Gekiha Dan – Episode 8

Welcome back for Episode 8, The Ultimate Dragon, The Deity Catastrophedragon

Last time we left off with Suzuri trying to yoink the aforementioned card, judging by the title, we’re in for a treat.

Is it just me or does the bloody mountain which the Mimi Shrine is actually on just look like a really happy fat cat?

Everything is cat-shaped here, its kind of ridiculous.

Dan, sharp as ever, asks why Sophia is showing them such an important card now when she protested it before.

Sophia’s only answer is this which is… well about as cryptic as it gets really. She’s just “certain” that she wants to show them the extra special chocolate-coated card.

Oh god even the SHRINE is Cat themed… And it’s not even housing a Cat X-Rare, it contains a freaking Dragon

And apparently a Suzuri making a very awkward pose in an attempt to get inside.

As it turns out, it’s much harder to steal from a shrine when the only entrance is locked and has no handles with which to open it.

A Super Rare card, so rare and special that it has its OWN SHRINE dedicated to its storage and you’re confused that the shrine is difficult to get into?

Come on now Suzuri, you’re smarter than this.

I’d argue he was stupid enough to stick around long enough to get caught given that Dan has spent most of the time fighting Jin and Suzuri’s had plenty of time alone with the shrine, but that could just be a testament to how much trouble he’s having.

Given Sophia is the Shrine Maiden of the Village it’s imperative that she knows everyone who resides there. So spotting someone who is 1. Not vaguely Cat-shaped, and 2. Unrecognized by the Shrine Maiden who needs to know everyone there is a recipe for suspicion.

Thanks for spelling that out for us Clackey, just incase we weren’t sure of that already.

Nothing like the sweet sweet insight into Suzuri’s true colours already.

Suzuri is… above all things, a complete coward. The second he was under suspicion he instantly caved and began apologizing.

It’s a bit of a two-way street with him though, he does have a vast wealth of knowledge and has a strong drive to collect rare cards, its just that he completely crumples once in any danger.

A landmine handles pressure better than he does.

He also, somehow, some way, bears the core’s light.

Its a good thing everyone in this show is aware that Magisa’s little staff will happily colour code itself to show which Core’s light a person bears. Indicating that Suzuri is the Blue Soldier.

And of course, this means Suzuri is our resident Blue player.

I think we’re 3 for 3 on people discovering they’re a Core Lightbearer and being extremely confused as to what that actually means.

So their instant response was to take him home and celebrate, apparently despite catching him in the act of attempting to enter the Shrine.

I’m kind of surprised they didn’t click as to why he was there.

Magisa also points out that Suzuri over here is a giant weirdo, preferring to be on his own.

Yes, as it turns out, people are different, who the hell knew.

Oooo, we get to have a peak at good ol’ Suzuri’s Binder.

We see a bunch of blue cards in there but apparently he’s left an open space for the Village’s X-Rare, the problem is that this is evidently the wrong place to put it because he’s managed to sort his binder by colour and that is definitely NOT where that card would go.

Gosh Suzuri reminds me of my partner.

Suzuri’s a Collector, as such he takes great pains not only to collect rare cards but to ensure that their good condition is maintained as much as possible. Potentially for vanity reasons but usually its to ensure that if they ever want to sell off the collection they can maximize the value through the effort invested in preserving them.

Dan introduces himself to Suzuri and comments that Grand-Lolo brought Suzuri here for something as well.

I question the way this statement is worded, mostly because it could POTENTIALLY imply each Lightbearer is brought to Grand-Lolo for a different reason, though I might be reading a bit too much into it since if they’re all brought here for the SAME reason and Dan doesn’t know it, Dan could potentially phrase the statement like this as well

Dan wishes Suzuri well when working together.

Suzuri however, not only being introverted, but a hoarder of X-Rares, isn’t likely to want to co-operate with people.

I heard a very good description of introversion once actually, namely that Extraverted people begin their day with low energy, and gain it through the course of social interaction, where as Introverted people begin with a large reserve of energy, but lose it over the course of social interaction.

So far its been a good descriptor, much better than simply being “not good with people” or “very good with people”, since you can have extremely social introverts.

Dan notes the expansive collection and immediately becomes invested, ignoring the fact that Suzuri isn’t really down with the whole teaming up thing.

And Suzuri isn’t so reserved that he doesn’t hide his collection from others.

Notably the card Suzuri points to in his binder isn’t actually an X-Rare, The ChimeraDragon Hydrus.

I don’t recall it ever being used so I won’t bother going over it.

More insight into Suzuri’s character, he laments the fact that each of the cards he’s stored away has been used at least once, which he believes degrades their condition, even slightly, and the idea makes him sad.

Suzuri turns the page to reveal a card that catches Dan’s eye, The GiantHero Titus.

Oh joy, who would have thought that the resident Red player wouldn’t have a Blue X-Rare.

…Actually that’s incredibly dumb of me, especially because Bashin’s final deck was effectively a Red/Blue deck that featured Titus as well.

I might be stupid.

Suzuri points out that currently, the GiantHero Titus is his favourite X-Rare card, no points for guessing which card he’s currently running.

This show hasn’t quite reached BS06 just yet, which is where all the Lightbearers get MOST of their aces. As a result most of the Lightbearers are using other strategies until they’ve acquired their Arc-defining cards.

Ah yes, the deck-builder’s curse. Something I know all too well.

The problem with a game you love a lot is that you tend to want to have many different decks you want to play. This makes the game rather difficult to play physically as you’ll soon find yourself spending LOTS of money trying to maintain all of these decks.

Battle Spirits hasn’t made it’s way over to Western Markets (though it’s coming, Battle Spirits Saga for the win), so I’ve been playing Digimon, and due to my need to have a VARIETY of different decks to play with, I’ve accumulated over 30+ playable decks.

This is likely to be a problem for me again once Battle Spirits Saga comes out.

Sophia interrupts this little card viewing.

And apparently it’s to show us something, alright then.

The entire Mimi village has gathered outside for whatever this little display is going to be.

It appears whatever they’re looking for, its in the AIR.

AND ITS…. A LAWSUIT WAITING TO HAPPEN.

The Moon has a flat X on it, in a manner that can ONLY resemble the bloody Xbox symbol.

LOOK AT THIS SHIT.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY THERE ISN’T A CASE THERE.

Supposedly the moon of Grand-Lolo has an X-Rare X on it. Which we can all say is bullshit because X-Rare Xs look every so slightly different.

As you can see from the text of this card, the X-Rare “X” has curved ends that are stylized, this one is bloody symmetrical.

It appears that in the Battle Spirits universe, Bill Gates has ascended to Divinity in Grand-Lolo.

Sophia explains that the Light of the X Moon causes the Shrine card to appear in physical form once every 100 years.

So according to Sophia, the X-Rare in the Shrine acts as a good luck charm for crops and things, not the most unusual thing to have in a village. My guess is the removal of the X-Rare begets bad harvests and famine.

Sophia be explaining all this specifically to request that for this one night, Dan and everyone else tries to protect the card, as this is the literal ONE night that it can be taken.

Dan and Clackey, being good heroes of this story, immediately agree to help protect the card.

Also sweet jesus what happened to that animation of Dan’s face.

Of course, Dan believing that Suzuri is a good person by virtue of being a Lightbearer immediately causes him to check in on the wimp.

Suzuri however, hasn’t heard the question because he’s too busy making the most of this evening to go yoink the X-Rare.

Have you considered, perhaps, that you aren’t supposed to?

It appears Dan was able to follow Suzuri here, noting they’re back at the Shrine.

Also shouldn’t be this close?

I dunno about you but if I were a Protector for the night I’d be on the bloody steps to the darn thing.

Suzuri makes a save by doing this thing we like to call blatantly lying.

It’s the only excuse Suzuri could make to get this close to the shrine and have a reason to go inside.

Ah yes, that group that you were aiding and abetting up until a few hours ago.

This revelation is weirdly interrupted by the ringing of the shrine bell which sounds more like a shaking tin-can filled with a singular chest nut than a bell.

Something in Dan’s deck is reacting also.

A connection transcending time and space is occurring.

for reference, no, no explanation is offered as to why Siegfried of all cards is glowing.

Or why the darned thing has opened the door to the Mimi Shrine.

Given the card within the Shrine is The Deity Catastrophedragon, only Bashin watchers would realize the significance of Siegfried’s connection to the card.

Dan sends Zungurii off to be a messenger boy to alert the Mimi Village about the presence of the Deathmatch Group…

Despite the fact that only Dan has managed to open the door up until now and has zero reason to believe the Deathmatch Group has the capacity to get inside…

Dan and Suzuri enter the temple to stop our imaginary infiltrators that have no way of actually getting into the Shrine…

Because Dan is a muffin.

This is a prime example of an idiot plot, the only reason the story is even progressing at this point is because Dan hasn’t figured out the problem with his current situation.

Oh, and as if it wasn’t obvious enough that no one is making it in, the entire Shrine is COMPLETELY BOOBY-TRAPPED.

Sure anyone with eyes and a sense of urgency could still make it through but its also incredibly bloody dark in there and I feel like I’d run into the corpses of the Deathmatch group before I’d run into the Deathmatch group.

Oh, Dan isn’t being stupid, he’s trying to get to the Altar of the Shrine before the Deathmatch group gets to it so he can properly protect it.

…Which makes me wonder why he questioned Suzuri’s proximity to the shrine earlier.

Through Trial and Error (Mostly Error), the pair have finally made it to the Shrine.

…I’m not particularly certain looking in the card’s general direction would cause it to become dirty.

Respect for the card gloves at the very least, I’ve seen the way people handle Black Lotuses in MTG, there are gloves EVERYWHERE in that process.

And this is why we don’t take antsy card collectors to villages they have no intention of ever returning to when said village relies on the existence of their perfect-condition card being exactly in a specific spot to function.

…A bit of an awfully specific thing that we don’t do but this is exactly why we don’t do it.

Unfortunately, it appears the Mimi Shrine creator’s brains are far bigger than every other character we’ve seen thus far. Suzuri’s hands phase through the card. Preventing it from being stolen because the card is incorporeal.

Bit of a weird time for a trap door to appear, causing Suzuri to fall into it.

What’s going on is the Mimi Shrine builders were either complete geniuses, or absolute morons.

It appears Siegfried has a comment to make.

And whatever that comment was, its causing Catastrophedragon to react.

Suddenly Dan’s Siegfried is the card on the altar, which if anyone is familiar with how swapping places works, would suggest…

…That the Deity Catastrophedragon has made its way into Dan’s hands.

Behold, Dan has apparently managed to negotiate a trade with a Shrine that can’t bloody speak.

Narrator: It was not, in fact, his.

Dan has a brain, and we appreciate him for that.

Our spectators have arrived.

I’m kind of surprised Sophia hasn’t commented on the strange interaction of Siegfried swapping places with Catastrophedragon here.

Suzuri of course, handles the situation about as well as any spoiled 12-year old would. Refusing to move from his given position until he’s given The Deity Catastrophedragon.

Potentially helped by the fact that y’know, he’s a child.

We don’t get to actually hear Dan’s request before the battle happens, but its likely that he’s either asked to wager the card in order to force Suzuri to budge, or he’s asked to wield the card, given he’ll need it to replace his Siegfried.

Suzuri’s Battle Form is quite bulky, having Pentagonal Pauldrons and a thick chest piece.

And Dan of course declares that if he wins, Suzuri will have to give up on the X-Rare. Easy enough.

Suzuri doesn’t only have Gloves for handling cards to file away in his Binder, he also uses Battle Gloves for when playing with them.

Despite Suzuri’s very timid demeanor earlier, his personality has completely changed now that he’s on the Battlefield.

In spite of this confidence in battle, he proceeds with his turns at an absolute snail’s pace in order to ensure the card’s aren’t damaged.

After a certain amount of time, if this were a tournament setting with judges supervising, it’s possible Suzuri would get SEVERAL slow play warnings for playing like this.

Suzuri opens the game by playing the Cost 3 Rock-Golem, we’ve seen this in Bashin but may as well go over it again.

Rock-Golem, a very simple Cost 3 Spirit, which also gives away Suzuri’s strategy right from the get-go, he’s going to be aiming for Dan’s deck the entire game.

Dan responds by opening with Lizardedge and Erimakilizard… but he’s interrupted by a rather wimpy scream from Suzuri.

Of course, Suzuri protests the way Dan uses the cards because he’s, well I wouldn’t say rough but not quite as gentle with them as Suzuri would like.

Dan brings Lizardedge to Level three by adding the rest of the Core in his reserve.

This puts it over Rock-Golem’s Level 1 BP of 3000, meaning Dan can safely attack now.

Suzuri takes the hit from his life. Pretty standard response, losing Rock-Golem now would be kind of nasty.

Suzuri doesn’t seem to do well with handling the pain of the battlefield however, he gets knocked off his feet and has to pick himself back up.

So he’s of weak constitution AND impulse control, apparently.

Dan notes that Suzuri’s comments seem surprised, it occurs to him that this might be Suzuri’s first ever battle in Grand-Lolo.

Personally I’d feel like I had a moral dilemma here if I was in Dan’s position, I don’t think I’d want to inflict pain on someone who wasn’t anticipating it, but at the same time I’m not about to let the guy steal an important treasured card just because he wasn’t prepared for the pain of battle.

Dan of course, answers this problem by simply confirming whether or not Suzuri wishes to continue.

Suzuri may not be one for pain, and definitely isn’t enjoying taking damage, but not even God could get between him and something he wants.

Clackey and Magisa note that Suzuri has extremely high persistence in spite of his inability to handle the pain of battle, which is an admirable trait apparently.

Suzuri is definitely one of those characters who’s significantly cooler in battle than he is outside of it. His personality is like that of a famished-wolf once he’s got cards in his hand, but is a complete crybaby at any other time.

We’ve apparently jumped to Turn 9 of this game, Suzuri’s life total has dropped to 1 already.

Suzuri’s field consists of 2 Soldier Gustav, 1 at Lv2 (4000 BP) and the other at Lv1 (2000 BP), and a Lv3 Rock-Golem (7000 BP).

Dan on the other hand has a Lv2 Erimakilizard (2000 BP), a Lv2 Goradon (3000 BP) and a Rokceratops at Lv3 (4000 BP)

Our resident Clash King hasn’t even taken any damage either.

We’ve skipped 7 turns into the future and Dan has an overwhelming advantage while we’ve still got half an episode left.

At this point I can’t even tempt fate ironically, this isn’t going to go well for Dan.

Magisa notes that in spite of the fact that Dan is walloping Suzuri left, right and up a waterfall, Dan hasn’t actually drawn anything good that could make a clear shift in advantage.

Suzuri begins his turn, 5 core in the reserve.

Suzuri retrieves 2 core each from Gustav and Rock-Golem by dropping them a level.

9 Core in the Reserve and 3 Blue symbols on board for reduction.

Ruh-Roh.

And Suzuri plays a new card, The BlastingGiant Douglas.

Suzuri spares no expense bringing Douglas to level 2.

Let’s actually look at this thing shall we?

A Cost 5 Fighting Spirit from the fated BS06. Naturally like the rest of Suzuri’s cards, its a Demolish Spirit, only difference is at Lv2, when Douglas manages to Demolish any of Dan’s Spirit cards, he’ll be able to blast a Cost 3 or less Spirit off the board alongside it. A nice little control to go with your deck destruction.

Of course, Suzuri spares no expense, attacking straight away.

Suzuri activates Demolish, trashing 2 cards from Dan’s deck, Offensive Aura, and his ace Siegwurm.

As if losing Siegwurm wasn’t bad enough, BECAUSE Dan lost Siegwurm, Suzuri will be taking out another Spirit.

Suzuri selects the Cost 1 Rokceratops as the target.

Suzuri’s basically declaring that this is his strategy, he’ll continually whittle away at Dan’s deck while accruing advantage from doing so with cards like Douglas.

Dan strangely chooses to block with Goradon instead of taking one of his 5 lives… he doesn’t really need them so its a tad strange he’d leave Goradon to block.

Though, it’s also possible Dan’s reading ahead, knowing that Suzuri declared a certain card to be his favourite, and he DEFINITELY doesn’t want to block that.

Suzuri ends his turn and Dan wonders if Suzuri would be able to to mill Dan’s deck every turn.

This is a surprisingly weird question, Douglas does all of that on attack, as long as Douglas can swing, that sequence of events is likely to occur.

Huh, an extra Rock-Golem has suddenly appeared from out of nowhere all of a sudden. That’s a bit spooky.

But it explains Dan’s block, a full attack with Dan not blocking would give Suzuri victory, choosing when to block lets you dictate how far Suzuri will get.

Magisa takes this opportunity to explain that because Blue tends to have very nasty win conditions that are nigh-unstoppable, you’re unable to play at your own pace. Not to mention Blue decks milling your best cards will make them very annoying to play against.

Red has answers to Blue’s mill however, an aspect of Red is card recovery from the Trash to the hand, cards like Call-of-Lost can cause Blue to get YOU to your win condition much faster than usual as opposed to removing it from you entirely.

I doubt we will see any of that this game though, I don’t think I’ve seen Dan use a single card like Call-of-lost.

Suzuri guesses, or perhaps hopes that he’s broken Dan’s spirit by taking out his ace card, Suzuri’s very knowledgeable about Dan’s strategy, knowing that the guy bases his deck solely on Siegwurm.

So he believes by taking it out before Dan is able to play it, he’s managed to break his will.

But we did just watch Dan sacrifice Siegwurm just so he could protect himself, so its not like Dan lives and dies by the grace of a Cost 6 Clasher.

I would be surprised if you or anyone else did. Except in… very specific circumstances that are not relevant here.

It appears we’re skipping Dan’s turn because Suzuri is now levelling down Rock-Golem to Level 2 and Douglas to Level 1.

I dunno, show, you tell me.

Here it is, The GiantHero Titus.

Descending from the Heavens like he was SENT BY THE GODS THEMSELVES.

As we all know, Titus has 2 very simple but very nightmarish effects, the first eats 10 cards of your opponent’s deck just for appearing.

Represented by this nice Blue shockwave.

Goodbye cards, we loved you.

Dan laments his loss of Extra Draw and even Victory Fire, but the cool thing about having multiples of cards in your deck is that you don’t mind losing the one.

It appears we’re just skipping over Dan’s turns completely now, jumping from Turn 13 to 15. Which is making me very sad since I’d like to actually see Dan respond to half of this.

Suzuri levels down both of his Rock-Golems down to Level 1.

Which provides the Core necessary to play a second GiantHero Titus.

Of course, we can always expect the Collector-type to have multiples of their ace card, but I don’t even think Toppa Bashin had X-Rare sequences like this with multiple of the same on board.

The 2nd Titus follows the logic of the 1st of course, since it was summoned, Dan loses another 10 cards from his deck.

Suzuri levels up one of his Titus’ to Lv2 (9000 BP), now if he defeats any Spirit of Dan’s he’ll take ANOTHER 10 cards from Dan’s deck.

It’s Turn 15, Dan’s likely drawn about 7 cards from his deck and opened with the 4 from the beginning of the game, he’s lost another 20.

Dan doesn’t have 10 cards to lose.

Suzuri’s board is getting rather full, so he respectfully offs Gustav in order to bring his 2nd Titus to Lv2 also.

Dan isn’t allowed to block either Titus or he loses the game immediately, meaning Suzuri gets free pot-shots at Dan’s life now.

Titus attacks, because, well, Dan can’t really stop it.

And Suzuri’s got TWO OF THEM.

To be fair the show is showing off a pretty hopeless situation, if you’ve gotten to the stage of the game where your opponent has managed to play not one but TWO Titus’, you’ve probably already lost by that point.

Zungurii asks the question for anyone who hasn’t been paying attention up until this point, but we of course already know, if Dan blocks, Titus wins Suzuri the game.

Thanks Clackey, but we watched waaaaay more Bashin Toppa than anyone should ever have to, so we know full well how Titus works.

We’re skipping Dan’s turn again, Suzuri brings Gustav to Lv2 (4000 BP) and Rock-Golem to Lv3 (7000 BP)

Titus goes to plant its fist in Dan’s life again.

Wow, that 2nd one even uppercuts Dan here.

I’m not sure why Magisa is writing off Dan here just because he lost Siegwurm to deck destruction, especially since Dan is more than capable of winning without Siegwurm, and even with a Bad hand.

Well, it probably should be, Suzuri is ONLY swinging with his 2 Titus’ and Dan hasn’t been blocking them, Suzuri has an incredible number of Spirits with 1 Gustav, 2 Rock-Golems and a Douglas, and as far as I can tell we haven’t seen an equivalent number of Spirits on Dan’s board.

Suzuri could probably push for game here. But Suzuri is being excessively careful and methodical about protecting his last life which is probably going to screw him over.

There’s plenty of things you can do with a thin deck, as long as SOME of your win condition is still in there.

It appears Dan’s drawn what he needs, and since we haven’t seen it yet, well, we know what the episode title is.

Pretty simple summoning chant that one, not that there’s much other word to describe it at this particular time, Catastrophedragon IS the strongest spirit, if you can play it anyway.

You either die seeing Clackey or live long enough to see Clackey become Joseph Joestar.

Even the POSE is the same, there’s no way that isn’t a Jojo reference.

The Strongest X-Rare has arrived, and is perfectly in line with Dan’s strategy, we had a look at this thing when it was used in Toppa Bashin, but here we have another look.

To re-iterate on it’s effects, simply, it draws you a card for every Ancient Dragon when it appears, including himself, netting you at least 1 draw, it can Clash, forcing the opponent to block it, and if the opponent doesn’t block with something strong enough, a Cost 6 or higher spirit, Catastrophedragon will continue to rampage.

This is dangerous for Suzuri for one obvious reason, the only things Cost 6 or greater on his board are his exhausted Tituses, meaning Catastrophedragon is going to completely clear Suzuri’s field.

Granted, one needs 10 core to fuel that effect, but Dan has lost a fair amount of life and it’s like Turn 18 or something.

I will say the beast looks far better than it did in Bashin Toppa, mostly just because the CGI in this show is just leagues better than it was in Toppa.

Though you can tell they’re still using the old model, there’s evidence of low polygons there.

Dan empties his board of spirits in order to give their Core to Catastrophedragon.

Explains why they dragged the battle out this far so Dan had conveniently enough Core to raise Catastrophedragon to Level 3 the second he played it.

Given he only had 3 reduction on board before playing this he’d have had to spend 7 core bringing it out, and had another 10 available for a total of 17 core.

We’re on Turn 18, assuming Dan can’t Core boost, he has the 4 from the game’s beginning, he went second and it’s turn 18 so he’s gained 9 core over the course of the game, and lost 4 lives.

That adds up, exactly 17 core.

This show is a LOT better about keeping the core accurate.

Dan attacks with the 20000 BP Catastrophedragon.

Thanks to Clash, Suzuri is forced to block.

To cut a long story short, Catastrophedragon continually attacks, wiping Suzuri’s board clean of non-Titus Spirits.

The battle unfortunately, doesn’t quite end with a climactic blaze of fire, as Suzuri panics at the prospect of losing his last life.

Instead the giant dark dragon just damn near scares the heebajeebus out of Suzuri and the story progresses.

Kind of a meh finish but in the show’s defense, Catastrophedragon isn’t making itself a permanent part of Dan’s deck.

It appears they figured out the mechanism that switched Catastrophedragon with Siegfried in order to place the card back.

Which means Dan no longer has this powerful card, which is fine, there’d be some problems with writing later episodes if Dan had Catastrophedragon on-hand to win him every game he made it to turn 18 on.

The choices of words a person uses is really a nice indicator on how they think, Suzuri is still whinging about how he lost his X-Rare and people who use personal possessives when describing items that do not belong to them irritate me to no end.

Dan is being a good sport about the battle now that there is exactly 0 danger of Suzuri getting at the card now, which certainly ignores all the damage Suzuri was trying to do but I guess 100 years isn’t coming soon enough for Suzuri to try again.

That’s about the reaction one would expect, trying to be kind to Suzuri after you just completely destroyed his plans was never going to go well.

Even if Suzuri was completely in the wrong, there’s still a strong feeling of taking things like that personally.

He’s not entirely selfish though, he actively shows some knowledge that what he tried to do was wrong and apologizes for it.

Um, sorry what? What the hell does this show define as “meaning it”

The guy broke into a Shrine he was not supposed to be in, lied to pull the wool over your eyes until he got to what he was looking for, prepared GLOVES for the purpose of yoinking said card.

What part of that suggests he didn’t mean it? Because he apologized?

No! There’s a difference between apologizing for an accident, and apologizing because you did something objectively wrong, heaven knows if Suzuri had won that battle and claimed his X-Rare he would not be apologizing for shit. He’s apologizing because he was punished, he 100% meant to yoink that card.

We jump to the group leaving Mimi Village, finally, Clackey’s also 100% all in on going with the gang, making him a mainstay for the cast.

Magisa laments Suzuri not joining them for their travels.

Though Clackey retorts with a statement that they’re far too different.

It’s true, some groups of people do not mix, there are going to be people you are incapable of making friends with, and there will be people who will not be able to become friends with your friends.

Such is the demeanor of a low-energy introvert.

Magisa makes some comments on Suzuri’s character, believing him to have the potential to be a powerful battler.

Oh that’s depressing, it appears Suzuri intended to go with them but simply ran off and got lost, and he doesn’t have the Deathmatch group to travel with which is even more depressing.

Well this certainly makes everything that happens to Suzuri after this a related product of the Dan gang leaving him alone.

And that’s the end of the episode!

Despite being a rare moment of powerful cards like The Deity Catastrophedragon being used by our main characters, narratively games won by cards that are only ever used once do not make interesting narrative games.

For example, lets take Yugioh GX, in the abridged series for this show there’s a notable gag that Jaden has the special power to use any card he wants exactly once, the statement here is that Yugioh often falls into a nasty trap where in order to orchestrate specific situations and solutions, they create anime-only cards that have never and will never be released to the public to solve the problem the current duel is presenting.

The problem is, just-so happening to have the exact card required to win a very specific duel at every point is not good writing, it turns the character into a Mary Sue, that is, the plot bends to ensure the character’s success.

The same applies for this episode, the game is very carefully orchestrated to do exactly one thing, allow Dan to play The Deity Catastrophedragon, Suzuri has 0 sense of haste despite knowing that Dan has the card on him before the game, he doesn’t even comment on the obvious idea of attempting to try and mill the card from Dan’s deck before Dan is capable of using it. The entire sequence doesn’t care about Catastrophedragon before it’s used which turns Catastrophedragon itself into a Deus Ex Machina.

I’ll comment on this when I get to Battle Spirits Burning Soul, but Burning Soul actually has a replica of this issue, the main character has a key card that gets milled by another character using deck destruction, HOWEVER, in a similar vain, the character manages to draw their true ace with a thin deck and win the game.

The reason why Burning Soul handles that scenario far better is because there are SEVERAL comments made that milling through an opponent’s deck runs the risk of getting them closer to the cards they need IF YOU DON’T HIT THEM.

This game could have made Catastrophedragon feel a lot less like a “Oh hey, Dan got the card he needed in the exact situation he needed it” if they had just pointed out Dan only got that card as a result of Suzuri’s attempts to get rid of it but it’s just never mentioned.

The card would feel less like a cop-out if the story actually focused on the card itself more which would make its use feel far more impactful, and not like a one-off card that saves Dan’s ass and will never get used again, the situation we have now.

My guess is the writers were given some instruction to ensure that The Deity Catastrophedragon gets used in some way and so developed the story and battle in such a way to ensure the card gets used and wins Dan the game, and the writers also needed to ensure that Dan could not use the card again after the first time, hence the fact that the card is put back and they can continue writing interesting scenarios for Dan’s collection of cards.

And that’ll bring me to my final comment, it is far more interesting to write interesting situations for Dan’s deck of 40 cards than it is to come up with new cards to address given situations and just happen to have Dan use them. This is why I find Battle Spirits to be the most compelling TCG anime I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.

And in spite of this specific failing of an episode, the writers do not make a habit of creating one-off cards just to win given matches, so it should be all uphill from here.

Anyway, with that said and done, I’ll see you all in Episode 9! Later.