Gekiha Dan – Episode 15

Alright, well the last one was a complete dumpster fire, how about we jump right into this one? If I remember correctly this one is an absolute banger.

Seems we’re still in the Red Land, given that the Blue World is where the advertised tournament is, the cast are going to need to figure out a way to get there.

Ah, supposedly there are special locations that can allow you to move from one world to the next.

I imagine the travel between worlds is something akin to the taking off of a plane, given its the equivalent of another country.

We haven’t seen anyone travel through worlds on-screen, but.

Mai was depicted as ending up in the Purple World when she first arrived, so it’s highly likely she’s been under this process before.

And of course, Zungurii who lives on the equivalent of farmland and never made eye contact with anything more technologically advanced than a bucket, wonders what a roller coaster is.

You’re basically crossing from one country to the next no? Most people do that in planes which do require a fair amount of safety checks.

Mai seems to be disdainful of Clackey’s opinion of the preparations required to pass through a gate to another world.

Oh shit he’s ADJUSTING HIS GLOVES!

…So apparently the “Gate” is just a glowing door but for it to open you need to be heading towards it at a fast enough speed?

Interesting physics…

“The Sealed Clash, The StarEmperorDragon Meteorwurm!”

Interestingly, the card mentioned in the episode title won’t actually show itself, and it isn’t depicted in the title card for this episode. You WILL notice in this odd sea of Red however, that part of it is Greyed out. That’s becase the card being slightly greyed out is an oddly familiar Red/White Spirit.

For those who haven’t watched or read my Toppa blog, that card is infact The SacredEmperor Siegfrieden, Bashin Toppa’s final ace from the first series.

This could be interesting.

An interesting thing to note, this particular “World” and all the series contained in this particular BS Universe REALLY loves their use of Badlands… Not sure why.

In any case, the Blue World’s Badlands seem to be less “Red” and looks more like a product of water erosion than a heated desert.

There are even some Blue Crystal Spires.

So we don’t get to see what’s actually BETWEEN the gates so we have no way of verifying if the speed needed to pass through it was even required.

The Violet probably came into unexpected ground, and now is taking a massive spin.

Though it’s also possible this is intentional as well, you’ve just entered a place you aren’t aware of at high speed, taking a sudden stop just to get your bearings might be a good idea.

Sergei is activated apparently.

except you’re not on any rails, there are no safety bars, and god forbid you HIT somehting.

about the reaction I would expect from Clackey, but Magisa hasn’t had excitement of this level in 4000 years of living?

The Violet just barely manages to stop next to this building which is positioned… right near the gate.

Actually I wonder if it would be worth putting down like an admissions office, is there passport control on Grand-Lolo?

Now that I’m finally able to read the sign, it is not a passport control office, it is just a Card Stand.

Siiiiiigh.

I guess they don’t consider the other worlds to be TOO much like countries.

Dan that isn’t how it fuckin’ works, you’d have to go BACK to the Red World just to come to the Blue World again

What a waste of… Do they even use Fuel? They’re CORE ships right?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?

Whatever deity exists in this universe, bless Magisa for her reasonableness.

Clackey looks like he’s about to pass away, it’s apparently funny enough for Mai to take a picture.

Oh right should probably talk about the pun, so apparently the characters used to write “Clackey” can also be pronounced “Groggy”

Name puns tend to be used frequently when they appear so I imagine Clackey’s heard this joke a million times already.

Time for my random bouts of life advice: If you see a pun in someone’s name, best plan is not to make a joke of it, at least not right away, they’ve ever heard it a thousand times before and don’t find it funny, or they’ve got a REAL poor relationship it, people like their names not being a punchline.

Clackey’s a good sport though, at the very least.

The element most associated with Blue is “Water” usually, so it’s surprising to see that the makeup of this world doesn’t see a lot of it.

Blue does have a few less used themes, namely “construction” and “sand”

Which seems to be the target for this one, heading hard into construction.

It appears that the Blue world is inhabited by Giants. As a result, everything is modelled for them.

Ah yes, the “matter of perspective” response. From our own perspecive we are the most “normal” versions of our own species, anything too far removed from it is unusual.

So it pays to acknowledge this when interacting with anyone who lives a very different existence from yourself.

“No!”

Fuck you I’m a fan of catchphrases.

Also that is a VERY physical screen that just popped out of nowhere, technology in this world is nuts.

I think I mentioned this last episode but incase I didn’t, Nanao and Galaxy’s identities were combined, and now Galaxy is referred to as “Galaxy Watanabe”

Galaxy Watanabe gives viewers a reminder of the stakes involved in the tournament for anyone who gladly skipped the last episode’s farce.

This effectively renders Episode 14 completely skippable.

Yes, incredibly upsetting, I know.

In any case, to save you frames and checking back what those stakes are. The Winner of the Grand-Lolo Championship is awarded with a powerful X-Rare, and Otherworld King will personally grant them one wish.

Clackey notes that a “Top X-Rare” would definitely attract the Blue Core Lightbearer’s attention.

This wasn’t so much foreshadowing as it was jinxing the idea of his appearance however.

So, despite the doors in the card stand being HUGE, and we can see that the chairs in the distance look a little large, the actual counter here in the stand is well-sized enough for Suzuri to sit on it.

It seems like arrival in the Blue World was also intended to be some kind of foreshadowing for Suzuri’s appearance, just like how we started in the Red World because our main character is a Red user.

It seems Suzuri still has trouble communicating, he was merely asking about their plans but of course, a statement phrased like that would come out like a suggestion rather than a question.

I’ve had no shortage of situations where someone has thought I was asking them for something when I phrase a question probatively when I’m usually just curious.

Seems there’s no hard feelings from their last ’bout concerning Catastrophedragon.

Mai, having never met Suzuri acts as the audience here who may not be familiar with earlier episodes (a common problem given this is airing on TV, some people need reminders of earlier events)

So I’ll do the same for anyone tuning into this blog a bit late in, Suzuri is the bearer of the Blue Core’s Light. As such he’s effectively this world’s chosen Blue battler. He’s a card collector with a specific interest in X-Rares and despite his shyness is quite determined when it comes to obtaining one.

He specializes in Deck destruction.

He’s also rather protective of the cards he DOES have, being a collector, a card’s condition is important to him, such that he uses gloves, and apparently a nail clipper to ensure that his cards remain in good condition pre and post-handling.

There are 2 types of people witnessing this scene. Those who see Suzuri as an inspiration and aspire to take as good care of their cards as he does.

And those who relate to Dan, and feel that card’s are not such fragile pieces of card stock.

I am the Dan-type, I do not treat my cards roughly but I also am not so particular about their condition. A lightly played card is good enough for me.

Mai for some reason wants to leave, and Clackey doesn’t seem surprised.

I’m a little… puzzled because this sort of comes out of nowhere, I’m having a hard time piecing together what it is we’re supposed to understand from this.

It appears Magisa’s now taking a more pro-active stance in not tolerating Mai’s bullshit. Actively blocking her exit before knowing where she’s going.

It seems this show really wants to upset me because it’s referencing events from the previous episode while ensuring that said episode changed absolutely DIDDLY SQUAT.

Like honestly, resolve your conflicts.

and in response to this question, there are 6 core lightbearers, not 1, that would come with some sort of assumption that all of them are needed to defeat Otherworld King. So yes, we do kind of need you for that SPECIFIC reason.

The show seems to be trying to paint this issue as a recurring theme, namely that these 2 are going to continue getting into tiffs as opposed to it being resolved in one episode.

Dan tries to press Mai for how she felt at the horizon ladder but she dodges the question by acknowledging that Dan is sounding very cheesy.

Gosh I hate people like this, what a fuckin’ character she is.

Don’t let that confuse you for me disliking Mai as a character though, evoking in-universe hatred is also something only a good character can weaponize, she’s being very correctly portrayed as unreasonable, and that is evoking harsh feelings from myself as a viewer. This makes her a good character because I’m being frustrated about her Watsonian traits and not her Doylist ones.

Dan on the other hand is failing the intelligence test, because the whole point of this argument is that she doesn’t want to be here, “Why are you here” is not going to be working out for you.

So you’re acknowledging that you don’t care about what you said before and are just doing what you want.

it’s.. a unique trait, normally hypocrisy is displayed by having someone act opposite to what they preach.

This particular brand of hypocrisy on the other hand is similar but not quite the same, Mai hasn’t preached anything, she has just said she would do one thing and changed her mind about it.

She’s incredibly lacking in self-discipline and doesn’t want to follow through on promises she doesn’t feel like keeping.

There’s a word to describe this… fickle I think it is.

Their argument is interrupted by somebody, a voice I don’t recognise.

Whoever he is, he seems familiar with Magisa, and he’s definitely modelled after some kind of veteran in his personality, asking about the Soldiers’ “color” like asking an actual soldier where they served or their rank.

Dan seems on edge, but it’s justified in the sense that anyone who’s ever cared about Dan’s status as a Core Lightbearer has probably been working for Otherworld King.

I understand this man is asking a very probative question of Dan over here that’s key for this scenario but I just really like Dan’s emoting here, he tends to “Grip” the air when he’s serious. I love the claw grip-type emoting.

I am an Edgelord, leave me alone.

For those who might not realise the symbolism here, this guy offered a “Toast” to Dan’s passion, but then rather than drinking the glass, he poured it out.

The only reason you would do this is when you’re pouring a drink onto someone’s grave, literally pouring one out for them.

It’s used as respect for someone who’s passed away.

He’s effectively claiming that Dan’s passion is doomed and while he respects the passion itself, he has no hopes for it’s success.

He of course, vocalizes this for the younger viewers, but it’s definitely a dark message for anyone older that’s watching and is familiar with that custom. It’s one of those things where regardless of where you come from or what custom you have, the gesture is understood because it’s so wildly outlandish and if any confusion is left over, it’s stated.

Zungurii vouches for Dan by claiming he’s the powerful “Clash King”

To be fair this “battle of Kings” message is definitely something, “Clash King” is not far from “Otherworld King” in terms of naming scheme, so the title definitely suggests that Dan is on more equal footing with the guy than he is.

The strange man asks Magisa about Dan’s age, noting he’s quite young, this suggests previous core lightbearers were either older, or at least that the ones this man was familiar with were older.

Magisa counters with a rather back-handed variant of “Age does not always equal experience”, by claiming despite Dan’s age, he’s stronger than the man here.

I didn’t show the frame but when the man asked about Dan’s youth, he said Magisa’s name, Dan seems surprised they know each other.

She’s a 4029 year old witch my dude, she’s definitely got a looooong list of acquaintances.

Clackey seems to believe that this guy and Magisa were romantically involved with the way Magisa is addressing him.

Magisa doesn’t seem to answer this, she’s kept her eyes closed the entire conversation, and doesn’t seem to want to be around the guy too much which could suggest at least a soured friendship if anything.

We FINALLY get a name! His name is Julian Fines.

Some will note Julian’s eyebrows are drawn incredibly thick and his face is not very typically “anime”, that is because he is NOT japanese!

This show takes great pains with itself to draw characters who are not typically japanese differently to how they draw anime characters normally, because anime characters are drawn based on the appearances of japanese people, usually.

This has been true even in Toppa Bashin.

Oh right, and the reason he’s so probative about the Core Lightbearers is because he used to be one! Specifically he’s the previous bearer of Dan’s Red Core.

This is definitely pretty shocking for a few reasons. In ways that are quite good for the plot.

up until now you would be forgiven for thinking this is quite low stakes, given that Dan and the others have the “credentials” for defeating Otherworld King. Effectively being “chosen” ones.

But this key piece of information, namely that there were PREVIOUS holders and Otherworld King is still at large, is a big giant flag saying that these guys can VERY MUCH FAIL.

And it’s not a small chance or anything, there have been previous failed attempts by previous lightbearers.

Which means that their status as a lightbearer does not confer on them any predisposition to fighting Otherworld King.

We appear to have relocated outside.

What’s notable about this conversation is it drops small tidbits about how Core Lightbearers function.

It’s not like Dan is bearing some individual form of a Red Core’s Light, the Light he and Julian bore are considered to be the same one.

Julian seems to be pointing out that Otherworld, under Otherworld King’s rule, still understands some kind of peace.

Dan of course notes that this peace is entirely superficial, he’s witnessed slavery firsthand in the Red world, a place where crimes like that are occurring can hardly be called peaceful even if some individuals are enjoying some form of it.

Julian notes that he once agreed with Dan’s sentiment.

Effectively, Julian’s will to try and overthrow the Otherworld King was shattered, it’s heavily implied he lost a direct battle with the guy.

Though the “It breaks you” statement, as will be noted later, is a lot more literal than this conversation suggests, however.

Dan gets hung up on Julian’s use of the world “Clash” and Magisa notes that Julian’s ace was a card named “Meteorwurm” which has the Clash effect, much like Dan’s Siegwurm.

Magisa ALSO notes that Meteorwurm is stronger than Siegwurm.

So assuming this was shown before the card’s actual release, we can see here that there’s an orange-coloured spirit looking similarly to Siegwurm here. Cost 7 with 3 reductions, requiring 1 more core to play than Siegwurm on average, and has a single symbol.

Suzuri has apparaently been eavesdropping but is here to point out the rarity of the card.

Siegwurm is what’s known as a “Master Rare”, Master Rares can typically take the place of X-Rares in the “Key Spirit” department, but are ultimately not as powerful as their X-Rare superiors.

The Gap is ultimately, small, when it comes to a well-built deck, but when constructing such a deck, small gaps can make worlds of difference to a player trying to maximize their effectiveness.

Right now Magisa is drawing parallels to Dan’s own experience, effectively Meteorwurm seemed to appear whenever Julian needed it.

It appears Julian’s face off with the Otherworld King broke him SO badly he no longer feels comfortable using the Clash keyword that got him so far.

Naturally you don’t want to take after the example of someone who has failed in their attempts to do something you are trying to do.

Clackey notes that Dan isn’t the same as Julian in that regard and thus the 2 situations aren’t comparable.

Dan of course, sees a notable problem, Julian fought Otherworld King and lost, but he’s still here, and he only needs to topple Otherworld King once.

Giving up when you have an obvious opportunity to try again seems, at face value, foolish.

Dan’s basically calling Julian a coward, the guy’s still about, has everything he needs to keep taking on the Otherworld King, and simply doesn’t because he’s afraid of failure.

Dan once again pushing his belief that the Spirits are happiest when they are battling.

Also seems to be echoing a “Mission Failed, we’ll get em next time” sentiment.

Don’t you fuckin’ start…

Dan seems to be trying to relate his situation to Julian to try and resolve his “broken motivation” but the issue is that Dan is already bearing his Core’s light, I’m not sure there’s much left to fix here.

it seems Clackey wants to say somehting.

Seems Clackey felt the need to counter Julian’s comment of Dan’s “Sweltering” personality

Skipping passed some irrelevencies, Dan doesn’t think its something you can “Give up” on, fact of the matter is the humans are treading on something that isn’t theirs and regardless of what benefits they’re bringing, a Human should not be ruling over the Otherworlder’s home. He’s an invader and needs to be shunted out.

Eh… as much as I’d agree that an outsider should not be ruling over that which isn’t theirs, I don’t think the humans being present is so much of a problem than it is the specific humans enslaving Otherworlders for Otherworld King.

Mixing communities is very important because the more we mix together and come to an understanding, the better we can figure things out and the more of us their is to do so. Respecting a culture is fine, but telling someone not to intermingle with a culture can be problematic. Being an outsider should not disqualify you from participation.

Magisa suggests that Julian would better understand Dan after having battled him.

Which in this case his true, the guy has doubts about Dan’s ability and Magisa has noted that Julian straight up has better cards than Dan, but Dan has been noted to be tougher, so Julian should really see for himself what Dan’s ability is like before judging it.

Julian seems to agree to it, only because Magisa had asked him to though, he’s deferring a lot of say to Magisa on many things.

Oh well, we’ve got a battle to look at! Gate Open!

Julian’s Battle Form is an interesting one, it seems to take almost the shape of a Bull, with the lives appearing as “Eyes”

Notably it’s not very spiky and rather curved unlike Dan’s, its certainly a rather reserved Battle form, which matches his personality.

Magisa and Dan both demand that Julian fight with Meteorwurm.

For someone who claimed he couldn’t use it, he didn’t really put up much of a fight about putting it in his deck.

In any case, given Julian has a fully functioning deck that doesn’t use Meteorwurm, we can safely assume he’s playing with a 41 card deck at this point.

This is fine, Battle Spirits doesn’t have a deck limit, and your odds of drawing the card you need are only significantly different beyond 43 cards.

Min-maxers will swear by 40 and I personally like a concise 40 but it’s not a dealbreaker.

Seems like Julian’s taking the first move.

Julian summons only Lizardedge, Dan noting that his individual summon instead of typically quick consecutive ones our more seasoned battlers do suggests that Julian likely hasn’t battled in a while.

Dan of course compliments Lizardedge’s cuteness and Julian seems to have no disagreements about it.

Birds of a feather these red players.

this is certainly an odd choice of move though, he’s played a Level 1 Lizardedge but didn’t raise it’s level despite still having 3 core in his reserve.

Dan plays Goradon and Ankillersaurus.

I somewhat feel like it’s been a while since we saw Ankillersaurus, I can’t even remember the last time Dan used him, even though it could very well have been Kajitsu’s battle.

Course Ankillersaurus is the card given to Dan by Zungurii, so of course he’s ecstatic about it being played.

Goradon is raised to Level 2, so it’s BP is now 3000.

Both should be stronger than Lizardedge now so of course, Dan is going to attack.

And of course, Gotta make mention of the fact that Dan talks to the spirits.

Dan attacks with Ankillersaurus, Julian takes it from the life, dropping him from 5 to 4.

He seems to struggle a fair bit with the pain, indicating that he hasn’t battled in awhile.

Mostly because I have seen this before and know the makeup of Julian’s deck, I’d have loved to see a battle between Julian and Otherworld King.

I’d love to see more of Julian in general honestly.

Dan wants to remind Julian of the version of himself who was overconfident to the point of saying he didn’t know how to lose.

I suppose Dan’s trying to bring out the part of Julian that fought Otherworld King before with Meteorwurm.

The chances of biting your tongue get higher the more you talk.

Which is to say, Dan’s running his mouth and may come to regret it.

Dan appears to have ended his turn after only that 1 attack.

Julian’s Turn, he’s got 6 core available, and he summons a 2nd Lizardedge and a Lv2 Berserker-Gun

For those who maybe can’t see the problem, a former Red Lightbearer is using a White Spirit.

Julian’s cemented his detatchment from his Core’s Light by using a deck featuring multiple colours.

Julian’s got a lot of spirits, he’s in a good position to take some lives now, so Dan’s preparing for the possibility that he needs to block.

Despite this advantage, Julian chooses not to attack.

Mai and Sergei make note of the fact that Julian’s incredibly hard to read. He’s in a good position to attack but chose not to, and his expression doesn’t really give away what his plan is.

Regardless, Julian’s non-aggression isn’t the worst, after all, a valid form of strategy is not to attack to take lives until you’re sure you have the game, this effectively leaves you with the most amount of blockers to take opposing attacks and time to produce a strategy, and reduces the risk of being countered by an opposing flash.

It’s Dan’s turn.

At some point Dan managed to acquire a 2nd Ankillersaurus, Card Stands do double as card shops I imagine so it would have been possible to pick one up, after all Zungurii wasn’t handing the guy a 1-of-a-kind rare card.

Getting ahead of myself, Dan summons a 2nd Ankillersaurus.

You can read a lot from an opponent’s face across the table when playing any kind of game, let alone a card game.

It’s outside information but because it’s there, it’s a resource you can use.

This is why mastering the Pokerface is important, denying your opponent’s ability to read you from your expression means you can only analyze behaviour on the board.

Dan’s a passionate payer who puts a lot of emotion into his game, and so far has been able to shake his opponents to emote, he’s had trouble battling Yuuki who is mostly unfazed by everything, and Julian here appears to be similar.

Dan attacks with both Ankillersaurus’, Julian takes both from the life.

Julian has certainly put up a wall of non-resistance, but there’s a key problem that indicates what he’s trying to do.

both Ankiullersaurus are Lv1, with 2000 BP, the Berserker-Gun that’s level 2 on the board is 3000 BP.

Julian could happily block one and take it out, but chose not to.

He’s preserving spirits and taking lives, that indicates his plan is to build core.

granted, it’s the end of Dan’s Turn, so even if Dan knows that now, he may not have any time or resources to act on it.

Julian raises a lovely question, even if Dan makes his point, what does he actually want Julian to do?

He’s already lost his Core’s Light, there’s not much more the universe can do to say “You’re done, son”

Dan of course, says the obvious. MOAR BATTLERS.

If we throw enough people at Otherworld King he’s liable to draw a bricked hand sooner or later.

Julian of course, mentions that it’s no longer his job to fulfill the purpose of a Lightbearer, Dan bears the light, so Dan goes to fight.

Dan for some bizarre reason doesn’t retort to this. Which is odd since my immediate kneejerk response would be to point out that one doesn’t need to bear the Core’s Light to fight the Otherworld King.

Since, last I checked, Otherworld King might be powerful but he doesn’t bear any Core’s Light.

And I imagine Dan’s Red Core doesn’t afford him any unique abilities, it’s more like a recognition of his current abilities and his personality. As we noted before, being a Lightbearer doesn’t mean you have the power to fight the Otherworld King, because they’ve failed before.

Ah an oldie from good ol’ Toppa.

I have no idea why this exists to be here but this is FlameEmperor Kujaraku, we saw this last time but covering it again, a Cost 6 with a nice set of reductions but for some bizarre reason, requires 2 core to maintain whatsoever.

Which, given Julian’s next few plays will seem like an odd choice. But then again, even Julian’s deck type, you need good targets for this sort of thing.

I’m being very cryptic I know, but anyone who has either watched this before or knows how Kujaraku was used in Toppa, will know why it’s finally shown up here.

Also Julian’s using a hefty amount of core, he had 10 available core and 4 were on his spirits, he’s used all 6 to play Kujaraku, 4 to pay for it and 2 to maintain it.

on Turn 6, Dan plays a new card, Sabecaulus.

A card from BS06, and one that works rather well in tandem with Dan’s ace, Siegwurm. It’s an Awaken Spirit that grants Clash Spirits 1000 BP at Lv2. Eagle-eyed readers will note that Siegwurm grants Clash to all Spirits with Awaken, meaning both Sabecaulus and Siegwurm will get a power boost with a level 3 Siegwurm on the board, and Sabecaulus will be able to Clash.

We call that: Synergy

Apparently no attacks are being made, since Julian now summons Berserker-Magnum (Lv1 BP: 2000)

Dan can’t attack safely since Kujaraku’s 5000 BP, and Berserker-Gun’s 3000 BP puts all Dan’s Spirits in danger.

Though the monotony might break here.

Dan summons a Lv1 DragonEmperor Siegfried.

It’s only got 4000 BP for the moment, so it’s not beating Kujaraku unless Dan goes to fetch some Core.

Problem is, I think Dan’s all used up, he had 8 core for his turn on account of not having lost any lives, and 4 of it was used up from his spirits.

He’d have to drop one to make Siegfried capable of swinging, and even then if Julian takes from the life he’s got plenty of blockers.

Or Dan can try and bait the block and take out Kujaraku entirely…

Looks like I was wrong, that Berserker-Magnum was Level 2.

Not like the Show let me know though. Julian had 11 core available and only 1 was spent on his Magnum, 9 of which is currently levelling his Spirits, leaving him 1 remaining.

Naturally with 2 White symbols and 2 available core by levelling down spirits, Julian has it covered.

Julian loses another life, dropping him to his last 1.

Blizzard wall makes it so the maximum amount of Life that can be decreased by a Spirit’s attack is 1, Julian’s lost a life, so Dan attacking would achieve not very much.

Christ the CGI animators are god damn flexing, another card we haven’t seen used in this series yet, but is a callback to the previous one, The X-Rare, TwinRowdy Diranos.

naturally I got zero clue what it’s doing in this deck, Julian hasn’t used a single Terra Dragon.

Julian makes no attack and ends his turn.

Magisa notes that Julian is trying not to make any moves in order to keep his request to Dan, that is, to play Meteorwurm.

Now we’re cooking with Gas, Dan levels up Siegfried and Sabecaulus to Lv2 and Lv3 respectively, this means he’s got Spirits with 6000 and 7000 BP on his board, since the highest on Julian’s board is 5000 BP, and his life is only 1, Dan can start picking apart Julian’s blockers.

Dan attacks with Siegfried.

And I feel at this point it’s worth pointing out that Julian’s stubborn playstyle is something I love.

Julian uses another defense Magic, with 2 White Spirits, this one is free.

It’s quite a good “get off me” card, basically stops 1 attack.

Julian targets Siegfried and takes the attack, Mist Curtain prevents Siegfried from doing any damage.

Hm, I wonder why Dan doesn’t want to make a move here. Sabecaulus is still primed to take out another Spirit, with 3 blockers Dan’s more than capable of stopping what would be Julian’s 5 remaining attacks and worst case scenario Dan loses 2 lives.

Julian had only 1 card in hand, even if he played everything on the next turn without dropping a card, the best he could hope for is 4 lives, Dan has zero reason to not attack here.

It’s Core gatherin’ time, status report! It’s turn 11 with 4 lives lost, so 4 + 5 + 4 for a total of 13.

We got 6 spirits, with 7 core split among them, so Julian’s free available core is 6.

And now, Behold, the complete and utter misplay.

Julian offers FlameEmperor Kujaraku as Tribute, sending it’s 2 core to the void.

Diranos is providing NOTHING to the board right now, Tribute Diranos! Kujaraku has a higher statline!

But putting the bone-headedness of the move aside, Julian summons an oldie but a very well-remembered goodie! The Ultimate Ace from the previous series, the main character’s final ace card, The SacredEmperor! Siegfrieden!

This is the first instance of a tribute in Gekiha Dan, so Julian explains it.

Tribute specifies a condition a Spirit needs to meet, and a place for that Spirit’s Core to go, when summoning a Tribute Spirit, as an additional cost to play it, you must offer up the Spirit that meets the condition, and move all it’s core to the specified area.

In this case, the condition for Siegfrieden is a Cost 6 or more spirit, and the core must go to the void.

As a side note, if you summon a Tribute Spirit with an effect, you might expect in a Yu-Gi-Oh! sort of way that you can’t fulfill the tribute and therefore can’t play the card, but Battle Spirits works around this, if you summon with an effect, you still have to pay the Tribute if it’s not specified, even if you play it for no cost. Naturally there are cards that can get around the Tribute problem as well.

Needless to say, the card looks EXCELLENT in Gekiha Dan’s CGI.

It might have been a hot minute since we seen this, so how about we cover it?

What an absolute monster of a card, pain in the ass to get out but once it’s out, it’s out.

It’s a terrible purpose for Kujaraku, but I suppose they were either trying to circumvent the problem with actually tributing a relevant target for Siegfrieden, or wanted to use something they already had some kind of basis for in terms of model.

In any case, one might wonder why Kujaraku was designed, it’s a BS04 card, The same set that released The DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried, the first ever Tribute Spirit.

Battle Spirits sets are designed to be played independantly of other product, as such, BS04 needed a decent Tribute target for DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried that wasn’t in and of itself a tribute. As such, Kujaraku was made, a Vanilla, easy to summon Cost 6 who’s reductions are accounted for by forcing you to send more core to the void when inevitably tributing it.

ideally, Siegfried requires the same amount of core investment (Total of 4) with less cards on board and less core offered to the void, so if you’re tributing anything, it should be Siegfried.

Naturally, lore-wise Dark Siegfried and Siegfried are distinct cards, we’ve never actually seen Siegfried tributed for it’s Dark Counterpart at any point I think.

If I happen to be wrong do leave a comment, I try to remember as little of Toppa as I can.

A Battler’s deck can often be said to be a representation of a Battler’s soul at the time that it was constructed.

In this case, while Julian’s specialty is Red, Julian is adopting and skillfully using White, Red’s antithesis, and Siegfrieden being a Multi-coloured X-Rare that combines the 2 can be considered a rejection of the Red “Purity” that being the Red Lightbearer suggests.

I dislike somewhat how Julian’s lack of use of Clash is the representation of his rejection of his status as a Red Lightbearer.

Clash is a Red exclusive keyword, yes, but it’s also not the be all end all of Red, Red users are not required to use Clash and it almost certainly isn’t Red’s only keyword.

But I suppose this is less to paint Clash as the hallmark of a Red Lightbearer but moreso to paint Julian as a potential future for Dan, for clash to fail and for his motivation to use it to be shot.

Magisa analyzes the use of White, believing that Julian’s become defensive since losing to Otherworld King. Hence the use of White.

Julian’s “Red” Soul is being contained in a Prison of “White”

Naturally multicolouring need not be represented so harshly. The show definitely does like to play with Colour themeing a lot. And Multi-colour isn’t necessarily always evil.

In this case it’s the context for the change that indicates whether or not the choice is considered good or bad.

Notably, and this will be a recurring theme in this show which I do like, is that Otherworld King is, somewhat, inextricably linked to the idea of multiple colours.

Julian, being one of the first first-hand victims of the Otherworld King, and an evidently powerful battler, has his deck represent the effect of the King on him by now sporting a deck of mixed colours.

Keep that idea in mind.

Hoo boy, you play one big ass Spirit and suddenly you get to wipe out 3 spirits at once.

Notably Siegfrieden is indicated as an outlier in many ways since it’s Destruction effect is determined by Cost, not BP, which is normally considered a Blue trait, a colour Siegfrieden does not have.

With 3 Spirits gone, Dan is only left with an Exhausted Siegfried and a Sabecaulus, conveniently left as a blocker.

Julian has 6 spirits, one of which is double symbol, he stands to take 7 of Dan’s lives this turn.

Dan do be cornered.

Julian enters his attack step.

Dan takes 4 attacks, 2 Lizardedge, Berserker-Gun and Berserker-Magnum, from the life.

Suddenly Dan’s on 1 life, and Julian still has 2 attackers.

Julian, strangely, ends his turn here, and I’m not particularly sure why.

He has 2 attackers and Dan only has 1 blocker, so this match is already decided.

Julian then says that next turn, he’ll bring Siegfrieden to Level 3, and then his victory is decided.

I imagine this is because Siegfrieden being at Level 3 means he can destroy Sabecaulus and Siegfried, who have BP equal or beneath 7000.

Still, one can infer a couple things from Julian’s turn end here, namely he’s been countering Dan’s onslaught for a while, and if he gets countered here, like, say, a stray Victory Fire on Siegfrieden’s attack, its over for Julian anyway as Diranos would get wiped out.

Then Julian lacks the requisite blockers to stop Dan’s board, basically there’s 50 different ways Julian just gets wrecked if so much as one of his Spirits gets put out of action before it can get through, so he doesn’t offer the opportunity.

But also, he has a victory in sight and isn’t going for it out of fear. Which can be a good indication of Otherworld King’s influence on him.

Ah yes, the million dollar question.

With a nowhere near as expensive answer.

Sometimes you just don’t have the drive for things anymore, and besides, in Julian’s mind, after losing to Otherworld King it was probably like losing a war.

Dan once again tries to punch through to Julian’s desire to fight, claiming that Dan will battle Otherworld King the second he shows himself.

Julian acknowledges that if Dan shows his power at the Tournament, Otherworld King will take notice of him.

Dan of course fires back that Julian should also join in, giving Julian an opportunity to once again meet the Otherworld King and battle him.

Rejected.

Ah it’s a rare scenario but much-loved when it happens, the Main character is getting nowhere with his intended goal. Julian is no closer to wanting to fight again than he was before.

Before Julian’s able to answer, Dan drops Sabecaulus to Level 1, and summons a Level 2 Erimakilizard.

And finally, Dan’s ace card but not quite X-Rare, The ThunderEmperor Siegwurm.

They glossed over it, but Siegwurm was infact summoned at Level 3, making it’s BP 9000.

Time for an epic battle, Siegfrieden vs Siegwurm.

Notably, Siegfrieden is 6000 BP at Lv1 and 7000 BP at Lv2, I dunno what Level it’s currently at given that they’ve been glossing over it but since Siegfrieden is Cost 9, Julian had 6 available Core, and had 5 reductions, Siegrieden could very well be at Lv2 at this point.

Hoo boy, another counter from Julian, this time it’s Buster Lance.

In this case, Buster Lance’s flash effect grants 3000 BP to a spirit.

There we go, it is infact Level 2.

Bersker-Gun’s core is used for the cost.

with 10000 BP, Siegwurm’s not gonna cut it.

Naturally 1 Battle trick begets another.

Dan’s response is to use Lightning Aura, an attacking power boost that offers 1000 BP to all of Dan’s Spirits, and Clash Spirits gain an additional 2000 BP.

This puts Siegwurm to a total of 12000 BP.

Naturally the poeticness of this is simply that Julian refuses to use Clash, and will now lose his Key spirit to a card that only functions in the presence of it.

It’s the most minor of pet peeves but the fact that Siegwurm is the ThunderEmperor but is coated in Flames and not Lightning irks me.

In any case, with the lower BP and Julian’s lack of available cards in hand, Siegfrieden, the great X-Rare of BS05 and the last main character’s final ace is wiped out.

Beaten by a structure deck card that wasn’t even an X-Rare, granted not every card needs to be.

Next up is Siegfried, making a push for the final life.

And now, a rare instance of a character doing the insane.

Julian is scooping.

It really doesn’t matter if Meteorwurm hasn’t arrived, you’ve got him on the ropes, a full attack means it’s over this turn.

Julian is fully aware of the promise he made, but unofrtunately, in a rare moment for the series, and in card game anime in general actually, the card did not arrive.

Ah Dan’s bout of furstration, I can understand his rage.

Dan’s spent this entire battle trying to re-ignite Julian’s fire, asking him to fight with Meteorwurm, chastising him for giving up.

Except he has succeeded at none of these things, Meteorwurm did not appear, and Julian’s fire is firmly put out.

Julian looks at himself like he barely recognizes his own hand, noting that what he is, is in fact the previous Red Soldier.

Dan exits the battlefield, frustrated, noting that Julian has somehow vanished somewhere.

To compound the issue, Magisa is also missing.

Clackey and Mai’s expressions naturally are supposed to heavily imply without outright stating in a kid’s show, that Julian was very likely romantically involved with Magisa at one point in time.

Ah here we go, we’re about to delve into the lovely, re-treaded ground of many a card game anime.

Dan is incredibly frustrated, his message didn’t get through to Julian but Julian entertained the fight anyway, so now Dan wonders why Julian even fought in the first place if his ideals were not on the line.

Mai of course points out, that perhaps Julian accepted the game, because he enjoys it.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! A common trope of their Duelists is that over the course of the series they forget their own ability to have fun, and can have Arcs or Subplots dedicated to re-discovering it.

In Dan’s anger, he resolves himself to obtain the wish from Otherworld King, and says it will be to release the Otherworlders from his control.

Which was obvious from the beginning, not sure the rehash here is necessary from an informational standpoint buuuut given the meta-purpose of this episode it makes sense to re-state it.

Julian seems to be notably accepting Dan as the Clash King.

And now for anyone who didn’t notice the undertones mid-battle (which I will talk about later), here is a more literal passing of the torch from the previous Red Soldier to the current one.

I’m not particularly certain what the message is but I presume it’s an acknowledgement that Dan is the current Red Lightbearer, and more importantly, more worthy and capable of utilizing Meteorwurm than Julian was.

There’s a strong suggestion that they were romantically involved, and still harbor feelings for one another, but this very minor disagreement indicates how done the relationship is.

It’s particularly small but the reason it ends off on this is just to pin-point that fundamentally whatever they had stopped working out at some point, and still wouldn’t even if they still feel attracted to one another.

it’s nice and bittersweet, they acknowledge and respect each other, and recognize the other for what they are and how they feel, as well as the fact that it’s all in the past and isn’t likely to come back anytime soon.

In any case we end off on this, Episode 15, almost a 3rd of the way through Gekiha Dan.

Now I mentioned some themeing concerning this fight, this Episode serves several functions, I’ll go over them in order.

By this point, Dan’s deck is quite static, he’s received Siegwurm, Ankillersaurus and shown off some new cards but otherwise his only “Upgrade” since then has been Siegfried and that’s kind of it.

So far Dan’s been tackling cards released before the series began (or as it began), recent characters using recent cards from BS05 or BS06 but also wrangling older decks.

Ultimately, what Julian represents, is Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa Bashin. He is a living representation of what that series is.

His history is sort of complementary to this role, that’s why the writers naturally settled on never having Julian gain Meteorwurm, his role is effectively done and developing him in this manner would almost cheat Dan out of an upgrade he desperately needs.

His deck is centred on The SacredEmperor Siegfrieden, Bashin’s strongest card. And his deck also contains key features and references to the series, such as Kujaraku’s Tribute, and the appearance of TwinRowdy Diranos.

Their existences there were to serve as Anchors that series, and Dan’s subsequent defeat of them was a Doylist “Passing of the Torch” to a newer series, and what better way to open that gate to the new series than to show the first card from BS07 and hand it to the main character.

This is why I like Julian, he is what came before, having arrived to test what comes after. He has powerful cards, he appears competent, and he, spiritually, is the previous series personified.

And that story is done, Bashin Toppa is over, Julian’s story, is over.

Time to make way for the first set untouched by Bashin Toppa, BS07, and time for Gekiha Dan to succeed that show.

I’ll see you lot next time.