Toppa Bashin – Episode 41

Going through these final episodes, in foresight, I thought it would be a situation of “Are we there yet”?

Though, in hindsight, now its more like “Finally!”

These next few episodes are likely going to detail the Team Battle between Shomen Toppa and Numbers Elite, and nothing is quite as enjoyable as watching a Dark version of a character duke it out in a fight, there’s lots of emotion in those and its usually all very cathartic.

Oh haha, this title actually makes me feel stupid.

I knew “Jack Knight” and “Queen” were face card references but I completely forgot that in those cards, you have 2 colours, Black and Red.

The Jack Knight is a Black Knight, but “Blackjack” is also a game played with cards.

And it also signifies ANOTHER thing, as with Poker, Jack Knight dons Black but his Ace is Red.

And even more of a comparison is that Bashin typically dons Red and is a Red user, and is being opposed by a person in Black. Even down to their new Aces, a Red Siegfried vs a Black Siegfried.

Lots of good Poker comparisons here, I love it.

Nice, we’re just getting RIGHT into this!

Interestingly, we don’t actually have much clue as to what decks Kyouka and Eight are using.

And there’s a mismatch in the numbers since Elliott’s went “Aight, ima head out” earlier.

We know Bashin vs Jack Knight is a complete shoe-in for a Match up, but I’ve got no idea who else is participating.

I think a revenge match between Striker and Smile would be appropriate, I’m not sure what would be next on the list however.

Numbers Elite would be smart to send out Seven who’s using a powerful Blue deck and is likely more competent a Battler than Kiano or Nine, but at the same time I don’t know who would be appropriate to battle him. Perhaps Eight given they’re each other’s replacements?

But at the same time Suiren has lost to Nine before so that’s also a good match up.

Naturally, Batosupi TV is up Jack Knight’s ass and he hasn’t lost a single game up to this point.

Oh damn I just realised, the Black Knight, as a trope, typically refers to a Knight without a Liege, kind of like a Ronin Samurai. Which is cool since he’s only doing all this to defeat the only person who’s a “King”, Uchuuchouten.

Only took 41 fuckin’ episodes.

The rest of the Numbers are hilariously insignificant to the goal of this battle, winning the championship is marginally irrelevant, all they want to do is crack Jack Knight’s Armor, so to speak.

As long as he’s unbeaten his path seems to be the right one, from his point of view, if they defeat him following a different path to the one he chose then it would suggest that he chose incorrectly.

Ah, so they’re doing the same method they did with the Order Plates, each one selects their order.

There’s a couple strategies you can use, typically it doesn’t actually matter because you only need to win any 2 but stress is a factor one needs to consider when selecting their order.

You could send your least confident out first, this relieves their stress because the first loss doesn’t mean its all over, but then it increases the stress of the 2 coming after it.

OR you send your strongest out first and get a quick win, they’ve got the least stress and perform well, and that will motivate and alleviate the stress of the next 2.

The best orders I’ve seen usually seem to be Second Strongest first, Weakest second, Strongest Third.

Seems we get our revenge match, its Striker vs Smile again.

That’s an interesting second game, I guess they put Kyouka in there just incase they made a fake out and sent out Jack Knight second, Kyouka also wants to face Jack Knight after all.

Nine being sent in there as opposed to Seven is weird but perhaps Nine wanted to participate so he could face off against Bashin, he does have an avid interest in him after all.

And of course, Jack Knight gets his third match against Bashin-

Or… not?

Apparently they pre-emptively said Number Eleven, expecting Jack Knight to play but instead KIANO’S on the board against Bashin.

…AHAHAHA, I GET IT.

Awww how did I not see this COMING!? Its so obvious!

We saw that Jack Knight called Bashin weaker than weak! And then later saw him resolve never to fight weak opponents again!

So of course when it comes down to the one opportunity Bashin gets to fight him, he elects not to be a part of the finals because he has no interest in taking on Bashin!

Ah I love it when gambits fail like this, the plan was entirely predicated on a specific assumption, that Jack Knight would be required by the numbers because he’s their strongest, but it doesn’t take into account that Jack Knight has the option of simply not taking part!

And if he doesn’t, well you’re kind of fucked because you can’t attempt to crack his armor if he never faces you in battle! Its such an interruption to the flow and it signifies just how far separated from the main character he’s become.

Ah and they add a small tidbit here which does 2 things, first it informs the slower members of the audience of what’s happening, this will remind them of Jack Knight’s earlier resolve.

Commentator-san AND the Crowd are in sheer uproar! The fact that the Strongest Battler is straight up picking and choosing his battles, and declaring his opponents weak before he’s even fought them publically is a big blow to his position.

I like catharsis but this kind of stuff is awesome, it doesn’t feel like its betraying the notion that Jack Knight should fight Bashin, it adds context to how much of an uphill battle that’s going to be when one side has no interest in entertaining the needs of the other, even to the extent of outright refusing to battle.

Bashin’s pretty chill about this all things considered, if Jack Knight is going to hide behind the other members of the Numbers Elite to avoid battling Bashin, then Bashin will simply just have to tear each and every other battler to pieces until Jack Knight is forced to fight him.

That’s the kind of motivation I adore.

Suddenly, and without warning, the Cornerstones respond.

It’s almost like they’re angry that one of them is separating itself from the others.

Nothing to do now than to simply play it out and deal with Jack Knight later.

Oh, Jack Knight actually has a reason for bowing out of the match, other than simply avoiding Bashin.

He’s actually using the opportunity while all the other members are on stage to hack into their system.

Problem: One of the members is still missing, Elliott.

Seems its analysis on the Isekai Dome. And yes its the “Isekaikai” dome. The repetition exists also in Japanese.

Unfortunately, everything auto-shuts down and the room is put into Red. Before Nine shows up.

We call that, meticulous villainy, the system has defense mechanisms for if members of the Numbers Elite act rogue.

This makes sense, given Five’s initial betrayal, this was likely to be a backup plan Thousand Spirits Group would employ, which would also give them the freedom to recruit potential rebels, Like Jack Knight, who notably hates the Nazo-Otonas, and Eight who is Five’s lover.

Oh that’s a surprise, Striker didn’t win his revenge match. That’s not stressful at all.

Now we have to rely on Kyouka to defeat Nine. I wonder how well Kyouka’s gonna play, and what deck she’ll use to do it.

Smile, you’re very cool and all but god I do wish we actually got to watch your recent battles.

I’m really not gonna lie to you, I have absolutely 0 idea what to expect out of Kyouka here.

I feel like having ANY opponent is a disadvantage, but yes, a regular participant like Nine who’s skilled with a Red Deck would be a pretty bad opponent for someone like Kyouka who’s never made it out of the Gunslinger.

Last we saw she didn’t even recognise basic math after charging an Angelafish into a Flame-Elk.

Let’s hope she’s a little better than that then, with her Blue Cornerstone.

Nothing like having a cordial conversation with the enemy. I guess Eight picked up Striker knew something when he failed to question her reaction to the Cornerstones.

There’s nothing really important here, Striker is just telling Eight that right now they’re friends and her affiliation with Numbers Elite doesn’t matter.

You can actually hear Bashin screaming “KYOUKAAAAAA” in the background, please for the love of god someone muzzle that thing.

There’s a lot of talking but not a lot of battling going on, on the upside we can see that Kyouka is actually using Blue.

She’s got a Bun-Ffalo and a Royal Potion in her hand though, not great.

Oh come on! At least show us how it happened! Prove to us she earned that win! Come on Card Game anime! Show us some fuckin’ Card Games!

Jesus christ the 2 filler episodes you wasted on an animal fight and Meganeko fighting Suiren could have been used on Smile’s battle with Striker and Nine’s battle with Kyouka.

Nine’s amusingly got a face of “Wait how the fuck did that happen”?

I wish I could answer that question Nine, I really do.

I will also say that watching Kyouka be happy about defeating Nine is something everyone should watch, Kyouka’s happiness is actually straight up good for the soul, I felt good watching her be happy about her victory.

It appears Nine is able to cope with his loss because he feels it was due to the Cornerstone’s power?

Whatever floats your boat, you still lost to a Girl who doesn’t have a shred of experience at this stage of the game.

It appears the entire event wants Jack Knight to take on Bashin and are more than happy to overlook a change in order if it means doing so.

They really want Jack Knight to come in place of Number Three don’t they?

He might be able to ignore Bashin but can Jack Knight ignore the world?

This is gonna be a fake out isn’t it?

Yep of course it is, Kiano turns up for his scheduled match, as any good businessman does.

I’m really not sure if there’s any real emotional need for Bashin to face Kiano here, but then again its entirely possible that is indeed the point.

Yep, that is a point, there’s no way Jack Knight doesn’t know that everyone came all this way here to face him and yet chose to waste their efforts just because he could.

Its also an interesting sense of unreasonableness. Card Games are how people talk in this show and discuss their differences, Jack Knight has done everything out of a… well, marginal sense of reason up until this point but choosing not to deal with them now could basically be seen as the equivalent of plugging his ears and talking loudly just so he doesn’t have to hear them.

Bashin, once again, straightforward

Right now Jack Knight doesn’t actually matter, he’s got a battle that needs to happen.

To be fairly honest you could just beat down his father and then call him out afterwards. The winner of the championship could hardly be called a “Weakling” under anyone’s standards, even if Jack Knight believes so.

Wait, the Crowd was deceived by Nine?

That’s… hm I’m not sure how I feel about that. Everything Jack Knight did makes sense in the context of his decision, it would be much more cathartic to have this be genuine on the part of Jack Knight and to have him respond because he has to rather than because he wants to.

Having this entire situation be brought about because Nine chose to do it and actually Jack Knight was willing to take on Bashin again is a bit… Well it betrays the previously established sentiments of Jack Knight here. Its not a good narrative move.

Oh, I jumped the gun too early, it was indeed Nine’s decision to change the order but it was done so based on Jack Knight’s wishes.

That makes sense, given Jack Knight was powerless to change the order earlier, they’re patching that narrative problem up, not creating a new one.

That’s fine by me, I’ll take it.

No reason to fight your friends when they’re not the enemy you wish to fight, at the very least.

Though its a bit belittling to refuse to even consider them opponents in the grand scheme of things, they’re being dismissed because they’re weak and won’t give Jack Knight any strength, not because Jack Knight feels they shouldn’t need to fight at all.

Kiano notes the irony of the fact that they’re doing battle with each other. Considering they don’t actually have any differences that need settling. Kiano is inspired by Bashin, he doesn’t wish to oppose him.

You can always count on Bashin to find a problem however, Bashin knows that since Jack Knight is still Jack Knight, that means that Kiano hasn’t been able to face him honestly.

And to that statement, Kiano has no answer.

So Bashin decides he’ll defeat him in place of Jack Knight, since Bashin was meant to be facing Jack Knight here.

Now that there’s a common point of conflict between the 2, they can face each other as they’re intended to be, enemies.

It appears Kiano has proven himself to be quite the dangerous competitor.

Kiano has a Lv2 Artifact Laguna, a Lv1 The Sacred Mjolnir and a Lv2 The Valkyrie-Hildr

Bashin however, has an empty field of Spirits.

Makes sense for Kiano to be playing White, he was only testing Blue against J last time, it was likely that J picked up his affinity for White from somewhere.

A full five lives.

And a turn count of 33? Come oooon.

Bashin plays a new card, DarkDinohound.

A Red Awaken Spirit from BS04, you rarely see them with Costs this low as well. Okayish statline for its Cost. And of course its a dark variant of Bashin’s old Dinohound.

Oh, and we even get a new Nexus, this one I’m familiar with too, The Seven Dragons’ Throne.

Remember those “Seven Dragons” Jack Knight mentioned when he first played Dark Siegfried? This is a support card that unites them under the banner of Red. But also fits nicely into Bashin’s deck as his ace card is an Ancient Dragon. He can play his Siegfried for a cost Cheaper and even blow something up when it hits the board.

Which he conveniently does, He’ll be blowing up a Spirit with 10000 or less BP now!

That’s a good hit, Hildr can’t be affected by Spirits or Magic, but this is a Nexus effect.

Bashin full attacks and Kiano reckons it would be a waste to block as they can both easily reach high BP through Awaken, so he takes both from the Life to maintain his Spirits. (5->3 vs 5)

Its now Kiano’s turn and he plays the IceBeast Mam-Morl at Lv2

Here it is, a rather nasty defensive X-Rare. Now he’ll be immune to ALL of Bashin’s Red, Purple and Green effects, but Bashin can still use Blue, Yellow and White to try and deal with it.

Kiano determines that his defense is perfect, and ends his turn.

Its a fucking X-Rare party up in here, Bashin plays The MobileFortress Castle-Golem at Lv2.

This is a pretty bad position to play it in though, you’ve only got 1 Nexus, and he’s the only Blue Symbol you’ve got…

Let’s see, in a 40 card deck on turn 35, Kiano would have had 17 Draw steps leaving him with 23 cards left in deck.

With this mill, he now has 18 left, he’s not in danger, but he IS in Titus range.

Your life is controlled by the number of Spirits you have to defend it with, and that’s something you can influence.

There is no such defense against Deck Destruction. Not yet anyway.

Bashin attacks with Castle-Golem which is blocked by Mam-Morl, Mam-Morl’s effect gives it +2000 BP but its only at Lv2, so its only got 11000 BP against Castle-Golem’s 12000.

Ah, I completely forgot about Laguna’s existence, Mam-Morl and Castle-Golem are infact tied at 12000 BP.

But in a battle of equal BP, all it takes is ONE Battle-booster to end it.

Cool as THAT sequence was, Castle-Golem is destroyed by Mam-Morl.

It appears good ol’ Jack Knight is feeling some kind of worry for Bashin’s plight here. Can’t change oneself that easily I guess.

Kiano plays another copy of The Sacred Mjolnir and a Dualcannon-Bell

Kiano then plays Attack Shift, effectively turning Mam-Morl’s effect into an Offensive Aura for this turn.

I don’t think using a Cost 8 X-Rare and a Cost 7 White Magic to do what a Cost 4 Red Magic can do by itself is the flex you think it is Kiano.

At least in this case he paid the same cost as he would have for an Offensive Aura in this deck, and he at least has more variance with Attack Shift than running said Offensive Aura so I’ll give him a pass.

The problem is Bashin’s capacity to counter, he can’t respond with Red, Purple or Green effects.

I guess Laguna being at Lv2 helps as well, given they all have an additional +1000 BP on top of that.

Kiano’s playing a very power oriented strategy. Giving his strong vanillas armor and BP to make an insurmountable wall.

Bashin takes lives from Dualcannon-Bell and Laguna, (3 vs 5->3)

Bashin uses Awaken to level up his DarkDinohound to Lv3 using all but 1 of Siegfried’s Core, and then destroys an attacking Mjolnir.

Bashin does the same with Siegfried on the 2nd Mjolnir.

Bashin has to eat this last attack from Mam-Morl (3 vs 3->2)

I wonder if Kiano has a Pure Elixir hiding away somewhere. A Full attack at this point wasn’t going to completely defeat Bashin.

Meganeko makes a note that all of Kiano’s Spirits are exhausted, and Bashin has 2 Spirits, 1 more and Kiano’s 3 lives are in danger.

I am INCREDIBLY certain that Kiano is holding onto a Pure Elixir or a White Poition.

It ain’t Bashin Toppa if he isn’t using Double Draw.

It STILL isn’t Bashin Toppa if it isn’t resulting in him drawing an X-Rare either.

DarkGoradon is like an easier to handle Dinohound, a Cost 2 Reptile Beast from BS04.

Siegfried and TwinRowdy Diranos make a good tag team as TwinRowdy Diranos existing powers up Siegfried. Granting him +1000 BP.

Apparently Bashin predicted that Kiano had a Pure Elixir remaining in his hand.

This is what WE call Metagaming, Bashin mentions earlier that he was informed about Mam-Morl, so it makes sense that he would have modified his deck to include it’s most effective out, Dream Ribbon.

Eat shit, shitlord.

…In the most literal way possible, yeah I guess?

They’re REALLY milking Double Hearts as a game-ender here aren’t they? I don’t think I’ve seen a Red-user go without it.

…How do you plan to do that?

Der Ring des Nibelungen?

That’s another new Magic from BS04.

The first case of named support for the “Sieg” series. A Cost 3 Magic, its quite situational in use since it depends on your opponent’s deck makeup, but if you catch them out with Spirits in the same family, Der Ring des Nibelungen can quickly wipe out an entire formation.

Dualcannon-Bell and The Artifact Laguna share the Android Family, so they’ll both be wiped out. And Bashin has 3 remaining attackers.

Dualcannon-bell is defeated, and thanks to the effect of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Artifact Laguna is destroyed for sharing its “Android” family.

The first directly named support card I believe, at least that we’ve seen on this show.

Bashin full attacks with his remaining 3 Spirits, winning him the game.

And with that victory, Team Shomen Toppa are Kyoto Champions, and the Champions of the first Team-based Tournament.

Kiano seems to believe Bashin is capable of “reaching his father” but we don’t know what that means because we don’t actually know how strong Bashin’s dad is, he hasn’t appeared on screen to battle and there are no specific feats to base his strength off of that he’s known for.

Kiano doesn’t seem strong based on his appearance and generally how he carries himself but he is known to be an excellent player as detailed by J’s own prowess and J’s Aunt being his battle partner.

So Kiano’s competence in this sequence, while it seems a bit off for a big-chinned man in a business suit, is warranted.

I mean, how? Numbers Elite still make the domes and host the events? I’m not sure how Team Shomen Toppa winning here makes an actual difference.

Unless its because this is the first time the Numbers Elite were participating as a Team instead of individually and therefore their individual losses meant less than their collective one today.

Apparently Announcer-chan believes that until Jack Knight loses they aren’t true Champions but I’m pretty sure Jack Knight squandered that chance when he chose not to fight a “weak” opponent.

Most people would be thinking he was a coward right about now.

At this moment they receive a comment from Jack Knight.

Which says what Commentator-san says right here, apparently.

That could be interpretted in many ways but I assume its meant to mean that Jack Knight is conceding they were the better team.

The Crowd Boos at this development and even Bashin’s unhappy.

Nothing like a good ol’ fashioned public callout to REALLY get our feathers rustling.

I wonder if Bashin will call him weaksauce, throw an insult, taunt him into appearing?

Or say the equivalent of “THAT’S COOL, SEE YOU NEXT TIME”.

Of course he does follow up with what he actually means, which is “Waiting til next time to see the strongest is fine, but that’s not what I came here to do, I came here to kick Jack Knight’s ass”

So Bashin declares that he wants to fight Jack Knight, publically, and as the Champion he’s effectively the strongest person in the room.

There are some challenges you just can’t ignore, Jack Knight wouldn’t be much of anything if he turned this down.

Smile REALLY revels in being a Heel, enjoying the idea that they’ll be disappointed.

Except Jack Knight actually gets up to go battle.

Like I said, at some point you’d be a coward for not responding to a challenge, this isn’t a “Schoolyard Taunt” that can be dismissed its an open declaration of War.

Jack Knight has a very “Alright, let’s get this over with” approach, he’s not even seeing Bashin in this situation as anything other than a minor nuisance.

Wait what? Before Jack Knight can leave something ELSE happens.

A Call for Jack Knight to battle Bashin has been answered by apparently non-other than fucking Uchuuchouten.

Okay I did not anticipate that.

We don’t know much about Uchuuchouten, other than 2 things: He wants the Cornerstones for some purpose and is using the Isekai Domes to gather them.

And 2. He abhors those who are unwilling to fight, expressed when Five objected to being called to battle. He’s expressing in just a few words that he’s COMPLETELY aware of Jack Knight’s purpose as a member of the Numbers Elite and is providing him an incentive to face Bashin with something more than just half-assed resolve.

He’s giving him what he wants, the opportunity to face him.

Nine clearly didn’t anticipate this, Uchuuchouten’s acting entirely outside of what his own members were expecting.

Jack Knight has had his position changed, he’s gone from Battling because he feels he should to battling because he has no other choice.

When you want to provide the incentive for someone to face you. The best way to do it, is to stand in the way of what they want.

Right now Jack Knight stands in the way of Bashin getting back his friend, and Bashin stands in the way of Jack Knight reaching Uchuuchouten.

It’s gonna be good, they’ll spare no expense trying to tear each other apart to get what they’re after.

And that’s the end of the episode!

I don’t have much to say, there’s a lot of high emotion going on right now and I like nothing more than passionate, hot-blooded battles.

There’s a sense of catharsis with feelings so resonant that fucking Uchuuchouten, a guy we simply do not see do anything responded to the notion of those 2 Battlers being the absolute strongest.

His silence, while I don’t think is narratively compelling for him being a villain, is extremely powerful, very little stirs him, so when he IS stirred, the impact is astonishing.

Its a very “Oh shit, this entire situation actually made him do something!“

It’s good build up, and it makes his otherwise completely immovable nature get put into a little more context and used to powerful effect. I will actually forgive the prior crimes Uchuuchouten committed by being inactive just because of how they made adequate use of his inactivity by making him move here.

The Batosupi lecture details the Der Ring des Nibelungen and Seven Dragon’s Throne Combo in support of Bashin’s Siegfried. And makes the adequate note that anything Siegfried is capable of, The DarkDragonEmperor can make MUCH more effective use of.

Its an interesting problem for Bashin to solve, how does he win with Siegfried when the opponent quite clearly wields, in all sense of the word, a better one?

Its a question we’ll happily get answered next episode, I can’t wait! Jack Knight vs Bashin! Let’s go!