Gekiha Dan – Episode 3

Alright, we’ve gotten through 2 episodes, so far we’ve had a basic introduction to the mechanics of the game, Spirits and Magic, what next Nexuses?

And we’ve got a general basic insight on the plot, Dan is going to save Zungurii’s family on his epic quest.

But of course, to start with, we have Dan in another battle, though what’s being thrown at him appears to just be Spirits he fought in previous episodes, who in their right mind puts Humpdump in a deck alongside Tanya and Froger of all things?

Of course, since this isn’t going to be an actual battle we’ll care about, they skip to the cinematics of Siegwurm burning them all to a crisp.

Interestingly, Siegwurm is the ThunderEmperorDragon (Raiouryu) but breathes Fire…

…It appears we’re having a Shounen protagonist dreaming… and it wasn’t an awful nightmare.

He does get a nasty bump on his head because apparently Zungurii was watching him sleep.

Also they gave him a whole ass bed, he slept in it WITH HIS CLOTHES ON and didn’t even get a blanket.

Dang.

It appears Zungurii’s village uses the Japanese method of abbreviating words to take the first “syllable” out of “Good” and “Morning” to produce “GooMo”

I can’t tell if its because Dan is irritated at Zungurii for bumping into him or if he’s just playing a prank on him but if you pull shit like this you’re an asshole.

And of course, Magisa feels the need to discipline Dan for pranking Zungurii who doesn’t know any better.

Dan notes that Magisa knows quite a fair bit of how to get to Dan’s World, as well as information about it, which makes him curious.

She evidently gets this part wrong, which normally implies that her information is out of date, as Tokugawa Ieyasu died over 400 years ago. Secondly he wasn’t a King, he was a Shogun, a military dictator who was nominated by the Emperor. Finally he was only Shogun of Japan, not King of Dan’s world.

That being said, this isn’t a fuck up, its actually a potentially INGENIUS level of rewatch value which will be explained when it becomes relevant. At least concerning the time constraint.

Oh shit, the title card is promising an appearance from Yggdrassil, so we’re going to see either Yuuki or Kajitsu fight, as we both know they each hold one.

Here we get to learn a couple things about Zungurii, firstly he’s exactly the level of intelligence one would expect for his age, which is to say, not very high.

Secondly, he’s strong as BALLS.

And that Zungurii’s family is absolutely fucking MASSIVE.

The “Gurii” Tribe they’re called.

I guess Otherworlders are not separated as species but by Tribe.

I see Kazan has gotten to Zungurii’s big brother, feeling like a bad card battler.

Then again he got his ass whooped by a Humpdump, so I guess its a fair assessment.

Dan isn’t worried of course, saying he isn’t alone, and that “40 of his friends are coming”

At least we can safely confirm now that Dan’s deck consists of 40 cards, but he gave Zungurii a card left in his deck so he must have spare cards somewhere because otherwise he’d have 39.

Given that Zungurii could literally hold enough furniture to furbish a fucking Mansion all at once, I assume its going to be Dan dragging Zungurii down.

Looks like we’re getting more villain foreshadowing.

How DOES that rockface stay afloat? I suppose its Otherworld so it doesn’t have to make sense.

Kazan didn’t get nearly this ass-blasted when he lost to Dan, why is it that Magical Crown is getting humiliated?

“And totally not because I completely fucked up a play because I forgot Royal Potion also refreshes my opponent’s spirits!”

Kazan has… an interesting take on the situation, most villains are like “Damn, they’re strong, we need to get rid of them” but 2 of their rank have already been completely wrecked by Dan, Kazan’s immediate thought is to try and recruit them instead?

The ol’ “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”, well in this case its “If you can’t beat ’em, have them join us”

Apparently Crown is aware of the contingency Kazan has suggested but I don’t really get it.

You’re going to notice some fantastic racism (That is a Fantasy variant of racism that discriminates against a fictional race, and not a real one, still pretty bad though)

And of course, you can see that there’s a hint of human supremacy here with Kazan calling Otherworld a “Utopia for Humans”

I’ll say now, Kazan’s rage isn’t justified, but it is explainable.

Kazan foreshadows their history there, apparently something “happened” to Earth that made them need to take refuge here.

But here’s the weird thing, Dan left Earth to GO to Grand-Lolo and we saw it was fine.

So what’s wrong with Earth?

More plot tidbits, whatever it is they’re hoping to do to “Save” Humanity, it relies on this very eerie looking tower, known as a “Horizon Ladder”

Subber intended to say “brought”, but basically their plan revolves around enlightening the bearers of the core’s light by bringing them to Otherworld King.

The last time you fought your best move was playing Humpdump. What’s your plan for the next ’bout?

Your Curse Deck that failed to pull off a successful resolution of the Curse effect.

Of course, after that rally, every single goon here also wants a crack at Dan.

I swear is it like a requirement that Rivals in Card Game anime take a course on how to perfectly throw cards such that their thin cardboard edge can slice through Stone?

Regardless, Yuuki sees the commotion, and offers to battle Dan, and given the title card of the episode, It’s likely this episode is leading to a Rival Match, which is a little late in compared to Toppa Bashin but at least it’s early enough.

We interrupt this tense and cool moment with an edgelord on screen to bring you the fact that this midget is not ONLY filled with enough Strength to save Amazon money on delivery trucks, but he’s also really good at cooking.

Well what else is he gonna be good at? Battle Spirits? Pfff-

Dan of course, unlike Bashin, is a man after my own heart, and suggests the ultimate dish anyone could POSSIBLY go for. Curry.

I don’t have a Top favourite but I do have a Top 3 favourite foods that I all like equally. The first which I get made for my birthday as tradition every year is Beef Chickpea Stew, the consistency of which is as close to a Curry as it gets in my house. The second is Beef Steak, specifically Bitoque, which is a Portuguese way of eating Beef Steak that involves putting a Fried Egg on top of it.

The Third of Course, is Dan’s number 1 favourite food. Curry.

Fun fact: Japanese Beef Curry is Japan’s National Dish.

Unfortunately, given that Zungurii has 0 knowledge of Earth cuisine, doesn’t know what Curry is.

And even worse, doesn’t even think it looks tasty.

Magisa returns to hurry the pair along but they ask where she vanished off to, as she tends to be in and out of scenes at random.

Ah I see, it must be hard for a 4029 year old woman to find love, so she went off to go mast-

-er some card combos… suuure.

Dan’s face is very ( ಠ ͜ʖಠ)

I’ve never seen someone ask this question and never get a satisfactory answer.

At this particular moment, Dan and Zungurii look like idiots.

But of course this is Battle Spirits, so there’s a semblance of strategy under all that dumbassery, with Dan explaining that Crown and Kazan both came and left in specific directions, so with no other indication of where to go, they’re following that direction.

Its as good a plan as any.

Bitch unless you have a better idea, quitcha-bitchin.

Here we actually find out what the place Zungurii and Magisa went to before Magical Crown showed up, its called a Card Stand, its basically a less developed version of a Batosupi Centre, it sells cards but it also lets people get information, like a regular bar I guess.

They also apparently sell alcohol.

Alcohol, Card Games and Info, interesting combination.

Just because the Beer-addicted Wizard is here for information doesn’t mean she has to be sober enough to retain it.

Come on now, you silly.

Zungurii you had nothing except an Ankillersaurus before now, expecting YOU to know what cards do is like touching a live socket with a wet hand.

Whoever’s collection this is, its pretty good, Thor, Mjolnir AND Big-Loki.

It appears Dan, as the Red Soldier, has been sent a message in the form of “The IronKnight Yggdrassil”

Now this would be pointless to anyone besides Dan, who got his butt-wrecked by an Yggdrassil in his last ’bout, I wonder if Kajitsu did this with ALL the Lightbearers just so Yuuki could pull stunts like this.

Of course, Dan would naturally ask whether or not the Card was left to him by a Girl.

But Yuuki clearly has copies to spare given he’s held one, flung one, and handed one to Dan.

This was probably intended as Magisa looking forward to meeting a cute boy, but it DOES look a lot like she’s also considered the possibility lil ol’ Dan might be just a wee bit gay.

Dan recalls a boy of that description, namely Yuuki, before he’s suddenly led away by another of Kajitsu’s butterflies.

Where the hell has Magisa encountered an IronKnight Yggdrassil?

Small chase through the forest leads Dan all the way to Kajitsu, perched on a Rock.

Somehow, by some strange force, Yggdrassil flies out of Dan’s hands.

And Yuuki catches it.

Hilariously, as physics defying as this is normally, Yuuki does actually have some measure of ability over Magic. So its entirely plausible he could do this.

And here we have the arrival of Yuuki, he does actually give his name here, “Momose Yuuki”, but we already knew about it because I explained it so yeah.

It also feels so strange hearing “Bashin” and not having either “Toppa” or some idiotic schmuck attached to it.

More like YOU returned, Dan was flung in.

I may have forgotten that little detail. It still begs the question how in the hell Dan managed to find his way back anyhow.

I find the idea that he jumped off the same balcony he was flung off of in the hopes that it was there while risking a lethal fall kind of amusing.

Qualifications to be the Red Soldier involve…

Well actually I don’t know, Dan came in with a Red deck and apparently bearing the Core’s light which Kajitsu can apparently detect (there IS an explanation for that of course), but I assume this implies that had Dan chose not to do his duty and stay in Grand-Lolo after being given the opportunity to leave, he would no longer bear the Core’s light.

Resolve appears to be a required trait I suppose.

Magisa and Zungurii have finally caught up, would suck if they weren’t able to give commentary.

Yuuki escorts Kajitsu off the rock like a princess. This is of course, entirely in character.

Yuuki seems to be divulging a lot of information rather freely. And I never noticed this but he does directly state Kajitsu can detect Lightbearers. HOW of course is yet to be explained but one will be able to draw the conclusion later.

He SPITTIN’

“Nice nickname, but YOU AIN’T SHIT”

He seems to have well-researched Dan, which leaves Dan at a tactical and social disadvantage because he doesn’t know anything about Yuuki.

…Then that would be Omniscient… not Omnipotent.

And if he WAS Omnipotent, he should certainly be able to fix whatever he wants Dan for.

Zungurii comes to the, actually rational conclusion that an “Omnipotent Person” in Grand-Lolo fits the description of Otherworld King.

Magisa’s surprise is… actually quite a clever choice. We know from earlier that Magisa has knowledge of the Otherworld King, so it’s likely she’s met him.

Eagle-eyed viewers will take her confusion to mean that she does not recognise Yuuki as the Otherworld King. Which can mean one of 2 things.

1. There was more than 1 Otherworld King.
2. Yuuki isn’t Otherworld King.

Kajitsu requests that Yuuki inform the group of where Zungurii’s family is currently located.

Yuuki decides to withhold that information, deciding to dangle it over Dan’s head as a reward for defeating him.

Understandably enranged, Zungurii charges at Yuuki and has to have a full Scrappy Doo sequence of going “LEMME AT ‘EM, LEMME AT ‘EM!”

Kajitsu doesn’t take kindly to Zungurii charging at them, using the Insects as a deterrent.

That little display was basically Kajitsu’s way of saying she doesn’t really tolerate slights when it comes to her Brother. And will respond in kind if they’re uncooperative.

After that short scuffle, we finally get to our battle! It’s Yuuki vs Dan! Rival battles are always good’uns.

Well, almost always.

Dan very quickly makes a comment about Yuuki’s battle form not actually changing despite entering the Battlefield. Even though it’s fairly obvious from the 5 blue lives on his chest that Yuuki’s been in his Battle form quite literally the entire time.

Magisa reasons the attacks on Zungurii’s families, enslaving them, along with Yggdrassil was bait to appeal to Dan’s heroic tendencies.

The enslaving was a bit much, but having Kajitsu beat the fuck out of Dan with Yggdrassil, leaving a lasting impression just to bait him with it by sending it to him is genius.

Once again, Magisa questions the idea that Yuuki could be Otherworld King.

And Magisa also comments that she doesn’t actually recognise Kajitsu’s abilities. Which for someone who has knowledge of those who bear the Core’s Light, would be strange for her.

So you know when you get those muppets who are like almost certain about what will happen in a Card game? Such that without battling most characters are like “Nah you can’t reach him, he’s out of your league, etc.”

Or you know, characters have a strange confidence in their ability to win and it’s carried through because writing, what I found, and this is especially true in real life, is that when you talk shit pre-battle, there’s suddenly a pressure to back it up.

Yuuki just got done telling Dan he was fucking Omnipotent but openly declares that he’s nervous about the battle.

Yuuki, proposes that he go first, suggesting to Dan that Dan will be the first to attack, given that Yuuki has paraded Yggdrassil about it’s evident he’s a White player, and has proposed a turn order that benefits both of them. White likes to go first whereas Red prefers to go second.

Dan doesn’t disagree with this course of action, instead noting that Yuuki thinks he can take on Red at it’s best.

Yuuki goes for a simple play, he plays a Lv2 Berserker-Gun and ends his turn, 1 Core and 3 available is pretty nice for a reserved first turn play. If he has low cost magic he can surprise Dan on his first attack.

Berserker-Gun’s an Oldie but a Goodie, Cost 1 Machine.

Meanwhile Dan is notably telling us all that “Paying Core is for losers” and plays a Lv2 Goradon and a Lv2 Rokceratops.

This does mean all his Core IS on his 2 spirits, BUT at least there’s 2 reductions and 5 core available, he could Victory Fire from this position.

Dan attacks with Goradon.

Yuuki takes a life, but notably doesn’t actually budge, which Dan, Zungurii and Magisa react to because at least according to Dan, losing lives is quite painful.

Kajitsu decides to explain by stating that Yuuki doesn’t feel pain when losing lives, which is never given any further adequate explanation.

I assume it’s meant to signify Yuuki’s experience in battling in this world, to the extend that he’s now numb to the pain of fighting but it’s a bit of a playground “He doesn’t feel it, he’s that strong” level excuse.

Yuuki explains its because he’s Omnipotent that he doesn’t feel the pain.

If you’re Omnipotent, change your hair Red, right now, do it.

I also have no idea why Yuuki parades about as being Omnipotent either.

Dan gets cold feet after this and decides to end his turn, despite Rokceratops having equal BP to Berserker-Gun, Yuuki’s playing White and White has exactly no Cost 0s. (They have ONE at time of writing and no others but it was released WELL after this series)

So a reverse weenie rush isn’t likely to occur.

If Dan was willing to risk Goradon, why NOT risk Rokceratops?

The likely answer is probably because he needed the reduction and expected Yuuki not to block his first attack.

That’s my take at least.

Oh hey! It’s a new card we can ACTUALLY talk about!

It looks dope as fuck as well.

The Artifact Droiden, is an Android family card from… SD01! You see SD01 was actually 2 decks in one, a Red/Purple Mixed Colour Deck, and a White/Green Mixed Colour Deck, so that Structure Deck actually had support for 4 different colours.

Droiden is part of the White cards, of course. And it somewhat Power Creeps the old Artifact Laguna, another Android that shared it’s effect by overall being cheaper and having more reductions.

For anyone wondering, Dan’s confusion is unwarranted, Droiden and Berserker-Gun are both at 3000 BP, which matches Rokceratops’ Lv2. As I just said, White doesn’t have any Cost 0s, making it one of the more expensive colours (beaten out only by Purple as the most expensive)

So willingly running White Spirits into Red ones before the opposing turn might not be the best plan.

This is… a weird note from Magisa, lets see if I can’t digest what it means, I THINK Magisa is saying something along the lines of the fact that Kazan and Crown both had some kind of emotional investment backing their cards and play while Yuuki is actually just playing the game as it is, a game.

Rokceratops is raised to Lv3, since it’s the highest unexhausted Spirit, Dan is safe to attack.

But… chooses to attack with Goradon again.

Its a lot of risky attacks but I guess Dan REALLY wants to have at Yuuki’s Spirits, I imagine the Clash King would probably have some inclination towards Spirits battling.

Shame about no Victory Fire, he could have wiped out Berserker-Gun and Droiden then, and put Yuuki in a real pickle.

I guess Yuuki makes a bit of sense here, Kazan AND Crown both got punished for being too aggressive, but it’s not like their blocks were voluntary, Dan had Siegwurm.

Dan’s getting caught off guard because Yuuki is playing a more defensive game, but even though Yuuki IS doing so, his attacks are hitting home.

Defensive doesn’t just mean lives, White is intended to be an Iron wall of defense, who says the thing it protects can’t just be your last life?

Dan strangely leaves Rokceratops as a blocker, he’s got a life advantage so I suppose its safer now.

By my count, Yuuki should have 8 total core this turn. With 5 on his Spirits and 1 paid for a second Lv2 Berserker-Gun, he can actually level up Droiden.

Which he of course, does.

Thanks to Droiden’s effect, the Berserker-Guns once again are equal to Rokceratops.

Well it’s a lot of pressure if you’ve been breaking even all game and Droiden comes out of nowhere but Droiden’s been out for a turn, Dan did have a turn to see if he could deal with it, and if not, prepare for it’s power up.

Yuuki finally moves, attacking with Berserker-Gun, Dan sticks to his usual battle style and eats a life.

Also there’s a theme that plays here that’s REALLY fucking cool and more annoyingly there’s no OST that actually features this theme… ANYWHERE.

For whatever reason it only plays in relation to Yuuki so I’d hazard to guess its Yuuki’s theme but Yggdrassil has a separate one.

If ANYONE can somehow find this theme, anywhere, I would really appreciate it. Its too good to leave on it’s own.

The 6000 BP Droiden now comes in for an attack.

But of course, we know Dan, he’s pretty good at being one-note.

This is kind of what I meant by Dan being at a tactical disadvantage due to not knowing a single thing about Yuuki.

Yuuki is well aware of Dan’s style but Dan has absolutely 0 insight on Yuuki, meaning that Yuuki’s appearing to play weird because he’s playing around Dan.

He’s been on the backburner in terms of Spirits and Lives most of the game but the second he was able to produce one Spirit over Dan, suddenly losing a Berserker-Gun to Rokceratops didn’t seem so daunting since Yuuki would still have the most Spirits after the fact.

The fact that he was aware that was your desired result, was the problem.

Zungurii’s like hella hostile to Yuuki here but Yuuki actually hasn’t done anything worthy of rage, other than divulging that he knows where Zungurii’s family is and choosing not to say where until Dan fights him.

But it looks here like he’s trying to teach Dan, rather than belittle him.

Dan’s style is:
Step 1: Play Siegwurm
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit.

Yuuki’s advice is good to take, Dan needs other options besides only Siegwurm.

Bit hard to take advice from the enemy, infact it’s ill-advised to take advice from those you think will harm you.

Yuuki doesn’t seem surprised at Dan’s stubbornness, his advice thus far as boiled down to “Hey you’re doing X, you should try doing Y”, Dan tells him to suck a fat one and Yuuki’s just like “Alright, lemme get my receipts”

Dan reduces Rokceratops and Goradon to Level 1.

And plays the ThunderEmperorDragon Siegwurm.

Let’s see, 2 core on spirits, 7 core in the reserve, Dan is probably playing this at level 2.

Siegwurm attacks, using it’s Clash, it forces Berserker-Gun to block, destroying it.

Berserker-Gun has 4000 BP thanks to Droiden, so Siegwurm would NEED to be level 2 to win.

I’m seeing a lot of “Leaving 1 Blocker” strategies here.

If Yuuki plays 2 Spirits out of the 5 cards he’ll have in his hand, Dan just straight up loses.

And I believe I’ve taken great pains not to review it’s effects just yet.

And what a hell of a spirit it is, upon hitting the field, any Spirit 3000 BP or under is evicted from the board, and from Lv2 upwards all your White Spirits get Red and White Armor.

This is THE WORST matchup, also why does the Rival have yet ANOTHER Anti-Red ability?

J had Thor which wouldn’t exhaust when blocking Red Spirits, now Yuuki has a card that just floods the field with Red Armor.

No wonder Dan had such a hard time the first time around.

Why is Zungurii only NOW confused between whether or not Yuuki is the White Soldier, or the Otherworld King?

First of all I’m pretty sure those titles are not mutually exclusive… I think.

Secondly, Yuuki STRAIGHT UP SAID BEFORE THE FIGHT THAT HE BEARS THE CORE’S LIGHT!

Yggdrassil’s effect when it hits the field activates, bouncing Goradon and Rokceratops to Dan’s Hand.

No Spirits on Yuuki’s field are affected, as Droiden is currently buffing Berserker-Gun to 4000 BP.

And Yuuki has 3 spirits, interesting how that works.

To be fair, Dan’s already lost, his deck doesn’t contain a single card that isn’t Red, and Yuuki has enough Core to level up Yggdrassil to Lv2.

As J would say, Checkmate.

And this battle’s a 2-parter, because of course it is.

Well to be fair it’s not the worst thing in the world, there was a lot of mid-battle conversation that took place that was kind of relevant to it so at least we got some insight into Yuuki’s character.

Firstly is the sense that Kajitsu is almost completely subservient to Yuuki, there’s a reason for that however and it’s not a fun one.

Ignoring Kajitsu however, Yuuki’s surprisingly forthright and talkative, offering Dan advice and letting him know about dangers, he also seems to be relatively efficient at playing cards, playing a reserved game and not making any wasted moves. Not settling for equal BP and instead waiting until he had a BP Advantage before making a powerful advance.

his IronKnight Yggdrassil, unlike Siegfried and Odin having somewhat disparate BP, matches Siegwurm’s Lv3 BP, meaning a Clash between those 2 Spirits will be decided by factors outside oft he Spirits themselves which is kind of cool. Yuuki seeming imposing and casually matching Dan makes it seem like he’s the better battler, and not just because his Key Spirit is stronger (because for all intents and purposes it isn’t, Siegwurm and Yggdrassil are immune to each other’s effects)

No card of the day today because it’s a spoiler for NEXT episode for some bizarre reason.

In which case, I’ll see you next time!