Toppa Bashin – Episode 33

We had no battles last episode, anything concerning that is better left on that post.

I’m itching for card games, onward!

This title… Makes absolutely 0 fucking sense. I have no idea what this is meant to mean or what it entails and I’m definitely not going to bother repeating it.

And thus the Episode ended.

Welp, we’ll see you guys next time, buh-bye

A new card.

And not just ANY card, Meganeko’s finally got her FIRST X-RARE.

The ArcAngelia Valiero huh, they’re straight up showing us the effect right away and everything, guess we can review it.

A Cost 8 Yellow X-Rare from BS03 and a member of the “Divine Spirit” family, Valiero has more in common with a Kamen Rider in terms of appearance than an Angel.

When summoned you can recover all Magic of either Yellow or Green in your Trash. Bit limited in scope but getting ALL of them is pretty nutty.

And at higher levels it has the “Light” ability, letting you recover all Magic you use while Valiero is attacking as long as she survives the battle.

Strong card, even today probably, given it’s Limited to 1 Copy per deck.

It seems Eight is lost.

You know, looking where you’re fucking going might actually help with getting a sense of direction.

Also NO! THE CARD!

This is going to be a depressing episode, I hate when people lose important cards.

This is exchange is completely overshadowed by my stress at the location of Valiero at this moment in time.

Also the cast refer to her as Masako-sensei? I’m not sure why I’m bothering with giving that my attention, we all know I’m gonna call her Eight.

Meganeko is visibly searching for her missing card, that’s uh… Not a good sign.

A card drops from Eight’s person, which Meganeko locates.

Eight notes that she has dropped a card but finds a DIFFERENT one.

I feel like there’s going to be a nasty switcheroo.

Could people please look at their cards, she’s holding a Valiero there.

Unless they’re BOTH Valieros… But that would be a coincidence.

But was it a Valiero?

We still haven’t confirmed that Meganeko’s card is ALSO Valiero.

I guess we’ll never know until we see a battle.

Instead we’re taken to the Batosupi Club which has Seven explaining the Tournament system.

And we have these suckers too busy wondering what happened to Meganeko to care about tournaments, you can actually hear Seven in the background still speaking.

Nothing actually happens in this scene other than this curiosity though

It appears that altercation with Meganeko in addition to her getting lost delayed Eight somewhat in getting to what appears to be some supplementary music lessons, or a Nazo-Otona meeting.

Though Smile practically SLAMS the Piano, that’d piss me off.

Smile has been taunting Eight almost the entirety of their unified screentime, so this antagonism seems relatively familiar. Smile and Eight’s shared history with Card Sensei, and their Shared hatred of him doesn’t seem to be making them any closer to each other.

Eight’s done with Smile’s shit.

Though Smile cracks a… well, smile when she decides he’s not worth the trouble.

He’s evil, so you’re not meant to take Smile’s statements to heart, but I feel the need to note since most also follow his logic.

if someone has stopped being worth the effort and attention you put into them and you decide to walk away. You are not a coward, you’re simply re-assessing your energy output and cutting off bad investments. Nobody is entitled to your time like Battle Spirits Toppa Bashin feels entitled to mine.

Card Sensei appears to almost be a trigger-word (phrase?) for Eight at this point.

I guess Smile is pointing out the strange similarities in Card Sensei’s and Eight’s situations despite Eight’s apparent dislike of him. Card Sensei posed as a Teacher in order to watch over Bashin, and now Eight is doing the same.

Though Card Sensei appeared to do so under orders from Uchuuchouten and Eight is doing it under orders from Nine.

This is nice that she seems all broken up about being compared to Card Sensei and all but if you’re watching the show, Smile has at the Piano and he’s actually pretty darn good at it.

Meganeko finally arrives and Bashin seems dejected about the fact that it’s Golden Week after today or something

For those not versed in Japanese Culture, Golden Week is what Japanese residents call a strange phenomena, that being the 29th of April, 3rd, 4th and 5th days of May all having Public Holidays, and all happen within the same 7 days.

The 29th of April is Showa day, honouring the Birthday of Emperor Showa.

The 3rd of May is Constitutional Memorial Day. Which celebrates the Consitution of Japan

The 5th is Children’s Day, which is kinda like Father’s or Mother’s day but for Children.

And the 4th of May is Greenery Day, which I shit you not, only exists because of a Rule Japan has in that if there is a day between 2 Public Holidays, that day ALSO becomes a Public Holiday.

Not sure why Bashin’s complaining though, No school.

Though no School means no Batosupi Club.

One track mind…

Ah yes, can’t have a Tournament Arc without a Training montage.

Seven has a list of the Batosupi Club’s yearly events, Batosupi Training Camp takes place during Golden Week, probably because Batosupi is a game and people are actually kinda wanting to play it during days of vacation.

Girl you don’t even know the FORMAT for the Team Tournament, you can’t improve teamwork in areas you don’t know.

The group haul ass to the Batosupi centre and are greeted by an unfamiliar lady, rather than their usual guy.

That guy was apparently called “Baito-kun”

…Maybe it’s just my brain just keen on the idea of interesting characters but I’m SEVERELY doubting they actually changed the old person’s gender midway

Nah, that recognition indicates different person, but they’ve got the same name apparently. They’re both “Baito”

She’s Bashin’s Baby-Sitter, that explains how Speed Star was able to earn them monies while being a single mother.

Oh they actually give a timespan for how long Bashin has been into Battle Spirits, which appears to have been 3 years.

Man, 3 years on BASE SET? And then they move 2 sets in under a year?

Whoever’s marketing this game has problems. Though that could be indicated by the fact that Elliott appears to have unrestricted access to the Card Pool

Apparently Meganeko has met Baito-san before.

This is a nice reunion but we literally have NEVER seen this lady before, why does this matter?

Okay listen Baito-san, whatever you say next determines whether or not this series is officially no longer innocent.

You’re safe, for now.

Whoa, Meganeko is like 20/10 on Emotional maturity stage. She isn’t embarrassed by the idea of being Bashin’s Girlfriend she’s TANTALIZED by it.

And given how well Baito-san and Meganeko get on, it appears it is not a matter of if, only when.

Apparently Baito-kun has left the cast a message because they are regulars to the store.

…How did we get “Baito-kun” from “Murai Rokuroda”

Also “Murai Rokuroda” is a fucking BADASS name, what the hell?

Post-Edit: It appears “Baito” literally means “Worker”, so they don’t have the same name they’re being called by their employment status.

Uh oh, that’s bad, Baito-kun has been recruited to the Thousand Spirits Group. That makes him a potential enemy, and effectively a Nazo-Otona.

He’s even aiming for the Numbers Elite!? I sense this going very badly.

Bashin KNOWS because he was TOLD by J that the Thousand Spirits Group are not good people, yet he freaking CONGRATULATES Baito-kun and then expresses JEALOUSY.

“He’s joining the enemy!”

“Is he playing Card Games?”

“Yeah?”

“Good for him, I wish I was in his shoes”

“Bashin he’s the enemy!”

“What? Nooooooo”

At some point, the topic of an “Advisor” comes up, which apparently is pronounced similarly to “Common” which Bashin confuses for a “Common card”

Now we’re on something I’m familiar with, even in English schools, all school clubs need a member of staff to oversee them before they can be considered official.

Unfortunately the Battle Spirits club has no advisors.

Aaaand because the club is a part of that school, and therefore all activities that occur as part of that club become school activities.

The School will be liable for anything that happens to the children ON those school activities, allowing the kid’s parents to recover damages etc, all because they didn’t even so much as have a member of staff overseeing that activity.

So now the race is on to find a Teacher who is willing to oversee the Battle Spirits club activities, luckily Meganeko DID just run into one who had a Battle Spirits card, and even though she’s expressed no desire to play (officially) she might be involved enough with the game to be willing to oversee their activities.

From an audience point of view this is awesome because we know Eight is ALL about Battle Spirits making their plan much more likely to work, the rub is going to be the proximity Eight has with the Club and Smile making it harder for her to maintain her cover.

Meganeko brings up “Masako-Sensei”, namely Eight.

But explains the Rub that just because her charm is a Battle Spirits Card doesn’t mean she’s well versed enough in the game to want to be involved.

Meganeko is questioned on how she knows Eight has the charm and remembers that she wanted to show them all her new X-Rare

and Finally, NOW of all times, do they display that she has apparently mixed up her X-Rare with whatever Eight’s “Charm” was.

I didn’t show it because I don’t want you guys to lose interest in the review over THE FEELS but Meganeko is visibly tearing up when she realizes she’s lost her X-Rare and has had it replaced with what appears to be a random ass Magic card from BS02.

…Shall we have a look?

Its quite a hefty Cost at 3 core with max reductions, but in essence, instead of higher BP wins, its higher level wins (with equal being mutually assured destruction). For whatever reason the English version stuck in an ADDITIONAL effect that meant that any effect that occurred as a result of a Spirit being destroyed couldn’t activate, which is a wee bit strange.

The other thing the English version did is change the BP to MATCH the Level of the Spirit, rather than have the battle be decided by level, which is, well, wrong. The reason this is distinct is because Angel Voice is meant to change how the rules of battle are determined, which means any Spirits immune to effects, like say a card with Yellow Armor can’t dodge this with immunity.

On the English reading of this card’s text, using this on a card with Immunity would very well make it so the Immune card always wins which isn’t how the card works.

OH BOY A DECK SHOT. I absolutely ADORE these because it always makes me want to note down what’s in then. This isn’t a complete shot but we can see quite a few cool things here.

In Meganeko’s Deck at present there are:

2x Time Leap (I am NOT calling it Time Reap)
3x Additional Color
2x The BalloonMan Barball
1x The Fairy Tanya
2x Royal Potion
2x Arcanabeast-Ken
1x Piyon
1x Magic Book (Its Limited
3x Rom
3x Pom
and 2x Trickster

Let’s review the cards we haven’t seen used, given we likely will continue to not see them.

Time Leap, a Yellow Magic from BS02, is quite simple, it lets you repeat the on-summon effects of any Spirit. Granted its Cost 5 so its better used later in the game on more powerful effects rather than early ones. Silly things you can do with this involve using it on, say, The ArcAngelia Mikafar in order to re-use her Magic searching ability, and under The ArcAngelia Mikafar the card is free.

Another introductory Magic from BS02, Additional Color, does exactly what it says on the tin. It gives a Spirit an additional Color

For the time, cards like this that granted additional Colors also altered their Symbols, which means Additional Color can be used on a Spirit to not only let it fulfill requirements for effects specifying Color but also to allow it to be used as reduction for other cards of different colours.

I think its not until about 49 sets later that we see a card who treats itself as a different colour without changing the symbol its assigned with.

Magic Book is interesting for 2 reasons, the first being that in our current game, it’s limited, you can only use 1. The second because it mentions a new zone we’ve yet to see used, the “Removed Zone”

The “Removed Zone” is misleading however and is a poor translation for what the Zone actually is, in Japanese its referred to as the “Opened Zone” which is less misleading.

The “Opened Zone” is an area that kind of acts like a second hand, you are free to play cards from it as normal as if they were in your hand, but cards in your Opened Zone are not treated as being in your hand, and even then, some cards have things they cannot do while in the Opened Zone that they would otherwise be able to in your Hand. The Opened Zone is named such as it is “Open knowledge”, your opponent is free to inspect the cards in your opened zone, except in very specific cases where they are face down, but we are unlikely to see that this early.

The last one is Trickster, a recurring name across Battle Spirits and is a card that keeps getting retrains. This is the first incarnation of the card and has a very simple but powerful ability, it recovers Magic out of the Trash. Any one you like.

You can use this if your deck relies on using Magic repeatedly to get by, or likes to set up strong counter Magic.

But in any case, onward!

Meganeko suddenly remembers where she dropped her card.

And comes to the conclusion that Angel Voice belongs to Masako-sensei. Only took you a bit, if you’d actually LOOKED at the card you picked up you’d have avoided ALL of this.

From this view of the deck however more cards come into view, Meganeko’s got a Dream Ribbon which is standard White Removal, she also has a Storm Draw which we’ve yet to see.

But before we talk about Storm Draw, the BITCH HAS AN ARCANGELIA MIKAFAR!

Everyone and their MOTHER has this freaking Yellow X-Rare apparently.

Anyway, Storm Draw.

You’re probably looking at this and going “Oh hey, its like Graceful Charity from Yu-Gi-Oh!” and you’d be exactly right, it is absolutely Graceful Charity.

But no you’re not running this nowadays, because its Banned.

A Cost 2 Draw 3 Dump 2 is way too cheap, and lets you cycle through your Deck FAR too fast for it to EVER be reasonable in today’s game, that’s ridiculous. Decks only need 1 Green Symbol on the board to benefit fully off this card, and even if they don’t, 2 cost for it is hella worth it.

They made a slightly WEAKER version of this card only a little while later in the game’s SECOND Structure Deck, and the card is STILL an automatic 3-of in every Deck of that colour! The only reason they won’t run that version of the card, is because they’re probably using a much more niche version of the Draw X Dump X-1 card specific to that deck, its that out of hand.

And at present, we’re on BS03, the only cards that get limited around this time-ish are Mikafar and Evil Aura, so Meganeko can happily run 3 o’ these.

The other weird thing about Storm Draw is that Green is seldom a Draw colour, a Colour that isn’t known for drawing has the literal most powerful Draw Magic in the game.

Back to the plot, The club are trying to get to Eight so they can ask her to be an advisor but don’t have much luck finding her.

Seven, not being known for having very good social skills, suggests they get some Blackmail as a Plan B.

This sparks an idea within Meganeko and she runs off to spot Eight.

It won’t be hard to guess what it is.

Well, that was fast, what’s our new plan?

Yeah that’s about the long and short of the problem, if it ain’t Eight, it ain’t great.

But you can always count on Meganeko to have an additional sentimental reason, just to tug at the Heartstrings a little harder.

Eight believes that Meganeko is talking about her status as a Nazo-Otona, but Meganeko is talking about LUUUURRRVE.

Simple as, “If I win, do as I say plz, kthnxbai”

Oh? What’s the change in condition?

I’m guessing this “Condition” concerns the rest of the club, and the club aren’t very good at passing their Stealth checks.

Spec into Dex more often you morons!

As Eight is currently under the guise of a Teacher, she’s likely upheld her disguise right down to not even carrying 40 cards to be used on her.

So a condition like borrowing someone else’s deck, is entirely logical.

Bashin is the first to step up, offering Eight his own deck.

There’s no way you’re outpiloting Bashin anyhow, regardless of how strong the deck is.

It looks like Eight is planning to make use of Valiero in Bashin’s Deck.

Valiero’s a Cost 8 Yellow card with only Yellow Reduction as an option, I’m unsure as to how you’re going to be able to use it in Bashin’s effectively all-Red Deck.

Then again, Bashin did mention throwing in a couple other colours not too long ago.

Sweet jesus on a popsicle, TURN 35!?

They’re planning to make some seriously inconsistent and costly plays, Turn 35 is 17 Core gained by both players on Core Step alone, that means on their own turn provided none have been sent to the Void or gained, they have 4 + 17 = 21 Core available + any lives lost! That is EXCESSIVE.

Meganeko has 2 LV2 Arcanabeast-Paira, nothing we’ve yet to see before. Her Life is 5 but its not shown.

Eight has Dinohound and Orcaria, both LV1, still nothing we’ve yet to see.

Her Life is also 5 but its mentioned, not shown.

How the fuck did we get to Turn 35 without a single life being lost? What?

Both are at 4000 BP, Dinohound’s LV1 vs Arcanabeast-Paira’s LV2.

This would indicate a draw.

Unless of course Meganeko does this.

I’m kind of surprised, I didn’t think they’d toss this out so early. Now Arcanabeast-Paira is the victory as it has a higher level.

Buh bye Dinohound, no one will miss you.

As Arcanabeast-Paira is LV2, it’s keyword Light is now active, allowing Meganeko to add her used card back to her hand.

Card Sensei’s turn, she’s drawn Valiero.

This is basically just a shiny brick, there’s very little value in playing it, even if she’s able to.

Oh, that’s surprising, we get a Nexus in Bashin’s deck NOT debuted by him! Eight deploys The Middle of Hard Battle.

Its a Cost 5 Nexus, and at only 2 reductions its not cheap to play at all.

The other thing is that the first effect is VERY specific, it just blows up anything with 1000 BP when your opponent begins their Attack step, and its easy to play around.

That second effect though is kind of interesting, if its your Attack step and your Awaken Spirit beats out another Spirit, you can also blow up anything that has equal BP.

It’s a… fairly bad card, I think its best use would be to try and trick your opponent into varying their board’s levels so you can bait them into something else but a Cost 5 2 Reduction Nexus with 3 Core required for that Level 2? Ehhhh.

The only standard use it has is letting you deal with the same problem twice if you beat the first one with an Awaken Spirit.

My guess is Eight is going to play Valiero, and use Great Link to grant it the Awaken Keyword.

So Eight Levels up Middle of Hard Battle to Level 2, Levels up Orcaria to Level 2, and then plays a Level 3 Lizardedge?

I don’t see any other cards on her field, she should have played the Lizardedge first as its literally free reduction.

And then plays The ArcAngelia Valiero.

I will say though, the Graphics for some of the later-ish cards are really good. Valiero looks EXCEPTIONALLY good in this series compared to quite literally anything else.

I wonder if this was this show’s method of being a tease with it’s effect, Eight notes she can’t use the effect in a Deck of Pure Red.

I have no idea why she’s calling attention to the Red cards in her hand when the effect targets cards in your Trash.

Welp, I got the name wrong but what I meant I got right, the card is Spirit Link, not Great Link, Eight plays it using Lizardedge’s 2 core to pay its cost (she has 3 Red reduction so that’s pretty nice)

Valiero uses its newly given Awaken property to take 2 core from Orcaria.

I’m not quite sure what the necessity of that was, given that Valiero was already winning this battle.

Oh actually, I’m stupid, its because Meganeko has Angel Voice in hand, so she’s prepping for it.

The first Arcanabeast-Paira gets freaking VAPORIZED.

The second one is destroyed thanks to Eight’s Nexus.

Oh right, there was also that, Valiero’s Light lets Eight return Spirit Link to her hand to continue making use of Bashin’s Awaken targeting effects.

Orcaria and Lizardedge attack, taking 2 of Meganeko’s lives, leaving her with 3.

Meganeko doesn’t do much on her own turn, just plays 2 LV3 Fairy Tanya’s and calls it a turn.

This is pretty good defense with the Angel Voice in her hand.

She’s movin’ in for the kill, she’s playing Lizardman and Skeleton-Jaw

And she also levels up Lizardedge to LV3.

I was going to comment on how out of place Valiero looks among these Red Spirits but she actually doesn’t look out of place.

She is a VERY pretty looking Spirit, I love it.

Eight declares her victory pre-emptively, she’s got 5 attackers against Meganeko’s 2 Blockers and she has 3 lives and an Angel Voice which doesn’t help.

Meganeko’s demeanor when battling is extremely Cold notably. I think this is a result of now being the only time we can see her eyes but its better conveyed here than through her Glasses or her Suiren-style shades.

Eight warns Meganeko that if Meganeko attempts to use Angel Voice, Spirit Link will make it a draw.

That’s a new card… Even for me.

Divine Chain is a card from BS01, Base Set. Its a Cost 3 Magic that if you use it, for a Given Battle, the opponent cannot respond with cards in their hand.

It effectively locks them out of Flash Timing as long as the card comes out of their hand.

This doesn’t stop Opened Zone cards coming in but Eight likely has none of those, the nasty part as well is since Meganeko is the defending player, she’s allowed to Flash first, meaning there was no opportunity for Eight to use Spirit Link except her Main Step, which she’s not inclined to do because Valiero’s effect won’t let her get it back that way.

Meganeko then follows up with Angel Voice.

Since Eight can’t use any cards in her hand, Valiero has no hope in hell of surviving.

Byeeeee beautiful Spirit, you will be missed.

Its true, a full attack still wins her the game.

Meganeko blocks Lizardedge’s attack with The Fairy Tanya.

Meganeko uses one of the cards we SAW in her deck but I actually confused that card for another one and it isn’t the first time I’ve done this.

The card I thought was Additional Color was actually this, Same Tired.

Its a simple card, and actually relatively okay in a lot of strange scenarios.

But put simply, your opponent must have the same number of exhausted spirits as you yourself do.

Defeating Valiero was crucial to Meganeko’s survival, as now Meganeko has 2 exhausted spirits, her 2 Tanyas while only Lizardedge is exhausted on Eight’s field. That means she needs to exhaust 1 other spirit.

But losing even 1 attack means she can’t win.

Orcaria is the obvious choice here, both Skeleton-Jaw and Lizardman have effects that make it difficult for them to block.

Lizardman can’t block anything weaker than itself, and Skeleton-Jaw straight up can’t block.

So of course, Skeleton-Jaw being unable to block means you might as well attack, Eight ends her turn after snatching a life from Meganeko.

Meganeko still has a bit of an uphill battle here, she has 5 lives to tear out from Eight.

Piyon, Pom and 2 Froger with her 2 Tanyas means Meganeko has enough attacks to barely win.

Lizardman’s negative effect comes back to bite him in the butt, and with the only card remaining in Eight’s hand being Spirit Link… As J would say, “Checkmate”

I love the very swift visual of all of Eight’s lives getting blown up in quick sequence.

Losing a card is upsetting, if I lost a card I’d love for somebody to give it back to me, even under these circumstances.

Maybe the Girl can use her OWN X-Rare this time.

Like so far its been Mikafar central, Meganeko having an X-Rare unique to her is nice, its just a shame the first user was quite literally Eight.

But then again… Wait a sec.

Oh shit, with the exception of Siegfried, all onscreen awarded X-Rares have been wielded by Eight and have been earned by defeating her with them, this is a really convoluted, almost “spiritual” way of having Meganeko earn her X-Rare onscreen from Eight.

Okay that’s kinda cool.

We call that: Someone letting themselves get a little too heated.

And also Bashin’s Quarter braincell working really hard to come to the completely wrong conclusion all over again.

I mean it was pretty garbage this episode, barely any Awaken Spirits besides those done through Spirit Link, The Middle of Hard Battle is REALLY shit.

Lizardman and Skeleton-Jaw are base set trash that have no business sitting in this current version of the deck.

Meganeko promises not to let anyone know Eight’s secret, while beginning to explain it.

…I can see why Meganeko would think that was a damning secret. Being Tone Deaf effectively bars you from most music-opportunities, though something something Beethoven was deaf?

But that would explain why Smile is doing supplementary lessons with her, it could be that Smile is actually EXTREMELY GOOD at Piano and does well in those lessons to give the idea that she’s actually good at being a Music Teacher.

But its hard to tell if its true or not based on everyone’s reactions.

Oh hey, at least now its confirmed that they were dating.

To be honest, he could have MEANT that he enjoyed listening to you sing, but if it was sarcasm, it’s still a nice gift.

I’m not sure how I feel about the purpose of that episode being to set up the training montage that’s meant to be the prelude to the upcoming Tournament Arc 33 episodes in, it really feels like I’m just waiting for things to happen as opposed to things actually happening.

Regardless we did get to review a hell of a ton of cards thanks to the opportunities provided, gotta take what you get after all.

The Batosupi Lecture today uses Valiero as our Card of the Day. And in addition, has a focus on her Light keyword.

Wasn’t shown in this episode but Light notably restores ALL spells used in that battle, not just a single one, so even entire Magic combos can be returned to your hand for future use from only one Light effect, and if you mount an attack formation consisting of Light, only your opponent destroying the battling spirit has any chance of stopping you restoring all that Magic back, the only downside is since you’re using so much Magic, you’ll have to pay a lot of cost for it.

Not really a problem with Toppa Bashin, which regularly skips to when players have a large abundance of core, annoying. Its much less prevalent in later series and honestly I much prefer them as their Battles have a little more quality.

In any case, I’ll see you for the next one! Ta-ta.