Toppa Bashin – Episode 27

Apparently, I’ve been TOO NICE the previous few episodes.

I have mellowed out, and honestly that just ain’t good enough.

So here we go, Angry Ace, back in “Rip and Tear” segment of reviews!

Let’s GO-

So as if to signal that we’re in the latter half of the series, effectively it’s second “Season” so to speak. We have a new intro now featuring both Meganeko AND My Sunshine together.

It appears My Sunshine hasn’t quite finished completing her resignation, as she seems to be finishing up a rehearsal.

Was it?

Cuz apparently your own idol doesn’t seem to think so, that DOOR SLAM.

I’d say “Then what’s the problem” but when the Line can only go up, you don’t want to feel like you’ve hit your peak.

There’s a saying. “Find a Job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”

Other people advise you to follow your passion when it comes to looking for work.

Unfortunately passions are things you choose to do, in your own time, once you turn it into work, you can no longer choose to do it, you must do it, and that can kill the passion.

As such, more realistic people will tell you to find something you are GOOD at. Because it will be the easiest to get work in, as you’re talented at it. Even if you dislike it, you’ll have an easier time than someone else.

Pink seems almost DELIGHTED that My Sunshine is having what appears to be Artist’s Block.

I understand you’re being supportive but don’t sound so enthusiastic.

Pink makes the excellent suggestion of filling the void with some Battles.

While I would love that suggestion I am quite literally starved for new cards right now, I need something to sink my teeth into.

Blasphemy!

The Manager gets My Sunshine’s attention juuuuust long enough to apparently introduce her to someone new.

He’s got a curious design… which reminds me of something…

Oh right, I HAVE watched this episode before…

…Oh no.

Oh no…

It appears Bashin’s having Builder’s block, trying to optimize his deck, and can’t really think of anything that could improve it.

To be honest he’s got a hefty amount of good cards.

2 X-Rares in The DragonEmperor Siegfried and The TwinRowdy Diranos which can power up and generate a large number of Awaken Spirits.

He’s got the Plateau of Duel for some nice defensive measures, and The Ancient Fault along with Dinohound to generate large amounts of BP with even small Spirits.

It’s, from what I can tell, a good deck.

Well we just got Blue, which means we’re in BS03 territory, its possible to spice it up with some new cards.

Wait, so everything Aibou is fishing through consist of cards that aren’t Red?

We’re not gonna go back to that again are we…

No no no, I CANNOT do this again!

Uuuuughhh..

As much as the concept was interesting before I think I’m getting War Flashbacks to the last time this freaking happened. At least Aibou has a specific card in mind and we haven’t seen it used, so let’s review it.

A Yellow Magic from BS02, Aibou is suggesting Bashin uses “Royal Potion”

It’s not a bad suggestion, Bashin has both Eyeburn and Dinohound, quite good Cost 2s in his deck.

That’s not even mentioning The Ancient Fault which powers them up for him, this card wouldn’t be that bad. It does have the downside of doing the same for the opponent however.

I do find it interesting that Yellow Cards are now readily available that even Bashin has them now, All Yellow users up til now, namely J, Smile and Meganeko are either Nazo-Otonas or have a connection to them.

I already went over Colour mixing the first time around, I won’t do it again.

Bashin has some apprehension against mixing colours because Red is “Working” for him, which is fair.

But one Cost 4 Magic that is out of colour won’t bloody kill you.

That being said, I do think Aibou could really have suggested a better card, Royal Potion only works if Bashin has his Cost 2s, otherwise it’s a brick.

It appears this Red-Head is a Music Critic.

I am not sure why I’m saying “It appears”, I’ve seen this episode, I don’t like it one bit, you’re about to see why.

He seemed so wise and stuff up until this point.

I had to suffer through watching this animated, at least be thankful you don’t have to HEAR it.

This specific set of animations plays frequently, this is Amade Us.

And he’s a Rapper.

Any time he talks he’ll open with his “Us! Ore! Ore! A-Ma-De-U~S” before making some kind of japanese rhyme.

Bit eccentric.

He does have a bit of a resting bitch-face though.

Only probably?

Maybe its just my hindsight from realizing what’s going to happen but this guy already seems like he’s going to get annoying quick.

Amade Us goes on another rapping tirade that I will happily skip for you, but he identifies that My Sunshine’s “Trouble” is that she can’t come up with a new song.

Please for the love of god do NOT make that face.

Hard to tell from the image but that’s now My Sunshine who seems to believe that Amade Us might be “amazing”

Whatever Amade Us is doing its had an effect on My Sunshine.

Pink is rightfully losing his shit considering Amade Us’ entire initial introduction was just him rapping infront of My Sunshine.

My Sunshine seems to believe Amade Us can get her out of her Artist’s Block.

Yeah when someone produces absolute trash and compares it to your own work, you can definitely see how well you’re doing.

But given her face earlier, she probably genuinely thinks he’s a good music critic.

In a Scene jump away from this, Bashin and Aibou are STILL arguing about Bashin’s use of a different colour.

And you know what I agree with Bashin if only because the FIRST time they had this argument we had probably one of the LEAST useful episodes in this entire series.

I do NOT want a repeat of that, but given Amade Us exists I doubt I will get my wish granted.

Which you feel he can only do if he uses other colours.

No we’re definitely talking about using a different colour.

Yeah if a Pink Chameleon revealed itself and just appeared infront of me I’d be pretty damn spooked as well.

Pink seems to be explaining the situation to everyone else, the short version being that My Sunshine has Artist’s Block and doesn’t want to play Battle Spirits to get away from it.

I haven’t seen any mention of Amade Us anywhere or any reference to the music critic yet so I’m going to hold off on assuming Pink has explained that.

When Card games have given you a fucking TALKING PET, not wanting to play Card Games is a pretty big deal yes.

This is obviously ignoring the fact that this is a Card Game anime and therefore NOT playing Card Games is not an option.

I’m… pretty sure that’s backwards, stupid artists wouldn’t be bothered, genius artists are smart enough to be concerned.

Striker’s trying to relate, given that he had his entire Sports career ruined, and he was real good at that.

…Before being interrupted by Okyou.

I’m going to strangle this Cat, YOU’RE the reason he even relates you little shit.

Welp, our group of idiots have decided to resolve themselves to help out My Sunshine.

Given this mention of her being a “Different person” I think its safe to assume Pink has mentioned Amade Us.

Scene-jumping to the scene of the crime, it appears our cast of muppets have figured out a way of avoiding the guards.

By wearing backstage pass stickers.

One would think they’d have come up with this before, but wouldn’t a Guard want to question why 3 12-year olds have Backstage passes?

I’m not sure why you’re explaining that to him, its written on the-

This fucking guy couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat.

J clears his throat and says the cast really shouldn’t be doing this.

I didn’t see him with them, Okyou was alone in the Batosupi centre.

J is apparently flustered about this for some… odd reason.

Also WHAT wrong idea!? What is happening.

This is being told awfully.

I’m going to hazard a guess that J is trying to pass his presence off as trying to keep them in check because he knows they’re up to something, while in actual fact he’s worried and wants to help them.

It appears they’ve found her room, time to see what the damage is-

It appears Amade Us has infected her with the curse of rap.

Though it appears like she’s just using Amade Us’ previous rhyme from earlier so not very creative there.

Do addicts look bothered when they’re getting a fix?

Yes, you totally can.

It’s not a very good one but that’s not the point.

Meganeko, My Sunshine’s biggest fan is in LITERAL TEARS from how bad this is.

Alright squad, grab your stuff, we’re going to break Amade Us’ kneecaps.

Is what I would say if he wasn’t entirely safe from me being a fictional character.

Okay listen, Rap is kinda catchy and all but it’s not anywhere NEAR that powerful to turn someone into a rapper when they’ve been a cutesy idol SINGER the entire time.

And the Sea is fucking Blue J, what else is new?

That’s never a good sign. The guy’s probably had an all-expenses trip to get there, and maybe even a free lunch!

Though it appears that perhaps Amade-san was on the other end of that phone call, either that or he had someone on the inside vouch for him.

What kind of people do we know that can infiltrate other professions while turning out to not be what they seem, adults that are inherently mysterious… hmmmmm…

Nope, can’t put my finger on it, I guess we’ll have to wait for the show to catch up.

At least we won’t have to wait long, the squadron of soon-to-be-middle-schoolers are confronting the muppet.

Do you have to rap every line!? Why can’t you just be evil!?

It only took WAY too long to get this far, Amade Us is aware of My Sunshine’s Alter Ego, Suiren.

It only took half an episode to come to THAT conclusion.

And now everything starts to get worse, as Striker has fallen into Amade Us’ flow and is ALSO rapping.

Not even Meganeko is safe from beginning to feel like a Rap God, Rap God.

Uh oh.

MAKE IT STOP!

J, who’s apparently so absorbed into this turn of events has even whipped out a SPARE MIC to facilitate his Rap.

Has he just been popping up with that incase he ever gets to do a duet with My Sunshine?

also that POSE!

They’ve discovered that this is apparently a joke episode and are going as far as they can to make me suffer during it.

You’ve seen it 4 times now, I don’t think that needed explaining.

You don’t get off that easy kitty, if my eyes have to burn watching this, yours do too.

Because Bashin has this lovely thing we like to call “Plot Armor”

It’s quite easy to come by, its made by “fictionalium”, most characters in anime don’t even realise they have it on their person.

They’ve been so engrossed by this Rap they’re calling upon memes from the FUTURE.

Look at em! They’re T-Posing for Dominance!

Even the CHAMELEON is in on it.

I’m not going to show any frames beyond this one but he does shift into his Camo mode a couple times, and notably his voice changes when he does, kind of interesting.

That “Oh dear! Look here” is a segment from Pink’s Rap however, and it seems to have some effect on our rap engrossed Battlers.

So now we have a lovely sequence of Pink and Amade Us having a fucking Rap battle that I’m going to skip.

Amade Us is crazy confused how he’s getting out-rapped by a fucking LIZARD.

I think encouraging whatever the hell THIS is would be a crime against humanity.

Okyou your feelings are not unrequited, I don’t fucking know what the point of entertaining this is either.

COME ON, IS MY ONLY SOLACE IN BASHIN OF ALL PEOPLE!?

Finally its over… Now can… can we JUST have some card games?

YES.

PLEASE.

HAVE A HEART.

Oh we actually get a short animation of the Battlefield forming again.

It appears Amade Us plays a Green deck, he’s got nothing new on his end however.

Same for Bashin, though I don’t think we’ve ever formally seen him use Orcaria before. We’ve seen it used by other battlers.

3 lives remaining, nice.

Bashin ain’t playin’ around, playing The TwinRowdy Diranos at Level 3.

Alright don’t you fucking start, you’ve ruined this show, let alone episode enough as it is.

Oh that’s interesting, Amade Us has cards that aren’t green in his deck, he’s using Flame Tempest.

Its full cost but you know, this is Turn 19, who even cares.

This is the unrealistic part of all this turn skipping coming into play.

All but 1 of Bashin’s Spirits are safe from this, namely the attacking Diranos

Also unsure if that was the best move given Amade Us also axed his own board.

Given Diranos is now undeterred, Amade Us has to take a life.

This does mean that Bashin has no blockers, and with only 3 lives Amade Us can win by playing 3 Spirits.

Which is exactly what he was aiming for, apparently.

In spite of having many cards, he only plays 2 spirits.

And he plays a new green card from BS03.

It’s not particularly remarkable, it DOES have a hefty 4000 BP at Level 2 with only 2 Core though, not the worst vanilla we’ve seen.

Notably, Amade Us colour mixing, Green, Red and now Purple.

Stagscissor and Bat-Bat attack, Bashin takes from the life but no animation is played for him losing them.

Either way, Bashin has 1 life remaining after these attacks land.

On the Flash timing of whatever the second attack is, Amade Us plays “Deadly Balance”

We’ve seen this card before, Bashin will be forced to give up one of his own spirits, and afterwards, Amade Us will have to give up a Spirit.

With his small fry wiped out by Flame Tempest, Bashin doesn’t have much choice other than to destroy TwinRowdy Diranos.

Which is pretty good maneuvering on Amade Us’ part, consecutive magic to force Bashin to make a poor decision.

I’d complain about the order of attacks but if Stagscissor attacks second this literally doesn’t matter, Bat-bat is destroyed.

…But its okay when Suiren does it?

I’m fairly sure that was the last person to use Deadly Balance.

I just applauded you for NOT doing this, show, don’t make me out to be a liar.

KidWithBullshitPlotArmorSaysWhat.

But Bashin’s face isn’t filled with excitement, it’s confusion.

That’s, an interesting response.

So Bashin plays 3 Dinohounds straight up, yeah that’d be pretty surprising to have on hand.

Not like he can swing with anything else.

Amade Us exhausts a Dinohound with Binding Thorn.

Granted he’s only got 2 lives left, Binding Thorn by itself won’t be enough to save him.

That, on the other hand, will. Amade Us plays a freaking MachG to chumpblock the Dinohound.

Toasty.

Second verse, same as the first, MachG is swift summoned and blocks the last Dinohound, resulting in Bashin taking exactly 0 lives off of Amade Us.

Now he’s got a bunch of exhausted Cost 2s, you know what would fix that?

Imagine snatching a card from someone because you DON’T want to use it and then slotting it into your deck anyway despite protesting the entire time.

Complete innatentiveness to the contents of his own deck.

You know, its kind of nice knowing that the first out-of-colour card Bashin ends up using is a Yellow one, given that’s Meganeko’s colour.

All Dinohounds are refreshed.

And Amade Us flails by summoning a 3rd MachG that won’t save him.

Here’s my question, Bashin was brought to 1 life following the Deadly Balance combo, why didn’t Amade Us just PLAY THE MACHG’S THEN!?

Bashin’s hand consisted of, what I can only think to be 2 Dinohounds before he double drew into the 3rd one and Royal Potion. And not to mention Amade Us had 3, if he responded to 1 he could just summon the other on the resultant flash timing, and Bashin only had 2 opportunities to counter while Amade Us had 3 MachG.

This maketh no sense.

It ain’t enough, Bashin takes Amade Us’ last life.

Its finally over.

Bashin tries to thank Aibou for the Yellow card that was given to him.

Except that wasn’t what saved you Bashin, Amade Us getting cold feet and keeping his 3 MachG in his hand instead of killing you with them is what saved you.

Why did it take a fake music critic jeopardizing My Sunshine’s Idol career and mentally manipulating your friends through the medium of Rap for you to fucking agree to use some other god damn colours.

Amade Us doesn’t stop rappin’ for NOBODY.

He does drop off a card before bolting though, strange, I’m not sure there are any Red X-Rares in BS03.

Yeah, BS03 only gave X-Rares to Green, White, Yellow and Blue.

So what the hell did he give Bashin?

Alright, Rapping the entire show and filling it with padding is one thing, but you DO NOT jip me out of a card review by handing Bashin an ECLAIR Card!

That awful moment aside, we now have an explanation for why Bashin wasn’t affected by Amade Us’ rap.

He suffers from Amusia, specifically beat deafness.

So because he couldn’t keep the beat with Amade Us, he couldn’t be enveloped in his rap.

This is… an interesting flaw to give your main character but it kind of sucks if it never comes into play at any other point in the series.

And you may consider this a plot hole because he’s a fan of My Sunshine, but those with Beat Deafness can actually sing in tune. And Bashin can recognize different pitches and tones so it is still possible for him to enjoy music.

Meganeko, its cute that you’re worried about him, however the worst that will happen is that Bashin will be unable to Rap, and subsequently, unable to Dance.

Why are you thanking him? It’s not like he asked to have it.

His Rap WAS better. And is the only reason they were able to be pulled out of Amade Us’ flow.

But it was still a Rap and I still had to hear it.

Pink attempts to try another Rap and finds he can’t do it. Thank God.

And nothing of value was gained.

Literally, no warning, just BAM.

Nine’s face.

I love you Nine but not THAT much, holy shit.

It appears Nine and Eight are having some antagonism between each other.

It appears Nine is trying to make a subordinate out of Eight, and Eight doesn’t really like the idea of answering to Nine.

What do you plan to do if she just says no?

WHOA, THERE’S NOTHING IN IT FOR YOU IF YOU WIN, WHY ARE YOU ENTERTAINING THIS!?

Apparently we’re doing this, interestingly its only Turn 8. Very tame for this show.

UM.

Right, sorry, Nine has only a DragonicFortress Giga, but the issue here is that they’re in Isekai…

Neither of them holds a Cornerstone, and the animal companions are required to open the gate to Isekai.

So how the hell did they get there?… That’s a bit of a gaping plothole.

Eight here has Bat-Bat and a new Spirit, I believe that’s Hellscorpio.

In the same vain as Stagscissor, its a Vanilla, and not a particularly interesting one.

Nine drops Invisible Cloak. DragonicFortress Giga is now unblockable for this turn.

Nine declares Eight’s Life total, 1 life by turn freaking 8? That’s impressive.

And makes me wonder how we get to Turn 21 with players having 4 or so lives remaining.

Come on show.

Either way, Nine appears to have game here.

Nine responds with Shadow Elixir, I do not believe we have seen this card before.

Which is interesting because I believe its from first set.

A Cost 4 Purple Magic from Base set that lets you gain a life from your Reserve, very easy to use in place of a chump block.

You effectively negate an attack by using this card, it’s pretty good.

But I have an inkling as to why this won’t work here.

When you hear those 6 syllables, you know you’re fucked.

And Nine plays a new BS03 Magic.

For those of you who have only watched as far as these blogs go, and haven’t played the game, you’re likely wondering what this means.

I’ve mentioned in the past that Nexuses have symbols, and that reduction for cards in your hand are fulfilled by the number of symbols you have on your field, represented in the corner of the card.

For example here, The DragonicFortress Giga has only one symbol.

Thus, it provides one Red reduction, but symbols also mean something else in Battle Spirits.

And that is, the amount of lives that Spirit takes when your opponent responds to its attack by taking it from the life.

Double Hearts grants a Spirit one additional symbol of a type it already has, meaning a Spirit that would normally take one life, now takes two.

The situation now is that there is a double-symbol DragonicFortress Giga that is unblockable aiming for Eight’s life.

Quite often in Battle Spirits, they actually represent this on the card itself, it’s quite cool.

With no answer to Nine’s sheer awesomeness, Eight loses.

You can always count on Nine to shake up everything, he defeated Suiren quite soundly using a notably different Magic from the ones Bashin uses, and has now introduced the concept of Multi-Symbol spirits.

Nine is awesome, and anyone who says otherwise is going to feel the blunt end of my boot.

From Nine’s dialogue, its no secret that he’s specifically interested in Bashin. From making use of his catchphrase and X-Rare to defeat Suiren quite soundly, to specifically focusing on him when the other Nazo-Otonas wish to bring J into their ranks.

He’s almost like a distant father.

Considering how easy it was for Card Sensei, I’m sure the Nazo-Otonas have favours they can call in to make Eight a teacher.

That question’s quite a toughie, Nine could lie and say “yes” but it would become apparent very soon that it was a lie.

Eight is aware that Nine’s interest in Bashin is unique to Nine, and that Uchuuchouten isn’t sanctioning this activity.

Nine hasn’t said much other than attempting to get Eight to honour her promise, so its unlikely we’ll get this answer out of him, but the fact that she’s dropped the question is also an insert into the audience’s mind that Nine DOES want something from observing Bashin, and only Nine knows what it is.

Its a good way to make this otherwise mysterious character even more mysterious, we get little tidbits about him that only serve to produce more questions.

He’s written well, I like it.

And even when he DOES speak its cryptic and produces even MORE questions.

What is this friendship he wants to renew? And with who? And how is THAT related to Bashin.

I can’t even be mad, I love this stuff.

We’re jumping back to My Sunshine’s Live again, let’s see how this goes.

My Sunshine turns up in her RAP get-up again, because of course she does.

Take that thing off you muppet, you’re not possessed anymore.

The funny part is she ONLY takes off the shirt, gains a dress where she was wearing baggy pants earlier, AND spawns gloves.

Unrealistic anime expectations honestly.

And that’s the episode!

We’re cut off before My Sunshine starts her new song, but its fine in the sense that it cues into the Ending theme as we get a new one this episode.

Its quite catchy too. But enough about that.

Our card of the day appears to be the card Nine used to completely destroy Eight, Double Hearts.

We’ve gone over the concept of Double Hearts and what it does, so I guess I can talk about it. Its a pretty nasty surprise card if your opponent lacks blockers, and can steal a win out of nowhere, but you’ll notice the sheer expense you have to offer up to play it. You have to pay at LEAST 5 core just to use this thing and all it does is grant an extra symbol for a turn.

That being said the scariest thing you can stick an extra symbol on is a card that can attack multiple times, making that symbol worth way more in the long run.

For example, imagine J using this card on his Gigantic Thor before starting his multi-refresh combo, Thor would potentially take 2 lives every time it swung.

It’s quite nasty. Nowadays though this card is completely useless, and that’s because extra symbols can be gained through… much cheaper ways.

Unfortunately that card type is a spoiler, so I will not address it until we see it.

Until next time!