Toppa Bashin – Episode 35

Welcome back attentive Battlers! I hope you’re ready for another rousing round of whatever the hell this is!

Last episode was our “Training Episode” which saw us awarding Striker with his 2nd X-Rare.

Now Bashin, Striker, and Meganeko (due to a Freeze Frame Bonus) all wield 2 X-Rares. My Sunshine and J (now Jack Knight) have had 2 for a while as well.

So now the only thing left is for some PLOT to occur! Let’s go!

These seems like an Episode that is dual in nature, my first thought is that Jack Knight will get some focus between himself and Kiano, his father while Bashin struggles at basic Math because that is how the Bashin do.

But first we have a rather serious looking Announcer-chan giving an emergency broadcast.

Of course, because Batosupi TV and J are practically joined at the hip, they obviously need to talk about his introduction as a member of the Numbers Elite.

I like the White Aura effect they’ve given him here. Auras are cool.

At the time this show was airing this might have actually been true, Micheal Elliott is an Expy of an actual person named Micheal Elliott who works for Wizards of the Coast. And since at this point cards were still being printed in English and other languages, this isn’t such a crazy statement.

The crazy part is that they have a news channel dedicated to nothing but the game however.

Nowadays, though the game isn’t available in English, it IS available in Korean, and for some bizarre reason. Italian.

Don’t ask me why, I have no freaking idea either.

Batosupi TV believe this is some kind of publicity stunt in order to increase Jack Knight’s popularity.

What’s been a recurring theme through all of this is that in spite of the fact that Jack Knight is acting DIRECTLY in support of Kiano’s own goals, he’s been completely displeased with his son’s affiliation with him.

This episode may shed some light on that.

I’d recognize that broken Japanese anywhere, Elliott’s in the room.

He’s talking about one of Kiano’s “acquaintances” but I’m not quite sure who he’s referring to. Or if he’s even talking to Kiano.

Elliott your apparent ineptitude at this game has been made apparent by the dumbest character in the franchise.

Shouldn’t you be developing a functional strategy rather than just stacking cards and annoying the shit out of Kiano?

Elliott seems to be trying to pass this off as a good thing, notably in an earlier episode he asked Kiano why he was being hostile to J back when he wanted to join them, so Elliott likely does not know the reason why Kiano is receiving this so poorly.

Not that he’s doing this for fun, I don’t think I’ve seen a single genuine smile from him since he became Jack Knight.

Kiano is still dejected, Elliott still appears to be in the dark.

Kiano leaves and Elliott gives this face, perhaps he knows more than he lets on but god knows what the meaning behind that is given that he seemed genuinely confused in an earlier scene, the tone of his voice even matched it.

Huh, interesting depiction of Kiano on his own without his children, this is the first time we’ve seen him interested in ANYTHING to do with his son since the series started.

If you’re trying to rescue Kiano’s apparent complete dismissiveness of his son’s existence by telling the audience “Oh look he really does care!” this only makes us more confused as to why he’s making the decisions he does.

Striker seems understandably confused, and even brings up Bashin’s promise with J that they would defeat King Uchuuchouten together!

Finally we get to have some questions asked.

Bashin has an alarmingly straightforward (and one I like) response.

Yeah if your idiot of a rival is for some reason doing shit that doesn’t make sense given what you know of them, it would make sense to just go find them and ask them.

But given this episode’s title I don’t think we can resolve character tension that easy.

Wow they just straight up pulled a desk onto the roof, got some chairs and are having a round of Battle Spirits.

I can’t identify much on the board but it doesn’t look to be too interesting, I can make out a Rom and a Tanya on Meganeko’s field and Bashin has what I believe to be 2 Goradons and I don’t recognize the last card.

Striker agrees with Bashin’s logic, they can come up with all the conclusions they want but they’re all pointless if asking J is an option.

Bashin resolves himself to go ask once he’s done having his battle with Meganeko.

Before promptly planting his signature X-Rare on the board for Meganeko to deal with.

Meganeko’s FACE, she was not ready for Siegfried.

Striker does ask a pretty interesting question, they don’t actually know J’s current location.

Meganeko to the rescue, apparently the Thousand Spirits Group are holding an Exchange Match at the Sawaragi Art Gallery in Kyoto.

Oh hey that wasn’t a one-off location! We’re actually going back there!

Bashin straight up hauls ass as soon as he hears this though.

The Flyer even had “5/17” plastered on it and they JUST came out of Golden Week.

Bashin is a giant muppet, doubly so because HE LEFT HIS GOD DAMN CARDS THERE.

Bashin, would it NOT be better to explain your J situation, your Mother already knows your fuckin’ Mouse can talk, you might as well spill the beans.

Is this the part where we find out that Bashin’s grades are complete ass because he’s a meathead who couldn’t tell a 3 from the TwinRowdy Diranos?

Oh hey, that’s like the Mock Exams we have in England, we do them in the middle of the year to measure progress.

Bashin of course, is undelighted by anything not in very specifically sized cardboard, fittable into a sleeve, and adorned with a giant white “BS” on the back of it.

Seems pretty standard, its a time-gated restriction in order to enforce study for this specific period of time and will alleviate when the period is over.

No, Harsh would be your parent overseeing every single action you make 2 weeks before the given test to ensure that you are completely devoted to revision and will viciously punish you if you’re even spotted with more than 1 tab or window than you’re supposed to, even if its just music or a window you didn’t even realise was open, accuse you of slacking and punish you even further.

You can tell I’m speaking from experience.

Striker’s own mother prevented him from fixing his deck to get him to focus on studies.

Do you really think parents don’t realise that the best case scenario for a kid’s education to go well?…

…Is for clear and consistent communication between the parents of that child and the teachers that oversee their studies?

Come on, if you ban them from an activity they can feasibly parttake in during school of course they’re going to let the school know.

Talk about bending the power of being an Advisor to your advantage, as the Advisor she basically controls the club activities.

So now he REALLY can’t play Batosupi at school.

This is a fairly good plan, at a place that encourages such play it WOULD be standard to try go there if you were banned at school and at home.

…But stores are of course, capable of having denylists in order to deny service to customers for any reason, something like the request of a Mother to an Ex-babysitter to prevent entry to her child so that he can study for exams would be not out of the realm of possibility.

Oh look, his Mother is out… Wait that’s bad.

Because of course any addicted muppet would see this as an opportunity.

Of course, there is ONE person who can reliably stay at home and isn’t expected to leave the house.

How good were those fucking Mushrooms to make you be THIS harsh on the kid?

And we get a nice little montage of Bashin getting absolutely ass-blasted by Aibou anytime he attempts to so much as look at his Battle Spirits cards.

Batosupi is one hell of a drug.

The withdrawal symptoms are crazy.

Lemme guess. They’re going to go where no one can stop them, Isekai?

Also for FUCK sake! NOW they use the plot device of requiring their animal be nearby in order to open the gate!?

Come on! We’ve SEEN Bashin open it without any such animal! And Seven is capable of opening the gate without one as well!

Nine and Eight fought in Isekai and THEY’RE NOT EVEN CHOSEN.

You can’t arbitrarily introduce plot points and then IGNORE them except when it’s convenient for you!

We scene jump to Kiano again, and the Driver makes the suggestion that he see his family.

Now lets see if Kiano’s the type to fire his Driver for making that suggestion-

REALLY.

REALLY!?

So you’re telling me, that you, S. Kiano Sawaragi, have been neglecting to give your son any kind of attention.

That you actively removed him from your path just because he was in the way of you going to the Thousand Spirits group, that you IGNORED his pleas for you to stay.

That you ignored him ENTIRELY in an attempt to scout Bashin at YOUR OWN SON’S GRADUATION PARTY.

That you chose to be dismissive of all that he is even when he joined the Numbers Elite JUST so he could be closer to you.

You did all that… BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T UNDERSTAND HOW HE FELT!?

A fucking blind-deaf coma patient that just had a lobotomy encased in a sound proof spaceship ORBITING URANUS could see that J literally wants your god damn approval and your failure to so much as just acknowledge that your son even matters to you a tiny bit has induced enough stress in the poor kid that he flat out hates the name you gave him!

You can’t use ignorance as an excuse here!

And he just drives off, yeah piss off.

I’ll give you points for at least not being a total dickwaffle and actually caring somewhat about your son but god DAYUM.

I’m being harsh yes but communication’s a two-way street and one side, well, isn’t communicating. And it ain’t the son.

You’ve been busting his balls over studying, I’m pretty sure he’s practically given up by now.

…Of course playing at Meganeko’s house WOULD make that possible.

The only way to verify would be for Bashin to leave his deck at home just to fully ensure his statement is correct.

In other news, Kiano has been dropped off.

At… Bashin’s Middle School? That’s a wee bit strange?

Apparently he’s as surprised as I am since this isn’t where he wanted to go-

Get wrecked shitlord.

I was not anticipating this, if you were going to drop him off anywhere why would it be Bashin’s school and not his son’s?

When questioned as to why he’s there, Kiano can ONLY answer truthfully, he’s got no bloody clue.

Bashin takes this opportunity to press J’s father for information, pretty good opportunity to do so.

They’re REALLY trying to paint this old fart as sympathetic, I’m not buying it.

Jack Knight leaves his home and notices there are no available drivers.

Only to get Speed Star when he prompts for one. This is an interesting set up, Bashin is chilling with Kiano while Jack Knight spends time with Bashin’s mother.

I wonder what the potential outcomes of this would be, but Hayami is evidently aware of J and his status as Bashin’s friend as well as the news so it’s highly unlikely that she’s oblivious to his current situation.

She’s driven Nazo-Otonas around before so wouldn’t surprise me for her to do so again.

Wait really? J would flat out discard his education (something he’s pretty decent at) all to become a member of the Numbers Elite?

Since Smile and Eight go to school and Elliott is the Principal I’m certain that not attending class is definitely NOT a requirement, he’s choosing to skip class, he’s not being forced to.

Even draped in Black and on the side of the baddies, he’s still a worrywart over his old friends, so it’s not like this change actually generates any antagonism between him and the others, he just hasn’t run anything by them as per usual.

He’s even throwing the guy a compliment. D’awwww

Interesting attempt at reconciling the two of them, she offers J to come over to their house on that day.

Jack Knight is showing his alternative title to be “Big Sad” because he doesn’t actually feel like he should be seeing Bashin.

…That’s kind of interesting, we’ve seen this line twice now.

I see what they’re doing. And it’s kind of cool.

They’re paralleling Bashin’s situation with J with J’s situation with his Father.

Kiano doesn’t believe he should see J because Kiano feels he’s incapable of understanding his son’s feelings.

Where on the other hand, J doesn’t feel he should be seeing Bashin because he betrayed Bashin’s feelings.

The interesting part is that J is the common thread here, he’s doing all this to seek out his father and yet doesn’t recognise he’s in the same position his father is concerning Bashin, he’s got a HUGE opportunity to see things from his father’s point of view now and isn’t presently able to. He’s too busy being on the victim end of one relationship to avoid being the instigator of the other.

WHICH makes the situation with Kiano and Bashin even more interesting, they’re at opposite ends of J and both are having issues with him, Bashin as a victim of J’s betrayal and Kiano as an instigator of J’s dissatisfaction with him.

Through each other, Bashin AND Kiano might get an outside look at their situations with J and potentially have Kiano understand things from J’s point of view through Bashin, and for Bashin to find a way to get through to J by doing the same for Kiano.

This is a WILD ASS guess but I like the parallel being drawn here, even if one is slightly more serious than the other.

I have exactly 0 idea what the fuck this says.

You and Bashin’s situations are not similar. You’re as far apart from each other as can be since you’re at clear OPPOSITE ENDS of the problem.

HE’S FUCKING TRIED!

EPISODE 26’s ENTIRE RUNTIME WAS YOU IGNORING THE FUCK OUT OF HIM, AND THEN WHEN HE ATTEMPTED TO COMMUNICATE TO YOU, YOU TREATED HIM LIKE HE WAS IN THE WAY

HE. FUCKING. TRIED! SEVERAL TIMES!

Then WHY DID YOU NOT SAY IT TO HIS FACE!?

Instead of just being all like “Well if you’ve made your decision I won’t stop you”

Then why the hell did you join!?

There it is, the parallel that strengthens the idea that his and Bashin’s situations are not the same, at least they’re not observing from the same point of view.

Kiano has betrayed J’s expectations, as J has betrayed Bashin’s.

Ah, so we’re now seeing his motivations for joining Thousupi Group, he wanted to create the Battle Spirits system, but I believe part of the deal he had with Elliott was that he would have to become a member of Numbers Elite if he was to gain the funding for it, Thousupi Group is very rich and extremely influential and so the backing of them was likely REQUIRED for the worldwide system to succeed.

He couldn’t communicate any of this to J because likely per his agreements, he couldn’t talk about it, Non-Disclosure Agreement and all that.

He knows its fucked that he has to do it, even though Thousupi Group have their own plans going on but that doesn’t mean J should join him in that hellish world, etc.

Jesus christ if the answer I’ve been screaming this entire time is even BASHIN’S direct conclusion then you know you’re a bad fucking Dad.

YOU HAVEN’T EVEN TRIED!

And secondly, what people want to hear and what people need to hear are VERY OFTEN 2 completely separate things.

And THIRDLY, you’re his Dad, you don’t need his permission or anyone else’s to talk to your son. Restraining Orders and Court Orders notwithstanding.

Bashin’s dad is called “Bashin Touha”

The world “Touha” in japanese means “Travelling on foot”

Apparently Kiano was well-affiliated with Touha, Battling him many times.

So Kiano has a Sister, fought with Bashin’s Dad often, there’s a generational parallel here.

Bashin does ask for details but Kiano believes that’s a question for Touha, not himself.

Which of course, Bashin exclaims isn’t possible because he’s on an adventure.

Which parallels nicely with the meaning of “Touha”, “Travelling on foot”, which can be interpretted as an Adventure.

I wonder if Kiano is just being supportive, or if he actually knows where Bashin Touha may have gone.

Kiano takes this opportunity to leave, claiming he now has a bit more “courage” to do the thing he was always going to have to do eventually, talk to his fucking son.

At this point, 3 of the 5 members of Numbers Elite don’t want to be Numbers Elite, Smile wants to take down Uchuuchouten, J is the same and Kiano’s doing so out of an agreement.

Elliott and Nine are the only one’s NOT part of the above and only because we have ZERO CLUE what their motivations actually are.

Oh hey, J, Meganeko and Striker did the smart thing and formed a study group.

Studying is much nicer when you have someone to do it with, it REALLY makes it a lot less of a chore.

Bashin’s optimistic, as per usual.

Aibou managed to… break into Meganeko’s house to check if Bashin was lying.

Welp, I suppose that works.

Bashin arrives home late and his Mother has a… well, angry tone about her.

Listen if you’re about to have the talk, then please do it offscreen

Ah, so Hayami’s offering to drive Bashin to Kyoto on that day so he can talk to J directly.

Striker gets to go too, so that’s cool.

You… have no way of verifying that it wasn’t just encouragement though.

When questioned Bashin justifies his reasoning by saying that Kiano and Touha have played a lot together a long time ago,

That’s… That’s not proof.

Hayami seems to take this as encouragement as opposed to actual proof.

But you gotta put on a brave face for the small 12 year old who is unaware of the horrors that is the world just yet.

Small plot tidbit that gets dropped when Bashin asks if Touha is strong.

So Hayami was taught to play the game by Touha.

Bitch she taught YOU how to play, she can’t be THAT bad.

Then again he did fail to get in through the prelims until she taught Striker, but Striker ALSO got High Rankers so she can’t be THAT bad.

Well, I guess we’re gonna scene-jump then-

…Well we jumped scene but that was unexpected… We’re getting new cards thrown at us.

A BS03 Master Rare with the “Dragon” and “Terra Dragon” families, Master Rares tend to take the form of extremely powerful cards or otherwise, non X-Rare bosses, this one isn’t quite up to par but its one of their earlier attempts at making a non X-Rare boss and isn’t meant to hold the power of an X-Rare.

Its got free destruction as part of it’s effect which is kind of interesting as well as being able to boost other spirits that only have a singular core on them, this unfortunately won’t help with cards like Dinohound who need 2 core to exist.

Oh fuck me PLEASE slow down.

The GrandBishop Levia is an interesting choice of destruction Spirit, its Cost 8 but has a pretty good destruction effect, blowing up anything with 3 or less core.

Also the random Spirit recovery when it defeats another Spirit at Level THREE which requires 7 whole core is… a bit costly and likely to never matter, you basically use this as a better DragonicFortress Giga, might have some Purple uses.

Foxin on the other hand just prevents your opponent using Magic more than once, its a good Yellow Counter as half of Yellow’s good plays are Magic Counters, it also means that players can’t dig well through their deck using Magic if they attempt to use cards like Storm Draw or Fourth Draw to draw huge amounts of cards in a single turn.

Godfrey on the other hand just makes you get ALL your Nexuses back, with Storm Draw not on the banlist just yet I can see this being broken REAL quickly, granted its balanced by the fact that this thing only gets its BP boost on BLUE nexuses but when you’re deploying a lot of Nexuses… The boost might not even matter.

Hayami is caught off guard by Diridalus, and then Bashin’s non-Red cards as Bashin seems to be playing a deck of Red and Blue.

We’ve seen Bashin use Non-Red cards with Royal Potion, but we’ve never seen him use Non-Red Spirits.

They explain each of the effects of Diridalus and Levia, which Bashin uses to clear Hayami’s board.

At this moment, he’s attacking with Diridalus.

Bashin then plays ANOTHER new card.

Its a slightly better Flame Dance for a guaranteed one extra cost.

Hayami’s feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the new cards being thrown at her all at once.

…Before going on to play her OWN new cards apparently!

Stop!

I won’t bother with images I’ll just describe what’s happening:

First off, all these cards are from BS03 so Hayami ALSO has new cards.

The StrawberryGirl Strawberi just refreshes a Light Spirit when she’s destroyed at Level 2.

Asc is a vanilla, and Surtr has Red and White Armor at all Levels while having Purple Armor at Level 2.

One day we’ll see Touha’s face, but that day is not this day.

Jack Knight’s chillin’ somewhere in the middle of the night while remembering that Hayami advised him to tell his feelings to Bashin.

Using Bashin’s Catchphrase to steel yourself for what you gotta do.

Seems they’ve selected a real relaxing venue for their chat.

Or so he claims but his last few appearances certainly don’t lend any fucking credence to that idea.

Kyouka and Miyako are apparently spying on the conversation from elsewhere, I guess this conversation really should involve all of them but having them as spectators works fine, they might muddy the waters by being there.

I guess we’re actually doing this, alright, time for the baggage to get unloaded.

Pretty simple, he concedes J’s belief and gives him the suggestion he feels appropriate.

Now we’re hagglin’

J doesn’t want his Dad to be part of Thousupi Group either, we know this given how much he protested his father going to see them and affiliating with Nazo-Otona.

Its a fair request, but uh, pretty sure Kiano’s bound by something other than himself.

You’re not going to get anywhere without making concessions Kiano.

This isn’t a good way of going about it, it only got this bad because you two failed to communicate, failing to let him understand why you’re doing what you’re doing is not going to make this any better.

Anyone who makes any kind of suggestion that even vaguely resembles the line “Do as I say, not as I do” is an idiot. Its not a good way to discipline anybody. J is acting out because Kiano is already appearing to be unreasonable, so J is trusting his own judgment, if you’re not going to even try to seem reasonable then you’ll just get nowhere.

This was pointless.

Kiano attempts another angle of attack, rather than try to concede a reason he doesn’t want to give for joining up with the Nazo-Otonas, he tries to appeal to J’s connections.

Good plan, doubt it will work when you’re the reason he even betrayed them.

The guy went out of his way to change the name he’d be referred to, so unsurprising this was going to occur.

Yadda yadda yadda we get it.

Either way there’s a fundamental problem here. Kiano has reasons for doing what he’s doing but won’t even bother to help J understand them, so J acts against him out of protest.

This situation basically isn’t going to resolve itself because we’ve got 2 parties who won’t concede to the other’s feelings.

So you end up with the STUPID situation of both being part of a group neither likes and each wanting the other one to leave.

J catches his mother and his sister spying on him.

J has a moment where he gets a very emotive expression that’s almost between rage and tears but composes himself and leaves.

Kyouka runs after him of course, being the closest to him out of his family while Miyako goes to check on her husband.

And the subber chose the most effective time to translate what was on the note J had, it was a letter of absence.

J is, or was planning to drop out of school entirely to devote himself to the Numbers Elite I guess? He’s left it here though so gosh knows what that means, either he’s decided to continue going to school or he’s decided against even bothering to notify them.

Not much else happens and we get to the end of the Episode!

Very emotionally compelling this one, or at least it was supposed to be, a lot of this episode’s “problems” can be easily assigned to Kiano just being impossible to reason with when it comes to his son.

The only thing he did differently this time around was actively ask his son to do something, got OBVIOUS push back and then refused to move from his position when J tried to negotiate, how the fuck did this guy secure ANY business deals while being that stubborn?

Just annoying.

Batosupi Lecture has nothing of interest today.

Anyway it appears we’ve gotten a crapton of BS03 stuff thrown out recently, still waiting on that last BS03 X-Rare that we’ve yet to see.

Guess we’ll see it soon-ish, see you next time.