Gekiha Dan – Episode 1

When watching TV, make sure you’re in a well lit room, and don’t sit too close to the screen, okay?

The Otherworld Witch, Magisa

After the sheer horror that was Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa Bashin-

Actually, I’ll stop myself, Toppa Bashin is not bad, I’ll caveat the start of this series by expressing something I find very important. Internal consistency. If the events of your story are at odds with established facts of the story itself, it’s going to annoy me, and Toppa Bashin did that a lot, if I ignore the problems with it’s Internal consistency, it’s a good show.

Let’s enter Gekiha Dan on a good note, shall we?

This is Battle Spirits Shounen Gekiha Dan, translates roughly to “Battle Spirits Clash Boy Dan”, what you’ll notice about this series is that the title is structured VERY similar to the previous series, I don’t believe that is an accident as the story of this series echoes the sentiments of the previous one, the plot of this series MIRRORS the original so intently that it can almost be considered a spiritual re-do of Toppa Bashin.

And it does an excellent job of pulling it off, if you like Toppa Bashin, Gekiha Dan is simply of higher quality, in almost every way.

That is not to say you SHOULD like Gekiha Dan more than Toppa Bashin, there are ways certain characters are handled that you may prefer in Toppa Bashin OVER Gekiha Dan, but I believe looking at in a structural kind of way than a preference kind of way, I do believe Gekiha Dan is better.

You’re going to hear me compare this to Toppa Bashin a LOT because I believe fully understanding Gekiha Dan’s awesomeness is seeing how it parallels with it’s predecessor. Because there are LOTS of parallels.

Also, this show first aired in September 13th, 2009. As of right now we only have cards up to BS05, and notably, a Structure Deck. But I’ll get into that when its relevant.

With that, I’ll do something I didn’t do last time while the opening plays, I’ll actually introduce the characters that appear within it.

The reason I am doing this is because a majority of them appear very quickly in THIS episode in fact, I would have to introduce them anyway.

I am currently watching this using an alternative player to Youtube, but the Subs appear to almost be a 1:1 match with Soaker’s, its reasonable to believe these are Soaker’s subs. Glad to have you back, Soaker!

Anyway, as you can see from this, we once again have a Red-headed main character, except where Bashin was evidently a bright orange ginger, this character’s hair is a deep RED kind of ginger.

Eat your heart out, Tenth.

Anyway, enough joking around, this is our main protagonist, and as will be a theme in most series, our designated RED player. Bashin Dan.

Yeah you heard that right, he shares Bashin’s surname, the most obvious of parallels in this series, though rather than go by “Bashin”, he goes by “Dan”. However unlike the previous series, this anime, within it’s own universe assigns “Titles”, much like how a Spirit may be the “GiantHero” or the “DragonEmperor”, individual battlers may be known by titles that signify their playstyle. Dan’s title is “The Clash King”

Clash huh? I wonder where we’ve heard that word before?…

The next in our squad is our designated Yellow Player, he seems to combine the role of Card Sensei AND Striker. This is Clackey Ray, also known as “The Noble Youth of Light”, the reason why he appears to combine both Striker and Card Sensei’s roles is that he seems to have many of Card Sensei’s vices and interests, while being condensed in the role of being the Main character’s best friend.

Our third battler, our designated Purple player is, once again a girl. This is “Viole Mai” and she lacks a title due to not needing one, as she’s once again very popular in this series much like My Sunshine was in her own, reasons for which will be explored later.

Acting as our designated Blue player, and seeming to take on many of Seven’s traits from the previous series, this is Hideto Suzuri, though rather than taking on an alter ego for confidence like Galaxy, Suzuri finds solace in card collecting, maintaining his outward personality rather than masking it.

By the pattern of the opening, this is our designated Green-user, Momose Kajitsu. Besides her familial status matching that of the previous series, she is entirely unique and doesn’t parallel anything from the previous series.

This guy on the other hand, DOES, this is Momose Yuuki. You read that correctly, he is the older brother of Kajitsu, and our designated White Player, you’ll notice that the background isn’t matching the symbol of these two, that’s an interesting point of foreshadowing their present role as “Not like the others”

Fair point of warning however, there’s going to be a bit of a controversial topic surrounding these two which I will analyse with as much maturity as I can muster, just… in advance please know I don’t condone what these two characters are trying to do.

As a sidenote, once again, the designated White Player is of course, the Rival to the main character. Though given his regal and grandiose appearance he definitely looks to be far more competent than Dan right from the outset.

But that is our main cast of 6 designated coloured battlers, Battle Spirits often takes this format of “A Battler for each colour” when designing a cast.

Anyway, the opening for this is “Battle No Limit!”, one of their better openings.

And already we have our first parallel, a lot of this show makes mention of “The Otherworld” or “Ikai”, this is the equivalent of Toppa Bashin’s “Isekai”, which kind of just means the same thing.

“Kai” and “Sekai” seem interchangeable for “World”

6 Lights huh, wonder where we’ve seen THAT before.

You don’t say.

In this case, “Ikai” is quite literally in reference to what the world is, and in this case is given a name, “Grand Lolo”

Yes, this IS in reference to that “Wanderer Lolo” Nine mentioned in the previous series.

It appears during this monologue, an unrecognizeable Red Dragon is battling an equally unrecognizeable White Knight.

Not sure about you but the Dragon looks like it’s winning.

Here’s our first title, “Clash! ThunderEmperorDragon Siegwurm!”

The episode titles now have backgrounds indicating what we can expect to see. In this case we see the Red Dragon we saw earlier.

Of course I can keep being cryptic or I can say the thing we all know already. That Red Dragon’s name is “Siegwurm”

Once again another parallel, as our previous main character’s key spirit was “Siegfried”

And of course, why not start out at a tournament to get everything going? We did that last time too.

We’re actually getting a pretty nice view of some fields here, you can see how much the game has been stepped up in terms of animation, these look SO much better than they did in Toppa Bashin.

And this guy’s playing green.

Got another muppet on a different table with a Kujaraku on his field and a Mjolnir in his trash. The opponent appears to have a Fenrircannon-MK-II.

These are all entirely irrelevant but I do like just seeing the odd cards laying around.

Three of these characters are significantly more colourful than the rest.

It appears Clackey is spectating a game between the green-haired girl we know as Kajitsu, and our fiery-haired protagonist, Dan.

Someone in the crowd mentions “Yggdrassil” and this draws Suzuri’s attention, who also seems to be in the crowd.

Our attention is drawn to this card which looks rather similar to the White Knight we saw battling before, tilting my head a bit, I can read that the name is “The IronKnight Yggdrassil”

The girl also has a Machfly, and a Rainbowpapillon.

The Girl seems to be playing a White/Green mix, Rainbowpapillon is a Cost 2 White Spirit that gains +1000 BP if you control a Green Spirit.

As for Yggdrassil, I won’t review it just yet.

Suzuri of course, shows his interest in rare cards here, immediately declaring he wants the card Kajitsu has.

While the crowd are in awe of Kajitsu’s ability as a battler, Clackey decides to inform them that Kajitsu actually has a title, “The Insect-Loving Princess”

This random dude has more collective intelligence than the entire cast of the last series. Noting that for an “Insect-Loving Princess” it seems strange to use a powerful White Knight when all the bugs are in Green.

Oh boy, Yggdrassil is attackin’

Also we can see from here that Dan has a Lizardedge and a Goradon.

Dan laments that the card has a higher BP and takes it from the life. He does NOT appear to be doing well, reduced to 1 life.

Remember kids, don’t play too many card games or it can give you a headache.

Nah what’s actually happening is that for whatever reason, good ol’ Dan is getting visions of the earlier fight we just saw.

Dan is trippin’ BALLS. Also they namedrop his Battler name here, The Clash King. Or “Gekitotsu-Ou”

That being said, he’s hearing Kajitsu’s voice in his head, probably not the most comfortable sensation in the world.

Kajitsu asks if Dan knows why his Core has lit up, and mentions to him that he is the only one that can see the Core glow.

Nothing like a trippy experience to shake one’s confidence.

How romantic, though I’m not sure why you’ve slipped LSD into Dan’s coffee though.

Apparently there’s one other person in focus, Momose Yuuki.

Kajitsu attacks with Rainbowpapilion.

And unfortunately, Dan’s hand is straight TRASH. He’s got no refreshed Spirits and a hand full of Spirits.

DarkDinohound, Rokceratops and Siegwurm. The guy had 4 core in his reserve I’m surprised he didn’t play them.

Though maybe he was hoping to make the enemy think he had a counter when he didn’t, a bluff.

Yep, we had excellent view of that board state, Dan was NOT winnin’ that one.

Interesting seeing the MC lose in the first episode to a character who isn’t a rival.

Oh wow, actual tournament etiquette, you don’t see much of that… At all.

Shortly after, Dan appears to be looking for his opponent for some reason. We can see Viole Mai in the background there, also enjoying herself with a nice battle.

I suppose Dan is most likely going to ask Kajitsu about that weird sensation he was feeling mid-way through the battle, given that she probably knows something about it.

I never quite understand this trope of someone walking away at walking speed, and some other person literally BOLTING after them and yet still somehow losing the bastards.

Dan’s search is however interrupted by this guy, Momose Yuuki.

Interestingly, the meeting here has a reversal in roles compared to Bashin and J. Here, Yuuki is the one who wants to meet Dan, the Rival wants to meet the main character.

“The one who bears the core’s light”, Write that down people, it’s on the test. But for now its just cryptic shit that makes no sense at this particular moment in time.

Yuuki points out Kajitsu has been nearby for a non-zero amount of time before Dan noticed her.

I guess Dan is REALLY interested in what Kajitsu had to say about the glowing core.

And her response is to start GLOWING.

Hey, people who have been analyzing communicating with people in order to gauge non-verbal responses, what does it mean when they start glowing?

Fun fact about these series, its much deeper into the “Fantasy” kind of genre it was attempting to get into with Toppa Bashin, whereas Toppa Bashin is more of an “Urban Fantasy”, this series is straight up Fantasy.

Yes I would be understandably confused if a green-haired girl who just kicked my ass after making me trip on LSD started glowing.

Apologies for the resolution jump, player I was using was slow so I’m trying alternative methods.

Dan notes that the shine from Kajitsu has started displaying a symbol on Kajitsu’s chest. Yuuki helpfully informs Dan that its the Green Symbol on Green cards.

Now, you may be thinking “This is just a bunch of butterflies, they’re harmless”

First of all, would YOU trust butterflies sent after you by a chick that can GLOW!?

Secondly, if a butterfly is in your face you’re not going to enjoy it.

“Byyyyeeeeee”

Imagine the court case, “Your honor, she told a bunch of butterflies to lift me off the ground!”

“She… Lifted you off the ground… using butterflies?”

I suppose being the Insect-Loving Princess gives you some measure of control over… Well, insects.

We’re kinda lucky there’s a whole door there or Kajitsu would look like she’s not long for this world.

And well, I guess in some ways she isn’t.

Okay from the fact that she doesn’t leap forward and instead lets herself fall, there is absolutely NO way she doesn’t just miss the door entirely and go splat.

LOOK AT THE POSITION OF THE DOOR RELATIVE TO WHERE THEY JUMPED, THEY JUMPED FROM THE TOP LEFT CORNER.

Oh right, should point out, Dan gets flung in by the butterflies. Poor guy.

“I’m going to look at my card mysteriously after that commotion because it makes me look mysterious…”

I know its there to show us that Yuuki also holds an IronKnight Yggdrassil but he has NO reason to bust it out NOW of all times.

Elsewhere, Disaster strikes! A village of people who all seem to have really round ears and sideburns are being attacked by what I can only describe as a militia with the weirdest helments I’ve ever seen.

It’s like they’re trying to look like Policemen, Military AND have sunglasses at the same time.

HM, A GROUP OF PEOPLE THAT ALL LOOK THE SAME BEING HOARDED SOMEWHERE AFTER THEIR HOMES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED.

This is certainly a step up from Toppa Bashin that’s for sure, we’re only on the first episode and something controversial is already happening.

Kind of interestingly, the leader of the operation appears to be this blonde guy.

Out of nowhere this tiny member of whoever these people are pops out to hug his brother. The “Big brother” says the small child’s name, Zungurii.

At first glance, and it always gets me, is that this Commander looking guy is agreeing with him, but he’s not, he’s stating that this is happening as a result of the rule he set for winning a battle.

To summarise, Commander-dude took on this Big Bro, and declared before the match that he’d do all this crazy crap if he won, Commander-dude did infact win.

Zungurii protests that even if that was the rules, they don’t like the result.

The Commander-dude considers this, apparently, extremely rude and attempts to make them answer for it by beating them.

Jesus we’re getting into strangely depressing territory right from the get go.

Before they’re able though, a bunch of them get blasted away by bursts of wind.

Also I just noticed the “Shade” part is just the shadows created by the helmets.

Our awesome saviour is this pink-haired witch-lady.

Of course we’re not left in the dust wondering what her name is for long, Magisa!

And of course, she straight up kicks ass.

I mean if you can just make a display of force for not following the rules what makes them think you wouldn’t just do the same thing if they won?

In between these 2 statements Magisa says she’s “A Woman of Otherworld”, and appears to be trying to protect it.

So we’ve got a small establishment of where this is actually happening, Otherworld!

It also appears that this Commander-guy is completely human, considering Magisa speaks as if they’re trying to “Take the world away”

Commander-man says that if Magisa wishes to protect the world, she needs a deck. Which appears to be some kind of “Rule”.

I dunno she appears to be doing well without one so far.

Magisa did not like that, I guess she’s not a battler.

And what else to break the stalemate by dropping a 12-year old kid out the fuckin’ sky…

Dan has been given spontaneous headaches, hallucinations, kidnapped by butterflies and thrown into another world.

He is straight up just not having a good day.

Also if you look in the bottom right corner Kazan’s FACE IS PRICELESS

real blink and you miss it moment.

Also, despite how much older the characters look in this series compared to the last one, Dan is still infact the SAME age as Bashin was, the Shounen age of 12.

To dispel any potential confusion, Commander-guy is Human.

For whatever reason, Magisa’s staff is a multi-purpose tool that seems to do whatever the plot requires it to do, so far its list of things it can do is wind blasts so strong it can carry a fully grown human being off the ground, and detect those who “Bear the Core’s Light”

Whatever the fuck that thing is.

For anyone going “Red Flag”, don’t worry, she has standards, and Dan does not fill them.

Commander-Cockwaffle over here informs Dan under no uncertain terms that he is in “Grand-Lolo”, which is the name of the Otherworld.

It was like 5 fuckin’ minutes ago.

I won’t blame him for forgetting, Kajitsu WAS kind of doing a myriad of other crazy shit that perhaps speech wasn’t the thing Dan was paying attention to.

Commander-Blondey apparently seems to want to take Dan to meet a higher-up, and bear in mind the only thing the Commander knows about Dan is that he’s Human. And I guess that he bears the Core’s Light thanks to Magisa.

I guess when someone falls out the god damn fuckin’ sky you don’t just pass it off as a coincidence.

Magisa gets captured and I guess being a Witch doesn’t allow her to summon Smile from beyond the 4th dimension to take on these “Cowards”

Remember kids, if you strongarm anyone who speaks Japanese, you can turn them into a Pokemon who’s name is “Hanase!”

Otherworlders appear to live for VERY long lives, in this case, Magisa is exactly 4029 at the time of writing.

Why specifically 4029? Because she’s drawn with the appearance of a 29-year old woman.

The Commander states that if Magisa wishes to stop them, then he can use the Deck the Big Bro used, as Magisa appears to lack her own.

Interestingly the Commander seemed aware that Magisa lacked a deck and has lived for thousands of years, so Magisa is either well-known or a common problem to these guys.

Dan is a voice-activated automaton that only functions properly when “Battle” and “Spirits” are shown or spoken, explicitly in that order.

Disclaimer: Winning against someone in battle does not entitle you to claim that person’s stack of 40 cards.

Well it wasn’t very well the “Strongest” if it lost then was it?

Getting some insight into Battler philosophy, and this Commander states that Battle Spirits cards exist to be used by powerful people.

He seems to be a “No weak cards, only weak battlers” type of person.

He goes on to give an interesting speech which sort of goes like this:

These cards weren’t happy to be used by a weak person before, the first reason for the cards’ existence is to be used by a strong person. If I gave them back, they would lose like before. But if they’re mine, they can be reborn in a strong deck.

Human Otherworld Commander

To summarise, “Cards are useless to weak battlers, and therefore weak battlers should not have them”

Dan erupts at this line of thinking.

Finally, I can stop referring to him as the “Commander”, this guy is The Cursed Kazan, or “Jugeki no Kazan”, from this point onwards you don’t get any points for guessing what he specializes in.

Dan of course just seems to believe, quite rightfully that Kazan has no right to take something someone poured great amounts of effort into creating.

Kazan’s main takeaway from that statement is “Oh shit, this guy can card battle”

It appears whatever Kazan achieved in his battle he doesn’t necessarily need to risk again, but he’s willing to anyway, I guess we call that over-confidence.

Kazan states the terms and conditions of the battle, in the (according to him) unlikely event that Dan wins, Kazan will leave with the other soldiers and return the deck.

But if Kazan wins, he’ll keep the deck.

Not sure what in there is of value, it appears to be a Red/Green mixed colour deck.

“Uniform” is an interesting way to put it, and its not actually wrong.

So they modified the functionality of the Battlefield in this series from the Isekai method. Where Isekai requires a Cornerstone and a Pet and causes you to phase out of existence when you call out the words, in this world, anyone can use the Battlefield as long as they’ve got a deck. And creates a convenient doorway.

Dan doesn’t quite get very far before Magisa decides to reveal a Red Symbol from within him.

I think the “Gate Open! Release!” animation sequences are LESS prevalent than the previous series basically using at least one for every battle and occasionally using 2.

You do get this cool animation sequence of a door opening though.

The set up isn’t much different in layout to Isekai’s old layout, but where Isekai is clearly using Sci-Fi inspirations for its layout, Grand-Lolo’s Battlefield is clearly more Fantasy oriented.

The series does add one extra thing to get rid of the monotony of constantly having to show the life counter on the board.

That is, the Battle Form.

While the board will still represent the life, now we have a visual indicator of Dan’s lives on his person, as he loses life, those Blue Cores will become grey.

Behold the inspiration for many later Battlefields to come, this layout is quite honestly perfect in many ways. Though it gets retired in the 5th, 6th and 8th series, its played with in the 7th and brought back from the 9th series onward.

Intermissions don’t have the same boring “Turning BS” sequence, instead they add these “Eyecatches” to the intermission, generally showing a character that’s relevant in the episode.

Where Isekai had no spectators, Grand-Lolo has these little floating booths that allow non-battlers to be able to spectate and give commentary.

Dan seems okay with the layout as it seems relatively normal, but wonders where the Core pool, or the “Void” as its referred to is, where is he gonna take core from?

Using Core is more automated in this series. Battlers can play quickly without having to think about how much Core they’re moving from one end to the other. The Core will move automatically, and if a move is illegal, the board will reject it.

The Core has a nice 2D graphic rather than the 3D one Toppa Bashin used, probably makes for easier animating.

And the indisputed GREATEST change! WE SEE BATTLES START FROM TURN 1 TIL IT FINISHES!

For most of them, turn skips do occur but they are less frequent.

Kazan goes first, on his Main step he’ll have 4 core in reserve and 5 cards in hand.

I will assume you have watched Toppa Bashin for a majority of the cards shown, I will re-review cards if they are special or otherwise interesting.

Anyway, Kazan plays Hellscorpio and Skulldemon, we can see how he got his “Cursed” name, because he’s already played a Curse Spirit.

Ah that’s MUCH better, I truly have retruend to the Battlefield.

Spirits in this series display their Symbols before they burst out of them, the Models are tuned up really nicely as well.

And as anyone would in this situation, Dan loses his collective shit.

Dan makes a rather standard play of his own, playing Lizardedge and Rokceratops, in this case its a Cost 0 and a single reduction Cost 1, so while Kazan paid 2 core for his spirits, Dan pays none.

Rokceratops is HUGE, but Lizardedge is so smol and adorable, look at him.

Dan’s quite an easily satisfied kid, but then again if I was in his shoes I’d probably be overly happy about this too.

I can’t discern the other 2 cards, but given that they are Cost 0s and different cards we can surmise that those cards are in fact Goradon and Erimaklizard. Of course the last card in Dan’s hand is The ThunderEmperorDragon Siegwurm, of which this line indicates Dan is aiming for.

And why not I guess? He pulled a rather poor hand for doing anything else.

Dan ends it on that note. Deciding not to attack.

At he’s got 5 Core available, it is possible for him to level up Rokceratops and have it attack, but on Kazan’s turn he would have additional core and Dan would have an exhausted Spirit, with only equivalent Spirits, Kazan would probably get a very quick life advantage.

Kazan plays a 2nd Hellscorpio and a tried and trusty Skulldevil.

He’s got a couple Spirits that are capable of attack now.

With Skulldevil and Skulldemon at 2000 BP each, Kazan can safely attack, at worst he takes 2 lives, and at best he destroys Dan’s spirits.

While one SHOULD keep their spirits as levelled as possible, as core can be freely used from them, keeping them low level as Dan does here can coax one into attacking.

Hah, what an error, Kazan was very clearly depicted with 2 cards remaining in his hand and having played 2 cards a turn, that should be what’s left, but he’s animated with 3 here.

Oh interesting, he’s aware Dan wants lives. And so chooses to attack with the weaker Hellscorpio expecting him to take them, that leaves the stronger Skulldemon and Skulldevil as blockers.

As Kazan has more spirits, he’s also safe to attack with Hellscorpio because even if Dan blocks its a 1-1 trade.

And Dan just got these Spirits, he’ll need them for reduction later. Though based on his hand he can afford to lose 1 of them.

And now another cool addition since last series, we actually get to SEE lives get taken, represented by a Barrier being smashed based on the attacking Spirit’s colour.

And of course, since the Life is attached to the Battle Form, when the life shatters, the Battler also feels the impact.

Its dulled since most of the impact is handled by the Shield but still.

It still hurts a fair bit though. Its an actual battle now.

After a brief explanation from Magisa about how damage taken will carry over to him, Dan seems to have the rather interesting outlook that such a feature makes him “Part of the battle too”

Dan’s spirits respond to Dan’s statements by roaring.

Much like Bashin spoke to Siegfried as an inheritor of the Red Cornerstone, Dan of course speaks to his Spirits as a Bearer of the Core’s Light.

Being a “Bearer of the Core’s Light” is much like being a Chosen Battler of the Cornerstone, it doesn’t come with an associated MacGuffin or Pet, but also doesn’t come with as many abilities like exclusive access to a Battlefield. In this series, there’s not actually much being a Core’s Lightbearer does other than signify one who is chosen by a specific colour.

Hellscorpio attacks once more, and Dan blocks using Rokceratops.

With equal BP, they’ll destroy each other.

It is indeed a draw, its not like Dan has any Magic in his hand at present.

Skulldemon attacks, nabbing another Life from Dan who wants to keep Lizardedge around, as he should, given that he can fulfill the maximum reductions for the Siegwurm in his hand.

Kazan ends his turn leaving 1 Blocker.

At this point I feel the need to mention I did try to keep a record about where all the core was flying but you can kind of do a simple calculation if its really needed so if ever the Core is important, I’ll probably calculate it then and there.

Dan summons another lizardedge, and an oldie but a goodie, Goradon!

Goradon’s had a much needed tune up from its appearance in the previous series.

Summon chants are ALSO a new feature of this series! For a player’s Key Spirits, they have Summon chants for them.

They also don’t appear on the Battlefield the same way other Spirits do, usually having some special animation that brings them on the board.

Siegwurm in this case, climbs out from behind Dan.

Compared to Siegfried’s rather chonky look, Siegwurm is a REALLY skinny Dragon.

Having a Spirit of at LEAST that level is kind of a requirement for a deck.

Okay well its not a hard requirement but you’re not going to win much without a heavy-hitter.

Dan immediately takes aim, attacking with Siegwurm.

Kazan laments that he didn’t leave any blockers (even though he did)

In any case, he chooses to take from the life.

Despite wanting to take from the life, Kazan’s Skulldevil blocks Siegwurm anyway, being destroyed in the process.

Now would be a good time to go over what this little beast does.

A Master Rare, from SD01, the first structure deck. Pre-built decks were often sold but they always contained cards from the main sets and just acted as another way to get cards. SD01 however featured cards unique to it’s release, and this Master Rare spirit is one of them. It’s also got a new family, “Astral Dragon”, a designation used for Spirits that are somewhat related to Stars.

Dan here is the “Clash King”, and his Key Spirit at present, wields the Clash Keyword. Dan’s claim to fame is basically the same Keyword the main villain of the last series used.

Kazan of course, made preconcieved assumptions about Dan’s ability, and didn’t think he’d be able to use such a terrifying keyword.

Normally you’re at the mercy of your opponent’s choices when attacking as they can select what order they block in and if they want to block at all. Clash removes that choice, and can be a good way to deny the opponent Core by attacking their Spirits over their life.

Kazan takes a hit from both Goradon and Lizardedge. Now Dan is even with him.

Now it’s Kazan’s turn! He compliments Bashin on the fact that Clash seems to suit him.

Bit friendly for someone who’s the enemy.

Kazan does actually play a card we’ve yet to see.

Simply put, it’s a Curse Spirit that’s Cost 3, not much else to point out

Another cool new feature is the fact that levelling up now displays the new BP of the Spirit! Kazan levels up Hellscorpio.

Skulldemon attacks, Dan has Lizardedge available to block but doesn’t want to lose it, so he takes from the life.

Lizardedge blocks an incoming attack from Hellscorpio, its 2000 vs 1000 BP in favor of Hellscorpio, so Lizardedge is destroyed.

Big Bro laments that Humpdump was left in a refreshed state.

apparently, despite the “effort” big bro put into his deck, the straw that broke the camel’s back was… Humpdump.

We’re on turn 6 and the score is 3 – 2, and yet Toppa Bashin thought we could get as far as turn 38 without a single life lost?

Dan plays one more Goradon. This is check, Kazan only has 1 blocker and 3 remaining lives. Kazan also can’t adequately play any counters without spending from his Spirits, and with only 2 cards in his hand he probably won’t be making any comeback plays even if he does.

A quick calculation suggests to me that Dan has 6 core unused in his reserve. More than enough to level up Siegwurm.

Which is precisely what Dan does.

I do love these new CGI models and new viewer friendly ways of displaying information.

Siegwurm attacks, thanks to Clash, Humpdump is forced to block it and is destroyed.

With no blockers left, Dan full attacks with his 2 Goradons and Lizardedge.

Kazan is forced to take all 3 from the life, and loses the battle.

We can tell who loses since they get ejected from the battlefield and have a valiant soar through bright light.

Dan proceeds to explain how he likes to battle. His battle style isn’t exactly a “No-Guard” strategy, but he tries to play his strong Spirits for the cheapest they can be played and as soon as possible, as such he takes lives and sacrifices spirits only based on how much Core he actually needs to get to his next play. Hence why he destroyed a Hellscorpio with Rokceratops because he already had the resources to play Siegwurm at maximum reductions.

Kazan is quite likeable, honouring his word and returning the deck.

I won’t lie its becoming a bit of a problem with the fact that he’s “Bashin Dan”, because I’ve mistyped “Bashin” over “Dan” many times over the course of this post.

Kazan, keeping to his word, pisses off.

And Dan of course, has to come to terms with the reality of the situation, he ain’t got no fuckin’ clue where he is.

And of course, our NEW “To be continued” screen has this lovely BS logo on it.

The ending theme of this series is called “Kimi ga Matteru” or “Waiting for you”, its a rather soft song unlike My Sunshine’s rather pop-based music, and is a nice one to end off with.

And of course, with this series, comes a new feature!

A somewhat spiritual successor to the Batosupi Lecture, we have these segments that basically act very similarly to them, usually they’ll be “Cards of the Day” but I’m going to hold off on saying they 100% are because its entirely possible it throws a curveball and talks about something that isn’t a specific card.

For now, it IS a card of the day so lets talk about it.

The ThunderEmperorDragon Siegwurm is an interesting card for various reasons, It’s Dan’s current Ace but unlike Siegfried, it’s not an X-Rare, and Bashin lacked any such ace before he obtained Siegfried.

Ancient Dragons are somewhat scarce in Battle Spirits, its a family that’s currently only relegated to powerful Spirits. Interestingly this card actually came out BEFORE the set Catastrophedragon did. So it is actually the introducer of Clash to the game while Catastrophedragon did so for the show.

Clash is… actually a pretty good keyword, setting up a Clash Spirit early can allow one to control the pace of the game very early as Dan did.

Interestingly the Lv3 effect of Siegwurm allows Dan to use it alongside Bashin’s old strategy, as it gives any Spirit with Awaken the ability to Clash. You can also make interesting combos with Spirit Link and a Lv3 Siegwurm, effectively giving any Spirit both Awaken AND Clash by having Siegwurm out.

As for Siegwurm itself, its a good card to make use of Dragons’ Rush, as Siegwurm must be blocked, he will be able to defeat a large amount of Spirits before attacking the opposing life.

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Let’s talk about the Episode for a bit.

Summarising the plot thus far: Dan, after being defeated by a girl who was giving him strange hallucinations, is sent to Grand-Lolo against his will by her. Upon arrival in Grand-Lolo he defeats Cursed Kazan while being guided by the Otherworld Witch Magisa in order to win back the deck of a villager who lost to Kazan before eventually coming to terms with the fact that he has no idea where he is.

You’ve seen me compare smaller things that parallel Bashin Toppa, but the plot itself completely takes a different route, as its basically an Isekai which, hilariously, Bashin Toppa isn’t. It also changes the main character’s general competence. He does LOSE to Kajitsu but he doesn’t seem to be weak (Or, well, about as strong as you can get with only Cost 0s, 1s and a Siegwurm), completely flooring Kazan, unlike Bashin who couldn’t even get through preliminary rounds in the Batosupi Championships.

So far, it’s evident that this anime is being marketed in much higher quality, as like an actual anime, rather than the cartoon-ish nature of Toppa Bashin. The plot is also much darker right from the outset.

All in all its a good start to what is a GREAT series. And I can’t wait to get to the next one.