And right from the outset I have no clue what’s going on.

It’s the new year, it’s Winter and Bashin is screaming nonsense again.

Absolutely 0 indication of what is going on.

So here we have Meganeko, reading a book while her Grandfather.. Is either looking for a specific or sorting them.

Before dropping several onto the floor somehow.

And now guess what young youthful girl is gonna need to pick that up, that’s right, Meganeko.

Because he’s old.

I’m sorry is this plot you’re presenting to me?

Oh you shouldn’t have!

I wonder if this plot point needs resolving.

Is that a loud resounding yes I hear?

This old man knows something…

What do you mean “I don’t think they normally” can, don’t give me that bollocks.

You spent all this time telling Meganeko that strange things might occur that she doesn’t expect, and then immediately roll it back saying that she shouldn’t bloody trust what she hears.

THESE ARE MIXED MESSAGES YE OLD BASTARD

Detectives use their eyes and ears all the bloody time, It’s up to them to distrust OTHER PEOPLE’S eyes and ears.

At least Meganeko’s got the initiative here, deciding to find out the truth for herself instead of pondering about it.

Good on her for doing something relevant to the plot.

…And so she immediately goes to track down Toppa… And not Card Sensei.

You know, the person she’s suspecting.

It is literally Winter Break Meganeko, School is closed. But considering some bald bearded ass man managed to get into a school that’s meant to be closed down for Winter, It’s a possibility.

And this town has a park? I’ve never seen it, mostly because Bashin would never go there.

You know.

Makes you wonder why she didn’t just go there first instead of asking Hayami where Bashin was. If Bashin wasn’t at the Battle Spirits’ Centre, THEN would be a good time to go to his house because he might be at home.

Especially because Hayami works as a Taxi Driver and isn’t always at home to look after Bashin.

No matter how many times you put it infront of me show.

I can’t read these indecipherable Japanese texts.

Hell I’m so uncultured I don’t even know when Katakana or Hiragana is needed.

Good.

You can freeze for all I care, this is the Meganeko show now.

A renewal?

So basically they’re waiting for the Battle Spirits Centre to be refurbished, basically.

…Hold on a minute, New Deck?

New Card!?

Well if you’re actually going to be showing us something new, then sweet momma yes please!

If I don’t see some new cards I’m going to be pissed.

It’s Turn fucking 17, and Striker hasn’t snatched a single life from Bashin?

Jesus, gonna need to be some real comeback victories here.

So I see Lizardedge has been added to Bashin’s deck, but Lizardedge is a Spirit we’ve seen before unfortunately.

I suppose that’s one way to prove Bashin has a new deck, but Striker has Scorpede and a completely new card, MachG, neither which he had before.

We reviewed Scorpede Last episode so time to check on MachG!

Now this is what I call a good card. MachG is a singular cost 1 with the Swift ability, (High Speed in English)

We’ve gone over what Swift is before, but incase you’ve forgotten, Swift allows a Spirit to be summoned during Flash timing, as long as all the core used to summon and maintain it comes from your Reserve.

Now the reason why MachG is good for typical strategy, is because it’s a SUPER cheap Chump Blocker or Extra Attacker that the opponent won’t know about before it appears, and BECAUSE it’s so cheap, your opponent has to be wary even if there’s just a little bit of core in the reserve.

And given that it has absolutely 0 reductions for its use, It’s a card that can be thrown into basically any deck, but benefits Green more of course, as it can provide Green reduction.

Quite happy to see Striker using MachG.

Striker blocks an attack from Lizardedge by using MachG, since both have equal BP, they’re both destroyed.

Because of course Striker’s new highlight is going to be a Nexus.

Because what bloody else would it be?

Oh, That’s a pretty card, but more than that, it’s a NEW card.

A Cost 5 Nexus, pretty hefty.

At Level 1, The Budding Plain awards Striker with a core anytime he uses Magic during the attack step, good way to refund the core you’re using.

And at Level 2, All Striker’s Parasites that are in his hand are treated as having the “Swift” ability.

Oh that’s nasty, that will let him make a rush of attacks while Bashin is unsure about how many attacks Striker will make, or what Spirit will be making them, all he has to go on is that they will be Parasites.

Striker pulls off a cool combo, by using the Cost reduction to play Gather forces, Striker pays 1 Core to get 2, One from Gather Forces, and One from his Budding Plain.

Or at least it would be if the Budding Plain didn’t specify the Attack Step.

That’s on the Japanese version of the card too. Fuckup Tally: 18

Striker plays Hercules-Geo, The MeteoriteArmor Monoqueiroz, and a new Cost 5 card.

The CavalryBeast Sleiphorse? Well let’s see what you do.

At all Levels, Boosting Sleiphorse’s BP with Green Magic awards him with an extra +2000 BP until the end of the turn.

But at Level 3, that boost is awarded to any Spirit you give power to, not just Sleiphorse.

Only 1 Reduction though for a Cost 5 Spirit with relatively low power and requires the use of Magic (which requires more core) to boost that up?

Nah, Hard pass on this card.

Sleiphorse and Monoqueiroz each snatch a life from Bashin, and Striker ends his turn.

Well at least the sides are a little more even now I guess.

Bashin now summons another Eyeburn and 2 Dinohounds.

Dinohound is a Cost 2 Red Spirit from the Terra Dragon Family with no printed effects.

It requires 2 Cores to maintain it’s Level 1 but it starts up at 4000 BP, even stronger than Mjolnir at Level 1.

Hopefully its better than the shitty vanilla you dropped on the board.

“The Ancient Fault”

Sounds like something that’s been in Bashin’s brain for a while.

But this explains why Bashin needed an entirely new deck, Ancient Fault gives +2000 BP to all your Cost 2 Spirits while they’re attacking.

At Level 2 however, whenever you destroy an opposing Spirit during the attack step, you draw a card.

Pretty cheap Nexus at Cost 3, its the type of Nexus that comes out early, hence it focusing on Cost 2.

Bashin attacks with Dinohound and takes out a Scorpede.

Eyeburn attacks and Striker Crashes with Hercules-Geo, destroying them both.

Bashin makes another attack with Eyeburn but Striker uses Binding Thorn, Exhausting Bashin’s last Dinohound.

Striker’s now left at 1 Life after that attack. Putting him on the edge, but that magic during the attack step awarded him with core, so he can make a comeback.

Striker plays Gowsilvia.

With all of Bashin’s Spirits exhasted, and Striker with 3, Bashin is cornered.

Shame he couldn’t get out of that one, a full attack finishes off Bashin.

Good on Striker, I’m glad this battle at least unveiled some new cards, and a new strategy from Bashin.

Cutting immediately away from Bashin making a fool of himself, Meganeko is pondering something.

That is a point, if Bashin isn’t at home or at the Battle Spirits Centre, then it’s going to be really hard to locate the little lemming to introduce Meganeko to the main plot.

Meganeko takes a break from the understandably tiring process of having to look for Bashin if all people and little Nanarin, the good girl that she is, is trying to help Meganeko investigate.

That dog deserves pets. And nothing you can say will convince me otherwise.

Oh, Card Sensei seems to be staggering about… Not sure what the purpose of him having a hoodie is for though.

Especially considering most people in the town know him.

Nanarin doesn’t like it, so she starts barking as loud as her tiny little voice can bark.

Look at the good girl trying to protect her owner! It’s so cute.

Firstly, don’t start calling that Dog Watson.

Right now it’s more Sherlock than you are right about now Meganeko.

Secondly, you should have gone after Card Sensei first, there’d be no need to investigate if he just spilled the beans first.

Should have been the first thing you did.

Unfortunately.

By “The Era of Tag Battles”, you mean 17 episodes into the first Battle Spirits anime ever yes?

And continuing on from that, 17 out of 50.

This ain’t no Era, and if it is then count me out bucko, I’m here for that singles goodness.

You’re under the assumption that J will only have Suiren as his long term tag partner.

He selected Suiren for the test, and it was their first ever tag battle, that by no means sets the precedent that J will only ever tag with Suiren.

Bashin casually admitting he wants to beat the shit out of a pretty boy and a girl.

Anyone dialled the police yet?

I heard that you was talkin’ shit and you didn’t think that I would hear it~

Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear.

…And will probably say something along the lines of “Come on then ya cheeky cunt!”

Given that Bashin, Striker and My Sunshine are J’s only friends, its kind of nice that he’s gone out of his way to wish them a Happy new year.

…The challenge you threw their way or wishing them a Happy New year?

You’ve said 2 different things, it’s super unclear why the hell you came to see him.

Even more confusing how you managed to find them in an empty alleyway.

Apparently Bashin thinks J was kidding about the Happy New Year.

Ah yes, one of the greatest things to do to a friend, invite them over to your house.

We just finished introducing Tag Battles to the Canon Battle Spirits community.

What OTHER weird rules have you decided to make up you weird rich boy?

…Oh no…

Oh ho ho hoooo… No….

So, give your bets everyone, how much you want to bet Meganeko’s going to break down and cry?

Because I’m really hoping she doesn’t, I feel terrible every time it happens.

Meganeko tries to further the plot along but Nanarin’s all like “Nope, Chuck Testa”

The hell is so important that you needed to drag us away from the plotline ya mut!?

The world may never know.

Just kidding, It’s apparently Card Sensei looking like he’s either got the worst cold of his life and shouldn’t be out at this time of day during the Winter.

Or he’s about to join up with his Card gang and Stab some people with sharpened Cardboard.

#QTNA (For those like me that don’t know abbreviations, that means “Questions that need answers”)

Help is the exact opposite of what he looks like he needs.

He looks like he needs a gang of equally thuggy looking people.

Meganeko is a shit stalker, confirmed.

Also this is not a shot I want to be seeing in my innocent Shounen anime.

I’m glad they toned down the very scary nature of the situation by having Card Sensei raise a leek above his head.

Really negates the dangerous aura he was giving off before.

And we cut to Card Sensei with a Leek around his neck.

I hate to say it buddy but you don’t need a Leek for a headache, you need Tea for that god awful cold.

…And Sensei just flops all over the table.

Right over those mugs he was next to.

Either they were knocked over and Tea is all over the floor now… Or Card Sensei’s having a Hot nap.

Or they were empty, that’s possible too.

Meganeko tries to talk to him, but the guy’s out cold snoring his ass off.

Now is the perfect time to steal his stuff.

…Or that.

I’d still go with nicking his stuff but whatever works for you Meganeko.

Maybe because he’s asleep, inside his Shell…

You know, because he’s a fucking turtle.

Card Sensei’s having fever dreams of playing Battle Spirits.

Better than the fever dreams I get. Lucky bastard.

The call out however startled Meganeko, so she gives up on Guraguri for now.

Bit of an understatement, how the hell do you get the nickname “Card Sensei” without loving Card games?

Now you know he’s asleep, so why don’t you go back to investigating Meganeko?

This pup I swear.

she is single handedly the most adorable but annoying thing in this show.

Card Sensei wakes up just as Meganeko inspects the cupboard, only to realise its a bunch of My Sunshine merchandise which tumbles out of the cupboard.

Way to go Nanarin, it was COMPLETELY unrelated.

Card Sensei doesn’t even have an angry look on its face, it’s just “Oh for fuck sake not again”

It’s HILARIOUS.

It’s almost like he’s a fan or something.

A My Sunshine Towel?

I mean I guess that’s one way to say you have My Sunshine wrapped around your-…

…She’s 13 BlackAce… We need to talk about this.

…Are they used?

Because if so then ew.

Does the School board know you’re giving your used towels to students Card Sensei?

How has this guy not been fired yet?

…This is a REALLY weird time to start crying, I am really confused.

So what more do we have on this list of things to write up Card Sensei about?

Inviting a student into his home, making her cry.

Let’s add on the fact that she’s underage and you’re offering her used towels.

HMMMMMMMM…

…Ohhh I get it, she’s still upset about the My Sunshine Secret Live.

There we go, also confiding in Card Sensei I see.

I wonder if she’ll be motivated to become a battler if she realises it gets her to see My Sunshine more often?

Someone to sympathise with at least.

Card Sensei actually plays Battle Spirits and he wasn’t invited.

Explains why she didn’t want the Towel. She’s the only person not included in Kyouka, J, Striker and especially Bashin’s activities.

Most likely because she doesn’t play Battle Spirits.

I mean… The person giving out the invites was J, it was the same this time as well.

J doesn’t even know you exist, so maybe go pester J for about 5 minutes until you become his friend through some weird method and then he’ll just start inviting you to shit because he’s a lonely little bitch and doesn’t have any friends outside of that extremely tiny group.

Step aside wannabe, make way for the REAL sherlock holmes.

…I don’t think Card Sensei is any better at observation than Meganeko is but hey, maybe they’ll get somewhere.

Okay I really don’t want to sound like a radical feminist but this is just classic mansplaining.

It’s very obvious that if he knew it would hurt her, she would have been invited.

The issue is not whether or not Bashin meant to do it, it’s the fact that he forgot in the first place.

Meganeko loves Bashin to the point of self harm though so she obviously tries to understand Bashin’s point of view, rather than expecting him to consider hers.

Card Sensei is still mansplaining though, and badly.

Rule of thumb.

Forget is just another word for “Couldn’t be bothered to remember” and is definitely something you’d want to apologise for.

Now we cut to whatever the hell J is showing these Card nuts.

So J is just casually flexing how rich he is by showing off the fact that he’s basically got a Battle spirits centre he can use right at home.

I’m surprised he hasn’t given himself a passing compliment.

…And the person testing the fucking thing is J?

How rich do you need to be to get such special treatment? J has an INDOOR BATTLE SPIRITS CENTRE IN HIS OWN HOME.

For what purpose would he ever need to grace the public with his presence unless he wanted to fight against someone other than Kyouka.

And Kyouka’s too adorable NOT to fight.

I actually forgot about this plot point, so whatever Sawaragi industry J’s father is using, is funding the actual visualisation system itself, for the Battle Spirits Centre’s usage.

Meanwhile, Micheal Elliott was altering it to fit the newest Tag Battle ruleset he was developing.

That makes a little more sense as to why they’ve assigned it to J’s home for him to test, given that it’s conveniently the home of the Battle Spirits’ Champion.

Well, any rules that are official.

There’s very little point conforming to made up rules to suit a random person’s needs, or making them up to suit yours.

We call people that do that Scrubs.

But back on topic, I don’t really feel like the Tag Duel format is all that interesting, too much going on already in one game nowadays, and while I understand this is the first anime, therefore the game pacing is a lot slower than now, It’s a real pain in the ass to think psychologically how a pair of people are going to act in conjunction with each other, rather than just a single player against a single opponent.

…I’m sorry what?

What are you afraid of Kyouka saying J? What secrets are you trying to hide from everyone that you’re so afraid getting out?

And if they were secrets you wanted to keep, why confide with Kyouka?

I actually want to know what Kyouka was going to say

No, Kyouka’s here, she’s more than capable of participating in a Battle, especially because she taught J’s mother how to.

Oh for the love of-

Lovely, another repeated Battle for seemingly 0 reason.

I see she’s stuck with her Suiren disguise for this particular match, which is fair, I don’t know how I’d feel about a super girly My Sunshine acting like Suiren mid match.

The hell does it matter whether or not she’s dressed as an Idol or dressed like Suiren?

If you truly love the idol you’d like her no matter how she’s presented herself today you picky schmucks.

Suiren gives the reasoning that because she came here to battle, not to be an idol, it’s appropriate for her to use her Suiren persona and not her My Sunshine.

For the purposes of comfort I actually agree with this, no point dressing for work when work is not what you’re going to be doing.

Why are the pair of you so picky about the girls you like?

Especially when the girl standing infront of you is the EXACT SAME GIRL!

Also I like how Kyouka’s just eyeing her up like “Damn, she’s lookin’ good”

Alright, Turn 15 of the Tag match, time for the super long ass field review because Tag Matches have 4 players instead of 2.

Striker only has a Nexus, The Hermit Wise Tree at Level 2.

Bashin has a single Eyeburn on his board.

J has a new card, Sphereroid, while Suiren has a pair of Death-Haides.

So about that new card..

Sphereroid is a Cost 1 White Spirit from the Machine Family, hailing from BS02.

At Level 2, when it blocks it gains +2000 BP. Pretty standard stuff. Nothing really much here to talk about.

Striker plays a Gowsilvia at Level 2 and passes the turn, aiming to defend.

Not bloody sure why considering his Hermit Wise Tree is at Level 2 which would refresh Gowsilvia after it had attacked but whatever.

Basic Strategy maketh no sense.

J plays his single Yellow card, The WhiteTiger Huck!

Time for some Nexus action of his own.

Suiren, J’s partner, questions the use of The WhiteTiger Huck given that it’s a Yellow card in J’s deck of Pure white.

Which is reasonable since I believe there’s been no situation where Suiren was able to see J use Huck.

And J just outright admits that it was Smile who gave it to him, like no biggie.

I’d be worried that J was associating with a creep like Smile but whatever, How is Kyouka not blowing up at him either? She was scared of Smile in several shots of that episode.

J uses Huck’s ability to Deploy the Timeless Ice Field, and apparently as per these weird sets of Tag Battle rules, J Deploys it onto Suiren’s field.

Ignoring that, it’s a new card.

Surprisingly it’s a card we haven’t seen from Base set, not BS02. It’s a Cost 3 White Nexus.

During your opponent’s attack step, at all Levels, The Timeless Ice Field awards your Blocking Spirits with +1000 BP.

At Level 2 which requires 2 core however, during your opponent’s start step you can select an opposing spirit and it MUST attack that turn.

Interesting, given that defence is White’s speciality, forcing an opponent to attack you, when you are stronger defending rather than attacking is an odd way to be aggressive using a White deck.

This Nexus obviously follows the logic of “The Best Defence is a Good Offense”

J uses his (VERY BANNED) Invisible Cloak on The WhiteTiger Huck, making it unblockable for the current turn.

This is complete garbage, Invisible Cloak just prevents blocking, if you used it during an opposing turn you’d sound like an idiot.

Target attacks aren’t even a major thing yet you dipshit, and even then there are other ways to get around those than with a card effect stating “this card can’t be attacked”

For the record if a card did state an effect saying it couldn’t be attacked, that card would be ass for being way too situational.

Huck takes a bite out of Bashin and Striker’s life, dropping them to a measly 3.

It’s (apparently) Bashin’s turn and he plays Orcaria…

And speak of the devil and he shall appear strikes again it seems, we were just talking about target attacking.

Orcaria has the intriguing ability of being able to target attack refreshed Spirits at Level 2.

Bashin cleverly makes the most out of his Cost reduction and deploys The Ancient Fault, raising Eyeburn’s BP by 2000 as it is a Cost 2 Spirit.

For those who can’t math, Eyeburn will be at 4000 BP when attacking.

Oh shit, Bashin actually levels up The Ancient Fault.

That explains the use of Orcaria for certain, Orcaria being able to Target attack will seriously help when it comes to getting off the Level 2 Draw effect.

Bashin immediately swings with both Spirits.

Suiren blocks but is worried about losing her Death-Haides.

No one ever teach you how a Pokerface works?

J re-assures Suiren however, by reminding her that The Timeless Ice Field provides +1000 BP for Suiren’s blocking Spirits.

Death-Haides have 4000 BP at Level 1, and with The Timeless Ice field that’s 5000 BP.

Needless to say, Bashin just lost both his spirits he so carefully played.

I hope Suiren beats their asses, I’m bored already.

Suiren plays a 3rd Death-Haides at Level 2.

But with only 3 spirits, she can’t win as Striker has Gowsilvia as a blocker.

A wall consisting of primarily Vanilla Ice cream.

Not really a wall if she doesn’t end her turn either. These explanations are getting worse and worse as time goes on.

Bashin nabbed all of Striker’s Core to Level up that Nexus that he didn’t make use of…

…Cuz he’s an idiot.

Death-Haides destroys Gowsilvia.

Suiren reasonably ends her turn, because even a full attack won’t snatch all the lives.

Striker goes full wombo and plays The Duke Kingtaurus with all of 1 Reduction on his board.

…Yes.

For each other Spirit you control… Of which there are none.

As Bashin attempts to explain that Kingtaurus is alone and can’t increase Core, the shot of the field is quite something else.

Because Kingtaurus has been replaced by a random ass Taurusknight.

Clearly an editing mistake and not a fuckup but by golly is that funny.

As soon as J’s face pops up some BADASS music starts playing as he summons 2 Sacred Mjolnirs.

And where there is Mjolnir, there is THOR!

J then depletes Huck, given it’s served its purpose and is basically a glorified Yellow vanilla.

And J then summons The Gigantic Thor!!!

Can I get a “They’re fucked!” from the audience?

Oh joy, this combo again.

Suiren uses Core from her Level 2 Death-Haides (Levelling it down) to play Evil Aura on The Gigantic Thor.

Again, for the sake of my sanity, I will work under the assumption that Suiren is doing this during the Flash timing of the first attack, given that Evil Aura can’t be used during a Main Step.

Which appears to be correct, As J attacks with The Sacred Mjolnir.

Bashin, thinking correctly, wishes to use Flame Tempest to wipe out the Mjolnirs.

If he does, J will only have 2 Spirits, and one of them being a Thor that can’t refresh.

With 3 lives, they’ll survive til next round… Or they would if Striker hadn’t done something stupid and summoned The Duke Kingtaurus by itself.

And that’s checkmate.

J uses his typical pattern of attacking with Mjolnir before swinging multiple times with Thor, wins.

Bashin gets angry at Striker for Core Hogging, which prevented him from using Flame Tempest.

To be fair, they’re both Guilty, and they’re both Idiots.

The thing about Nexuses is that they remain up on the field for the players to be able to see their effects coming.

Bashin powered up his Spirits and swung, despite the thing that lost him all his spirits being a Nexus Bashin failed to ask or be wary of.

And Striker played his X-Rare when he needs more spirits to make the best use of Kingtaurus.

Suiren explains that the Tag matches are about working together and synergizing with your partner.

And I’d like to throw up because real Battlers fight alone… In real one on one matches.

No, no you do not.

Infact this entire concept is dumb and you should drop it.

Jokes aside, don’t bloody entertain this silly concept longer than it needs to be.

How much you want to bet that J’s just been phoning up Suiren for dates just so they can up their chemistry mid-battle?

Reminds me of a story I heard where opposite-sex people paired up in a workplace often slept together to improve their work ethic, as they had to work together well.

“Now she kisses me goodnight and buys me gifts, our marriage has already been arranged-“

This show has absolutely 0 spice to it, I tell you.

J states that the model system works perfectly and can be put to use.

So it won’t be long before we have our Battle Spirits Centre back up then?

Cutting away from that scene, we’re now at Bashin’s apartment complex.

Meganeko is still trying to get in contact with Bashin, and having absolutely 0 luck.

Poor Meganeko, half this episode has been dedicated to her and she’s received no closure.

Well at least he opened the door, maybe we’ll get SOME closure.

…So he opens the door, sees his friend, exclaims loudly that he guessed it was her, and then SHUTS THE FUCKING DOOR AGAIN?

Given the lack of evident brain function going through this idiot’s mind, I wonder if it’s not too late to abort him?

…Nevermind, Bashin has returned but with what appears to be Hot Chocolate.

You get to live another day Bashin, this time.

I’m glad this has been explained now. All we need to do now is have Bashin offer to teach Meganeko how to play Battle Spirits, or at least have her ask to play.

would solve several issues in their friendship.

I… Right there was that shot right at the beginning of the episode where Bashin wondered about giving the ticket to Meganeko…

Jesus this is why you don’t let sickness stop you from making blog posts, you forget convenient points made the episode before.

Reasonable assumptions and even though they were wrong you have had good reasons to be upset with him.

Meganeko just casually friendzoning Bashin, even though she’s legitimately in love with him.

Yes. It’s called Battle Spirits.

Now all you have to do is play it Meganeko, please for the love of god.

Yessss…

Just… a little… more…

…This doesn’t make sense I assume she’s going to say something else after this.

I’m on the edge of my seat people! Come on!

BAT-TLE SPI-RITS! BAT-TLE SPI-RITS!~

COME ON, WE WERE SO GOSH DANG CLOSE…

Ugh… I hate you Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa Bashin, you legitimately got me invested, and I’m mad at the position you put me in.

That should be a testament, by itself, that this is a good episode in the overarching plot that is this anime. Meganeko’s getting focused on, and there are lots of hints suggesting she’s going to invest herself in the Battle Spirits game very soon.

It shouldn’t be too much longer but the suspense is legitimately killing me.

The Episode also seemed to be a big highlight about the Tag Battle system, which would have been really cool were it still being used today, but unfortunately it hasn’t been updated since BS10 so my interest in it is minimal.

I would like my readers themselves, to update the Tag Battle rules however if they could, I definitely wouldn’t mind it becoming a genuine format, at least for the casual bunch who both play this game and read my blogs.

Since the Batosupi Lecture doesn’t give us a Card of the Day, I suppose I will leave it at that.

Until Episode 19! And I’m sorry for the wait I put you guys through.

Alright, after the fever dream that was Episode 16, I’ll use this intro to go over what the last episode decided to do extremely loosely to the point where I didn’t even want to associate with it anymore.

That is, the topic of mixing colours.

For a lot of people who only really stick to a single colour at any given time, often the topic of mixing 2 colours together can be a little bit scary. As is building any kind of deck relatively freestyle.

The reason why is because as some may notice, some cards feel better to use with others, the benefit of using a deck of a single colour effectively comes down to cost reduction.

Those annoying little dots next to the cost are honestly the most daunting thing about mixing colours.

A lot of people would rather stick to a single colour, just so they’re getting maximum reductions on their cards and playing in an “Optimal” way, and it’s a trap that limits your creativity as a new player.

Nowadays there are decks that are designated to be in a deck of more than one colour, but the cards they provide to that end very blatantly hold your hand to make it easier for players who are not so creatively blessed.

This also goes in the opposite direction, people who realise the freedom of Battle Spirits and completely ignore the concept of synergy, trying to force things that cannot function together, to do so.

Mixed colouring freely and effectively is a little difficult, you need to decide why you wish to mix those colours and what exactly you are trying to achieve with it. Why do you want to mix colours? What playstyle is each colour going to contribute? What Key spirit will you use? How does each colour help that Key spirit?

You need to think about these things before you throw yourself at the idea of mixing colours in a deck not necessarily designed to mix, because you’re going to find yourself with a loss streak if you don’t approach the topic carefully.

This may not be the best example of a deck that does this, but I’ve given an example of a Deck using mixed colours without a clear need to do so of course, it’s based on J’s own Gigantic Thor deck but using Core Boost to get it out as fast as humanly possible.

I’m using Green to try and not only synergize with the fact that both White and Green can core boost but also to act in Pseudo defense, White is a defensive colour and High Speed on MachG can be used defensively, all this contributes to a very powerful defense by using Green as a subservient colour rather than trying to make the most out of both colours at once.

That is one of the benefits of non-obvious colour mixing, you can’t make the absolute most out of both, your single coloured key spirits CAN reap the benefits of another colour.

Anyway, apologies for this happening during the start, you came to see an episode yes?

And oh god. It’s a My Sunshine episode.

Lovely, because we really needed to look at Suiren fail at doing her job because she can’t decide whether or not she wants to quit.

If this in no way directly relates to a new card or feature of the game, it’s definitely not important.

…Actually nevermind, the topic has finally come up as to what’s behind the mask that is Suiren.

That provides significantly more intrigue than I thought it would, which is fair considering Batosupi TV’s track record.

Only if you’re anyone besides the audience.

Though I’m sure some of your slower viewers may not have clicked already.

…So the Cat’s out of the bag that Suiren is infact My Sunshine then?

And now we cut to a flashback of Commentator-San spying on Suiren heading to the bathroom, apparently…

There’s a million things wrong with this, but okay.

And out comes what I can only assume to be the Janitor for the venue.

But knowing how everyone has the brain of a smaller-than-average goldfish, they’re obviously going to assume that this Janitor who has EVERY REASON TO BE THERE, is Suiren.

Commentator-chan seems to have broken the laws of this world and grown a brain.

Someone had to, eventually.

…This is grounds for the TV company he works for to begin a private investigation into this guy if he was on the lookout for 6 hours just to see who Suiren was…

Infront of the Girl’s bathroom no less.

This has 2 problems to it.:

1. You’re running off the assumption that the Janitor was not already present in the bathroom before you started your watch.
2. You’ve supposedly dismissed the possibility of anyone else leaving the Bathroom also possibly being Suiren.

And lastly, wouldn’t Suiren’s complexion immediately give that away? She’s ONLY wearing a pair of large shades to hide her identity along with a wig, you can’t expect her to be able to hide that many wrinkles.

I have separate issues with the way your eyes look.

Not that they make you old but mainly because of the fact that you have a naturally occurring pink heart shape in a set of green eyes.

And YES I refuse to believe they are contacts because she never takes them out.

You may seem proud of that now but Suiren also doubling as an Idol has caused more problems for your Idol career than it has solved.

And you repeatedly seem to give very clear hints that you aren’t interested in appeasing your fans by constantly disappearing.

…Is he checking on My Sunshine’s room… for Suiren?

Ain’t that a tad suspicious?

…Convenient.

If there’s a way to get from one room to the other without passing through the Corridor, it would definitely be a simple matter to switch to Suiren all of a sudden.

Ugh, J is with Micheal Elliott.

The hell is Micheal Elliott even doing here?

…AND HER METHOD IS CRAWLING THROUGH THE AIR VENT.

Classy.

The only one who shouldn’t be there right now is Micheal Elliott, his existence here bothers me and I don’t like where this might be going.

I love how they use the whites of the shades to communicate how nervous Suiren looks.

Good touch on the animators.

This exchange is hilarious, I’m actively having to stifle my own laughter.

Also Suiren it’s “Mysterious Adult” to you, which is pronounced “Nazo no Otona”

Or you know, the more common phrase, “Nazo-Otona”

Oh, right we’re getting to the new year aren’t we considering it’s winter break and we just had a Christmas episode.

And J did promise a Battle System for the new year as well, I wonder if Elliott is down here because of that.

…Have an advantage for what? Why is Suiren giving him strength?

What’s stopping Suiren from beating the snot out of J’s punk ass and just ruining it for everyone?

What is the catch?

Hopefully it’s better than the last one you tried to teach.

Because you spent the entirety of that episode suggesting colour mixing, and then not showing any examples of it.

I remember it so well you’d think it was last blog post…

Because it was…

I’m VERY bitter.

To bigger and better things, possibly involving card games but most likely involving something completely and utterly stupid.

Though that is indeed a point, where the hell even is Bashin?

And secondly if you were going to turn up on a day as important as New Year’s Eve, wouldn’t it be reasonable to give some.. I dunno, ADVANCE NOTICE!?

Christ you turn up to my house unannounced on any public holiday and my family would skewer you.

…Wut?

My Sunshine has a Secret live show? That’s interesting.

Bashin spending some of his extremely limited brain points to be thoughtful here.

Whatever Bashin got, he apparently received it in enough of a short notice that he couldn’t give it to Meganeko.

So it was by invitation as well.

I imagine if Bashin was personally invited to this event then the tickets are also non-transferable.

Meaning this was set up so that it would be really difficult to give up the ticket to someone else.

Japan!

With 1 word that mean actually 2 completely different things.

Also Striker’s face here is priceless, he looks like Bashin just murdered his bird.

Thankfully that’s not the case, for Striker’s Bird is still here.

Anyway, it seems like Striker is up in arms about Commentator-san (wrongly) asserting that Suiren is infact an old cleaning lady.

I hate to break it to ya Pink! But smarter people have believed dumber things with LESS evidence!

But these two are neither smart, nor have they been given any reasonable confirmation that Suiren is infact, an old woman.

Is this the part where they try to rationalise their belief with unrelated things that don’t actually prove a thing?

Yes, Ace, Yes it is.

Or literally any kind of Himedere which is a common trope of anime.

Infact I believe we get someone EXACTLY like this in about 3 seasons time, and she’s much tinier than Suiren is (despite being canonically older)

Somehow Pink trying to hold back My Sunshine from strangling the shit out of the pair of them is hilarious to me.

Look at his FACE

Oh look it’s me on a regular day when I’m going out to University…

Also that picture of Suiren going “Give me the Radish!” is absolutely perfect.

My Sunshine’s face here is absolutely stunning, very cartoony and very well done.

Got a bit of a Scott Pilgrim vibe there too.

And now we’re finally at the “secret live”

I hope it’s not just a regular concert, I would be a bit miffed if it was.

Oh, that’s a new song, I can certainly get behind this if they play at least a TV sized segment of it-

Aaand they skipped the whole thing.

If anyone can find this song, hit me with a link, it’s called “Shinkokyuu”

And don’t gimme that shitty Naruto song either.

And J shows up to display what his surprise is.

NEW BATTLE SYSTEM! NEW BATTLE SYSTEM!

None of your surprises are actually “surprising” especially since you confirmed this was going to be a thing in an interview earlier.

It was a “secret” live for a reason, Striker.

What you thought it was just going to be a regular show?

I’d say I called it but we also knew about this from a previous episode.

So there wasn’t much to call I was going off of already available information.

Oh boy.

This is not what I thought when they mentioned a “new battle system”

I thought it was like a Tournament Battlefield or something like it. Not a new way to play.

Hoo boy… Tag Matches, if they don’t explain it well enough themselves I’ll go over the rules.

But I was so content with the single one-on-one battles, and as much as I would love the idea of tagging up with someone, these are a pain in the ass to set up in Vassal.

But welp, I’ll try my best to make sense of them.

Nice time to start a tournament I guess, and at least the weirdos are actually playing this time rather than wasting our time.

So that’s what they meant by Suiren “Giving J strength” earlier despite being offered to Battle, Elliott was asking Suiren to join J’s Team as the “King” of the Tournament bracket.

So Striker and Bashin are Teaming up of course.

Well, why not, seeing them work together on a battle would definitely be cool to watch.

Well it jumps straight into the battles later so it doesn’t actually explain the rules, so it’s down to me to do it for you.

Dual Battles

Instead of 2 players in a match, you have 4, you, your partner, and the opposing Team of 2 people.

Rather than the typical 5 life start, Tag Battles start your Team off with 8 Lives.

You still only start with 4 cores in your reserve however. Core is shared between your Team.

You and your partner’s decks cannot contain any cards that are the same colour.

When you’re performing a Refresh Step, you’re only allowed to refresh your cards, not your partner’s.

And finally, deck-outs only occur when both you and your teammate run out of cards. Not just one of you.

Unfortunately this format is no longer supported but still a fun concept to try with your friends.

And due to the monster of a field scan on there, I’ll be reviewing the field using Vassal, as per usual.

Bashin has a Level 1 Rokceratops, and 2 Level 2 Spirits in Lizardman and Metalburn.

Striker only has Level 1s, with Flyingmirage and 2 Beatbeetles.

And finally the enemy team has Hercules-Geo and 2 Xscissors, which JUST so happens to be a new card!

Also I see they haven’t included “No matching colours” rule in this variant of the Dual Battle.

I actually messed up, apparently the cards on their field weren’t Xscissors, they were Scorpedes. They looked kind of similar but I’ll leave the fuck up in there.

I ain’t perfect, so I’ll leave my mistakes for everyone to see

Chock up a fuckup tally for the Verus.

Anyway, Scorpede is a Cost 4 Green Spirit with the When summoned ability of deploying a White or Green nexus from the Trash without paying.

This is a good card to use if you rely on your Nexus, but are facing Red decks, which have Dragsaurus and Buster cards that can wipe out your Nexuses.

Scorpede blocks an attack from Lizardman.

Well I guess he wasn’t there long enough for us to care about it.

Bashin then swings with his remaining 2 Spirits and snatches 2 lives from the enemy team.

Also jesus that’s a huge life counter.

Bashin is apparently a bit too pleased to have gotten his opponents down to 1 life.

…I have a question, why is one wearing a Cap with a light strapped to it, and why does the other have a giant portable headlight sticking out of his bag?

These are some weird ass extra designs.

So the guy summons Monoqueiroz, boosting all his other Spirits BPs by +2000.

And then levels up Scorpede to Level 3 which requires 7 freaking Core.

And for all that his Scorpede is still only at 8000 BP, not very impressive.

And now the arguments begin!

Nothing like showing the weakness in a team by getting into an argument over blocking.

Striker gives in and Beatbeetle gets Skewered for Bashin’s sins.

The 2nd Beatbeetle is taken out from an attack from Hercules-Geo.

And finally Flyingmirage gets sliced in 2 by Monoqueiroz.

Striker’s lost all of his Spirits, and it’s Striker’s bloody turn as well.

Given the updated Dual Rules, he shouldn’t refresh Bashin’s spirits, but I don’t know what set of rules they’re running off of.

Elliott quickly points out that trying to take front and centre while letting your partner do the defending for you isn’t a particularly great way to play.

Throwing your partner under the bus will just hurt in the end, you only get 1 turn per round of 4 turns, so throwing your partner under the bus meaning you’ll just get ganged up on.

Suiren is still missing however, and Elliott ponders where she could be.

Also, Mesterius Garl intensifies.

Trouble in Paradise, everyone wants to interview My Sunshine for some odd reason, which throws a bit of a wrench into the plan of turning into Suiren.

Is the Mask all she needs to transform? She’s kind of also got a skimpy pink Idol dress and a short skirt she’d need to get rid of also.

Well that was easy, what was the point of that then?

Screen-time padding I’m watching you very closely.

Except Tag Battles follow along the typical logic of regular battle spirits, so individual skill is definitely a huge factor.

Meaning the power of all the teams are definitely not equal.

Well apparently according to that bracket, Bashin and Striker won that match.

It’s a crying shame we didn’t get to see the end of that last fight.

And apparently on that note we get thrown into another fight.

Here’s the field review.

Bashin and Striker have all Level 1 Spirits:
2 Goradons
Eyeburn
and Beatbeetle.

Meanwhile the opposing team have:
3 Lizardedge
Lizardman
and 2 Orcarias, one is at Level 2.

Should probably note that the opposing Team are a pair of security guards.

But besides that point, we have a new card to review.

This card is actually kind of cool, from BS02, It’s a Cost 3 Red Spirit from the Lava Fish family.

And at level 2, it has the ability to Target attack any spirit that isn’t exhausted.

Target Attacks are an interesting mechanic of Red, what it does is effectively skip the first flash timing and immediately force your opponent to block with any spirit you choose that meets the condition.

Normally you can’t pick what Spirits your opponent blocks with, or even decide whether your opponent gets to block or not, but this card circumvents both.

You can either use this to take out any chump blockers (cards that are weak and only serve to protect your life) or ram it into an opponent’s powerful spirit so that it ends up exhausted.

I didn’t expect to see a card like this so early.

It’s Bashin turns and he drops his X-Rare, The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

Bashin Levels up Goradon, Eyeburn, and Siegfried using all of his remaining core to do so.

Lizardedge blocks an Attack from Eyeburn and is cleaned off the field.

…What?

Eyeburn’s already attacked and won’t be able to block, there’s plenty of reason to level down Eyeburn, mostly because IT DOESN’T NEED IT!

Bashin’s spewing absolute poppycock as usual.

Anyway, Bashin ends his turn after having attacked with Eyeburn.

I assume that’s because they want to piggyback off of each other’s Core reduction, right?

Considering you’re still able to use cards on your ally’s field during your turn for attacks and such.

Apparently skipping over a turn to Striker’s, Striker plays Gather Forces to gain a core.

Right this weird “Ruby and Emerald” statement Micheal Elliott actually states here is a reference to the actual symbols on the card.

The Orcaria player plays Lizardman at Level 3.

The Policeman attacks with Lizardman and Bashin blocks with Siegfried, using Awaken on Eyeburn to Level it up to Level 3 and defeat Lizardman.

Gather forces did absolutely nothing for your Awaken strategy Bashin…

I’m not actually sure what you’re applauding him for.

You had enough core to do that ANYWAY.

This kid man, I swear.

You know what Bashin?

Neither does anyone else who is currently reading this blog.

Oh look, Suiren arrived just in time for the match she was supposed to play.

Convenient.

Despite this episode being called “My First Sunshine”, There doesn’t seem to be a lot of focus on My Sunshine whatsoever.

Starting at turn bloody 22.

Though logically Tag matches should be taking about twice as long as normal matches anyway, so I can’t really argue with them skipping ahead on this one.

Time for the field review.

Suiren has Death-Haides and a Level 2 Skulldevil on her field.

J has Icemaiden and a Level 2 Fenrircannon.

Bashin has an exhausted Goradon and Taurusknight, from the looks of their postures.

And Striker has a Level 2 Flyingmirage and a Level 2 Gowsilvia on his field.

And since there’s a 3000 marker next to Gowsilvia, Striker and Bashin have 3 cores in their reserve.

Suiren seems… troubled by something outside of the game itself.

Apparently Suiren had to be reminded it was her turn.

Is she just tired or is something actually bothering her?

Suiren attacks with Skulldevil but J apparently notices a mistake with that move.

Striker blocks Skulldevil with Flyingmirage but it results in mutually assured destruction for both Spirits.

I was a bit confused but apparently Flyingmirage has 3000 BP at Level 2 on closer inspection, I seem to have forgotten the details on the card itself…

Suiren tries to attack with Death-Haides but is blocked by Gowsilvia with 7000 BP, Death-Haides doesn’t stand a chance with the 4000 BP it has at Level 1.

Suiren didn’t achieve much with this turn other than destroying both her Spirits.

Everyone’s picked up on the fact that Suiren made a serious blunder by attacking so carelessly.

Gotta give it to the players for good sportsmanship and putting Suiren’s health over the game itself.

Suiren starts having thoughts about the Paparazzi, and being declared an old lady.

I mean there are SEVERAL ways you could possibly solve this problem, Suiren, it’s called unveiling your identity.

Might have an impact on your idol life but to be fair you haven’t been treating it all that well to begin with.

Suiren finally has an emotional breakdown out of fear of people thinking that she’s secretly an old lady.

Poor Suiren, she needs a hug.

It’s not nice to accuse people of things on live television.

And as a Battle Spirits fan, of course she’d be paying attention to what’s on Batosupi TV.

And if she wasn’t infact an Old lady, of course she would be worried about it.

While Bashin is totally in the right to stop Suiren here.

Fuck you Bashin. This would fix a significant amount of problems in Suiren’s life right now.

My Sunshine’s scheduling issues, maybe give her some free time, increase her publicity amongst the Battle Spirits community.

Like come on man, quit being a White Knight, you play Red for fuck sake.

No concern to you.

Definite concern to Suiren who’s having horrible things being said about her with no grounds other than a perverted old man hiding infront of the girl’s bathroom for 6 hours saying so.

Bashin carries on, playing Double Draw.

There’s a Pot of Greed joke in there somewhere but I’m better than that.

After looking at the cards he drew, Bashin makes… this face.

Someone fucking caption this shit. Bashin makes these weird expressions across this whole show.

Bashin summons The DragonEmperor Siegfried at Level 2 (What a surprise!)

Bashin then immediately attacks with Siegfried.

…Did I miss something? There wasn’t a Queen-Valkyrie on your field before J…

And they didn’t skip any turns either, Suiren just had hers.

ADD IT TO THE FUCKUP TALLY!

J then plays Defensive Aura to boost his blocking spirits BPs by 3000.

You know, the one that didn’t exist during the field review?

Anyway, that aside, Queen-Valkyrie at Level 2 has 4000 BP, with Defensive Aura giving +3000, that’s a total of 7000 BP which beats Siegfried’s 6000 BP at Level 2.

Meaning if nothing occurs here, Queen-Valkyrie will be serving Siegfried his own sloppy seconds.

And that good sirs is a new card.

A Cost 3 Green Magic from BS02.

During the Flash timing, this card moves all the Cores in your Trash to any of your spirits, you can’t use it during your main phase.

Turn away now nutjobs, this card is banned from competitive play in Japan.

This card is all kinds of broken, too many good flash effects to abuse nowadays, I’m sure many would love to just use this card to get all their core back for free.

So Striker uses Nature Forces to just slap 10 Core onto Siegfried, bringing it to Level 3 with 10,000 BP.

Queen-Valkyrie is overpowered by Siegfried’s immense power and is destroyed.

I think he means “Role” but yes, Strikers assist each other in getting goals.

I don’t think football logic is something he should be spouting however, given that he will never become a pro football player.

D’awww they’re having a touching moment…

…Which can be dealt with later, back to the fight ya lovebirds!

Icemaiden blocks an attack from Taurusknight and is destroyed.

OTHER THAN A FENRIRCANNON WHICH WAS SHOWN TO BE ON HIS FIELD DURING THE FIELD REVIEW.

So not only did they just completely bullshit Queen-Valkyrie onto the field, but apparently Fenrircannon just doesn’t fucking exist anymore.

Since that’s 2 individual changes, that’s an Extra fuckup for whatever the fuckup tally is on.

I swear it’s something like 17 right now.

Suiren’s STILL hung up over her previous mistake due to her embarassment of people thinking she’s an old lady.

J re-assures Suiren by telling her that HE was the one who selected Suiren to be his partner, not the other way around.

And that had absolutely nothing to do with her identity or age.

FINALLY THE SOB STORY IS OVER. FIGHT TIME!

Apparently we’ve skipped a few turns ahead because it’s Suiren’s turn again.

And she plays The SevenShogun Desperado.

It seems that when Taurusknight swung, Bashin moved several core over to it using it’s Awaken ability.

Given that Siegfried had a whole 10 core it would be weird to suddenly have 6 the turn directly after without them moving.

But also I’m curious as to how much Bashin actually moved, both had 6 core for a total of 12 (as they have 5 each now after the core removal)

Meaning Bashin moved 4 core from Siegfried. But that logic doesn’t make much sense because that would mean Taurusknight had 2 core.

Though Taurusknight could have pulled from the neighbouring Goradon Bashin had on his field, so possibly that’s where the extra core showed up from.

Striker isn’t so lucky, Monoqueiroz gets depleted.

Suiren summons Skulldevil and then throws 4 Core onto Desperado, putting it to Level 2.

I’m pretty curious as to why she left it with 6 core though.

And Suiren plays one of my aesthetically favourite cards, Chaos Draw, also I notice how Suiren has The Shackles of Doom on her field that was never brought up, mentioned or alluded to.

He’s right, say hello to a Purple Draw card.

It’s not a great card since it relies on an aggressive opponent, or you’re playing a Green/Purple mix. But it is certainly one of the most visually appealing cards in the game.

But since that’s just a main effect, they’ve given it a +3000 BP power boost flash effect to give it some usefulness incase it’s situational scenario doesn’t come about, you’ll see this a lot with cards like this, and its another reason why I love Battle Spirits. There’s a way for situational cards to be useful to you if their intended scenario doesn’t arrive.

YOU CAN DO THAT!?

Nowhere in the Dual Battle rules did it ever say I could give my Tag partner my main effect…

But that’s cool if so.

I’ve never heard of this being a thing up until now and I’ve watched the Battle Spirits anime multiple times.

This is why re-watches are valuable, all the information you had before gets refreshed, and you notice details you didn’t before.

That stock background gradient looks reeaaaaal obvious here.

Also since there’s a total of 3 Exhausted spirits on Bashin and Striker’s fields, J gets 3 cards.

Giving Draw to J is beneficial too, since White is a Core Boosting Colour, not a Drawing Colour.

Skulldevil is brought up to Level 2.

Suiren swings with both Desperado and Skulldevil, snatching 2 lives from Striker and Bashin, leaving them with only 3 left.

Striker quickly summons Flyingmirage at Level 2, and attacks with it

But it seems that Suiren was right to give J those cards, as one of them turned out to be Silent Wall. Which will end Striker’s turn after Flyingmirage finishes attacking.

“Crap!” indeed, given that until super recently, there are no cards that can put a stop to your opponent full on ending your attack step.

You just kind of have to take it and hope your opponent doesn’t use their next turn to rip your chances of winning to shreds.

J takes a life, leaving the J/Suiren Team with only a single life left.

J will draw a card leaving him with 3 cards in his hand, those 3 cards have to do enough to take 3 lives.

BUT OF COURSE HE SUMMONS 2 MJOLNIRS AND A THOR!

J puts 2 Core onto The Gigantic Thor, I think I see why they’re applying Extra Core, The Shackles of Doom is at Level 2, so they need to remove Core when swinging.

Anyway, Thor is risen up to Level 2.

At what is I assume to be the Flash Timing stage of Thor’s attack, Suiren plays Evil Aura.

New Card, Moar Reviews.

Apparently the English translated version of this card is referred to as “Cemetary Aura,” but I’ll be calling it Evil Aura because English is Dead.

Anyway, this is ANOTHER banned card, I’m not particularly sure why this one was banned but it allows you to give 4 cores to a spirit directly from the void, but at the end of your turn you’ll have to send those cores back to the void.

You can’t use it during main step either to pay for main step magic costs.

I assume this was banned for the same reason Nature forces was, because it nets you far more core than it costs.

Which means that Suiren can no longer interfere with J’s turn to help him, J’s gotta go the distance by himself.

Apparently Evil Aura was at the flash timing of a Mjolnir attack, a little out of time but I doubt there is any issues with J swinging with a Mjolnir first and Suiren using Evil Aura then.

So I won’t treat it as a fuckup, the card itself does state it can’t be used during the main step.

A life is snatched, leaving them with 2 left.

But I believe J still has a single Gowsilvia remaining, J still has 2 spirits.

A Refresh is in order…

Striker’s face here is absolutely impeccable, good damn job on the animators for this expression right here.

Absolutely love it. It radiates awesome.

I love how Thor just throws a fucking Mjolnir at Striker.

Just swats Gowsilvia out of the god damn sky.

Well okay then.

This declaration seems a bit odd, but he’s activating The Gigantic Thor’s level 3 ability, if you don’t remember what that is, well.

“[LV3] (When Attacks) When the battle ends, by destroying one of your Spirits in family “Armed Machine,” this Spirit refreshes.”

So with this, J can attack with a Mjolnir, attack with Thor, destroy the already exhausted Mjolnir and refresh Thor.

That turns a board of 3 spirits into 5 attacks.

And J’s currently attacked twice, giving him 3 more…

But he only really needs 2.

The Gigantic Thor is refreshed, and he’s acquired a new Hammer.

J makes 2 swift attacks with Thor, destroying his remaining Mjolnir in the process.

And the Bashin/Striker Team lose all their lives.

Leaving J and Suiren the winners… I’d say of the Tag Tournament but they barely even played in it.

Well we’ve still got a bit of episode time left, where do we go from here?

Apparently a cut to Battle Spirits TV.

Since the Live was secret I doubt any details about it would be on Batosupi News, so this is probably going to be quelling the rumour about Suiren

I guess that’s one way to do it, just ask the woman herself and see how she responds.

…If you want an answer that is definitely not the way to get it Commentator-San.

Let the woman breathe at least.

HAH.

Commentator-San got the bucket.

If he ever pulls something as blatantly dumb and creepy as that again you can be damn sure I hope he kicks it.

Good, since you’re done with that little segment, how about hiring a fact-checker that isn’t a creepy old man who spies near women’s bathrooms for 6-hours a day.

Apparently Striker and Bashin were called to a rooftop by Suiren. Could this mean what I think it means?

Apparently J is there as well, and so are all their Cornerstone pets.

So the gang’s all here, all 4 Cornerstone holders.

Hopefully something relevant to the overarching plot occurs.

Well, people’s serious faces and their angry faces tend to result in the same thing. I’ve been deadly focused on something and apparently had people worry that I was angry.

Oh bugger off Aibou, she’s a full time Idol who just really wants to play Battle Spirits at super inconvenient times.

She ain’t got the time to factor in a Boyfriend, plus Idols either aren’t allowed Boyfriends or have to keep them secret, and there’s 3 of you here.

Infact why would she call all 3 of you if it was a confession she wanted?

J takes the initiative and apologises for the misunderstanding concerning her being an old lady.

…And apparently Bashin and Striker get mad for J apologising first?

Also look at J’s shit eating glee on his face, someone should definitely caption that beauty.

I’M YOUR SUPERIOR.

Holy moly I did NOT take J for someone narcissistic, but after the pictures he gave Striker in the hospital I’m no longer surprised. That is 50-feet up-ones-own-posterior level prideful.

Suiren finally speaks and ends this little spat that has revealed far more to me about J than I would have liked.

AND THE GLASSES FINALLY COME OFF.

FINALLY WE CAN PUT THIS STUPID SUBPLOT TO REST AND THEY CAN BE MORE ACCOMMODATING OF SUIREN’S NEED TO TRANSFORM.

BECAUSE SWEET EVERLOVING JESUS! I WAS GETTING TIRED OF IT.

…Alright I should probably state this right now, she does NOT look bad with the shades off. I think her design would be significantly better left like this.

But any further compliments and I’m going to sound as bad as Commentator-San, so moving on!

I’d dismiss this question out of “Well it’s fucking obvious think of the ramifications of an idol disappearing every so often to play a game of personal interest” would be but to be fair they are all Cornerstone holders and have a duty to not keep secrets from each other if they’re going to figure out what “being chosen” means in the bigger picture.

Striker has a revelation that all his communications with Suiren up until now were actually with a super famous (and by his blush, super cute) idol that he’s really into.

I don’t care how Pink you are as an Idol.

You’re a filthy Purple user and I don’t trust your apologies.

Meanwhile apparently Bashin is so slow he’d go backwards on a Formula 1 track, that he somehow comes to the odd conclusion that this means “My Sunshine” is an Old lady.

SOMEONE. CAPTION. THIS. SHIT.

Yawl are letting these memes go to waste, and I SEE THE POTENTIAL!

Not fair Suiren! I want to choke the life out of Bashin!

But given that 2D characters on a screen are slightly intangible to the real world, I guess this will have to do.

And Striker just admits he’s super into BDSM.

This kid is fucking 12.

I’m not even projecting anything here! What am I supposed to do!?

Right I will let you have your weird tastes in what gets you off Striker but DO NOT project that shit onto J.

He’s already weird enough as it is, we don’t need to drive him further over the edge.

Suiren fails at fulfilling the one goal I’ve wanted to achieve because she was distracted by the Sunrise.

And now Bashin is going to live with his windpipe intact.

Well there won’t be a Bashin Toppa in about 33 episodes so I guess it’s not all bad-

Shit there are still 33 more episodes? And that’s about double the amount I’ve already done…

Hey guys! We’re officially a 3rd of the way through Bashin Toppa!

You’re talking absolute nonsense, what does this poetic statement have to do with revealing your identity to the sausage party?

Dammit Suiren now look what you made me do.

Now I’m agreeing with Bashin!

Whew, this took a tad longer than usual, had a lot of breaks in between but at least I don’t feel absolutely knackered at the end like I usually do.

Episode Review! Well it was pretty consequential, 2 major things occurred.

The first is that the new “Battle System” has been added, the Tag Battle, I’ll go over that later.

the second is the fact that Suiren’s identity has been revealed to the main cast now, and that’s a good thing for several reasons.

The first being that now Suiren can be a bigger part of J, Bashin and Striker’s antics without needing to be Suiren to be involved, the second is also that the plot can focus on the fact of Suiren and My Sunshine being the same person a lot less.

This gives more room to solve and add other areas of plot without needing to arbitrarily focus on the Suiren’s Identity subplot just to fit Suiren in.

And that makes me happy, that such a thing has been done and dusted.

As for the Tag matches, they are certainly an interesting concept, and also gives an excuse to introduce more characters and new cards all at once without having to do several fights an episode, however the main downside is that there is usually a LOT going on at once and it puts a strain on me to provide the information clearly to the readers.

So while I do like their concept, it’s putting a damper on my ability to execute these reviews properly. But if you think I’m going to give up because there’s a significantly more information to take in then you have no bloody idea who BlackAce is.

That aside, I enjoyed this significantly more than the last episode, currently my most hated episodes are 7, and 16.

16 because it is effectively a skippable episode, and 7 because it does nothing for the entirety of it, and is not skippable.

For those who get this far, please PM me whether or not I should check whether or not an Episode is “Skippable” before deciding to post a blog on it? Of course if you enjoy my rage-infused suffering then of course feel free to support the idea of “no skipping”

Anyway, with that out of the way, time to check the Card of the day.

Uh… Shit, there isn’t one.

Well I need to put something down so that the link doesn’t look fugly on Discord, so I’ll go with the last card used before the end of the final match!

Evil Aura shall decorate our ending for now.

I’ll see you guys next episode!

Also celebrate! We’re officially a 3rd of the way through Toppa! Only 33 more episodes to go before the next season!

Oh god we’re finally done with the godforsaken Christmas episode.

Now can we finally get back to more plot relevant stuff? Instead of… you know… screen-time padding?

I always make these pleas expecting some magical force to change what’s already been animated… Should probably change my approach.

If someone ever invents a time machine I’ll probably use it to first of all finish all these blog posts.

And second of all, fix the god-awful mess that is Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa Bashin.

But I’m out of time machines so my unwavering skeptical criticism will have to do.

And now I’m watching what I can only determine to be the basis of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.

If this turns out to be a skippable filler episode I’m going to be livid.

So a random dude with a Visor, a VERY unkept beard, a bald head and very loud and suspicious.

The fact that he’s even standing outside the school at all would be enough for a call to the local police department.

…Do they not have a reception office at all?

No Keys to the gate? No door scanners to stop the unauthorised from entering?

This random dude can just waltz into the school completely unnoticed.

Okay definitely a need to call the Police-

-Because of fucking course it’s a Battle Spirits player.

What kind of world is it when the worst thing you have to expect from an unknown man wandering into a school he has no association with, is a burning urge to play Battle Spirits with one of the kids.

…If no one is in school then how the fuck did you get in?

Does this school not have a caretaker to lock up after them?!

Abandoned schools seem like the sickest hangouts ever then, given that they’re not in use.

HAH.

SO THIS GUY SOMEHOW WALTZED INTO A SCHOOL, COMPLETELY UNANNOUNCED, DIDN’T RUN INTO ANYBODY TRYING TO TRACK BASHIN DOWN!

A SCHOOL THAT WASN’T EVEN LOCKED UP, APPARENTLY.

AND IT WASN’T EVEN SCHOOLTIME! SCHOOL’S ON WINTER HOLIDAYS!

HOW BAD AT PLANNING A CHALLENGE FOR BASHIN DO YOU HAVE TO BE WHERE THE STARS ALIGN AND LET YOU ENTER A SCHOOL WITHOUT ANY DIFFICULTY ONLY FOR YOU TO FAIL AT UNDERSTANDING HOW SCHOOL’S FUNCTION!

…I’m extremely confused as to what’s going on here.

Also why does Aibou have his OWN Kotatsu on TOP of the already existing Kotatsu?

I apparently know what a Kotatsu is but am confused about the prospect of them being heated…

My knowledge of any given thing seems to be approximate, and it bothers me every time I realise that.

Aibou just casually throwing shade at Bashin despite the fact that he’s also enjoying his own mouse-sized Kotatsu.

Playing Battle Spirits under the heated Kotatsu sounds like a blast in the middle of winter.

Guess what we’re in right now? That’s right dickheads, Summer.

I’m sorry did someone say building a deck?

Sign me the hell up.

Aibou looks stoned, trying to explain how awesome deck building is to Bashin who’s lookin’ like I did the only time I ever got high.

Except instead of cuddling a Kotatsu I just ate 5 bowls of curry and fell asleep.

Never again.

For the record, the main characters of Battle Spirits are all Red-users, and if they aren’t, then they are extremely partial to Red, or Red makes up the main focus of their deck.

Only 3 out of the 7 main characters actually deviate from Red, 1 uses another colour to support his Red deck, another spent an ENTIRE SEASON using only Red before finally deciding he didn’t care what colour he used (Using several colours with Red as a focus despite that) and finally, the last one used all colours but kept returning to Red because the plot demanded he do so.

This is a very sudden request to make of Bashin right off the bat, it would be significantly more reasonable to have Bashin add in a different colour to support his current deck, like how J is using Yellow in support of his White deck.

Which is the obvious response to any kind of suggestion that demands a complete change of deck.

If you’re going to suggest advice for someone, telling them to change the entirety of their deck is not advice, you’re basically telling them that you’re incapable of giving advice for the deck that they are currently using.

Legitimately fuck anyone who ever suggests you change your entire deck when you’re asking for advice.

Correct, but that also works backwards, effects that only work on Red don’t work against other decks, and that discourages their use.

And you’ve got ways around that as well.

This is a perfectly good suggestion by Aibou here. Suggesting Bashin mix in cards to his deck won’t take away from his main strategy, just shift the colours around.

That is fair of Bashin to not want to use Green.

While this isn’t the greatest suggestion, White Magic is among the best type of Magic in the game.

Anything of Cost 4 and below can be thrown into any deck, so Bashin could use Silent Wall for example to cut opposing attack steps short if he plans accordingly, without the need to change his deck make up.

While that’s a pretty shit reason for not wanting to take Aibou’s advice, Aibou is also pushing unnecessarily hard for Bashin to use a different colour.

If Bashin wants to improve as a battler he’s going to need to take advice, yes, but Aibou should also be willing to give advice that doesn’t require that Bashin include another colour that might seem unnecessary.

It’s possible to give advice for his Red obsession Aibou. People just have colours they like obviously.

…

Okay Aibou’s got me on this one.

Aibou is… Saying all the things I’ve wanted to say to this meathead for so long.

It’s beautiful…

I think I might cry…

Well if the hat fits…

YEESSSSS!!

This is the most beautiful day.

Bashin’s getting his pride shat on by a fucking MOUSE!

MMMMM

Admittedly yes but now you’re just kind of deviating from the topic there Aibou.

…I suppose you’ve never seen a Cat in your life then.

Bashin casually admitting to his mouse that he’s more of a Dog person.

Little insensitive there Bashin.

Who wants to break the awful truth to Aibou now that he can speak human language?

So according to Aibou, because he has a sense of identity and the capability to communicate with Humans, he can’t be considered inferior enough to be Bashin’s “Pet”

Considering “Aibou” means partner, I assume that’s what Aibou is trying to make out here.

…

Why is Aibou insulted by the prospect of being called a mouse? Do the cornerstone animals not realise that they are actually animals?

Well according to you Bashin: Aibou, apparently.

Entirely reasonable to be fair.

I don’t think I could stand being subservient to that dumbass either.

Aibou should go join up with J and have J become the main character as he descends into edginess.

Or since Nine was so interested in Bashin’s Cornerstone, go join up with Nine, he uses a Siegfried too.

As Aibou curses Bashin’s reluctance to use a Colour other than Red, he finds himself at Meganeko’s house.

YES, This is the greatest idea, he should make Meganeko the main character.

Also totally on board with a female main character, would be difficult for a Shounen anime like Battle Spirits but it would definitely be cool.

Meganeko has an adorable relationship with her Dog, Nanarin.

She just sits there and watches it eat. I also love how she never quite touches the dog while it’s eating either, Dogs are pretty selfish with their meals, easiest way to get bit by one is to touch it while it’s eating.

So you just casually admit that you are, infact, a Pet?

Makes you look a bit silly for that argument earlier.

Nanarin notices Aibou and Aibou ,trying to get away, is somehow strong enough to kick over a pile of books.

KEEP HIM MEGANEKO.

BASHIN HAS OFFENDED HIM WITH HIS STUPIDITY.

IT’S VERY SERIOUS.

Aibou escapes right after Meganeko discovers him.

And Meganeko just kind of like has a really animated moment where she does nothing and just holds that book for an extended period of time before we cut to the next scene.

Keyword being “Sometimes”

Mixing colours is one of the greatest things you can do in a deck, and it is awesome making a good deck revolving around more than one colour.

But it is by absolutely no means essential to making a good deck.

Probably because mixing colours is a fun avenue to pursue when building decks.

How much you want to bet he’s going to follow this up with some sappy comment?

Apparently Bashin has a 6th sense for the plot because he’s ran off to Meganeko to see if she’s spotted Aibou.

A bit convenient there Bashin.

Meganeko informs the poor little dumbass that Aibou was found under that specific book she’s still apparently holding in preparation for this very visit.

And apparently Bashin has concluded that because Aibou was crushed under that book, it clearly means he was trying to fly to Brazil somehow.

Not sure how a mouse is going to find himself on a flight to Brazil without an exterminator being called once or twice on him.

Meganeko clearing up that little screen-time padding there, as if it needed to be said.

Now you choose to be surprised that Bashin doesn’t know where his god damn pet is?

No mouse is going to migrate to Brazil all the way from fucking Japan Bashin.

Grow a brain.

Just gonna casually sit in a Butcher’s shop and hope that the person in the counter doesn’t bloody notice that there’s a rodent in there?

Come on now Aibou, you know better than that.

Also do mice even EAT meats? I can’t imagine they would find many meats smaller than themselves.

Though a quick google search tells me that Mice will eat just about anything.

Also have you seen a real life pet mouse? They’re adorable.

Shame about finding one unintentionally though, that scares the crap out of most people.

And Striker seemingly pops up out of nowhere.

And as the man who has the best relationship with all of the cornerstone animals, he’s the best person to look after Aibou while he’s in a tiff with Bashin.

…With a bucket?

I know your head looks like a Banana but I didn’t expect your Brain to be one as well.

I love how they immediately think it’s Bashin’s fault for being completely argumentative when the guy just simply wasn’t in the mood to be talking Battle Spirits while relaxing on a fucking Kotatsu.

Aibou was granting him advice when it wasn’t asked for, nor did Bashin specify that he needed it.

And doing that is an easy way to get into a fight for absolutely 0 reason.

I know, because I get into a lot of fights for doing the exact same thing.

Being helpful when there isn’t a need to help is just annoying.

And now Aibou is officially safe and sound with an animal lover like Striker.

Good, that settles that, can we get some proper Battle Spirits related plot now?

By Busy you mean “As soon as the first set of twins were popped out”

And “Didn’t get much better when the second set came”

I’ve only got a little sister and I still needed to help take care of her, that’s only ONE sibling I needed to help with.

Imagine needing to help with FOUR.

How is looking after your 4 brothers in any way the same as putting together a Battle Spirits deck?

When have you ever played any card that wasn’t green in your deck?

And no I don’t count Siegfried considering you don’t have that anymore.

You didn’t even USE Red cards to provide reduction for Siegfried anyhow.

WHAT DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH ADDING RED TO COVER GREEN!?

This analogy of “Give and take” makes absolutely 0 sense in the context of Colour mixing.

I get that they’re trying to say that “By giving up some of my core boost, I can get more power” in the context of Red to Green but they’re not directly saying it that way which is why it is confusing.

But this statement is completely pointless anyway, J is using a Yellow card that would NEVER WORK in any Pure yellow deck, you add different colours for the sake of synergy, not because you “need other colours to cover your main colour”

There is absolutely nothing you give up by mixing colours.

So do I, but that doesn’t make it correct.

Coming from the mouse who felt the need to insult the shit out of him after he naturally refused to take advice that he didn’t bloody ask for.

And started out as initially bad advice to begin with anyway.

This has actually caught me at a time where I was trying to correct my sense of taste to be able to enjoy mushrooms (As my significant other is polish, and they’re big fans of mushrooms over there)

So while I’d normally scream “Ew Mushrooms”, I’m actually wanting a bite of that salad Striker’s put down.

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day.

Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

But only if the man can be fucked to actually learn how to fish, apparently.

Has Bashin finally clicked that Aibou heading to Brazil would be completely unreasonable and slightly impossible?

…Nevermind, he’s just Geographically dense.

We haven’t had our initial fight yet and we’re almost halfway through the episode, what is going on here?

Did they decide we didn’t need a Battle after the 6 they threw at us during the tournament episodes?

HOW IS BRAZIL PURELY KNOWN FOR THEIR LOVE OF SOCCER!?

There are fucktons of countries that play Football, is Brazil actually known for their enjoyment of Football?

Please tell me because boy am I confused with this leap in logic.

Also, Bashin has no fucking clue where Brazil is, but knows enough about Brazil to know what they’re into.

Does Bashin even know Japan, the country he LIVES in, is in Asia?

And this is the obligatory scene where we know Bashin is looking for Aibou and that Aibou is currently taking refuge at Striker’s place.

Just to get the younger fans to scream at the screen with “AIBOU’S IN THE HOUSE! HE’S THERE! YOU DON’T NEED TO GO TO BRAZIL”

And then being hit with the harsh reality that the people inside the show can’t here you.

Yes I’m bitter that I can’t punch this orange-haired fuck through the screen.

Striker finally getting to the meat n bones of the situation thankfully.

Hopefully this little “Brazil” mistake that Meganeko told him was a simple coincidence doesn’t last any longer than it has to.

…

This is just going to have Bashin rationalise that he asked Striker to teach him life skills so he could live on his own.

Ah, I remember, this is the long desired prequel to Ratatouille isn’t it?

…Are we sure they can’t hear me through the screen? The Ratatouille thing was a joke man.

Bashin ignores Striker’s attempt to clear up the misunderstanding he’s collected inside his head and fucks off to stop Aibou doing something he wasn’t even going to do.

Welp, you readers in Brazil, if you see some orange-haired schmuck asking to check out your kitchen staff, check if you’ve got a mouse infestation.

Has Bashin not clicked that mice can’t legally be given jobs?

It’s the middle of fucking winter, and you, as a Mouse, decided to pick now to leave.

Not exactly the climate where mice can survive in the open there Aibou, should have thought about that before you ran away from home.

And the little mouse just hitches a god damn ride in the one place where his natural predator would also definitely be.

And after upsetting Okyou the last time she tried to have a heart to heart with him, I doubt she’s keen on letting him live.

Like what? What your next card from the Nazo-Otonas will be and how you’ll somehow factor that into your deck?

Or maybe what other yellow cards you want to use with your White deck?

And now we’ve learned that in his spare time, J likes to think exclusively about Bashin, and it’s been so evident that even Okyou has noticed the change.

Love is in the air~

That doesn’t require long amounts of thought to the point where you’re worrying your damn cat about it.

Understanding how a person thinks can definitely impact how they play, yes, but you would have figured out how Bashin thinks by now by the fact that he doesn’t know where fucking Brazil is and can’t pay attention to anything that isn’t directly infront of him.

And screams “BREAK THROUGH THE FRONT AND RULE THE WORLD” at the top of his voice while being a dumbass midgame.

He’s straightforward and you’ve beaten him twice, I’m pretty sure you have very little reason to think about him unless you plan on taking the guy out for a date.

The only time I’ve seen J act without thinking is when Kyouka noticed him playing with Bashin behind the Gym (Murrrrr) and using Defensive Aura during his main step.

…And the time he decided to challenge Bashin to a match over Kyouka’s “Love Letter” situation but to be fair that was YOUR fault Okyou, and J had enough manners to have never opened Kyouka’s letter.

Not that having opened it would have changed anything but still.

I’d just like to point out before I move on that Okyou is completely adorable and I would also fly a helicopter to beat the ass of my fated rival over inaccurate information she fed to me. Look at that adorable cat.

Anyway, cuteness overload aside, Okyou’s bring up that J’s mixing colours in his deck, which is technically true starting with his WhiteTiger, which is a Yellow card.

But I’d like to see him mix other colours with his deck, it seems this episode is trying to strongly promote the concept of mixing colours. It’ll be cool to see what secondary colours the other cornerstone uses add to their decks.

Anyone who screams “Shomen Toppa!” besides Hayami at the top of their lungs deserves to be shot.

And that entire list has been Bashin up until now, no Nine doesn’t count, he didn’t yell it like a moron, he said it “smoothly” and with such a manner that makes me melt in his awesome…

Sorry, I love villains that actively recognise and take after the hero, a Villain with Hero powers or tropes is one of my favourite types of Villain.

…

Nope

That was awful.

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day has been ruined.

I cannot go on knowing that J just made the worst pun in anime history.

Even Okyou is completely mortified by the utter garbage that just left J’s mouth.

EXPLAINING THE JOKE JUST ENHANCES THE AMOUNT OF CRINGE I’M FEELING J.

EVERYONE WHO WILL READ THIS POST IS NOW DUMBER FOR HAVING HEARD IT.

Busted, Aibou’s been caught red… paw’d?

Do Mice have hands or are they technically quadrupeds?

And in which case are their feet just feet or paws?

Okyou tries to close in but before she can ruin yet another person’s life, J stops her for once.

But you should know this already, Okyou, given that you talk to J on a regular basis and live with the schmuck, did asking what the flowers were for never come up in conversation?

Aibou dodging the question like Striker should have dodged Okyou during that relay race.

Aibou is weirdly concerned about the bouquet like he’s about to admit he’s taken a shit in it or something.

I thought you and your mum were cool J? The fuck you buying flowers for-

Stopping myself there, children shouldn’t need a reason to buy their mother flowers.

Tells you a lot about my relationship with my own mother doesn’t it?

I’m pretty sure if I bought flowers for my mother everytime I did something to upset her, she’d just get even angrier.

My mother is not pleased with apology gifts. I see the thoughtfulness in J’s actions though.

…And then for some strange fucking reason, Okyou starts screaming at Aibou in response to that statement and I’ve got absolutely 0 clue why.

The world’s greatest school infiltrator finally gets another scene, this time deciding to head to Bashin’s house which is a significantly better way to contact someone.

It’s just a shame that Hayami works most of the day driving, and Bashin is currently looking for his fucking mouse.

I appreciate his enthusiasm though, because this guy actually wants to play some Battle Spirits.

I wonder what deck he uses?

I almost feel bad for the efforts he’s gone through to locate Bashin just to play Battle Spirits, it’s actually saddening.

Also look at the disproportionate limbs on this guy.

Never Skip leg day.

I feel ya Mr. Bearded-guy-without-a-name.

I’d be annoyed too if I went to a school that happened to be closed AFTER getting to the classroom to locate a kid, then going to his house to find out he’s not home.

But your best bet now would be to wait for him to come back.

As I kid, I would probably find this amusing.

As a 21-year old man watching a show about a children’s card game (which advertises the Extreme Game containing players significantly older than myself)

I just sympathise with him.

That is a significantly more reasonable question, here’s a better one.

Where in God’s name are you going to find the money to get to Brazil?

And why haven’t you figured out that Mice can’t get flight tickets and would be killed on sight at any given airport.

Who else just assumes J just lives inside his car? He’s never seen anywhere else, except his Helicopter.

I could definitely get behind the head-canon that J just has all the provisional needs for a healthy life inside his car, like a Bath, a bed and an on-board chef with a cooker or something.

J is now apparently a Taxi.

Come to think of it if Bashin just called Speed Star (given he apparently has a phone with which to call her as Hayami called Bashin when he was sleeping during the tournament episodes), Hayami could have really cleared this up with Bashin reaaaaally quickly.

Screen-time padding?

Screen-time padding.

Looking for more evidence to support my ludicrous claim that Aibou has somehow:

Discovered that Brazil exists.
Learned to cook for the sake of moving there to become a cook.
Somehow acquired a Flight Ticket and a Job offer as a mouse with 0 qualifications.

…How come you leave the car door unlocked? Seems a bit stupid if you think about it.

No but I assume this claim is going to get even more outlandish with J’s input.

OH MY GOD.

AND WHY DOES BRAZIL HAVE A SHIT TON OF CACTUSES!?

WHY DOES AIBOU’S MOTHER ALSO HAVE A RED BEAD UNDER IT’S CHIN!?

I’m trying to understand the stupidity that is Bashin and I realise that my first error in doing so was attempting to do so in the first place.

But most of stupidity can be chocked up to stubbornness or disbelief, this guy is literally deriving the weirdest conclusions from UNRELATED PIECES OF INFORMATION!

Except she isn’t-

Okyou what are you doing?

Okyou stop, this isn’t healthy.

THE FACT THAT YOU KNOW IT’S A KYOTO ACCENT SHOULD REALLY HINT TO YOU THAT WHAT’S COMING OUT OF OKYOU’S MOUTH IS UTTER CRAP!

Oh no…

This is really happening isn’t it?

So Okyou, in the span of about a minute, has immediately figured out that Bashin’s story is deluded, but rather than fix the problem, has decided to EXACERBATE it.

Now Bashin is going to probably spend his money getting on THREE INDIVIDUAL BUSES to a place that doesn’t exist.

Argentina exists, but the place Okyou is sending Bashin to isn’t Argentina obviously.

…I don’t care how upset you are.

You are having Bashin go to a place that he doesn’t even know the name of that he can only describe as “Three full bus rides away from home” which is FAR.

He’s going to be a 12-year old kid, wandering in an unknown place all by himself, and even if he could contact his mother to pick him up she won’t know where she is because Bashin won’t know where to direct her!

As someone who spent an entire day hunting for a card shop that apparently moved location a month BEFORE we arrived there and didn’t change their online address, this kind of shit is demoralising, it took us AGES to return home because we had absolutely no clue where we were. And we had an address AND directions!

If you ever Prank someone, never direct them to an unknown area, because it’s going to be frightening for the victim.

Legitimately hate this Cat, Aibou saying she was a troublemaker is an Understatement of the century.

So while Bashin is being made a victim of a very serious misunderstanding that Okyou deliberately contributed to out of a vain wish to punish him, Suiren has taken on her disguise specifically to talk to Aibou.

Entitled piece of shit mouse.

I hate these animals more and more every episode.

Aibou’s referring to this line of people here, I didn’t include the shot because I didn’t think he’d honestly ask Suiren about it.

The fact that you can look at all of those fans and say that without pause makes you a terrible idol Suiren.

Quit or fucking do your job properly, it irritates me to watch you actively annoy the shit out of everyone because you feel like playing a card game.

There’s the recurring theme about fights between friends.

When you finally decide to give yourself a bit of space from them, you find out that you miss them more than you care about the fight.

So in an attempt to evict Bashin from his mind, Aibou asks Suiren what the clip is about.

Suiren is blushing and saying it’s “an exciting, powerful fantasy!”

If it’s so bloody good as you say it is, why aren’t you up there recording it?

YOUR ACTIONS ARE CONTRADICTORY!

I love how Aibou is representing the fairy in these particular shots.

At least My Sunshine is still accurate, also nice to see the consistency in the fact that My Sunshine is suddenly playing a lot of acting roles.

Wow, Spoilers!

Suiren’s going out of her way to spoil a video that’s not even finished recording by her statement.

Especially for someone who’s just a fan, strange that she knows so much about a clip that hasn’t been filmed yet.

Too late, Suiren’s gotta “Henshin” back into My Sunshine so she isn’t seen as suspicious.

Yes, specifically in a rough manner that may result in accidental death and the need for Pink to clean you off the pavement.

…By that I mean Pink is trying to eat Aibou.

Though after the Okyou situation I can’t tell if Pink genuinely wants to eat him or if Aibou just hates him because Chameleons normally like to eat Mice.

…Apparently the latter, because Pink took him to one of the boxes to have a conversation with him, and isn’t currently trying to ingest him.

I’ve always wondered how Chameleons actually change their colour, I know it’s an innate ability they have.

A quick google search tells me that Chameleons actually have specific cells and can consciously change their colour at will. To signal mood and intent. (They can use it to camouflage but it’s not their main use of it, explains why Pink’s rapid changing is tiring for him despite being a chameleon)

That… doesn’t always solve the problem there Pink.

But he’s on the right track though, I won’t fault him for it.

Though I’m checking my watch, wondering when the Card battle is going to arrive.

Awww, Pink genuinely wants to be Aibou’s friend.

So it’s definitely Aibou just being the problem in their relationship because they’re predators and he hates them, rather than because Pink and Okyou genuinely want to eat him.

So, can we petition for Pink as best animal?

Because this guy is not only ignoring his typical eating habits to console a mouse but he’s been trying to get on with Aibou the entire time.

And he’s not a piece of shit because he knows Suiren enough to calm her down when she stresses out.

Pink is an amazing emotional support pet, and I didn’t even know Chameleons could even be pets.

Just gonna cut out anything to do with the filming because it’s irrelevant here, straight to the point, Bashin asks Suiren where Aibou is.

Did you ever here about the literary technique called the “Rule of threes”? Well it’s a trope of media and literary works that a lot of people prefer things that come in threes.

The 3rd instance of this fucking routine was Okyou’s deliberate lying to Bashin to send him to an unknown place pretty far off.

That was the perfect time to actually do something different with this Episode, show...

Suiren explaining the plot of her silly movie clip without actually mentioning that it’s a movie clip.

If anyone’s going to derive absolute nonsense from that it’s Bashin, but I’m already bored given that it’s the 4th time they’ve done this now.

It lost it’s charm the last time they did it, you’re just taking the piss now.

…While that is a pretty cool shot of Bashin’s imagination, Suiren said “A fairy” not “Aibou” and that they were simply talking about it, not living it.

Also Goradon’s face here is absolutely priceless, someone caption this.

Specifically 100.

For what reason I dunno but it does need to be a specifically long amount of time so people really do know how long it’s going to be.

But how they can be so sure it’s 100 years exactly is never quite mentioned, couldn’t possibly be a plothole in the plot of a video clip that is adding to the horrific head-canon of Bashin’s that is currently making up the current subplot.

I’ve tried commenting on this. We’ve seen it 4 times now.

I can’t tell if I’m too exasperated with the fact that he’s fallen for this shit 4 times or the fact that this stupid sub-plot is the reason we didn’t get a mid-episode fight.

And cue Bashin conveniently not hearing this specific piece of information.

Yup.

Like Clockwork.

Except a Clockwork functions significantly better than Bashin’s head does apparently.

Oh wow the guy actually DID do the logical thing and try to wait for Bashin.

I feel even worse considering that Bashin is 3 whole Bus routes away from home right about now.

“ran away” from who?

You’ve yet to give us a name or alias that you go by, bit hard to run away from something you don’t even know is coming for you.

And after all the effort Bashin put into looking for you, you’re going to return home because it’s warm and cosy.

And this entire episode just lost it’s purpose. I feel like I could have skipped this one without ANY repercussions whatsoever.

Possibly to look for his Pet mouse who just ran out of the house without warning and without any indication about whether or not he intended to come back.

You know, standard actions of a Pet owner with a lost fucking pet.

Seems we get a scene with Card Sensei now, and that Turtle looks so happy despite the fact that Card Sensei just left him at school for winter break…

Was he there over night? Did you just return to get him now? How often has this occurred? Does he live at the school normally?

There are lots of questions here that would have a severe impact of how badly you’ve been mistreating this poor little turtle.

Given that this statement exists I will stretch and assume that he normally lives at School, and is the class turtle.

And that this is like the day winter break started, so Card Sensei likely just remembered his routine, Guraguri shouldn’t be in too bad a shape, but feed him as soon as you get home you blue suited bastarded.

Perfect timing was half an episode ago.

And of course he’s asking this dumbass question.

And in standard fashion for when you really don’t want to have your delusions corrected, Bashin ignores Card Sensei asking for a reason for the question and just demands an answer.

Hey, Visor Beard finally found Bashin.

I can’t believe it took a full 18 minutes of Episode time to actually get to the interesting part.

The door opens and Aibou instinctively checks to see if it’s Bashin, but because he spoke when he said that, Hayami had the unfortunate event of hearing it.

Aibou squeaking the problem away makes Hayami just assume she’s tired and she heads off to bed.

Oh man I wonder!

I can’t even put in the effort to give sarcasm at this point.

At this time of night? At a time where Hayami has returned home before he has?

No this is the time where you call the police because no 12-year old kid should be out at this time of night, period.

Given that Aibou has suddenly brought up the possibility of the random bearded dude being a Nazo-Otona out of his ass.

Very likely now that the man who’s been looking for Bashin all day is infact a Nazo-Otona, but that’s a little bit strange.

Nazo-Otonas generally tend to avoid battlers mostly, this one is actively hunting for Bashin for some odd reason to fight him.

Does the same logic apply here? If Bashin wins does he get another X-Rare? Or a High Ranker to the next tournament?

This really isn’t the time Card Sensei, you have a Turtle that needs to be taken home right about now.

And likely hasn’t been fed either, think with your heart, not your crotch.

Card Sensei spots Aibou and tells him that Bashin is at Toaru Mountain.

Also just to re-iterate, a Mountain. Those things have to be of a certain height to actually be considered mountains and not just super high hills.

Also Card Sensei telling Aibou that Bashin is at a mountain seems mighty silly considering mice normally can’t speak.

Not in this card game episode apparently, I am entirely prepared for a fightless episode given the track record of repeating itself this episode has undertaken.

Meanwhile the Nazo-Otona has just placed himself on the stairs to the mountain rather than approach Bashin himself.

…I’m half expecting Bashin to just ignore him and dash passed him.

…Can Papa Navi operate the car by himself?…

If so then holy shit why the hell is Hayami even a Taxi Driver? These Navis are great-

Probably because of the imperfect Bus Navi actually.

So he IS a Nazo-Otona, and he’s offering an X-Rare for his defeat!

…A surprisingly straightforward one as well, he’s actively hunting for Bashin rather than waiting to be found.

It’s a shame that Bashin is too Straight forward for this guy.

Shut the hell up Papa Navi, you robotic unfeeling muppet.

Of course you’d need to actually be human to consider that a 12-year old being out super late at night is worrying and dangerous.

Well at least this episode is going to wrap up soon.

The question is whether or not that Nazo-Otona will get his fight or not.

To reiterate how much of an understatement that is.

• It is the middle of winter break.
• It is the middle of the night.
• He’s atop a mountain.

All those combined and he could be in danger of god damn hypothermia, let alone the common cold.

Finally!

Now just get this awful sob story over with so I can get my fight.

Questions that need answers.

…Delusions that need vanquishing.

Like now.

And they cut back to them returning to Bashin’s place.

ARE YOU SERIOUS? THE NAZO-OTONA WAS JUST LEFT HANGING!

That is absolutely not what you heard and any assertion that you did hear any of that bollocks is a lie.

You can’t blame other people for your being an idiot.

Bashin gives in, and decides he’ll think about trying other colours in his deck.

I suppose after that stress he’d give anything to keep Aibou at home and safe.

FINALLY. SOME CLOSURE!

I both feel bad for this man and admire his determination at fighting Bashin to give him an X-Rare.

I certainly hope he shows up next episode first thing, because this episode did him 0 justice.

…OH YOU CANNOT BE FUCKING SERIOUS.

REALLY!? NOT A SINGLE BATTLE THAT ENTIRE EPISODE!?

You want my review? That episode was complete and utter filler, the mix colour conversation did not need an ENTIRE, FIGHTLESS, EPISODE OF REPETITION to assert into the show.

The only Battle Spirits related bollocks they even discussed was a new Nazo-Otona who easily could have been introduced quickly, and the subject of mixing colours into a deck!

THAT’S IT, THE REST WAS UTTERLY POINTLESS!

…No you know what? Fuck you.

If you’re going to throw a Fightless episode my way and waste my bloody time with no plot either, I’m not going to bother digging into what your topic for the episode is.

I’ll discuss the avenues of mixed colouring in the next episode’s blog post, but as it stands this one was a sheer waste of time with the very little it decided to actually give us besides the suggestion of mixing colours.

Until then guys, I’ll see you next time, sorry for the shoddy disappointment of a blog post along with a boring episode.

Oh good lord…

It’s a CHRISTMAS EPISODE!

I don’t mean to be an Uncle Scrooge, I love Christmas, but I fucking HATE Christmas Specials, Movies and all popular media surrounding Christmas.

Legitimately fuck this episode, I hate it already.

Why hello there Commentator-chan.

Hopefully you haven’t decided to bring Curators that are actually working for King Uchuuchouten as a Nazo-Otona this time around.

There better be a purpose to you being at this god damn Christmas party.

Because I refuse to accept being sewn to J’s balls as a reasonable answer.

Infact, give ME his drink. I’m gonna need as much as I can get to survive this episode.

God don’t let me get into the habit of drinking while I do these… I might fly off the handle way more than usual.

So J’s going to be a Special Guest in their “Special” Corner, and My Sunshine is presenting their talk show.

Lovely. And the only alternative is Bashin or Striker…

Man I really do not like any of our cornerstone holders.

Kyouka seems about as bored as I am about this Christmas party, and Okyou is trying to identify with her. It seems like Okyou is Kyouka’s only source of entertainment.

Apparently “the others” have been invited to do something without Kyouka.

Just because she doesn’t play Battle Spirits onscreen doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy it, plus Kyouka actively supports the fact that J likes playing it, so I’ve got no clue what she’s being left out of.

Well apparently “The others” were invited to make Christmas decorations for everybody.

Bashin having the attention span of a Goldfish (And the hair to match) decides to give up on making decorations.

Look at Striker, look at the pain in his eyes while he watches his dumbass friend give into boredm.

It’s got nothing on mine my green-shirted friend, nothing.

So you didn’t get invited to do much then?

Kyouka really isn’t missing out on anything is she? Nothing like a Christmas episode to do the equivalent of wasting a precious episode slot.

You know what? So do I! But I’ve got a duty to fulfil and you aren’t making my life any easier, Goldfish-head.

Yes.

That’s why we call them “Card Battlers”

That’s kind of what they DO.

Aibou out here acting like Battle Spirits isn’t the exact reason he’s able to fucking talk the ungrateful little rodent.

Yes.

Because the last time you went to J’s art gallery you scared a poor woman and embarrassed Bashin all for the sake of eating a fucking mushroom.

Which resulted in you getting your tail crushed.

Plenty of incentives to not be where Bashin is right now.

So apparently Bashin has been speccing into thoughtfulness, because he’s apparently prepared a “Special Present” for someone, and Aibou was about to blurt out the details of this “Special Present” despite it needing to be kept a secret.

Aibou has a higher chance of revealing Isekai to the world than Bashin does with his big mouth.

Who in the name of shoddy character designs is this?

Interesting…

I can’t read Japanese so this is complete gibberish.

Meanwhile, in the Kitchen, apparently no one at school has the mental capacity to bake a god damn cake.

Honestly how much do you have to suck to be unable to bake a cake? Even I can do that and I can’t even cook.

Apparently Meganeko has all the makings of a housewife.

And all that talent is going to be completely wasted on… Bashin.

So what was the Cake for? Just to impress Card Sensei?

An assignment? For a party? What was it?

…

I cannot wear this Smile Profile picture in good conscience anymore, now that he’s finally donned a fucking Santa outfit.

I just can’t. No sir.

I certainly won’t be a good boy if you don’t get out of that ridiculous fucking outfit Smile.

If it’s not an affidavit that serious plot shit is about to go down this episode, I will consider it a personal insult.

This joke got old BEFORE you got here in a Santa costume Smile, get to the god damn point so I can actually enjoy this episode for a change.

So rather than take the initiative and look for J herself, and possibly kill some boredom THAT way, she sent OKYOU to tell J that she was bored.

What a prissy little princess she is.

Do you reckon Okyou will tell J that in several years time someone is going to be reviewing him? Maybe that will prompt him to do something interesting.

Well, Smile’s fucked off. I can safely say we’ll be cutting away from this scene in a few.

Unless J decides to show us what’s inside that letter that was left there.

…It seems Smile has left J 2 cards. I can’t identify the second one but I definitely can identify the first!

The WhiteTiger Huck, a Cost 5 Yellow Spirit from the Hunter Beast Family.

With the effect of allowing you to deploy a White Nexus without paying the cost from your hand.

While J is a white user, and despite being a Yellow card, Huck is designed to assist with his deck. And in a big way too since J favours Nexus cards.

And contrary to my previous statement, I have actually identified what the other card is.

White Potion, a Cost 4 White Spell that refreshes any of your spirits.

You’re probably wondering why you’d want to use this over Pure Elixir, and that’s simply because of Pure Elixir’s attack restriction, White Potion effectively nets you an extra attack with a Spirit that already has, and also can be used for defence as well.

So those are the cards Smile gave to J. It seems that Smile is dealing cards like a typical drug dealer.

Nothing slips passed J Sawaragi like his Drug (Card) Dealer hiding behind his Helicopter.

Meanwhile, with the pair who are supposed to actually matter but are about as interesting as watching paint dry.

Striker’s asking Bashin and Aibou what presents they want for Christmas.

A Surprise to No one!

But of course!

“Just” to make an amazing deck for next championship?

As an avid lover of deck building, you should be re-building your decks for ALL situations.

Tournament? New deck.
Locals? New deck.
Fun? New deck.
Boredom? New deck.
Realised a problem with the old deck and need to edit a card out? Fuck that, toss the thing and build a New deck!

It’s… still going to be a Red deck with Siegfried. Only thing that might change might be a couple of Magic choices, or some new Spirits to change what is perhaps your early game plan.

But otherwise the basic strategy might be the same, we’ve only just started hitting the surface of deck variety.

Oh good, these guys feel the same way I do.

Battle Spirits is definitely more important than Christmas right now, probably because it’s August the fucking 8th.

…And they’re using Isekai like a personal bloody playground.

Isn’t there some kind of mission they’re supposed to complete? As Cornerstone holders?

We have King Uchuuchouten who wants the Cornerstones, but not much else on what the Cornerstones are actually meant to do.

This is becoming rather routine, I suppose it no longer really needs commenting on.

It’s going to persist in this god-awful practice until Season 2, no point raging against the pointless.

For once Bashin decides to make life easier for me.

You all got that? You all read your pamphlets?

Cuz I ain’t repeating it, only other thing I’ll note is that The MeteoriteArmor Monoqueiroz is at Level 2.

Bashin summons Lizardman and Rokceratops. With Striker at 2 Life this gives him enough Spirits to finish off Striker.

Bashin then levels up all his Spirits except for Taurusknight to Level 2.

Not that Taurusknight would be in any particular need to Level up thanks to his Awaken keyword, if Bashin attacks with him last then he can still swing with a hefty amount of power.

Lizardman attacks but is blocked by Monoqueiroz.

At 7000 BP, Lizardman isn’t strong enough to take out Monoqueiroz

Okay, now THAT was cool.

Monoqueiroz’ Counter attack just freaking throws a boomerang that slices Lizardman in two!

I guess we know the Studio got a bigger budget for Christmas.

Metalburn takes a life from Striker and Bashin passes his turn.

Bashin still has 2 spirits available to attack, but bringing an opponent to one life puts them over the safety line for most typical defenses.

If Bashin attacked and Striker countered, it would be supremely easy for Striker to just wipe out Bashin’s life, especially since Striker has 2 Spirits available, he would just need a 3rd.

Bashin makes this odd comment about Striker having not used The Fruit of Life yet.

Either Striker hasn’t drawn it, or he’s discarded it in favour of something else, which is appropriate given that his reliance on it was causing him issues.

And Striker, for like the first time ever, summons the Gowsilvias given to him by Bashin, here he summons 2 of them at Level 2, reducing Monoqueiroz to Level 1 to make up for the core.

Striker attacks with Gowsilvia and Bashin responds with a block from Taurusknight.

During the Flash timing he uses Taurusknight’s Awaken to level him up to Level 3, but there’s a slight mismatch here.

There was no Level 2 Marker for Taurusknight’s Level, so it was assumed it was just at Level 1, but apparently Taurusknight had 3 core on it before using Awaken and taking Metalburn and Rokceratops’ core.

So Taurusknight was infact at Level 2, and they failed to mark it. Add that to the fuckup tally.

Oh now they’ve put it there. Come on at least be consistent with your clarity.

Welp, Gowsilvia only has 4000 BP at Level 2. But I wonder how much Core Striker has gathered in his reserve…

…That answers my question with “Not enough” apparently, alright new card.

Another of Battle Spirits’ legendary banned cards. This is Life chain.

It lets you destroy one of your Spirits’ and gain core in your Reserve equal to the cost of that destroyed spirit.

I don’t know what specific scenario caused it to be banned, but I imagine bullcrap like Spirits that remain on the field when destroyed basically making you gain core equal to cost for no legitimate reason. Or triggering nasty effects on Spirit destruction.

Or maybe just the fact that it nets you more core than it Costs.

Like in situations like this, with 4 Green reduction that was 1 Core cost card.

Destroying Monoqueiroz gave him 5 Core, by playing that Card he now has 4 more Core to work with than he had BEFORE he played it.

And that’s not considering that he’ll just get back the Core he paid.

Life Chain can also be used during Flash timing, if you block and then use it, your Spirit meets the same fate but you get more core.

Card is actually just wack now that I’m seeing it used.

With 6 Core in the reserve, Gowsilvia gains +1000 BP for each, for a total of 6000 BP.

It’s Level 2 BP is 4000, so that beats out Taurusknight at 10,000 BP.

Later Taurusknight.

Thanks for playing.

So is Eight just Ryuk? Hoping that Striker will kill every other member of the cast?

Because honestly Striker is the Main character we fucking deserve after all this crap.

Anyway, Striker ends his turn after defeating Taurusknight.

Bashin plays Double Draw!

Alright place your bets! Will he draw Siegfried?!

…He didn’t draw Siegfried.

Instead he drew Flame Tempest and Mind Flare.

Unsure if he’ll use Mind Flare, I’ll hold off on reviewing it.

Bashin levels up Metalburn in preparation for his upcoming move.

With Metalburn at Level 2, it won’t be caught in Flame Tempest’s effect.

Sayonara to Shockeater and Rokceratops.

But Striker still has 2 Gowsilvias to contend with… Probably a good time for some of that Mind Flare.

I’m loving it whenever the characters state that there’s a new card, It makes my life so much easier.

Mind Flare is a Cost 6 Red Magic with 2 effects, during flash timing it will grant +4000 BP to a Spirit.

But during the Main step, if the opponent controls 2 or more spirits with the same name, you can destroy spirits until there’s only 1 left of that name.

Since Striker has Gowsilvia, one will be destroyed.

Since Bashin gets to pick which Gowsilvia gets destroyed, he obviously selects the refreshed one.

Now Striker has no blockers, and only 1 life to Bashin’s singular Metalburn.

And like Clockwork, Striker just barely loses.

Striker’s track record is Bashin and a Nazo-Otona, that’s basically it.

Poor guy hasn’t even managed to beat Suiren yet either.

So when the show needs to pad for time, it just takes it out on Striker is that it?

Wouldn’t it be significantly easier to just… add another character?

With an original deck maybe so I’m not so godforesakenly bored?

Only so many times I can watch Striker lose to Bashin before I get fed up.

It seems Kyouka was SO bored she decided to just fuck off.

Instead of looking for J to cure that boredom.

All of these kids are just idiots aren’t they?

I presume the massive “J” on the card doesn’t mean anything then, but apparently the letter is addressed to Kyouka.

Bashin sent Kyouka a gift?

I’m sensing that one of the previous lines were incorrect in the subbing I tell ya.

I’m surprised J just doesn’t immediately shit himself when Okyou hops onto his shoulder.

Every single one of my other friends sound like they’ve been kicked by an angry rooster when their Cats try to hop on them.

…Given the time this was released it might be more accurate for Bashin to have sent this to Kyouka.

But is it bad that I still can’t bloody tell whether or not the letter was actually addressed to Kyouka or J despite the hint of it being a Love letter from Bashin?

J givin’ the letter the most supreme stink-eye of the series so far.

Judging by his reaction, it’s possible that it was from Bashin to Kyouka, and Okyou is entertaining the idea that Bashin wants some of that Kyouka sugar.

And she seems to be spying on someone.

Also god the school is dark, someone turn on the lights.

And Card Sensei is…

talking… with… his… turtle…

WHAT?

…

Fucking wow Bashin.

Like legit wow.

I’d fault Meganeko for forgetting she has a Cake in her bloody arms but for fuck sake Bashin don’t talk to someone that’s focusing if they’re holding something important, like a GOD DAMN CAKE

Honestly I feel bad now, that was a well made Cake ruined by Bashin’s stupidity.

Little late there Card Sensei, but boy do you have some explaining to do.

…Yep I certainly feel like crying myself, that was a well made cake ruined by Bashin’s carelessness.

I HATE HIM, I REALLY DO!

And they CUT TO A DIFFERENT SCENE!

NO!

NOW I’M FAR TOO CONCERNED FOR MEGANEKO’S STATE OF MIND TO GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE!

And of course, Commentator-San is drunk off his absolute tits.

Oh how I envy this man at this very moment. I had a glass of Cider in the middle of this post but Cider isn’t nearly enough to wash away what I want to get rid of.

…Oh god no.

Commentator-San really cannot handle his alcohol whatsoever can he?

And Commentator-San starts trying to sing the god damn ending theme.

I wonder who the hell was managing the spotlight and thought it would have been funny as hell to entertain what is clearly a Drunk man’s rambling.

Well clearly he’s doing us all a favour and getting himself fired from Batosupi TV.

Hire me for that shit, I’d do a better job under influence than this guy.

#BlackAceForBatosupiTV

Apparently J is nowhere to be found after receiving that Letter that made his face crinkle in rage.

Concerned mother is obviously concerned.

She doesn’t read J’s letters, lets him be independent, worries about his well-being.

This mother is mothering right.

Where the hell have you been Kyouka?

There was a letter for you, from Bashin, that apparently J’s mother couldn’t wait to rid her hands of and gave to J instead of waiting until about now to give it to yourself.

…I take back what I said about her mothering correctly.

AH YES.

BECAUSE CARS ARE KNOWN FOR DRIVING THROUGH EXPENSIVE ART GALLERIES AND HITTING SMALL ENTITLED 12-YEAR OLD RICH KIDS.

Detective Sunshine is on the case.

You know, given that without J she has absolutely nothing better to do and is a good way for her to be ruthlessly shoehorned into the episode.

Okay, this ensures that it was indeed for Kyouka, despite the massive “J” printed on the card.

How could it be anything else?

But apparently Okyou was stupid enough to convince J that it was a god damn love letter.

So either Bashin is either super thoughtful.

Or he’s a 2-timing sack of shit who wants to start a harem with My Sunshine and Kyouka.

And given that he’s a 12-year old boy with absolutely 0 awareness of how girls feel, you can bet your ass that I’m going with the one that makes J look about as dumb as Bashin is.

Seems we’ll see what misunderstanding J’s gotten himself into.

…I…

What…

But…

IS THIS SHOW JUST DESPERATE TO MAKE ME LOOK STUPID!?

I AM NOW HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT BASHIN IS A 2-TIMING PIECE OF SHIT.

BECAUSE HE LEGITIMATELY DID SEND A LOVE LETTER TO MY SUNSHINE!

WHATS IN KYOUKA’S LETTER!?

AH YES, MY RAGE HAS HIT IT’S PEAK.

RIGHT AS WE CUT BACK TO BASHIN… Admitting his mistake to Meganeko-FUCK!

LET ME TAKE OUT MY ANGER ON YOU, YA FREAKING OXYGEN-WASTING TANGERINE!

Meganeko makes the absolutely infuriating statement that Bashin wasn’t to blame, and it was the fact that she spotted Card Sensei talking with his turtle.

Curiosity may not have killed the cat that is my anger but it’s certainly suppressed it. I better get an explanation for Card Sensei’s talking turtle and SOON.

Oh just FILL HER IN DAMMIT!

Striker! Do something! Just because you look like a Banana doesn’t mean you have to act like one!

Bashin, for the love of god please consider that all the Chosen Card Battlers are also people and have around the same intellect as you do, which is to say absolutely none.

So please don’t let Card Sensei almost tripping over nothing deconfirm that suspicion for the love of all that is good in this world.

So apparently no one has been able to finish the Christmas decorations in the Gym because apparently they were in need of Bashin’s materials.

But rather than owning up and saying sorry for forgetting, STRIKER admits they forgot, and Bashin just gets angry at the kid for not continuing what they were doing after they left.

And the kid just admits he was too much of a prick to actually do any work of his own after badgering Bashin to get materials.

Deep breaths, Deep breaths.

Bashin happened to that cake.

You should solve that problem by ensuring that it doesn’t happen again.

And the only way to make that 100% certain is Death.

Come on girls, get the axes!

This show is no fun.

Where is the passionate undying rage!?

Good, suffer.

You schmucks have ruined Christmas for me and it’s August fucking 9th (as of time of writing)

You still have FIVE Hours to decorate a Gym?

What was Card Sensei on about people being “Here soon” then.

Five hours is not bloody soon!

Five hours is exactly how I feel this episode has dragged on for.

And now the parents have arrived because apparently they have a 6th sense to detect when their children are being a waste of space.

Pfffft, and Hayami apparently got Striker’s brothers to assist with a lightstand to give off the bright light effect.

And with the power of parenting, they’ve managed to complete all the necessary Christmas preparations.

And yet I still can’t find a care to give, where’s J with Kyouka’s letter? I need him to beat Bashin’s ass for me.

Nothing like Bashin being an absolutely spoiled piece of shit in the middle of Card Sensei taking the time to give an important speech.

Ah yes! The enraged J has finally arrived to kick Bashin’s ass in the middle of his Christmas party!

…Please don’t tell me he planned for J to take his letter the wrong way just to fight him on Christmas day…

…THAT WAS YOUR PLAN?

TO HAVE KYOUKA BRING MY SUNSHINE ON A PLANE?

THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU INFORM MY SUNSHINE IN HER LETTER THAT SUCH A THING WAS HAPPENING AND INSTEAD JUST GIVING MY SUNSHINE A LOVE LETTER!

Where’s your fucking sense of curiosity? You have no idea why J’s here do you?

J is mad.

And I am happy that something in this show is as enraged as I am.

Except I have a reason to be enraged, J is an entitled little shit who thinks he’s in any way affiliated with his sister’s non-existent love life.

FINALLY, A FIGHT!

Who’d have expected you’d be firmly attached to J’s groin area?

Given that you’re apparently here now despite J having left long before you’d even noticed.

I see you’ve sobered up Commentator-San.

You made a bad decision, should have topped yourself up while you had the opportunity.

Because for me it’s 3 am and far too late for me to go get a Latte.

Well that was the quickest review I’ve ever had the pleasure of running through.

Thanks Commentator-San for making my life easier.

And J begins by using one of his fancy new cards.

Nothing like a good card review to ease the synapses I guess.

A lovely Cost 5 White Spirit of the Android family from BS02.

And oh what a new card it is. The CannonArtifact Megarock.

I decided to do away with the English card images, since they’ve begun having translation errors that don’t reflect how the actual card works. I’ll still use them if they’re accurate but otherwise, Japanese card images for the win!

Firstly, there’s a new keyword on the block, the Armor ability.

Armor is an ability that specifies a colour, and makes the card that holds it unaffected by the effects of Spirits, Nexuses and Magic cards of that colour.

So to summarise, Megarock is immune to all of Bashin’s Red effects, the Level 2 effect is a standard block BP increase, so nothing too special there.

It’s a SHINY BOI.

This card is actually really pretty, good on the animators for capturing that beautiful shine.

And we get to see the card we saw before, The WhiteTiger Huck. Summoned at Level 1.

Bashin is shocked! (shocked!) to see J play a Yellow card.

You poor poor soul Bashin, you haven’t arrived at the wonderful world of mix colouring yet.

But you’ve also got no place questioning J’s use of a Yellow spirit considering you threw three Green Gowsilvias into yours the first time you fought him.

Ah, the good ol’ Corridor of Mirrors

Anyway, after this move, J ends his turn.

Bashin explains his move perfectly so I don’t have to!

Shame that J’s Anti-Red strategy is still going strong.

Eyeburn is brought up to Level 2 for that hefty 6000 BP.

The benefit to Eyeburn needing a lot of core for a high powered level 2 is that Taurusknight’s Awaken ability will come in handy here, since Awaken may only take core from other spirits.

J blocks an attack from Taurusknight using The CannonArtifact Megarock, resulting in Megarock’s destruction…

Or does it?

The Corridor of Mirrors allows Spirits to remain on the field exhausted when they’re destroyed in battle by a Spirit of the colour they’re immune to.

So Megarock gets to block Taurusknight’s attack at 0 repercussion.

Am I the commentator for this episode or are you? J?

Because everyone seems to be making my life easier by doing my job for me and I’m getting a bit worried.

The WhiteTiger Huck blocks an attack from Eyeburn and is destroyed.

Not the loss was very damaging to J, Huck served it’s purpose the moment it was summoned, there’s no need for it anymore.

J takes his turn and summons Icemaiden and Baby-Loki.

J attacks with both Icemaiden and Baby-Loki and Bashin takes a life for both.

Bashin’s over the safety line now. With only a single life he needs to stop all attacks from getting through.

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

No it’s a new card!

It’s a card designed to support the Awaken keyword!

During the opponent’s start step, you can refresh a spirit with the “Awaken” Keyword, but if it’s at Level 2, you can instead refresh ALL your “Awaken” spirits.

Unfortunately while it is a useful Nexus, Bashin would actually get more Mileage out of just using Striker’s The Hermit Wise Tree, refreshes all spirits irregardless of keyword and requires 1 less core to raise it to level 2.

Plus it increases power, would just be better for Bashin to use that over this really, and The Hermit Wise Tree isn’t even Red.

Taurusknight is brought up to Level 2!

And Bashin drops his get-me-out-of-jail-free card. Flame Tempest

Megarock only has 3000 BP, but thanks to it’s Armor to Red. Bashin’s Flame doesn’t affect it.

All of J’s other spirits burn to a crisp though.

Sucks to be that Goradon right about now, Bashin still doesn’t have a way to deal with J’s 3 lives.

Second verse is the same as the first. Taurusknight is blocked by Megarock who remains on the field thanks to Corridor of Mirrors.

Bashin finally takes a life from J with Eyeburn’s attack.

Bashin ends his turn, and thanks to The Plateau of Duel, Taurusknight is refreshed on J’s Start Step.

…Oh, that’s the other card J got from “Smanta”

Welp, this match would be over except that a Level 2 Taurusknight has more than enough BP to beat Megarock, and not only that but Megarock has to be exhausted when The Corridor of Mirrors protects it.

There’s no scenario where J wins this.

Megarock decides he’s a firin’ his lazar and gets it’s attack reflected by the 5000 BP Taurusknight.

Megarock loses of course, but is protected by The Corridor of Mirrors.

AND add it to the fuckup tally.

There is no timing where Megarock comes out of this refreshed unfortunately.

Flash Timing can only be before Megarock has been destroyed, and if it’s in a refreshed state when it’s destroyed, then Corridor of Mirrors will exhaust it to protect it.

So White Potion cannot win J the game here.

Now we get this lovely little Winner’s card stipulating who won the match so I don’t have to!

What the hell is happening?

Now Now Aibou, let’s not be greedy shall we?

Bashin asked for cards, and said his present was a battle.

So of course Santa isn’t going to give Bashin something he didn’t bloody ask for, that’s not how Santa works.

Well, aside from the fact that by now we know that it wasn’t a romantic letter, and that J hasn’t even bothered opening said letter to check what was inside it.

But also why do Okyou and J even feel like they have any jurisdiction over Kyouka’s love life? She’s not an idiot, she can reject Bashin herself.

Doesn’t need her over-protective twin brother to do it for her, without consulting her no less.

Bashin denies ever giving Kyouka a romantic letter and J makes like Phoenix Wright and presents the STILL UNOPENED LETTER to Bashin.

So not only has he not confirmed that the letter is indeed romantic but now he just looks like a muppet.

But you know that’s par for the course in Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa Bashin.

And interrupting the argument between entitled-prick J and crappy-planner Bashin, we now have what Bashin ACTUALLY wanted from his silly letter sending.

My Sunshine in a Santa dress.

Oh fucking kill me.

And My Sunshine legit just starts singing an Engrish iteration of Jingle Bells.

I want to shake the hand of the voice actor who was put into a situation where she needed to sing this song and thank her for the pain and suffering she went through while doing it.

And then tear her writer’s heads off for putting me through it too.

No! No she is not! That shade of Pink DOES NOT go with a deep Red!

Well at least you’re happy Meganeko.

If anything was achieved today at least.

Meanwhile the Manager who seems organise My Sunshine’s schedule mostly without her input tells her that they gotta scoot.

She was there for all of a few minutes.

I get you want to encourage her but seriously, this Manager’s scheduling is WACK.

And of course Hayami the Speed Star hurtles toward My Sunshine at neck-breaking speed.

…I know what I said.

Piss off, My Sunshine.

Grateful?

You should be tearing his ears off, how are you not offended that your brother nicked your letter without even telling you about it, and going off on his own and POTENTIALLY ruining a surprise Bashin was trying to set up.

Bashin’s definitely an idiot for using such a method because it was NOT surefire to work but J’s apparent penchant for assuming the randomest shit at the suggestion of Okyou was a HUGE factor in that error.

“misunderstood” is an understatement.

Probably the biggest of the ones so far.

Hayami chimes in saying that Bashin wasn’t the one who sent out those cards.

If anyone’s confused, Toppa is Bashin’s first name. Hayami’s name is officially “Hayami Bashin“

So apparently J read “Bashin” and decided it was immediately the fiery haired gremlin Hayami popped out instead of Hayami herself.

Try not to think too hard J.

I know not assuming makes your brain work overtime but you can manage this.

…Oh, that’s clever.

So we were initially led to believe that Bashin sent a love letter to Kyouka or My Sunshine when in fact Bashin wanted to get My Sunshine down there as a present to Meganeko.

Bashin’s thoughtfulness was apparently way higher than we anticipated. This is super wholesome and I’m happy for Meganeko…

…Aaaaand you ruined it.

You ruined it and I want to leave.

Apparently the Battle Spirits stadium has some christmas lights set up on it, while Kyouka admires it, J acts like the edgey rival he is and stares at the 2 cards he just got.

I’m sensing his attachment to receiving cards from Smile and Elliott won’t stop with just this. It may seem like a one-sided benefit in J’s favour but as this episode has shown us, J is starting to become reliant on these regular updates to his card pool to win him games.

It’s nice to see J use another colour in his deck though. That’s definitely representing Smile’s influence slowly creeping in.

Oh thank god.

I will make this episode review relatively short, there are only 4 parts I liked about it.

Firstly being J receiving cards from Smile.

Secondly, J defeating Bashin using both of those new cards.

Thirdly, Seeing the suspicious Card Sensei communicating with his Turtle, Guriguri.

And finally, seeing Meganeko’s happy expression.

Other than that I hated it, Christmas episodes are honestly the worst kind of episodes in any series.

Not because I’m a Scrooge McDuck, but because I feel these sorts of Celebrations have 0 place in shows like this. If it’s ACTUALLY Christmas I’m not spending it watching this crap, and if it isn’t Christmas then I just feel awful part-taking in it.

Not for me, thankfully the only other Christmas episode I’ll have to deal with is during Season 4, so long wait til then.

Oh boy. So our card of the day!

is Corridor of Mirrors, with specific focus on the “Armor” Keyword.

Armor is definitely a good thing to have, being able to make your spirits completely invulnerable to certain effects is always a good way to patch up any holes your deck may have against the colours you have armor against. Decks containing lots of armor cards will surely have a defense against all colours in some way.

The problem with Armor cards is that they’re pretty situational, if you’re using a deck of armor then you’ll be a sitting duck until you find the armor you need, and if you’re using a lot of cards with armor to a specific colour then your deck will perform way worse when not put against that colour.

Nowadays Armor is something tacked onto a spirit in addition to powerful effects, the armor being the icing on the cake rather than the main sell of the card.

But of course, this is a show with writing, so it’s a significantly better tool here than in reality.

Anyway, now that’s over, I can enjoy non-festive Battle Spirits again, I’ll see you next episode!

Whew, Been a while since I did one of these, I didn’t get any done during the weekend at all thanks to EVO (I’m a big Fighting Game nut as well as a Battle Spirits fan, so that took up most of my time)

But now that’s over and done with I can get back to these with EVO committed to my memory!

“The First Final is Smile After Tears”

I don’t quite get what this means, but I guess Smile will be participating in a Finals match after he’s done with J?

Back where we left off, Smile unveiled not only a new card, but a whole new colour, The HellDog Cerru-Berus

Seeing the new card Smile just played causes Commentator-San to remember something important.

It seems our lovely pair of Commentators is only just now figuring out who Smile is.

Also Smile was a “Japanese card battler active in America”?

I was about to protest the authenticity of this information, however we did actually get an English translated version of the game up to a particular set.

It’s entirely plausible for Smile to have been an active card battler in America.

That is, ignoring the fact that all Card Game anime treat their card game like it’s the best thing since sliced bread of course.

Apparently Commentator-San’s mind works faster than his ability to locate lost files as he remembers who Smile is.

Wait, Smile is a master of Gunslingers? Such that he’s referred to as the Gunslinger’s apparation?

So basically he’s extremely skilled at taking on large amounts of Card Battlers and defeating them in small amounts of time? Dang.

Being good at making people cry is not necessarily a remarkable trait there Commentator-San.

But it seems like Smile likes to play in a way that upsets people.

I get the irony with this statement though, he’s “Smile” but he doesn’t necessarily bring them.

Well now we apparently jump to Turn 20 of the Gunslinger match, which is okay I guess since we did already start halfway through the fight without a single turn marker.

Smile only has The HellDog Cerru-Berus on his field. At Level 2.

While J has a Level 2 Berserker-Gun, a Level 2 Baby-Loki and finally a Level 3 The ImpregnableFortress Odin.

Given that its the beginning of Smile’s turn, I can only imagine what’s going to happen.

As we discussed yesterday, Yellow has a supreme number of wacky effects that can give you an advantage.

Cerru-Berus has the oddly situational effect of taking control of a Cost 6 Spirit.

Smile takes control of The ImpregnableFortress Odin.

And since Cerru-Berus triggers on the Start Step of a given turn, Odin being exhausted is a non-issue, as Smile can simply Refresh it on his Refresh step.

The only drawback of course being that Smile isn’t allowed to alter Odin’s Core arrangement (As the Core belongs to J)

Smile summons The Fairy Tanya to his field at Level 1.

Well it’s clear to us that Smile is a Yellow user, but it seems he was using a different Engine up until this point as J only stopped recognising J’s cards when Cerru-Berus came out.

Smile Levels up Cerru-Berus to Level 3, again if you remember the review yesterday, Cerru-Berus isn’t allowed to attack or block if he’s at Levels 1 or 2.

Cerru-Berus and Tanya attack.

Also that is a super nice particle effect on Tanya’s attack, I’m impressed.

They Snatch 2 of J’s lives, leaving him with just 1.

Since all of J’s Spirits are exhausted, Smile intends to finish him off with Odin.

Anyone else thinking Smile looks like he’s been animated a tad differently here?

He looked significantly more sinister before, at least he’s still as animated as before.

Odin makes the final attack on J’s life, winning him the game.

Not that the defeat actually matters, you were having a Tiebreaker match to determine the Gunslinger Champion.

There is still a Finals match to be had, and Smile’s eagerness to fight J just allowed J to learn of The HellDog Cerru-Berus.

Smile’s trashing of J is awesome to watch though.

J’s gotten his ass beat by Bashin as well, you’re not really looking in the right place for Strong battlers Smile.

Was it? J just kind of played Odin and then flopped.

Speaking of things that are less than amazing, why is Suiren looking so depressed?

…Is she?… Upset that someone defeated J before she got a chance to win her revenge match?

Is she literally depressed because there is someone better than J at this very moment in time?

Just because Smile used a super-situational card against J to beat him with his own Spirit doesn’t mean you’re outclassed by Smile, Desperado’s a Cost 8, you don’t have to worry about Cerru-Berus.

SUIREN FOR FUCK SAKE.

IF YOU’VE GOT TIME TO BE DEPRESSED YOU’VE GOT TIME TO REALISE THAT SMILE’S GOT NOTHING ON YOU. QUIT BEING A BITCH AND KILLING EVERYONE ELSE’S VIBES!

Bashin’s talking about Smile here, there’s apparently something off about him?

Did the Zombie-like posture and the immovable smile on his face not tip you off Bashin?

Bloody fiery haired moron.

And here we have a depressed-looking J.

Also I guess those rumours were untrue, J isn’t bawling his god damn eyes out.

And here we have this sleazy looking weirdo who looks like he just missed the 60’s.

But given his unique design, I suspect we’re going to be seeing this asshole far more often than I’d like to.

Also that “Beautiful” was in complete English, he follows it up with an English “Wonderful!” as well.

Okay so this guy is speaking in Broken japanese, mixing in English words like “Daddy”

For a 12 year old like J though, I wonder how he’s meant to piece together what the hell this guy’s on about.

Nevermind, apparently our boy J understands English.

J is questioning why the hell the guy is applauding him, given that he lost.

Also, that guy’s got a ring on his index finger, Smile and Nine had one too, and I’m pretty sure I remember Eight having one as well.

Oh just take the compliment and fuck off, J.

Like jesus you’re being awfully stubborn about the praise you’re receiving.

That’s a surprising level of detail there, J never once mentioned that he lost because Smile was using a new card.

Again, how are you so sure that was why J lost?

Even though Smile insulted J for his lack of knowledge, J never once asked about Cerru-Berus, he simply referred to it by “That Spirit…” and then carried on playing.

Game Designer, Micheal Elliott.

That is definitely not a Japanese name, also I love how his business card has an email attached to it, batosupi@daisuki.co.bs

I’m curious about whether or not that would be an official email, given that co.bs isn’t a domain I recognise.

But given it’s Japanese they likely use different domain endings for their emails.

Anyway! Micheal Elliott is actually an anime likeness of a REAL LIFE MICHEAL ELLIOTT

This is Micheal Elliott, He’s a Card, Board and Mobile Game Designer, which according to his Wikia page, He was responsible for the Battle Spirits Game for the duration of it’s English release, but is also a man who works on the extremely popular Magic: The Gathering.

But anyway, that’s enough of an introduction to Micheal Elliott the man, this is the character, who is designed in his image, but apparently is wearing 60’s Rockstar clothing, and a Visor.

Which means you’re complicit in J’s defeat, which means J has very little reason to be talking to you right about now.

Also it’s not like Smile is using new cards he isn’t allowed to use, we know from Bashin’s littered cards last episode that BS02 is currently available to everyone.

But I’m going to assume that Mike here (I will be calling him Mike, Micheal Elliott is a bitch to type out constantly) provided Smile with specific cards he wanted from the new Set.

Actually I definitely blame your dumb ass for not researching the new set release, Bashin clearly did, he got some new Red cards from that set.

You shouldn’t have had any surprises dealing with either Yellow OR The HellDog Cerru-Berus if BS02 cards are readily available to the public.

This is obvious to anyone who isn’t a literal salt-shaker.

And I doubt there was any fear that J was going to quit over being blind-sided by a card he didn’t know about (but had the ability to find out about)

So Mike is offering J the opportunity to Study in a completely different country, something tells me Smile got that strong with cards from Mike after accepting this offer.

Now before J gets to give an answer, we’re jumping to a match between Suiren and what appears to be Nine.

…Yes, that is what people with Egos generally think Suiren.

Thank you for the redundant explanation of what “Ego” means.

…WHOA!

HOLY SHIT.

HE JUST ADOPTED BASHIN’S CATCHPHRASE AND HE MAKES IT SOUND SO MUCH COOLER.

I AM MELTING IN AWESOME, FUCK YOU SUIREN, HE DOESN’T THINK HE’S COOL, HE’S VERY DAMN COOL.

And now we jump to Turn 12! The Awesome Number Nine’s turn!

Kick her ass Nine! I need some coolness in my life!

Well, the Field is basically summed up in these 2 screenshots, which saves me time, I feel bad for the subber since he mispelt Lizardedge.

Also, Lizardedge is a new card!

A Cost 0 from BS02, since he doesn’t have an effect, I’ll go over the benefits of Cost 0.

Cost 0’s are costless, meaning that they will only sap core for maintenance, the reason why Cost 0’s are useful is because when summoning a spirit, you may deplete their core instead.

By summoning a Cost 0, and using it to pay Cost, you effectively get a free reduction just for playing it.

BUT FOLLOWING FROM THAT, NINE PLAYS THE FREAKING DRAGONEMPEROR SIEGFRIED AT LEVEL 2!

He’s even using Bashin’s X-Rare! It lost to Suiren last time because Bashin wanted to defeat Desperado.

I wonder how Nine will handle it differently to Bashin.

Apparently Suiren wasn’t expecting to see Siegfried in this match, and considering how Nine is the Nazo-Otona who awardedBashin with Siegfried, the likelihood that he would still have one drops.

It seems Nine is rather resourceful, he gave Bashin Siegfried knowing that he still had other copies of it to use.

Nine attacks using Lizardedge, and snatches a life from Suiren.

It seems Suiren’s trying to gather Core, she could have safely blocked the Level 2 Lizardedge with Bone-Gladiator or Skulldevil as they had a higher BP.

No reason to take a Life unless to use the Core.

Makes me curious as to why Nine attacked with Lizardedge then if it was so unsafe?… Maybe he was anticipating a block and had a Flash ready and Suiren read into that.

Man the mind games.

Suiren summons The SevenShogun Desperado.

Desperado’s effect depletes the pair of Rokceratops Nine had.

Also Fuckup Tally… Ah screw it I can’t remember the number.

Anyway, Lizardedge should NOT be in a refreshed state here.

Suiren only depleted 2 Spirits with Desperado’s ability, so she has to manually level up Desperado.

I’m surprised she didn’t level up at least 1 other Spirit. By my count she should have another Core in the reserve.

And finally, Desperado’s Level 2 effect comes into play, Reducing Siegfried to 1 Core.

About time Suiren remembered Desperado had a Level 2 effect, geez.

Nine declared a Block with Siegfried, but judging by his face here, he’s got a response.

…Hoo boy I wasn’t expecting this.

New card! Let’s do it!

Awaken is a Red Magic that lets you move 3 cores from your Reserve to a Spirit you control, then you get to draw a card.

Awaken is interestingly written in it’s Romaji on this particular card, so in reading the Japanese would read it as the English “Awaken”, but on Siegfried’s ability of the same name, they read it’s Japanese translation, “Kakusei”

Regardless, it’s definitely related as it’s moving core from the Reserve to Siegfried, which covers the Awaken Keyword’s Weakness of being only able to move from Spirits.

Awaken adds 3 cores to Siegfried, who then uses his Innate Awaken Keyword ability to deplete Lizardedge, bringing him to Level 3.

It’s cool that it wasn’t the simple reflect animation there this time, they showed Desperado slashing away at Siegfried and him responding with a Roar that blew Desperado away.

Apparently skipping the rest of the fight, Nine seemingly wins after cleanly defeating Desperado with his Siegfried.

First round of the finals for Suiren and she’s already been knocked out, and not even with any super powerful BS02 cards, Awaken is from the Base set.

Back off bitch.

He’s mine…

It seems Commentator-San was holding out until now, looks like there’s gonna be a short break before the next Final’s match for a potty break.

I dunno Number Eight, did you have fun getting your ass beat by a 12-year old for the second time?

Was it? You said that Number Two was going to show up earlier? That meant you were expecting him to.

Why is it suddenly unusual that what you expected to happen, happened?

Aaaah, so Elliott is Number Two.

Makes sense, considering Smile who is Number Four, got new cards through Elliott.

Well that also explains how the Nazo-Otonas are getting their endless supply of X-Rares to give out, they’ve got a Battle Spirits Game Designer on their team.

I’m having a hard time following the conversation but from what I can gather from this, it seems like Number Two is down here because he’s either trying to figure out something for the Battle System (Probably the same one J’s Dad is working on, which puts him in a working relationship with Elliott), or he’s just about done.

The Fan favourite or Nine’s favourite?

Ah, It’s J that’s battling next.

That was a bit weird of me to ask that, considering Bashin was the first person to battle.

Pleased how? You’re aware that Number Eight handed an X-Rare and a High Ranker pass to Striker right?

What would she have to be pleased about?

That’s “The Coolest Smug Man in all of anime” to you, Suiren.

Knocked out before your Revenge match with J, sucks to be you.

While Pink tries to calm Suiren down, Commentator-San finally gets to the bathroom.

And jesus I had a hard time getting this shot, he freaking SPEEDS into the bathroom.

I love how no further comment is given to Commentator-San running into the bathroom, it was significant enough to be included in the show so there would definitely need to be something caused as a result of it, other than comic relief.

also Pink going “Henshin, Henshin” Makes me suddenly want a Kamen Rider Suiren.

Apparently Meganeko has lost Card Sensei despite him being with Bashin a few moments before.

Quack Sensei has been spotted!

And he’s going to meet with Smile?

Well we did learn last Episode that Card Sensei has some kind of relationship with Smile.

Let’s see how Card Sensei is reacting to “Number Four’s” return.

…And he just comes right out and calls Card Sensei by the name of “Number Five”

So Card Sensei is, or well at least, Was, a Nazo-Otona.

What, did Card Sensei think Smile was dead or some shit?

That’s a bit dark, the hell happened to Smile?

And then they walk down a Corridor with what appears to be 2 paintings each displaying half of King Uchuuchouten on it.

The hell are they going? What does Card Sensei need to do?

Meganeko doesn’t understand a god damn thing and she’s about to follow them in, isn’t she?

Oh, well I suppose we’ll never know what Nine was referring to when he said Eight would be pleased.

Considering it was J’s Match, but he’s up against Striker.

It’s Turn 15, currently J’s move.

So J has a Board of Level 1 Spirits.

2 Berserker-Gun
Baby-Loki
and Fenrircannon.

J makes a full attack with all 4 of his Spirits and drops Striker to a single life.

Well that didn’t take long to put Striker on the brink of defeat.

So prior to Striker’s turn, he only had a single Beatbeetle.

Then Striker decides to fill his board with another Beatbeetle, 2 Flyingmirage’s and a Shockeater.

This isn’t unfamiliar in the slightest.

No sirree.

Not at all.

Couldn’t possibly have occurred in the first episode.

Well given that Silent Wall hasn’t been used SINCE the first episode, I’ll recap for you, Silent Wall ends the attack step after the battle in which it’s used has concluded.

J takes a life and Striker’s turn gets forcibly ended.

J wastes no time, and plays The Impregnable Fortress Odin.

It’s 5 Spirits to Striker’s 4 and Striker only has 1 Life.

Checkmate?

Striker saves us some screentime and does the equivalent of scooping.

Striker is a fucking bro I swear to god. NAME A BETTER PROTAGONIST THAN THIS GUY RIGHT NOW!?

He lost the same way Suiren did. Had the game stolen from him after a sudden Silent Wall.

Well that match didn’t take very long, I’m rather happy.

Now there should be one more Finals match, specifically Smile against one other participant, but who?

This Idol-Manager relationship is very abusive.

My Sunshine basically gets to go missing whenever she wants then acts like a bitch to her manager as soon as he finds her.

Can work relationships be abusive? Is that a thing?

Apparently Aibou’s trying to re-assure Bashin as if he was scared of Smile or some shit.

Smile used ONE unfamiliar card! He’s not that strong!

Ah yes, the classic fired up anime protagonist.

Excited in the face of adversity. Nothing new here.

So is this scene going to contain anything worth commenting on or is it just going to highlight that Bashin wants a battle?

Tournaments are NOT a place where you would want to “practice”, Tournaments are for application.

You’ve had up until this tournament to “Practice” your deck.

AGAIN, WILL THIS SCENE ACTUALLY HAVE ANYTHING WORTH COMMENTING ON?

NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT BASHIN’S STATE OF MIND RIGHT NOW UNLESS IT WAS UNUSUALLY BAD!

BUT IF HE’S OKAY, THEN FUCK THIS SCENE, QUIT PADDING THE SCREENTIME!

Skipping that worthless few minutes of my life I’ll never get back, we now get a scene with Uchuuchouten.

So it seems that Uchuuchouten is concerned about the fact that Card Sensei or “Five” as he’s being referred to here, didn’t try to enter the current tournament.

So it seems that Card Sensei only became an Elementary School teacher, and got close to Bashin and Hayami, just to observe the Cornerstone.

While I’d call him a sly piece of shit, the fact that he’s arguing that he shouldn’t need to fight against Cornerstone holders means he cares for them to some degree.

Though talking back to Uchuuchouten who appears to be his boss might do more harm to him than good.

“Numbers Elite”

Well it seems that the Nazo-Otona have Numbers due to being of the “Numbers Elite”

And Card Sensei is still apparently, a member of the Numbers Elite.

Okay I’m a little confused, we’ve skipped a match apparently.

We had Bashin vs Eight.

Suiren vs Nine

And now J vs Striker.

We’ve apparently skipped Smile’s first round, so whoever he was battling before no longer is.

Meaning that currently the winners are Bashin, Nine, J, and Smile.

And Smile got paired with Bashin, meaning Nine has been paired against J.

Jumping to turn 20, we’ve got another panning field making it very difficult to see wtf is going on.

VASSAL! SAVE US!

So to summarise, here is the field arrangement. Each player has 5 Spirits.

On Bashin’s field, we have:

Goradon – Level 1
Rokceratops – Level 1
2 Taurusknight – Both at Level 2
Lizardman – Level 2

While Smile’s field has:

2x The Fairy Tanya
Arcanabeast-Ken
2x The BalloonMan Barball.

All at Level 1, with some new cards that need review.

Barball is just a Cost 6 Vanilla in the Puppet Beast family. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about it.

Arcanabeast-Ken on the other hand, is of the Magician family, and has an effect surrounding one of the first named “Archetypes” in Battle Spirits.

That being the “Arcana” archetype, and all “Arcana” Spirits gain +2000 BP when blocking. (Kind of seems like it’s stealing White’s thunder there)

For those who play games that don’t use these, Named Archetypes are a Card Game’s way of forcing synergy between a set amount of cards.

Not by giving them effects that do well with each other, but by making it so that their effects will only work on very specific Spirits that have a specific name. And then justifying giving powerful effects under the pretext of “but it only works in this deck”

Rewarding those spirits for being used with each other purely because they are named a certain way, and the cards themselves support that naming. It’s honestly extremely lazy and I’m happy that Battle Spirits doesn’t use Named Archetypes very often.

Named Archetypes are bad for games because they’re an easy way to drive up sales of new sets rather than trying to promote the game’s creativity, making a deck out of a Named Archetype is rather easy, because it supremely narrows what cards you are meant to be looking for, thankfully this particular habit didn’t stick, and were used sparingly over the course of the game’s lifetime.

Now there are quite a few more Named Archetypes nowadays, but they’re significantly better handled, and quite a lot of the cards in them, especially most of the bosses, don’t need to be thrown into the Archetype deck to function.

Anyway, enough about Named Archetypes, more Show!

Bashin apparently having watched J’s fight, still doesn’t know about the Yellow colour just yet.

They’re not weird, they’re the same as the spirits you normally play with, just Yellow.

This guy’s brain runs on a timer.

And Smile decides now is the best time to play a new card.

Welp, time to have a look.

This card selects a colour, and treats all Spirits of that colour as being at it’s highest level.

This makes up for any lack of Core to make a strong attack with.

Of course, Smile selects Yellow. Lucky that Bashin doesn’t have Yellow Spirits, or it would treat those as being Level 3 as well.

That was a rollercoaster of a move, Bashin’s used Taurusknight’s Awaken to deal with the Barball’s sudden Level 3 assault, Awaken’s pretty good for mounting a defense.

The Second verse is the same as the first, Taurusknight Awakens to Level 3 and defeats Barball.

Smile tries to inform Bashin of the bleakness of the situation, now that both Taurusknight’s are exhausted, and Bashin used Awaken to beat the Barball’s, Smile’s spirits will run over Bashin’s.

Bashin, being the muppet he is, smiles at him happily without a care in the world.

Smile is evidently confused at Bashin’s moronic face.

Don’t worry Smile, I feel you. We all do.

OH HO.

That’s SUPER Clever!

But firstly, new card!

This Card has the same effect whether used as a Flash or in the main step, and it grants a Spirit the ability to Awaken!

The reason why this is clever is because Bashin blocked with Lizardman and THEN played this card, that way Lizardman can overpower Arcanabeast-Ken despite it’s ability normally preventing it from blocking spirits with lower BP than Lizardman.

With only 5000 BP to Lizardman’s 9000, Arcanabeast-Ken doesn’t stand a chance.

And apparently after that statement a Horn blows, signalling that Bashin would have won next turn, as Smile’s attack failed to eliminate any of Bashin’s Spirits, instead destroying 3 of Smile’s.

Possibly because any cards that Bashin didn’t immediately recognise either had no effects, or were completely inconsequential.

Unlike Cerru-Berus, which was very instrumental in throwing J off.

Magic is THE way to cover your formation’s flaws. Almost all decks need Magic.

And even if your Deck doesn’t require Magic in it’s strategy, it’s still good to run White Magic regardless, which will cover you in the case of a sudden attack from the opponent.

Anyone else watching this and hoping that Nine supremely beats J’s ass?

That man carries himself with such an Aura of mystery, and despite this seems to be taking after Bashin immensely.

I’ve never seen a man who follows the rule of “Break through the front” so calmly and it’s awesome.

Backstage, Bashin gets Aibou back, who was apparently being looked after by J.

Way to no sell Smile, who did the great feat of defeating J.

Now Smile just seems like he wasn’t a big deal as he was literally at the start of this episode.

Challenging fights are fun, but this didn’t do well to make Smile seem challenging.

They should have gone out of their way to make Smile seem far more threatening.

Seems Bashin’s rooting for J to beat Nine.

I hate to say it Bashin but no one agrees with you, Nine is the clear favourite here.

We’re at Turn 19 of J’s turn, Nine has Rokceratops, Skeleton-Jaw, and Lizardman all Exhausted and at Level 1 while J has Fenrircannon and Dualcannon-Bell both at Level 2.

They appear exhausted here of course but since it’s J’s turn they’re about to refresh.

J adds Berserker-Gun and 2 Icemaiden’s to his formation, all at Level 1.

Well Slap my ass and call me Trixie, it’s ANOTHER new card!

From BS02! (Adding further credence to the fact that J should have known about Yellow), The Corridor of Mirrors!

At all Levels, any card with the Armor ability (Immunity in English) that would be defeated by a Spirit who’s Color it is immune to, it remains on your field exhausted.

This is a common way of wording simply that the spirit isn’t destroyed, and you can keep it around.

At Level 2 however, if your opponent attempts to use Magic during the Attack Step, that Magic gets negated, and The Corridor of Mirrors loses 2 cores. But that effect only works once per turn.

That’s why J placed 5 cores on it, since he won’t be able to arrange the cores after his own attack step, it means that Nine can’t Fizzle a Magic just to be able to use Magic on his next turn.

Nine is losing his cool, that’s not a good look for him.

While the timing would be good here, unfortunately J had prepared for that.

The cores went in an odd direction, I’m curious about whether or not “removing 2 cores” from this nexus just means send them to the reserve or to the Trash.

Well after checking with my sources, apparently the Japanese text specifically states that you send the Core to the Void.

That means those cores are removed completely. You don’t get them back.

Hefty cost to negate a Magic.

…I’m sensing some foreshadowing, are you?

Well, J cleans that one up. Nine loses the match.

A little disappointing but hey, we apparently needed the Rivals to face off again in an official tournament.

Nothing to see here, just a Balding Elvis-ified Robocop wondering if he can turn a 12-year old kid into a Nazo-Otona.

At least he won a round, shame you didn’t get that far Eight.

You all collectively suck.

Except for Nine, Nine is still cooler than the pair of you combined, Smile is starting to lose his coolness with me.

Neither were you Eight.

Why is she talking so much shit when the pair of them got way farther than she did?

Also you can tell the animators enjoyed drawing that.

It seems Eight isn’t a particularly big fan of Number Five.

Also “Ran away from the Numbers”? He just went to report to Uchuuchouten about what his mission was, I’d say he’s still very much in operation.

Smile makes this weird comment toward Eight.

Why would Eight want to specifically be glad about Five?

…

Gonna go out on a limb and say that Card Sensei and Eight used to be in a relationship.

And whatever happened, Card Sensei jumped ship, and now he wants to bang Bashin’s Mom.

Well, Card Sensei has returned from reporting to the enemy.

Nice save there Card Sensei, if you lead the conversation then Bashin will never have to have you answer the question you don’t want to answer.

Considering that Bashin has been beating all the people who beat J previously, and he’s beaten J once before.

All bets are on Bashin really.

But J is apparently using “Techniques” that even Nine has never seen before, meaning that Elliott may have hooked him up with some new cards.

…

Nevermind, Bashin’s fucked.

He apparently has a plan to beat J preconceived before going into the match and that is definitely not within the realms of Bashin’s brain capacity.

So just gonna move all my bets to J winning.

After some encouragement from his friends, our shounen protagonist goes to battle J.

Normally you’d expect this to give him strength, but the power of friendship seems like a concept Bashin might not be able to make use of.

Meanwhile, J gets encouragement from the only friend he really has, his sister.

I feel bad for J, you’d think a guy as popular as him would have some genuine friends.

Meanwhile Smile pops up out of bum-fuck nowhere to tell J that he’s actually from the Lollipop Guild and they want him to join.

Does it involve the moving arrangements to Munchkin Land?

J tells Smile he ain’t about that life and basically gives him the least vulgar equivalent to “Fuck off” as you can get.

Why is Smile calling him a Lover boy?

Who is he meant to be in love with? Bashin?

I am so very confused by Smile’s insult here.

You have no idea how much the words “At Last” resonate with me right about now.

J, kick his ass so we can go back to the plot.

So it seems that it’s J’s turn, and Bashin has a Level 1 Siegfried and Goradon, as well as a Level 3 Taurusknight.

So it’s been a pretty even match thus far, but apparently J doesn’t have any Spirits on his field has he hasn’t displayed what’s on is board.

I can only take that to assume he has no Spirits.

…Uh oh. That’s not good.

That’s right Bashin, that means we unfortunately have to look at it.

This is The Sacred Mjolnir, a Cost 2 Spirit of the Armed Machine Family.

The reason why J put 2 core on this one is because it requires 2 Core to be at Level 1. That means a Card like Desperado can deplete this simply by attacking.

This is the first of a series of cards all named “The Sacred”, the reason I say series and not a named archetype is because there are no cards specifically supporting them.

At the moment there’s nothing admirable about it, besides being a hefty 7000 BP at Level 3 despite being a Cost 2, its a very powerful spirit for the time.

But this is why I was saying “Uh oh”, because where there is Mjolnir.

…There is Thor.

Now I would post the English translation but they changed the Art for it, to that end I’m going to use the Japanese Art, and post a translation.

It’s… It’s such a good looking card in it’s Japanese Art.

Alright, let’s go over this crazy White X-Rare’s effects.

Thor is a Cost 7 White X-Rare in the Armed Machine and Android families.

At all Levels, when Thor attacks, he can exhaust an “Armed Machine” family spirit to add the Armed Machine’s BP to Thor’s BP.

Starting at Level 2, Thor doesn’t exhaust when blocking a Red Spirit.

And finally, at it’s Strongest Level, when Thor is done attacking, you can destroy an “Armed Machine” family spirit to refresh Thor.

This is one of the earliest examples of a card directly supporting an entire family of cards.

And unlike Odin, who gradually get’s stronger per Nexus, this thing only needs itself, and a high BP Armed Machine to hit high levels of BP.

J levels Thor up to Level 3 of course.

He’s quite a good-looking Spirit, but failing to understand how his effects work can cost you, given that he’s only 8000 BP at Level 3 despite being Cost 7.

Yes, and one that is amazingly good at taking down Red Decks like yours, Bashin.

I still can’t get over the amount of Red hate in J’s deck.

In any case, Bashin is dumbfounded, he likely planned for Odin, not Thor.

Once again, just going to say, impeccable job from the team working on the CGI for this show, they look absolutely brilliant in this shot.

J ends his turn, given that attacking now would reveal his combo.

Besides, Thor is all he needs to stave off Bashin’s attacks.

Bashin levels up Siegfried to Level 3, his BP now hitting 10,000.

That’s an interesting point, Thor’s effect to boost his BP only applies when he’s attacking, so I’m suspecting some Defensive Aura action here.

Thor blocks the attack and just whisks the flame back at Taurusknight like a badass.

J, and I need you to listen for this one.

EXPLAINS TO BASHIN THAT THOR DOES NOT EXHAUST WHEN BLOCKING A RED SPIRIT.

AND THIS HAIRY FUCKING TANGERINE.

DECIDES THE BEST IDEA WOULD BE TO THEN ATTACK WITH GORADON!

AFTER HAVING IT EXPLAINED TO HIM, THAT THOR WILL NOT EXHAUST WHEN BLOCKING A RED SPIRIT.

I need a Coffee, I have been Caffeine starved since I arrived in Portugal.

If it wasn’t clear before, I’ll spell it out for you readers now.

BASHIN, IS A BLOODY IDIOT.

Oh but apparently you had the Brains to not throw Siegfried to the flames at least, so why did you think Goradon needed to take the Thor Discount Deal to the god damn CARD TRASH!?

And J declares an attack, prompting Mjolnir to turn itself into a fucking hammer.

Gotta love these Norse references.

Bashin takes a life from Mjolnir’s (quite literal) swing.

I don’t quite understand J’s logic here, Mjolnir is exhausted, so how is Thor going to beat Siegfried’s 10,000 BP?

…Oh, he’s either going to Refresh Mjolnir or make Thor unblockable.

Bashin Blocks with Siegfried, who as it stands, has more than enough BP to take out Thor.

J goes for option B and uses Invisible Cloak, now Bashin isn’t allowed to Block Thor and is forced to take a life.

See what I mean? Card just comes out of nowhere and ends games when Bashin had enough resource to take on Thor.

Not a competitively healthy card whatsoever.

On a sidenote, Bashin declared that he’d blocked, meaning normally Invisible Cloak wouldn’t work, so it can be assumed that J used this during Flash Timing 1 (Before any blocks are declared)

Thor PLANTS HIS GOD DAMN FIST INTO SOME INVISIBLE WALL.

Could they not have just put a model of a core there? No?

Bashin unfortunately loses his final life.

And the Finals go to J!

BE SADDER YOU MONG!

You just lost what is probably the most important match in this series so far!

Ah yes, more reason for you guys to nail yourselves to his groin area.

Because you weren’t brown-nosing him enough apparently!

I dunno, I wanted Bashin to lose mostly because I hate Bashin, but J here has obviously received help from Elliott and received powerful cards.

I don’t think the answer to losing to Smile, who was using cards gained from Elliott, was getting cards from Elliott.

That literally just makes you as bad as Smile is for blindsiding you like that.

I don’t like it, not one bit, J gave in a bit too quickly to the promise of power.

More like “If not for the opponent being a little bitch and needing to receive power from a 3rd party”

What J is talking about here doesn’t make a lot of sense but I’ll sum it up.

Basically Invisible Cloak has to be used before Blocks are declared, making a card unblockable means absolutely nothing if it becomes that way after being blocked.

Meaning when J attacked with Mjolnir, he held onto Invisible Cloak to save for Thor, and Bashin had the opportunity to block Mjolnir using Siegfried.

He could have taken a life from Thor and then not had to worry.

And it’s not like J could boost Thor’s defense again, because the only card in his hand was Invisible Cloak, Bashin could have destroyed Thor then.

Stop.

Being.

Happy.

You just lost a finals match! You’ve changed nothing in the hierarchy of power that is this show!

Meanwhile, someone’s reporting to Uchuuchouten.

Uchuuchouten decides to give a question to Two, aka, Elliott.

Why is Uchuuchouten asking for Elliott’s opinion on specifically Japanese card battlers? It’s like he’s trying to impress Elliott in some way, even though he’s meant to be the almighty “King” in this situation?

Elliott decides to make like a politician, and answer a completely different question to the one he was asked.

He then explains that the Numbers were observing the Cornerstone bearers to confirm whether or not they had awakened.

Seems that Uchuuchouten wants the power of the Cornerstones.

According to Uchuuchouten, the hearts of each Cornerstone holder has to “awaken” before the full powers of the Cornerstones are shown.

That’s a bit weird, so simply being able to access Isekai isn’t enough? What else can the Cornerstones do?

I still find it odd that his room is littered with pictures of the Numbers Elite.

Do you reckon Card Sensei is getting a little sick and tired of everyone bitching at him for “running away” from the Numbers? Despite the fact that he’s STILL been carrying out his mission to observe the Cornerstone bearers?

And of course, in classic “I don’t want to answer your question” fashion, Card Sensei answers Smile’s question by asking a completely unrelated question.

Considering that Elliott is the reason you were able to surprise J with all new cards.

You may want to clean your mouth with all the bullshit spewing out of it.

It seems that Smile intends on making J a member of the Numbers Elite, and is trying to make a deal with Card Sensei for him to not intervene on anything concerning J, in return he gets to ensure Bashin’s safety.

Though I’m highly curious how Bashin is in any way involved with the Numbers Elite given that none of the Numbers besides Nine has actually showed any avid interest in him.

I wonder what Nine’s fascination with Bashin is about, more than Smile’s cryptic request.

Huh… And that’s apparently the end of the episode.

That was a freaking monster of one, how many fights did we end up getting? Lemme go back and count.

After a quick count, we got a total of SIX fights in this episode, as opposed to the usual 2, they did a lot of cutting off the end of the fight however in some, but at least in Striker’s case he just admitted defeat to save J the trouble.

This Episode’s huge number of Fights was a clear attempt at advertising various new cards in BS02 of course, and I’m more than happy about that, because reviewing new cards as they appear is awesome.

I’m also starting to get super invested plot-wise, now we actually have something to follow here, Uchuuchouten wants the Cornerstone’s powers and to that end, they want to recruit J into the Numbers Elite.

And it turns out Card Sensei is a member of them, but for some reason is evidently distancing himself from the Numbers Elite, possibly to protect Bashin.

This Episode was definitely enjoyable, you can also see some small tells that J might end up going Dark on us.

The reasons I say this is because of his rather serious expression when using Invisible Cloak to defeat Bashin, there was also the fact that he was approached by Elliott after losing to Smile, which Elliott admitted to providing Smile with new cards.

To go from losing to Smile due to unfamiliar cards, to being approached by the man who made that possible and then suddenly displaying new cards of his own (as evidenced by Nine’s own confusion), It seems like J received these new cards from Elliott.

He’s becoming a little complacent for power from my perspective at least.

My only real criticisms with the episode was mainly, that they failed to properly display Smile’s strength.

They did a GREAT job foreshadowing him, and Card Sensei referring to him as “Number Four” was a confirmation of Smile being in league with that of Eight and Nine, and then cleanly beating J through his sudden use of the Yellow Colour (which he debuted)

And then in this episode! They called Smile “The Gunslinger’s Apparation!” and stated the rumour that his battles have an adverse effect on his opponent’s mental states.

Only for J to be marginally unfazed by his loss to Smile until Elliott just kinda shows up, and then Smile goes and loses to Bashin almost immediately after that display of ability.

If I had to change certain things around, I’d have had Smile take on Suiren instead of Nine, the reason for that being that Suiren would have lost anyway, and adding a win to Smile would have been another win added to testify to his potential strength.

Losing to Bashin should have been way closer than it was, and Bashin should have had far more than the scene he got, worrying about how Strong Smile was.

But oh well, my gripes aside, let’s have a look at our card of the day.

Aw Dang, since I jumped the gun and reviewed Cerru-Berus yesterday due to there being no Card of the Day, they’ve slapped me in the face by making Cerru-Berus THIS episode’s card of the day.

Welp, Let’s see if I can pick a card that definitely won’t be next Episode’s card of the day.

I suppose it would be better to just go over the Yellow attribute as a whole.

I already stated this before but I said that if I were to summarise each colour in a word, Yellow would be under “Confusion”

Yellow is really hard to nail in terms of playstyle identity, because it never really follows any one set rule. As you saw with Arcanabeast-Ken, some cards have traits you’d typically see in White.

For now, a lot of them just have quite a few wacky effects that seem to have very little synergy with each other, the only consistent part of it being the focus on Magic, and Spirits of a particular Cost.

Though at this current moment in time, the X-Rare that Yellow uses (which supports the Magic using identity) is banned from competitive play, I won’t review it here since it may show up later, being an X-Rare and all.

Well, until next episode! I’ll see you guys later!

“Arrival of the Gunslinger’s Apparation”

Well if that isn’t completely and utterly ominous I don’t know what is.

Going from the preview, we’re finally getting some tournament play, so this should be fun.

Here we have a snoozing Bashin, clutching his High Ranker pass in his hand like his life depends on it.

Oh and Aibou looks absolutely adorable snoozing in the corner as well, also wtf happened to the animation, it just got a crapton better.

We actually get a look at Bashin’s Deck here, and from what I can see.

It looks like he’s included some new cards, there are quite a few in there that I don’t recognise.

And after a quick scan of Vassal I can assert that they are from BS02, meaning the new set is being introduced to the show!

Nice, new cards is always good, keeps me invested and gives me more stuff to review.

Did they hire a new studio? Or did the animators just take an entire course in awesome looking anime?

Why doesn’t the rest of the series look this good?

Aww man, I’m on Holiday, so I’m sleeping in ALL the places other than my bed.

Because “My” bed is in a different country.

Screw Hayami’s rules.

Hayami puts Bashin in bed and wonders how long he’s going to keep sleeping.

I suppose it’s either not school time right now, or it’s not a school day thanks to the Tournament.

Seems we’ve got a bit of My Sunshine heading to the Championship she’s booked at.

That’ll be convenient for getting Suiren there, of course.

Well it didn’t take Hayami very long to meet up with My Sunshine again.

This is one small ass city.

So the venue is called the “Isekai World Dome”

Isn’t that a bit redundant? Isekai’s translation already has “World” in it. Correct me if I’m wrong of course.

Lots of people are going to need transport to the Tournament venue of course, and then back, so yes, lots of people are in need of the Speed Star.

So My Sunshine asks a very clear question but doesn’t wait for Hayami to answer to turn the TV on anyway.

Talk about rude.

Yes, Striker.

No one else is worthy.

So they know that Bashin and Striker are High Ranker Pass holders then?

Striker getting the rep he absolutely DESERVES

Apparently they already knew about Bashin?

Strange, they didn’t even give him the time of day when he came in 2nd at J’s Labyrinth Tournament.

I wish they’d kept that up, would be funny watching Bashin tear his hair out because no one knows him.

Meanwhile J and Kyouka enter by Sawaragi HELICOPTER.

Who even needs Taxis when you have a freaking Helicopter to avoid all the traffic.

I’m confused as to what Commentator-chan is stating that there’s an error about? Considering Commentator-san seems relatively sure of himself that My Sunshine is meant to be performing.

Striker being the good noodle he is, checks with Bashin’s mother about his attendance, because Bashin is still sleeping at home, on a big day like this no less.

Hayami makes a very important phone call, and wakes up Aibou from his very adorable sleep…

Doesn’t take long for Aibou to give up and go back to sleep.

Look at that mouse, how can you not love it when it’s sleeping?

While Bashin makes a massive waste of his High Ranker! The Gunslinger has begun!

Though I wonder how they’ll attempt to entertain us with a bunch of matches that the main characters aren’t even participating in.

A Time limit is a VERY good way to not only drive up enthusiasm, but with the way the Gunslinger is set up, means that there’s no need for matches to go into “Time” like in Yugioh or Vanguard, where they add very arbitrary rules for the end of the match because they need results.

This time you’re punished time-wise through losing. And if your Deck doesn’t win fast enough, it’s your own fault, given that speed is an important aspect in Gunslingers.

Only the top 8?

And we know of 6 High Rankers, so that makes 14, we’d need another 2 players to get to finals somehow.

I don’t think 3 hours is very “Soon” to me.

Don’t lie to your viewers Commentator-san, they’re not idiots.

…I hope.

Wait so the 6 High Rankers have their spots in the Top 8 reserved?

So only 2 players in the Gunslinger will actually be able to go to the finals?

I’m sorry but it’s NOT good tournament planning if more players get invited to the Top cut than the actual players qualifying to get in. You’re removing a large number of possible players earning their spot because you think these 6 out of 8 people shouldn’t have to bother participating in the Gunslinger like everyone else?

Out of these 8 people, only 2 of them earned their way in, the other 6 got invites effectively.

That’s not a good look! Not at all!

If they’re so good to get invited then they can prove it in a Gunslinger, Bashin above all others hasn’t won a Gunslinger since he lost the last Primary tournament he was in, he admitted so himself.

And Striker’s a NEW PLAYER, he didn’t know what a Gunslinger WAS until the day before.

Those 2, above all else, should definitely have to participate in the Gunslinger and prove they’re worthy of the High Rankers that they were due because they were lucky enough to find a Nazo-Otona.

And I say “Find” and not “Beat” because the only Nazo-Otona that has won on-screen fought a complete newbie (Striker) and lost the subsequent match to Bashin.

I don’t trust that the Nazo-Otonas are very good representations of skill.

Striker and J have never fought, I’d pay to see that match.

Better than an absurd rematch that ends the same way again.

And now Suiren has arrived to tell J she wants to beat his ass.

All we need is Bashin and we’ve got a full set.

J lost his championship to Bashin when Bashin beat the bumbling buffoon because he was too angry at his mother.

I’m getting the recognition I deserve in this show.

I’m being heard, I know it.

WHO

THE FUCK

IS UCHUUCHOUTEN!?

WHO THE FUCK IS NUMBER EIGHT!?

CAN WE START NAMING PEOPLE AS THEY APPEAR INSTEAD OF ASSUMING WE KNOW WHO THEY ARE?

Fuck this I’m googling who the in the hell Number Eight is.

Okay no one google it yourself because possible spoilers but apparently this woman is Number Eight.

Why did I need to look this up to figure out who that is?

You can’t namedrop people and expect us to just assume we know who that is, I don’t give a horse’s ass who your audience is, that’s super bad writing.

Uchuuchouten is bad because we haven’t had a scene foreshadowing who that is, not even a scene with a dark figure with no recognizeable features, just show us that a person EXISTS called Uchuuchouten and leave out all the details.

At least then I’d know who in the god damn flaming hell that is this show, who that is.

But NUMBER EIGHT is apparently someone the main characters that WE’VE BEEN FOLLOWING know about!

So why did I need to look it up just to figure out what our MC’s who we’ve been with the entire show, consider common knowledge!

Jesus christ I was not expecting a rant on writing this far in.

Moving on, Striker’s stressing about the finals and wants to battle.

Striker can’t seem to sit still and is hopping in circles, despite being told to by everyone else, Striker wants to participate in the Gunslinger, even if it has no bearing on whether or not he places.

Striker’s got a winner’s outlook on this.

He’s itching to fight, so he’s found a legitimate reason as to why he should, other than simple impatience.

Of course one could argue that it allows the others in the Gunslinger to preview their decks but having a High Ranker Pass AND being able to watch the Gunslinger also gives you that preview of whatever the winner’s decks were.

You change your mind like you change personalities Suiren.

She freaking advised Striker to stay here and then immediately changed her tune as soon as he came up with a reason to actually go.

He’s not gonna…?

Because of COURSE he is.

Good job Striker, you’ve got the charisma of a King.

Well this particular set of seconds as a rollercoaster from start to finish.

So there’s a Conference they’re going to miss because Gunslinger.

My Sunshine is missing, because Gunslinger, and poor Kyouka has been left on her own.

Again, because Gunslinger.

Meanwhile, Meganeko the Precious is feeding Nanarin the Dog.

Definitely not a school day then, since Meganeko is VERY far away from School right now while the tournament is going on.

And some car just pulls up next to her.

As a paranoid person, that is a moment that calls for panic.

And again! The shading quality is on point here!

Visuals aside, It’s apparently Card Sensei driving the very blue car.

Damn the blue doesn’t even match the colour of his sporty looking suit, you ain’t getting many girls like that Card Sensei.

It seems he’s hunting for Hayami.

I see he’s decided that he’s tired of waiting for life to give him opportunities to go after Hayami and he’s just gonna go have a damn good try himself is that it?

“Report to Mama-san about Bashin”?

What, that Bashin is missing from the tournament?

Hayami already knows about that though. I suppose there’s no way they can just go to his house though considering they don’t really have the keys to the apartment.

So Card Sensei wasn’t actually wanting to report to Hayami about Bashin’s absence, just wanted to check on Meganeko to 1. Find the whereabouts of Hayami, and 2. Possibly get a reason to tattle to Hayami about Bashin’s mistreating of Meganeko as an excuse to talk to Hayami.

That’s a really awful way to abuse the fact that Meganeko is often not treated particularly well by Bashin, Card Sensei, even worse when you consider that you’re a teacher and you’re supposed to discipline the little schmuck IN SCHOOL.

Lastly, isn’t contacting a parent over matters that aren’t school related kind of unprofessional?

All these point to the fact that Card Sensei is worthy of his nickname, “Quack Sensei”

She is a precious soul, isn’t she?

It would be terribly difficult for her to follow along with the games being played but she wants to watch him do well anyway.

No time wasted for Meganeko when it comes to Bashin it seems.

Why would Hayami need to call Meganeko?

If your son is being a pain in the ass just go home and wake him.

Then again I have no clue how Taxi shifts work, I assume she can’t ignore Taxi calls until she gets off shift.

What is she actually going to wake up Bashin herself?

But you don’t have any keys to the apartment? How will you get in?

And she just gets in Sensei’s car and he drives off with her to Bashin’s house.

I’d say this is also suspect, but then again Card Sensei has a very good relationship with Bashin and Meganeko’s families.

It’s a good thing they do, I don’t think it’s very normal for students to be getting into the back of Teacher’s cars.

While Hayami ponders about Bashin, she gets a customer.

“Keke”?

…What? I’m assuming this is just one of those types of characters with a word-tick.

Like how Moogles say “Kupo” at the end of every sentence.

But usually anime doesn’t add word-ticks unless the character is in some way important.

Oh! It’s one of the depicted High Rankers on the Grid last episode!

This one was marked with the name of “Smile”

His suit doesn’t really match any of the 4 colours shown so far, so it’s going to be interesting to see what deck he uses.

The Shot cuts to the armband he has with a number of Stars and a big black “X” on it.

I assume this is significant in some way, but I don’t know which bit, the stars or the X?

The armband is Red though, perhaps he’s a Red user?

They didn’t cut from the fact that he just entered the car and wanted to go to the Tournament stage.

And given this guy’s shit-eating grin, I assume they’re going to try divulge his personality through this.

“Nothing that’s a big deal…”

Isn’t this a Tournament to determine the current Battle Spirits champion? I’d say that’s a pretty big deal.

So either he’s dismissive of the event’s purpose, or he’s dismissive of it’s participants.

Either way, he’s a condescending character.

That’s not something you should be telling him, divulging info to an enemy card battler might hurt your boy’s chances Hayami.

The more you tell him, the more he’ll know.

First of all, God dammit Hayami stop divulging info the opposition can use to identify him!

Secondly, OMINOUS!

His Rotten Banana looking hair aside, this guy’s appearance SCREAMS evil. And all that behind the creepy name of “Smile”

Once again, OMINOUS!

I’m loving the aura of mystery this guy is giving off as well, he’s reminding me a lot of Nine.

I did mention before my Profile pic on Discord may change with this episode, this guy is why.

I’m surprised there aren’t specific rules concerning High Rankers participating in the Gunslinger.

As it stands their positions are reserved for them, meaning regardless of how badly they lose here, they can make updates to their decks for the final round after gauging the competition.

While they could probably have gauged that from the footage they were receiving anyway, High Rankers participating in the Gunslinger means that the High Rankers can actually influence what players reach Top 8 based on who wins and who loses, and since losing isn’t an issue for them they can artificially boost wins for some players and prevent others from getting any.

If I were running a system like this I would certainly bar High Rankers from participating in the Gunslinger, perhaps even bar them from watching it (as mentioned before, the High Rankers don’t have to Battle, so their decks are relatively unknown while the High Rankers are free to watch the games of any potential players who can get to the Top 8)

This is of course assuming I would even use such an obviously abusable system like the High Ranker Passes.

Again, this is awfully assertive of the skill of those with a High Ranker pass.

Because it’s very clear you don’t need to be playing very long, or have a good track record to obtain one.

Striker has the best mindset to this game among ALL of the chosen card battlers, and he’s got the WORST win to loss ratio!

The poor dude has 2 wins under his belt and loses a game every other episode! And HE got one.

“Participants of all levels” my freaking ass. Especially since the Gunslinger is designed to weed out the High level participants from the low level ones anyway, that’s how qualifying for the finals bloody works!

That little rant aside, Meganeko and Card Sensei have finally arrived at Bashin’s house.

Absolutely no clue how they got in but okay, maybe Hayami gave them a code for the doors or something… If the doors run on code locks and not key locks, which is unlikely.

Since it’s an Apartment in a Flat, perhaps they have a Concierge to let them in with permission?

Who knows.

This guy could sleep through being hit by a Nuclear Warhead I swear.

Not gonna lie the animation got SUPER good right there.

And this scene looks so good since it’s using 3 shades instead of 2, as well as a lovely colour scheme.

This scene is doing it for me I tell you.

Man I wish I was so eccentric as to wake up with a battle cry.

Except that trying to have something like catchphrases in real life can work really badly if you’re intentionally trying to be quirky.

This is a very in-depth conversation I tell you.

Nothing like one-word responses from the pair of them to really fill the conversation with a large amount of vocabulary.

First of all that’s creepy as fuck Sensei. Just look at his FACE.

Second of all, that line right there makes me curious as to Card Sensei’s Voice actor, he reminds me of another character.

Well, his voice actor, Riki Kitazawa doesn’t play any other roles that I can recall right about now, really digging his performance here though.

Back at the Gunslinger, Nine and Eight are watching.

Also what in the name of god is Nine wearing?…

Why is there a diamond shape SPECIFICALLY to reveal her belly button?

I can’t really call it skimpy since the only skin it’s showing is her shoulders and chest area but it certainly is trying to outline the shape of her body as opposed to trying to make her look pretty in any sense of the word.

I can’t think of any other purpose for that outfit other than sex appeal, and that’s a tad weird given that she’s at a Children’s card game tournament.

Also apparently one of the others, called “Number Two” is meant to observe.

The Nazo-Otonas seem to go by a Numbering system apparently, interesting codenaming.

But apparently the codename isn’t secret since Cap apparently knows that Eight is well, Number Eight.

I wonder what the ordering is.

“New System” he’s “Funding”

So Number Two is both super rich, and he’s building a system.
Remember back a few episodes ago where J said that his father was designing a new Battle System?

Also J is filthy stinkin’ rich… Meaning it’s likely his father is too.

I’m getting the suspicion that J’s father is a Nazo-Otona.

Apparently Nine says it’s not lost, given that there’s still a bit of time.

Eight complains apparently that Two isn’t here already though.

God woman, what is your interest with Two? And also christ that pose.

You can tell the animators had fun drawing that shot.

…Now I can’t tell if Eight was referring to Bashin or Two.

Though Nine seems to have particular interest in Bashin for some odd reason. I’m curious as to why.

Might be a Teacher-like mentality, he might feel obligated to root for Bashin given that Bashin is using Nine’s X-Rare.

We got that the last time Striker.

Very little need to repeat it, plus he’s on his way, how far is the Isekai World Dome from Bashin’s place?

Suiren accompanies Striker on the premise that she also can’t be bothered with the Gunslinger as well?

Also isn’t that grounds for Gunslinger disqualification if you don’t turn up for your match?

Or do the High Ranker Passes also circumvent that as well? These are some overpowered passes if they basically keep your reserved spot through a disqualification.

First of all, what’s with Suiren’s reaction? There’s very little need to be Tsundere about being worried about one of your friends.

Secondly, was the Blush necessary? You’re setting off the red flags of a romantic interest.

Lastly, what is with STRIKER’S REACTION!? He seems kind of miffed at the fact that Suiren would be worried about Bashin… Is he jealous?

“Perfect Battle?”

Don’t tell me J’s going to win a Gunslinger he wasn’t even supposed to be a part of.

I certainly hope the organisers are prepared for this situation and use the top 2 that aren’t bloody J to decide the Top 8.

And the Gunslinger is OVER.

The fastest 3 hours of my life, I tell ya.

It’s almost like only 12 minutes went by…

(Realistically these blog posts take hours to make, those 3 hours were EXTENDED, not shortened)

You had an automatic leaderboard in the shot before Eight decided to distract everyone watching with her odd choice of suit.

Just use that, what results are there to “Organise”?

WE GET IT.

BASHIN IS LATE. STOP REMINDING US OF STUFF WE ALREADY KNOW!

That is typically what happens when you are late, yes, but I’m pretty sure most Tournaments operate normally up until the match you’re meant to be playing, and even then they give a pretty reasonable time to show up, like a couple minutes or so.

If it involves Bashin I’m going to tear my hair out.

I’m tired of hearing the constant repetition of the fact that Bashin is late.

…Come again?

Two Number ones? So there are 2 people with the same number of points, and they are at the highest.

So what? Just take them both into Top 8.

Should be pretty darn simple.

Apparently, that Smile guy managed to arrive halfway through the Gunslinger, and STILL get enough wins to match J?

Also I’m happy that they ordered it correctly by placing Suiren 3rd, I hate when people say “Joint-first” and then call the other as “Second”

Just a pet peeve really. And they didn’t commit it here.

Well maybe if you lifted your head up from J’s groin area, you might have had some better judgement there, Commentator-san.

J ponders, given that the person who has tied with him for 1st place is a complete nobody.

Upsets happen all the time, but given that this is a Gunslinger, a single upset means absolutely nothing.

So the fact that a no-name reached the top of the board in half the time than everyone else is a bit crazy, and warrants some intrigue.

Smile walks with the grace of a god damn Zombie.

The last living character I saw to have such a zombie-like style of movement was…

Well it was Dan Kuroto from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid.

I doubt Smile will turn into the Screaming Meme factor that Genm is.

He says “Rumored” like he might not even exist. “Famed” would be a better word to use here.

J moves a hand out to shield Kyouka for some strange reason, but I realise it’s because Kyouka is actually scared of Smile.

It seems that Smile is giving off enough of a creepy vibe to put the Sawaragi twins on edge.

There is literally 0 purpose to this battle, you’re both number 1, but guess what, you’re also RESERVED A SPOT ANYWAY!

Smile’s proposition seems more like a taunt to get J to unveil the details of his deck to Smile so that Smile can counter it, final-wise.

Also Smile is giving off this weird vibe, the eye drawn on him, ignoring his mouth, can be really perceived as a hateful eye, but the smile (hehe) throws me off completely.

I’m loving it.

And then he occasionally shifts to this crazed look when saying his signature “Kekeke” which tells me that he’s not quite “stable”

To be able to seem Unhinged and Unstable while still carrying a massive aura of mystery behind a hateful eye and a smile is just begging for my curiosity.

As J says this smile is bobbing back and forth, he’s a VERY well animated character.

Hey look this Bitch-ass finally arrived.

It’s a good thing Smile and J decided to have a match or you might have been disqualified.

Meganeko, I thought you wanted to watch him?

Why aren’t you going with him you silly goose?

The Final Tournament’s first round? Wait.

Is Smile and J going to have their bout first? So they’re treating it as an official match rather than wasting time deciding a victor that doesn’t ultimately matter.

…Who the fuck?

This creepy smiley face lookin’ ass just popped on screen out of nowhere.

I was expecting a bracket, not a clown.

The hell is the Thousand Spirits Group?

Sounds like a company that would make a game like Battle Spirits, especially considering it has the word “Spirits” in it’s name.

…

…

. . .

YOU’RE KING UCHUUCHOUTEN!?

Wow it only took us THIRTEEN FUCKING EPISODES TO GET A GOD DAMN LOOK AT THIS FUCKER WHO LOOKS LIKE A GRAYSCALED EMOJI WITH KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA ON HIS HEAD.

At least we know who this name dropped piece of shit is now, cuz apparently he couldn’t grace us with his presence any of the previous 12 episodes whatsoever except by being namedropped by J, the Commentators, and the god damn Narrator.

And then they throw him at us now right as the first round starts like “Oh by the way here’s the person we’ve been talking about since Episode 2!”

On the upside this tells us that Nazo-Otonas are members of the Thousand Spirits Group at the very least.

Some points, first off. No one knows what the fuck Isekai World even is. If they do then why in the god damn hell does Bashin need to keep it secret.

If Isekai is a “concept” specifically for Battle Spirits like Planet Cray is for Vanguard, then that explains why Bashin gets away with his stupid fucking catchphrase all the damn time.

Secondly, “Challenge us of the Thousand Spirits Group”

Bro I didn’t even know who in the name of Odin you were until this moment, everyone, including Smile, seemed far more intrigued at either beating J or beating him off.

I’d argue it’s significantly less but whatever you say, Mr. Uchuuchouten.

You just said “it’s more than that” and then failed to elaborate what you meant, just suddenly deciding now to start the finals.

So not only is this guy a walking Sonic fancharacter with an Emoji mask, but he also apparently can’t follow his own train of speech.

Wow… Just gonna come right out and call her a “Sexy Queen”

Well if they ain’t filtering themselves then neither will I.

But… She wasn’t in the Gunslinger.

So who’s our Eighth player? Did they only take the Top 1 out of the Gunslinger?

“Selected first?”

You mean that Bashin was actually the FIRST person who was supposed to receive a High Ranker?

He was the last to receive it, his pass doesn’t even refer to him as 001, it’s 018.

This guy is protesting the use of Aibou?

Come on now, it’s a (reasonably) well-behaved mouse.

Your rules covered “animals at the finals” but not High Rankers in the Gunslinger, apparently.

Aibou apparently supports the decision.

This isn’t going to end well is it? There’s very little reason to actively specify Aibou’s removal during the match.

Well I suppose it also tells the Audience that Bashin isn’t going to receive any help then sure, but it’s not like Aibou was helping Bashin mid-battle.

Also did Bashin ever get his Siegfried back on screen? If not then he’s playing without his X-Rare.

Oh, so Meganeko and Card Sensei DID stay to watch, I suppose the Competitor entrance was different to the spectator one.

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again.

You can tell the animators enjoyed drawing this shot.

Seems Bashin remembers her, not as “Number Eight” but as the “High Ranker Pass delivery girl”

At the moment, anyone who doesn’t know her as “Number Eight” will probably just call her “The Boob Lady” right about now.

Apparently that doesn’t extend to the Male (and some Female) audience’s eyes. You’ve been going easy on them until this shot.

Only turn 11? That’s rather tame given the past few episodes throwing us near 20 a few times.

So Bashin has a board of 4 spirits, those being Goradon, Eyeburn, Metalburn and Rokceratops.

And Eight has Flyingmirage and Shockeater.

All of which appear to be at Level 1 of course, no new spirits yet.

And it’s currently Bashin’s Attack Step.

Bashin attacks with Eyeburn which is then blocked by Shockeater, since both are at Level 1, they have equal BP of 3000, and destroy each other.

I like how the repelled attack from Shockeater is just Eyeburn’s flames but Green.

Also nice to see Eight is sticking to her Green deck rather than her initial purple one.

Eyeburn attacks now and is blocked by Flyingmirage, now apparently this results in another draw, which is curious since Flyingmirage’s Level 1 BP is only 1000 which Eyeburn has higher, at 2000.

So the Flyingmirage must have been at Level 2 then to compete with Eyeburn.

Bashin goes full muppet and does a full attack, Goradon and Rokceratops take Eight’s lives down to 1.

Eight spends her turn summoning Beatbeetle, Flyingmirage and Hercules-Geo.

And she then proceeds to level up Hercules-Geo to Level 3.

Someone’s planning to make a Big attack.

And then Eight plays The Anthill.

Which is a new Nexus, you know the drill!

Still a card from the first set, so nothing that couldn’t have shown up before.

This one’s Cost 5, and with only 2 reductions I’m expecting it to be a little stronger than Striker’s Nexuses.

And reading it’s effects, I can see why, at Level 1, your blocking Spirits refresh when they win a Battle, and at Level 2, that same effect applies when you’re the one attacking.

Well it explains why Eight Levelled up Hercules-Geo, as long as Bashin can’t outpower it, Bashin can’t damage Eight’s life.

Bashin apparently responds with Flame Tempest, to what I attack I do not know but I’d guess she swung with a spirit that wasn’t Hercules-Geo to prompt the Flash.

All Spirits besides Hercules-Geo are destroyed, including Bashin’s, leaving him with an empty board.

Eight notes Flame Tempest was Bashin’s way of avoiding damage this turn, so she must have swung with something.

What it was no longer matters as long as it wasn’t Hercules-Geo.

Bashin summons Goradon and Eyeburn!

With 2 Spirits Bashin could typically win the game here, but it’s not going to be that easy given that The Anthill is out and about.

Hercules-Geo blocks an attack from Goradon and destroys Goradon.

Bit of a stupid attack there Bashin.

If you can’t beat Geo, you’re not getting to the life.

It’s as simple as that really.

BASHIN.

YOU JUST WATCHED HERCULES-GEO REFRESH IN YOUR FACE!

WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING WITH EYEBURN NOW!? IT CAN’T BREAK THROUGH HERCULES-GEO!

Eyeburn chokes on it’s own Fire and gets destroyed along with Goradon.

It’s a “Nexus”, you know that thing that remains in effect for as long as it’s fucking THERE!?

Why would there be a Limit!?

You have several cards in your deck specifically to deal with problematic Nexuses.

Use them you moron.

Eight-out-of-Ten plays a Flyingmirage and 2 Shockeaters at Level 1.

I’m assuming at this point, Bashin doesn’t have full life, and the card in his hand is a counter, if not.

Then he has 5 lives. And if Eight full attacks him without enough spirits, she’s going to look like a right muffin.

Eight attacks with Flyingmirage and her 2 Shockeaters.

Bashin apparently WAS at 5 lives, and is now down to 2.

Eight then ends her turn, leaving her big Hercules-Geo as a blocker.

Eight taunts Bashin with the reality of the situation, Bashin needs to come back with 2 Spirits, and one needs to have at least 8000 BP to take out Hercules-Geo.

I can think of several spirits Bashin can use here, so it’s not like he’s without them.

It is indeed Bashin’s turn, and from a previous shot, after his Draw step, he should only really have 2 cards in his hand.

With no Spirits, and 2 lives, Bashin should have around 14 Core to use. 7 from all the turns he’d have played beyond the first turn, and 3 from the lives he lost. As well as 4 from the beginning of the game.

Red doesn’t have a lot of Core boost, It’s unlikely Bashin would have gained Core another way.

“You gonna make another Guess?”

“Nah, did you see the first one? FUCKIN’ NAILED IT!”

Bashin drops a Double Draw.

There goes 4 of his Core, now he’s only got 10 to use, but on the upside, he can draw 2 cards.

That gives him 3 cards to use, not 2.

Draw Siegfried, he’s done it enough times already.

He need 2 spirits Eight… One with at least equal power to Hercules-Geo.

It’s not that big of a milestone when he’s got 3 cards in hand as opposed to 2.

Bashin plays Goradon, that leaves him with 9 core left to use.

Then Bashin summons Siegfried.

That’s a Core Cost reduction of 1, plus the Core to maintain, so Bashin has about 3 core left to use.

…I was a little confused why he’d attack first with Goradon but I get what Bashin’s going to do.

And it’s a SUPER clever way of doing it as well.

Nevermind? Apparently Bashin isn’t going to do what I thought he would. Goradon is blocked by Hercules-Geo and is defeated.

However in a weird ordering, Bashin decides to use Buster Spear during Flash timing (which with 2 Spirits is only 1 cost) to destroy Eight’s Anthill.

I love the animation for cards entering the Trash, I’m just unsure how the players can remember what’s in them if there’s no visible Trash.

Was it so hard to just put the most recent card there? No?

They had to invest more budget into making them disappear so the Trash always looks empty.

Unless you’re J, you can’t reliably rely on a Nexus to win the game for you.

Especially against Red decks that tend to have the unique feature of Nexus destruction.

Bashin attacks with Siegfried, Taking Eight’s last life for the game.

Eight, watch your… suit or whatever, it’s falling off.

This ain’t strip poker, you don’t take off your clothes when you lose.

Bashin seems mildly confused as to why no one is cheering despite the fact that he just won the first round of Finals.

Are you fucking kidding me!?

The Audience are far more interested in an unofficial match between J and Smile than they are about Bashin’s OFFICIAL finals first round?

…Sure whatever, fine, show me what’s going on that’s got the audience so silent.

Anyone else getting a “Sans from Undertale” kind of Vibe?

Because by the looks of that smile (hehe), J’s having a bad time.

Again, confirming my suspicions that it’s an unofficial match, and J had no reason to actually play it other than Smile being a creep and scaring the pants off of Kyouka.

“Some kind of Tie breaker that didn’t actually need to be settled” you mean?

Yes, again, thank you for confirming my suspicions.

Also from this angle it seems like Smile has both a Red AND a White card on his board.

I’m just saying, Smile’s design is god damn impeccable, I love it.

Maybe not a Sans vibe, but he reminds me definitely of another character, and I can’t put my finger on it.

Wait, Card Sensei knows who Smile is? That’s pretty damn interesting.

SMILE IS NUMBER FOUR!?

SMILE IS A NAZO-OTONA!? But he’s the same age as J is! Relatively!

And given that he’s “Number Four”, that must mean he’s stronger than Eight and Nine right?

Meganeko has picked up on Card Sensei’s odd behaviour all of a sudden.

The fact that she has probably means she’s going to be more involved in this than before I hope, given she’s now the only person besides Card Sensei and Smile who knows about whatever their relationship is.

J plays his X-Rare, The ImpregnableFortress Odin!

That was a super animated declaration there J.

Good on the animators, they look far less static this episode.

After asserting J’s strength, Smile BREAKS THE GOD DAMN MOLD and plays not only a new card!

But a WHOLE NEW COLOUR!

I guess I’ll stop playing dumb now, anyone who’s invested any time in Battle Spirits knows that there are more than 4 colour attributes than the show has displayed to us from Base Set.

Base Set only contained 4 Colours, but as the start of this episode confirmed, BS02 is currently in use, meaning a new Colour has been added into the mix.

That Colour, is Yellow. The Colour of Magic. Yellow is a Colour with a number of super quirky effects that mess with the way the game is typically played.

I’ll often explain what each colour does in one word, Red being “Aggression”, White being “Retaliation”, Purple is “Oppression”, and Green is “Proliferation”

The word I attribute to Yellow is “Confusion”, and you’re about to see why.

Oh, on a sidenote, they’re typically adorable and cute, making them a very good Colour for those who have a weakness to cute things.

J questions what the Spirit is, as he doesn’t recognise it.

Oh, well crap. They’re concluding that fight in the next episode it seems.

In that case, since there isn’t a Card of the Day, I’ll select the one that Smile JUST played to be our Card of the Day.

The HellDog Cerru-Berus.

A Cost 4 Yellow Spirit from the Imaginary Beast family.

Cerru-Berus is an odd card, as he’s got an ability at Levels 1 and 2 but not at Level 3, That being that he cannot attack or block during any Attack Steps, you can circumvent this of course by bringing him up to Level 3.

But at levels 2 and 3, during your start step. You can snatch a spirit with a Cost of exactly 6 from your opponent’s field to yours, you gain control of that spirit but Cores can’t be moved off of it or onto it. (Which is to stop you from just taking it to deplete it), But at the end of the turn if you still have the Spirit, it returns to your opponent exhausted.

See what I meant by wacky abilities? There isn’t a lot of cards in Battle Spirits that can outright TAKE CONTROL of an opposing Spirit NOWADAYS, let alone at the time the anime was made!

This card’s ability is so off the rails it’s ridiculous, and that’s just ONE of the many things Yellow can mess around with. You’ll see later that some cards will just change the way Battles work, or interfere with your ability to block with Spirits that meet a certain criteria.

It’s crazy.

Anyway, Episode Review, I clearly enjoyed it! I was a tad miffed that Bashin’s battle with Eight didn’t unveil any cards from BS02, and it took Smile to use one. But the tournament system was rather interesting given how they explained it.

I felt that a lot of the start of that episode was just a massive amount of padding though, I think there’s an entire quarter of that episode’s runtime with just characters going on about how late Bashin is and not doing anything about it.

And then after they’d woke Bashin up we had like 2 or 3 MORE characters not shut up about Bashin’s tardiness.

Only for him to show up on-time anyway and no one apparently gave a shit, no applause, nothing.

I feel like they may have lost track on that little detail.

We got a lot of insight into how the Nazo-Otonas work though, they’re members of the “Thousand Spirits Group” or “Thousupi Group” and work for Uchuuchouten, (Now we know who that is at least)

And a lot of them seem to be Numbered, And those Numbers are pretty common knowledge apparently, given how Cap knows that Number Eight was… Well, Number Eight.

But given that Nine was referring to the Curator as simply “Curator”, either the system was just employed now, or not all Nazo-Otonas go by a Number.

And apparently Card Sensei is aware that Smile is Number Four, and no one else seems to, that makes me think that Card Sensei is in some way affiliated with the Nazo-Otonas.

All in all, the plot is moving at a good pace now, only took 13 Episodes for us to figure out who King Uchuuchouten was.

And to be fair given that they kind of just dropped him on us and said that was who he was, I guess we still don’t really know who the fuck he is or why he’s important.

But he seems to be some kind of “target” for Card Battlers and they promote the game, so hey, it might be a little more innocent than it seems.

As for worthy Profile Pictures, You can be certain mine is changing after that monster of an Episode, Smile is just way too cool to not take over Nine’s Spot as one of my favourite characters.

That aside! I’ll see you guys next Episode!

Well the last one was a bloody disaster, definitely not worthy of the name “The Great Battle Spirits Operation”

So let’s hope this one does a little more justice, and I bloody hope the quality is better this time as well, the last one was an eyesore.

YES! Good Quality!

I’m happy enough to SING!

So give me a bit while I sing the opening to this anime, because I need the pick-me-up after the last one.

This episode’s titled “Unidentified Unknown Invitation”

Invite smells to me like a High Ranker Pass, I will be SEVERELY disappointed if Striker and Bashin don’t get their High Ranker Passes soon.

It seems the Nazo-Otona that fought Bashin before is asking directions from the Shopkeeper.

Also I can hear the faint noise of the ending theme playing, was that meant to be My Sunshine’s new hit single?

I have literally heard this song every god damn time I do one of these, that’s like 11 times!

After last episode I am not happy with you My Sunshine!

You cannot win me over with good music alone!

Oh good god Bashin and Striker are singing along.

RIP my ears people, please send donations so that I may buy new ears that can filter out this god awful segment.

How much money would you pay to see this kid get strangled by Meganeko?

Cuz I would certainly pay top dollar to see that punishment for his negligence.

The Shopkeeper is MAD

But regardless for what it’s for, I’m happy he’s telling them to shut their traps.

Not much they can really do without a High Ranker pass no? Unless they’re intending on earning one through the tournament itself.

*Audible Snorting noises*

They just confirmed something well in advance of when they were supposed to.

I’m actually unsure whether I should introduce it now or not, I think I’ll save it for when the cards are unveiled, but that’s not a good look for the show right now cuz that’s a huuuuuge spoiler.

You weren’t missed J you High Ranker stealing bitch.

But of course J’s here to talk about the bloody tournament the shopkeeper won’t shut the gosh dang hell up about.

Oh boy a lot to dig into here, first of all.

FORESHADOWIIIIING

Not just one thing but 2 things infact! I won’t tell you what those are though.

Secondly, we’ve got names for the Dark Nazo-Otona from before, he’s apparently named himself “number NINE”, which means I can actually call him something that isn’t “Dark Nazo-Otona”. From now on we’ll just call him “Nine”

And we’ve got one other character holding a High Ranker who we don’t recognise going by the name of “Smile”, there’s also conveniently 2 places left which makes me think that there are 2 more High Ranker passes left to be handed out?

That means times-a-wastin’ for good ol’ Bashin and Striker to get theirs.

And they finally explained what the purpose of a High Ranker pass is now.

So anyway, the purpose of a High Ranker Pass allows you to effectively ignore the results of what some people would call “Pools”, it’s a round-robin style way of organising a tournament where everyone plays against everyone and the number of wins you rack up determines your ranking, making it through “Pools” is generally how one would get to the Bracket section of a tournament, through getting to a certain ranking in those Pools.

With a High Ranker you don’t have to go through that grueling process and can just get seeded into the Bracket section.

It seems that beating a Nazo-Otona tends to be some kind of “Display of Skill” that earns you an X-Rare on first victory, which would make it significantly easier to make it out of pools, and under some circumstance that causes a Nazo-Otona to personally recognise you, you may earn a High Ranker Pass to just ignore the Pools entirely.

See, this shit is fun, talking about the game itself, none of this My Sunshine bollocks from last episode please.

YO WHAT THE FUCK!

J IS 001!?, BUT HE GOT HIS AFTER SUIREN!

SHOW YOU MAKE NO SENSE! EXPLAIN!

…Oh, the show actually explained it, thanks show!

You make me happy for once in my life.

So it seems that the Nazo-Otona Police Officer really DID have no jurisdiction on whether or not Bashin could receive a High Ranker, beating them had nothing to do with it.

A high percentage of wins is required to earn one, and that tells me that the numbering on the High Ranker means what Rank you are among the High Rankers.

With J being 001, that means he is currently the High Ranker with the Highest Winrate among all those holding High Ranker passes, while Suiren is second highest.

And if the order on the Grid they showed us is anything to go by, Smile is 003, and Nine is 004.

SHIT IS STARTING TO MAKE SENSE NOW! THANKS SHOW! KEEP IT UP!

It’s going to disappoint me soon isn’t it?

Stab one of the High Rankers and steal their pass, obviously.

Easier to do that then win in Pools.

The “Gunslinger” sounds like the word they’ve decided to name their version of “Pools”

So from now on I’ll refer to their Pools as “Gunslingers”

Round-robins are the easiest way to artificially boost your winrate given the number of games you’ll end up having to play, win a lot of them and it’s a good look for you.

Yes J, and your white hair is very white.

I need a “Captain Obvious” meme I can place here whenever J says something dumb like this shit right here.

You’ll have to get through the Gunslinger like everyone else?…

God forbid you actually have to do things the NORMAL way Bashin.

Striker’s getting serious all of a sudden.

Jesus, one of my readers was indeed correct, Striker is literally carrying this Show on his back, and one of his feet are wrecked.

Bashin questions why Striker is getting so serious.

Damn this better be some serious shit, I wonder if he’s planning to do the whole rival thing and be like “I’m going, I need to get stronger on my own”

…

…

OH STRIKER YOU POOR POOR SOUL

THAT’S PRICELESS!

Oh man!, I LOVE Jokes that take a very dumb thing very seriously.

Just give me a bit while I recover from this hilarious breakdown! Whew!

With a Trippy graphical sequence apparently.

Bashin, your overconfidence is showing, put it away.

That’s an extremely interesting way of dealing with it, firstly this is significantly different to what “Pools” are.

So to summarise it’s like a game of “King of the Hill”

• 2 players are randomly selected to battle.
• The Winner becomes “King of the Hill”
• For the duration of the time limit, the “King” will continue battling until he loses
• When the “King” loses, he goes to the back of the line, and the Winner becomes the new “King”
• Every Victory earns you a Star.
• The person with the most stars at the end gets to go to the finals

I assume in the cases of where there are multiple positions, they’ll take 2nd, 3rd, etc.

Its a system that heavily rewards players for winning a lot, and winning fast, and severely punishes people for losing.

At the very beginning of the show I’m sure Bashin said he lost in the Primaries.

Meaning he didn’t get to go to the Brackets.

That would mean he wants to get a High Ranker pass so that he can get to Bracket without having to deal with the fear of Primaries again.

Yeah, being “King” is a very good position to have, because you get to fight more often, which gives you more opportunity for Stars.

But I just love how the Shopkeeper is basically calling Bashin a god damn coward, it’s hilarious.

But if Episode 10 is proof of anything, X-Rares will only get you so far up until someone else with an X-Rare shows up, then the real battle begins and you’ll have to play carefully to take out your opponent’s X-Rare.

And suddenly the weirdest cut to a Battle begins, between Bashin and Striker.

Again…

Shoot me in the face, at least let Striker win this one or show some new cards.

Turn 12 it seems, pretty tame considering the crazy jumps we’ve had in this series already.

And both players have at least 3 lives, unsure if any lives have been taken thus far.

Oh sweet Video quality, never leave me again, I need you to survive watching this cruel show.

Striker deploys his Key Nexus, The Fruit of Life at Level 2.

I’d say “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”

But Striker hasn’t won a SINGLE game since his first day playing Battle Spirits, it’s kind of upsetting actually.

PLEASE tell me Striker is going to unveil something new! It would REALLY make my day!

Striker passes after deploying his Nexus.

And the turn gets passed to Bashin.

Bashin makes no changes to his board and swings with both Metalburn, taking 2 of Striker’s lives, letting him draw twice and gain 2 core in his reserve thanks to his Nexus.

This is a more conserved attack stance, meaning that Striker won’t be able to draw tons of cards to make his huge comeback attack, and will have to make use of the extra cards in a different way.

It’s more boring when you aren’t allowed to play.

Be careful what you wish for Bashin.

The Turn jumps 2 turns forward back to Bashin’s turn, so I will assume Striker simply passed his turn.

Second verse is the same as the first.

The Metalburn pair attack and take 2 more of Striker’s lives, granting him 2 Cards and 2 Core thanks to The Fruit of Life.

What a very uneventful game.

Badly portrayed but Bashin is basically lamenting that Striker is a bit of a one-trick pony.

I assume this isn’t the first time this situation has battled, and that they’ve battled several times offscreen as well.

Meaning Bashin is likely getting a bit bored of Striker’s typical comeback strategy.

An Extra spirit on your board would have beaten Striker before you gave him his comeback cards Bashin, by not doing so you’ve done in 2 turns what could have been done in 1 turn for the same effect.

Striker summons 2 Hercules-Geo at Level 2.

This is odd, you kind of expect him to drop anywhere from 5-8 spirits at this point but instead he’s going for Quality over Quantity.

Striker completes the formation he used on Suiren by deploying The Hermit Wise Tree at Level 2.

This means Striker will be able to use all his attacking spirits for blocking later.

Both of Striker’s Hercules-Geo attack, and drop Bashin to a single life.

And through Hermit Wise Tree’s ability, Striker refreshes all his Spirits.

Despite his interesting choice of maneuver, he’s in no better situation than he was before, Bashin only needs 1 Spirit to take out the Rest of Striker’s Life.

That’s right, Bashin himself hasn’t particularly dealt with The Hermit Wise Tree, so this is a new situation for him.

Unfortunately for Striker Bashin probably still has Dragsaurus in his deck.

Bashin responds with his X-Rare?!

That’s new, I’m fairly sure Bashin hasn’t used his X-Rare on Striker before.

Well, allow me to make a prediction at this point in the match.

Right now Striker’s main banes are anything that can stop his rush, which tends to be a lot.

But also, when he does try to take a defensive stance, it’s mainly the X-Rares that end up punching through it.

This is probably going to send Striker into a depression over not having an X-Rare.

This is a declaration of an Attack I take it, it’s hard to tell since Bashin basically screams this at the top of his 12-year old lungs if someone so much as farts in his general direction.

It seems Striker has added a new card to his deck after all. This is Binding Thorn.

Binding Thorn is a very simple Cost 2 Magic, that exhausts an opposing spirit.

This effectively renders it unable to attack or block without it having done either of those things.

Fuckup Tally… What number are we on? I think it’s 12.

Anyway Siegfried being exhausted is a condition for his attack, meaning you can’t exhaust Siegfried as he is already exhausted.

And Flash Timing can only be used after attacks are declared or after blocks are declared.

Sorry, doesn’t work in this context unless Bashin had attacked with Metalburn, which he evidently didn’t.

Apparently Bashin just kinda panicked and ended his turn after getting Siegfried wrongly exhausted at a timing that he shouldn’t have been.

Striker going in for the kill by summoning a Beatbeetle.

Both Hercules-Geo attack and are blocked by both of Bashin’s Metalburns.

But wtf is up with Bashin here? He seems so exasperated.

Beatbeetle snatches the victory.

Well we got some progress! Even when faced with an X-Rare, Striker managed to win this time around with a conventional strategy.

I still don’t know what’s up with Bashin, he’s acting like an asshole.

It seems Cap concocted a way for Striker to battle with opponents using X-Rares while he doesn’t have one of his own to deal with it.

Which is to apparently neutralise it by using Green’s speciality of exhausting it so it can neither attack nor block.

This demonstration was awful considering Striker played Binding Thorn out of timing.

Meanwhile, Bashin having been rendered unable to use Siegfried has prompted a massive temper tantrum from Bashin, with audible table slamming and being depressed because he didn’t get to use his Big Red Dragon.

Aibou with the pep talk.

I’d be more than happy for Bashin to get overly depressed over stupid shit, it lets me watch him suffer.

Yeah, make space for a real main character.

Like Striker.

Aibou proceeds to scold Bashin using the reason he lost, which was being overly-reliant on his X-Rare.

Mostly true, nowadays getting rid of an X-Rare is very easy, you’ll need a deck that can handle losing their X-Rare and still come back from it.

Bashin’s getting mixed signals though here, His X-Rare was powerful so he rightfully built a deck to make use of the full abilities of Siegfried, but now he’s being scolded for that over-reliance.

Sucks to be Bashin I guess, needs to find a balance.

Striker tries to calm Aibou down but gets interrupted by Cap.

Oof.

Cap has absolutely no filter, which for a Parrot is quite accurate.

Someone boot him off the table he’s on.

He was dirtying the table with his existence, now he’s dirtying it with his feet.

YO WHAT THE FUCK!?

WHAT?

I KNOW AIBOU WAS SCOLDING YOU FOR RELYING ON AN X-RARE BUT I DON’T THINK THIS IS WHAT HE MEANT.

AND HE JUST BUGGERS OFF…

Okay, allow me to process what the hell just occurred.

Bashin lost due to Striker rendering his X-Rare useless (Against the rules I might add)

So in response to this he decides to go to a crazy extreme of doing without his X-Rare for a while, and giving it to STRIKER.

What the hell is STRIKER going to do with it?!

So he’s going to test his limits without using Siegfried?

Well I did watch the episode preview, we can trust you won’t ruin everything while you’re offscreen.

What? Was the Show unable to handle Bashin being Offscreen for any longer than a few frames?

These guys just keep popping up like flies don’t they?

Was this Nazo-Otona discovered in some weird tropical continent or some shit?

APPARENTLY NEXT TO SOME GOD DAMN TIGERS.

These are some dedicated kids, they should have been turned into a meal by now.

It’s a Dude Nazo-Otona?

And they beat a Tournament Champion.

OH, so they were using the poster as a backdrop for their story. That makes way more sense.

So they found the Nazo-Otona in a Cinema.

This was a really weird cut but apparently they went asking around about the Nazo-Otona, but obviously no one is going to know what that is without being a Battle Spirits player.

Also loving the Tomato Hat old timer.

Thank god that their 0 identifiable features are starting to become more important as the show goes on, they’re actually having trouble finding this one.

Cap tries to re-assure Striker about being in the “Low class”

I have no idea what Cap’s obsession with class is but it’s starting to worry me.

Anyway, Cap does remind Striker that he was given an X-Rare.

After the briefest of Flashbacks about Striker’s Dad going to play Golf, apparently Striker has an idea on “Something adults can’t refuse”

I don’t know if Golf is going to be the most usable bait to lure out a Nazo-Otona there captain.

Bashin is now in front of some random grocery shop shouting “I have a request!” like he’s the most important person in the world…

I want to scream that he’s got all manner of mental inhibitions but I need to make this enjoyable for all readers.

But someone definitely needs to punch this kid.

So Bashin has gone all the way to this grocer, and asked the Wife of someone working there if he can play a Battle Spirits match with him…

And this guy is a Battle Spirits Expert.

And he’s literally just an average joe.

Nothing about him screams “Expert” to me, his Wife is looking pretty bothered as well.

…You have til tomorrow to get this done Bashin.

You aren’t fighting 100 people.

And the poor sods are just playing on a wooden bench infront of the fruit.

And I can’t tell very well but it seems like the guy is using a White deck?

Apparently not skilled enough if a 12-year old can catch up to him that fast.

“A great service”

I love how this woman is basically telling everyone that Bashin’s a problem.

Oh WOOOOOOW.

I dunno if she’s doing this to help Bashin fight 100 people, or if she genuinely hates Bashin for beating her husband.

Either way this is hilarious.

Meanwhile, Cap apparently went searching for Striker’s father.

What are they hoping to find the Nazo-Otona playing golf?

Well they’ve spotted Striker’s Dad, so that’s a plus.

…WHAT

HOW WAS IT THAT EASY!?

AH YES, WE CAN FIND THE WEIRD ADULT BY SIMPLY LOOKING FOR DAD, HE PLAYS GOLF, ADULTS CAN’T IGNORE GOLF, SO CLEARLY A NAZO-OTONA SHOULD BE PLAYING GOLF.

WHAT!?

…For the uninitiated, “Fooling around” can also be a colloquialism (basically, slang) for cheating on your significant other.

So Cap thinks that Striker’s Dad is cheating on his Mother.

What the hell does a Parrot know about infidelity anyway?

Meanwhile FOUR of his Dad’s FIVE Children are doing dumb shit on their own again.

Just gonna race into the Golf court and no member of staff is going to stop them, is that it?

That didn’t take very long, good on that guy for taking responsibility to discipline a series of kids that aren’t his.

“Nonsense” has no equal in how to describe this exact situation.

I have 0 clue what the kids were trying to achieve by barging into a Golf court and declaring themselves the “Nazo-Otona exploration team”

Striker’s Dad finally realises that his children have shown up completely unannounced.

Surprised they haven’t questioned what his relationship is to the Nazo-Otona behind him yet.

Nothing like an eerie smile to make the situation look worse for Striker’s Father.

Bashin apparently can’t make it through 49 Battle Spirits matches without getting sleepy.

Kid isn’t even halfway to 100 and he’s already tapping out.

And Bashin suddenly stumbles on a couple arguing about what movie to watch.

This is one easygoing couple, I’m happy they can decide such things with Card games.

But given that Bashin so much as EXISTS, I’m going to assume he’s going to interject on this wonderful moment.

How are you going to be “in charge” of that match? Are you going to fight both of them? If they both lose it doesn’t help their decision making. They have absolutely 0 reason to agree to that battle.

Understand what exactly? You have never once communicated with Striker, on ANY capacity whatsoever.

Understand freaking what?

The fact that Striker’s Dad is actually super faithful and not trying to cheat on her with a pretty Nazo-Otona?

I have no idea how this interaction came about but I’m going to guess.. they’re going to fight now.

Sorry but this seemingly comes out of basically nowhere, the Nazo-Otona and Striker have never conversed before this moment.

I’ve checked back through the episode to make sure I haven’t missed anything, the context behind this battle comes out of nowhere.

…And Beatbeetle.

Interesting that the Nazo-Otona is now using a Green deck when she was using Purple before.

I don’t really know what to predict now that Draculious is seemingly off the table.

Striker deploys The Hermit Wise Tree at Level 2.

Pretty standard, Striker is employing his more defensive strategy since it’s much steadier than his typical Fruit of Life attempts.

An attack from Shockeater prompts a block from Flyingmirage, they’re both Level 1 it seems, so Shockeater has 2000 BP over Flyingmirage.

I forgot that The Hermit Wise Tree does grant +1000 BP to battling Spirits for each exhausted spirit you have, so more like 3000 BP over Flyingmirage.

Striker refreshes Shockeater and passes, if he attacked with Beatbeetle, a block from Flyingmirage would leave him with 1 less blocker.

The Nazo-Otona plays her own Copy of The Hermit Wise Tree and levels it up.

This affords her the same benefits Striker gains.

AND she deploys a Shockeater at Level 2.

I’d comment on how their “decks are similar” but when you’re playing out of just the game’s base set there isn’t a lot of options to go off of.

The Nazo-Otonas Level 2 Shockeater beats out Striker’s Level 1 Shockeater.

And Beatbeetle blocks Flyingmirage’s attack, and is destroyed.

I’m a little boggled by Striker’s choice of block order.

If he’d used Beatbeetle to block Shockeater, the Nazo-Otona would have lost Flyingmirage in the attack against his Shockeater, or she would have just not attacked, which wouldn’t matter since the end result for her would be 2 refreshed spirits anyway thanks to Hermit Wise Tree.

This block order left the Nazo-Otona with 2 Spirits and Striker with none, when the alternative would have either left Striker with 1 Spirit and the Nazo-Otona with 2, or Striker with 1 Spirit and the Nazo-Otona with 1.

This particular block order shrinks his attack formation for no reason. And he wouldn’t have lost any lives either. If he’s trying to hold out until Fruit of Life then there’s little point leisurely losing spirits that can be used to attack or defend later.

Not even the Hermit Wise Tree would have saved her Flyingmirage in a battle against Striker’s Shockeater, because Striker also has a Hermit Wise Tree.

The Nazo-Otona refreshes her Spirits and ends her turn.

Striker deploys The Fruit of Life at Level 2 and passes.

The only possibility I can think of for his block order is to encourage her to attack as much as possible next turn so he can set off his rush.

That’s the only meaning I can derive from him throwing away Shockeater needlessly.

The Nazo-Otona responds by deploying her OWN Fruit of Life at Level 2.

Welcome to mirror matches kids.

You’re gonna need a lot more than water to wash out the taste of your own medicine out of your mouth there Striker.

This is what we call “Falling on your own Sword”

We ended off on Nazo-Otona’s Turn 16 so we seem to have jumped a few turns ahead here.

You can’t see it but this bitch of a gal is fanning herself with her hand.

Absolutely 0 respect from this Nazo-Otona, where’s Nine? He’s at least composed and cool.

…Hold up, that’s a Green X-Rare.

I didn’t think Nazo-Otonas were permitted to use them but apparently they can…

That means Nine didn’t get a chance to use Siegfried last time against Bashin.

Bashin got lucky, this is bad for Striker, but Striker has had his fair share of run ins with X-Rares without one of his own, He can handle this.

…In my excitement I forgot this is a new card… Well it’s time to review.

The Duke Kingtaurus, a Cost 8 Green X-Rare of the Shell Insect and Blade Beast families.

When Summoned he gains a core for every other spirit you control, this is huge synergy with The Fruit of Life which awards you cards for losing lives, which can be used to supply this effect.

And at Levels 2 and 3, if Kingtaurus defeats a Spirit during your Attack step, your opponent loses a life.

This is, for the most part, problematic against anyone trying to take a defensive stance. An opponent with 1 Life needs to get rid of this card and fast, and X-Rares aren’t exactly known for being the easiest cards to get rid of. Because once this thing attacks, it doesn’t matter what actions your opponent takes, because Kingtaurus will snatch a life.

Your best bet is to beat it, which granted it doesn’t have a high BP at Levels 1 and 2, and the Level 3 cost is absurd, but that’s very likely why it gains core on summon, specifically to supply that effect.

Striker’s in a pinch.

He’s a cool looking customer though, look at it!

The Duke Kingtarus’ ability gives it 2 core since the Nazo-Otona has Shockeater and Flyingmirage, that brings it up to Level 2 immediately.

And the Nazo-Otona decides “fuck it” and shoots it up to Level 3, where it clocks in at a whopping 12000 BP!

That’s not only the highest BP in the show so far, but it’s also the highest BP printed on any card in the base set!

And with the Hermit Wise Tree it’s only going to get stronger.

Kingtaurus attacks.

Striker foolishly blocks with a Hercules-Geo (that wasn’t there before, fuck turn skips) and it gets cleanly run-through.

Not to mention the Block was entirely meaningless as well.

As a result of Kingtaurus’ effect, it reaps the spoils of victory by snatching a life from Striker.

Now Striker is down a life and a spirit, where taking from the life would have left him with an extra blocker.

This is followed up by the Nazo-Otona attacking with 2 Shockeaters and Striker losing a Flyingmirage and a Shockeater to protect his life.

The Nazo-Otona ends her turn with this, this is a crazy bad situation.

Come on Striker! You spent the start of this episode showing what you learned from Cap.

Battle Spirits is a game won with a 40 card deck, 1 card won’t win the game for you. You don’t need to beat Kingtaurus, you need to beat the Nazo-Otona!

I am, lecturing a cartoon character on a Laptop screen I realise but let me enjoy myself!

Striker drew The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

I’m surprised he placed it in his deck, he can’t really afford it’s reductions, though we are at turn 21 now, so Striker should have plenty of core to spend.

And Striker, the absolute madman, summons the Red X-Rare, The DragonEmperor Siegfried!

The Nazo-Otona is confused at Striker summoning a Red X-Rare since he’s been using Green this entire time.

Binding Woods is a new card, a Cost 7 Green Magic.

During the Flash timing, it grants +5000 BP to a Spirit, but when used during the Main step…

Striker can exhaust all Spirits with a selected colour.

This also means that Striker can select Green without harming Siegfried whatsoever, though it didn’t matter too much, if he drew a Green Spirit, he could have simply played Binding Woods first, and then play his Spirits after.

Ah the catharsis of this moment, to defeat the Nazo-Otonas Green X-Rare he had to forsake Green altogether for this one move!

Nothing Green can stand against Siegfried’s attack!

Siegfried attacks and snatches the Nazo-Otonas final life.

Striker is the winner!

Man Striker just got given the Spotlight for this episode didn’t he? I’m happy for him.

It seems he’s had his strength recognised by the Nazo-Otona.

Striker receives no answer to this question by the way.

Not just the strongest spirit in Green, currently it’s the strongest Spirit period, Highest printed Level 3 BP is nothing to scoff at.

…noooooooo…

NOOOOOOOOOOOO….

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

A fucking High Ranker Pass!? I thought Nazo-Otonas could only give that to people with High Win percentages!

Fuck that shit- Also 010?

Not 005? We seem to be missing like 5 other High Rankers.

BUT STILL, STRIKER’S A FUCKING NEWBIE AND HE’S GOT A HIGH RANKER BEFORE BASHIN!

AND AS MUCH AS I HATE THE ORANGE-HAIRED PRICK, I AT LEAST BELIEVE IN PEOPLE GETTING WHAT THEY DAMN WELL DESERVE!

THIS IS NOT IT!

Blah blah blah meaningless emotional pep talk from the Nazo-Otona.

I don’t even know 99 people who play god damn Poker, forget trying to beat 99 of them in Battle Spiirts.

Well you see Aibou, it’s not about just beating 100 People, it’s about self-discipline, so far Bashin has fought 99 people without Siegfried in order to see how far he can push himself sans an X-Rare.

If he can beat 100 battlers without ever having to use Siegfried then he can prove to himself that he is worthy of using Siegfried.

Aibou’s wording indicates that he did infact win all of those, so that’s a lovely plus for Bashin’s Win rate.

I think Bashin just gave up and went home.

Hayami gives the poor tired Bashin a bollocking for being home late.

I just want to put this here to say props to the artists, because damn, Bashin genuinely looks tired in this shot.

Actually looks really good, I’m happy.

I wonder if Striker has come to challenge Bashin with his new X-Rare? That would certainly be a good way to get his 100th battle.

Oh, it’s the Nazo-Otona, wonder what she’s here for? Hopefully to give him the X-Rare he demanded last time.

So you mean to tell me the only reason Bashin even had to fight that many Nazo-Otonas was because YOU got lost delivering the High Ranker after he beat the BLOODY FIRST ONE!?

Or maybe it was the second Nazo-Otona! Or you! That decided he was worthy of a bloody High Ranker?

WHICH ONE RECOGNISED HIM BITCH!? HOW LONG WAS IT!?

This one is seeded as 018…

STRIKER IS 8 PLACES HIGHER THAN BASHIN IN THE HIGH RANKER RANKING!?

I CALL BULLSHIT, THIS MAN JUST BEAT 99 CARD BATTLERS! THAT’S MORE THAN STRIKER HAS IN HIS ENTIRE GOD DAMN CAREER!

Which of you wants to beat her ass in a heated Battle Spirits match first?

I must channel my rage through some sort of medium to get over this pure idiocy.

Good job explaining away most of the plotholes at least, Bashin was already due a High Ranker after the 1st Nazo-Otona, hence why the others didn’t present him with X-Rares after he had defeated them, they already knew about him.

Doesn’t explain why this bitch didn’t just give him one after her match with Bashin but its likely she intended to deliver it to his address and didn’t realise he was the person living at that address.

Because again!

God forbid you have to enter the Gunslinger like everyone else!

Gosh this show doesn’t do a hell of a good job advertising Gunslingers do they?

I was expecting it that time.

Episode Review!

As Gordon Ramsay said earlier, finally some god damn progression! And done well too, they gave Bashin a backseat to the action so they could develop Striker, they managed to fill quite a few plotholes and explain how High Rankers work effectively.

That being that High Ranker Passes are awarded to people with either High winrates, or are personally recognised by Nazo-Otonas, either condition can be met it seems.

The person delivering the High Ranker doesn’t necessarily need to be the same Nazo-Otona that was defeated either, proof being Suiren who received it from a Nazo-Otona she didn’t recognise.

All in all, Striker developed as a character and got some wins added to his onscreen record, AND received an X-Rare + a High Ranker pass

Bashin got at least 99 offscreen wins and finally got a High Ranker he was due for a bloody while.

I am content with the reasonings behind the inconsistency being explained away by one Nazo-Otona’s sheer incompetence.

I’m also curious about the fact that Nazo-Otonas have their own High Ranker passes too, and are able to participate in the Bracket tournaments.

Okay, so our card of the day is Binding Woods, which they advertise as a card that is strong against decks of a single colour, I’m happy they didn’t try to mention the mirror match problem as one can overcome this by simply using Binding Woods first.

Very powerful card but the timing (the main phase) plus the cost doesn’t really make it worth using in most cases, as you can’t even respond with it at all.

It’s good for your finishing move, I suppose that’s honestly it. Though now there are better cards to finish off your opponent with.

They’ve begun advertising colour mixing all of a sudden though, we’ve only seen one person use a clear multicoloured deck, and that was Card Sensei when he was disciplining Bashin, which came at the upsetting cost of being unable to use Defensive Aura since he couldn’t fulfil it’s reductions.

Bashin using Gowsilvia and Striker using Siegfried isn’t a very good example, as they’re one-off cards that simply don’t match the colouring of their decks, and again Bashin was punished for using Gowsilvia in a deck not designed to support it.

I would certainly love to see a character specifically use a multicoloured deck in Toppa Bashin, but given that it hasn’t been very well supported as a concept, I imagine that no such thing will occur.

Anyway, that was my blog on Episode 12, I’ll see you guys next time in Episode 13, where my inner edgelord may arise and alter my favourite character.

Speaking of favourite characters thus far, I’ll state my current one, and any changes to that will be made at the end of the blog post where that changes of course.

At the moment the mysterious “Number Nine” seems to be taking my fancy, he’s a Red-user for starters but doesn’t carry any of the “Passion” that you’d typically expect out of a Red-user.

He’s awfully mysterious, and seems well-interested in Bashin’s growth, with lines such as “I want to give you another X-Rare…” and lamenting that fact.

His interest in our main character’s strength and the fact that we seem to have absolutely 0 clue who he is or what he wants makes me happy to name him as my current favourite. He certainly puts the “Mysterious” in “Mysterious Adult”

Anyway, that was my Blog post for today! Hope you guys will enjoy it!

Things feel like they’re moving now, and that makes me happy! See you guys next episode!

Well this better be bloody good.

Anything with the name of “The Great Battle Spirits Operation” is gonna need some high quality footage to keep me going.

And judging by how that 7:03 in the corner has a god damn shadow, I’m assuming this episode is in super low quality.

Oh boy, SUPER low quality.

Though checking the quality of a later episode, it seems to be just this one that’s having the problem.

Welp, I’m ready for echoes and colourful images.

And Bashin seems to have some weird issue with this Green drink.

Ahhh, to be young again.

It’s not supposed to be tasty it’s supposed to be healthy.

And the ungrateful little shit just tries to dump it into the sink!

Not even my Sister is this bad and she’s 5 years younger!

Aibou interrupts Bashin’s amazing plan to get out of drinking a vegetable drink to tell him something important is on Batosupi TV

The TV show that finishes right as Bashin needs to go to school, conveniently.

Oh god you can see the quality dip, there are better quality options but the player I’m using makes it way too convenient for the screenshots to switch.

So you guys are just gonna have to bear with the awful quality for this episode.

Anyway, My Sunshine is apparently doing a performance at a Battle Spirits Tournament, so she’s being interviewed by the Batosupi Crew.

Oh, and it’s a completely new song, okay then.

Such dedication to Battle Spirits there Suiren. I guess she can’t stifle her love for Battle Spirits even as My Sunshine.

I couldn’t really follow the subs here, but it seems that Commentator-San is happy that My Sunshine is able to perform at “this one tournament”, implying that My Sunshine isn’t going to be performing at more.

Obviously the other woman-

Wait she hasn’t even been named yet has she? That’s crazy.

I suppose we’ll call her “Commentator-chan” for now. To reflect Commentator-san

Anyway, Commentator-chan is confused by Commentator-san’s statement, exclaiming that My Sunshine can come to as many tournaments as she likes.

And My Sunshine… drops…

…This uh…

Well.
I’d call it a bombshell but this is honestly one of the greatest blasphemies I think has ever been spoken in the show thus far…

So, to get this straight. My Sunshine doesn’t like Battle Spirits “because it’s a game for boys”

First of all, no it fucking isn’t, we can count literally 5 women who are playing the game AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME IN THE SERIES.

One of them is YOU infact- Wait…

Ahhhh, I get it, this is how she’s maintaining her Suiren cover.

By rejecting Battle Spirits as My Sunshine…

…No that doesn’t make up for it, too many girls play the game for you to accuse it of being a game for boys.

I’d scream “Objection! Asked and Answered” if her given answer wasn’t so…

Awful…

Bashin you’re showing cards to a TV screen, but I guess he’s having the same reactions that the commentators are.

You know what? That’s fair.

But all I’m saying is… This is some crazy bloody foreshadowing I tell ya.

Meganeko, walking her doggo when suddenly a Bashin appears to make her day just a little bit worse.

Aibou, just because you have the ability to talk doesn’t mean to get to use it to say dumb stuff like that.

What “Conclusion” is Bashin jumping to?

What My Sunshine said was a good way to lose quite a large part of her audience, namely the Battle Spirits community.

And I see Striker has Cap with him-

…Hold on a sec, Meganeko has peered into the window… Does that mean she can see Aibou talking?

As an audience, we’re fully aware My Sunshine is lying, but as far as we know Bashin has absolutely no clue that My Sunshine is Suiren.

So the fact that he’s come to the conclusion that she’s lying is a bit far fetched.

Makes you just want to grab him through the screen and strangle the knowledge into him, assuming his brain has enough capacity for even that.

I’ve heard a lot about idol contracts preventing the idols in question from having boyfriends, as idols tend to be more attractive when they are “available”

Something as simple as saying that she “Only likes sweet and cute things” sounds pretty tame in comparison.

So yes Bashin, just because she’s an idol definitely means that she has to like sweet things.

I feel like I’m missing a loose plot thread here…

There doesn’t seem to be any conceivable reason for Bashin to believe this so strongly.

…Oh there we go, I remember now.

Yeah, I believe Suiren did say something in her introduction episode about My Sunshine really liking Battle Spirits.

But as far as Bashin knows he’s never seen Suiren or My Sunshine interact, and he was also skeptic of Suiren’s friendship with My Sunshine, not to mention attempting to get backstage by saying you were one of Suiren’s friends didn’t work either.

That all just adds credence to whatever Suiren said as bollocks.

Apparently after getting thoroughly stepped on by Suiren, Striker has incurred a massive hate boner for Suiren, one that can only be satisfied by beating her in a Children’s card game.

Striker’s SALTY as HELL about Suiren using The SevenShogun Desperado.

Unfortunately Striker, the fact of the matter is that she DOES have that X-Rare, and she’s going to keep using it.

When researching matchups, find a way around the win condition, don’t try to hope that your opponent doesn’t get it.

If you can’t beat them at their best then there’s basically no point.

Bashin you are an absolutely horrible friend you know that?

FINALLY

WE GET TO HEAR THE DAMN BIRD SPEAK!

Oh yeah, you know that thing they still haven’t given Bashin despite beating 4 different Nazo-Otonas.

Instead they gave it to J who hasn’t even beaten one on-screen yet.

Bashin says that Striker will eventually get an X-Rare of his own.

Well, that requires defeating the Nazo-Otonas, and apparently they’re ridiculously hard to find.

Despite this we’ve seen 4, and all of them got their ass beat by Bashin… By sheer coincidence.

Cap has faith that Striker can beat Suiren already and Striker wants to go find her.

What’s he gonna do? The same thing as last time and hope Suiren doesn’t draw Desperado?

This is an anime, she gon’ draw it.

…No she isn’t.

Suiren is definitely more important.

That’s not a rebuttal to what Striker said Bashin.

The fact that she lied on Television does not make it any easier to meet her.

Neither does it give you any right to go and meet her to correct her. You’ve got the authority of an ant in this situation.

But of course, Bashin is Mr. Protagonist so they’ll probably spin this some way that makes it right for him to do that.

And the penny finally drops.

Striker picked some slow freaking friends for a footballer.

Bashin and Striker are lucky that Meganeko is in complete disbelief and just thinks Bashin’s being a kid.

You’ve got no place telling Bashin off for talking to his mouse when you’re talking to a dog who can’t even talk back.

You are many things Meganeko, don’t make one of those things a hypocrite.

The Manager is saying that My Sunshine was being too harsh?

So she’s NOT contractually obligated to dislike Battle Spirits because they aren’t cute?

My Sunshine is in full bitch mode today apparently.

I said I wouldn’t make “Moonshine” jokes for a 13 year old girl, but damn she needs some.

You’re right Manager I apologise. I will not make any more “Moonshine” jokes at My Sunshine.

Oh… you meant that it’s not appropriate for My Sunshine to be so blunt about disliking Battle Spirits despite being scheduled to perform at a Battle Spirits event with a new song likely related to it?

It seems she read the statement to mean that it’s inappropriate for her to be so blunt about disliking Battle Spirits despite the fact that she’s supposed to be a kind and loving idol.

This interjection is weird though, she’s basically saying that “being an idol” should have no bearing on what she says or does.

When your job relies on being a public figure, like say… I dunno, an Idol?

EVERYTHING you say and do in public will have an impact on you.

And they CAN be inappropriate. ESPECIALLY because you’re an idol.

If you don’t like it just quit, stupid, you evidently have a lot of control over the manager.

He tries to reason with My Sunshine over a campaign but when he tries to unload his evidence he drops his papers, My Sunshine gets into the car while he’s trying to gather his stuff.

Which is.. extremely rude.

OH MY GOD THIS BITCH.

I’m sorry no don’t double the Taxi budget you fucking moron, you’re going to make him pay for separate transport because YOU don’t like being questioned about things that CAN REALLY AFFECT YOUR CAREER BADLY.

Can Idols be fired? Who’s the authority on them?

After a lengthy Google search, it seems that Idols have “Management agencies”, and anything that severely damages their marketability often gets them fired.

I dunno, an idol avidly performing for an audience of Battle Spirits lovers despite having openly stated she doesn’t like Battle Spirits seems like it’d definitely hurt her image.

My Sunshine just buggers off without the manager.

Also no shots shown with the Driver present, but that is very clearly Hayami’s voice in the car.

Bashin’s earlier skepticisms on the episode where he learned that would certainly add credence to that idea.

Just like I don’t believe that anyone can hate Battle Spirits.

Here’s a fun fact for you: we’re both wrong.

Unfortunately untrue.

The first game is always the best impression someone will get out of Battle Spirits.

My significant other’s first game took 2 hours to complete, exacerbated by the fact that it was on Tradecardsonline to begin with, as well as the fact that I was playing a White deck with about 9 ways to end the attack step.

Yeah she didn’t stick around for it.

And that’s entirely my fault.

Hey look it’s the stupidly optimistic shopkeeper.

Damn you timestamp text.

Covering the poor guy’s face…

Anyway, happy shopkeeper wants to watch another battle.

Go watch Extreme Game on the Battle Spirits Youtube Channel! You’ll see way better play there!

And they just go along with it!

Man everyone loves the Shopkeeper don’t they?

Back with Hayami driving My Sunshine around.

It seems Pink was camouflaged on My Sunshine’s shoulder the entire time.

Pink is scolding My Sunshine on how she reacted to the Manager.

And I dunno, the poor guy seems a bit pathetic, but that just seeks to make me feel more sorry for him.

I’m more inclined she’s saying this not because Pink is correct but because there is SOMEONE WHO ISN’T MEANT TO KNOW ABOUT ISEKAI DRIVING YOUR BLOODY TAXI!

Pink thinks that My Sunshine’s just having an off day and needs to recoup.

Which is awfully nice of him, I know several people who’d love nothing more than to take a nap and cuddle up with their pet chameleon.

This isn’t going to look strange to the Driver at all.

And the answer is no, My Sunshine, not if you want to keep being an idol.

There is an easy way to do as you like though, it’s called quitting your damn job and to stop wasting everyone’s god damn time.

Poor Hayami, she is not qualified for the angst of a 13 year old idol having what can only be described as a hissy fit.

She’s only got a son, absolutely 0 experience in this regard.

Jesus, Hayami’s maternal instincts are on bloody point and she isn’t even the girl’s mother.

And this is a SINGLE MOM (as far as we know).

God I’d kill to be this patient.

Here we are, Turn 12 on the random battle that has no purpose being here. Between Striker and Bashin.

And as far as we know neither have made any significant changes to their decks, other than maybe Bashin having a more X-Rare centric one.

Oof, the poor quality really extended to the cards this time, I feel bad for you all.

Anyway, Striker deploys his current ace card, The Fruit of Life and levels that up.

Now if anyone destroys his Nexus, he’s basically lost.

As I said before, there have been no significant changes to your decks, this match is going to be an absolute snoozefest unless either of you unveil a new card here.

So Bashin has Eyeburn, Metalburn, Goradon, and he’s just summoned a Lizardman.

All of which are at Level 1.

To cut a long story short, Bashin makes a full attack (that is to say, he’s attacked with all his spirits) and dropped Striker to a single life.

Striker, as a result, has Drawn 4 cards and gained 4 core, with an additional 4 from his life.

You can SEE the blue radiating off the lines in his artwork, sweet mother of god.

Anyway, Bashin’s an idiot, so time for Striker’s weenie rush.

As normal, Striker plays 3 Beatbeetles, a Flyingmirage and a Shockeater.

I suppose Striker’s sticking with the “I don’t have to worry about the X-Rare if I win before they play it”

But this strategy is very straightforward and by no means works against Suiren.

Bashin screwing himself over takes a backseat to the counselling Hayami is giving to the idol.

In what way is My Sunshine being encouraged not to do what she loves? She herself stated that she didn’t like Battle Spirits.

How is this statement in any way reflected in her current situation?

…So your solution was to say that you didn’t like Battle Spirits?

That’s severely limiting the options that you can do, saying you like Battle Spirits would get a large part of your fanbase to get you to play it.

And you’d probably have significantly more events that allow you to.

Your manager didn’t seem particularly happy with the fact that you “lied” about the thing you love most.

So the only person you have to blame for that sort of thing is yourself.

So she lied about the Vegetable drink from the very beginning of the episode?

Forgive me if I’m having a hard time putting together what the fuck that’s meant to mean, because that makes no bloody sense.

…

That’s not a lie, that’s just blatant hypocrisy.

And I’m pretty sure a lot of people aren’t very sure what’s worse Hayami.

Let’s see, My Sunshine is currently being a bitch, clearly has no idea what the hell she’s doing, and plays card games.

Bashin also is a bitch, clearly has no idea what the hell he’s doing, and plays card games.

Checks out.

Bit weird to comment on someone you’ve never met My Sunshine-

Waaaaait she HAS met him before, in Kyoto, at a tournament, it’d be perfectly reasonable for her to say to his mother-.

Wait how does she know that Hayami is his mother?

My Sunshine doesn’t sweet or pause when making that statement so she’s probably just inferring, and isn’t sure whether Hayami is Bashin’s mother or not.

This is very unclear advice.

The COGS ARE TURNING.

COME ON MY SUNSHINE YOU CAN DO THIS, SO FAR STRIKER IS THE SMARTEST CHOSEN CARD BATTLER AND HE’S A FOOTBALL NUT WITHOUT A USABLE FOOT!

It seems Meganeko has spotted the Speed Star with My Sunshine in it.

Bet she’s going to pester Hayami about that one later.

Back with the battle between Striker and Bashin, Bashin FINALLY uses Flame Tempest on Striker’s board.

IT ONLY TOOK TIL EPISODE 11 BUT THE OPTIMAL ANSWER HAS FINALLY BEEN USED.

Leaving Lizardman as the only spirit remaining on the board.

If Striker can’t counter, Bashin wins… again..

Why did they need to have this fight?

Lizardman attacks and takes Striker’s last life.

Okay seriously what was the point!?

When a whole battle just feels like episode padding you know there’s a big problem with the episode’s concept as a whole.

Bashin advises Striker that he shouldn’t be so obsessed with the same spirits.

I’m not sure how this advice actually translates to something Striker can work on, because his spirits aren’t the problem, it’s his strategy.

Striker is doing a better job figuring out the problems with his own strategy than Bashin is at advising him on them.

And Bashin is the better player here.

I suppose since this Battle was kind of ass, let’s look over what the problems with Striker’s play at the moment is.

Striker’s deck is designed to use The Fruit of Life and a weak defense to allow his opponent to heavily increase the amount of core and cards in his hand, using this logic, Striker intend to put himself on the edge of defeat in return for having the high possibility of summoning the necessary amount of spirits to take all of his opponent’s life in one go.

His strategy is specifically as he describes, a “Come-from-behind” Victory.

There are several flaws with relying on a single weenie rush strategy to win him these games.

Firstly, it’s completely reliant on how the opponent interacts with him, a careful opponent will try to wear him down slowly, in which case he can’t come from behind because his opponent will be defensively prepped for the rush.

If your strategy REQUIRES your opponent to act a certain way, it’s not a good strategy, I’m gonna call this a “Reactive” strategy.

The strategies that don’t require the opponent’s participation to function are what I’ll call “Proactive” strategies.

A good deck needs a balance of Proactive and Reactive strategies, Decks need to function on their own AND be able to react to their opponent, Striker at the moment only has a reactive strategy, and no proactive one. Without his opponent, Striker’s deck does not function.

That doesn’t seem to be the main issue he’s having however, as even though his reactive strategy is giving him the full rush he wants, he keeps being stopped.

Another issue with Striker’s reactive strategy is that it’s far too linear, “once they hit me, I’ll hit them back”, The Fruit of Life being a Nexus with the effect written on it telegraphs to your opponent what you are hoping for.

Even a normal player would never run into that intentionally if they did not have a response prepared for the rush you’re intending to dish out. Like Flame Tempest, or they’ll pre-prepare for it in advance, like when Suiren uses Shackles of Doom.

And if they couldn’t prep, they just wouldn’t attack to the point where you could easily counterattack and win, easy.

So Striker needs a proactive strategy, and use his Fruit of Life Nexus to cover whatever problems he may end up having.

How does “Beating Striker” translate to “We’ll find My Sunshine”?

…Um, this Shopkeeper is VERY Optimistic.

Good for him I guess.

I don’t know how that constitutes an “Emergency”

News maybe but hardly an emergency, though given you were obsessed with My Sunshine playing a FUCKING EGG MEGANEKO

I’m hardly surprised.

Never trust Meganeko with directions.

She can’t remember where she came from apparently.

Apparently Cap’s going to help out, good, gives you a reason to be in this show…

As opposed to any other time in the series where you could have been around.

Aibou’s taking a ride on the birdo express.

Together, they search for the Bitchiest Idol in Japan.

Papa Navi leading Hayami into traffic again.

Considering the last time, putting her in a fast lane might actually smash her spine as opposed to just marginally twisting her neck.

Easy for you to say ya damn Navi, Robots don’t get bored.

I mean someone needs to fulfill the father role while Bashin’s Dad is gone, better for it to be a mature Navi than another human being and risk being asked awkward questions when Dad comes home.

haha…

Cap called Aibou fat.

Lay off the Mushrooms ya damn mouse.

So does everyone just innately understand how bird signals work? It was anime that taught me that a bird has seemingly found something by flying around in circles that seems to be consistent in all anime.

Why are you in love with him again?

I’ll keep asking until I get an answer.

Well, sitting there doing nothing isn’t exactly the best way to go about figuring out how you’ll catch up to a car that’s meant to be… In traffic

And Bashin falls into the construction zone.

He’s damn lucky that the construction was only so deep as that, most of the time construction zones can have disastrous consequences, especially when there’s actual people in the process of constructing in them.

Bashin being torn in half by a crane would be an anti-climactic end to this series.

Striker plans to use the construction signs to make them go off course?

Isn’t that illegal? You’re actively derailing the public so you can harass an idol.

There definitely should be laws against this.

oooooh boy, this should definitely have some repercussions cuz that is not how you’re meant to use those signs.

I’m surprised Papa Navi doesn’t have a bullshit detector for roads, he’d notify Hayami if there was construction that way no?

Wow, not even trying to be mysterious about it. Just gonna admit that you’ve been playing them all this time.

Pink decides to take the opportunity to return the favour of being a bitch to My Sunshine and speaks for her, telling Hayami to let them out.

This is going to result in some nasty scolding later.

As opposed to your own children who have been giving you more trouble than the idol herself.

Wasn’t the Idol’s fault you got stuck in traffic.

My Sunshine has arrived at the Batosupi Centre, and the more I look at her dress the skimpier it looks.

Someone buy this woman a coat.

I was curious as to why Pink was so adamant with getting Suiren to battle, but then I remember the entire fact that he can talk is because Suiren’s a chosen battler.

So it’s in his best interest to maintain that.

Careful what you wish for kids…

Cuz you just might get it.

But not in the way you expect.

The rest of us are probably wondering why they’re so upset.

Who wouldn’t want Suiren instead of My Sunshine? That idol can go take a hike for all I care.

At least Suiren gives us card battles.

Sorry Bashin, but this ain’t your fight Sunshine…

My Sunshine is the one you’re after, so this is Striker territory.

Tell ’em Striker.

Let no one get in the way of your burning need for a revenge match!

Not even Bashin!

Suiren is confused, and with good reason, she clearly wasn’t thinking very much when she made her dumbass statement about not liking Battle Spirits on Batosupi TV.

Bashin looks angry.

I haven’t seen him this mad since he beat J’s ass.

At least then, he was actually cool, and beat J with a decent reason to do so.

This is him just fan raging because his fee fees are hurt.

It’s really hard keeping track of which persona you said shit in when the brain only identifies itself as one person most of the time.

Makes you wish you had a Split personality disorder so it could do that for you huh Suiren?

You know someone’s talking absolute bollocks when they immediately contradict their previous statement after being pressed about it.

After a bit of prodding she immediately backs down and admits that My Sunshine likes Battle Spirits.

…Force on Suiren to get the answer you wanted and not the truth?…

Or Force on My Sunshine to get her to like Battle Spirits? Because either way you’ve just threatened to use force on a woman who very much does not deserve it.

Hayami needs to start disciplining this kid with her own force.

Oh this poor poor child… How badly he has been wronged by one idol lying on public television.

I just want to get closed to him and drive my foot up his ass and kick him halfway across a large football pitch.

Bashin is taking this so bloody personally even though it’s got absolutely zero to do with him.

Suiren is starting to suspect whether Bashin is Hayami’s son.

Honestly there are better times to be thinking about this, especially when someone is accusing you of being a dirty dirty liar on TV.

What even IS Striker? Chopped Liver?

Shut the hell up about your damn My Sunshine obsession Bashin, seriously it’s driving me up the damn wall.

Bashin has had to be told this TWICE now.

I think I’m slowly losing my temper.

Bashin cashes in his one smart moment of the day coupon and decides to go look for her himself.

Good, we needed a little less Bashin in this episode as is, now I can really get invested without my temper trying to run for the hills.

I wonder, did Suiren ever reveal herself to Striker as a Cornerstone bearer?

It seems odd to me that he’d know Suiren was one of the chosen, I don’t recall them ever having that interaction.

We can assume either Bashin filled him in, or J did.

Suiren’s lack of surprise implies this interaction was had before but from what I know she had no clue who Striker was during the last 2 Episodes.

This is very out of place.

Oh well, seems they’re taking this bout to Isekai, Gate Open!

Okay look when I complained about them jumping to Turn 20 on any given battle I wasn’t being literal okay!

Jesus christ Turn 19 is LATE.

And again, the preview wants to have every spirit on a different frame, so here’s a remake courtesy of Vassal

Suiren has 2 Level 1 Skulldevils and a Level 2 Bone-Gladiator.

And Striker has 2 Hercules-Geo, and The MeteoriteArmor Monoqueiroz

Which just so happens to be a new card!

This feels like a Bashin inspired inclusion into Striker’s Deck, when Summoned, Monoqueiroz grants +2000 BP to all your Spirits.

It’s a spirit that basically triggers an Offensive Aura during the turn you summon it, unfortunately this isn’t the turn Striker has summoned it so it’s effect will not be active at this moment.

I smell the deployment of a Nexus.

There it is, luckily Striker has been well prepared with all of his Spirits at Level 2.

Meaning he can still block this turn, even a Desperado wouldn’t take them down as they all have at least 3 core.

Suiren adds a Skulldevil and a Bone-Gladiator to her field, and levels them up to Level 2.

Striker confirms my suspicions and states that he levelled up his spirits so that he wouldn’t be vulnerable to the Nexus.

But this quote bothers me, she’s got a plan even for Spirits with a high amount of Core.

Striker deploys Hermit Wise Tree at Level 2.

Now all his Spirits will refresh at the end of his turn, and secondly, they’ll get stronger with every attack he makes.

Striker full attacks and Suiren apparently feels like taking all of them to the face apparently.

You mean they were at Turn 19 and Striker only took one life?

Games END in MUCH FASTER than that captain! Come on!

Suiren tries to call out Striker for attacking recklessly but it sucks to be her right now because Striker has a Level 2 Hermit Wise Tree.

Here he’s talking about “What kind of card possesses a balance between a Spirit and a Magic?”

Yep, can be levelled up like a spirit and provides reduction, and provides a permanent effect on the field like a magic.

Just because Hermit Wise Tree lets you attack and defend does NOT mean that you’ve won Striker.

Bit early to start declaring victory.

Suiren responds to that statement with Deadly Balance.

New card, Here we go.

Fairly simple, both players lose a spirit.

Seems fair enough, Striker would lose a blocker and Suiren would lose an attacker, however Suiren is stable to act this turn based on Striker having 1 less Spirit while Striker cannot, that “Tips the scales” in Suiren’s favour.

Thank you Thank you, I’m here all week.

This is a GRIEVOUS Mis-explanation of the effect, you can only select the card on your field that you’re destroying, Suiren doesn’t get to pick Striker’s card.

One of Suiren’s Skulldevils and Striker’s Monoqueiroz are destroyed.

Deadly Balance can also be used to set off destruction effects that don’t require your opponent’s effects to destroy them.

Suiren follows up with Poison Shoot.

Suiren moves a core off of one of the Hercules-Geo.

I can see where this is going, this seems meaningless at first

unless she has a way to move one more core off of that Hercules-Geo.

SO STRIKER.

ABOUT THAT X-RARE PROBLEM YOU WERE HAVING…

YOU’RE NOT GONNA LIKE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

This is a nasty card to use right now.

The Mass core removal will drop one of Striker’s Hercules-Geo’s to one core, meaning it can’t attack nor block.

But a Level 2 Desperado means that when it attacks, one of Striker’s Spirits gets bumped down to one core, which can be used on the other Hercules-Geo.

Meaning Striker can neither attack nor block this turn.

To alter a phrase by Zane Truesdale of Yugioh GX.

“This is the last Spirit you’ll ever see!”

That’s actually a really nice visual effect, good job for the time that they made this.

Nowadays X-Rares need to meet a higher standard of power before people will consider them worthy of being X-Rares, it’s not too crazy but given some of the stuff that are simply X-Rares and nothing more, it’s a sign of power creep.

Such that they had to “Revive” most of the cards around this time to have significantly more powerful effects.

It seems Striker’s clicked that he’s 50 shades of fucked.

And Suiren’s clicked that Striker has clicked.

Lots of clicking going on in this episode, and not just from my fingers clicking the keys on my Keyboard.

Suiren levels up all but 1 Skulldevil to Level 2.

And begins her assault, making a full attack with all the Spirits that can, since Skulldevil can’t only having 1 Core.

I’m confused why one of the Hercules-Geo’s was able to block that? If Suiren swung first with Desperado, Striker wouldn’t have been able to block with the other Hercules-Geo.

It could have been MORE Merciless, but Suiren’s either a bitch, or an idiot.

I’m going with both.

We see this cool shot of Desperado before the show fades to white, we didn’t even get to see any lives taken.

So I am going to run on the ASSUMPTION that Striker only had 3 lives and unfortunately lost.

Meanwhile, Bashin is on a fool’s errand and is trying to look for someone he’s already found.

Apparently the Shopkeeper and Meganeko were looking as well. To no avail of course.

As much as this scene is meant to be informing the other characters of stuff we already know about, I’ve only just realised Bashin has Aibou. He’s REALLY easy to miss when he’s not running his mouth about Mushrooms or being chased by Okyou.

After informing the Shopkeeper that Suiren is battling Striker, the Shopkeeper decides to have an Emotional Breakdown of happiness and races off to go find them.

Bashin finally gives up on his search to go back to the Battle Spirits Centre with Meganeko.

Meganeko breaks into a smile here for some odd reason, I assume because she’s happy to have a nice walk back to the Battle Spirits Centre with Bashin.

Not in this post, but right after “That Attack was Merciless” Striker stated “What happened to Break through from the front!?”

So now him sadly exclaiming that Suiren “Broke through from the front” here seems weird given his previous statement makes it seem like Suiren didn’t do that whatsoever.

Not that it’s an actual physical action of course, just a metaphor for being straight forward apparently.

And the Shopkeeper has had one of his greatest joys taken away from him.

Whatever will he do now? I hope we get to see the Shopkeeper play a game, he seems like a chill dude.

Again, in basically the same way he got beaten last time.

I’m honestly confused with the purpose of this episode, other than to get another Suiren Battle, or develop My Sunshine’s character slightly..

And this was the moment where Suiren and Striker ships started getting built.

Look at her suggesting she actively enjoyed a match with the opposite gender! She must clearly have feelings for him!

Being Tsundere about it isn’t exactly going to stop the Ships being built dear Suiren.

Infact it will have the opposite effect, it will just expedite the process.

Apparently “My Sunshine” is now Bashin’s trigger word for getting depressed.

LOOK AT AIBOU, HE’S WORRIED ABOUT HIM, GOD HE’S SO ADORABLE WHEN HE ISN’T TALKING!

That mouse deserves pets.

Suiren says it’s fine that Bashin didn’t find her, because his feelings reached her anyway.

This is a really bad way to maintain your cover Suiren, you know the most about My Sunshine through being her “friend” yet no one has ever seen you 2 in a room together.

But it’s okay, because Bashin is an idiot and isn’t able to put 2 and 2 together.

I mean, having your feelings “reach” a person and how a person “responds” to those feelings tend to be 2 completely different things.

And knowing your track record for doing things that make no sense Suiren, like saying you dislike a game purely because you don’t like singing to be the only thing you do.

Like saying you dislike a game is going to assist in being able to do other things as an idol besides singing.

Suiren can join Bashin in the “Dumbass” club. Who’s population is now 2.

Favourite characters right now are definitely Striker and Hayami.

There are some very dark jokes one could make with this.

And I am not going to be the one to make them.

You keep talking about this Tournament but Bashin and Striker still need High Ranker Passes.

And Bashin was due one THREE NAZO-OTONAS AGO!

I will forever rage at the inconsistency in how the Nazo-Otonas operate.

Gotta make sure they know what it looks like.

I’m still confused as to who the hell No. 001 is, I didn’t get a good enough Look at J’s High Ranker to figure out what number he was, and since J received his AFTER Suiren, it’s unlikely 001 is J.

For the sake of my sanity.

I will assume that Nazo-Otonas are able to choose who they give High Rankers to based on this factor of “Recognition”

Which means none of the previous Nazo-Otonas have recognised Bashin’s strength, despite losing to him 4 times.

The Subs on Suiren make it seem like a certainty but Bashin’s reactions make it seem like a re-assurance.

The fact of the matter is that they don’t have one, and the Dark-Suited Nazo-Otona didn’t award Bashin with one either despite defeating 4 of them, and apparently still needs to confirm his strength to the Dark Nazo-Otona.

This is a good way to set off a red flag on your identity, Bashin is fully aware My Sunshine was in the Speed Star, not Suiren, so how would Suiren come by this information?

Not suspicious at all Suiren.

Not suspicious. At. All.

You’re lucky these guys have the deductive skills of goldfish.

Why is it when Bashin realizes something he screams at the top of his lungs?

I’d compare it to a mental illness but this is insulting even to people with mental illnesses. I know several people who’ve been diagnosed with mental illnesses that don’t act like this shithead right here.

Shut the fuck up Bashin.

All that because you forgot to drink a Vegetable Drink you weren’t intending on Drinking in the first place?

I suddenly don’t want to watch this show anymore. We need a new main character, this one’s busted.

#Strikerformaincharacter

I’m not sure why you’re saying it quietly, you should have just announced you were home loudly and waited for a reaction so you could confirm whether or not to prepare your anus for some motherly discipline.

You know, for someone who was going on and on about My Sunshine lying, trying to dump that and say that you drank it is pretty hypocritical.

Oh, he’s clicked that he actually needs to practice what he preaches.

Good on him, he’s still an idiot for needing to have that revelation.

Not the best battle cry for trying to chug a drink but certainly a decent one.

Makes more sense than the Battle Spirits context at least.

…It’s been there the entire day Bashin, god bloody knows what’s gotten into it since you were gone.

This family is full of hypocrites.

You’re a poor role model Hayami.

And we’re done!

That episode was honestly completely meaningless, it didn’t really add anything other than strengthening the relationship between Suiren and the cast.

And that lying is apparently bad.

But that’s basically the ONLY review I can give it, nothing happened!

What’s even worse is that it apparently goes on to state that Suiren and Striker knew each other were Cornerstone bearers, I glossed over my previous blog posts and that absolutely never comes up.

Suiren and Striker just fight and that’s it, no talk of Cornerstones whatsoever.

So it’s basically a massive plothole, and just because you can assert things happened offscreen to get there for the sake of your sanity, the reason they are “plotholes” is because you can only fill the hole with assumptions.

This wasn’t a good episode, had 0 purpose, we saw 2 fights we’d already seen before and with no changes in their result.

Our card of the day seems to be The Shackles of Doom.

It’s a card that requires your opponent to manage their cores carefully, but honestly what it does is give you a reward for not quite being able to outright deplete spirits by giving you the next best thing, making them unable to attack or block.

Once again I’ll point out the english translation on his card seems to be incorrect, we didn’t get a very large release in english at all, so it won’t be long before we’re out of cards to show with their english text, when that happens I’ll post translations.

Anyway, the Level 2 effect of Shackles of Doom has yet to be used by Suiren due to her favour for the Level 1 effect, but if you need defense, the Level 2 effect of Shackles of Doom will make the opposing Spirits all the more susceptible to your core removal effects, and especially Desperado.

Plus you can Level up and down as you like during your turn, so it’s very possible to simply level it down when you wish to attack.

It’s a good card, and it would have to be with a Cost of 6 though, Cost 6 Nexuses are not the best and most people favour nexuses they can play on their first turn, which tend to be Cost 3 or 4.

Anyway, that was the episode, marginally disappointing I know, the next episode seems to do something actually relevant for the show, so I’m looking forward to it.

Til then! I’ll see you next time!