Toppa Bashin – Episode 45

Last episode? What last Episode?

Let’s… uh… Let’s not discuss last episode if we can, for both our sakes.

And this episode title is doing a fine job of telling me absolutely nothing.

So we’re going to have to gauge what the point of it is from the actual scenes we see.

Seems it might be a Meganeko centric episode if we’re seeing both Nanarin AND her Grandfather with her.

And some fucko with a basket on their head arrives. We only know one person that’s decided to pull that.

Yup, its the ol’ Buddhist Chief from the Temple.

Though Grandpa doesn’t look to be too off his guard based on his expression here.

Its an old man stand-off, now what needlessly comedic thing are we going to use to break this tension?

For reference this likely isn’t going to translate well in English because the guy is asking for a Nexus with 11 Japanese characters which are basically just syllables.

Grandpa’s got a NAME, and its Otonashi Kitan.

Also is this the first time we’ve seen Kitan even make eye contact with Batosupi as a topic? I don’t think there have been any other instances of Grandpa even so much as being in the same room as someone mentioning the card game.

Ah seems they’re ol’ friends, and I forgot we just call the old man “Priest”

I mean, is it? He has to get supplies from SOMEWHERE

And secondly does that constitute a mountain? It’s more like a hill.

I’m cherrypicking, sorry, waiting for them to get to the point and don’t want to miss anything relevant.

This guy is a Nazo-Otona, you know this guy, he came with the Basket on his head and asked you about Battle Spirits cards.

I’m pretty sure its FAIRLY certain that they don’t want to look for a fuckin’ book.

It seems Kitan is well-acquainted with Number Eight, does that mean that Card Sensei got on well with Meganeko’s family for similar reasons, as he was Number Five?

You know what, I actually saw that coming. You don’t exactly get well-acquainted with other numbers any other way.

By process of elimination that seems to suggest to me that the Priest we’ve seen here, acting as a Nazo-Otona, could be the missing Number Six.

But I’ve got no way to verify that.

Bashin gives a pretty fair 2-sentence summary of the goals of the Thousand Spirits group established 2 episodes ago.

It’d be effectively the equivalent of introducing a metric fuckton of species to the planet all that once, the ecosystem would quite literally just crumble from their attempts at living there.

There’s a lot of fluff about “Oh hey bad shit will happen but we can do it”, so I’m just going to ignore it, there’s nothing interesting to parse among it.

Then why has Meganeko, Bashin nor anyone else ever heard of him? There’s got to be records of his feats somewhere.

Card Games is not something you simply retire from.

Limelights on the other hand, understandable, plus being a member of Thousand Spirits Group IS an occupation.

That’s uh… certainly an accomplishment, however strong Uchuuchouten is, it was Kitan here, Meganeko’s father that made him that strong.

It seems the Priest and Eight wish to have Kitan defeat Uchuuchouten, believing him to be the best chance at doing so as that powerful battler was Kitan’s student.

Well that isn’t going to be awkward, Meganeko’s now seen her Grandfather conversing with the Nazo-Otonas, that makes it highly likely she’s going to interrogate him.

So, Meganeko vs Number Ten then?

That’s a bit of a weird question, that would need to imply the existence of a previous generation of Cornerstone holders that weren’t those guys.

And that doesn’t answer the fucking question.

Also Kitan really just took Nanarin with him huh?

…Wait a hot minute, is that what he’s actually suggesting? The old man had a huge Cornerstone-like object that reacted to Striker’s Cornerstone when he approached it. Is it possible there WAS actually a previous generation of Cornerstone holders?

That would suggest the Priest is infact the previous Green Chosen Battler.

Nice to re-explain what the Cornerstones actually do to us despite us being on Episode Forty-fucking-Five

Though WHY the Cornerstones exist has actually yet to be touched upon, they do exist, and we know Thousand Spirits Group wants their power, but we have absolutely 0 idea where they came from or what their criteria for selection is, and what they’re actually meant to achieve by connecting Isekai and Earth.

Meganeko is left with the impossibly easy puzzle of solving why the Priest and Eight might have been conversing with her Grandfather.

To be honest, she’s jumping to occam’s razor first (the simplest answer is usually the correct one), which is a pretty good place to start from.

Also reasonable, they didn’t exactly leave with any books, and then Kitan proceeded to leave with them, so its evident they were acquainted in some way other than as a customer.

You’re telling me the guy just kept a whole ass photo of himself with King Uchuuchouten in a random ass book left on the front desk of the Library?

Like ANYONE could have fucking seen that if they just dropped the books like Meganeko did just now.

There are CARDS among them!

And before you ask, no we don’t get to see it, Meganeko just has this surprised look on her face for the sake of suspense which will get happily resolved when the show deigns to do so.

Kitan’s heading to the Isekai Dome where Uchuuchouten resides.

Its just occurred to me that we’ve already seen Nine and his new army, that’s going to be a bit of a problem for one old man to get through.

Apparently Nine is giving off SUCH bad vibes that Nanarin is quite literally growling at him.

Kitan seems to correct Nine by suggesting that he’s actually here to talk to Nine, and not Uchuuchouten.

I suppose it doesn’t really matter who he talks to, Nine also wishes to control Thousupi Group and achieve similar goals anyway. Just usurping the power for himself rather than leaving it for Uchuuchouten.

Nine’s office is now blood red. He’s… uh, a little obsessed with that colour isn’t he?

Is that his derangement manifesting as a fascination on Bashin’s colour? Or is it like an actual blood thing?

This is a twofold statement, we know he wants to use them for sheer evil, but we don’t know what his end goal other than “The evulz” is, and we don’t know what’s motivating him to take that route.

I’m not liking that offer he’s making.

So Kitan “Taught” Nine the meaning of the Cornerstones?

I guess this has something to do with how Numbers Elite was formed, and what it was originally meant for.

That doesn’t even make sense?

He might as well have said “Yeah? Well that’s just… like, your opinion man”

Nothing like getting all up close and personal to REALLY ensure that basically saying he’s too “Old” to do anything about the problem sinks deep.

He is indeed rich considering he lives on a personal yacht with servants to tend to his culinary needs among other things.

And he’s definitely not stupid, he was able to keep up with the Numbers Elite and additionally outwit Suiren.

You have got to be kidding me, this can’t be a fucking temper tantrum he’s throwing at the world because he’s unlucky?

Unlucky in what sense? What fucking coin toss did he lose SO BADLY that he felt the need to go this far?

There’s some other commentary about the changing of eras being more of series of fluctuations than a standard process, but its also a backhanded way of saying “Even if I won’t do something, the next person will take my place, and you are always replaceable” kind of thing.

At least that’s the vibe I’m getting from Kitan here.

I’m not sure how this statement is relevant to the last one but sure thing whatever floats your boat.

Just casually confirming he’s aware of Eight’s involvement with Kitan’s sudden arrival. Not a good look for her when she pops back in for her next shift, if she even turns up at all given she’s probably making up for lost time with Card Sensei.

As soon as Kitan leaves Nine’s face cracks. Geez that mention of him having no luck REALLY got to him.

Well now we have uh… SOME context as to what might be driving him so god damn far up the wall. Something that’s given him an extreme awareness of his own poor luck.

Yep, Eight’s not going to be able to stick around, she basically has a giant target on her back now that likely what she has remaining of her cover has been blown clean off by Kitan’s arrival.

Gotta take a leaf out of Five’s book I suppose.

What’s kind of annoying about this line is that they haven’t elaborated on what exactly she’s searching for. I’m guessing a way to help stop Thousupi Group? But what kind of form would that take?

I have absolutely 0 idea why you feel the need to put that basket on your head but whatever floats your boat old man.

That’s never a good question, its so oddly specific that if someone bothers to ask it from you they’re either EXTREMELY insecure…

Or they found something to suggest that the answer might be “Yes”

I like how she’s all serious, “I found a new card I’ve never seen before, and you with the main antagonist”

And the guy’s all just like “You want it? Its yours, go nuts”

Like THAT’S NOT THE PROBLEM.

That’s a funny exchange. “You used to play?” “Gurl what made you think I stopped?“

Behold, the ultimate card game equivalent of “Fuck around and find out”

Also this guy just had a whole ass mechanical battle system installed INTO his store with a switch designed to make use of it… Long before the NEW battle system was developed by Kiano.

If he could even afford that, his inheritance is going to leave Meganeko richer than J.

I’m skipping a lot of frames but its a lot of fluff anyway, to summarise the situation, Kitan wants to see how much Meganeko has “Grown”, deciding that she needs to have some level of maturity before he can trust her with the information of his own past as Number Ten of the Thousand Spirits Group.

Meganeko of course, wants that secret, so this is basically like a “Passing the baton” test, since its evident that there was indeed a previous generation of Battlers, one that consisted of Kitan, the Priest, Uchuuchouten, Bashin Touha, Nine, Kiano and J’s Aunt.

I am unsure which of those held Cornerstones besides the Kitan and the Priest, based on the Priest’s shrine and his suggestive statement to Kitan.

We’re at Turn 29, and strangely we’re not getting a Field preview right before the action, we’re getting it as it occurs.

For example here, Meganeko summons Valiero and only then do we get to see what else is on her board.

A Lv2 Arcanabeast-Ken and a Lv1 Arcanabeast-Hart.

BS04 card, so nothing completely new, low end BP for its level but it otherwise has a low need to get to Lv3 and boosts all the “Arcana” Spirits, of which Meganeko has Ken as well on the board.

Ken provides the same effect when blocking, so they’re a good duo together.

Back to the game, Valiero activates its effect when summoned.

Bringing back ANOTHER new card we’ve yet to see before, Puppet String.

How interesting, Meganeko’s deck seems to have shifted to an “Arcana” named one. Puppet String is a Magic that grants all your Yellow Spirits the “Magician” family and even the “Arcana” name, and its a Cost 2 card with 2 reductions meaning you can actually use it for free.

This is a card from BS03? Seems pretty good, its not seeing use today but there are probably niche uses for it.

Meganeko immediately activates it, effectively trading in Valiero’s effect on summon in order to allow it to receive “Arcana”-named effects.

Levelling up Hart, the attack boost is now live.

And suddenly we have a strong attack AND a strong defense, Valiero’s traits won’t last after this turn though so a 10000 BP swing here doesn’t sound too bad.

Kitan is shown to be at 4 lives at the beginning of this attack, Arcanabeast-Hart and Ken attack which he takes from the Life, reducing him to 2.

I’m not sure if he’s pre-empting this or if Meganeko goes along with it before her next play.

That explains it, thank you, they’re just jumping the gun for the sake of speed, Valiero attacked and was blocked by BlackMachG, during flash timing Meganeko played Flock Recovery which lets her declare a family and refresh 3 spirits in that family.

So she chose “Magician” and refreshed all her Spirits.

Before the destruction of BlackMachG however, Kitan plays Silent Wall, which prevents Meganeko from attacking further.

As Valiero is a Spirit with Light, Flock Recovery returns to her hand at the end of Valiero’s Battle, which will let her pull that bullshit a second time later.

Yeah, Light is pretty nasty, allowing you to flat out re-use powerful magic as much as you like, the main problem is that the Spirits that have it are INCREDIBLY frail, and as a result can be dealt with easily, Light spirits can find themselves incapable of attacking if faced with an enemy Spirit that outfights them.

At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire world new.

The fact that you need a constant blood pressure monitor at all implies that there is something VERY wrong with Kitan’s ability to handle his own blood pressure.

Pressing that usually isn’t a good idea.

Also I caught a glimpse of Kitan’s field, it appears to consist of a BlackMachG and a MachG, I am uncertain if the BlackMachG is a leftover from Valiero’s attack though.

Kitan is distinctly playing a Green deck, interesting. You’d think he’d be a Yellow player.

Then again back when Kitan was Number Ten Yellow likely didn’t exist.

Oh, look at that, a fun new card!

The SaberTiger Xen-Fu, a Cost 7 Spirit from BS05. Its on summon effect can catch an opponent out when they have low core, a more proactive player will see it as an opportunity to mix Xen-Fu with purple to facilitate that effect. Reaching Lv2 isn’t difficult with 3 Core, and it can gain a hefty amount of BP if you’re heavy focused on a Swift build, given that none of Meganeko’s spirits have 1 Core on them, its likely that Kitan is wielding a Green Swift deck.

…Even so, Xen-Fu’s effect When summoned activates.

Arcanabeast-Ken, for some reason, and a Bug-Lestia we haven’t seen before now are exhausted.

My Guess is Meganeko paid for that flock recovery using Arcanabeast-Ken’s core.

Its followed up by Binding Thorn, now Kitan can exhaust one other spirit.

Valiero’s the target, so that leaves Hart refreshed on Meganeko’s board.

…Come again? We’re getting ANOTHER Tribute spirit?!

And that’s depressing, when Bug-Lesia was tributed in Striker’s dream, the particle effects for its Tribute were Green which matched the card, I thought they’d keep that part consistent given it was White for Thor.

Ah well what does it matter, look at this giant black SHELL KNIGHT.

You haven’t seen what Kitan called it since I skipped that frame in this blog, so I’ll name it for you, this is The Emperor Kaiseratlas

Another BS04 Clad-In-Black X-Rare like DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried, this is The Emperor Kaiseratlas. Its rather simple, he’s got a Tribute Condition of 6 or more, The core of which require sending to the Void, a Lv2 BP of 9000 (not huge) and a Double Symbol.

Its low power has a Trade off though, if it DOES defeat something while at Lv2, it’ll snatch 2 lives off the opponent. A more powerful victory life burn than even Kingtaurus.

With this you can remove problem spirits AND take lives.

We interrupt this battle to bring you what appears to be an additional functionality of Kitan’s battle system, Skype.

Surpriiiise! Meganeko’s parents aren’t dead, they’re just away from home!

And it appears they’re aware of Kitan’s high blood pressure, so they get pinged anytime it rises over a certain amount I guess.

Also they’re in africa, how nice.

Ah fuck the worried old lady, Battle time!

Kaiseratlas attacks which Meganeko blocks with Hart, this is bad for the reasons I literally just explained.

Hart’s destruction causes Meganeko to lose 2 lives, now we know the score is currently 2 to 3, in favor of Meganeko.

Ah, It didn’t occur to me that the Mother wouldn’t have known that Meganeko got into Battle Spirits.

Oh, is that a name drop? Meganeko’s name is Fumiko.

So her name is Otonashi Fumiko? That’s a pretty nice name.

Speeding right along because Meganeko’s mother is about as interesting as last episode, MachG and Xen-Fu attack, taking 2 lives from Meganeko.

Machfly can still attack, and Meganeko lacks blockers. She DOES have that Flock recovery left in her hand though.

Machfly attacks and Meganeko plays Flock Recovery, declaring “Divine Spirit” to allow Valiero to block, and Machfly don’t stand no chance against an 8000 BP X-Rare.

Meganeko starts to lose faith and her parents decide to do the thing they’re SUPPOSED to do by DEFAULT and be supportive.

Meganeko plays a 2nd Arcanabeast-Ken and Pom onto her field at their highest levels.

While Ken’s effect is pointless here, at least Pom will award “Clown” family and +1000 BP.

The ArcAngelia Valiero is then offerred as a Tribute.

For THIS cool customer! A new X-Rare from BS05!

And its quite the nasty customer, its got the lowest power we’ve seen at highest level for a Tribute Spirit but that doesn’t matter once you read the effect. Rean’s capable of bouncing an opposing spirit for every Nexus they own, and can’t be blocked by any Spirit with printed effects as long as you control 3 Cost 2 Spirits.

It’s the first boss card for the “Cost 2” Gimmick Yellow has, and probably quite simple to pull off, none of it’s effects demand any prior set up, and an unblockable double symbol is quite scary.

It’s not used today, Tribute Spirits are extremely outdated and have been phased out of use for, well, ages.

But you could catch someone off guard with it, as players very seldom use cards that don’t have printed effects.

There are newer card types however that will catch this thing out if its forced to face it however.

The card quite literally blazes onto the field so we don’t get a good look at it.

This is what we call providing an opportunity to explain the effect.

Now if I recall correctly, I believe all of these have Printed effects.

Meganeko responds with “Build up” which we technically haven’t reviewed before?

Its a simple Blue card, simply treats a Spirit as if it were a single level higher. Several reasons why you might want to do this, BP increase, lack the core to raise its level normally and need to do so NOWISH, or to turn on effects when it is LEAST convenient for your opponent.

Since Rean is now Lv3 and Meganeko controls 3 cost 2 spirits (2 Arcanabeast-Kens and a Pom), Rean is now unblockable.

Without a valid spirit to block, Kitan takes 2 lives, losing him the game.

In the heat of the moment, Meganeko declares this, effectively a confession of love, shame the object of that affection isn’t here.

She tries to save face by saying she didn’t mean it but then corrects herself because she doesn’t want to suggest that her feelings aren’t genuine.

Its kind of adorable.

…Hm, admitting that you want to be Bashin’s Wife infront of your Grandfather and Mother is definitely going to lead to a couple days holed up in your room alone from sheer embarrassment.

I’d find that embarrassing and I’m a 24 year old with a fully healthy relationship, imagine how that feels for a 13 year old girl.

She’s brought back home by the statement Kitan makes that she just defeated Number Ten of the Numbers Elite.

Oh there could be ANY NUMBER of stock reasons for it. “Didn’t want you to think less of me”, “If I told you, you’d fight”, “Didn’t want you to get involved”

For an old timer, Kitan is very anti-nostalgia, even now he’s only really looking forward in time and doesn’t generally look backwards.

Which appears to be why he chose not to yield his past to Meganeko, he just didn’t think it was relevant.

Ah, Kitan wasn’t just a Cornerstone holder, he was the FIRST battler to hold one. That contextualizes his strong opinions of their usage then, he likely feels some responsibility in defining what they are meant for.

Wait, Nanarin gained the ability to allow Kitan to open the gate when he received his Cornerstone many years ago?

Um…

Wouldn’t that make Nanarin an INCREDIBLY old dog?

Does being a Cornerstone Pet make you immortal?

Forward-thinking all the way to a fault that led him to fail to yield somewhat useful information to his own Grandaughter.

Well actually if he came out with it outright he’d likely be relied upon, and he’s of the opinion their descendants will carry on, so there wasn’t a necessary need.

Since Uchuuchouten is Kitan’s student, the main cast, which is to say, the “oncoming generation” is technically facing the past generation, which comprise the Numbers.

I don’t think you need to tell him of all people, he’s a wise old man, he’s not going to willingly yield that information-

Unless of course he says it in his sleep in which case can you really blame him?

Nah, interestingly based on the context of his sleeptalk he says “Don’t give up, she’ll be your bride”, and given that Meganeko’s last name is “Otonashi” that means her surname hasn’t changed from the last generation. Which would imply that her father’s name is still “Otonashi”

Long story short, Kitan is dreaming about encouraging his son when it came to Meganeko’s mother.

Meanwhile Eight appears to have ONCE AGAIN, gotten lost.

At this point just take Card Sensei with you, he’s got a much better sense of direction than you have. Maybe he’ll get you a Car Navi for your birthday.

Or maybe if she’s feeling nice Hayami will lend you Papa Navi.

…Or none of this will actually matter because one of Nine’s masked goons has arrived.

This isn’t ominous at all!

And that’s the end of the episode!

Well, how do I put this, it wasn’t exactly filler because it filled in certain pieces of information about the Numbers Elite without actually progressing the plotline much.

From what I can gauge, the Numbers Elite still existed as powerful Battlers and many of those Numbers Elite held Cornerstones, Kitan being the first wielder of one. Kitan trained somebody who eventually became King Uchuuchouten, and taught Nine how the Cornerstones worked.

And that’s basically it, other than Kitan was therefore acquainted with the other members of Numbers Elite.

The Batosupi Lecture today covers Meganeko’s new X-Rare from BS05, The PhantomLord Rean, I already discussed its current usage rates and how strong it actually is so I’m uncertain what else I might of missed.

Yeah there’s nothing really much for me to talk about, I guess we could go on about what a good strategy for gathering Tribute Spirits is.

The thing about Tribute spirits is that its an enforced deckmakeup, your deck needs to contain valid targets for its Tribute otherwise the card is always a brick, we’ve seen Bug-Lesia used for tribute twice, and I’d hazard on the side of “Bug-Lesia is a bad Tribute target”

Its Cost 6, yes, has high power, indeed but its so poor for Tribute fodder because you have to pay a lot of core to put it on the board and just HOPE the high BP sticks, or you could not do that and play cheaper cards.

You’re allowed to Tribute when summoning for no cost, so actually for Kaiseratlas, the best Tribute target is The OldSage Trenton when summoning Kaiseratlas through the effect, Kaiseratlas will be summoned for no cost but you still have to offer up Trenton as Tribute.

For Rean I would argue The BalloonMan Barball makes a good tribute target due to its generous reductions allowing it to be played very very cheaply. Which means you can likely follow up into a Rean in perhaps even the same turn.

Those are just my thoughts on Tribute in general, and try to never emulate Jack Knight with the way he wields Tribute, because jesus christ is his deck just crazy bad for the card he’s running.

Anyway, I’ll see you guys next time! 5 episodes remain!