Gekiha Dan – Episode 9

Hey hey! Last time I complained a crap ton about one-off cards being used by main characters and then never again, hopefully this episode will get us somewhere a little more comfortable ay?

surprisingly, we don’t start off with an Episode card right out the gate, there’s a little bit of content before they tell us what the episode name is.

Seems we’re seeing a guy in a store from the Gurii Tribe having a hard time in a riveting game of Battle Spirits.

Don’t be sad big guy, it’s just a card game.

I say, watching a show trying to give this “Just a card game” some harsh stakes.

This Gurii tribe member is playing a Green Deck it looks like, one centred around Swift given we’ve got MachG and Amenborg, which are both Swift Spirits.

His opponent on the other hand seems to be using a Purple Curse Deck from the looks of the cards on that side of the board.

Well isn’t that a recognizeable outfit, I wonder where we’ve seen such a thing before.

Oh, of course, the opening.

Yes it appears that this episode is introducing this character, the very (un)creatively named Viole Mai.

It’s hard to get a lock on her character so I won’t bother trying to draw up a description now, but let’s just say she operates incredibly selfishly.

Viole Mai swings with Balam, we know the Gurii Tribe member only has exhausted spirits

And from the previous shot of the board we know the guy only has 1 life.

So of course, his options are lose, lose, and… wait for it.

Lose.

It appears Viole Mai is taking on all-comers.

Or… One 6th of them anyway. It appears Mai will only battle opponents wielding a Pure Green Deck.

This is of course explained later, but for now it’s just a curious choice that they went with Green for the narrative, especially since the rival colour for Purple is indeed Green.

Finally! An Episode title!

“Purple Darkness! The SevenShogun Beelzebeat”

From this point on there are no points to guessing what card is going to be used this episode, nor who will use it, given it’s fairly obvious.

We now cut to Clackey being faced with his greatest foe yet. Walking.

As someone who is mostly sedentary, sitting on their ass and shitting out blog posts every so often, walking suuuuuucks.

Especially when its the only mode of transport to cover a long distance like they’re doing here.

Clackey does have a point though, it’s fairly unrealistic for a number of 12-15 year old people to cover country-level distances on foot

Zungurii and Dan’s solution to Clackey’s fatigue is to have Zungurii allow Dan and Clackey to ride on his oversized bag, as Zungurii has a lot of power he can carry unreasonably heavy weight.

Clackey protests this apparently, I have zero clue why.

Beggars can’t be choosers man.

In the distance however, Zungurii spots a Card Stand, like Pokemon Centres but for Card Games.

Back at the Card Stand, and we can see Magisa went ahead to take a break at it.

It seems like Mai is having a good run, 12 wins in a row against only Green players.

Aww come on guys don’t be like that, most card games need good pilots as well as good decks for success.

Some would argue that Yu-Gi-Oh! or some other card game of choice isn’t like that but there are SO many situations where choice does in fact matter.

…Though a point in favor toward the Yu-Gi-Oh! players, yes, memorizing a combo is not the hardest thing in the world.

Our main character has spotted card games, it’s over people, we’re not seeing Dan til next year.

This can only end well.

Here’s some basic rudimentary colour identification (for the non-colourblind anyway, sadly a card game featuring colours as its main separation is bound to have problems)

Viole Mai, is only challenging Green Players.

Dan, plays Red.

We can imagine this isn’t going to be simple.

Dan just freaking throws Clackey over to Zungurii like he’s trash, dayum.

I’m sorry did the colour of his ENTIRE ATTIRE not tip you off?

Red Hair, Red Shirt, must be a White player, of course.

Oh of course! The Red Hair! The Red Shirt! Red Gloves! The fact that we’ve seen him play for 8 episodes, honestly I should have figured it out sooner.

Viole Mai instantly interjects saying that isn’t gonna work out.

Honestly I’ve always been curious to see how certain characters interact with other colours. In Dan’s case, at least for THIS series, he never touches another colour.

Clackey of course is invigorated by being in the vicinity of any person carrying a vagina, apparently.

Magisa has been here the ENTIRE TIME Zungurii.

I must be an oracle.

I hate to burst your bubble Clackey but Yellow ain’t exactly the Greenest colour in the world either.

Mai isn’t so easily charmed apparently, shutting down Clackey immediately.

But Clackey never specified what colour he was using, maybe he’s got a green deck on the side, huh? HUH?!

Ah who am I kidding, the Noble Youth of Light is characterized by the Light keyword. Which is Yellow-Exclusive. Anyone who even HEARS of Clackey is likely to know his choice of colour.

…You know if the Yellow Hair and Shirt didn’t give it away.

Remember kids, all of Clackey’s disk space is reserved ONLY for information about Women.

It appears Mai’s done battling today, I missed the frame but she calls her Butler-esque character “Serge”, Pronounced “Seruja”

It appears Viole Mai is hunting for a specific card battler, named “Kousuke”, and uses a card called “Caterbarga”

Well, we might as well talk about it.

A shitty old Cost 4 with some meh BP from SD01, When summoned it exhausts every Cost 1 or less Spirit.

…That includes yours.

I suppose its kind of alright for dealing with… Weenie Wall I guess? You’ll get the most value out of this exactly nowhere, a deck with a high amount of Cost 0 and 1 Spirits is likely going to have their board exhausted anyway.

This didn’t exactly see much play I don’t think.

Please excuse the sounds of me scrambling through the Wayback Machine to find event reports from 2009-2010

Yeah card wasn’t good guys, barely any usage.

The only thing this card really has going for it is the fact that it’s a Shellman, a very well supported family in Green.

Apparently our cast isn’t done with Viole Mai despite the fact that they’ve only just met her and barely established a relationship.

It appears ol’ Viole Mai has done her research, she’s aware of Clackey and Dan’s reputations.

Ah… right… I forgot about this…

Viole Mai, of all people, is a BLOGGER.

A Batosupi Blogger who runs the Purple Talk Blog.

I feel a sense of rivalry all of a sudden.

Why would a Battle Spirits Blogger be talking about politics and business?

I mean I get entertainment and love, we play card games for entertainment, and well, I imagine Viole Mai is considered quite attractive, so love becomes an interesting topic for her fans.

But why politics and business?

This show began airing in 2009, I do not remember when fucking QR CODES of all things were introduced but there’s one on that page.

I wonder where it leads

Hah, it leads to the old Sunrise page for Battle Spirits Shounen Gekiha Dan, that’s kind of cool.

Dan’s one character trait is that he’s a Battler, and likes Battling.

So of course, this means that he’s illiterate in basically every other subject, including the internet.

Ohhh, I get it, she’s a Blogger first, Battle Spirits doesn’t take centre stage on her Blog, she just happens to enjoy it on top of being a Blogger, which makes sense.

At this point who isn’t a regular at the championships? Even Dan is a regular at the championships.

Dan asking the REAL questions here, why is Viole Mai in Grand-Lolo of all places? It’s not exactly a place of common knowledge given Dan only learned about it when he was flung into it by forces outside of his control.

Magisa helpfully points out that she’s likely been brought here because she’s the Purple Core’s Lightbearer.

We know Yuuki and Kajitsu saw to it that all the Lightbearers were brought to Grand-Lolo.

…That is a point, we haven’t seen a great many humans except the ones serving under the Otherworld King, it’s possible any Humans that would exist are hostile, save for these 6 Lightbearers…

Or should I say 5, given we know Yuuki isn’t exactly the friendliest battler in the world.

Unlike Clackey, Dan and Suzuri, it appears Viole Mai has been perfectly aware of her status, and simply doesn’t care.

We do get an interesting flashback of a scene we’ve never seen before involving Kajitsu bringing Mai to Grand-Lolo.

Some Green lady opens a portal to another world and this creepy looking asshole is trying to Coax Mai through it in the middle of the night.

I’m not sure “Stranger Danger” accurately portrays the amount of “What the actual fuck is happening”

I feel like… I feel like I should save this image somewhere.

Print it off, put it on my wall, something.

I know he’s talking to Mai but I want him to be talking to me.

I’ll do it Yuuki, I’ll change the world with this blog!

…Just as soon as I have the energy for it.

I don’t think Yuuki or Kajitsu directly told Dan they had brought other Lightbearers there, and Clackey hasn’t made any mention of it, so it’s possible Dan’s guessing it would be them based on his personal experience.

Suddenly, Mai summons whatever the fuck THIS thing is.

Yeah apparently Mai has a whole ass Spaceship which she uses to get around.

You can tell that we’re going to be using this to solve our “Clackey has no strength in his legs” problem.

Tears of Joy from this man, knowing he doesn’t have to walk anymore.

Zungurii’s having the time of his life on the bouncy cushions but Dan’s having none of it.

How dare you have fun when invited to someone’s house.

Mai pacifies the… suspiciously monkey-looking child… with Bananas.

I can’t help but feel like this is a case of fantastic racism.

I mean I suppose if the monkey-like character likes the bananas then it doesn’t matter but it still feels off.

Getting to the real heart of the issue, she brought them on board to ask them about this Kousuke person who uses Caterbarga.

Dan hasn’t heard of him because Dan doesn’t remember anything that isn’t a 62 by 89 milimetre piece of shiny cardboard, and Clackey hasn’t heard of him because his balls and his brain have been inseparable since he started going to high school.

It appears Mai is looking for revenge because she lost to him.

Also notable fact, Kousuke is indeed human, which means its not just Otherworld King goons pilfering around Grand-Lolo.

Yeesh, Dan’s REALLY been on this Soldier thing, he really wants to gather them all.

We’ve met Suzuri, who’s blue, Clackey who’s yellow, Mai who’s purple, Yuuki who’s white, Dan knows he’s Red and we’ve seen the Green symbol on Kajitsu before she sent Dan to Grand-Lolo, wouldn’t Dan come to the conclusion that we’ve found all 6?

Figures.

I feel like there are a couple things wrong with this plan, namely the fact that you are in GRAND-FUCKING-LOLO.

In the middle of nowhere-space, looking for a guy who may not even be there and has no reason to have gotten there without Yuuki or Kajitsu.

Yes, filtering yourself to green opponents to build notoriety might cause one’s ears to perk up, especially since you’re an influencer of some sort. But do it in a location that humans can actually REACH y’know?!

And beyond this, the guy might be sat on his ass on earth infront of a PC screen going “Green opponents? Bitch I switched to White like a month ago, tf you doin’?”

This plan has too many points of failure.

Dan thinks Mai wants a revenge match, which for a natural battler, makes sense to him.

Clackey on the other hand, thinks Mai wants some of that Kousuke sugar, which, for a failed womanizer, could ONLY make sense to him.

Magisa says they’re both idiots.

…And refuses to elaborate further.

Hwat.

I usually like to think I’m quite perceptive as a person but even from here this looks like a revenge plot.

I wonder how long it took for them to arrive at the next Card Stand, like how well spaced are these Stands from each other?

Nothing like walking into a shop that sells beer and card games.

This shop is mighty interesting, we’ve got a lady off to the right with a set of her own sideburns, we’ve got a Gurii Tribe person with NO sideburns at all.

And captain Peanut-Butter-Jelly-Time in the background there.

She barely left the last Card Stand and the next Card Stand heard the rumors before she even arrived.

I wonder, does Grand-Lolo have access to Human Internet?

Given they know that the Purple lady is only available to kick Green ass, we can speed things right along and go straight to requesting challengers.

The chump from the shot earlier who looks like he had to go to a Halloween party dressed as Moon Knight despite having never read a single page and just winged it has decided to challenge Mai.

And to show he’s extra on the ball, he’s announced he’s using Green well in advance of Serge even asking.

Probing for that sweet sweet Kousuke name.

In this case it kind of does, but that’s only the answer you would give if you’re aware that names are important and you want to let them know that you know that which means this answer lets them know EVERYTHING.

…So I suppose his name didn’t matter after all?

Wearing a funky mask and armor makes you stick out a fair bit more than a “Mr. Nobody” would suggest.

But to drive the nail in the coffin that is whether or not he knows who they’re looking for, he reveals a Caterbarga completely unprompted.

Yes Serge, I’m not sure about you but I’m pretty sure me and everyone else watching or reading this about figured that out.

It wasn’t like there was much choice, he was the ONLY challenger up til this point.

Looks like we’re doing this the old fashioned way, with a simple table set up.

Viole Mai offers Mr.Nobody the first turn of the game.

I never got why they didn’t just settle it with luck like everyone else does, everyone knows having the capacity to just decide whether or not to go first or second can confer advantages to decks built for those scenarios.

But in these shows its always like “I’ll make the first move” with no indication for it, or “You can go first” for more sneaky characters as if the turn order doesn’t matter.

Shows always gallavant about “not going easy” but I don’t think I’ve ever actually SEEN many instances of characters actually doing that very thing.

The only example I can think of was Toshiki Kai from Cardfight Vanguard where he never states he’s gone easy but the main character believes that he was going easy in their first battle.

Starting off the game, Mr.Nobody summons Machfly, pretty rudimentary move, playing a Cost 3 and passing.

The show chooses THIS moment, not the flashback that featured him, THIS moment to suddenly start focusing on his hand motion here, a very formal motion to signal you’re handing over the turn.

Zungurii comments that the move is incredibly basic.

Okay, show, fucking fix up, the ONLY thing you can do on turn 1 is a basic move. The BEST that any person can do on turn bloody one is play a Cost 3 with… gasp, a SEARCH effect.

And those don’t even show up until way later!

Piss off Zungurii.

Okay maybe I’m giving the show an incredible amount of flack, I assume the point of Zungurii’s comment was that the guy played a Cost 3 Vanilla as opposed to something that had an effect on summon, like Matchra which would attack Mai’s hand.

Dan reckons Mr.Nobody is trying to seem weak.

Mai’s turn, she plays Hellscorpio and The Hellfighter Balam. Leaves her only enough Core to keep them at Lv1, but Balam matching Machfly for BP here could warrant an attack.

Spirit advantage, and a matching BP, Mai attacks with Balam.

Mr.Nobody takes from the life, leaving him with 4 to Mai’s 5.

Zungurii is NOW commenting that the guy didn’t block.

Are we SERIOUSLY doing this right now?

I wouldn’t block in that situation either! I’d lose my Machfly and my precious Cost Reduction.

At least losing a life gives core.

Mr.Nobody plays Amenborg at Lv2 (4000 BP)

He then attacks with Amenborg immediately, makes sense, need to catch up in the life race and he’s currently got more BP than Hellscorpio.

Mai takes from the life, which of course, is fair enough.

I assume Dan is under-estimating Mr.Nobody because he chose to summon Amenborg normally rather than hold it for its Swift ability.

Mai continues to fill her board with more spirits, summoning a 2nd Balam and a Skulldevil.

No need to worry about an exhausted Amenborg, Mai attacks.

Now I could make the argument that Dan and Zungurii’s suspicions were correct, the guy is down in both Spirits AND Life totals.

But the earlier turns were not indicative of that.

Clackey comments that he isn’t playing seriously.

I would concur, the guy has made 2 rudimentary moves and not really done much else, while Mai is rushing him.

Both Dan and Mai think something is up given that he’s completely unfazed by his disadvantage.

Purple thinks Green is acting kinda Sus.

Ah, an interesting time to play that, Mr.Nobody plays The HeavyArmoredBug Caterbarga.

This will be a problem for Mai, she’s been exclusively attacking with Balam and leaving Cost 1 and belows as chump-blockers.

Caterbarga is specifically designed to counter that very specific strategy.

Which of course, leaves Mai with no blockers.

Its that hand motion again.

Another flashback, pointing to her “Kousuke” making the same gesture Mr.Nobody did here under the same circumstances.

Which, again, was not something indicated in her flashbacks before the battle began which makes this detail SORT of stupid to point out now.

All it does is serve to tell us that Mai knows he’s Kousuke, that’s it, and we find out as she does, this isn’t surprising at all because this character is IRRELEVANT.

Mai now wants to take Mr.Nobody to an unspecified place, how scandalous.

She’s opening the gate, in the middle of a tabletop match.

Now one would think they’d have to reset the game but apparently Grand-Lolo is FULLY capable of remembering the state of the game if the players want to enter the Battlefield mid-way, APPARENTLY.

This eyecatch shows Mai in her battle form’s full view, which is set up to look somewhat like a succubus demon, complete with Bat wings and a devil tail.

At the very least they picked the succubus like design for the demonic traits, and not it’s sexualized nature thankfully.

Actually to be fair it could just be a straight up devil cosplay.

Another interesting thing about the Battle form is that it can just come with makeup.

Like Mai’s comes with some added blush.

You’d think Clackey and Zungurii’s roles would be switched here, and that Clackey would be the one head over heels for Mai’s cute battle form.

This just in, apparently the appearance of one’s battle form can be ENTIRELY ALTERED by the user, how they pull this off is never shown but at the very least if a Battle form looks a certain way its because that player intends for it to.

The tail is also fully functional apparently.

Gotta love our oblivious main characters incapable of making eye contact with the concept of vanity.

And of course, Magisa loves a good scandal and suggests that Serge is in love with Mai’s battle form.

This would be a good time to point out Serge’s ears here, they’re actually quite important.

As you know, the Gurii Tribe is indicated by their large families, browner skin, large sideburns and very roundish ears.

Serge, is of course, not of the Gurii Tribe, He has Pale skin, is much taller, and has pointed ears, much like an elf.

This signifies that he is of a VERY SPECIFIC type of Otherworlder race, buuuuut that’s a topic for a bit later, it gets brought up.

And finally we drop all pretense and just call Kousuke out.

Kousuke of course, values my patience, and doesn’t bother trying to keep up the disguise.

He also uses a… very interesting choice of words to refer to Mai.

Thanks Dan for contributing absolutely nothing to this conversation whatsoever.

Dan once again promotes the theory that Mai was after revenge. I am still also in that camp.

Clackey is correct in that it could still be ambiguous.

Technically it could also be both. Revenge love is a popular ship-type amongst shippers.

We’re finally continuing, Kousuke summons MachG, this gives him 4 attackers against Mai’s 4 Life, Mai’s 4 Spirits are all exhausted.

Notably, in Battle Spirits the cost of the Spirit tends to correlate to the Spirit’s size, larger costed Spirits tend to be Bigger.

Which makes Blue’s trait of cost based destruction kind of interesting when one considers that it’s potentially an attempt to drown higher cost spirits, at least narratively.

Kouske attacks with The HeavyArmoredBug Caterbarga.

Oh… those lives are in an… interesting spot.

Yeah I don’t like the idea of that, at all.

Japan calm the fuck down.

Trust me, the noise Kousuke makes when making this face is no better than the face looks.

Oh joy, he wanted to see Mai’s face when she was enduring pain.

Well its no wonder Mai wanted to connect her foot with his ass, this guy’s a complete creepazoid.

Ah joy, I’ll summarise this… albeit very creepy plot threat.

This is one of Mai’s Fans, who through his shared interest in Battle Spirits, something Mai also enjoys, he’s somehow formed a parasocial relationship with her in his head.

Of course, he had the opportunity to battle her in person at the championships, his plan is to leave such a strong impression on her through battling to ensure she stays obsessed with him, by beating her over and over to cause her to pursue revenge.

This in turn, maintains their relationship as a very personal one, something he’d want with her, as a fan.

Amenborg attacks, taking another life from Mai.

I’m sorry the design team were being INCREDIBLY inappropriate when they designed Mai’s Battle form, like seriously.

2 lives, no blockers, 2 attackers.

This would be a pretty no brainer.

Unfortunately we are not dealing with your everyday Battle Spirits player, this one also happens to be a complete weirdo.

Not ending the game when you’re more than able to is the largest fuck you one can perform.

Thankfully in Card games most will just scoop when the opponent has game, but if this were like League of Legends, OH BOY.

The fact that this beardless neckbeard sweats during every single one of his deranged statements is not helping the creepiness of this situation.

Somebody snipe this man from orbit.

Suddenly Mai’s expression shifts to a more happy one.

My guess is because Kousuke is taking pleasure in Mai’s pained expressions, she’s shifting to a happier one so she doesn’t reward him for his… excessively strange behaviour.

Serge tells us that Mai’s smile during a battle indicates resolve, whereas most would frown.

Dan seems to have clicked about the nature of the Battle but he hasn’t explained it.

Time for Mai to even the playing field, she uses a Magic from her hand, Killer Telescope.

We recall what this does from Bashin Toppa right? Now all of Mai’s Spirits can attack Kousuke’s exhausted Spirits.

The effect for Killer Telescope here is AWESOME.

Mai now follows up with a Nexus, The Depths of the Nether World.

Her Spirit choices are slightly different, but her strategies are incredibly similar to the character she’s an expy of, that being Suiren from Bashin Toppa.

Mai depletes Hellscorpio to ensure that The Depths of the Nether World is at Lv2.

Nexuses are treated a lot better in this series than the last one, actually having a depiction behind the user.

Speaking of which, new Nexus, shall we look?

Well this is certainly one funky Nexus, a BS06 doozy as well.

To easily explain its effects, Infernal Lord and Zombie Spirits become Curse Spirits. Then at Level 2, when any Curse Spirit swings (including the aforementioned Infernal Lord and Zombies), you shoot a core.

We saw the state of Kousuke’s field, we can predict how Mai will attack.

Oh come on Dan do you expect us to REALLY believe that you’ve never even ENCOUNTERED a Nexus?

We saw one IN HIS DECK, the Plateau of Duel!

I get that they’re pointing out that this is the first Nexus used in Grand-Lolo and Dan’s our mechanism for pointing that out but please don’t make Dan look like a moron when we know he isn’t one.

What next, does an exceptionally long trip to the bathroom ALSO mean Viole-sama is serious?

In adult speak: “Kousuke’s fucked”

This is… an interesting question I’m not certain matters.

I’m… not particularly certain what this is meant to mean.

But my guess is Kousuke’s basically telling Mai she could reach a much larger audience than she is, but is explicitly limiting herself to a much smaller world of viewership

Balam attacks.

With Killer Telescope’s effect, Balam gets to Target attack Amenborg.

This basically acts like Amenborg being forced to block the attack before Kousuke can even use a Flash, no matter what, Amenborg is entering this fight.

The Depths of the Nether World activates, since Balam is a Curse Spirit, she can shoot a core from one of Kousuke’s Spirits.

She selects the refreshed Machfly as the target, depleting it as it only had 1 core.

But also the MUSIC DROP, that really cool theme from Yuuki’s battle with Dan is back, and I still don’t know what it is because it’s NOT in the OST.

Balam of course, doesn’t stand a chance against Amenborg, but it doesn’t matter.

Balam’s curse activates, eliminating Amenborg.

Yeah this is gonna be a pretty nasty turn from Mai, she has another Balam after all.

The 2nd Balam Target attacks the exhausted Caterbarga

MachG is depleted by The Depths of the Nether World’s Lv2 effect as Balam has curse and MachG only has 1 core.

Balam’s Curse effect activates, so despite losing to Caterbarga’s 3000 BP, it destroys Caterbarga anyway.

A fairly good turn from Mai, she has 1 blocker, 2 lives. Kousuke has 2 lives and an empty board.

It’s certainly VERY Suiren.

Kousuke’s voice is actually stuttering.

I didn’t point it out but Kousuke lost his composure the second curse activated on Balam.

Though he was just panicking about the “ghost” of Balam’s Curse so it wasn’t relevant.

He’s SHOOK now though.

Kousuke’s composure has fallen, he’s made the one mistake a lot of battlers make against Purple.

He’s aware of the Curse combo, so because he’s scared of it, he’s played ONE Spirit and committed all his Core to it.

This is a bad idea, 1 Spirit is much easier to deal with than several, and this isn’t going to win him any games, he should have tried to play 3 spirits. Though with only 4 cards in hand its possible 2 of them are not Spirits.

Yep, something that catches everyone off guard, just a little bit, the concept of panic.

It’s surprisingly easy to panic during a card game when the game state is tense.

Makes mistakes like this common.

Mai uses her turn to play a card we’ve been waiting for. Using up the Core from The Depths of the Nether World

There isn’t much to say here, the CGI of this show is excellent.

Anyway, Viole Mai has played her gllorious X-Rare, One of the SevenShogun, Beelzebeat.

So far we’ve seen 3 SevenShogun, Desperado, Destlord and Pandemium, this one is the 4th, Beelzebeat.

Like the other 3, it’s a Purple X-Rare, from BS06 from the Infernal Lord and Ogre Wizard families.

And it’s got a fairly nasty set of effects, when it’s summoned you can summon any number of Curse Spirits without cost from your Trash as long as the total cost of Curse Spirits you play stay under 13.

This could yield a LARGE number of Spirits, for reference, 3 Balams only cover 9 of that cost.

Secondly, the Lv2 and Lv3 effects, if a Curse Spirit takes life from the opponent, you can destroy ANY spirit, without condition.

That is HIGHLY UNUSUAL for a card to have conditionless destruction, but this one has it.

Being an Infernal Lord, The Depths of the Netherworld will grant Beelzebeat Curse as well, meaning Beelzebeat himself will also be able to destroy spirits if it damages the life.

What this generally means is the opponent has no real choices, they lose a Spirit to the Curse or the opponent axes a Spirit anyway.

The main drawback of this card is its sheer cost, you need at least 4 core to play it, and it’s BP at Lv1 and Lv2 is rather low for Spirits of it’s cost, for Lv3 it needs a whopping 6 Core just to hit 10000 BP.

So its high-costed and weak, but that’s the only thing holding it back.

Notably we will eventually learn where Mai picked up Beelzebeat, but based on the timeline of events, I can say that she likely did not have it when she fought Kousuke the first time.

Ah yes, I forgot that X-Rares are still quite special, Dan only has Siegfried and we haven’t even seen Clackey use one.

Suzuri is probably the most recent display of X-Rare usage.

Beelzebeat’s when summoned effect triggers, allowing Mai to resurrect the Balams from her Trash.

Mai attacks with Balam.

Kousuke fucks up.

Wait what, last time Balam just punched the shit out of Dan, now it’s shooting FIREBALLS!?

Kousuke’s on his last life.

Beelzebeat silently triggers it’s effect without warning, manifesting as a Sword it uses to Slash.

Kousuke’s only spirit, Machfly, is destroyed.

I’ll skip over the show’s explanation, we already know Balam’s Curse trait triggered Beelzebeat’s Lv2 effect after damaging Kousuke’s life, letting Beelzebeat destroy Machfly.

And not a single blocker to handle Mai’s 3 attackers.

Yeah, once Mai obtains that victory she has no reason to EVER battle this creep ever again.

Mai attacks with The SevenShogun Beelzebeat.

Which it does by… chomping through it’s… sword.

…Is it going to fire a lazer? The other SevenShoguns fired lazers.

No instead it just charges, apparently.

We get this unsettling animation after Kousuke loses his last life.

Erm, Viole Mai is the winner, I guess?

Yeah nothing quite clears the mind like kicking the shit out of your stalker I guess.

…That is the part she took offense to? Not the stalking or the desire for your pained expression or your obsession.

No it was the fact that he implied you should change up how you blog to reach a larger audience, THAT’S what offended you, criticism.

Dan catches up with Mai outside and gives her the low-down of the plot. Moving around in a giant ship is probably miles better than walking.

Mai is torn, given she was planning on leaving Grand-Lolo after kicking Kousuke’s ass…

…What?

He might not have even BEEN there in the first place! It was PURE LUCK you ran into him here.

It appears Mai got some encouragement from Yuuki to lend her power as a Lightbearer after kicking Kousuke’s butt.

Serge confirms the trip is doable.

And Mai agrees to play Taxi, joy!

Rejoice, for Clackey does not have to walk.

To be fair the idea of trudging through that barren wasteland is making MY legs hurt.

Magisa notes that Mai isn’t all that interested in her assigned role.

But to be honest, neither was Dan initially, and Clackey tagged along because Dan was interesting.

And it’s not like Suzuri’s doing his job either.

And the episode is over!

Not much interesting post-credits other than the show going on about how good Beelzebeat is with that Nexus.

Personally I’d much rather talk about how many similarities Viole Mai has to her previous counterpart from Toppa, Suiren.

Their main difference is that Viole Mai doesn’t have an alter ego, but otherwise she’s a popular personality many people know about on the internet who plays purple, wields a SevenShogun X-Rare and is excellent at Nexus Combos, something Suiren also excelled at.

We could extend this comparison as well, Suzuri as an expy of Galaxy Seven, yes, Galaxy was incredibly social compared to Suzuri, however, Suzuri’s demeanor is VERY similar to Nanao’s base persona when not cosplaying as Galaxy, an exceptionally nervous person.

Even moreso since Nanao didn’t really have many friends before Bashin and Suzuri doesn’t have many friends now either. Their endless supply of X-Rares is another similarity (Galaxy continues to use Blue X-Rares even after giving them to Bashin which indicates he has several.)

So while there are differences in overall personality there are still holdovers from the character they’re based on.

The most different so far is Clackey Ray, since he’s not in love with Dan, nor was Meganeko a womanizer. I wondered if he might have similarities to Smile but Smile was a very different character. I think I mentioned at the start but Clackey Ray has the MOST similarities with Card Sensei of all people.

It’s not a perfect metaphor, just like Gekiha Dan isn’t an exact copy paste of Bashin Toppa (that would be boring), but it is interesting to take note of where the series is trying to correct on the previous one on their similarities. Viole Mai not having an alter ego means less time is spent on a subplot that really has no bearing on anything.

Now that she’s travelling with the group we’re gonna have to get used to her anyway. Ugh.

Well, see you all in the next one, buh-bye!