discovered in some weird tropical continent or some shit?

APPARENTLY NEXT TO SOME GOD DAMN TIGERS.

These are some dedicated kids, they should have been turned into a meal by now.

It’s a Dude Nazo-Otona?

And they beat a Tournament Champion.

OH, so they were using the poster as a backdrop for their story. That makes way more sense.

So they found the Nazo-Otona in a Cinema.

This was a really weird cut but apparently they went asking around about the Nazo-Otona, but obviously no one is going to know what that is without being a Battle Spirits player.

Also loving the Tomato Hat old timer.

Thank god that their 0 identifiable features are starting to become more important as the show goes on, they’re actually having trouble finding this one.

Cap tries to re-assure Striker about being in the “Low class”

I have no idea what Cap’s obsession with class is but it’s starting to worry me.

Anyway, Cap does remind Striker that he was given an X-Rare.

After the briefest of Flashbacks about Striker’s Dad going to play Golf, apparently Striker has an idea on “Something adults can’t refuse”

I don’t know if Golf is going to be the most usable bait to lure out a Nazo-Otona there captain.

Bashin is now in front of some random grocery shop shouting “I have a request!” like he’s the most important person in the world…

I want to scream that he’s got all manner of mental inhibitions but I need to make this enjoyable for all readers.

But someone definitely needs to punch this kid.

So Bashin has gone all the way to this grocer, and asked the Wife of someone working there if he can play a Battle Spirits match with him…

And this guy is a Battle Spirits Expert.

And he’s literally just an average joe.

Nothing about him screams “Expert” to me, his Wife is looking pretty bothered as well.

…You have til tomorrow to get this done Bashin.

You aren’t fighting 100 people.

And the poor sods are just playing on a wooden bench infront of the fruit.

And I can’t tell very well but it seems like the guy is using a White deck?

Apparently not skilled enough if a 12-year old can catch up to him that fast.

“A great service”

I love how this woman is basically telling everyone that Bashin’s a problem.

Oh WOOOOOOW.

I dunno if she’s doing this to help Bashin fight 100 people, or if she genuinely hates Bashin for beating her husband.

Either way this is hilarious.

Meanwhile, Cap apparently went searching for Striker’s father.

What are they hoping to find the Nazo-Otona playing golf?

Well they’ve spotted Striker’s Dad, so that’s a plus.

…WHAT

HOW WAS IT THAT EASY!?

AH YES, WE CAN FIND THE WEIRD ADULT BY SIMPLY LOOKING FOR DAD, HE PLAYS GOLF, ADULTS CAN’T IGNORE GOLF, SO CLEARLY A NAZO-OTONA SHOULD BE PLAYING GOLF.

WHAT!?

…For the uninitiated, “Fooling around” can also be a colloquialism (basically, slang) for cheating on your significant other.

So Cap thinks that Striker’s Dad is cheating on his Mother.

What the hell does a Parrot know about infidelity anyway?

Meanwhile FOUR of his Dad’s FIVE Children are doing dumb shit on their own again.

Just gonna race into the Golf court and no member of staff is going to stop them, is that it?

That didn’t take very long, good on that guy for taking responsibility to discipline a series of kids that aren’t his.

“Nonsense” has no equal in how to describe this exact situation.

I have 0 clue what the kids were trying to achieve by barging into a Golf court and declaring themselves the “Nazo-Otona exploration team”

Striker’s Dad finally realises that his children have shown up completely unannounced.

Surprised they haven’t questioned what his relationship is to the Nazo-Otona behind him yet.

Nothing like an eerie smile to make the situation look worse for Striker’s Father.

Bashin apparently can’t make it through 49 Battle Spirits matches without getting sleepy.

Kid isn’t even halfway to 100 and he’s already tapping out.

And Bashin suddenly stumbles on a couple arguing about what movie to watch.

This is one easygoing couple, I’m happy they can decide such things with Card games.

But given that Bashin so much as EXISTS, I’m going to assume he’s going to interject on this wonderful moment.

How are you going to be “in charge” of that match? Are you going to fight both of them? If they both lose it doesn’t help their decision making. They have absolutely 0 reason to agree to that battle.

Understand what exactly? You have never once communicated with Striker, on ANY capacity whatsoever.

Understand freaking what?

The fact that Striker’s Dad is actually super faithful and not trying to cheat on her with a pretty Nazo-Otona?

I have no idea how this interaction came about but I’m going to guess.. they’re going to fight now.

Sorry but this seemingly comes out of basically nowhere, the Nazo-Otona and Striker have never conversed before this moment.

I’ve checked back through the episode to make sure I haven’t missed anything, the context behind this battle comes out of nowhere.

…And Beatbeetle.

Interesting that the Nazo-Otona is now using a Green deck when she was using Purple before.

I don’t really know what to predict now that Draculious is seemingly off the table.

Striker deploys The Hermit Wise Tree at Level 2.

Pretty standard, Striker is employing his more defensive strategy since it’s much steadier than his typical Fruit of Life attempts.

An attack from Shockeater prompts a block from Flyingmirage, they’re both Level 1 it seems, so Shockeater has 2000 BP over Flyingmirage.

I forgot that The Hermit Wise Tree does grant +1000 BP to battling Spirits for each exhausted spirit you have, so more like 3000 BP over Flyingmirage.

Striker refreshes Shockeater and passes, if he attacked with Beatbeetle, a block from Flyingmirage would leave him with 1 less blocker.

The Nazo-Otona plays her own Copy of The Hermit Wise Tree and levels it up.

This affords her the same benefits Striker gains.

AND she deploys a Shockeater at Level 2.

I’d comment on how their “decks are similar” but when you’re playing out of just the game’s base set there isn’t a lot of options to go off of.

The Nazo-Otonas Level 2 Shockeater beats out Striker’s Level 1 Shockeater.

And Beatbeetle blocks Flyingmirage’s attack, and is destroyed.

I’m a little boggled by Striker’s choice of block order.

If he’d used Beatbeetle to block Shockeater, the Nazo-Otona would have lost Flyingmirage in the attack against his Shockeater, or she would have just not attacked, which wouldn’t matter since the end result for her would be 2 refreshed spirits anyway thanks to Hermit Wise Tree.

This block order left the Nazo-Otona with 2 Spirits and Striker with none, when the alternative would have either left Striker with 1 Spirit and the Nazo-Otona with 2, or Striker with 1 Spirit and the Nazo-Otona with 1.

This particular block order shrinks his attack formation for no reason. And he wouldn’t have lost any lives either. If he’s trying to hold out until Fruit of Life then there’s little point leisurely losing spirits that can be used to attack or defend later.

Not even the Hermit Wise Tree would have saved her Flyingmirage in a battle against Striker’s Shockeater, because Striker also has a Hermit Wise Tree.

The Nazo-Otona refreshes her Spirits and ends her turn.

Striker deploys The Fruit of Life at Level 2 and passes.

The only possibility I can think of for his block order is to encourage her to attack as much as possible next turn so he can set off his rush.

That’s the only meaning I can derive from him throwing away Shockeater needlessly.

The Nazo-Otona responds by deploying her OWN Fruit of Life at Level 2.

Welcome to mirror matches kids.

You’re gonna need a lot more than water to wash out the taste of your own medicine out of your mouth there Striker.

This is what we call “Falling on your own Sword”

We ended off on Nazo-Otona’s Turn 16 so we seem to have jumped a few turns ahead here.

You can’t see it but this bitch of a gal is fanning herself with her hand.

Absolutely 0 respect from this Nazo-Otona, where’s Nine? He’s at least composed and cool.

…Hold up, that’s a Green X-Rare.

I didn’t think Nazo-Otonas were permitted to use them but apparently they can…

That means Nine didn’t get a chance to use Siegfried last time against Bashin.

Bashin got lucky, this is bad for Striker, but Striker has had his fair share of run ins with X-Rares without one of his own, He can handle this.

…In my excitement I forgot this is a new card… Well it’s time to review.

The Duke Kingtaurus, a Cost 8 Green X-Rare of the Shell Insect and Blade Beast families.

When Summoned he gains a core for every other spirit you control, this is huge synergy with The Fruit of Life which awards you cards for losing lives, which can be used to supply this effect.

And at Levels 2 and 3, if Kingtaurus defeats a Spirit during your Attack step, your opponent loses a life.

This is, for the most part, problematic against anyone trying to take a defensive stance. An opponent with 1 Life needs to get rid of this card and fast, and X-Rares aren’t exactly known for being the easiest cards to get rid of. Because once this thing attacks, it doesn’t matter what actions your opponent takes, because Kingtaurus will snatch a life.

Your best bet is to beat it, which granted it doesn’t have a high BP at Levels 1 and 2, and the Level 3 cost is absurd, but that’s very likely why it gains core on summon, specifically to supply that effect.

Striker’s in a pinch.

He’s a cool looking customer though, look at it!

The Duke Kingtarus’ ability gives it 2 core since the Nazo-Otona has Shockeater and Flyingmirage, that brings it up to Level 2 immediately.

And the Nazo-Otona decides “fuck it” and shoots it up to Level 3, where it clocks in at a whopping 12000 BP!

That’s not only the highest BP in the show so far, but it’s also the highest BP printed on any card in the base set!

And with the Hermit Wise Tree it’s only going to get stronger.

Kingtaurus attacks.

Striker foolishly blocks with a Hercules-Geo (that wasn’t there before, fuck turn skips) and it gets cleanly run-through.

Not to mention the Block was entirely meaningless as well.

As a result of Kingtaurus’ effect, it reaps the spoils of victory by snatching a life from Striker.

Now Striker is down a life and a spirit, where taking from the life would have left him with an extra blocker.

This is followed up by the Nazo-Otona attacking with 2 Shockeaters and Striker losing a Flyingmirage and a Shockeater to protect his life.

The Nazo-Otona ends her turn with this, this is a crazy bad situation.

Come on Striker! You spent the start of this episode showing what you learned from Cap.

Battle Spirits is a game won with a 40 card deck, 1 card won’t win the game for you. You don’t need to beat Kingtaurus, you need to beat the Nazo-Otona!

I am, lecturing a cartoon character on a Laptop screen I realise but let me enjoy myself!

Striker drew The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

I’m surprised he placed it in his deck, he can’t really afford it’s reductions, though we are at turn 21 now, so Striker should have plenty of core to spend.

And Striker, the absolute madman, summons the Red X-Rare, The DragonEmperor Siegfried!

The Nazo-Otona is confused at Striker summoning a Red X-Rare since he’s been using Green this entire time.

Binding Woods is a new card, a Cost 7 Green Magic.

During the Flash timing, it grants +5000 BP to a Spirit, but when used during the Main step…

Striker can exhaust all Spirits with a selected colour.

This also means that Striker can select Green without harming Siegfried whatsoever, though it didn’t matter too much, if he drew a Green Spirit, he could have simply played Binding Woods first, and then play his Spirits after.

Ah the catharsis of this moment, to defeat the Nazo-Otonas Green X-Rare he had to forsake Green altogether for this one move!

Nothing Green can stand against Siegfried’s attack!

Siegfried attacks and snatches the Nazo-Otonas final life.

Striker is the winner!

Man Striker just got given the Spotlight for this episode didn’t he? I’m happy for him.

It seems he’s had his strength recognised by the Nazo-Otona.

Striker receives no answer to this question by the way.

Not just the strongest spirit in Green, currently it’s the strongest Spirit period, Highest printed Level 3 BP is nothing to scoff at.

…noooooooo…

NOOOOOOOOOOOO….

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

A fucking High Ranker Pass!? I thought Nazo-Otonas could only give that to people with High Win percentages!

Fuck that shit- Also 010?

Not 005? We seem to be missing like 5 other High Rankers.

BUT STILL, STRIKER’S A FUCKING NEWBIE AND HE’S GOT A HIGH RANKER BEFORE BASHIN!

AND AS MUCH AS I HATE THE ORANGE-HAIRED PRICK, I AT LEAST BELIEVE IN PEOPLE GETTING WHAT THEY DAMN WELL DESERVE!

THIS IS NOT IT!

Blah blah blah meaningless emotional pep talk from the Nazo-Otona.

I don’t even know 99 people who play god damn Poker, forget trying to beat 99 of them in Battle Spiirts.

Well you see Aibou, it’s not about just beating 100 People, it’s about self-discipline, so far Bashin has fought 99 people without Siegfried in order to see how far he can push himself sans an X-Rare.

If he can beat 100 battlers without ever having to use Siegfried then he can prove to himself that he is worthy of using Siegfried.

Aibou’s wording indicates that he did infact win all of those, so that’s a lovely plus for Bashin’s Win rate.

I think Bashin just gave up and went home.

Hayami gives the poor tired Bashin a bollocking for being home late.

I just want to put this here to say props to the artists, because damn, Bashin genuinely looks tired in this shot.

Actually looks really good, I’m happy.

I wonder if Striker has come to challenge Bashin with his new X-Rare? That would certainly be a good way to get his 100th battle.

Oh, it’s the Nazo-Otona, wonder what she’s here for? Hopefully to give him the X-Rare he demanded last time.

So you mean to tell me the only reason Bashin even had to fight that many Nazo-Otonas was because YOU got lost delivering the High Ranker after he beat the BLOODY FIRST ONE!?

Or maybe it was the second Nazo-Otona! Or you! That decided he was worthy of a bloody High Ranker?

WHICH ONE RECOGNISED HIM BITCH!? HOW LONG WAS IT!?

This one is seeded as 018…

STRIKER IS 8 PLACES HIGHER THAN BASHIN IN THE HIGH RANKER RANKING!?

I CALL BULLSHIT, THIS MAN JUST BEAT 99 CARD BATTLERS! THAT’S MORE THAN STRIKER HAS IN HIS ENTIRE GOD DAMN CAREER!

Which of you wants to beat her ass in a heated Battle Spirits match first?

I must channel my rage through some sort of medium to get over this pure idiocy.

Good job explaining away most of the plotholes at least, Bashin was already due a High Ranker after the 1st Nazo-Otona, hence why the others didn’t present him with X-Rares after he had defeated them, they already knew about him.

Doesn’t explain why this bitch didn’t just give him one after her match with Bashin but its likely she intended to deliver it to his address and didn’t realise he was the person living at that address.

Because again!

God forbid you have to enter the Gunslinger like everyone else!

Gosh this show doesn’t do a hell of a good job advertising Gunslingers do they?

I was expecting it that time.

Episode Review!

As Gordon Ramsay said earlier, finally some god damn progression! And done well too, they gave Bashin a backseat to the action so they could develop Striker, they managed to fill quite a few plotholes and explain how High Rankers work effectively.

That being that High Ranker Passes are awarded to people with either High winrates, or are personally recognised by Nazo-Otonas, either condition can be met it seems.

The person delivering the High Ranker doesn’t necessarily need to be the same Nazo-Otona that was defeated either, proof being Suiren who received it from a Nazo-Otona she didn’t recognise.

All in all, Striker developed as a character and got some wins added to his onscreen record, AND received an X-Rare + a High Ranker pass

Bashin got at least 99 offscreen wins and finally got a High Ranker he was due for a bloody while.

I am content with the reasonings behind the inconsistency being explained away by one Nazo-Otona’s sheer incompetence.

I’m also curious about the fact that Nazo-Otonas have their own High Ranker passes too, and are able to participate in the Bracket tournaments.

Okay, so our card of the day is Binding Woods, which they advertise as a card that is strong against decks of a single colour, I’m happy they didn’t try to mention the mirror match problem as one can overcome this by simply using Binding Woods first.

Very powerful card but the timing (the main phase) plus the cost doesn’t really make it worth using in most cases, as you can’t even respond with it at all.

It’s good for your finishing move, I suppose that’s honestly it. Though now there are better cards to finish off your opponent with.

They’ve begun advertising colour mixing all of a sudden though, we’ve only seen one person use a clear multicoloured deck, and that was Card Sensei when he was disciplining Bashin, which came at the upsetting cost of being unable to use Defensive Aura since he couldn’t fulfil it’s reductions.

Bashin using Gowsilvia and Striker using Siegfried isn’t a very good example, as they’re one-off cards that simply don’t match the colouring of their decks, and again Bashin was punished for using Gowsilvia in a deck not designed to support it.

I would certainly love to see a character specifically use a multicoloured deck in Toppa Bashin, but given that it hasn’t been very well supported as a concept, I imagine that no such thing will occur.

Anyway, that was my blog on Episode 12, I’ll see you guys next time in Episode 13, where my inner edgelord may arise and alter my favourite character.

Speaking of favourite characters thus far, I’ll state my current one, and any changes to that will be made at the end of the blog post where that changes of course.

At the moment the mysterious “Number Nine” seems to be taking my fancy, he’s a Red-user for starters but doesn’t carry any of the “Passion” that you’d typically expect out of a Red-user.

He’s awfully mysterious, and seems well-interested in Bashin’s growth, with lines such as “I want to give you another X-Rare…” and lamenting that fact.

His interest in our main character’s strength and the fact that we seem to have absolutely 0 clue who he is or what he wants makes me happy to name him as my current favourite. He certainly puts the “Mysterious” in “Mysterious Adult”

Anyway, that was my Blog post for today! Hope you guys will enjoy it!

Things feel like they’re moving now, and that makes me happy! See you guys next episode!