Gekiha Dan – Episode 5

Well after that Battle Spirits episode blitz, I decided to take an absolutely much-needed break to cool down a little bit, though it wasn’t purely because I needed the break, I had a lot of friends who wanted to hang out with me and I don’t exactly like blowing people off because I want to write a blog post, I do these when I can.

There’s also the matter of me setting up for something I feel might be exciting that I can actually put on YouTube without being boring as all hell, so here’s hoping I can actually pull that off.

Anyway, enough about “Why the long wait”, my point is I’m not planning on taking a hell of a long time off like last time.

The point we left off on in the last episode is now the intro for this episode, Zungurii is still trying to make a good Curry for Dan but Dan isn’t really having any of it, the Curry being far too spicy.

The Curry is bleeding RED for goodness sakes.

Personally all this curry making is just making me want a Curry of my own, but alas, at time of writing my Dinner is looking to be Broccoli & Stilton Soup (which is still pretty good mind you)

Also please forgive the ever-changing resolutions of the images I’m using, I’m trying to capture a balance of consistency and unfortunately I couldn’t get one, the Video opens in it’s native resolution and difficult to downsize without going too far, while I could edit manually I’m definitely not doing that so I can only really downsize to about 75% automatically.

I’ll go with this for now and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll try something else.

Zungurii gives it another attempt.

Of course, while the Curry now isn’t spicy, it doesn’t actually taste good.

I actually really want to try what a “Sour” curry tastes like, I actually like the taste of Sour things, they usually have very intense flavours that makes them enjoyable to eat.

While I do like very intense things, I abhor bitter items, the one exception to this used to be Dark chocolate which is notoriously bitter but I’ve since lost my taste for bitter things now.

Excessively dry food can also get bent.

You’re asking a small child who doesn’t cook human food to create a Curry exactly the way you, a Human 12-year old, likes it without any frame of reference to work from.

Fuck off Dan.

Yeah food isn’t so much as just “Having the right ingredients for the meal”, it’s one reason why I feel so overwhelmed if I have to cook (I’m not very good at it, much as I want to be)

Even if you have the correct ingredients, the ingredients themselves also need to be of a specific quality (sometimes HIGH quality foods lack something that makes a lower quality ingredient better for the dish etc.), the process of making is also going to be different between people even if they’re effectively doing the same instruction.

Point is, even if you gave 2 people the same ingredients, with the same recipe, you will end up with 2 different tasting meals.

I want to punch people like this. Zungurii’s followed the instructions and gotten subpar Curry every time, if Zungurii’s failed to make it correctly, perhaps one might turn their eyes to the instructor rather than blaming Zungurii for doing something correctly and still failing.

Anecdotal evidence, but I believe this was mentioned before this episode at some point, Zungurii is a very good cook by his village’s standards.

And we finally get a look at the bar Dan is actually setting.

Its not that the curry is Bad but it’s not the exact flavor Dan is after.

So all the times Dan has given it crap, it’s because he’s comparing it relative to a specific type of flavor he’s after.

It’s not that the Curry was “Spicy”, it was just “Spicier than his Mother’s Curry”, same for “Gross” and “Sour”, they would likely be much more passable for someone less fussy.

This is a common Dan problem we’re seeing, first it was his stubborn Battle Style that he chose not to change up against Yuuki, and now its his taste in Curry that he’s refusing to back down on even though Dan’s got 2 entirely different problems, non-Earth ingredients and a non-Human cook.

Zungurii of course has realized that Dan is putting a really specific standard on him that would require way more cost and effort than he’s willing to put in just to get Dan to not yell at him.

So Zungurii tells Dan to piss off back home if he wants his Mum’s Curry that bad and plans to deal with the problem himself.

This episode is titled “Green Hurricane! Swift Amenborg!”

So we’re going to be seeing a Green player using Amenborg this episode. Otherwise not really much details to be gleaned from the Episode Title.

Zungurii is alone, and hungry, since in storming out, he actually left all of his supplies with Dan.

And he wants something that I assume is meant to be “Acorn Stew” but I have no idea what such a thing would look like.

There’s Acorn Soup but that’s a bit different.

On his way, Zungurii comes across a small shrine with a little box in it.

Someone apparently felt the need to leave their DragonEmperor Siegfried inside the Shrine Box. The only other X-Rare we’ve seen since this series started was a Gigantic Thor.

Also its kind of funny how Zungurii has spent what appears to be a couple hours without Dan and has already found a card rarer than Dan’s entire deck.

I’m sure there’s some fanfic potential in if Zungurii decided to oppose Dan with Siegfried, given a proper teacher.

Of course in Zungurii’s excitement he drops off the small Shrine and passes out.

I like how Zungurii’s dream sequence here involves him seeing visions of his loved ones before going “Sorry guys, I might have died, which sucks cuz I’m also hungry”

I hazard to laugh at this considering its a joke about a small child dying after getting into an argument with his friend and running off, but given the context of the show it’s obvious Zungurii isn’t dead.

Zungurii eventually does wake up in a small tent, and the first thing he does is look for the card, which is neatly placed beside him.

Its obvious someone saved Zungurii, his unconscious body definitely wouldn’t have been able to grow legs and piss off somewhere.

But the voice indicates that it’s not someone we know, the voice is deep after all, and doesn’t know who he is, given the nickname of “Sideburn-boy”

We actually get to see the guy’s deck before we see his appearance. It appears he’s got a 100% Green deck, we can see MachG, MachFly, Beatbeetle, BlackMachG, BlackMonoqueiroz, Bug-Lesia, and The Thorny Colosseum.

The only card we haven’t seen here is The Thorny Colosseum, I don’t think it will get used onscreen ever so I’ll review it.

A Cost 5 Nexus with a low level 2 requirement, it prevents Cores being removed from Battling Spirits and makes Battling Spirits unaffected by Spirits or Magic.

This card is designed for cards like Kingtaurus or Deathtaurus who benefit from defeating Spirits, a common way to get around their downsides is to remove your Spirit, either through depletion or self-destruction before they’re able to be defeated by BP-Comparison. The Thorny Colosseum prevents this from happening by preventing depletion in any way, and then flat out making so the Spirits are unaffected by effects so you can’t Deadly Balance your way out of the problem either.

Oh, and he’s actively working on his deck too, that’s kind of cool.

Cap’n Cowboy over here is “Revolver West”, as if he could have any more of a “Wild West” name than he already has.

He’s got very varied cards at his disposal, I see a Fruit of Life in the top corner next to MachG.

His hand has Emerald Boost, Carry Cores, The Cape in the Red Sky and The Earth of Fertility.

Besides Carry Cores, the rest are recent cards from SD01.

Suffice it to say, we have ample reason to believe that Revolver West over here is a Green Battler.

Green Curry is of course, another form of way of making Curry. Rather than most Asian Brown Curries, in Thailand, their method of making Curry is Green.

Thailand also has a variant of this Green Curry that looks very similar but is otherwise Red in colour, hence Thai Green Curry, and Thai Red Curry.

I for one, am an avid lover of Thai Curry.

It appears Revolver West managed to produce a very tasty Green Curry by using ingredients from Otherworld, which is also helped by the fact that it eating it exclusively provides very balanced nutrients.

HE’S SO WESTERN HE’S SPINNING HIS DECK LIKE A REVOLVER.

And even has a Deck Holster meant to emulate a Gun Holster.

Because why not?

Zungurii has a strange upbringing, his Dad apparently taught him that he should repay displays of kindness.

While its good to repay kindness with kindness, don’t teach people that they’re obligated to do something just because someone chose to show kindness to them unwarranted, what the fuck?

And of course, Zungurii has a gift on him, The Red X-Rare, The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

I am hella unsure why Revolver West, a Battler using a Full Green Deck would want anything to do with a high cost Red X-Rare.

From the title and the fact that he have a very evident user of Green here, it’s probably going to be absolutely no surprise that our Amenborg-using friend is going to be this guy, Revolver West.

Zungurii decides to use this opportunity to compare the Curry Revolver made to the curry he’s been trying to make for Dan, Zungurii’s attempts have come out unpleasant, and despite being so different from how Dan has explained how to make it, The Green Curry is delicious.

Zungurii’s having a series of Freudian slips here, he’s saying what he actually means instead of what he wants to say. He’s inclined to show contempt for Dan because of their previous arguments but keeps catching himself because he doesn’t actually believe that, he’s just irritated by the fact that Dan dislikes his Curry.

This is not a question you want to hear from anyone who has no context on who Dan is. So the fact that he’s aware of “The Clash King” is a giant red flag that he’s a Battler for the Otherworld King.

He then asks if Zungurii can take him to meet The Clash King.

We cut back to Dan who is quite literally incapable of moving from his spot, because Zungurii is noted to be incredibly physically strong and Dan, well, isn’t.

There’s a lesson here, don’t treat the people you rely on like shit.

It seems Dan has made his own attempt at recreating his ol’ Mother dear’s Curry.

Dan actually starts to look a bit down, though its hard to tell if that’s because he’s realized he needs the kid, or if he’s genuinely remorseful for being a dickhead.

This is a Shounen anime so probably the latter.

Magisa’s finally back from her Investigation using her Magical Bike.

Well it’s not like the investigation was fruitless. The Horizon Ladder is protected by a giant barrier that Magisa, and likely other people, can’t pass through normally. And even Magisa with all her current Magic can’t force her way through it.

Magisa goes off on a bit of a ramble concerning Dan and Zungurii’s situation, the best I can parse from it whatsoever is that Magisa was aware that Dan and Zungurii had a fight, and spotted Zungurii’s attempts on his own before letting Dan know they should look for him, since he won’t hold out.

And then is lamenting about their fight saying she expected this to happen sooner or later because she’s 4029 Years old.

This is of course the moment we get the revelation of Magisa’s actual age, 4029 years old, they of course slashed off 4000 years from her age and gave her the appearance of what I can best describe as a 29 year-old woman.

The point is, as old as she is, she doesn’t physically age.

Magisa’s “Shut up” is in English, which is a bit jarring

Despite the fact that Magisa presents very very youthful and is still relatively attractive by Human standards, she still seems very insecure about her age.

Of course we don’t, if a woman pulled off your good lucks at 40 let alone 4029 they’d feel like a GOD.

Magisa then goes to sleep in the tent.

At this moment, Zungurii comes back, along with Revolver West.

Dan takes this opportunity to return to being sour about their previous argument. Asking Zungurii why he came back if he said he was going to go look for his family by himself.

Nothing like Revolver West pulling up with the “You’re BOTH idiots” energy.

Nah fuck you, Spicy food for breakfast is THE SHIT.

Nothing wakes you up like feeling like your mouth is on fire.

I’d pull up to a Nandos for Breakfast and I’d like to see anyone try to stop me.

Nothing like a little more Engrish to spice up this show, but given there’s no Elliott to speak massive amounts of broken Japanese I suppose we gotta find it elsewhere.

I haven’t depicted it, but Dan shows surprise that Revolver was able to create the Curry so quickly. Revolver West prides himself on the fact that his Curry is not only balanced and possible to live purely on, but also the fact that it’s very easy to make and done so very quickly.

You’ll notice that a lot of what he does is emphasized for “Speed”

It’s easy to see why he might be a Green player.

It appears Revolver West carries a personal make of Green paste to assist in the quick creation of his curry.

A good rule of people is that they like to feel attractive. That’s not just a girl thing, that’s universal. You want ANYONE to feel good about themselves? Call him hot, cute, sexy, beautiful, handsome, whichever applies.

As long as the delivery seems genuine, you’ll generally get a good response.

Only works once though, don’t litter your words with compliments or they’ll start to get uncomfortable. But its certainly a good one-time thing to drop into a conversation.

General consensus around the group is that yes, the Green Curry is awesome, but while Dan believes the Curry is delicious, he hesitates to call it “Curry” because of how different it is.

First rule of Curry, everything that involves ingredients in a spiced sauce and served along with rice, can count as a curry. Its how you get Beef Curry, Chicken Curry, Veggie Curry, even FISH can be in a curry.

If its got Spiced Sauce and can be served with Rice, it’s a Curry.

Revolver’s been modest up until now, but he says something rather uncharacteristic of him, which is that he insists that Dan is eating the best curry he’s ever had.

And finally announces his intent to defeat him.

Calling him the “Red Soldier” is a final confirmation that he’s working with Dan’s enemies.

He seems to be “playing the villain” here, he was sent to battle Dan by Kajitsu, and claims to be doing it to try and have the Otherworld King “succeed in his dream.”

But the Otherworld King’s desire, is stated to be: to fight the strongest Deck.

And we saw last time that anyone who beats Dan can have their Deck considered to be the strongest and therefore can take on Otherworld King to get a wish granted.

So I wonder why Revolver doesn’t divulge that information to explain his opposition, its possibly because he feel he doesn’t have to, because sentiments would make Dan play more reserved.

Revolver appears to be a very honest Battler, so he wants an honest opponent.

His Battler’s Title is “Quick Draw Revolver”, its almost like a personal handle at this point, I really like the whole “titling” thing.

Without further ado, let’s get into this battle!

We unfortunately don’t get to start from Turn 1 here. With a MachG damaging Dan’s life right when we get passed the eyecatch.

I can’t accurately gauge Dan’s lives here.

Revolver’s on the other hand is much easier to see, he’s on 3 lives left.

Dan’s field consists of a Lv2 Lizardedge, a Lv3 Rokceratops and a Lv2 Goradon.

Ah, we now have a better view of Dan’s life count, he’s got 3 lives remaining, okay that’s fair.

I’ve decided to refer to the Wiki just briefly to get a gist of the layout, Revolver has 2 MachG’s and a MachFly on the field.

And this turn will begin from Turn 5 on Revolver’s end, so Dan has had 2 Core Steps. And lost 2 lives, so his total available Core is 8.

Which matches up with what’s on his Spirits right now.

Revolver would only have had 1 Core Step right now, but he’ll be on 8 Core starting on his turn.

Addressing Dan’s complaint, HOW THE FUCK WAS ZUNGURII SUPPOSED TO KNOW? THE GUY SAVED HIM FROM CERTAIN DEATH AND FED HIM CURRY.

Gun of the Fast Pull decides to analyse Dan’s current play style thus far, from the Wiki, its apparently only been 4 turns.

Though its also possible he’s had a passing look or heard of the battles Dan had with Kazan, Yuuki and Crown.

Revolver then criticizes the strategy, claiming that the way Dan uses Red relies on their natural toughness (Red is known for its ability to obtain high BP), but Dan otherwise doesn’t make use of the attribute in any other way, relying on Clash and High BP to obtain wins.

Revolver resolves to show Dan the depth of Green cards.

The guy then starts running through the steps really really fast rather than going through them one at a time.

Magisa of course notes that while it is faster it doesn’t make any difference if he had just done it normally.

Revolver brings MachFly up to Lv3 which gives it 6000 BP.

Pretty hefty amount of Core to give it, that’s basically all of Revolver’s remaining Core.

Revolver then goes on a short tirade about how Dan was preaching his love of Curry, yet wasn’t aware that Green Curry existed, he likes Curry, but doesn’t even know which Curry is the best because he’s completely uneducated when it comes to Curry.

I’m sure there’s a moral here that relates to Battle Spirits in some way, I don’t exactly agree with the idea Revolver is suggesting that Dan should have no right to criticize Zungurii’s Curry when he himself doesn’t know what is and isn’t Curry.

It’s not like Dan was saying Zungurii’s dishes were not Curry, he simply said it wasn’t like his Mother’s Curry.

But you don’t need to have a fucking portfolio to prove you can criticize someone else’s, you don’t pull up at a Job Interview demanding the Interviewer prove they’re qualified to interview you.

That’s not how that works, many Music and Movie critics don’t make Music or Movies, the only requirement is that they know what goes into the process and know what makes it good, even if its informed by their own point of view.

Revolver does take a moment to praise Zungurii’s ability to cook.

…You can’t tell me THAT’s his problem.

Alright, let’s digest (no pun intended) what Revolver actually wants here.

The Wish he wants from Otherworld King is for people to know about his delicious Green Curry. He believes the problem that is causing his Green Curry to fail on Earth is because people simply aren’t aware of what Curry is, despite the fact that everyone he’s managed to serve in Otherworld has apparently stated they quite enjoy it.

…So in short, because people do not feel obligated to learn about his Curry, they’re ignorant, and that’s the reason his Curry is failing.

Revolver has a case of what I can only describe as Toxic Honesty, he’s likely made no attempts to properly advertise his Curry in a way that makes people want to try it. I don’t know if that’s because he feels they should want to try something new themselves or whatever, but I’m getting a very “My Curry should succeed based on whether or not it is good and nothing else” vibe from this guy. He wants the Curry to succeed honestly and it’s bottlenecking what he actually needs to do to get it noticed.

The Lv3 MachFly attacks. He likely levelled it up so it could overcome Rokceratops.

Pffft, he’s making Dan out to be the soldier of “Red Curry” as he puts it. Even though Red Curry is very very similar to Green Curry and is exclusively a Thai Dish, I think the show is making Japanese Beef Curry out to be a “Red Curry” when it isn’t.

I’m sad this show also doesn’t make reference to the lesser known Yellow Curry.

Dan takes the opportunity to Flash and use Buster Phalanx

It’s a base set card and we’ve seen it mentioned before but I think its worth re-reviewing even if we haven’t. Its a base set card that wipes out all Nexuses, but can be used during Flash timing to provide a 4000 BP boost.

Dan lacks Core in his reserve as all of them are on his Spirits, and he needs 3 Core, so he brings Lizardedge and Goradon to a single Core to pay for it.

Rokceratops receives a 4000 BP boost to 8000 BP and blocks the 6000 BP MachFly

Rokceratops wipes out MachFly and Revolver ends his turn.

Zungurii lets out a cheer but then catches himself, remembering that he should be annoyed.

Magisa then tells Zungurii to as we say, “Quitcha Bitchin'”

While I’d say Dan suffering consequences for an argument he had isn’t really a good enough reason to forgive them for them being a jerk. It was Zungurii that said he was leaving, Dan at no point asked or even expected him to go.

The Crux of her argument is that Dan does indeed worry about Zungurii, and that some altercation over Curry shouldn’t really break them up.

It’s Dan’s turn, and Lizardedge and Goradon are brought up to Lv2.

Dan’s only got 3 cards in his hand, so he can’t carelessly make additions to his board without having fewer answers later.

Goradon attacks.

Zungurii then panics because he remembers that he gave Revolver The DragonEmperor Siegfried and things that might come back to bite Dan in the ass.

I will say, I’d love an alternate take on this episode where Revolver DOES use Siegfried, a Red Dragon suits him in a strange kind of way.

But maybe it’s just me being a fan of Dragons.

DON’T. USE. CARDS. YOU. CAN’T. AFFORD.

A White Magic or anything cost 4 or under you can somewhat justify running without reduction but for god sakes its not worth running a 6 cost spirit just so you can hard summon it.

And I say that but there’s this card that comes out in like 5 sets that people just ran 3 ofs ANYWAY without reduction!

No one actually uses it in the anime, so I think its fine to mention, but yeah people were just running this card in literally anything because it prevented your opponent from doing anything if it wasn’t Yellow, and Yellow is not exactly the pinnacle of good defense cards.

It was so egregious they BANNED it. But people ran THIS card because it won you the game.

Siegfried will not win you the game in the same way.

The way Revolver Responds in Flash Timing is to shoot the card, complete with smoke, out of his hand as if he’s firing a gun.

The Card he used during Flash Timing was Amenborg, which he summons using Swift.

Amenborg is rather simple, a Cost 2, 1 Green Reduction, Parasite Family Green Swift Spirit.

In the BP department it only reaches 4000 BP at Lv2 but besides that, 4000 BP can get you quite far in the early game. Especially if it comes out of nowhere.

Its summon is kind of cool, the Green Symbol it bursts from comes out of a pool of Water, which it then lands on and disperses.

It’s a bit over the top for what is a Cost 2 card from a Starter Deck though.

I should give it more credit where due, Amenborg IS a pretty good card for the time, it has a lot of traits that make it good beyond it being a Cost 2 Swift Spirit, it’s a Parasite meaning it supports the many other cards that can make use of Parasite Spirits.

The little Water Strider cuts through and defeats the 3000 BP Goradon.

Of course, the hype surrounding this little sequence is because it’s our first time seeing the Green keyword in THIS series. So they make a point of playing it up.

Gekiha Dan, as an anime, unlike all other animes, did not mark the start of a new “Saga” in Battle Spirits unlike every other series did. So the big sell of this series, for now, is Keywords.

Dan ends his turn, having had his battle plan interrupted.

It seems Revolver’s motto in both Battle Spirits, and in life, is to not waste time and do things quickly.

That manifests in a battle style that relies on surprise and the Swift Keyword to quickly amount small advantages that will eventually pile up into a win.

He actually does a fucking TWIRL before running through the steps again.

He levels down Amenborg to Level up the 2 MachG.

This is a tad strange at first glance because with 9 Core available, he should be able to keep Amenborg well levelled.

Unfortunately Swift has a Drawback, while normally having Core on Spirits isn’t a problem, Core for Swift can only be paid from the Reserve. Most Swift Spirits require 1 Core to play, and need 1 Core to maintain, so at least 2 core in the reserve is required at any time.

Dan takes lives from 2 of Revolver’s MachGs, leaving him on 1 life.

Revolver sets up his endgame by attacking with Amenborg and then playing God Speed during Flash Timing.

Its one of those cards where one look at it makes it hella obvious as to why it’s not been shown in Toppa Bashin, there was never a need to reduce the costs of anything when you’re on turn fucking 30.

God Speed is a 3 reduction Cost 3 Green Magic that changes any Spirit that’s cost 6 or higher AND has Swift into a Cost 4 Spirit with the caveat that the Card cannot be used during the Main Step.

At max reductions the Card is free and makes Swift spirits easier to summon. For cards that reduce the cost of cards in your hand, it does NOT change how much reductions reduce it by, so if I have a Cost 7 with 4 reductions and this card changes that card’s cost to 4, if I meet all that card’s 4 reductions I can play the card for free.

Needless to say, THIS is cool!

With God Speed, The SavageKnight Hercules’ usual 7 Cost 3 Reduction is made into 4 Cost 3 Reduction, allowing Revolver to play it for 1 Cost.

Not to mention God Speed was free thanks to meeting the same reductions Hercules did, its quite a nice combo.

Hercules is normally a straight pain in the ass to play since the most effective us of it requires at least 5 core in the Reserve at Flash timing, God Speed makes a Turn 7 Hercules possible.

Revolver refreshes the 2 MachGs that were exhausted.

Notably this was done during Amenborg’s attack, so Amenborg is also exhausted, and will be refreshed by Hercules’ summon.

All in all, this is a 7 Attack Combo brought about by 5 cards.

Well, Dan has yet to actually make use of his Keyword whatsoever this battle.

Revolver on the other hand has made EXCELLENT use of Swift this game.

Ah okay, he actively refers to it as “Red Hot Curry” referring to Dan’s Curry being typically spicy.

Curry generally is, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.

Dan then declares, strangely to the untrained eye, that his favourite curry is in fact Zungurii’s spicy curry.

Now he WAS criticizing it the entire time, but he never actually stated whether or not the curry was bad, merely that it wasn’t the same as his Mother’s.

And there’s a few times throughout the episode after Zungurii leaves where Dan has at Zungurii’s last attempt at Curry multiple times, picking it out with a ladel and eating from it.

So its likely that he eventually got what we call, an acquired taste.

Acquired tastes are why Children seem fussier when it comes to eating food. A lot of what we eat and don’t like right out the gate becomes a lot more appreciated when we’re used to eating it until eventually it becomes something we enjoy.

Dan casts Victory Fire, destroying a refreshed MachG and the attacking Amenborg.

Dan still has 2 blockers and Revolver has only 2 attackers, Hercules and a refreshed MachG, he’s not winning this turn without another Swift.

Dan once again re-affirms his resolve to save Zungurii’s family.

All things considered, Revolver has a fairly good position here, he’s got 3 lives to Dan’s 1 and 4 core in his reserve. But ending his turn here gives away to Dan that he doesn’t have a Swift spirit in his hand, if he did, he would have continued attacking.

As it stands though, Dan NEEDS 5 Spirits to win. Or a way to get around the 2 blockers.

For some reason Dan checks the card upside down even though he picks it up from the bottom, but I assume that’s to make the insertion of the card into his hand later a lot smoother.

Dan plays one extra Goradon.

And then plays Siegwurm at Lv2.

He still doesn’t have enough Spirits to clear the attacks he needs to win. But I got a shot at his hand very briefly before he began his turn and it appears he’s got another Victory Fire in his hand.

The Must-be-blocked Siegwurm attacks.

Dan levels down his Rokceratops and Lizardedge to clear the cost required to play a 2nd Victory Fire.

This takes out Revolver’s remaining MachG and prevents Revolver from making use of it to chump-block.

Very notably, MachG requires the same amount of Core to reach 3000 BP as it does for Amenborg to reach 4000 BP, and both Spirits have 2000 BP at Lv1.

Revolver levelling down Amenborg for MachG’s Lv2 made him explicitly vulnerable to Victory Fire (though it’s clear he wasn’t anticipating the first one).

Though had Amenborg been level 2, Dan would have had to Victory Fire the 2 MachGs, and then block the Amenborg and sacrificing a Spirit, Dan would have had 1 Blocker to Revolver West’s 1 Attacker and Revolver could have made a push to eliminate Dan’s last Spirit, had any one of Dan’s cards remaining in his hand NOT been a Spirit in that case, Revolver could have won the game there. And we know one of Dan’s cards was Victory Fire which wouldn’t work on a 4000 BP Amenborg or a 5000 BP Hercules.

Meaning had Amenborg been Lv2, Revolver would have won, a single instance of 1000 BP completely fucked Quick Draw Revolver.

Hercules has 5000 BP but it isn’t enough to stop the 6000 BP Siegwurm.

Dan’s 3 remaining Spirits take the last of Revolver’s lives, marking the end of Quick Draw Revolver.

Spice is the essence of curry, which Revolver loves, so a Spicy Battle should be taken as him saying it was a good battle, or a fun battle.

Revolver awards Dan with the X-Rare Zungurii gave to him, The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

I bet you’re just waiting for me to bring up my little “spiritual successor” speech again.

Indeed, a Red card will see the most love in a deck with Red cards.

Revolver West was a good example of a couple of things, firstly that not everyone who works for Otherworld King is evil. Revolver West is extremely kind, offers hospitality and will straight up offer advice to those who are in his opposition. He’s not an evil person, and the only thing he wants is to spread the joy of his food, which is what ANY proud chef wants.

And given that he claims he went there on the direct orders of Kajitsu, this could be good foreshadowing to the fact that Kajitsu and Yuuki are not necessarily evil, given they are sending kind people to test Dan.

It seems Kajitsu’s having a post-battle meeting with Revolver West about his battle with Dan.

Revolver notes his long service to Otherworld King as his response to her question, which makes her catch on that perhaps he’s re-thinking his service to him.

And once again, Anime’s lovely trope of indicating the morals of “Dreams” and “Fulfillment” to be things that only have meaning when achieved through one’s own effort, as opposed to having it granted to you.

Though I’m not sure its an adequate application here, defeating Dan requires great effort, achieving one’s dream through an unorthodox method that also requires great effort.

Perhaps its a more of a “There are no shortcuts in life” kind of message.

You can hear the neigh of a horse in the background when he says “Heigh-ho Silver!”

Once again, very Cowboy.

It appearsKajitsu doesn’t have a “You have outlived your usefulness” policy with people who want to leave, I guess if the offer of a wish isn’t compelling enough for some to act in her or Yuuki’s desires, then they’re free to go about their lives.

Dan of course, apologizes to Zungurii for being anal about Curry and Zungurii apologizes to Dan for pissing off and bringing back an enemy.

Dan once again has at Zungurii’s curry, after stating that he said Zungurii’s spicy curry was his favourite, he’s gong to have to take all the Ls that come with that.

Except this time it doesn’t, once Zungurii is given the freedom to just, make a Curry as opposed to Dan’s mother’s Curry, it turns out its actually quite tasty.

Both Dan and Zungurii are completely stumped as to why the Curry tastes good now. Once again, it’s likely because Zungurii was given free reign, outside the boundaries of having to do it to Dan’s mother’s recipe.

Zungurii is a good cook but he isn’t Dan’s mother.

Magisa then randomly pops out of nowhere and suggests that Dan should be exhausted because he quite literally did not sleep during the night waiting for Zungurii.

And then Dan completely ignores this going back to the Curry conversation, and stating that he now needs to tell his Dad that his Mum’s Curry is only 2nd best.

Also Dan has 2 completely living parents.

They have 0 appearances and no further mention is made of them, however there is a Chapter from a Premium Box much later that gives some indication of the events that occur to Dan after this series.

I won’t go over them until after we get to the end, but some details in those indicate that Dan’s father is a Salaryman, and Dan’s mother is a Housewife.

Could you believe this is a show about Card Games? I’d expect it to be one about fucking Curry at this point.

This episode isn’t bad, its a bit episodic, and Siegfried seems sort of planted in there to ensure people don’t skip it if they’re watching only for the Card Games, but at least for the characters its a good episode because it resolves the differences Dan has with Zungurii which are amplified by the fact that Dan is human and Zungurii is an Otherworlder.

It’s also a warning that those wishing to get a wish granted by Otherworld King will not be doing so out of malice, there are many good wishes they’ll have to step on if they’re going to prevent Otherworld King from doing as he likes.

There’s not much special plot detail beyond that but its not a bad episode, and one worth watching, not to mention I believe its the first time we’ve seen an X-Rare used up until now, and Dan finally begins his role as Bashin’s spiritual successor with the acquisition of Siegfried, Bashin’s own ace.

Which as it happens is our featured card for the day.

We’ve discussed the applications of this card, which is to say, Siegfried has near 0 meta presence for any reason because it’s just a Big Awaken Spirit that occasionally shits a life when it dies.

Interestingly however, it has interesting uses in Dan’s deck, we’ve seen Dan having Awaken support, and his Siegwurm also grants any Awaken Spirit the ability to use Clash, suddenly Siegfried’s Awaken and BP become useful to beat your opponent over the head with a stick.

And additionally, it’s destruction is more likely to occur because it can fight more battles with Clash.

Cool as that trick might be, you need 2 specific Cost 6 Spirits and well I’ll be honest, no one topping was bumping Siegwurm, so Siegfried benefitting from Siegwurm was irrelevant.

But it IS a small look into the potential of Siegfried in Dan’s Deck, not to mention it completes the idea of Dan being a better Bashin. Once again, this show on a very basic level, seems like an attempted remake of Toppa Bashin.

Anyway, that’s all I got for this episode! I’ll see you all in the next one!