Toppa Bashin – Episode 29

Just… Just get me to the Plot, Please!

Last episode was kind of terrible, we got a lot of background about some more members of J’s family but otherwise the only thing that changed was J’s willingness to team up with Smile.

Which is cool and all but we’re not going to see the effects of that change for a while.

Hayami’s taking pictures of Bashin’s new uniform.

It really doesn’t mesh well with his hair but at least he looks a little better than he does in his normal attire.

This is probably easier but less fun to draw.

Hayami’s apparently taking the pictures to preserve Bashin’s first day of middle school to show his missing Father whenever he returns.

That is an interesting point, we don’t actually know what Bashin’s feelings towards his missing father are, or if he even has any memories of him.

At least as far as we know from this, Bashin is either being considerate of Hayami and co-operating for her sake, or likes what he does know of his father enough to go through with anything that’s for him.

Hah, you can see my play button, but its fine cuz its on a Camera it barely looks out of place.

Its a bit jarring not seeing our usual characters in their colour-coded clothing.

Meganeko’s face looks a bit rounder here, I am unsure if thats due to the lack of glasses or if she’s legitimately been drawn differently.

Meganeko and Bashin go to the same school, so there’s no reason for Bashin NOT to stop off by Meganeko’s as usual.

I believe I remember seeing a video of some sort that gave the claim that many Japanese shows take place in schools because schools in Japan are seen as the peak of life, being the most interesting.

I disagree but I’m not here to have that discussion, I’m also biased since I’m out of school and LOVING IT.

Striker’s here too, onward!

Bashin has been separated from the Peanut gallery, this does mean that we’ll likely see less classroom scenes given that Bashin will be on his own.

In the distance, Bashin spots a Smile

And he RACES OFF AFTER HIM.

Bashin’s really on top of this enemy elimination thing, he just won’t let up where there is a Nazo-Otona.

Aibou pops out to provide absolutely nothing but commentary on the fact that Smile was just there.

Bashin gets caught by what appears to be a Teacher.

Welp, there goes our fun morning Smile hunt, instead we’ve got CLASSES to get to.

Also is it me or does that Teacher look familiar?

I guess I must slowly come to terms with the fact that I am getting matched braincell for braincell by a middle schooler.

It appears the reason we recognized her is because this is actually Eight, without all her Gal makeup and hair dye she looks almost completely different, her Shades are also missing and she’s not bumping that Punkish look.

Eight is not having any of Smile’s bullshit however.

Sucks that you don’t get to chill with your buds right the way through class, but school ain’t for chillin’, its for learnin’

Well we DO know of one person who was later than Bashin.

Eight-er, Inogashira-sensei arrives and sees that everyone, minus Smile is on time.

I guess she really doesn’t give 2 shits about Smile’s learning.

Though Smile doesn’t seem the type to care about school either

I didn’t think “Smile was so Shy he got the shits” was a joke this show would be entertaining.

This is of course, assuming that the missing classmate is Smile.

Who knows, it could be J for all we know.

Yeesh, imagine being prepared to spy on a 12-13 year old kid for the better part of a Year.

That’s certainly an investment I wouldn’t wanna put in.

Ay, the missing “Neighbour” IS Smile.

This is a strange situation, Smile is basically Bashin’s sworn enemy given they have a goal in common: J.

So being promoted to an educational position where you literally could not be closer together in proximity is kinda crazy.

I wanna see Smile try to copy Bashin’s homework.

Awww SHIT.

Smile and Bashin are gonna throw hands after school.

I feel like a kid again.

Toaru is the school Bashin goes to, Tonari is what appears to be J’s school.

Announcer-chan confirms that both J AND My Sunshine are attending this one, and if J is enrolled here its likely Kyouka is also here.

We’ve got a nice and even 3-3 split between schools. That’s kind of cool.

It appears someone takes issue with Batosupi TV’s existence.

While I would normally sympathise, bitch, bring on the disciplinary committee or piss off.

The rules that apply to students are different to the rules that apply to the general public, HOWEVER, the girl does have a point.

Filming near schools is a BIG security risk and children can’t really consent to, well, anything because they’re not adults yet. So schools typically tend to be pretty strict when it comes to any kind of filming.

Well duh, if collecting the imaging of the students’ likeness then the collection of their data would be under lock and key as well.

So you can parse the message being sent to you but can’t take the hint?

Also why is a bunch of Students here telling you this? Why aren’t the TEACHERS here to wreck your shit?

I would like to meet this new principal and chairman, they seem like reasonable people.

Also literally EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM besides cap’n Teal Hair over there has glasses.

Like at all? That’s a LITTLE bit unreasonable but seems realistic enough.

THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU ENFORCING IT!?

God I hate these kinda students, they fly up to a level where they have control for the purposes of being the authority but then don’t even bother to look into the rules they’re enforcing.

They’d get told off for showing off their nuts to everybody so instead they just settle for exerting their authority.

In which case, back to my original statement, you’re gonna need a disciplinary committee or you can fuck off my screen.

We interrupt this confrontation to bring you a Bishounen Batosupi TV literally won’t shut the fuck up about.

My Sunshine is… exasperated by dodging the papparazzi?

Quiet entrances are the best, I hate having to push passed people to enter somewhere. It sucks.

Ah, so the Manager actually used his brain and decided to use J as a decoy in order to get My Sunshine in with as little trouble as possible.

Except that apparently didn’t work given a butt-ton of them just appeared out of nowhere.

I suppose that explains why Commentator-san was missing, he was lying in wait to ambush the Idol-

…That sounded better in my head.

My Sunshine is havin’ NONE OF IT.

Good on you girl.

I would also stick to the rooftop during Lunch time and find a better exit for after school…

From what I know about Journalism, effective Journalism only works if you’re unafraid to make people uncomfortable. Which sucks, unless its against dickheads who are evidently deserving of being called out for the stuff they do.

My Sunshine is not one of those people.

Ay, Kyouka managed to nail Class Rep on her first day, good start!

Oh shit we actually ARE going to meet them, I’m curious to see who these muppets are.

Oh… They meant of the school, not the council.

Suddenly the need to stay recordings makes a lot more sense.

But my question is who is the Chairman and who is the Principal?

Given Elliott was trying to take students to University in America, I assume he’s the Principal?

Nailed it.

Okay could you stop having a modesty comparing contest and one of you just FUCKING SPEAK!

We all know you both suck.

Who the hell is going to call you “Little Brother”?

My Sunshine settles in the seat behind J’s, wanting to greet Kyouka as it appears she’s her classmate.

Well that’s interesting, is J in another class of his own? That would mean J and Bashin are alone, and Bashin’s got an enemy to square off with, I’m not sure there are any characters who could be the equivalent to J.

Though in this case, Elliott and “Chairman Kiano” suffice enough as they’re systemic controllers of the school.

I have no idea, Elliott came to school, as the principal, dressed as ELVIS.

…As the Chairman AND The Principal.

Did they hand over the keys to their house as well? Maybe lent them their dog or a small loan of a million dollars?

Oh hey they brought that little tidbit up, I wonder how this school might facilitate Batosupi University in America.

He’s now a member? I wonder what Number they assigned him.

So far we know of Nine who lacks a name.

Inogashira-Sensei? (I’m literally guessing) is Eight.

We haven’t seen a Seven or a Six.

Five was Card Sensei.

Four is Smile.

We haven’t seen a Three.

And Micheal Elliott is Two, And we don’t know of the existence of whoever One is. That is if Uchuuchouten doesn’t count as One.

Yeah it’s pretty hard to fight a war when you’ve got math homework due next week.

I’m not sure the Chairman has even BEGUN speaking yet, all I could hear for the longest time was Elliott’s broken Japanese.

Which is by far the best AND worst thing this show has to offer.

Well ain’t that an adorable request.

Would be a shame if My Sunshine said no.

Spoiler: She does not, in fact, say no.

Imagine your principal is so bad you hop into their office for a personal complaint on the FIRST DAY.

This is a strange clapback from Elliott, I guess he was expecting Kiano’s presence to be intimidating and it’s just had the opposite effect, just made J angrier.

J droppin’ the classic “WHY DO YOU EXIST!?”

Elliott, quite cleverly dodges the question.

Also what if J quits Batosupi? Pretty sure your plan gets fucked in that occasion no?

This line doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on its own, let’s hope to sweet god he elaborates in a way that the Subber can actually understand wtf he’s saying.

That… doesn’t really explain much at all.

Oh, they BOUGHT their way in, that makes WAYYYY more sense. I thought this was just a “conekkshuns!” issue but apparently Thousupi Group have money to throw around.

Assuming it wasn’t Kiano that bought it, that would mean the school belongs to J.

If he didn’t answer the last five thousand times you asked him why the hell are you asking him even MORE forcefully?

He IS the Principal, he CAN expel you!

I mean you DID just tell him to piss off…

I know that usually isn’t meant to work but still.

J wasn’t done badmouthing Daddy dearest but before he can go to give him ANOTHER earful, he’s stopped by Elliott.

Is Elliott trying to tell J that he SHOULD fear his Father’s Heart?

What the hell is his Dad gonna do exactly?

…Well actually that is a point, there is a myriad of things he could do but he’s evidently being held back by what minimal care he has for his son.

Is Elliott suggesting J not push that button?

J’s decided throwing hands (cards?) is the best way to go about this.

Nothing like butting heads with the Principal on your first day.

I understand that cards are a significantly less violent way of dealing with disputes in this show but the idea of a Principal saying the equivalent of “Come on then you little shit” to a student is hilarious.

I’ll take what I can get, at least its not a ridiculous turn 20.

J’s alone with a Dualcannon-Bell

And Elliott has a Level 2 Dinohound, a Level 2 Barball, and a NEW OldSage Trenton!

It’s not from BS03 but we haven’t seen OldSage Trenton before, time to see what’s in store for this Spirit from BS02.

The OldSage Trenton is a Cost 6 Spirit from BS02, When summoned you can play a Green spirit from your hand for absolutely free as long as it doesn’t use any (When Summoned) effects. And at Level 2 you get a Core if it snatches a life from the opponent.

That first effect is kind of gnarly, but I suppose its appeased by the fact that there are only 2 Green X-Rares available at this point in time, and BOTH have very powerful effects when summoned.

So you’re mainly gonna wanna use this on Green cards that have high cost, low reduction and powerful effects that don’t occur on summon.

I can’t think of many examples from the sets we have available…

Here’s one, its a pretty loose one but this card has low reductions and a relatively high cost, I reckon this would work as a good target for Trenton.

So, let me get this straight.

J has 1 Dualcannon-Bell, and 1 White Spirit with 2 lives remaining in a deck of 99% White cards barring 1 Yellow card.

And Elliott has some how maintained all his lives, and throughout has managed to get a Cost 2 Red spirit that demands 2 core to not die, a Cost 6 Yellow Spirit and a Cost 6 Green Spirit on the board?

Has he just been dropping big beefy cards or something or has J just drawn poorly?

Alright calm down Elliott, chill tf out.

And J plays… a Yellow Nexus.

That was.. not what I was expecting.

Did I say 99% besides the 1? I meant 98% besides the 2.

This card is new, what we doin’?

A new card from BS03, a Yellow Nexus no less.

The Child’s Room at Midnight.

Basically it protects your Spirits that don’t hold Printed effects (such as The Sacred Mjolnir and Dualcannon-Bell) from being defeated by LV1 and LV3 Spirits.

This kind of does let you block while safely maintaining field presence, reductions and anything else you’d need for a strategy but the limitation of it being only on Spirits that don’t hold a printed effect makes the range of uses very thin.

It is, Huck is one thing given it directly supports White but this one doesn’t, plus its a Nexus. J is tapping into more Yellow cards to boost his strategy.

I wonder if Smile has anything to do with this shift.

Given the set up the only thing that changed J’s situation here is that Dualcannon-Bell won’t die after it blocks, but J is still on thin ice here.

And that’s ONLY if Elliott levels his spirits up or down, currently they’re all Level 2. Besides Trenton.

Elliott levels down Dinohound and Barball.

Elliott has so far shown absolutely 0 consistent strategy among all the decks he has used. So whatever his “Surprise” is ought to be actually surprising.

Ah, that counts, a Blue Spirit. One J has lost to before.

By absolutely no virtue of its traits mind you.

It seems J is quite shaken by Blue Spirits, in spite of the fact that it was Invisible Cloak that kicked his ass, not anything inherent to Blue.

DragonSlayBlade Guy snatches a Life from J.

Interestingly, Elliott controls a Red Spirit in Dinohound, but there are no Crush spirits so his effect STILL doesn’t matter.

Dualcannon-Bell is defeated, blocking an attack from Barball, and is depicted being destroyed.

Of course, Barball is level 1, so we know what that means.

Dualcannon-Bell is ressurected by the Yellow Nexus.

I’m still not sure how this helps J, he’s got 1 life, no blockers and Elliott has 2 attackers.

I was expecting something a little more intricate than just “eh lets drop some magic to cover the problem” but this works.

Dualcannon-Bell survives another battle with Trenton.

J needs one more refresh to survive Dinohound’s attack.

It only required an out of place Nexus, an otherwise useless Spirit and 2 cards out of your hand but you did it!

J’s apparently drawn a card he wasn’t anticipating.

And I was apparently not ready for it either! J’s using a RED card!?

Quite simply, draw til 4, surprisingly better in decks that don’t have ways of consistently powering their hand… Like White come to think of it.

That temporary BP boost just ensures the card isn’t a brick.

I haven’t seen much of a hand out of J but he draws 3 cards so he must still have a card left in hand.

And J decides to go ham with Icemaiden, Sphereroid, The Sacred Mjolnir and Gran-Dolbalkan.

That was lucky, 3 of those could be played for No cost and only needed maintenance, Gran-Dolbalkan was played for 1 cost.

Notably, Icemaiden is yet another card J owns that has no effect, I believe that can reasonably benefit from The Child’s Room in Midnight as well.

All of which attack and snatch all of Elliott’s lives.

I believe we prefer the term “Come-from-behind Victory”

We for some reason scene-cut from the end of that battle to Bashin squaring off with Smile.

Smile feels the need to clarify that he DOES NOT, I repeat, DOES NOT: Have the shits.

I don’t think I believe him.

I dunno Bashin, was it your plan to be an obnoxious main character?

The answer to both these questions is obviously no, but Smile thinks that their pairing in the same class is a problem.

Good thing Aibou is here, speaking of which did they retcon the need for the animals to open the gate? Okyou wasn’t present where J was at.

I’m guessing they retconned it given the number of places it wouldn’t make sense to have an animal in, while simultaeniously having a myriad of those place be places where conflict can occur.

Like school.

Also notably, they redid Bashin’s entire animation sequence in his new clothing.

Effort, you love to see it.

Interestingly the field set up is being told from the perspective of Smile.

Bashin only has a Level 3 Siegfried.

And Smile has 2 Frogger, which are new cards I’m pretty sure.

It’s a Vanilla, so its got relatively decent-ish BP values for what it is, with a monstrously high 6000 BP (For a cost 2) at level 3, it DOES require 7 core but still.

Both players are sitting at 4 lives.

Smile seems to have gotten his energy and confidence back after that talk with J if he’s happily taking on Bashin again.

We’re about to see his Key Spirit, Cerru-Berus.

Which he summons at Level 2.

Oh, he’s actually summoning this now, The BlackTiger Kuron.

And he’s EVEN USING THE EFFECT.

Gosh I wonder what Purple Nexus Smile would want to make use of in his deck?

The Swamp of Drain Life ay?

That’s a Nexus from the Base Set.

For a Cost 5 Nexus with only 2 reduction I kind of expected it to have a better effect, shows me over-estimating cards from the first set.

That first effect’s utility is entirely avoidable, sending all cores from the opposing reserve to the Trash means that they lose core they could use to counter but in battle spirits, nothing stops you from simply moving that core to your Spirits beforehand and just paying from there.

The Second effect requires THREE core to be invested in the Nexus before it triggers, and all it does is Exhaust a spirit when you start your turn.

This isn’t a very good Nexus, my bet is Bashin is going to run headfirst into the first effect like a Loon.

Granted this could be Smile playing 5D chess and trying to get Bashin to level up Powerful Spirits he can then exhaust or steal with Cerru-Berus.

Smile attacks with Kuron and it does a Five Nights at Freddies Jumpscare complete with a Sound effect and snatches one of Bashin’s lives (Life: 4 -> 3)

Bashin decides to play 2 RiseDragon Balmung’s at Level 2.

Hm, a Board of Awaken Spirits, there’s a Nexus that would be good with this.

Specifically that Nexus.

And that just makes it betterrrrr.

Now all of Bashin’s Spirits will refresh on Smile’s start step.

I’m not sure what part of this is “Like J” but I guess Bashin making heavy reliance on a Nexus to support his overarching strategy makes sense?

Siegfried attacks, taking a Life (Smile’s life: 4->3)

Bashin then attacks with a Rise Dragon Balmung, using Awaken to use Siegfried’s Core to bring it to Level 3.

Smile loses another life.

Bashin does the same with the second Balmung, using Awaken to bring it to level 3 during Flash timing.

Smile once again takes from the life (Smile’s Life: 2->1)

Smile starts his turn trying to use The Swamp of Drain Life’s effect.

Bashin is aware of the now 2-set old card however and has no core in his reserve to lose, ain’t that fun?

Plateau of Duel also refreshes all of Bashin’s Spirits.

Jesus, Smile hasn’t even drawn a card and 3 effects have gone off.

HellDog Cerru-Berus steals a Cost 6 Spirit from Bashin, there’s only 1 Target.

Something about Smile wielding a Red Dragon just feels right.

That’s a card I do not recognize.

Oh that’s… That’s an interestingly strong Nexus Combo.

If its not immediately obvious what Smile has done here, he’s created an interesting Catch-22 with the 2 Nexuses he has.

On Smile’s start step, Swamp of Drain Life will Trash all the core in Bashin’s Reserve, Bashin can avoid this problem through moving all the Core to his Spirits, that isn’t an issue.

But The Spiral Tower’s Level 2 effect means that Bashin can’t use Magic on Smile’s Attack Step unless the entire cost is paid from his reserve.

Bashin can’t move core to his Reserve in preparation because he’ll lose it to Smile’s Swamp of Drain Life and be unable to use Magic, he can’t keep them on his spirits because otherwise he’ll be unable to use Magic.

In other words, Bashin can’t use Magic on Smile’s turn, Period. And that’s the MAIN way to counter in this current state of the game.

Oh god, what ELSE has he got available?

Nothing like an ArcAngelia Mikafar to resupply Smile’s hand with Magic he can use for free, as if just to twist the knife.

He’s revealing six, let’s count:

Mikafar, Cerru-Berus, Kuron, 2 Frogger and the Spiral Tower. That adds up.

He’s got some interesting cards he hasn’t played here.

Arcanadoll-Pan can exhaust a spirit on summon.

The Pentan looking card in the Top-right is The Kaiser Empereur, a member of the series which lets you drop opposing Nexuses to Level 1.

The Angelia Virchu which gives all Spirits in your hand an additional yellow cost reduction.

And Chauw, which responds well to core-gain effects, gaining an extra Core when Core is gained from the Void on itself, or the Reserve at level 2.

The other 2 are cards we’ve seen before, Double Draw and White Potion, which are Magic Smile will get to add to his hand.

Huh, he didn’t instantly play the Double Draw, curious, I guess he feels like he’s going to win in spite of it but why take the chance?

Kuron gets blasted by a Balmung.

Frogger eats another block from the other Balmung, now Bashin has no refreshed spirits to block with.

The Hella banned to the point of no return Yellow X-Rare snatches a life from Bashin (3->2)

Smile chooses the BEST words, every time.

This is way of declaring an attack with Siegfried.

Smile also uses the White Potion in his hand to refresh Mikafar.

I was kind of expecting him to try and refresh Siegfried with it but hey it makes no difference, he still wins.

Now that’s just cruel, Smile taunts Bashin into using a Magic.

Bashin even went as far as to use J’s card, Silent Wall.

I should comment about this, its rather common for decks to use at least some form of defensive White Magic regardless of what colour deck you’re using simply because White Magic is just so gosh darn effective at surviving.

Sure Bashin can’t get a reduction for this for the life of him but preparing just 4 core in advance with the intent to use it on the opposing turn is not that hard with careful play.

Reduction is the most daunting reason a person may not wish to use a card but sometimes you can afford to run an off-colour card if you think you can make good use of it’s effect.

Like how Smile is using Swamp of Drain Life, or how J used Fourth Draw.

Smile explains his Nexus Combo to Bashin, specifically that it’s designed to prevent Magic counterattacks.

He’s just… SO… COOL!

Bashin literally can’t respond, so Mikafar takes his last life.

Damn, that was pretty good, that was a GOOD Battle!

Hell yeah it was, I actually enjoyed that.

To the winner go the shit-talking license.

Smile makes an excellent and irrefutable point, if he was planning to be in close proximity to ANYONE it would have been J, and he would have attended Tonari instead of Toaru.

Aibou believes Smile, but also believes that because Bashin holds a Cornerstone and Smile is a member of the Numbers Elite, they were eventually going to find each other anyway and do battle.

Cool as that is you may have wanted to save that speech for BEFORE Bashin got his ass royally kicked.

Bashin isn’t convinced however, he asks why he should believe Smile.

I like how his answer is just “Bashin, I literally don’t give a SHIT about you.”

Smile gives a nice and cryptic answer to that one, lovely case of the audience possibly knowing more than the characters.

J wants to follow Smile because they both want to defeat Uchuuchouten together.

Bashin and the other Cornerstone holders should really sympathise with that, but if it came out that Smile was aiming for Uchuuchouten’s throat it’d blow his cover and the benefits he reaps for being a member of the Numbers Elite.

So its in his best interest to keep battling the Cornerstone Holders, growing stronger, and trying to attain J for the purposes of recruiting him into the Numbers Elite when in actuality they’re plotting to defeat Uchuuchouten and bring down Thousupi Group.

The Plot is slowly coming together.

Nine introduces himself and I guess some others to a painting of Uchuuchouten.

So far I can only make out 5 of them. Nine, Smile (Four), Kiano (???), Eight, and Elliott (Two)

That is an EXTREMELY elaborate password.

Was “NumbersElite9842” not good enough?

Hey look, in Cards, the Ace is either 1 or 11. I could totally be being welcomed here-

J did say they wanted to extract the Spirits for some reason, I guess reigning over Isekai World was what that purpose was for.

Also how are we only getting a plotdump of a villainous motivation TWENTY NINE EPISODES IN.

GOD FUCKING DAMMIT MAN.

So Battle Spirits by itself isn’t enough to take over Isekai?

How the hell will a Red Shine help with this?

Well given we’ve had several tournaments in them I’d be surprised if they weren’t.

“All are linked and will bring forth a battle where Spirits possess infinite Power”

So the Battles can be used as a power source?

Wait, so Kiano Sawaragi is Number Three.

How does the numbering work?

If we go in descending order then that means Kiano is “Three” due to the most recent member, Smile, being “Four”

But that would imply Nine is the least recent member, and doesn’t account for Elliott who’s got “Two”

It could be that the Numbers Elite were predicted in advance and were simply recruited according to that prediction.

Checking the Wiki, it appears there isn’t a concrete method to designating who gets what Number, Numbers can be recycled and new Numbers can be created.

so basically, “Just roll with it”

Well… That was ominous.

I dunno about you guys but I thoroughly enjoyed that Episode, THAT is a darn good episode.

There was plot progression, a good battle, an intricate and interesting Nexus Combo, Smile’s being un-Worfed, the Main character got his ass beat. J slowly devolving into using a Mix of colours like Smile.

A freaking villainous PLOT DUMP that summarises their basic plan and the formal addition of J’s father as a Numbers Elite.

Its good, I loved it.

The Batosupi Lecture covers the Combo between The Swamp of Drain Life and The Spiral Tower.

More like a “Combo of the day” rather than a “Card of the Day”

But you know what, screw that.

Just to show how much I appreciated that episode, I threw this awful thing together.

The new Extreme League Season was out at the time of writing and they displayed all the participant decklists like this, so I scrapped together SOMETHING resembling a strategy consisting of cards Smile used and threw it into a template I made designed to be similar.

The Decklist doesn’t have much thought put into it other than “Hey these are cards Smile used and were good lets try make it work with this strategy”

It was more to show off the Template than anything else.

In any case, I have a bed I need to get to, so I’ll see you guys all later!

See you in the next one!