Not going to lie, after the last episode, I’m not hopeful.

But my minor OCD refuses to allow me to leave this unfinished, so time to slug through another one of these.

And now there’s a field trip.

I want to “Break through” this title card from the front I’m not going to lie.

This… This is meme worthy.

I’m actually stealing this, that’s a funny face.

Batosupi fortune-telling must be damn popular if they keep repeating that segment

What it is it? The end of everyday? A consistent day of the week?

You’re telling him to pick a colour but he can’t even see the colours.

He’s trying to decide what colour he wants before he even picks it, it’s going to be random anyway.

…Does he know where each card is? Or is this just a guess?

So in other words, Commentator-san.

YOU PICKED WRONG!

Miss me with that corny speech, I lost my way last episode and I didn’t even get to pick a card.

No refunds on your future captain.

I hope your day is as blue as mine was.

Considering the title card said “Field Trip” I imagine this is going to result in a rush to the school bus.

Or be late and it’s no longer your problem anymore.

Then we can watch the rest of the cast, you know, the interesting ones.

Our Shounen Protagonist is up early.

This is a bad omen.

HA HA HA…

I can’t read Japanese…

So no rush for the Bus by Bashin? Damn. I wanted to see him stress out to high heaven.

Guess I don’t get to enjoy his suffering today.

Those are what appears to be girls clothes atop a Tatami Mat.

And judging by that scream, I’m going to assume Meganeko’s the one panicking about being late.

Judging by that pup you have there, that’s the reason.

As someone with a father who has a cat, Pets can be great for cuddles while sleeping.

Meganeko, give that dog some pets this instant.

This is urgent.

Don’t you have a Library to run?

Or is this a day off?

Cuz I’m pretty sure this Field Trip is happening on a weekday since Aibou was sure Bashin went to school

WOW, HE’S JUST DOING IT ON A WHIM.

How fickle!

And here on earth, we call this Karma.

But that means Meganeko’s probably going to take more time straightening it…

Oh you precious soul. You’d rather suffer through pain than stop Meganeko having fun?

That’s admirable, but anyone with a reasonable set of priorities would choose your health over a field trip captain.

I am so confused.

What is happening? Why is he trying to reach for the door?

If you were going to worry Meganeko before… She’ll be traumatised to find her Grandpa fallen and unable to get up.

I don’t think this was the best plan you’ve had.

I’m sure the field trip doesn’t allow you to bring pets. You’d get Bashin kicked off the bus, rather than enjoying the ride with him.

Well on the upside, Grandpa hasn’t passed out yet.

The downside is he’s got until Meganeko is done being late to get his ass off the floor if he wants her to go anywhere.

I wonder how Aibou intends to help.

This dog I swear makes the cutest noises ever.

Meganeko truly is the most soothing part of this show, down to her pets.

You got no time to be relieved that you’ve finally packed, get the hell out of that house.

The Pup senses something is amiss! We must follow it and then give it treats for a job well done!

And despite all Meganeko’s clothes finally getting in her bag, the Cat unfortunately, is out.

Does it look like he’s freaking okay? The question shouldn’t be “Are you alright” it should be “Where does it hurt?!”

You are the WORST at re-assuring people Grandpa.

How can you look at that worried face and tell her to leave you in the state you are?

Oh boy, we doing Hayami-Ex-Machinas now?

I guess we needed SOMETHING to pad out the time in the episode besides the very thing the episode is about.

It’s gonna be another one of those episodes isn’t it?

Where he’ll be well taken care of, better than Meganeko will be able to at home.

Hayami would know about this, considering her son is also at school.

But I’m more concerned with what Aibou’s going to pull, he’s going to hitch a ride on Meganeko isn’t he?

Also they need a better cage for Aibou, the mouse can leave the apartment whenever he wants and honestly that’s a good way to be left with a dead mouse.

Welp, he’s been spotted.

Guess it’s too late now, Hayami’s going to take him home.

That looks… very painful. I don’t know the anatomy of mouses but I’m pretty sure that’s going to annoy the mouse a crapton.

Don’t grab a mouse by it’s tail.

No Meganeko she’s just going to dump him on the nearest set of train tracks.

Of course she’s going to take care of him, don’t be silly.

Once again, I can’t read Japanese.

This is going to go well when Double Drive comes about.

Time for the Speed Star to once again show the world how the hell it got it’s name.

Try not to crash Hayami, this time you got an old one in the back, who’s also himself a bit old in the back.

Who in god’s name is this woman?

So they’re going to Kyoto. A quick google search tells me it was ONCE the capital city of Japan.

Well now the Capital city is Tokyo (interesting how their syllables are swapped)

Though apparently Tokyo means “Eastern Capital”, Kyoto on the otherhand used to be known as “Saikyō” for “Western Capital”

I had hoped they just decided to change the name of the new capital by switching the characters round but the truth is stranger than fiction. Would have been funny.

Oh was that the relevance of it? Don’t tell me Bashin’s going to fight J again.

I could really do without him making a fool of himself for a 3rd time.

Considering J travels all the way here just to fight you of all people, I wouldn’t get my hopes up Bashin.

Don’t you dare use that cool-ass phrase infront of me until you’ve earned the right to use it Bashin.

Only cool people are allowed to use that phrase.

Hayami, stop popping out idiots like this who want to take over the world.

That is a crapton of trucks… Especially on a place where there is a school.

Something’s off about this, none of my schools had trucks along their roads, mostly because the only reason to go on that road was to GO TO GOD DAMN SCHOOL!

Some Random Truck-Driver with a fancy pair of shades.

Also is it just me or is her hair Mint-fucking-green!?

This lady couldn’t give less of a shit.

This line just reminds me that no Taxi Driver travels without a Satnav anymore.

I assume the same applies for those who do truck deliveries.

Delivering the High Ranker Passes?

She’s a Nazo-Otona!?

Well this is new, now we’ve got a prefaced confirmation that this woman is a Nazo-Otona rather than having people theorise she is, or having Bashin immediately guess she is for no discernible reason.

I wonder if the episode’s going to be following the life and times of a Nazo-Otona?

So many kids on this trip they need 2 coaches.

See my school always either booked double decker (2 floors) for large groups, or cut corners by only allowing the top performers of each class to go.

Saves money and gives incentive for reward to do it the latter way.

OOF, the naming and shaming from Card Sensei!

Though I think the person who has the most chance of provoking him is Card Sensei himself.

Bashin evidently can’t handle the truth.

So Sensei isn’t just interested in Hayami specifically, his heart just flies by the seat of his pants.

That’s not a behaviour that goes well with the ladies, Card Sensei.

Considering the trucks were gone when the Coaches showed up, I assume Meganeko isn’t on her school road.

But this is getting ridiculous, how can they still be there?

Dammit Nazo-Otona you’re causing way more trouble than you are solving. Also how are you commanding MULTIPLE trucks?

You would have to be supremely bad with directions to pull that off, even in a car.

And they all just buggered off without Meganeko.

Sad times, but I suppose they can’t wait for her forever.

They’re on a god damn COACH!

What else are they going to do? Don’t even try to play the responsible teacher card on this one.

We finally meeting the “Beautiful” Bus Guide? Alright let’s have a look then.

HAH, IT’S A NAVI!

And not just any Navi, but this one’s called “Bus Navi”

Sucks to be you, Card Sensei.

So much for the Bus Guide being “Beautiful”

I mean, at worst it’s a compliment, I didn’t know Navi’s could be genuinely offended.

AND NOW HE’S DOUBLING DOWN ON IT.

This is one ill-tempered artificial intelligence. Creative though.

Card Sensei’s face is not only priceless, but it’s the exact face I’m making because of all this screen-time padding.

Come on show, get to the good bits.

Good luck playing it on the Coach though.

Bashin is thinking progressively. Good on you Bashin.

You might be an idiot but at least you’re not narrow-minded, I guess.

HOW DO YOU JUST ASSUME SHE’S WITH YOU!?

Everytime I compliment him on something he crushes me with a massive amount of stupidity.

Oh bloody hell Sherlock it’s not rocket science! Of course she was late!

How long have you been travelling now?

Hell even 10 minutes would have been too far away to pick up Meganeko.

Well Meganeko isn’t here. So that just seems to me like you’re incompetent, Quack Sensei.

Also I believe you checked if everyone was there by asking them to raise their hands instead of taking a register like a normal person.

Not a great way to tell if everyone is with you or not. Especially when your students are too dumb to realise Meganeko isn’t around until 10 minutes into the Coach ride.

YES
THAT IS WHAT THE CURRENT SITUATION WOULD SEEM TO SUGGEST, YES.

God they have an idiot for a Teacher.

First of all, what the hell is that face?

Second of all, she never made it to school because Nazo-Otonas are bitches apparently.

You’re asking an AI to go off course for a Field Trip? This is Not going to go well.

Surprisingly reasonable for a Robot refusing a Human request. No one panic, it hasn’t gone rogue yet.

There’s the unreasonable part, you know full well why they want to turn around, Bus Navi.

Get Papa Navi in there to show him what’s up.

Someone program some god damn empathy into this thing.

(I know that’s supremely unreasonable but this trope is well-overused)

As much as I hate the bot’s attitude, he’s correct. It was there responsibility to arrive on time, can’t sacrifice the schedule to make up for their mistake.

Again, more horrible things happening to Meganeko for seemingly no reason.

Because it’s a robot.

It has absolutely 0 empathy for people, it’s just there to follow orders, and it’s following them.

Oh shut up kid, she’s far more important than your extra-lookin’ ass.

I see, abusing the fact that the robot can’t discern bullshit like people can.

Though he was apparently able to tell snark from a mile away, so I don’t know if this will work.

“The Dark Power I’ve been hiding away!”

It’s probably something disgusting like a fart.

Oh, significantly more disgusting than I thought it was.

But at least he’s not saying it directly, at least he has manners.

Also, the coaches I’ve been on all have bathrooms, Or is this just a typical standard issue bus? I doubt it, since it’s running on a unique schedule.

Everyone’s face here is absolutely priceless as if he wasn’t just bullshitting to get the Bus to turn around.

“I won’t allow his tyranny”

Well if needing the bathroom is Tyranny then your only choice is to take him to a bathroom, in which case you’re allowing it.

Otherwise you’re just gonna let him go all over the coach, which it’s obvious you’re obligated to prevent.

He clearly got this idea after trying it on Papa Navi. There is no way he just intuitively knew the loopholes for the Navis.

This is some dedication to Meganeko that I find more admirable than annoying.

Good on you Bashin-

He’s gonna do something stupid again isn’t he?

And thus Card Sensei was beheaded by the Bus Navi.

Navis were discontinued from that day forth, considered an enemy of humanity.

Nah I’m kidding, dick move Bus Navi.

Don’t you mean “for” 17 minutes?

I assume if Bashin doesn’t get back by then he won’t get to go on the trip anymore.

I fail to see a downside to this, even if he fails he still gets to hang out with Meganeko for 2 days.

OH NEVERMIND.

He’s just up and leaving without him, wow.

Bus Navi is a dick.

I think if I were 12, left alone for a school trip just cuz some asshole didn’t want to get their trucks off that damn road, I’d feel like crying, I honestly would.

And here come the waterworks.

I was absolutely NOT ready for an emotional roller coaster today, I really wasn’t.

I’ve never been so happy to see Bashin show up in my life.

This changes nothing Bashin, you’re a means to an end. And that end is making sure Meganeko isn’t bawling her eyes out.

So this is why Meganeko likes him so much, cuz he keeps coming back everytime he realises he’s forgotten her.

He shouldn’t be forgetting her in the first place but whatever works for her I guess.

Bashin I swear to the heavens…

Not here, not now you absolute buffoon.

What do you think he means Meganeko?

It’s Bashin, only he is crazy enough to pull this.

Outrun a coach?

Did Bashin hit every branch on the dumbass tree on the way out of his mother or something?

There’s straight forward then there’s straight dumbass, and we all know which one Bashin is.

That is… slightly re-assuring. But not by much.

Let’s see, the paper on the floor had at 8 o’ clock written on it, given I can’t read japanese I will assume it means they needed to be there at 8 am, given that Meganeko was narrowly late, they’re going to run for _about_ 7 hours. According to Bashin.

NO ONE IS GOING TO RUN FOR 7 HOURS STRAIGHT.

You’d have better luck outrunning the coach…

I’m expecting Bashin’s answer to be something along the lines of “I don’t know and I don’t care!”

Verbally, I was half right, visually, I was completely correct.

At least Bashin knows what a Kilometre is.

But Meganeko laying down the cold hard facts to Bashin brightens up my day.

Why do you think the school needed COACHES to get there? Why do you think they planned to stay for 2 days!?

I don’t know whether Bashin lacks a brain or whether he lacks the capacity to use it properly.

And I don’t know which answer I would be more content with.

Oh don’t you start you fiery airhead.

You said it was 17 earlier.

This Navi is seriously hoping Bashin doesn’t make it back.

How is shortening the time frame going to make sure everyone makes it back?

Secondly you’re failing to consider 2 people in your dumb equation Bus Navi.

No School for 2 days, time for some Battle Spirits Centre to entertain Bashin while he drowns in his sorrows.

Nevermind, apparently the place they stopped off at just had a Battle Spirits Centre.

Also hi Striker, welcome to the episode.

Is Card Sensei even aware that Striker plays Battle Spirits now? I would assume such a revelation would surprise him at least.

Ah yes, the most important question of the day. Where’s the nutcase?

Well, in the case of Meganeko, yes that does mean he abandoned her with his shoddy method of confirming everyone’s presence.

Bashin left, he wasn’t abandoned. Don’t hold Card Sensei responsible for him.

Striker has finally come to the same conclusion I have, that Card Sensei is a Quack Sensei.

Can we make Striker the main character now? One of my readers has stated Striker’s carrying the show for him.

Good answer, but that implies you’re actively neglecting them for the sake of everyone else.

And that’s not a good look.

Yes Card Sensei, but you see.

The Keyword here is “All”

YES

ELOQUENTLY PUT STRIKER!

LIFE IS SPRINGING BACK INTO MY SOUL! WE’VE GOT SOMEONE ON OUR LEVEL!

As a wise lawyer once said.

“You’re not making the point you think you’re making”

Except you’re expected to keep everyone together, aside from no one.

Why can’t we fire this guy yet?

Striker’s threatening to add to Card Sensei’s current record of failures by holding himself hostage

That’s actually pretty clever.

And as Striker has ALREADY pointed out to you.

You’ve already failed!

But of Course.

And now Card Sensei is buggered either way, if he refuses, Striker will hold himself hostage by going missing, and Card Sensei will have 3 missing students on his record, which will result in him being fired.

And if he agrees to this charade, he’s once again bending to a student’s whims Over a…

Ahem

Wasn’t this the SAME guy at the OTHER Battle Spirits Centre?

How poor is this man that he has to work at multiple centres?

….Would that “Something secret” have anything to do with the delivery of High Ranker Passes?

Now I’m starting to suspect that he’s also a Nazo-Otona.

But I’m going to assume they just threw this in to explain away how badly he was written into the story.

That aside, this is a man who definitely loves his Job.

This just in, Card Sensei is intimidated by a 12 year old football player.

Come on Card Sensei he’s 12, the worst he could do is kick you in the shins.

And if he does that then you can get him expelled for violent conduct against a teacher.

Right, we got an intermission, so I’ll go over my thoughts so far

It took 12 minutes of screen time for Meganeko to be late, Bashin to go search for her, and for Card Sensei to be challenged to a card battle over it.

The only interesting thing that’s occurred at this point is the Nazo-Otona, and the only thing we know about her existence is that she’s god awful at directions, she hasn’t popped up since making Meganeko late for the field trip.

And now a fight’s starting because another student wasn’t happy about his friends being left behind.

At least the situation is more slice of life rather than the whole “Egg” incident of last episode.

Strangely enough we didn’t get a turn count, but it seems Card Sensei is playing Purple today.

a full Level 2 Board on Striker’s field with Flyingmirage, Shockeater and Hercules-Geo.

Meanwhile Card Sensei just has 2 Level 1 Skulldevils.

Supposedly Striker is winning, but we haven’t seen the life comparison yet.

Technically correct, a colour that boosts core has an inherent advantage over a colour focused around removing it.

But Card Sensei selected purple for his deck, meaning he’s supposed to have a bad day today.

My bets are on Striker.

And Card Sensei summons Darkwitch at Level 2.

If you remember, Darkwitch has the ability to destroy exhausted Spirits at Levels 2 and 3 when it attacks.

Spirit Number 40?

Oh I see what he’s referring to.

Each card has a setcode attached to it, based on their number in the set they were released in. It’s often listed in the bottom-right corner of the card.

Darkwitch is BS01-040. Since this is the only set in the anime at the moment, Darkwitch is therefore “Spirit number 40”

When printing different artworks of a card, or reprinting it, they actually maintain the original setcode printed on the card as they are still referring to that card, just changing the artwork around.

The only time this changes is with Revival cards, that, while sharing a name with the original, and only being able to run any combination of the original and the revival at 3 copies total (due to sharing a name), AND they occupy the same space on the banlist, The Revival cards have altered their effects, meaning they are no longer referencing that card’s initial release.

So the Revival cards are granted new setcodes.

It seems Card Sensei’s going ham with Darkwitch.

Hercules-Geo was not exhausted on the screen preview, and no indication of any attacks being made prior to that.

So Darkwitch should not have been able to destroy it.

Well yes, it has a Level 3 BP of 8000, which is stronger than anything you have printed on it.

But you have Gowsilvia, which can get far stronger than Hercules-Geo.

Striker’s wary about attacking because of Darkwitch’s ability.

Well, if one was a problem, 2 more must be a pain in the royal ass.

Now you have 3 to contest with as opposed to just one.

Well, nothing is exhausted, so Striker could block with a Level 2 Shockeater and take one out.

But it would fall prey to the other 2 Darkwitches through their effects. So he might not.

Striker loses 3 lives to all 3 Darkwitches.

He could have at least blocked the last one using a Level 2 Shockeater, Darkwitch is pretty weak.

Then there’d only be 2 Darkwitches to worry about.

…Yes there is, Block with Shockeater on the last Darkwitch attack.

Come on Shopkeeper, catch up.

Also I notice they’ve added another Skulldevil to Card Sensei’s field like I wouldn’t notice during the preview.

Fuckup Tally: 10

Striker’s… Deployed a completely new Nexus!

Let’s have a look!

Okay, so this is the Hermit Wise Tree, at Level 1 it can give all your attacking and blocking spirits 1000 BP for every exhausted Spirit you control.

That means that as you continue to make consecutive attacks, or consecutive blocks, it’ll become more and more difficult for your opponent to block it without losing anything.

The benefit is gradual though, requires commitment to get anything good out of it. So not too great, the second effect on the other hand.

At Level 2, you refresh all your exhausted spirits.

This means you can gleefully make full attacks without having to worry about leaving blockers, as all your spirits will refresh at the end of the attack step anyway, you want to deploy this at Level 3 to make the most of it’s first and second effects.

WHOA, I’m at part 2 and the Resolution just… Squished itself.

This is going to keep happening over the course of watching isn’t it?

Anyway, just got to push onward. Flyingmirage swings, with the Nexus’ ability, Flyingmirage will gain +1000 BP for a total of 3000 BP (Flyingmirage should be at level 2)

The Level 1 Skulldevil has 2000 BP, so even if it blocks, no chance against Flyingmirage.

Striker then swings with BOTH Shockeaters, the first will end up at 6000 BP, and the second will be at 7000 BP

Card Sensei blocks with both Skulldevils, with 2000 BP each they’re destroyed as expected.

I’m not sure what the purpose of this line is, I feel like “It’s over on my next turn” would be significantly more meaningful here.

Yeah it’s not over for you regardless of what happens this turn, what matters is next turn.

With Hermit Wise Tree’s ability, all of Striker’s spirits get refreshed, that means they’re safe from Darkwitch, and more importantly, due to the Nexus, Darkwitch can’t attack without being destroyed.

If Sensei drew a Spirit he could push for game, but either he’s worried about a counter, or he emptied his hand after summoning Darkwitch.

Striker had… 2 Beatbeetles? Where the hell were they?

I guess if he had them for a while then it would make sense as to why Card Sensei didn’t swing.

But they’d have been strong enough to take out the Darkwitches, why didn’t he swing with them the turn before?

And Card Sensei loses.

I’m not quite sure what to make of that battle, Striker suddenly gained 2 Spirits he didn’t have previously (could be assumed he summoned them on his turn, but then Card Sensei’s failure to attack seems odd) and Card Sensei gained a Skulldevil he didn’t have before during the field review.

All in all a weird fight, decided by things the show failed to display to us. But hey, we got a new nexus out of it, so at least Striker has begun editing his deck with low life options rather than just The Fruit of Life which he needs early.

Also Striker seems to be getting by as a Nexus-User.

If you’re gonna do a half-assed job about it then there was no point to this fight anyway.

Keep to your word Sensei.

Where the hell were you earlier? You could have quickened the situation!

You KNEW they were missing and you did NOTHING but sit by and watch Card Sensei have a spat with a student!?

This school is absolutely terrible!

“My warm car…”

If that’s the selling point then no sirree, at time of writing it is smack bang the middle of Summer.

a Warm car would be absolutely suffocating right about now.

God dammit Card Sensei forget about the state of the car, it’ll be faster than walking.

The more you argue the less time you have, and you wasted about 10 minutes battling Striker.

A Navi is currently exacerbating the problem we already have, you think we’re really in a position to be relying on another?

Apparently the Driver found that hilarious.

But “come into the boat and don’t worry” doesn’t sound like something that would make me get into a boat.

much less a car…

Now now Bashin, Meganeko is present.

You can curse to the skies later when you’re at home so you can get clipped by your mother.

First of all, kids are absolutely annoying, and once they hear the reason you need a ride they will probably just drive off…

And anyone wanting to get a pair of 12 year olds into their car is… probably a weirdo and you should avoid them.

Hitchhiking is definitely not the answer here.

Do you not have a phone? Can’t you call your mother? You know? The SPEED STAR?

Trying to get to Kyoto on your own is going to get you more lost than found.

That would put you in a place where you’d be even MORE confused where you’d be!

And since you apparently lack a phone, you’d have very little way of getting back.

If what the hell he is holding in his hand, isn’t a god damn map, then what the hell is he reading right now?

Oh, speak of the devil.

Hayami’s here, we can assume the drop off went well then, and Grandpa’s okay.

Like a damn good friend would.

I was about to say she had “More important things to worry about” but to be honest, she doesn’t.

This is definitely the exact thing she should be worrying about right now.

I mean, he said so himself didn’t he?

I know self-diagnosis isn’t always the best thing to run off of but this is an injury, not an illness.

That’s not creepy at all!

So Meganeko gets to see her Grandpa before Hayami takes them to Kyoto.

Well, this all worked out didn’t it… Except Card Sensei’s being sent back to Toaru…

Oh boy, I see how this is going to go.

The mouse is still with them, of course.

You choose now to be amazingly perceptive Bashin? As opposed to using that intelligence to whatever you were doing 5 minutes ago?

Meganeko’s hugging that seat like she’s been on this ride before.

Rule 1 of the Speed Star, STRAP IN.

Meanwhile in the Slowmobile, Card Sensei is getting to Toaru at a Snail’s pace.

Apparently the Navi is as slow as that car is.

How does this shopkeeper make it to his job?

I guess there’s nothing stopping you if you love your job.

The Speed Star stops for no one, except Bathroom breaks apparently.

Bashin looks like his soul has been sucked out of his body though, what happened to him?

Seems Bashin is also going to cash in on that bathroom break, can’t really take Aibou to the bathroom.

Would probably freak a guy out if he saw a mouse in there.

And he’s spotted the Battle Spirits Centre.

Welp, trip’s over kids, Bashin is staying here now, whether we like it or not.

Nevermind, Hayami is in top motherly form today.

She can defy even the need to play Battle Spirits… In a show about Battle Spirits.

I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing honestly.

And we cut back to our lost Nazo-Otona.

Who we know nothing about, other than the fact that she is lost.

That is it.

That worked out well for Bashin, let’s hope you’re not as clumsy as a 12 year old hyperactive nutcase with an obsession for Battle Spirits.

But given you’re a Nazo-Otona, obsession for Battle Spirits must be presumed.

The Nazo-Otona is checking out Hayami’s Navi.

Back off, he’s owned.

Papa Navi, on the alert as always. Let’s hope he doesn’t get swindled the same way Aibou does.

Are you trying to flirt with a Navi? It’s a robot. It’s obviously going to interpret that request as normal as possible.

How are you going to punish a robot from within a car that you have no access to?

Secondly, I don’t think a threat attached to the request will make the robot comply any better.

HOW DOES A ROBOT FALL IN LOVE WITH A VOICE?

THIS IS THE WORST PERSONALITY PROGRAM EVER WRITTEN!

IT’S FAR TOO COMPLIANT WITH STRANGERS!

Well, Papa Navi apparently has the ability to distinguish between a male voice and a female voice.

Aibou needs to learn to keep his yap shut, he’s more at risk of revealing the existence of Isekai than Bashin is.

Thankfully this woman is a Nazo-Otona, so she’s already aware of it.

You don’t seem typically concerned with the angry look on his face, then again an angry child is something you see basically every day.

Not much he can do to take down a random adult like her at his age.

She can sense the Cornerstone from under his shirt? Cuz he’s not visually wearing any such necklace in the shot prior.

Detective Bashin, confronting the culprit with no one else to help him, if she decides to knock his lights out and leave there’s really nothing he can do.

Good way to avoid the question from Bashin, just throw battle Spirits at him.

That question makes me think that the Nazo-Otona assumes Bashin knows that she’s a Nazo-Otona…

Oh boy, Isekai here we come!

Time for another card battle!

If you were anxious to do anything else I would have genuinely thought something was inherently wrong with you.

Not that your obsession with Battle Spirits doesn’t imply that there’s already a problem.

Isekai’s creation of the battlefield animation has been significantly shortened this time around.

Fuck me…

Turn 15? Sweet jesus! That’s the latest turn we’ve jumped to this series!

Presumably all at Level 1, since none of them have markers.

It seems the Nazo-Otona is playing Purple.

That’s what Card Sensei was playing earlier!

Bashin wasting no time in using Skeleton-Jaw to swing with, it’s got more than enough power to take out the Skulldevils.

WHAT TIME IS IT?

IT’S NEW CARD TIME!

An old card that sets the standard for Poison flash magic for a good while.

Poison Shoot kicks in Purple’s unique feature of being able to remove opposing core.

When a Spirit’s Core goes to 0, it’s depleted, and goes to the Trash, and any “When Destroyed” effects it would have don’t get to activate.

Skeleton-Jaw was summoned with only a single core on it. So of course Poison Shoot can zap it out of the sky.

Bashin, cautiously ends his turn…

For once someone took the hint and stopped while they were ahead instead of swinging blind.

That’s pretty tough, Draculious has a Level 3 BP of 9000, which is bigger than anything Bashin has right now.

Shame it’s just a vanilla. But it doesn’t need an effect to be a pain in Bashin’s ass right now.

Bashin blocks Draculious with Metalburn, who is subsequently ran through by Draculious.

Well, you could use Lizardman at Level 3 to try contest it, or Skeleton-Jaw at Level 3 who has 10000 BP.

It’s just a shame Lizardman can only block stronger spirits, and Skeleton-Jaw can’t block at all.

ANOTHER TURN SKIP, THIS TIME TO TURN 21!

WHAT IN THE NAME OF…

I DIDN’T THINK WE’D BE HITTING TURN 20 SO EARLY!

This show needs way better pacing, I swear.

I see someone decided to leave Draculious refreshed this time.

Cool, play 3 Spirits and win, and stack your cores high so you don’t get Poison Shooted.

Aaaaand Fuckup Tally: 11.

That’s not a Sub mistake, let me show you why.

That Eyeburn is somehow at Level 2 with only a pair of cores on it. Eyeburn needs 4 to be at Level 2.

Well, let’s see if the math checks out, it’s turn 21 so Bashin has gone first.

That means he’s begun with 4 core, and has gained core for 10 turns, so at 14.

And he’s lost 4 lives at this point, so he should have an extra 4. So a total of 18 cores.

So he only has 12, so 6 of them should be on his Spirits.

That means there should be 2 core on Lizardman and 4 core on Eyeburn, but they’ve only animated 2.

Well at least the game’s internal logic is sound, if the animation is a bit lazy.

Draculious is causing him a bunch of trouble with only 9000 BP.

When in doubt, draw an out.

That is how the Bashin Toppa do.

So the first one is apparently straight garbage, time for the next one.

I can’t tell if she’s startled because she wasn’t expecting him to draw his X-Rare.

Or if she’s confused because she’s fighting someone who’s already beaten a Nazo-Otona, given that X-Rares are proof of that victory.

…From what? Siegfried is just at Level 3, he’s got 10,000 BP.

He doesn’t get a boost from nowhere.

And this isn’t a sub mistake either, Bashin legitimately states that Siegfried gains 1000 BP from somewhere.

But nothing on his field indicates that.. It probably won’t be reflected though so I won’t tally it for now.

Bashin adds a core to Lizardman.

It won’t level him up but it will keep him at Level 2 if the Nazo-Otona decides to use Poison Shoot again.

Bashin swings with his big bad Siegfried.

At 10,000 BP, Draculious ain’t gonna cut it.

This will drop Siegfried to Level 2, which he’s only a 6000 BP Spirit.

But Core removal is useless on Siegfried if you can’t deplete it, and here’s way.

Oh don’t worry lady we’re getting to that.

Awaken

An ability unique only to Red Spirits.

During the flash timing, you can move core from any of your other Spirits to the Spirit with Awaken.

This allows you to alter your Spirit’s Core arrangements during the Attack Step, to throw your opponent off.

That will put Siegfried back to 10,000 BP.

Which keeps him stronger than Draculious.

Draculious gets taken out by Siegfried.

To goad you into blocking.

If he did it before then he wouldn’t be able to beat Draculious.

Lizardman and Eyeburn attack for game!

The million-dollar question is, will Bashin get his High Ranker pass? Or another X-Rare?

I mean you took your sweet ass time trying to beat him, Turn 21? Seriously?

Oh, she’s a contestant?

But which tournament is she referring to anyway?

It could literally be anywhere.

Also this one hasn’t given him any new cards either, I’m starting to get curious if it was just the one Nazo-Otona?

There we go, so the show is still aware of it’s own logic.

But Bashin didn’t get one from the last Nazo-Otona either.

I see Hayami has returned from the bathroom.

As reasonably suspicious as any woman should be of their child talking to adults they don’t recognise.

I assume those with the need to deliver High Rankers don’t get to give out rare cards like the others?

Bashin should still have like, 3 X-Rares by now, hell they could be more copies of Siegfried.

Would mean we don’t have to jump to turn 21 just to draw into and summon him.

And now I’m hungry for something warm.

Damn you Striker for making me hungry.

You may be smart but you are terrible at managing my hunger.

Meganeko has the best manners out of anyone there, Bashin can’t even thank his own mother for the car ride all the way to Kyoto!

Hayami needs to discipline that… And I know she did so today already but there needs to be more of that!

It’s not because I want to see him in more painful situations, I swear.

And some say Card Sensei is still in the passenger’s seat of that car to this very day.

Oh boy, it’s over.

Not as ridiculous as the last one so thankfully my spirits are high, but this time the episode seemed to gloss over a few things in the first fight, like the existence of beatbeetles on Striker’s field at arbitrary times, or the missing Skulldevil on Card Sensei’s own field.

And despite being a full timed episode, not a lot happened, you could probably describe the events of the episode in 2 minutes.

A lot of the content of the episode seemed mainly to want to pad for time, because the most significant event in that episode was the Nazo-Otona revealing herself to Bashin.

And we still don’t know her name, or how she’s important other than that she delivers High Rankers, for all we know we may never see her again…

…If it weren’t for telling us that she’d be at a Battle Spirits tournament.

They could have at least given us an Alias.

Sigh

Well, what’s our card of the day like?

Ah, so it’s the DragonEmperor Siegfried. But mainly with a focus on his “Awaken” ability (Evolution in the brief English release)

Awaken as an ability isn’t great on it’s own, even with a deck centred around it you kind of need to go beyond levels to earn your wins nowadays.

Newer cards with this ability will now have an additional condition added to it for using it, or another way of gaining more BP, but for the time it’s a good way to keep your battling spirits at full power, even with a limited Core supply.

Or, God forbid, your opponent tries to remove core from your battling spirit.

Anyway, that was Episode 8! I’m tired and it’s bed time! So I’ll be hitting the hay! Good night! And I’ll see you in Episode 9!

Right, so we’ve got our Key players for each main colour.

Here’s hoping that something actually happens this episode instead of all the nothing we’ve had for 6 Episodes.

That is my only prayer going into this… Anyway, let’s go.

…Can’t gauge a thing from this title.

Is this important or not?

Bashin’s going to… some kind of performance?

So Bashin’s on a date with Meganeko? And they’re even watching something together?

That’s… awfully nice.

Yeah, no third wheels on dates, Aibou.

Even Bashin knows that rule…

…Wait how does Bashin know anything about dates?

Okay, I’m officially scared.

Who is this? Because he’s way too perceptive to be Bashin.

And I’m already not interested in this play. Seems like some kind of romance.

I can see why Meganeko would like it.

Meganeko just god damn slap him or something.

I know my Significant Other would kick my ass if I fell asleep during a movie or play.

Ah okay, we’ve got a 10 minute intermission. Thank god I don’t have to actually give a crap about the play.

I assume Bashin’s going to once again reinforce how much of a pillock he is and leave Meganeko on her own.

This man needs to learn how to shut his mouth.

Meganeko get the duct tape.

BASHIN’S MOUTH, AND DUCT TAPE

NAME A BETTER PAIRING RIGHT THIS MINUTE

Don’t worry I’ll wait.

Seems everyone in the damn audience could hear him snore his his ass off.

Man I feel bad for the actors.

So it WASN’T a date?

God… Damn it, and here I thought Bashin was being considerate.

I’ll never make that mistake again, I promise.

…And after an exchange that amounted to basically “What do you have to say for yourself?”, “Nothing sir”

Card Sensei decides disciplining Bashin is too much work and fucks off.

This god damn teacher I swear, we call crap Doctors quacks, can we call Card Sensei the Quack Teacher from now on?

I’ve got it! Quack Sensei!

I can identify with Striker here, there’s always that Battle Spirits “itch” that I need scratching.

At literally all times.

Even when in the middle of playing…

Meganeko is clearly exasperated.

I don’t know whether to support her for boys being boys, or reprimand her for not joining in.

If it weren’t for the fact that the damn thing spoke, I’d find it much cuter that he was doing that.

Okay I’m really confused about why Meganeko buying a Pamphlet was necessary here, could have just cut straight to Aibou on Striker’s hand.

Also Aibou squeaking like a regular mouse is giving me the CUTENESS OVERLOAD.

NO, I MUST BE VIGILANTE, I AM A HATEFUL MAN! I SWEAR!

OH SHIT

SUDDENLY THE PLOT HAS PUNCHED US IN THE FACE.

Warn me next time before you slap me with important shit dammit!

OH GOD THE PLOT JUST KEEPS COMING.

So Striker is a chosen card battler?

But the guy didn’t start card battling til after he’d smashed his own leg, how is he chosen ALREADY!?

Bashin on the other hand got chosen well after he’d been card battling for a while.

WHAT IS THE CRITERIA HERE!?

But isn’t Cap a parrot-

My mind is just free real estate isn’t it?

They can repeat words but I’ve never known a parrot to string together a full on sentence.

You know, just out of nowhere. You’d think Cap would explain this sort of shit.

Cap is precious and deserves pets, just like Aibou.

So Striker’s just going round hunting the chosen battlers?

You know that’s slightly more effective than Bashin just waiting for the plot to happen.

“True card battlers?”

Fuck off, one of you has been playing a while and only got chosen after getting his ass beaten by J.

The other is a complete novice, who Bashin (The “Strongest Taoru card battler”) LOST TO.

True Card Battler my ass.

Could it be the fact that Striker is far more pro-active AND more intelligent?

“I have more money cards than you”

Is Bashin actually bragging about having an X-Rare?

You played it against J, and lost! And he only used a Nexus!

And then you failed to play it against Striker and ALSO lost to his Nexus!

Okay okay, I’ll back down here only on the fact that Bashin has 1 copy of The DragonEmperor Siegfried, and therefore its unlikely he’s going to be able to get it every game.

But if I let up on that fact alone then you can bloody well expect me to tear into every other series later on for being able to play their 1-ofs every god damn game!

Striker’s losing his shit at The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

If he had never seen one before, why in the god damn hell would he be able to recognise what you just showed him?

Right, so the show is now suggesting here that beating a Nazo-Otona is infact the only way to acquire an X-Rare card.

A High Ranker Pass? High Rankers are mentioned a lot on the show for some odd reason.

According to the show’s logic from what I know, a High Ranker pass is required to enter fairly high-level tournaments, and acquiring one involves either performing some great feat (Such as defeating a Nazo-Otona) or winning some kind of tournament to acquire one.

Though in this case of course, apparently Bashin hasn’t received a High Ranker pass at all.

This is also the first time I’ve heard of Nazo-Otonas sending out High Ranker Passes to the people that defeat them.

Though Bashin says “yet” so it seems like he was aware that they were meant to.

I was going to comment on the need to get stronger against an opponent who has yet to beat you, but the amount of badass radiating from Striker right now is far too much for me to tear him down now.

So the time warp has jumped us 7 turns into the future, and it’s Bashin’s turn.

Bashin’s field has a Level 1 Eyeburn, a Level 2 Metalburn…

And do my eyes deceive me?

Rokceratops is at LEVEL 3?!

What manner of fuckery is this! They’ve learned to go beyond Level 2! Finally!

Meanwhile the concept of Levels still dumbfounds Striker, who has 2 Beatbeetles and Flyingmirage, all at level 1.

It seems no one’s bothered to attack at all.

Safe is a good way to play anyway, but you won’t win if you don’t attack.

Beatbeetle only has 1000 BP, you can imagine how this is going to go against the Level 3 Rokceratops.

Okay, equal BP, come on anime, don’t fuck this up.

AAAAYYYYY

Round of applause, it’s finally figured out it’s own bloody rules.

Bashin making a full attack here, though Striker seems to be trying to protect his 5 lives.

He’s probably trying to hold out for The Fruit of Life, and to make the most of that you need to have has many lives to lose as possible.

Well that’s basically your entire strategy, get The Fruit of Life, let your opponent hit you.

Win game.

Though Bashin does have a card in his deck to counter that strategy if need be, it’s just a shame he didn’t have it last time.

Well, Striker’s completely set up now, Bashin can’t attack carelessly anymore.

Well, no, J gave The Fruit of Life to one of your brothers who THEN gave it to you.

So your brother gave you that Nexus, not J.

We interrupt this Battle to bring you Meganeko.

Who also has wonderful news apparently.

Also I love how she’s just holding an Egg…

My Sunshine is the prince?

You’d think for an Idol they’d promote her by making her the princess?

Also it’s become a bit of a trope for anime plays to have a female playing the prince, characters specifically tailored for that “female prince” role are one of my favourites.

She isn’t? Then what on earth is she?

I assumed Bashin was just reading off the Pamphlet.

WHAT?

WHY WOULD THEY NEED AN ACTOR

TO PLAY A GOD DAMN EGG!?

SECONDLY! WHY WOULD THEY HAVE A WELL KNOWN IDOL PLAY SUCH A PAINFULLY EMBARRASSING ROLE?

FOR WHAT PURPOSE WAS THIS NECESSARY!?

I would like to know this too Striker, I’m absolutely boggled right now.

Probably about as fast as my head is pounding right now, what the hell did I just witness?…

Sorry, can’t stop a battle once it’s started.

Well, you can but these helmet heads won’t.

LITERALLY NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR STUPID EGG!

Meganeko come on you’re not normally one of the dumb ones!

Back to the fight of course.

And Bashin summons a new card! You know the drill boys!

Well, there’s not much to go over, other than you can probably see why Striker’s strategy is about to go down in a curtain of fire.

DELICIOUS

Finally some good fucking DECK IMPROVEMENT

It seems Bashin has finally figured out that Nexuses are his bane, so he’s got a card in there to cover that now.

Get your brothers to give you more copies.

Might help with that.

So a small recap of that turn.

Rokceratops attacked, Flyingmirage blocked and was destroyed.

Metalburn attacked, Beatbeetle blocked and was destroyed.

And unfortunately, Striker had no spirits left to block Dragsaurus, so Striker had to take a life.

That rush was excellent timing, Striker was intending to take lives for his Nexus, but sadly without it, Striker can’t benefit off his own setbacks.

Striker summons a Shockeater at Level 2 and…

Passes…

He exhausted his hand cards to keep up with Bashin, without his Nexus he can’t replenish them.

Safe to say Striker’s a slight case of screwed.

Bashin adds a Rokceratops and a Goradon to his field.

Welp, with 5 Spirits, and Striker’s 1 Blocker, Bashin’s got this.

Oh, an interruption? Or are they just going to ignore it?

Oh, Bashin’s gonna try finish it here, alrighty.

As I said before, Bashin with his 5 spirits is just enough to take out all of Striker’s Life.

Bashin wins!

And this time it wasn’t plot armor winning him that game, that Dragsaurus play won him that one.

Has this guy just never lost a football match or something?

Like did your foot just NEVER act up during an important football game?

Come on man, this can’t be your FIRST loss at ANYTHING.

Or rather, Bashin was too dumb to realise how to deal with it the first 2 times he ran into a problematic Nexus.

Yeah, you’re late for My Sunshine… Being an egg..

I still haven’t quite come to terms with that yet…

And the doors are locked.

Wait do they lock doors in theatres? That seems a tad odd.

That sounds like a hostage situation.

Striker has a good head on his shoulders, but if they made a habit of locking 1 door they’d have probably locked all of them.

There’s nothing…

I can say to describe how dumbfounded I am that this is even happening.

…IS THE PRINCE IN LOVE WITH THE EGG!?

WHAT IS HAPPENING!?

This Manager I swear to God.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

My Sunshine’s friend’s friend who is actually just My Sunshine herself.

Nope, not at all.

That did not take long.

I guess they’re on the ball this time after the previous time people got backstage.

This is a surprisingly casual Police Officer.

“Ah, you guys are in places you shouldn’t right?”

Please don’t tell me that lie worked…

…

MY GOD DAMN SIDES!

THAT’S FUNNY

Oh, I needed that…

Holy moly… Alright, back to the show.

They didn’t get away with it this time. Better luck next time.

So instead they try a different route… by going up?

How are they going to watch the show from several floors up?

No Bashin, you just don’t think.

Sometimes I wonder that too Striker.

Why are you even bothering, you could have just talked to a member of staff to unlock the doors for you…

That’d be giving credence to the idea that you won’t let us down.

And I have a policy of not lying to myself.

No time for that now, someone’s in trouble!

…Is that another Police officer?

How did he even get in that situation? Did the window Panel fall from under him? But how did he end up feet up?

Questions for later…

The dude is upside down on the top floor of a building, possibly staring down a really huge height, and you’re busy contemplating what the hell is going on.

HELP HIM!

Well, they got him out.

Let’s just hope they’re not in another unauthorised area.

It’s another unauthorised area isn’t it?

Oh, apparently they’re as confused as he is. No problem then.

You’re being awfully defensive about it.

What?

…WHAT?

Where the hell did that come from!?

I’m so fucking done.

HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO TELL!?

AND WHY DOES HE JUST GO ALONG WITH IT!?

So what are Nazo-Otonas under some sort of rule to just IMMEDIATELY make it obvious that they’re Nazo-Otonas or something?

THEY AREN’T IDENTIFIABLE AT ALL, HOW DO YOU TELL!?

So Aibou IS necessary to release the gate to Isekai?

Jesus they’re not very good at explaining this sort of thing.

Also wouldn’t Bashin opening the gate mean he’s the one battling?

Welp, Colour me confused.

So Striker’s the one battling the Nazo-Otona? And Bashin’s just watching?

That’s the million dollar question, Striker.

So Bashin is just chopped liver when it comes to this battle basically.

Aibou should still be there though, he’s the one who opened the gate no?

Or do the pets not go with them when they open the gate to Isekai?

I see you aren’t worried for Bashin’s well-being at all.

Sure, okay.

Once again, starting from Turn 7.

What is the Turns from 7-9 just the magic number for when the battles get going?

So Striker has no Spirits, and the Nazo-Otona has:

A Level 2 Icemaiden
A Level 2 Baby-Loki
And Fenrircannon.

And it’s Striker’s turn.

Also on a sidenote, seems the Nazo-Otona is playing a White deck. No danger of a Dragsaurus suddenly burning up Striker’s Nexus this time.

Striker deploying good ol’ The Fruit of Life.

Again, the Nazo-Otona is a White user, so I don’t see how he’ll be able to get rid of the Nexus this time.

Why are you surprised? This is the 3rd person to use one.

If a bunch of 12 year olds can wrap their heads around a Nexus I’m sure you can.

Striker ends with just the Nexus.

That’s a little dangerous, now the Nazo-Otona just has to play 2 Spirits to win.

The Nazo-Otona plays a Dualcannon-Bell at Level 1.

Now to see what his next Spirit is.

He’s going to roll with just this?

If Striker has 5 lives then the Nazo-Otona is just playing into his hands.

He was aware of the Nexus, come on now.

The Nazo-Otona being the dumbass he is, swings with ALL his Spirits and Brings Striker to 1 life.

I just… How can you be this stupid?

I guess they can’t call it plot armour but artificial stupidity isn’t much of a replacement.

8 Core total thanks to the Life going to the reserve AND the Nexus effect giving him an extra.

But why did he feel the need to say he had “4 cards in each hand?”

Could he not just say he had 8 cards in hand? Like come on now.

So Striker decides to blow his load and drop 3 Beatbeetles, a Flyingmirage AND a Shockeater.

That Nazo-Otona is playing White though… I’m expecting a Silent Wall.

Time for the weenie rush.

Oh…

Oh that’s bad…

No wonder he all-inned, he had this card.

Dang, apparently the Wiki quality isn’t as good as the others, oh well.

Pure Elixir let’s you refresh all your Spirits, but to ensure that the refresh isn’t used for attacking, they’ve applied a restriction that the refreshed spirits can’t attack.

And it’s Cost 3, you can use this in basically any deck, not just White.

Bye Flyingmirage.

You will not be missed.

Okay I am seriously getting tired of people getting flustered and swinging when it would be safer to back off.

And now they’ll all be refreshed on his turn.

And you have no blockers, when you would have had 4 had you just not thrown your cards away.

You muffin.

It’s the Nazo-Otonas turn and he’s preparing to win.

Dualcannon-Bell attacks and Striker blocks with Shockeater.

Unfortunately, Striker now has no spirits with which to block. And the Nazo-Otona has 3 more.

And Icemaiden takes the game.

And for the same reason too! This calls for a Deck edit!

I am… Confused…

But it seems like Bashin is going to fight now.

But the Nazo-Otona just said that you couldn’t see the battle, how did you know he lost?

Turn 13, Breaking the camel’s back with this one.

This is the latest turn jump yet.

No level markers, so I assume these are all at Level 2.

But the show is known for being inconsistent with this kinda shit so who knows.

Bashin’s levelling up all his Spirits to Level 2.

No clue why he’s giving 4 core to Metalburn when it only needs 3 to be at Level 2.

MARKER VISUALS

CLARITY IS GOLDEN!

Skeleton-Jaw and Metalburn swing and take 2 lives. The Nazo-Otona is on the edge now.

GOOD

NO NEED TO NEEDLESSLY ATTACK WHEN YOUR OPPONENT CAN BLOCK YOU!

Is this so hard a concept to understand?…

And it’s a blast from the past, the Nazo-Otona deploys Diamond Moon.

If you remember, if any of your spirits battle an opposing Red Spirit, that Red spirit gets destroyed at the end of the battle, regardless of the result.

Bashin, like the lemming he is, charged into it and lost his X-Rare. Let’s hope that Dragsaurus comes in handy this time.

The Nazo-Otona levels up Dualcannon-Bell and ends his turn.

Well, he could attack but Bashin has a blocking Goradon, and I assume Bashin has enough lives to live through it.

The Nazo-Otona can’t be careless with his 1 life, I’m curious if he has a Pure Elixir in hand.

Its one of the Red colour’s specialities! Draw magic!

…This kid needs help.

Bashin LEVELS DOWN his Spirits.

This means he’s about to make a big play.

So by my calculations. Dualcannon-Bell and Skeleton-Jaw should live.

Battle Spirits roasting in an open fire~

Nexuses beware!

Dragsaurus has arrived to kick ass and destroy nexuses!

And he’s all out of ass!

What’s not shown in this image is that the Diamond Moon just kinda spins off his field like “Later bitch!”

And Bashin swings with his remaining spirits for game!

That’s 1 more X-Rare for Bashin I guess. And Striker still has 0.

That’s just catering to your main character now, come on.

But Bashin is demanding a High Ranker Pass instead? I suppose it would make up for him not getting one from the last Nazo-Otona.

Not even going to ask for an X-Rare.

Also you said that he was a Nazo-Otona in police clothing, he wouldn’t have any keys to the theatre.

The Officer questions why he’d need to open the door but Bashin says that he couldn’t “Push from the front” to open it.

This reaction… Noooo it can’t be.

Don’t tell me it was a-

IT WAS

IT WAS A FUCKING PULL DOOR!

I’M SO MAD!

DAMMIT SHOW STOP TAKING RESIDENCE IN MY BRAIN.

THAT’S MY LINE! HOW! HOW MUCH PAIN FOR A SIMPLE PULL DOOR!?

noooooo….

Noooooooooo….

NOOOOOOOO…..

…When is the end of this Episode? I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to be.

a Nazo-Otona with no X-Rare or even a High Ranker, and here I thought we’d be progressing the plot…

What a depressing day.

DON’T APPLAUD THAT MEGANEKO!

This anime is on drugs I swear…

You’re a little late numbskulls.

But it’s fine, you missed the literal worst play in existence.

I didn’t.

Go fuck yourself.

There was… nothing there to be glad about.

…Meganeko you are the light in the life that is this blog at this very moment.

For those of you who’ve seen this before! Say it with me now!

FORESHADOWING!

I’ll certainly be recovering tomorrow after this disaster.

Cuz I got 43 more of this disaster to do and I’m sure as hell not going to be okay after the end of it if THIS is the quality of show I’m being given.

My Sunshine has changed to Suiren.

Oh, the Nazo-Otona is familiar with Suiren?

YOU JUST SAID THE HIGH RANKER THING WASN’T YOUR DISCRETION!

WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL MAN!?

Sigh

Right, let me wrap my head around this, the Nazo-Otona knows Suiren by name, so my guess is that this Nazo-Otona was beaten by Suiren, and was the Nazo-Otona that awarded her with Desperado.

So the Nazo-Otona that Bashin defeated should be the one that gives Bashin the High Ranker Pass.

Also that Pass is marked “No. 002”, who’s the first?

…Probably J.

And Suiren put a bullet through my theory.

So the High Ranker passes are by delivery specifically, Nazo-Otonas have to go round to deliver it.

So there are Nazo-Otonas designed for High Ranker delivery and Nazo-Otonas designed for X-Rare giveaways.

Gotcha.

At least Suiren is taking this as light-hearted as she should be. Still waiting for the moment where this stops being just a game.

OH THANK GOD

Now I can crawl into bed as soon as I do this episode review.

Okay, while I will definitely complain to absolute HIGH HEAVEN that this episode was a pile of garbage, it did patch up the rough spots with some lovely foreshadowing.

We’re now noticing an odd system with the Nazo-Otonas, some are assigned to grant High Ranker Passes to those who have defeated at least one, but it doesn’t need to be the same Nazo-Otona.

And we got shown some development from Bashin, who lost to Nexuses not just once but TWICE.

Now his deck including Dragsaurus shows some great improvement on his part.

Striker on the other hand is coming to terms with being a beginner and having only a single strategy to rely on, and looks like he’ll be desperately searching for Nazo-Otonas so that he can get an X-Rare and improve on his deck.

Some good stuff right now. What’s our Card of the day?

Ah of course, Dragsaurus.

Nexuses are extremely powerful, for 2 reasons.

1. They have powerful effects that remain in effect for as long as they are around.
2. Like their effects, their symbols also stick around too, providing near permanent reduction.

Red isn’t just a colour designed around power, destruction is another of it’s specialities.

And that doesn’t just apply to spirits either, nothing is safe, hence why you have certain spirits like Dragsaurus designed to annihilate Nexuses. They’re good cards to use for the time, and until recently.

Sadly, the current card pool (as of time of writing) doesn’t allow us to get rid of the type of Nexuses we are dealing with, so while Nexus destruction effects would have been valuable before, they’re near useless now. Some regular Nexuses are used in conjunction with our current “Invincible” Nexus types, so the odd Nexus destroyer isn’t bad to have as long as it’s not the only thing that card is needed for.

Anyway, other than that, the rest of this episode was pretty irritating, lots of foreshadowing sure, but the plot itself hasn’t quite progressed unlike the decks of this Episode.

Here’s hoping something happens soon. Because sweet jesus I did not start this today so I could rant about an Egg.

Til then, see you guys later.

You all know how this goes.

Time for Episode 6, last episode we watched a man have his dreams crushed.

Let’s see what happens in the aftermath.

Also the resolution has just gotten wide all of a sudden, consistent uploads amiright?

First you saw “Athletics Meet”

Now prepare for:

Hospital Visit.

Here we have a Striker in his not-so-natural habitat.

Being depressed on the rooftop of a Hospital.

Hilariously this is the ONLY part of Striker’s flashback we get to see… Besides the part that it would be difficult for his foot to recover.

Where else would he be? He’s got a messed up foot.

Man it’d really suck if he was at a Hospital.

You know, a place where people tend to be hospitalised.

Now that’s just mean.

It’s like asking a guy in a wheelchair “Where are you running off to?”

So its his joints that are strained?

Purely because he didn’t want to stop practising football?

I’m often told you need a day of rest in between days of strenuous activity like exercise or football, because you need to give the body time to rest.

I’m surprised it’s only the joints in his foot that decided to tap out.

Striker has a god damn cast on his leg, I don’t think anyone thinks he should be walking.

Thank you Captain J. Obvious.

Striker’s depression is really hitting me in the feels.

How do you get angry at this?

…Well technically no, Striker was going to hit his limit eventually.

Okyou being the trigger doesn’t make it your fault.

Infact Okyou being the one setting it off was lucky, Striker got sent to a good hospital and given J’s family doctor.

So you don’t need to take responsibility J, but it was good that you did.

I’m curious as to why he’d give him 4 copies of a card when you can only have 3 copies max.

You should be compensating Striker, not his brothers.

Dick…

Yeah 1 copy of a card ain’t gonna do much unless you don’t really need it to begin with.

But then again this is an anime, the writers get to manipulate the element of luck.

J, your narcissism is showing.

A MAN IS INJURED!

AND J IS TRYING (and failing) TO HELP

THE TV CREW CAN TAKE A HIKE.

As best he can.

While he can’t even walk.

Stuck inside a Hospital. Yeah thanks J.

Meanwhile, in an everyday traffic jam.

If it’s a weekday during the hours of when people are coming to and from work, it becomes an expectation, not an unexpected inconvenience.

Inconvenient sure, unexpected? Nooooo.

I don’t think she earned the name “Speed Star” by being patient, Papa Navi.

…

SPEED

STAR

There is no “Slow and Steady” in Hayami’s dictionary.

You’d have to somehow get out of the one you’re in genius.

The reasons why won’t change the fact that:
1. There isn’t a better option.
2. You can’t even get to the better option when you’re stuck in the one you’re in.

Traffic does NOT clear up that quickly.

You can’t go from immobile to speeding, come on.

Ah yes but we clearly needed to put a dog in danger for this scenario.

This is a whole new meaning of “Jesus take the wheel”

…Welp.

I guess Striker will have one more visitor today.

And another scene change, to Bashin also exhibiting J-level narcissism.

How come Bashin?

Because you don’t have any great efforts to be recognised for.

You’re already proving that it doesn’t take much effort for you to be a moron.

Meganeko showing up out of nowhere.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Bashin’s mother having a wheel breaking Car crash?

I get why Card Sensei knows about it, they’d call the school.

But why does Meganeko know about it?

Seems unprofessional to let Meganeko know about another student’s serious situation before that student does.

Hey it’s the same hospital as Striker.

Convenient

After a Car crash like that I’m not surprised in the slightest.

“I just twisted my neck”

That is.. Kind of a big deal.

You could have broken that you moron.

They’re there to keep you alive, not pamper you.

And if you weren’t so eager to get out of traffic you wouldn’t be in this situation.

You’re one to talk. You got it from her

People do that to make sure you’re not suffering…

And the fact that you can even make this complaint definitely means you aren’t.

You’re lucky this guy is your son.

Anyone else would tell you to fuck right off.

Oh, Battle Spirits!

Quick, main character, go see what that’s about!

Didn’t J need to go entertain the kids at the TV Crew?

Why would he still be here?

Are they still going on about J and Suiren’s match?

That was like 5 episodes ago, it’s been done and dusted.

Who even still gives a shit?

Well considering he won, the answer would probably be “nothing”.

There are no lessons learned in victory.

Well yes…

You won…
But good job downplaying Suiren like that. Great Sportsmanship.

And you’re just going to take his word for it?

Yeah okay.

…Drapery?

Like… Curtains?

Not very… Interesting really.

See now that’s interesting. Computer Hardware manufacturing is awesome.

No wonder J’s filthy stinking rich.

So they’re making a Battlefield System?

Why do I get the feeling this has something to do with Isekai?

Ah, so they’re going to release it on New Year’s, that’s cool.

Except we don’t know what time frame we’re in right now, September+? They did just finish summer-

OH SWEET JESUS THAT’S TERRIFYING

I mean I haven’t seen any other ginger-haired shounen protagonists in this anime, have you?

YOU WERE WITH HIM WHEN HE WENT THERE.

You know exactly why he’s in Hospital Bashin.

It boggles me how dumb they make him sometimes.

He says, with a Cast still around his leg.

There’s staying strong and then spitting on Bashin’s head and telling him it’s raining.

…Which he’d probably fall for, to be quite honest.

Like doing what?

Yes let him lie down and rest harder

Come on Bashin. Let the man enjoy some TV.

Seems Striker’s mother has come to check on him.

Dunno how all 4 of Striker’s brothers got there before she did though, they all look a bit young to be unsupervised.

That’s not a good sign.

“No change” means the Leg’s condition isn’t getting any better.

On the upside it means it isn’t getting worse either, but that might be because he’s hit the bottom of the barrel.

Rehabilitation? I’m not really familiar with how that works.

But I would ASSUME it means they’re just going to basically see if they can repair the problems in his leg directly.

Bashin seems awfully frightened by Striker’s Mother.

No clue why, she seems like a nice lady.

Was “from Striker’s School?” not good enough? It HAD to be Toaru Elementary?

they say it like Striker doesn’t even go there.

They lied.

Are we watching the same show?

This is the same guy who actively swung into Diamond Moon AFTER HAVING THE EFFECT EXPLAINED TO HIM

This guy didn’t know what a Nexus did the episode AFTER he held a Nexus in his hand and ACKNOWLEDGED WHAT IT DID.

What do you mean he’s “Extremely powerful?”

And right into a battle we go.

Just gonna throw one at us, just like that.

Seems Bashin has 4 Spirits on his field, with 2 new ones.

The Scout Dragno is a pretty simple Cost 2 that gains +2000 BP on attack, Nothing much to say other than it’s good if you want to overpower your opponent early.

And this one is Lanceraptor, it destroys a Spirit with 2000 BP or less when it’s summoned.

For a Cost 5 and only 2 reduction, the 2000 BP limit is pretty bad, most cards nowadays that are Cost 3 can hit cards twice as big.

And some might do additional things on top of that, this card has been very well powercrept out of the game.

But it’s of the prominent Terra Dragon family, a family of Dinosaurs!

Meanwhile, more Green cards on “Takeru’s” side.

Matchra forces your opponent to discard when it’s summoned, and Leavwolf is a cheap High Speed card.

Not the greatest of boards against Bashin’s 4 Spirits.

I see Bashin hasn’t forgotten his Helmet.

I was worried he might hurt himself against this board.

SWEET
VANILLA
GOODNESS

It’s a Shockeater, Vanillas these days have absurd BP amounts to offset the fact that they don’t have any abilities. And generally cards that are vanilla aren’t worth using.

There are some cards that work well with cards that have “No printed effects”, but those are specific deck types, and this certainly isn’t one of those.

That was sudden, his Shockeater’s at Level 1.

But everything on Bashin’s field is also Level 1 at 2000 BP apiece, so maybe he’s hoping Bashin won’t crash.

But Bashin has more spirits anyway, crashing doesn’t hurt him here.

NAILED IT.

Wa… But… He…

He had equal BP…

Your Shockeater didn’t win it should also be 6 feet under…

Though maybe he did lose Shockeater and only cared about beating Eyeburn…

If I see a Shockeater anywhere near his board next turn I swear to god.

You’re not in the position to be lecturing ANYONE about mistakes.

That card has absolutely 0 reductions.

But it has a Level 1 BP of 4000, so not bad for him.

Teranosaber is like Skeleton-Jaw, it can’t block. Which means nothing to do but attack!

Ah yes its Bashin’s typical pattern of using Offensive Aura right before he makes a big swing.

All of them are equally as dumbfounded as each other.

By… Bashin’s go to move.

Power Aura? The Green gets an Aura as well?

Specifically it lets you draw a card and give all Spirits +1000, whether it’s your turn or not.

Whether you’re wanting to draw or wanting power, there are cards that do both of this card’s jobs infinitely better.

Regardless, Bashin’s Offensive Aura grants 2000 BP, so Power Aura ain’t enough

Sucks to be you, doesn’t it?

Not even considering the boost Scout Dragno gives himself.

He’s clocking in at 6000 BP, 3 Power Auras wouldn’t save him.

Matchra served it’s purpose when it showed up on the field, not a big loss to go with that first.

Lanceraptor swings and takes out Leavwolf.

And Skeleton-Jaw attacks, taking a life and bringing Takeru down to 3.

Bashin has left Teranosaber remaining for… some reason. It can’t block.

Summon 4 more spirits and you’re gold.

So… They needed a skip card just to go straight to the main step?

Those steps can’t be skipped, we can assert that they happened.

…Chill bro I was KIDDING!

I didn’t actually think he would summon 4. Holy crap.

And we got 3 new spirits here, Beatbeetle is a Cost 0 Vanilla so nothing new there.

Shidafukurou refreshes if the opponent ever draws a card.

And Emeraldscissor exhausts an opposing spirit on summon.

Even if Bashin did have a blocker, it’d probably get exhausted here.

Unless Bashin has a Flame Tempest.

Now that’s just plain sad…

Welp, goodbye winning field.

It sure as hell won’t matter when you’re burning the board.

And not a single spirit left.

Bashin you’re a cruel player.

Does anyone else just think this show is filled with idiots failing to question why Bashin keeps randomly saying “Isekai”?

At some point someone’s going to get suspicious.

Firstly, what rumors?

Secondly. Takeru was the strongest out of all of you?

Striker doesn’t much like the attention they’re giving Bashin just for being a strong battler…

That is one disproportionately large cast when his leg seems so skinny

The Japanese doesn’t obviously reflect this, but “What’s wrong, Boy” makes Hayami sound way more southern than she’s meant to be.

As opposed to a girl?

Though I’m sure Hayami is more referring to the fact that Striker is 12, and is a bit young to start getting depressed.

All he did was sports.

And that pushed him to the point where he can’t do sports anymore.

It’s kind of his own fault lady.

Say it with me now.

Un-Der-State-Ment!

Makes that Car crash borne of nothing but your own dumbassery seem a bit silly don’t it?

Yes.

We know.

That’s how you’re in this situation.

The whole “Break my body to achieve my goal” thing sounds cool.

But you went out with a whimper, not a bang.

“Them” being his brothers.

If only… IF ONLY, there was some other activity that didn’t require your legs…

That your brothers were greatly interested in…

He’s 12 years old, what possible change in personality could have occurred when he hasn’t even gone through puberty?

Shy?!

I refuse to believe that.

Considering Meganeko was his only friend before the start of this series, he’s not got a very good track record even after the change in personality.

Interestingly not as crazy as it sounds, Battle Spirits is one of those games you can’t play without someone to play with.

It’s a good way to socialise.

Oh, Hayami taught Bashin how to play?

Hayami is now officially the coolest mother in Card game anime.

Battle Spirits Heroes?

You’re not due for another 150 episodes…

As Striker realises that there are OTHER THINGS BEYOND SOCCER!

We’ve done it guys, we’ve liberated the football nut.

…Were you under the impression that you couldn’t?

I’m confused what that response is supposed to mean.

And he’s got FOUR opponents to choose from.

My only siblings are a 6 year old (at time of writing) who couldn’t give less of a shit about card games.

Striker looks like he’s about to cry at being offered the opportunity to play Battle Spirits.

The guy’s trying to go back to his room.

Why the hell are you shoving Battle Spirits cards in his face?

Why are they playing a Guessing game with a guy…

Who’s just destroyed his legs due to over-dedication?

at random intervals?

Has he refused? And they’re trying to get him to change his mind?
Or has he accepted? In which case why are they trying to get him to memorise battle spirits cards from the artwork alone?

Leave the guy be!

He’s going to take his shirt off… While holding his breath?

OH MY GOD
LET THE GUY HEAL IN PEACE!

Do I not even get to see it? Flyingmirage hasn’t been shown to us yet I don’t think.

Its nothing special but this is just for the sake of people reading… Like come on.

This is gonna be a thing isn’t it?

Also I see your neck is better Hayami

Just the type?

That should be easy.

Given that Hayami’s the one presenting them this time, I guess Striker agreed to start playing Battle Spirits.

Only took 6 episodes.

Apparently, when it comes to Battle Spirits

Nothing is Sacred

Like seriously

Dude is in the BATHROOM!

He’s got no time for questions!

Expecting you to have been ready for cards in the crapper is like expecting the Moon to turn Purple in the next 5 seconds.

And now his Brothers are doing it. Lovely

This one doesn’t have a cover though.

Oh nevermind, he’s giving it to Striker.

Explains the lack of a cover.

So Striker’s now got a Nexus, 1 down, 39 more cards to go.

Why is Hayami exclusively teaching Striker and his brothers about green cards?

There are other colours you know…

…Oh…

HAH

The man in a full body cast is battling Striker!

“I should really be laying down but damned if I let a card battle pass me by”

Also the big brother in the navy blue shirt looks ready to beat the snot out of somebody with Striker’s crutch.

Hayami seems to have spent more screen time with Striker in this episode than she has with Bashin in the last 5 episodes.

So his foot is working again? They said it wasn’t clear whether or not it would heal

In my experience, the only people who don’t enjoy Battle Spirits are the people who refuse to play it.

And unfortunately I know 2 people like that.

Striker here seems to have been given enough reason to not bother after you asked him card questions in the god damn bathroom.

Bad Habit?

I think the subs meant to say “It’s bad luck to get too conceited before an opponent” since this doesn’t exactly make sense.

but the statement is very true, you don’t know what will happen before you actually get into the battle.

“I’m going to win again?”

Of course when he’s offscreen he becomes a Battle Spirits Warmonger.

Though I’ll be honest his track record’s been okay for the most part, he’s battled:

J (Twice)
Suiren
Card Sensei (Twice)
The Nazo-Otona
and Takeru

And he’s only lost twice to J, and once to Card Sensei.

So with a 4/7 win record, that’s a 57% winrate.

Not spectacular sure but it’s not bad.

Also we’re on Episode 6 and Bashin has already lost 3 times? At least he’s not invoking Protagonist powers when they’re not needed.

Ah yes, Bashin in pain.

I didn’t know it was my birthday.

What exactly is he meant to be doing other than getting good at Battle Spirits? You haven’t been exactly the most informative mouse in the show there Aibou.

…She hasn’t had the cast around her neck for bloody ages. She should have been discharged a damn good while ago!

I’m tempted to deduce he’s the best only because the rest of them suck.

And/or it’s an unfair playing field and no one else has beaten a Nazo-Otona for that sweet juicy X-Rare, Bashin so far is the only one who has an X-Rare.

I wasn’t gonna say it….

But I’m glad someone did.

Gathering dust, given there’s a significant lack of card battling.

Bashin neglecting his own mother’s discharge date to play Battle Spirits.

How does this guy even manage 1 win, let alone 4.

Okay first of all, she’s being discharged. That means she doesn’t need taking care of anymore.

Second of all, you have ZERO obligation to act in the best interests of a parent as opposed to a student UNLESS it has something to do with the student in question.

This does not fulfil that condition.

How has he not been fired yet?

This is blatant favouritism, his affections for Bashin’s mother definitely skew his priorities to be in favour of Bashin over literally any other student.

Buggering off is the only appropriate action when you are presented with a perverted old man.

At least their school is teaching them shit.

He’s about to get that parental discipline for not checking in on his mother.

Also how has he survived on his own as a bloody 12 year old without a parent at home?

He chilling at Meganeko’s or something?

With someone as tall as those 2 you’d think Bashin would notice if they were in the room.

I see Bashin has arrived just in time to get his ass beat by Striker.

Yes, you know, that thing you’ve neglected literally everything else for the purpose of playing.

Bro you’ve been in hospital and your play partners is your best friend’s mother, and your brothers.

You’re scope of “strong” is based on nothing but green mirrors.

And whatever the guy in the full body cast plays.

Bashin’s gonna lose isn’t he?

Yep, that basically seals it.

Meanwhile, in a flashback.

Is this just post-injury? Or is this after rehabilitation?

It’s kind of important that we know what time frame this is.

Nothing we can do?

So Striker’s foot hasn’t healed, he’s just made it usable.

If only there were a convenient hobby that everyone in this anime is expected to have.

I know he was recommended by J, but I don’t think it was ever stated that he was one of the best.

Only that J trusted him, because J was often treated by him when he was little.

Oh quit the sob story.

He’s got many other roads he can take for his “Future”, he’s fucking 12.

…Hold up

I’d act surprised but the rest of you would call me stupid for thinking “Striker” was his actual name.

Look there have been worse names in Japanese media, like Guilty Gear’s “That Man”

Number 1 Tip for taking from Bashin’s Example:

Don’t.

I mean, that is not the arrangement I’d make with those playmats.

What a bloody waste of space, you can’t even see the opposing cards from that far.

But… He was playing against the guy in the full-body cast…

This isn’t his first time.

Oh god don’t start using football terms for Battle Spirits.

I got confused when Zexal did it.

Don’t need it here.

Well, Bashin has control of the ball. (Yes I’m doing it)

Scout Dragno, coming in at Level 1.

How will Striker respond?

Leavwolf moves to intercept.

But Scout Dragno has 4000 BP! Its simply not enough!

Bashin makes a pass to the Level 2 Rokceratops! Who moves in!

But Striker once again intercepts! This time with Shidafukurou!

They’ve both got 3000 BP! This looks like a double knockout folks!

FINALLY

THE CONCEPT OF A DRAW FINALLY COMES IN!

THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH EPISODE 1!

uuuugh.

Man Bashin has no chill today, he’s just going in guns blazing.

And he just KEEPS
ON
GOING

Huh, he had a Matchra…

a 3rd Double Destruction?…

If Striker had blocked earlier with Matchra he could have stopped Lanceraptor and ended up having an extra spirit.

His aim must be to reduce Bashin’s board as much as possible, even at the cost of his own.

Bashin still seems to have 5 lives.

Also I love how his Card Trash is empty, even though he just lost 3 spirits.

Fuckup Tally: 8

…If he had enough spirits with which to defend why did you bother attacking?

You didn’t even have Offensive Aura, so you couldn’t keep your Spirits safe.

That that it might have mattered in this case cuz all your spirits would have been exhausted.

And something tells me Striker’s about to drop 5 spirits and dropkick your ass back to mid-field.

So Striker has immediately played Leavwolf (which meant he was basically save if Bashin attacked again) and played the Fruit of Life?

Now would be a good time to go over The Fruit of Life’s effect.

Anytime you take a life you draw a card, this can also be from effects.

It basically nets you card advantage for taking damage, as for it’s Level 2 effect: If you take a life, you gain a core in your reserve.

The typical strategy with this Nexus is to deploy it, and let your opponent damage you, you’ll draw a card and gain a core, once you’re at 1 Life, you can rush your opponent with a ton of spirits.

And a pretty good present at that. It’s effect isn’t bad.

Give it a few sets and we’ll fix that of course, since a card comes out later that does it’s job but better.

And he’s deployed it at Level 2.

Oh boy… Bashin be smart about this and DON’T SWING CARELESSLY

Oh boy.

I should do this with alcohol next time, this is going to be awful.

Well, the drawing of a card and the adding of a core are separate effects, but effectively yes.

Good, he realised the issue with constant attacks now that the Nexus is out.

Bashin has 2 blockers, I think Leavwolf is the only card on Striker’s field.

That was sudden, came out of nowhere.

a Cost 3 magic that just gains you a core?

And otherwise as a flash, grants 1000 BP?

Yeah this card is SUPER outdated. There are plenty of spirits that do this card’s job infinitely better.

And are immediately better to use because… they’re spirits. And they stay on the field.

Ah yes, Gather Forces > Pass.

You’re breaking the camel’s back here with these super-technical plays here Striker.

Core boost is Green’s MAIN selling point.

Besides exhausting and some conditional refreshing, it’s the only other reason you use it.

Have these kids been playing Green and NOT core boosting?

What? It’s on his field…

What the hell do you mean by “That’s a secret”

He’s just played a card that can’t block Spirits with less Bp than it…

He’s going to attack again isn’t he?

Considering Green has the high speed keyword, that isn’t as much of a problem as you think it is Bashin.

Bashin attacks with the rest of his Spirits (Eyeburn, Lizardman and Skeleton-Jaw) to drop Striker to 1 life.

But that action has just given Striker 3 core and 3 draws.

Striker’s drawn 4 cards off of the Fruit of Life, and all of Bashin’s Spirits are exhausted.

Plus he only has 1 card in his hand.

Striker has Bashin in his sights.

As Striker plays a total of 8 Spirits

Bashin only has 5 lives, even if he could stop THREE of these attacks he couldn’t account for the other 5.

Flame Tempest would save Bashin though.

And Striker begins the Weenie rush!

I guess Bashin didn’t have his Flame Tempest in hand.

Welp, Striker is the victor of this match.

Just as predicted.

Someone’s happy. As he should be, it’s his first game against Bashin and he won.

And they made such a big deal making Bashin out to be the strongest at their school too.

No it wasn’t.

Bashin you attacked way too frequently while Striker had his nexus out.

You KNEW what the Nexus did because you ended your turn with only a single attack before, why did you suddenly all-in on Striker when you clearly didn’t have enough Spirits to win?

Striker won because you’re a dumbass. And now your Win percentage is exactly 50%

That being said, one of the best ways to motivate someone to play a game they’re being taught is to try as hard as you can to make the game fun, and more importantly, to ensure that they win.

Nothing motivates people to play a game more than thinking they are good at it.

So Striker doesn’t really give a toss what he does as long as he can remain an idol to his brothers?

That’s sweet but eventually his Brothers aren’t going to need to look up to him anymore, it’s important to have your own goals as well

The fact that Striker is probably going to become a chosen Card Battler because of the ball on that Parrot’s neck aside.

How on earth did it get all the way to the Hospital?

Yeah you should be thanking his god damn mother for using her hospital time to teach you the bloody game.

I’m still iffy on the method though…

“Beginner’s Luck” also translates to “Expert’s Cockiness”

Bashin has a master?

Just say MOTHER then!

Jesus, no need to be so cryptic about it, Striker already knows Hayami taught you how to play.

“If you can’t face an opponent directly, you won’t in in Batosupi”

…

WHAT IN THE NAME OF ZEUS-LOLO DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!?

Firstly there are at least 2 more of those ya cheapskate.

Secondly, it wasn’t Striker’s to begin with, he even said he just saw someone leave it behind.

FOLLOWED BY A FLASHBACK CONFIRMING WHAT I JUST SAID!

If only because Striker can efficiently core boost and actually make use of it’s reductions unlike your stupid ass.

Not for another 6 years lady.

Don’t even entertain the thought.

And we’re done!

Hoo boy, I don’t know if it was just because I couldn’t get this finished on the day that I started it, but that felt WAY too long.

Upsides to this though, STRIKER NOW PLAYS BATTLE SPIRITS

We now have our 4 representatives of each colour!:
J for White
Bashin for Red
Suiren for Purple
and Striker for Green!

That should certainly clear it up for Character introductions, now we can actually start sinking our teeth into some plot!

It’s at this point that I realise Toppa Bashin actually has a really slow start, we’re at Episode 6 and the only remotely plot relevant thing that has happened was Bashin defeating a Nazo-Otona.

This is a 50 Episode Long anime but a lot of anime only secure 12. We’re basically halfway through that.

6 Episodes is too long for a show to kick off, that’s for sure. And technically it hasn’t even kicked off yet.

Let’s hope Episode 7 is more entertaining than the shit show we’ve had so far.

Our cards of the day are The Fruit of Life and Gather Forces.

They were basically given a basic review earlier in the post, I’ve got nothing to add that I haven’t already said.

So with that! I’ll see you guys next Episode! (Pray for my sake that it’s plot relevant)

Back at it again, no rest for the man who just wants to get through to the GOOD anime series.

In the meantime, nothing to do but have Toppa Bashin annoy the hell out of me.

“The Athletic Meet is Trouble”?

So this episode has something to do with Striker is it?

Apologies if I have a hard time believing that first of all, a school needs a news reporter for the “Athletic meet” which I can only imagine to be some kind of sports day…

And second of all, that you would be discussing LITERALLY ANYTHING OTHER THAN SPORTS.

I didn’t realise watching a Sports anime…

Seems Hayami’s been in the kitchen cooking most of the morning.

As a guy who has a food savvy family, I can’t imagine what unrealistically tasty stuff Hayami’s got prepped

I’d say this was a Mushroom Salad but that’s Broccoli not Lettuce.

Either way it seems Aibou finds it as tasty as I do.

They have a Rule in place for that?

Secondly, TWO MEALS A DAY means 2 out of the 3 meals you have…

Lastly, didn’t you say “Good Morning” just a few moments ago Bashin? Aibou hasn’t had anything yet.

I know Rats will eat basically anything, unsure if the same applies to mice.

And Aibou’s been given a Human brain and the ability to speak English, I’d imagine he’s been given other human properties, like enjoying mushrooms.

HAH

It’s funny because Bashin is more notorious for stealing food than Aibou is.

And Aibou’s a mouse, it’s not supposed to know better.

Oh joy.

More misfits… For a non-Battle Spirits event.

This show has a massive problem with this…

It’s okay, somehow we’ll shoehorn in a battle somewhere.

Something Something… J.

Something Something Something… Elementary School Celebrity.

I’d say I nailed it but J appears in the preview for the previous episode.

More of a spoiler than a guess.

Not particularly…

If his fame is derived specifically from Battle Spirits then the only reason I would care to give him the time of day is if he was going to play some Battle Spirits.

Otherwise I don’t really care what he does.

Meanwhile, with the only person who’d give 2 damns about sports.

We have Striker and his extremely huge family, aching to watch Striker score some goals.

You know, NOT playing Battle Spirits.

The older brothers suggest that Striker should do well so a Team will scout him, but Striker quite rightly states that there’s not really any point.

Because everyone’s going to be firmly attached to J’s crotch area.

“Hey get me the autograph of the guy that’s really killing your chances to get scouted by a football Team”

Get me a pair of football shoes so I can boot this kid halfway down the street.

The Bento-Size is directly proportional to the ridiculousness of their hair.

Wait, that’s a Hospital letter?

Something tells me something horrible is happening or will happen to Striker.

If it takes a busted leg to get him to play Battle Spirits then well so be it.

Your chances with this guy are 0.

And any attempt is basically grooming, stay in your League.

So from what I gather this “Athletics meet” seems to be some sort of joint Sports Day between 2 schools.

The 2 Schools must have a really good relationship if they share their Sports day together.

Small Sub translation error here, basically both are going to give individual Opening speeches I think?

It’s a little unclear so I’m not sure myself.

This chick kinda looks like J.

Very rich looking too, very pretty.

J doesn’t seem like the type to have a girlfriend so that’s probably his sister.

No one was waiting for this.

Don’t make it sound like they were.

Look at the lifeless face of the girl holding up the red sign.

So Tonari is the blue number while Bashin’s School is the Red one.

What are the points recording? Games won? Points scored?

Give me something to measure…

At what point was Striker ever identified as a Superstar?

I get he’s sport savvy but he was just known for wanting to be on a football team.

makes him stand out I guess?

So he’s rich, good at Battle Spirits AND Sports, and has just about every single female character wanting to be his future wife.

How… Boring

Show some adversity J.

I’d say running was one of Bashin’s strong points, considering he loses Meganeko on a daily basis just because he won’t slow down.

And he was able to keep up with a fully grown adult Nazo-Otona.

That’s not always a bad thing.

Don’t want to catch his boredom syndrome.

Bashin… han?

The Power of Google compels you!

…Can’t seem to find it, only record I can find of a -han honorific is literally from this series.

Seems to be a cute nickname.

Striker questions if Bashin knows who she is, Bashin of course, can’t even tell the difference between his head and his ass.

So of course, he doesn’t know.

She’s got a nice voice, I’ll give her that…

That laugh is.. SUPER annoying.

You have to listen to it for yourself, like jesus christ.

It sounds so forced

The chick suddenly leans in super close to Bashin.

So she gave him a nickname, seemed to go out of her way to talk to him.

And is now sizing him up.

Is she… checking him out? She’s wasted on this fiery nutcase.

But you see, Card Sensei is on the Bashin x Meganeko ship, so of course he interrupts this great moment.

Why would you make a face like that?

I don’t even know her name yet and I’m already losing faith in my favourite character being Meganeko.

Striker is me thus far, never thought I’d relate to a football nut.

Also is Striker genuinely thinking that the Girl they just met is into Bashin?

You see, as a talking mouse, there is no shame in telling your secrets to Aibou.

Him telling anyone would either prompt his immediate dissection, cause the person being told to panic and trample over him, or just make them faint.

Besides, he can’t talk to people who don’t know about Isekai because of his own self-imposed rules. Totally safe.

And now Bashin is back to thinking about why some rich dude who’s good at everything doesn’t have any friends.

Oh he’s having a picnic with Meganeko.

He calls J out for having no friends but Meganeko seems to be Bashin’s only friend besides Striker.

Suiren doesn’t count. At best he consoled her.

Meganeko offering Bashin food just makes me miss my own significant other’s food. There is nothing tastier than eating food from a loved one-

Just smile… smile and maybe one day you’ll get the opportunity to punish him for his unholy sins against the nicest character in the series.

Yes I know he’s upset because Bashin ate a mushroom he wanted…

But I don’t care, Aibou should be far more upset about Meganeko’s awful treatment.

AND BASHIN’S MOTHER IS THERE, WOMAN, DISCIPLINE YOUR KID.

Oh, Striker’s got that “Hair over one eye” depressing news kinda look.

This doesn’t sound good.

Ahhh, so her name is Kyouka.

That name is absolutely adorable.

Also it seems like J doesn’t specifically have any skills in Sports… he just… Trained for a day and now he’s good at it.

Well the amount of people who would “train” for a sports day are absolutely 0, so no wonder.

So Kyouka was checking on “Bashin-han” for J’s sake?

Also J nonchalantly saying “Ruby Cornerstone” as if Kyouka’s supposed to know what it is indicates that Kyouka knows about Isekai.

I can’t think of lovin’ nobody but you~

Explains why Kyouka was sizing him up, she’s making sure J’s new hubby is the right man for the job.

I jest, J doesn’t want to meet Bashin because J’s been thinking about him?

Wouldn’t that be a very good reason to want to see Bashin?

Cutting back to Striker’s SERIOUS REQUEST.

He wants Bashin to be last in the relay race.

I don’t even know what that means.

This is serious because it means the final leg of the race will be handled by Bashin, and not Striker.

This means Striker kinda gets kicked out of the limelight, for the purpose of winning.

You’re a good man Striker.

Likes mushrooms…

First thing people are going to do if they spot that mouse is trample it. This was a horrible place to get lost in.

Kyouka’s just chilling there with a whole table and umbrella set.

Did they pay someone to get it set up? There seemed to be a butler in the scene with J

Also like, no time lady, Bashin’s searching for a tiny mouse.

Bashin…

He’s a god damn mouse.

JUST TELL HER IT’S A MOUSE! WOULD MAKE IT SO MUCH EASIER!

And why is Bashin just receiving free food from a girl he’s never met?

WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THIS MAN!?

BECAUSE I SEE A BUMBLING BUFFOON!

Look at him, he’s DROOLING over Kyouka’s food…

Is Meganeko just chopped liver at this point? She’s being beaten out by someone Bashin has known for all of 2 minutes.

I hate this purely because Kyouka’s pampering Bashin of all people. Not because I think Meganeko deserves a piece of crap like Bashin.

A Wild J has appeared.

I thought you didn’t want to talk to Bashin? Because he was on your miiiind?

SCANDALOUS!

Are you doing this for J or are you doing this for you?

Because you’re giving me mixed signals here Kyouka!

My guess is she realises Bashin is J’s Rival, and J has said as much.
So she intends to use herself as some sort of mediator just incase Bashin falls out with J, so J doesn’t lose basically his only friend, through pampering Bashin and becoming friends with him.
But giving him food and getting SUPER close to his face like you’re about to kiss him is NOT the way to go about it.

Or she sees the same thing in Bashin that Meganeko does, in which case I say BACK OFF BITCH.

Meganeko called dibs, and despite my gripes with that fact, you could literally get more out of dating… I dunno, Striker!

Bashin’s smart enough to click that perhaps J is not happy with Kyouka flirting with Bashin.

Since Kyouka and J’s relationship has yet to be established, Bashin probably thinks J’s into Kyouka.

Aibou’s Mushroom Arc has finally been completed.

It’d be helpful if the animals linked to the cornerstones weren’t still actively trying to murder each other.

Come on Okyou, you know better than this.

I mean, Bashin is pretty perceptive here, any reasonable person would come to that conclusion.

J having no friends really doesn’t help him understand social situations.

…WHY WAS THAT THE REASON YOU THOUGHT J WANTED YOU AWAY FROM HER?

Come on Bashin.

…I can’t tell if J is just trying to keep Kyouka’s relationship with him a secret, or if he’s being genuine.

The stutter has multiple implications.

So have we, SHOW HIM THE SIEGFRIED!

So is Aibou or Okyou a requirement for either of them to open the Gate to Isekai?

J is where it’s at.
“I don’t give a shit, just fight me normally then”

This is a man after my own heart.

It appears we’re starting from Turn 8 today.

Seems Bashin has gone right to playing Skeleton-Jaw.

I can’t tell what the other cards are just by the BP.

And Bashin’s life is in a super awkward position, so we can’t tell what he’s on either.

Is.. Is he attacking with Skeleton-Jaw?

Or is it one of the other 2?

Hm, since there’s a Core in the corner of Bashin’s Life, that would mean Bashin has at least 3 lives.

GIMME A VIEW OF THE BOARD DAMMIT!

So it wasn’t Skeleton-Jaw he was attacking with?

Then what the hell was it? Give me names dammit!

Well it would really depend…

On what’s on J’s BOARD!

Is he lamenting that he’s playing carelessly? Or is he telling Bashin that he is so his loss doesn’t seem so crazy?

So did Bashin just end his turn? Why was there a necessity to skip to THE FOLLOWING turn?

Oh look, there’s a Queen-Valkyrie on J’s field.

Completely unaffected by Spirits or Nexuses on the opponent’s field?

That’s… Not bad actually, immediately loses to magic though, and not very tough for a Cost 4.

So everyone’s under the impression that J’s ace card is the Magic, Defensive Aura?

While that is a super cool concept, Magic is single use, and using Defensive Aura won’t necessarily win him any games

But he does recognise that Defensive Aura is a prominent card he likes to use as part of his strategy. So again, cool that the show is outlining J as a unique type of player through making him out to be a “Magic-User”

But this is some foreshadowing right here, what is his Trump card then?

This is a really odd time to start dropping questions about Kyouka.

Maybe you shouldn’t have specified behind the gymnasium while she was there.

Would make it significantly harder to find you…

And suddenly J plays Defensive Aura.

While this is a legal move, Defensive Aura only grants +3000 BP to your blocking Spirits, the result would effectively be a fizzle when used on your turn.

Hence the word “Defensive”

This is either on the ball or a serious misunderstanding.

He’s blushing…

That’s never a good sign.

…Well do you J?

You’re not helping your case here sunshine.

Bashin’s drawn Offensive Aura. That gives him the opportunity to counterattack.

Also, now we finally get a look at J’s board.

He’s got Berserker-Gun, and TWO FACE DOWN CARDS.

For the record, this ain’t Yu-Gi-Oh, cards very rarely get placed face-down on the field.

There is a specific type of card that’s specifically designed to but we don’t get to see that til the 4th Battle Spirits anime.

So we’ll be waiting a while.

I feel like they should have managed their time better if they were going to have a card battle…

They just cancelled our promised rematch…

For the sake of a relay race…

This anime is just filled with disappointment ain’t it?

You are literally JUST here to butter up J.

Don’t even try to pretend you give 2 shits about this relay.

No Okyou, you’re not part of this race.

Also you’re a cat you’re like twice as fast as anyone here.

The minute Okyou catches Aibou and inevitably eats him is the minute that this series ends.

They confirmed Aibou was necessary for Bashin to open the gate to Isekai, Okyou eating Aibou directly impedes that.

And I thought to myself, “What does Okyou and Aibou have to do with this race?”

And it’s just occurred to me that the Hospital foreshadowing wasn’t because Striker had a problem.

It’s cuz he’s ABOUT to have a problem…

FEET ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BEND LIKE THAT….

OWWWWW….

At least Striker managed to make it to Bashin.

J is evidently in the front here, sucks for Bashin.

Only because Striker messed up his foot because of J’s stupid cat you assholes.

Striker talking like he’s about to die.

The problem with Sports is that if you injure yourself badly even once, and that injury requires a significant amount of time to heal.

AND it’s an injury on a body part that you need

That’s really damaging to your career, or in this case, potential career.

What’s worse is depending on the injury the damage to your body can be permanent.

Therefore completely barring you from that kind of sport in the first place.

Striker you absolute unit.

Something tells me that injury was way more serious than he’s making it out to be.

J about to give this cat the discipline of it’s freaking life.

Oh we’re WELL passed this Kitty Cat.

I generally hate answers like this, If you knew it was wrong then Why in the God damn hell did you do it?

Bashin’s mad, and rightfully so.

Okyou’s interference has cost them the race, AND badly injured Striker.

If I were him I’d want to beat J’s ass too.

J looks slightly sad here, and no wonder.

This is a punishment match.

Starting from Turn 9 this time. On J’s turn.

So it seems like they maintained the turn order for this game, meaning J still went first in this game.

Oh, a Nexus! And one that’s strong against Red!

At Level 1 it gives you a Power Boost when battling Red Spirits.

And at Level 2 you basically win or draw against Red Spirits!

Makes it really detrimental to face off against your opponent once they’ve levelled up this Nexus…

If you’re using Red of course.

Also are they picking up where they left off? J has a Defensive Aura on his field.

Which, again, does nothing on his turn.

I…

But…

HE HAD THE RUBY SUN IN HIS HAND WHEN HE FOUGHT THE NAZO-OTONA!

HE EVEN ACKNOWLEDGED IT!

HOW DOES HE NOT KNOW HOW NEXUSES WORK!?

Yes, and so do it’s Symbols.

Providing J a free White reduction for as long as he has that Nexus.

So unless the opponent can directly get rid of that Nexus, it’s going to be a pain in Bashin’s buttocks.

J has depleted his Berserker-Gun to Level up Diamond Moon.

Now Bashin can’t contest any of J’s Spirits without losing his own.

Not while that Diamond Moon exists you won’t.

So I guess they aren’t picking up where they left off.

J just has a Defensive Aura on his board for no good reason.

Also finally! Bashin uses his Key Spirit!

It’s just a shame that Diamond Moon is out, Bashin can’t make much use of his X-Rare if it’s going to be destroyed as soon as it swings.

When arranging Core, the Core doesn’t just have to be from your reserve.

You can take it from anywhere that you can access Core. Including Spirits.

If you run out of Core, the Spirit is depleted and goes to the Trash though, so make your decisions wisely.

Bashin this isn’t going to be helpful to you in the slightest.

Diamond Moon will destroy your Spirit regardless of how powerful it is.

Baby-Loki? That’s new.

It’s a Cost 2 version of Fenrircannon, and also only gets it’s effect at Level 2.

Didn’t stand a chance…

I always love it when they use special verbs for their cards… Makes the card (and the character) seem far more unique.

And all that build up went to waste…

Bro it’s not even like you didn’t know about it, before J ended his turn he EXPLAINED the effect to you!

And he’s just going to keep swinging.

Okay, Bashin is doing the Battle Spirits equivalent of flailing right now.

Queen-Valkyrie blocks the Taurusknight

And Taurusknight gets snapped out of existence.

Oh my god Bashin this didn’t work the last 2 times you tried it.

Why on earth would it work now!?

Anyone else hearing Initial D?

Cuz I’ve got some DEJA VU!

What’s worse is this happens not once but twice, Bashin lost 2 Skeleton-Jaws to 2 Icemaidens.

Why are you so depressed? You did this to yourself.

Right, so J’s summoned:

Berserker-Gun
Dualcannon-Bell
Gran-Dolbalkan
and The SteelWyvern Valkyrious

2 of these 4 cards are new.

Nothing special about Dualcannon-Bell, he’s a Vanilla card.

He IS of the “Armed Machine” family though, which is a super prominent family of card later in the game.

And Gran-Dolbalkan, of another prominent family, that being Machine Beast.

He’s got an interesting ability that can automatically end a battle with it by paying 1 cost, that’s good for when you want to cancel out an attack but don’t want to lose any spirits.

And Bashin gets his ass handed to him.

Interestingly, in almost the same fashion as Suiren lost to him.

So Bashin is on Suiren’s Level at the very least.

Possibly true, you didn’t have the Diamond Moon last time and Bashin drew Offensive Aura instead of The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

But a come from behind victory would have still been possible, just with less Spirits in Bashin’s Trash.

Yes a loss is indeed a loss, and you need to learn how to deal with The Diamond Moon.

But because J won only because he was interrupted meant there was still room for improvement, you can’t just deny him that fact.

Don’t ever give credence to an “End justifies the means” mindset.

That’s dangerous.

But kudos to Bashin for accepting a loss that wasn’t exactly his fault.

The fact that he needs a hospital to look at his freaking foot is just a testament to how badly he damaged it.

That cat needs a leash.

Bashin thanks J for looking after Striker and making use of their family doctor.

And then hops right back to the Battle Spirits topic.

No “is he okay?”, nothing?

Bashin just doesn’t give 2 shits about his friends apparently.

Awww, look at them.

They’re friends now.

All it took was for Striker to get brutally injured.

“Okyou just did something bad”

If anyone reading this doesn’t know the definition of “Understatement” by the end of this show then I will be both impressed and dumbfounded.

So they ARE Siblings!

Kyouka is J’s Sister.

So why was J getting so flushed at Bashin wondering if J fancied her?

If your immediate answer to that question is anything along the lines of “Does it bother you?”

Then that means you’ve considered that it may bother them, but went through with it anyway.

Why are you getting flustered by that question?

Her laugh doesn’t sound so forced here, thank god.

I fucking NAILED IT.

She IS happy about their rivalry.

Ah, so Kyouka’s so intrigued by him because J associating with someone with such a different personality and life is a lovely change of pace.

It’s like J’s just gotten himself a boyfriend and Kyouka’s doing her best to be friends with them.

There’s no need to be so accommodating of a friend Kyouka, even if it is J’s very first friend.

Makes you wonder why he even needs to be hospitalised if nothing is wrong with him.

J is loitering in my brain.

But unlike Bashin at least he’s not dumb enough to take up so much space.

That explains the hospital letter he was getting, likely the updates on his foot’s condition.

Wait his condition was so bad that he wasn’t even meant to be doing Sports?

And now he can’t even walk because of it?

Striker is… Crazy stubborn.

All that sport playing with a bad foot likely messed it up beyond his body’s natural ability to repair it.

At some point your body will eventually hit the limits of it’s ability to heal if you are constantly damaging the areas it needs to repair.

As such, scars can form, or worse, physical impairment.

Striker is eavesdropping on the conversation?

To be fair he should be having it with them.

His dream is slowly being ripped away from him.

And in this case it isn’t even Okyou’s fault, he was probably focusing really hard to avoid messing up his foot, the surprise from Okyou just distracted him long enough to stop being careful with it.

That’s a dark note to end on.

Alright, Episode review!

We actually got some character development this time! And this time from both Striker and J!

We’ve discovered J has a sister, Kyouka, who is mightily intrigued in her brother’s new friend like it’s some new event that’s never happened before.

Which according to Bashin seems to be the case. J and Bashin’s relationship has been improved as well.

And finally some insight onto Striker too, it seems his willing to give up the spotlight if it means achieving victory, which is an honourable trait of his. He cared more about beating J than being noticed.

But it also seems to be out of stubbornness that he does it, given that he’s been playing Sports with a bad foot for a while now, and now it’s bitten him in the ass for his carelessness.

If he was scouted for a Team and it acted up then, that would be a pretty early end for his career. And the possibility of not fulfilling his dream seems to be completely crushing him.

I’m actually curious if next episode will give us more insight into it. And hopefully get him to start playing Battle Spirits, considering he’s the only one in the opening that has yet to play, and we’re at the end of Episode 5.

Well that aside, the plot is still pretty slice of life thus far, nothing tense enough to sink my teeth into just yet.

Our card of the day seems to be The Diamond Moon, J’s Nexus and Anti-Red card.

It’s a pretty bad Nexus nowadays, the 2nd effect can still be detrimental today but the 3 core requirement to maintain the Diamond Moon’s level 2 effect is costly, and even then it’s a card that only really works on Red.

And the first effect isn’t too great at all, 1000 BP is pretty inconsequential.

The main benefit out of this Nexus is that it becomes a free reduction that your opponent can’t get rid of unless they’re specifically using cards designed to get rid of Nexuses.

And given that Nexuses are ran in almost every deck, that’s going to be a given.

Some decks may not need a Nexus to function, in which case it might be more beneficial to not bother using them, but then you’ll have no reduction outside of your Spirits, the pros greatly outweigh the cons for using them, of which there aren’t many at all.

Anyway, that was Toppa Bashin Episode 5! I’ll see you guys in Episode 6!

I know I said I probably wouldn’t make another post on Discord til Monday, but I absolutely love doing these, so I’ll break my promise for now.

Plus I have snacks to enjoy with my watch. So let’s get into it.

Episode Title is “The Idol is My Sunshine”

D’awww, is someone going to fall in love with an Idol?

I hope not, the last episode made me sick.

Okay I know she’s an Idol, but she looks to be barely older than Bashin and that outfit is SKIMPY.

So apparently 10 people in a raffle will get free concert tickets.

Only 10?

Must not be that popular.

Find me a Battle Spirits fan who doesn’t fall into the category of “children and adults”

Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Your program was stupid anyway.

I’m not bitter… I swear.

Card Sensei needs to find him a woman that isn’t mourning over her husband or struggling with a pain in the ass child that reminds her of said husband.

I’m convinced Bashin has ADHD.

No one can be this ignorant of someone calling after him.

And it’s quite obvious from this shot that he didn’t even stop for Meganeko.

It’s gotta be ADHD.

And 2 of them no less.

Greedy bastard.

Bashin just snatched them from his hand.

Who in the name of Siegfried does he think he is?

Is what okay?
He didn’t offer you shit you just yoinked them out of his hand.

This is basically robbery.

Hayami for once I hate you.

This is supposed to be a comedic scene but the guy didn’t win 2 out of the 10 limited free tickets just to give them to a pair of kids in his class.

Is using your attractive mother as a way to steal someone’s property considered armed robbery?

Dude didn’t even say it was okay yet and Bashin’s popping off.

And get Card Sensei to willingly give up 2 out of 10 limited edition tickets for no extra cost.

The fact that he needs to be prompted enrages me more than you know.

But it’s typical of kids to receive lots of gifts when they’re young because they’re unable to earn money to get things themselves.

It’s a shame that conduct spoils them to no end… Seems Meganeko got the right upbringing and she only has her grandfather.

Not even 5 minutes in and we’re already at the concert the episode is about.

You’d think it be some sort of fight over who gets tickets or something.

Didn’t take Striker for an Idol fan.

How is he surviving without a Football attached to some area of his body?

Bashin get out of my head.

I need that space to comprehend Striker’s hair.

Bashin doesn’t take this as an insult.

Always be proud of your hobbies guys, even if they take up large amounts of your time.

…Especially if they take up large amounts of your time.

No I’m not speaking from experience, what makes you think that?

I hate it when people make exception-based arguments like this.

Though in this case My Sunshine being an exception to your life revolving around Battle Spirits isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Something tells me you need more exceptions.

Something… Something… Breach of contract…

Being unable to estimate when My Sunshine will appear means My Sunshine hasn’t turned up.

Or has gone missing.

It would likely be on her contract that she can’t pull a stunt like intentionally so it’s likely something is holding her up.

It being entirely her fault is like the most unlikely thing you could possibly do.

And if you like her as much as you say you do then you shouldn’t assume it’s her fault ya dingus.

Minor grammatical error here. Nothing too big though.

Also if the worst thing I had to fear from my Manager was his Tears I’d do as I like as well, not going to lie.

Oh, she’s a repeat offender?

I’m surprised she’s not notorious for it, that’s not a good look.

Always?

How can she be notorious for doing it to her staff but not her fans?

Or are the fans just so fanatical that they blissfully ignore her mistakes once the show starts?

YO WTF
THE ANIMATION JUST GOT SUPER SMOOTH IN A CREEPY WAY.

OH GOD PLEASE DO, I CAN’T TAKE MUCH MORE OF THIS…

Back in normal animation land…

We have the Manager doing a lot of wondering where My Sunshine is but not a lot of searching.

Much like the game actually, a lot of cards in the game usually only search the top 3 or 4 cards of your deck rather than directly looking through your deck for a card.

I like it, because it means you need a strong gameplan before your ace card comes out, and while you can try to get to your ace card quicker, it’s likely you’ll need to burn through a lot of cards to get to it.

It’s much simpler to simply build your deck around your main method of victory, rather than to build your deck around accessing it.

I somehow turned the Manager’s incessant whining into a Battle Spirits lecture, back to the show.

…Shouldn’t this be a restricted area? I’m fairly sure backstage and where My Sunshine’s room is located should be staff only.

I can’t believe the Manager didn’t immediately try to verify who was snooping around in the staff area…

He doesn’t deserve to manage My Sunshine if he can barely pay attention to his Staff.

Bunch of people talking bad about My Sunshine and calling her selfish as a result.

See this is what I’m talking about, she should be notorious for this.

Bashin questions the validity of their statements, as any reasonable thinking person should.

Not a bad idea from Striker but there needs to be some context behind it, I don’t buy it.

Meganeko with the power of “The benefit of the doubt”

It’s always good to assume honesty when you’re unable to prove malice.

Bashin, backstage is likely a restricted area.

Secondly I wouldn’t place any bets on you figuring out what color your own hair is while staring into a mirror.

So it turns out Bashin made it backstage alright with 0 issues.

And Aibou Ex Machina has been invoked. Likely due to the fact that there’s a talking Chameleon involved.

Aibou you’re a freaking mouse.

You’re not biologically inclined to give a rat’s ass about My Sunshine.

No wonder people are able to wander through backstage freely.

The Guards are playing Card games.

Aibou, it’s too late, we’ve lost him.

The Subject of the series has kicked in, nothing else matters.

I think Bashin would sell you to Satan for a Battle Spirits match.

I assume here she means “Preliminaries”
Also mystery girl X needs a name I can give her until she’s unveiled, since her get up reminds me of Mimi’s similar outfit from Duel masters as a Guardian, I’ll call her “Mimi” for now.

Anyway, why the hell does Mimi care about how well a Guard plays?

Dude doesn’t have time for Preliminaries, let the guy play his game in peace…

…Is what I would say if he wasn’t currently neglecting his job.

Riling opponent’s up to convince them to have a battle with you is a good way to find opponents.

I just wish you’d use something that stung more like saying he’ll never win something he probably won’t get time to enter in the first place.

I love how he’s just referred to as “A Guard”

They couldn’t be any more literal without calling him “An Extra”

This appears to be Mimi’s board.

I question the need for Rib-Reaper in whatever deck she’s using. It’s a card that gains +1000 BP while you control a Red Spirit.

You can see why this is slightly useless here.

Oh that’s just cruel.

You can’t tell someone they’re weak and then use Hate cards.

Bone-Gladiator has the effect of not being able to be blocked by a Green Spirit, and the guy’s entire board (and I’m going to assume entire deck) is Green.

Oh? He’s going for game?

Alright, let’s see how “Mimi” counters.

Ooo, Ziga-Wasp and BlastTiger Tigald.

Those are 2 new cards.

Ziga-Wasp has the High Speed ability, this lets you summon it during Flash timing…

The Catch is that any core you end up using must be from your reserve, no using Spirits to supply it.

Tigald is basically the same but he’s bigger.

Also this is definitely not worth it for a High Speed Quasi-Vanilla…

By Quasi-Vanilla I mean a card that effectively does nothing. Once Tigald and Ziga-Wasp are out they’re no different to Vanillas.

but Ziga-Wasp is at least cheaper.

You.. You just said you could finish this in one move.

You played 2 High Speed Spirits straight from your hand with little reason to do so.

And then PASSED.

You don’t deserve the win.

My expectations may have been wrong…

But boy am I not disappointed, this is going to hurt in the worst way.

For the record she’s preserving the cost for Desperado, she needs 6 core, 5 for the cost that she’s reduced by 3, and 1 to keep Desperado on the field.

YEP
Desperado is nasty if you’re trying to amass a board of a lot of Spirits.

Because usually they won’t have much core on them, and if you’re caught with your pants down and a board of level 1 spirits, you’re gonna have a terrible time.

Desperado is one of those effects that is a double-edged sword, it hits both ends of the board.

You can circumvent the negative effect by just ensuring there’s at least 2 core on every spirit you wanna keep.

You’ll notice somehow Desperado jumped up to 7 core when it had 1 a moment ago.

That’s because 6 spirits on the opposing side were depleted by Desperado’s effect.

Desperado gains a core on it whenever it depletes a spirit through that ability.

Deplete at least 3 and Desperado bumps itself up to Level 2 for absolutely free.

Not going to lie I do feel bad for this guy.

But Battle Spirits is a cruel game, you can lose to a lot you aren’t prepared for.

Or in some cases you can prepare for something and despite your best efforts get ran over by sheer force.

When playing against purple, it’s important to ensure that you do not manage your core carelessly, or the opponent will make you want to quit.

A lot of early “When destroyed” effects in the game also don’t get set off by depletion, though later cards also state they trigger on depletion too.

This is why he should have kept the high speed cards in his hand. He would have survived on at least a single life once “Mimi’s” attack step started. (Wouldn’t have helped against the Bone-Gladiators since Green spirits can’t defend against them)

If anyone says this and they’re playing Purple.

They know exactly what they did, and they intend to do it again.

“Sorry” is the farthest thing from what they are.

I don’t have the heart to tell her.

Evil laughter coupled with an offer to play again.

See what I mean? Purple players don’t know the meaning of “Sorry”

Bashin being Bashin and wanting to fight “Mimi”

Bashin doesn’t just throw caution to the wind.

He throws it to the flames, along with logic, consideration, and intelligence.

You’ve been given enough evidence as is to suggest the answer to that question.

Not depicted, but that line was made by a different voice than Bashin or “Mimi”

I see the Manager has finally stopped neglecting his job and actually started hunting for My Sunshine.

And found himself an Asshole and an Idiot.

What’s the worst that could happen? Getting busted by the Manager?

If the end result is the same then I might as well go with what gives me the higher chance of success.

That sounds way more Romantic than it actually is.

I give Bashin flack for being an idiot but he’s doing okay today.

And as expected, this is “My Sunshine”

She’s looking a tad gloomy, I’d call her “My Moonshine” but that’s way less innocent.

Someone would probably need Moonshine to be able to miss that she was “My Sunshine” though.

I wanted to keep the illusion for those who were slower.

Bashin.
I just commended you for not being an idiot.
Why are you like this?

First of all, how do you mess that up?

You’re wearing a god damn cloak, you couldn’t have possibly slipped like that unless you WANTED to get caught.

Secondly, “giving your autograph in replacement?”
WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?

Is it your Autograph of My Sunshine?
Is it your Autograph until he gets one of My Sunshine?
Come on.

From who’s ass did he pull that out of?
Cuz after all the crap he’s said I don’t think there’s much left in his own.

Staff don’t make exceptions for friends anyway, restricted area is restricted area.

Also you already acknowledged he doesn’t listen, Sunshine.

Why would you expect him to do so then?

I’ve lived long enough to know any statement along the lines of “What would you know?” is the prequel to a lecture.

Just because someone hasn’t lived through your pain doesn’t imply that they don’t understand it.

Expecting people to suffer the same as you have just to relate is wishing those misfortunes on them.

Bashin calling her selfish is extremely scummy but that doesn’t change the fact that My Sunshine has a duty (and likely a contract) to fulfill.

This is equivalent to the complaints of a small child… Wait.

After a quick check, this character is 13 as of right now.

That means she probably can’t legally consent to any contracts without the permission of a parent involved.

So it’s likely this duty has been forced upon her rather than being a willing participant who’s having a bit of “buyer’s remorse”

I’ll take back what I said about calling her a child, but the pain arguments stand. You can understand something without relating to it.

On everything besides her 1st rhetorical question, I agree with.

Why is that the take away from her rant?

He’s killed the depressing mood sure, but for god sake.

Back to breaking the established norm, Bashin has a point. Kinda.

How My Sunshine feels about the whole thing has no bearing on the fact that she’s here now, and there are people waiting on her.

Something tells me she’s trying to get discontinued though, since her age makes it unlikely that she can back out the contract herself. But there may be better ways of trying to get fired.

I’m sure if I offended someone they wouldn’t offer me Card games as a method of resolving the issue.

It seems the Cornerstones have begun reacting to chosen Card Battlers meeting.

So My Sunshine is now one of the “Chosen”

Watch out boys. J is a fan of My Sunshine.

And apparently one can tell how many reactions there are from a single glow of a Pendant.

I wonder if the other 2 can decipher that J is around?

I didn’t expect everyone with a Cornerstone to be localized to the same town.

How convenient.

And My Sunshine reveals herself to beeeeee.
Suiren!

Now I don’t have to call her “Mimi” anymore.

Anyway, this is Suiren, and as you all know, she’s a Pop Idol, the Suiren disguise is designed as a way to play Battle Spirits undercover. She’s the series’ designated Purple player.

In most series you’ll get a relatively important character that represents each color and that character will stick til the end of the series and be the person who uses the most varied strategies of the color in question.

So far we have Bashin for Red, J for White, and Suiren for Purple.

So we’re missing one for Green and we’ve got a set of 4.

No one is lucky to have to face Purple.

Don’t kid yourself.

I’d cry.

I’d cry all the tears.

Purple scares me.

Sounds like a good offer. But knowing Bashin…

…He’s treading the fine line between Bravery and Stupidity.

It seems for this bout, we’ll be using the Battlefield.

I’m assuming she’s saying this because…

Since CG is a pain in the ass to get all the subs gathered, and text is boring. Here is the field arrangement.

Core Arrangements not depicted.

Bashin has 5 Life, Suiren has 2.

Now I do remember something about destroying exhausted spirits in terms of Darkwitch…

Darkwitch swings and destroys the exhausted Taurusknight through it’s effect. Which reads:

[LV2][LV3] (When Attacks) Destroy target exhausted spirit.

Bashin takes a life.

The second Darkwitch attacks, destroying Metalburn through it’s effect.

Bashin takes a life, and he’s now on 3.

He did have a refreshed Skeleton Jaw, but unfortunately due to it’s own ability, it can’t block.

The short answer is “No”

When it comes to effects that are triggered on an attack, they will always be the first things to happen, and nothing can really come before it.

And if effects would occur at the same time, the attacker gets to select which goes first.

So the long answer is “Possibly but only if your opponent lets you”

You’re assuming he has the brain capacity to recognize that there is nothing going on in his head.

Bashin ends his turn after this. Leaving Taurusknight as a blocker.

Do we really need a reminder? Suiren?

Fuckup Tally: 5.

I actually went back through the footage to check. Bashin swings with Lizardman and Skeleton-Jaw and then ends, Taurusknight shouldn’t be exhausted right now.

Whatsoever.

But since it IS exhausted, Suiren has 3 Spirits to Bashin’s 3 lives.

She swung with both Darkwitches and Bashin is now on 1 Life.

Suiren acknowledges Lizardman as a blocker and then ends?

What? Lizardman attacked!

Why has Taurusknight suddenly switched places with Lizardman.

Lastly, Lizardman can’t block anything with lower BP than himself and Bone-Gladiator has only 2000 BP at level 1…

Lizardman’s is 4000 BP.

She could have won this turn anyway.

Fuckup Tally: 7

I’m adding 2, one for the sudden switch from Lizardman to Taurusknight being exhausted, the other for Suiren thinking Lizardman can block Bone-Gladiator.

Bashin plays Skeleton-Jaw and Double Draw.
Bold move, let’s see how it plays out.

Flame Tempest will clear Suiren’s last blocker, and they won’t affect his 2 Spirits as they both have over 3000 Bp.

With 2 Spirits and no blockers, Suiren’s cornered.

I won’t lie.

I had to double check Darkwitch’s BP.

This checks out.

And because of this, Suiren loses.

This doesn’t sit well with me since had they just not messed up whether it was Lizardman’s or Taurusknight’s attack, neither mess up would have occurred.

See Taurusknight doesn’t have a block restriction, so if they maintained that then the match would have went the same without any issues.

This anime needs to fix up.

He is, he can attack with Lizardman while exhausting Taurusknight.

Also this win makes Bashin tournament material, he defeated the runner-up of the Battle Spirits Championship in episode 1.

Okay this is the second Cornerstone animal that could reasonably eat Aibou.

Leave the poor mouse alone, he just wants to progress the plot.

Has he just been chilling there the whole time?

How is he not surprised by the fact that they popped out of thin air?

Not even friends are allowed in prohibited areas without special permission.

So even if the Manager did recognize them, he’d be well within his right to kick them out just because he hasn’t spotted My Sunshine yet for her consent.

I don’t know what it is but the prospect of My Sunshine being kicked out of the very concert she’s meant to perform at is very amusing.

Bashin rightfully questions whether or not Suiren’s friendship with My Sunshine was true.

It’s likely the Manager would have recognized her in such an event.

Not that the result would change, they haven’t been given permission to enter a restricted area.

Bashin immediately concludes Suiren has no friends?

Based on what? Being My Sunshine’s friend makes her slightly up in League than everyone else on your friends list.

Just because the most famous person among your friends isn’t actually your friend is not a good enough reason to deduce that you have no friends.

Bashin now states that the pair are friends out of mutual interest for Battle Spirits and My Sunshine.

But… Sharing a mutual interest isn’t enough to constitute friendship Bashin.

Something Something Meganeko was first…

Back off.

I’m… not sure how that factored into the conversation just now Bashin.

This is basically the show’s equivalent of “See ya later”

SUIREN IS MY SUNSHINE!…

Do I get the Guinness world record for most Sarcastic statement ever?

Having a Headache would constitute a nap.

Or a walk within the confines of the restricted zone.

Not a full on disappearing act for a good hour or so and possibly making half the audience bugger off back to their lives they came to escape from.

There should be a word for when the correct answer to a Yes or No Question isn’t Yes or No…

When even Meganeko thinks little of your ability to stay on task, you know you’re unreliable.

Well at least you got something out of it.

Except that you didn’t take this mission for yourself, ya moron.

I don’t believe that for a second.

And neither did anyone else in the audience… Until now apparently.

Someone get me out of here.

I don’t want to be a part of this any longer than I have to be.

Thank God, well, time for my opinion on this episode as a whole.

Well we got Suiren introduced, something like this was kind of necessary regardless if you intended to make My Sunshine have a double life as a Professional Card Battler.

Suiren’s supposed to be one of the tougher players, since she was a runner-up in what was meant to be a championship match, and only lost to J due to Silent Wall.

Her 1st Match against the guard was a great way to display her Power for the audience, by summoning Desperado and wiping 6 Spirits off the board. As well as gaining 6 core.

What slightly bothers me is that the 2nd Match neither had her play Desperado, or win for that matter. Bashin just won in the same way he beat the Nazo-Otona, by using Flame Tempest.

Also, since he was aware that Suiren had an X-Rare, I’m surprised he didn’t unveil his own X-Rare this episode, they’re taking their sweet time getting Bashin to use his new card.

The result was a fight that wasn’t particularly intense as neither had played their X-Rare, but also Suiren lost and both didn’t really seem to mind it.

They could have established where Bashin’s level is at approximately by having Suiren beat him, Bashin’s win was… Kind of pointless.

Suiren’s runner-up placement now just kind of seems like a fluke rather than as a result of her being a potent Card Battler, and Bashin is now just a few steps behind J… And he’s on Episode 4…

Come now, if he won with his X-Rare at the very least I’d be a little bit content considering that would least be evidence of a Power boost.

Anyway, Our cards of the day, this time we got 2.

The first is Bone-Gladiator, a card that cannot be Blocked by Green Spirits at all levels.

As I said further up when Suiren was using it, Bone-Gladiator is what’s referred to as a “Hate Card”

What I mean by Hate cards is that it’s a type of card that is only effective against a specific type of deck or card type, in this case, Bone-Gladiator is most effective when used against a Green deck.

The reason why it’s bad to use Hate cards normally is due to the fact that you have absolutely 0 control over the cards in your opponent’s deck.

And Battle Spirits has no sideboard feature either. Since tournament games usually don’t support Best of 3.

Meaning the only reason you’d want to use a card like this is based on what the Meta deck is at the time, and feeling the need to directly counter it.

Darkwitch is the first example of one of Purple’s odd traits, the ability to destroy an exhausted spirit.

Interestingly, when mixing colors, some of the best combinations involve combining opposites colors together.

Red and White are considered a good combination as you can cover both a powerful offensive and a powerful defense.

Meanwhile, this is one of the inherent synergies Purple has with it’s own opposite, Green. As Green has abilities that can exhaust opposing spirits, enabling for Purple cards like Darkwitch to synergize by destroying those exhausted spirits.

But outside of it’s proactive use in mixed decks, Darkwitch is more of a card designed to punish the opponent for treating their cards carelessly, as Purple is very well known for doing.

The Exhausted condition can be literally any spirit that has attacked, making Darkwitch rather dangerous if you’ve just swung with your best card, for example.

Anyway, that’s the card of the day for today. I’ll see you guys next time in Episode 5!

Alright boys n’ girls, you’ve heard of the 3 episode rule, now it’s time for episode 3.

So I hope you’ll apply the same here, if you’re still enjoying it after this, then you’re with me for the whole run.

That being said, I’m bad at intros. So let’s just jump right into it.

It seems Bashin lives in an Apartment, which makes me wonder how they even have a garage for Speed Star to park in…

Man Battle Spirits TV has the most random stuff on it.

I’ll pick Blue.

Flame dance? Hold on a second.

All in all, not a bad card for it’s time for sure. A lot of the Spirits right now are abnormally weak, and in a full red deck, you’ll be fulfilling that reduction pretty easily for a 2 cost 4000 BP pop.

Power creep does kind of make this card irrelevant… And then we get revival version of it that conditionally lets us destroy anything with 10000 BP or less.

But if I was building a deck with the 1 Booster set we have right now. I’d probably use this.

What do you want? A Cookie?

See I told you, the man needs a mouse to just keep himself in check and yet you trusted him with extremely sensitive information.

I don’t know who’s the bigger idiot, the man or the mouse.

Or J for bothering to enlighten him about all this.

Aibou seems confused about why Hayami is dressed so well and successfully concludes that she isn’t working.

This is one clever mouse, also this isn’t the only Parents Day I’ve seen in anime, there was one in Yugioh Zexal too…

And that’s ALSO a card game anime…

I’m sensing a pattern.

Oh damn, it’s one of them “Mysterious Adults” all those kids were talking about.

No flasher coat, and he’s actually quite well dressed… Just kind of looks like a normal adult actually.

How are they able to identify him then?

How many god damn rumors about these people are there? And the only seemingly consistent one seems to be that beating them is the only way to acquire an X-Rare.

Then what the hell are they pulling for in the booster packs? Unless they mean the only way to guarantee an X-Rare.

In which case that would make way more sense.

I don’t want my mother watching me learning… That’s just weird.

Introducing a parent to a learning space makes it way more awkward than it needs to be.

Meganeko is a savage. You KNOW he’s into Hayami you don’t gotta belittle him like that.

Is that because she’s actually unstable or she’s paranoid about what people think of her?

It’s one or the other, you’ve gotten yourself into this mess Hayami.

I’m going to assume the former, given she has the nickname “Speed Star”

This is a reasonable complaint for a parent. Also I see that 4th wall is nice and firm through introducing real life problems in relation to an addiction to card games.

Good character writing.

This Navi is freaking Dad material.

Alright everyone, be sure to make a Wiki page for the Navi, he deserves the recognition-

OH MY GOD HE HAS A WIKI PAGE.

THE GOD OF BATTLE SPIRITS IS REAL.

This is mouse abuse, Hayami definitely saw him.

Don’t compare yourself to animals Bashin.

You’ve insulted them enough as it is.

So this appears to be Meganeko’s Grandfather, he seems like quite a cheerful old man.

I think the happy old man character archetype is one of my favorites, they’re always so heartwarming to watch.

Where are these kid’s parents to shut them the hell up?

Bashin…

You did something right for a change!

Your redemption arc is going smoothly!

No one show her the events of Episode 2.
I’m pretty sure she would have gotten in there and beat Bashin’s ass in place of Card Sensei, would save him a job.

Holy crap are they multiplying compound numbers?
Bashin’s wiki page states he’s 12 years old, this is some crazy math class.

I don’t think either of us care enough about maths for me to work this out myself, so I suppose I’ll leave it alone…

The question is staring at me though, longing for an answer…

While Silent Wall is a good answer to most Attack Step Survival questions.

This is Elementary School Maths.

I knew I raised him correctly!

Hayami Bashin – A minute ago.

Oh crap, the Nazo-Otona is here.

Don’t they verify which kid they’re the parent of when they walk in? Or do they just let any ol’ weirdo waltz into class as long as its Parents Day?

Everytime I try to raise basic human logic as a reason for Aibou’s stupidity, I always forget that doesn’t apply to him. Because he isn’t stupid, he’s just a mouse who’s discovered how to speak English.

It seems the condition for Papa Navi’s intruder alarm is attempting to open the door while it’s locked.

It HEARD him!?

PAPA NAVI CAN DECIPHER THE SQUEAKS?! OR IS AIBOU JUST ABLE TO SPEAK NORMALLY!?

and considering Aibou just gave his name and the Navi interpreted it, Aibou can speak to anyone, not just Cornerstone holders.

Then the Cornerstone must be to just allow Aibou to speak, rather than to allow Bashin to understand him.

If you’re ever feeling depressed, just listen to Papa Navi.

His compliments make the world brighter.

And that’s all it took for Aibou to break out of a locked car situation.

All you have to say is that you know the owner of the car to get through.

Blasphemy intensifies

Give it up for Striker Neutron.

Don’t speak such profanities in MY blog!

And one of the greatest lies was told that day.

Dude, you’re infront of a number of OTHER PARENTS while saying you will take responsibility for a specific student’s future.

The Staff review board is going to at this up like cake.

The likely story is he’s just a massive card nerd so he’s never actually busy outside of work.

And shouldn’t that privilege be extended to everyone? Not just Bashin’s mother?

It seems the Nazo-Otona has decided he’s going to snoop through the classes.

Those are what appear to be Bashin’s clothes, I wonder why he’s looking through his clothes locker.

I assume he’s looking for his deck, given it’s a card game anime, but since Nazo-Otonas apparently “give out X-Rares when defeated”, I’d wonder why he’d feel the need to steal Bashin’s deck, since he’d already have a stronger deck than him by this point.

We’d like to report a case of an Unidentified flying rodent.

This is the worst thief in the history of thieves.

And if you’re recorded in the history of thieves you’re already a bad thief.

No no Meganeko, it’s Mysterious adult.

There’s a difference.

So I was right, Nazo-Otonas have 0 identifiable features, that make them out to be Nazo-Otonas. So how were the other kids so sure that the guy was a Nazo-Otona?

Sudden quality drop, wonder what that’s about.

Ignoring that, Meganeko is precious, her first thought is to get Bashin an X-Rare. I wonder how well this is going to go considering the last few times she’s tried to help Bashin.

About as well as expected. Did the creators just make Meganeko to be some kind of butt-monkey? She’s treated horribly in this show.

Didn’t you JUST get out of Summer? How is your future relevant right now? You got like a whole school year before you start worrying about that.

To summarise:
“Damn, I need an good icebreaker…”
“So you like Turtles?”

Jesus Card Sensei, save some booty for the rest of us.

And I don’t even need to say anything, thank you Hayami.

Screw the turtle, tell me how deep in crap Bashin is. The more bleak his future looks the more I get to relish in his suffering.

I’m sorry Card Sensei, you extended the invitation to her
A request for a change of venue is out of the question unless it’s Hayami’s request.

I agree with Bashin here, but only because of my earlier statement, not because I care whether Card Sensei hooks up with Hayami.

No, it’s your decision if you want a good future. Your future is limited by your ability to grasp it.

If a Teacher made a decision for a student without their consent, desire or a legitimate reason to do so they’d be fired.

Hilariously, Card Sensei has a reason to refuse here. It’s not a social issue this time, it’s an educational one. He’d be reprimanded for backing down on such a problem only because the kid beat him in a card game.

FIRE HIM.
FIRE HIM AND TAKE WHATEVER LICENSE HE’S BEEN ISSUED TO TEACH!

That’s a good point. It’s Hayami’s decision in the end anyway, so this match has no purpose.

Do they just rebuild their decks every time they play?

I commend them for it. Building decks is the best part of Battle Spirits.

Oh hey, a throwback to the start of the Episode. Bashin wants to use Flame Dance because it’s lucky. Maybe we’ll see a new card.

Looking at this collection, it seems Card Sensei has removed Purple from the pool, he used Purple cards in their last bout.

There’s a freaking Flame Tempest there as well.

Flame Tempest is a double edged Sword and a pretty expensive Magic.

but if your opponent’s goal is to Weenie rush you (play a large number of low cost spirits with the goal of snatching your opponent’s lives quickly) then this can clear his board.

And since most cards I’ve seen up til now have a level 1 BP of 3000 or less, this might be good.

Wait, is he playing off of Card Sensei’s personal collection?

Then where are the purple cards he was using last episode?

I see, Card Sensei doesn’t stick with a specific color. I can respect that (if only because I don’t have a main color myself, I do have an affinity for red related cards for some reason, even if the cards themselves are not red)

There’s actually 2 reasons this is cool to see.

Firstly, this is a pretty good metagame mindset, if someone is regularly topping with a specific type of deck then that gives credence to the idea that the deck the player is using is a powerful deck on top of the fact that the player’s mindset synergizes well with it.

So if you build the powerful deck, you can personalize to help synergize, or just alter your mindset to suit the deck and you too can be a strong player.

Usually in anime, copying or stealing another’s deck is usually met with “You don’t have the same experience with the deck therefore you suck” but you can develop that experience over time.

The second reason this is cool is because it signifies that Card Sensei recognized the value of Defensive Aura even though he couldn’t play it last episode. So with a deck of white cards he can maximize Defensive Aura’s effectiveness.

Cool stuff.

It’s Bashin’s Attack step and this is the board.

Oh hey, Rokceratops is Level 2. Both of them even.

I see Bashin learned what levels are.

Okay, so Metalburn’s Level 1 BP is 3000, and Elephantite is at 4000.

Elephantite also gains 2000 BP when blocking, so with a 3000 BP advantage, an Offensive Aura won’t cut it.

…Nevermind. So that’s a 4000 BP bonus for all his Spirits. That’s gonna clock in at 7000 BP for all of them except for Eyeburn at 6000.

But since the Elephantite has already blocked, the Fenrircannons can only block for 4000…

Unless Card Sensei uses a Defensive Aura.

Well somebody better pick up that phone…

Because I fucking CALLED IT!

…
Nevermind, no one pick up that phone.
I didn’t call shit, wasn’t expecting 2 of them.

Basically the only proper thing to do here.

Swinging would just get him blocked by the Fenrircannons sitting at 10000 BP on block

The following sequence plays out:

Fenrircannon (BP 3000) Attacks -> Eyeburn Blocks (BP 2000)
Elephantite (BP 4000) Attacls -> Rokceratops Blocks (BP 3000)
Fenrircannon (BP 3000) Attacks -> Rokceratops Blocks (BP 3000)

That last Fenrircannon had equal BP to the Level 2 Rokceratops. It should have been destroyed.

Why is this section of Battle Spirits operating on an “Equal means Attacker wins” rule? I’ve only ever seen that in Bushiroad games.

And Bushiroad card games are awful.

Bashin only has 2 lives, so he’s screwed unless he has Flame Dance… you know that card he doesn’t have.

Bashin scoops.

I suppose the Fenrircannon fuck up didn’t matter too much but I wish they’d acknowledge it.

Wow…
Just gonna come right out and say it, huh Card Sensei?

And you’re AGREEING to it?
I guess she wanted to punish her son for being unable to back up his bull with the card game he focuses on more than studying.

Actually. That’s an entirely fair reason to want to go through with the home conference. Good on you Hayami.

Studying?

I guess he was being a little slow about nicking it. But anyone in their right mind would assume he was trying to steal it.

How would him studying your pendant have ANY correlation to whether or not he’s a Nazo-Otona?

Such a one-track mind.

But I don’t think free X-Rares are a good enough reason to suddenly leave your mother alone with a teacher who’s in love with her.

But this is a card game anime, cards take precedence over your mother’s marital life apparently.

Bashin had time to run to the staffroom, build an entirely new deck, get his ass beat by Card Sensei, go back to class, get dressed and hunt for the Nazo-Otona.

WHY IS HE STILL AT THE SCHOOL?

…Didn’t he tell you?
And it’s not like you agreed to meet up after this, surprised you didn’t get dressed and pop to his interview, he had like an entire match.

Also once again supporting the idea that Nazo-Otonas have no identifiable traits.

And the jokes end here, since the guy has finally unveiled that he’s interested in Battle Spirits.

You can SEE the low quality image on his cards. Early animations amiright?

Wait what?!

Until now there’s been no connection between Nazo-Otonas and chosen Card battlers.

So its odd that Bashin just willingly opens Isekai for him, without even questioning why he knows about it.

Well, we’re here now, Battle first ask questions later.

The Nazo-Otona gives Bashin the first move.

It’s the same fuck up, but I’m going to list it every time it appears. Bashin drew a card and is shown holding 4 when he should have 5.

Your draw step isn’t skipped. Come on now.

…You must have fighting spirit.

Nazo-Otona

Telling him what color your deck is doesn’t help you in the slightest.

WHAT!?

THEY SHOWED HIS HAND CORRECTLY THIS TIME.
I’M LIVID!

Rokceratops only needs 2 core to be at Level 2.

By purposely leaving it weaker, he’s goading Bashin to attack.

Lost some post data, that’s gonna be annoying to recover, I’ll catch up quickly.

We cut away from the battle to see Bashin’s mother complaining about how similar he is to his father.

Bashin’s mother is still mourning for his father…

Welp Card Sensei, time to give up, you won’t get a woman who still misses her old lover.

And we’re back at turn 8, the cut away helps fill in the passage of time better than simply cutting to a later turn for no apparent reason.

So I’m actually okay with the turn skip this time.

Currently Bashin has:

Eyeburn
2 Metalburn
and an Exhausted Taurusknight

While the Nazo-Otona:

has Taurusknight
Metalburn
and Goradon

I can’t verify the levels because we only saw the CGI

The Nazo-Otona telegraphs his attack by using Offensive Aura.

This kind of signifies that Goradon is at Level 2. Since Offensive Aura would not be enough to preserve a Level 1 Goradon in a battle with Metalburn.

Only 1 life? Interesting that he would leave himself with only 1 Blocker.

And Bashin himself not taking a life probably means Bashin only has 1 Life himself.

Wait, he was BEHIND!?

So by behind you mean you had more life than him right? Because you both had an equal number of Spirits.

Why didn’t you take the life on the last attack then!? You’d have 2 Spirits available to throttle him.

Bashin’s an idiot.

I see the Nazo-Otona did a good job of reading his hand, likelihood is if your opponent has had a particular card for a while and hasn’t used it, it’s probably because it’s not a Spirit, and also not helpful in the situation.

Most players will just auto play their nexuses even if it doesn’t help them though, since they give neat reduction.

He’s right, but even if he was facing a White colored deck, this card wouldn’t save him.

The Nazo-Otona has too big a board for messing with his core or hand to have any effect.

I’m sorry Nazo-Otona, but you failed to consider…

…The power of plot armor.

Oh! Flame Tempest! That’s not a bad card.

Basically what it does in a nutshell, good for clearing large boards of weak spirits.

Problem with that “all” wording, it affects your spirits too.

The irritating thing about this is that Taurusknight could have been levelled up to prevent this, as his Level 2 BP requires 3 Core.

Though he did just play Double Draw, it might be that he didn’t have enough Core to do that.

All of the Nazo-Otonas cards are gone too.

Thankfully the other card was Goradon, so Bashin wins anyway.

But if he had Goradon to begin with I question why he didn’t just play it, and saved Flame Tempest incase the Nazo-Otona countered?

He only had 1 Blocker and 1 Life, all Bashin needed was a 2nd Spirit.

Someone call shomentoppa and tell him that he mispelt “Plot Armor”

Ace card acquired, it’s The DragonEmperor Siegfried.

It’s got the Evolution ability.

Evolution lets you basically change it’s core arrangement during the Flash step (before a block or after a block)

So you basically have to keep considering what core is available when Siegfried is able to attack or block.

The Level 3 effect ensures that Evolution still has purpose even if what you’re taking on would end up still being stronger than it.

Back to the show though, the Nazo-Otona says something cryptic.

Before… Laughing and disappearing?

Back from Isekai, it seems Card Sensei has successfully cheered up Hayami.

Before Bashin quite literally drops in.

And scolds him for bringing Aibou to school…
Bitch please, Aibou goes where he pleases.

Man Card Sensei is thirsty for some of that tea.

Meganeko, popping out of nowhere for that sweet save.

Seems Hayami wasn’t going to bother anyway.

Oof, what a Catch-22…
He could have not cheered her up and probably not get a home conference since she’d no longer be in the mood.
Or he cheers her up and she would no longer need the home conference.

Meganeko is MVP.

And anyone who disagrees is objectively wrong.

Hayami gives Meganeko a ride home, I’m curious if she’s aware of Meganeko’s feelings.

Though she could just be doing so out of courtesy to Bashin’s friend.

Meganeko tries to inform Bashin about the Nazo-Otona, but it Bashin’s too infatuated by the X-Rare he got from said Nazo-Otona.

She picks up that it’s from the Nazo-Otona of course though, so she’s happy regardless.

And that wraps up Episode 3!

So this episode had 2 games in it, one where Bashin won, and one where he lost.

I’m actually rather happy that Card Sensei won using Defensive Aura despite being unable to win with it last time, making Defensive Aura one of Bashin’s banes.

By once again having Bashin lose to Defensive Aura, it makes 2 things clear:
1. That J is still stronger than him, despite J not even being in the episode.
2. That Bashin’s initial solution for Defensive Aura, that being Offensive Aura, isn’t enough to deal with it, as Defensive Aura still gives more BP overall.

But we also got another battle with the Nazo-Otona, in this one Bashin made a turnaround victory.

By making him draw Double Draw instead of a Spirit, it diluted the obvious plot armor the show was going to give him, since he did get the worst case scenario in that he didn’t get a Spirit, but then used the card he drew to obtain one.

I am still questioning why he felt the need to use Flame Tempest when the Nazo-Otona lacked a counter to Goradon’s summon to begin with, but I assume he was just being more safe than sorry (by clearing the Nazo-Otona’s board, it ment the Nazo-Otona may not have been able to play one, even if he had countered)

Everything else seemed kind of just irrelevant, like Card Sensei’s crush on Hayami. But the Nazo-Otona needing to examine Bashin’s pendant, sticking around despite having more than enough time to leave, and running to a secluded location as well as revealing that he knows about the Battlefield makes it so that the Nazo-Otonas are linked with the chosen Card Battlers in some way.

And by extension, King Uchuuchouten…

…Still don’t know who he is.

With that done, next will be Episode 4. See ya then!

Episode 4 ->

And we’re back! With Episode 2 of Battle Spirits Toppa Bashin, here we get a little bit of an intro now about the show’s plot, I suppose this is there for people starting halfway.

Also the jump in screenshot size has jumped with the Episode quality, this will probably happen a lot.

So to summarise, Bashin wants to be the strongest, and to do that he needs to beat some “Mysterious Adults” likely to set off the red flag of Stranger Danger, steal his cards, and build a better deck.

Or he won’t be able to defeat King Uchuuchouten… Whoever the hell that is.

No wonder no one’s beaten him yet, they can’t get X-Rares out of being too freaking logical and running away when some man in a flasher coat offers you some cards.

Not depicted, but the Icemaiden that blocked Eyeburn here had +3000 on it like the last one, so the assumption is that Bashin swung with Eyeburn and J played another Defensive Aura.

Also it was J’s turn when the episode ended, so it seems they’ve skipped a few turns ahead again.

Ah, yes, the famed Dream Ribbon.
This taps into another feature of White cards, the ability to remove cards from the field by returning them to your opponent’s hand. This can be used to end an attack before it reaches you without uncharacteristically harming the attacking spirit.

But it also allows you to remove cards from the board, so your opponent will have less blockers.

At the moment, it seems that J is being presented as a “Magic-User”, Battle Spirits like to categorize certain players by the type of card they like using most. In this case, J likes using Magic, so he would be a “Magic-User”

Sadly just using Spirits isn’t defining enough of a trait, so Bashin gets no cool nickname.

Bashin is declaring that he still has a Spirit with which to defend. So he must at least have enough lives to endure even if that spirit blocks.

Bashin’s currently at 4 lives, and J has 4 spirits.

With a single spirit left over, this means Bashin can endure.

While early in the game’s life, so I don’t believe the show has officially banned Invisible Cloak by this point. This is still a pretty horrible card to run into when you’re trying to defend.

Invisible Cloak makes a Spirit unblockable. While being unblockable isn’t too problematic in and of itself, being unblockable is a trait certain White spirits have written on their card text, so you can prepare for it accordingly once the offending card shows up.

Invisible Cloak can come out of literally nowhere, and being a Cost 3, it’s relatively cheap to use in basically any deck, not just White, Making Invisible Cloak a really dangerous card to have available.

And that’s not to mention some combinations of cards later make turning any card unblockable a real problem. So it’s fine that they banned this card. Even with Battle Spirits’ inherent Power creep, the fundamental simplicity of this card keeps it too strong for competitive use.

I’d chew him out for being bad at the game but J using a now banned card really dilutes how horrible Bashin was playing to begin with.

The anime doesn’t typically make a habit of using banned cards or non-viable strategies… Of course the banlist and viable strategies change over time so what’s being presented here is child’s play. Specific rulings that turn up are also upheld with the anime, so at the very least it’s an accurate source for certain interactions.

So the Battlefield logic here is that only certain players are able to invoke it, yes that does mean they’re going to make the conditions really loose so that they can invoke it when needed.

In later anime iterations the Battlefield system is universal for anyone who can play Battle Spirits, meaning that you don’t need to fulfill some arbitrary requirement to play.

Also does calling the Battlefield “Isekai World” make this technically an Isekai?

Bashin is curious about whether or not J was playing around with Suiren and orchestrating the come from behind victory.

Regardless of whether or not J drew it first turn, or drew it later, the timing he used it was the best, Suiren had only a single blocker, and J waited for his life to be reduced so he could use more core later.

Aiming for a “Come from behind Victory” was the best way to win, I’m not sure what Bashin’s point here is.

For the record, he’s talking about Gowsilvia. Considering Bashin just used the card instead of playing it properly…

YEAH I’M QUOTING YUGIOH GX, FIGHT ME!

That… ASSHOLE.

He was put on cleaning duty, received help, then LEFT THE HELP to do his job for him.

I’d be mad even if it was just some random extra, but it being MEGANEKO he did this to just takes the cake. I officially hate Bashin.

So Card Sensei canonically likes Hayami. And the fact that this is common knowledge to anyone who knows Card Sensei is slightly worrying.

Are there laws preventing relationships with the parent of a student you’re teaching? There doesn’t seem to be any particular law for going to a school that your biological parent teaches, and then being taught by that teacher so I suppose not.

It bothers me, It bothers me that someone who’s always in such a rush is so GOD DAMN SLOW.

It took him a good 30 seconds to realize what the problem with his talking mouse is.

So basically that red gem Bashin is wearing, that also seems to be a hand-me-down from his father is what’s known as a “Cornerstone”, it gives Bashin the ability to talk with animals that have their own, as long as the matching cornerstone has been “awakened”

It seems the condition for Bashin’s awakening was to card battle J in Isekai World.

I hope Aibou strangles him with it.

I certainly hope no random who fulfills the apparently loose requirement of being “chosen” doesn’t say the words “Gate”, “Open” and “Release” in that specific order while carrying a deck of at least 40 Battle Spirits cards.

That would certainly put an end to that secrecy… I’m taking the mick since the likelihood of that happening is obviously very low unless they say it as a courtesy before battle.

What is the condition for being “chosen” anyway? It can’t be interacting with Isekai, because that was the condition for awakening his Cornerstone, not being chosen, and Okyou seemed to be aware that he was chosen before his Cornerstone awakened so being chosen and awakening the Cornerstone seems mutually exclusive.

Like I know you need to be all secretive and shit, but like you can do it without being a BLOODY ASSHOLE!

Jesus, and you could have just said it was J and you had a card battle, nothing Isekai related whatsoever.

And the other option is that you could LIE and say it was just an ordinary battle and you got your ass beat.

Absolutely zero need to be mean to Meganeko.

Alright boys, when someone is trying to figure out what’s the problem with you it’s because they give a crap.

There is no reason to be this awful.

What’s not depicted here is that Bashin actually swatted a hand at her. That’s actual abuse. I hate him, I really do.

So Card Sensei’s name is Kyouji Kawatou? (Surname comes first in Japan, so I’m reading it backwards for the sake of the English commentary).

I’m glad he has an actual name at least, I was half expecting him to just be “Card Sensei” for the whole series.

Also I suppose he’s challenging him to cards because if he rightfully got in there and beat Bashin’s ass he’d get fired.

So the guy working at this Batosupi Center just re-opened the shop to let them play in it.

This is the face of a man who loves his job.

Alright, time for a battle! And it seems like it’s starting from turn 1 again.

Let’s hope we don’t get turn skipped halfway…

If that was your plan why did you leave Goradon at level 1?

Though I guess he says this because he’s about to summon 2 more Spirits.

Well Bashin has enough Spirits to swing and take some lives now.

He still hasn’t levelled up anything.

See in this case, Bashin wants to get to Card Sensei’s life unimpeded, so he swung with the weaker Goradon to prompt Card Sensei to block it.

Now unless Card Sensei has Magic, Bashin doesn’t have to be ambiguously afraid of when Metalburn is going to block.

This is literally halfway through Bashin’s attack step. We don’t even get a “Turn End” to see if he attacked with anything else.

It’s episode 2 and this is already bothering me.

Since we didn’t get a Card of the Day last time, let’s talk about this new card.

In the Early stages of Battle Spirits, cards didn’t have a lot of power or reductions, and either had to make up for it with abilities to boost them, or had limiting effects like this one.

See Main Character Key Spirits up until Ultimate Zero had a Level 3 Power of around 9000-11000, and they’re almost ALWAYS Cost 6.

This being a Cost 5 tapping that level of Power at Level 3 was likely considered unusually strong at the time of it’s creation. But it was appropriate for Red to be the power type.

Just giving them more base power would make them objectively better than every other color, so they applied restrictions like this that made them unable to block, either under certain circumstances or at all. In order to ensure that their powerful BP was used for attacking.

Lizardman isn’t the only example of this. It’s a recurring theme for this early stage in the anime’s lifetime.

J realizes he needs to fire his driver for still being in an area they were in seemingly hours ago, decides to go to the card store to watch Bashin fight for the honor of… not apologizing to a girl who was worried about him…

Hey look it’s that thing that’s seemingly invincible to mutually assured destruction.

I wonder if he’ll use that non-existent ability here now.

Let’s hope this doesn’t get to THIS level of repetition.

Thankfully in this game all cards have a card cost, so the draw in this case isn’t necessarily as free as you want it to be.

Offensive Aura lets you give all your attacking spirits +2000 BP for the turn.

I also like how since this is a casual game, he hasn’t put away Double Draw before after drawing into Offensive Aura and immediately playing it. Or maybe they just wanted to leave it there so they had something to decorate the field with.

The problem with fansubs is that they can sometimes get things incorrect.

But I won’t make a fuckup tally for sub mistakes, they do good work, and allow me to enjoy my favourite card game series.

Nah, in honesty, J has realized Bashin has won, and has no reason to see through to the end of the match.

He also says that if Bashin can’t beat his opponent with the current gamestate then he’s not fit to be J’s rival.

The fact that he’s considering this abusive jerkass to be a rival bothers me.

Card Sensei dropping the ever so symbolic Defensive Aura.

Note that against Offensive Aura, Defensive Aura has a net +1000 advantage. So Bashin is in no better position now than he was before.

I didn’t ever expect them to pull this. I can only think of 3 other situations that an illegal move has occurred anime wise. And 2 of them was teaching a new player how to play, so those are kind of expected.

The last one, on the other hand, generates such an uproar from the opponent that he flat out quits. But we’ll look at that one when we get to it.

When it takes your opponent misplaying to get you the win, you know you suck even more.

Bashin seems to realize this though, so he apologizes anyway.

Good on you Bashin, you’ve started your redemption arc with me. I still hate you.

Meganeko seeing the bright side of this whole endeavor being that she is now interested in the card game. Which is good.

Meganeko is a precious soul and her playing Battle Spirits is definitely a plus.

Now if only I could get my significant other to play this game…

While I understand the notion of this advice being “Don’t take your anger out on unrelated parties”, this is terrible advice.

If you’re angry with something or someone that means there is an inherent problem with your relationship to it or that person.

Yes, being angry at the game can only be solved by bettering that relationship with the game, but if you do it without identifying what that problem is, you’ll just get angry at the game.

And sometimes there isn’t a reason, I love Battle Spirits but even I get demoralized over excessive losing. But that’s due to a poor relationship I have with losing, not Battle Spirits.

So I shouldn’t take that out on the game, but I should avoid losing, since the game enables that, I therefore need space from the game to quell my anger while coming to terms with a loss.

This wasn’t meant to be anger management advice, but Card Sensei gives terrible advice with no context.

GOD DAMMIT!
Honestly the amount of “Show, don’t tell” advice this show needs is impeccable.
Come on show, give me something I can appreciate.

Ah yes, like card discussion! Nothing like exploring the game the series is based around. It seems they’re trying to contemplate the potential of Defensive Aura had Bashin not used Offensive Aura at a time where Card Sensei was unable to use it.

Fortune favors the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

Luck is a factor in any game, and your 40 card deck is the slot machine.

Thankfully you have control over what’s inside the slot machine, so you need to operate in a way that makes it so that all the cards you draw are cards you can use to help you win.

Big cards are Risk vs Reward, They cost a lot and can hurt your position if you just play them like Bashin played Gowsilvia.

Of course, Cost Reduction is designed to mitigate that risk… Not that Bashin would know anything about that.

Must.. refrain.. from.. declaring.. understatement…

No one but your first love should see you like this

Hayami Bashin, Mother of the Protagonist.

I know that’s a re-used image but WordPress has a 3GB limit on anything in my Media Library, I’ve been switching to Imgur to host my uploaded images for now.

A lot of Bashin being an asshole about losing to J. Not much really happened here other than establishing that Bashin and J are special in some way, and that Meganeko is interested in playing Battle Spirits

Oh, and that Bashin somewhat knows the rules of the game.

Well, I guess I’ll discuss them anyway. Defensive Aura and Offensive Aura are pretty bad cards, and it’s obvious for what they’re used for. Offensive Aura is designed to ensure your Spirits will overpower the enemy when blocked, while Defense Aura ensures you overpower the enemy when attacked.

Despite Power Creep being what it is, Battle Spirits have remedied the issue with a special type of reprint, known as Revival Cards.

Defensive Aura’s Revival version has a spoiler in it, so I won’t specify it here.

But since a lot of other cards later in the series allow for BP gains of up to 5000 with other cards, they decided to up the boost of Offensive Aura to +5000 instead of +2000 for all your attacking Spirits.

No card of equal cost would grant that much to all your spirits for a whole turn, so it’s certainly useful, still not very applicable when you can’t tell when the opponent will block, so it’s much better used for attacks that force a block, like when the opponent has low life, so that they end up with a low spirit count after your onslaught.

Anyway, that’s it for this episode, once again I’ll leave Episode 3 as a footnote and edit a Hyperlink when it’s done.

Episode 3 ->

When watching TV, make sure you’re in a well lit room… And don’t sit too close to the screen okay?

The Lovely Meganeko

Alright, Episode 1. Let’s do this.

Depending on what you’re watching, you’ll likely see this message pop up often before the opening plays, this is a trend that I commonly see last up until apparently Sword-Eyes. I don’t know if that’s because the sources I use omit the Sword-Eyes’ opening or people kept getting fed up with the repeated messages.

Regardless, Meganeko is always a nice sight to see, I’ll give her a proper introduction when she appears during the show.

Time for the Opening!

You’ll notice at this point there’s a color theme going on with the game, for those who don’t know anything about the game, Battle Spirits revolves around an assortment of colors, and color is a recurring theme when it comes to the show, you can usually tell what color a character uses by the way they dress (but this can often be used on purpose to trick you)

Currently in Battle Spirits Toppa Bashin, there are 4 colors, White, Red, Purple and Green.

J (Yes his name is a literal letter) here is a White user, White is the Color of Defense, themed around Machinery and Ice, typically White cards will have some ability to defend yourself, like gaining power when blocking, or ending your opponent’s Attack Step.

There are much better sources for learning the rules though, so give them a read if you want to properly understand them, they can get pretty complicated.

Either they consider J a Deuteragonist as he’s the first to be introduced, or they were super new to this.

Anyway, this is Toppa Bashin, he uses the Color Red, Red is the Color of Offense, themed around various Lizard-like creatures such as Dragons, Dinosaurs, and the element of Fire and Lightning. They often have effects that give them Power when they are attacking, or outright destroying enemy cards.

Red is also typically the color given to main characters. It gets old quick.

Purple is what I like to call the Color of Oppression, themed around Ghosts and Horrors, they’re also themed around the element of Darkness. The reason why I call it the Color of Oppression is because they have lots of abilities that mess with the opponent’s core, the resource he needs to play and power up spirits. With many effects that remove opposing core from spirits, destroy spirits that have certain core arrangements (like not having enough core, or rarely, having too much), or flat out removing the total amount of core your opponent gets to play with. They also have various other punishment based options, such as destroying exhausted spirits.

And the final color for a short while, Green, the color of Speed, themed around Nature and the element of Wind. Green typically has lots of effects designed to further accelerate your victory, the most common being to boost your core so you can summon more expensive spirits earlier, but they can also exhaust your opponent’s spirits so they can’t block, or flat out take lives under certain circumstances to reduce how many times they need to attack.

You’ll notice a theme with Colors having opposites, White is defense, Red is offense, Purple removes core, Green gains core.

Well, that’s the colors out of the way, hopefully I won’t need to address anything else in the opening.

Also, those who DO play the game, shut up, I’m aware there is two things I’m missing here, I’ll discuss them when they’re introduced.

And now, the episode title, “Front Breaking Bashin Enters Stage”

Toppa Bashin’s catchphrase is “Shomen Toppa!” which roughly translates to “Break through the front”, no this clearly has nothing to do with the subber’s name, I have no clue what you’re talking about.

Of course in unrealistic card game anime, the subject of the series is basically the best thing since sliced bread. So they have massive stadiums dedicated to people playing cards on a table.

They should have just opened with this instead of hyping me up to watch a tournament match. I would have cared significantly less about having the championship match ripped from my eyes.

Thankfully the alarm clock has saved us from the terror of actually having to watch the plot develop and we can finally get to the card games.

So apparently a celebrity since elementary school because he’s good at Card games, this is J, the horribly named user of White. And SINCE he’s a White user, he’s going to be our main character’s rival for the rest of the series, as White is Red’s opposite in this game.

A common occurrence given the slow pace of the game until the next season (I’m going to complain about this a lot, try to stop me!) is that they’ll skip to certain phases of the game. They’re better with it way much later but it’s still annoying how later episodes have them play cost 8 cards with like no reduction just because we’ve skipped to turn 20.

For the newer players: the reason this looks bad from the outset is it’s the Purple Player’s (known as Suiren), turn. She has 5 Spirits out and J only has 2, and you can see his Life counter only has 3 Core on it. The typical way to stop a Spirit’s attack is for a Spirit to block, otherwise you lose a life. Since J can only stop 2 attacks, 3 will go to the life, and J will lose.

Typical block here, he needs to protect his life

And that immediately brings us to the first fuck up of the series.

If you haven’t noticed the problem yet, I’ll explain it:

So when Fenrircannon here Blocks, it gains 1000 BP for the duration of the turn, meanwhile you can see from the screenshot that Draculious has 4000 BP since it only has a single core on it.

When Spirits have equal BP, both spirits in the battle will be destroyed. And Fenrircannon’s ability applies at ALL levels. And his effect is not optional. Meaning they had equal BP.

Despite this, the show frames it has Draculious having won. Rather than a mutual destruction.

And yes while Suiren could have used a BP increasing effect before Draculious’ attack. They didn’t show it, so it don’t count! Plus it lets me steal the LPArchive’s famed fuckup tally.

That aside, on with the show!

You’ll probably see this statement a lot where a character is “cornered”, obviously it means a character is losing but interestingly, there’s a pattern for when the show uses it, and it’s most often when, in a given turn, a player has the visible ability to win.

So because Suiren has 2 Spirits and J has no Spirits and 2 life remaining, the “cornered” prompt pops up because if J does nothing, Suiren will win.

You’re probably wondering why I haven’t introduced Suiren yet, it’s because she actually gets an official introduction episode after this. So I’ll do her introduction then. Until that point, she’s just an ordinary card battler.

J throws out Silent Wall right when Suiren makes an attempt on his 2 Lives, Silent Wall forcibly ends a player’s turn after their attack finishes. Sadly it’s after and not before, hence why the necessity to do this at 2 life, and not one.

Also, Magic card debut!

Mate just say the Attack step is over, it’s not that hard.

I’d probably go over why this is a bad game state if I could just ignore the fact that there are 2 Draculious that should be as dead as a doorknob right about now.

Suiren’s had her win cut short, leaving her with only 1 blocker, this can happen often when you’re not reading into your opponent’s hand and you run into a card that ends your attack step prematurely.

All J has to do is summon enough spirits to cut her life down, we haven’t actually had a good view of Suiren’s life up til now.

J’s amassed a board of 5 spirits, so by this logic Suiren should have 4 life if he’s going to win this.

Freaking finally, we get a view of Suiren’s life, and given that it’s currently at 4, that means Suiren is “cornered”

Edit: I somehow failed to mention that Suiren actually lost this match, she had no responses to J’s onslaught so of course, she lost all her lives.

Lose all your life, you lose, buddy.

I suppose they’re just foreshadowing that there’s a big bad in the show by name dropping him rather than just showing us a scene with him in it.

They also mention that this is J’s 2nd championship win, I didn’t think 2 wins made you a celebrity but okay.

Except maybe ending her turn after the Fenrircannon’s were beaten?

It’s not rocket science…

So this is Aibou (Yes I know it’s just Japanese for Partner), Toppa’s pet mouse. He’s adorable but he get’s less so as the series goes on, enjoy it while you can.

This is Hayami Bashin, Toppa’s mother, she knows her son well enough to keep egging him on through his main catchphrase, “Shomen Toppa!”, she’s also a Taxi driver. Gotta make ends meet.

Now would be a good time to introduce our main character, Toppa Bashin, normally referred to as just “Bashin” even by his mother.

He’s the resident Red player, and his main character trait is just being overly straight forward. He’s a shounen protagonist, what do you expect?

Interestingly he doesn’t have his ace card for the series at the beginning of the show, he gets that a bit later. I believe he’s the only character to acquire his ace mid show. Burning Soul could be another example but that main character already has his ace, he just doesn’t unveil it.

And finally, Ace’s in the show are referred to as “Key Spirits”, they’re the Key to your Deck’s victory.

And here we have Meganeko, she currently does NOT play Battle Spirits (Blasphemy!) but has a romantic interest in our resident dumbass, Toppa.

If I didn’t like her character so much I’d call her a dumbass for liking said dumbass.

And finally we have… “Card Sensei”

He’s the Teacher for our young protagonists.

And extremely emotional about Battle Spirits to the point where he let’s Students stand on his freaking desk.

I suppose I should start calling him Bashin from now on, everyone else seems to do it.

The power of writing as I watch, you get caught by stuff like this. Because of course the shounen protagonist falls asleep in class AND sits at the back, closest to the window.

He also just had a dream about announcing that he lost in the preliminaries of a summer tournament, so this identifies him as a weak player.

It’s just a shame unlike most card game protagonists, he doesn’t have stupid hair… I actually quite like his fiery ginger hair.

Also apparently the shops in this show are called “Batosupi Centers”, Batosupi being a classic Japanese method of shortening 2 words into one by omitting the last few syllables in them and putting them together. “Eroge” is another example of them doing this.

So “Nazo-Otona” is a shortening for “Nazo no Otona” which apparently this sub translates to “Mysterious adult”

And more telling instead of showing, a bunch of kids discussing beating a random stranger who is SPECIFICALLY an adult who is mysterious rewards them with something? Not creepy at all

Thanks for telling your viewers to take on random strange adults in the street, this won’t go badly at all.

And in typical salty player fashion, time to aggressively toss your possibly expensive deck on the floor when you lose a game to your classmate who had a hand of EYEBURNS.

I’m with this guy, why would you throw away money like that?

And now we get introduced to “Striker” (YES THATS HIS NAME) and if he’s ever detached from the topic of football for any longer than an episode I think he will actually spontaneously combust.

Also for some reason the footage shifted to a wider format, which isn’t the worst thing in the world other than it is noticeable.

Anyway after some bantering about football in a card game anime (BLASPHEMY!) we have Bashin decide to use the cards the extra decided to toss away. Except they’re Green and he’s primarily a Red user.

We can see how this is gonna go…

So Striker buggers off and Bashin now has Green cards…

Considering he hasn’t played a single game yet this can only end badly. He’s already been highlighted as a poor player before this.

Jumping straight to the Battle Spirits center, it seems Bashin has left behind Meganeko… That bastard…

And also he’s missed J, his Rival. Not nearly enough punishment for wronging the innocence that is Meganeko but it’ll do for now.

So Bashin just up and leaves the place he ditched Meganeko for to go hunt his REAL love interest.

to say I’m seething is an understatement.

Oh wow he gets to ditch Meganeko and gets rewarded with J?

Okay I’ll shut up about Meganeko.

Ah yes the ol’ “I’m too high class to associate with you lower class peasants!”

Unless he just specifically means Bashin, which I would totally take as my headcanon.

Don’t associate with Bashin.

Since Subs don’t capture voices, Bashin is imitating J

If Bashin’s Dad weren’t missing, I’d probably make a joke about how shounen protagonist’s often have their Dad’s missing.

So he’ll take his Cat’s suggestion over his Father’s? Interesting.

And finally we get a bloody battle, about god damn time.

Ah yes, the ever resonant words of entering the Battlefield. This is typically used to invoke whatever Deus Ex Machina is required to have a battle basically anywhere. It’s also those types of Battlefields where the cards come to life.

And after a 2 minute long sequence of the Battlefield manifesting, we’re finally ready to battle.

J just summoned a freaking stadium that brings creatures to life right in front of you.

Be less excited! Be scared! Have a negative emotion god dammit!

Understatement of the freaking year…

Another thing unique to this anime specifically is that the Battlefield opens up to release summoned spirits. And it bothers me because after watching the later series, you expect them to kind of be in the lower section of the battlefield.

But nope they just kind of float high up in the air

In Battle Spirits, you start the game with 4 cards in hand, but only your Core step is skipped on the first turn.

So Bashin only having 4 cards in his hand after drawing here is extremely odd considering he’s only summoned Eyeburn. So he should be back at 5 cards now.

Ah, interesting move.

J left his Cost 1 Icemaiden at Level 1, leaving it with less BP than Eyeburn’s Level 1 BP.

You start with 4 core and Icemaiden only needs 2 core to be at level 2, So I’m surprised J didn’t level it up when he played it. This attack would be unsafe for Bashin as he could lose Eyeburn if Icemaiden blocked at level 2.

Unless of course, that’s his plan, to make it safe for Bashin to attack so he can reduce his lives to play more cards.

Several ways you can go about such a simple scenario to achieve certain results. It’s why I love this game.

Not gonna lie I feel jipped, there goes my super in depth analysis for the first episode battle.

I’m not angry…. I swear…

YOU SEE THOSE GREEN THINGS NEXT TO THE COST BASHIN?
THATS COST REDUCTION
AT LEAST PUT SOME GREEN FODDER IN THERE.

Gowsilvia has the ability to gain BP for each core in the reserve.

If he had fulfilled the reductions for it, so if his field were green spirits, he could summon this for 3 cost instead of 6.

He could bring it up to level 2 or leave it at level 1, and it’d have 5000 BP

Defensive Aura gives +3000 BP to all blocking Spirits… which is more than Gowsilvia’s Level 1 BP.
No core in the reserve to boost it either. He lost Gowsilvia for literally no reason.

Make room for a better main character.

Of course, absolutely no reason for J to take a life when he can beat Metalburn. The previous situation was just to discourage Bashin from attacking.

But unless you have a contingency, don’t attack when your opponent has bigger numbers.

So they skipped like 8 turns of the fight and still needed to make it a 2 parter? Well okay then.

The earlier episodes are of course, the worst, since it’s early into the first anime’s life. Also I’m sure the CGI takes a huge cut of the budget.

I also noticed there’s no Card of the Day for this show yet, so I don’t really get to talk about any specific cards yet.

Oh well, my opinion for this episode is obviously rather biased, you basically watch Bashin be an asshole for most of the episode before his rival sets him straight.

also I love how quick he was to declare a card weak right after stating that no card is useless.

The characters are pretty well written at the very least, feeling anger at Bashin for being Bashin is better than feeling bored by him.

Until next episode, I’ll leave a footnote below which will become a Hyperlink when the next post comes out.

Episode 2 ->

Alright, I suppose it’s time I should begin with an Introductory post before I start tearing this anime to pieces.

Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa Bashin is the first anime title in the 9 (as of time of writing) total series, as they say in school, “First the Worst”, and that statement has never been more true than it is here. Given that it is the first anime in the multiple seasons of Battle Spirits, it is afflicted with many problems, the main one generally being constant re-used frames that often make the characters seem rather stiff and stuck in-place, this is ESPECIALLY evident during battles, let alone the slow pacing of some of the battles thanks to re-used animations.

Thankfully, this gets better immediately, seems the game was at least popular enough to give the anime a sequel, and that is immediately when all the shows seem to pick up in quality.

For the sake of protecting the posters and websites involved, I’m not going to state where I will be watching the Subs of any of the Battle Spirits series, but I will credit the person who subbed each series if I can properly verify them.

So, for Battle Spirits Toppa Bashin, the subber for this one is named “shomentoppa”, thanks bud, you do us all a great service.

Now, without further ado, let’s start this fever dream.

Toppa Bashin Episode 1 ->

This is going to end badly, isn’t it?

— Robert “Verus” Goddard

This is the first post on my new blog. Here I’ll be writing Commentary on the entirety of the Battle Spirits series, with each episode Documented with Images, Commentary, Memes and of course, Deck Discussion and Interesting Gameplay, I’ll even recreate the gamestates and decks incase the topic comes up using Vassal! So stay tuned for it!