Tithi

First of all, I'll apologise for the super long delay, I never once forgot about this blog or anything, I just haven't really had the time or anything to write recently.
But hopefully I'll try to update, at least a bit more regularly now.
So let's get on with it now, I'm going to review a more minor character so I can slowly get back into how I make these, without making lots of mistake I'll regret in the future.

So with this, we're going to review: Tithi (Titi) *spoilers*

Tithi gets introduced pretty late into season 3, and because of that, we don't get to see much of him, but even with that, I really like his character.

He has an important role as a Legendary Blader and because of that, despite his appearing so late into the series, he is around almost all the time after his debut.

The first time we see him, he is hidden by a mask, while the people who live around the area he is found in, are certain he is some kind of monster, and because of this, they send people to try and stop him.
Because of this, he is eventually found by Kyoya and Yu, and we learn more about him.

Tithi reveals that he hides himself behind the mask, because he is really shy, he lives by himself in this mountain ruin area, and because of that, he's very lonely, he was mistaken for a monster, because of him going down to the village with his mask, while in truth, he was very shy and innocently trying to make friends, he ended up scaring everyone away.

We see from this already, that Tithi has a completely isolated life, despite only just meeting him, there's already reason to feel for him, and as the season goes in further, it's really heartwarming to watch him begin to open up to his new group of friends.

One thing I really like about Tithi, is how much stronger he is than how much you would be led to believe just by seeing him, but it's done in a nicer way than other characters who had this trait, he doesn't display overconfidence, instead just becoming very excited, his personality comes out more when he battles, because it's the main way he lets his shyness slip away, and we get to some of his real personality, we get to see how friendly and sociable he can really be, and it's a great new side to his character.



Tithi's loneliness ends when he runs into Kyoya and Yu, who were sent to look for him at the time, he begins trying to run away from them and then, when he is unable to anymore, he begins to converse with them, though, still being competely timid in conversation, it's clear he's uncomfortable being there, but this meeting ends up changing everything for him, I'll go a bit more into that further down, for now.

We get to see Tithi's ancestor at times throughout the series, and it leads to a big heartwarming moment, where he meets Aguma, who is another Legendary Blader, they're on opposing sides throughout the scene, but during parts of the situation, you see them begin to remember each other, from their ancestors, and it helps Aguma change his ways, by remembering some of Tithi's ancestors' advice from the past, it makes me want to see more of the past of the Legendary Bladers Ancestors, seeing the connections they had in the past carry onto the present day just beings a really optimistic feeling with it.
 
The thing I really liked about watching Tithi's scenes, was seeing how much his character developed in the short while he was present in the series, and not just his character, his life in general had really heartwarming development, just seeing how shy and alone he was at the time of his debut, and then seeing him get new friends and gradually begin to open up to them, eventually being able to openly talk, and not even using the mask anymore that he used for security before, his more open side is full of really sweet traits, and it's really kind of sad to think how he had to hide all of that personality away before because of how shy he was towards anything new in the world.

Like I said, we also get to see how his life developed, along with his personality. Tithi started out all by himself, in a really empty area, with no friends, and then he made a couple of friends by what was thought of as a destiny that brought them together, those couple of friends turned into plenty more as Tithi began to travel with them, and now, with lots of new friends, at the end of the series, we find out that since the series ended, he lives with Dynamis, meaning he wont be lonely again, he got lots of friends, a home, it was really heartwarming to see how much improved his life has become since his debut.


 In terms of design, Tithi's is different, the colours his outfit uses are more in the dull kind of colours than most other outfits on the show, which are usually pretty bright, but I still like it, it's really different, and with the extra details, it looks like it would be pretty complicated to animate, so I like the detail in the oufit, because it shows effort, and it's more impressive, I think.
Tithi is the Legendary Blader of Venus, and I have to wonder if that's perhaps the reason he has a more femenine look, I think that's pretty clever if that's the reason, but either way, I really like his design, I think he's really adorable.
I really like how detailed the mask is too, it sets the mood of the area well, and it just has a lot of patterns on it that appeal to me.

 Like I said before, I'm also wanting to go into how his life changed, this would also include the main friendships he makes, so I think this would be a good place to do that.

His main friendships during this time, were Kyoya and Yu, though in the case of Kyoya, they didn't really get along so well, Kyoya's attitude scared Tithi, and in general he was usually nervous around him, refusing to battle him, also, because he was afraid of him.
Eventually Kyoya calms down a bit with him, and Tithi, while staying wary of him, does eventually feel comfortable enough to make jokes in front of him, not minding if Kyoya loses his temper, and at the end of the series, Kyoya reveals that since the end of the series, he battled all the other Legendary Bladers, which I assume means eventually Tithi warmed up enough for them to actually be on pretty good terms, and I find it really sweet.

He also met Yu during this time, and that turned into a very sweet friendship, the two of them made friends almost immediately after meeting, and it quickly grew into a very strong bond between both of them.
Tithi decided he didn't want to go with Kyoya to meet the others, because he was scared of him, and he had no idea what Gingka and the others would be like.
He was told by Yu how Gingka and the others were different from Kyoya, and after defending him from Kyoya and even managing to stop him from continuing to force Tithi into a battle, Tithi decided he would only go with Kyoya to meet up with the others as long as Yu came with him.
After this, Yu and Tithi spent almost every moment of the rest of the series together, Tithi always wanting to be with him, and getting concerned at the thought of being seperated.

They always seemed to have a lot of fun together, and it was really sweet to watch that friendship continue, Yu seemed to help Tithi overcome a lot of his shyness and worries about the situation, he helped bring Tithi's true personality out, and because of that, Tithi was able to make so many other friends, and have such a better life because of it, and that was really heartwarming how it all joined together the way it did.

Overall: Tithi got a lot of development, both through personality and just through how his life was, and I found that to be really good, considering how late into the series he entered, he has very sweet personality traits, and I can really feel for him, he had a very difficult life before at his debut and it was great to see it slowly improve through new friends who would change his life.
When his real personality comes out when he loses his shyness, that's very sweet too, he has a lot of good traits, and I really like his character.
Score: 8/10

This wraps up Tithi's review, again, I'm sorry that it's been left for so long, and hopefully I'll be able to settle back into a routine of doing it regularly soon enough, either way, I have no plans of finishing analysing, I really enjoy it, and no matter how long it takes, I'll make sure it gets done.
So, until next time.

- Surii

Zeo Abyss

Okay since I wont be able to write any reviews for a little while, I'm going to try and do a few today, so I wont seem so far behind, I wont guarentee that I'll be able to do more though, we'll see if I have some extra time.
So with that we are reviewing: Zeo Abyss

Season 2



Zeo doesn't get introduced until late in season 2, but for entering the season fairly late, we see Zeo has a lot of personality, and I think in the season, he becomes one of the most interesting characters to watch, we see how loyal he is, and the lengths he would go to to protect his friends. I'll go more into these points when I cover his personality further down, through his personality we see many different sides to him, and the bad sides as we continue to watch, does become understanding to his character, and it's very easy to show sympathy for him, while also feeling sympathetic for the other characters on the other side, I've never felt something like that before, so I felt it was very unique.

 

Overall this season, I feel Zeo has a great personality, one of the very interesting characters to be introduced this season, and finding out his reasoning and his backstory was very interesting and kept me wondering what was going to happen next, it felt great for suspense, and he really added amazing emotion to the scenes he was playing a big role in.

Score: 9/10

 

Season 3

Zeo comes back for season 3, with all past issues behind him, we see his nicer sides much more, and they're very well done also. His role in season 3 isn't as large or as important as it was in season 2, but he showed up every now and then for quite a good amount of the series, he still contributes well to the team, and we get to see more on the friendships he has with his friends, which we didn't get to see very much during season 2, due to how the story went along there, I think it's good to see how he acts being a bit more carefree and seeing how the bonds with his friends is shown was also very lovely.

 

Overall this season, Zeo doesn't have the larger role he had in season 2, and that is a bit of a shame, but seeing a new side to his personality this season felt very calming, it was nice to see him happy again, and he still had a lot of great appearences, I think he was a great character in this season too.

Score 8.5/10
 

Overall

 

Design: I found Zeo's season 2 design to be very interesting, I'll probably assume this is due to the detail, I just find it to be a very unique design, though It seems to be far from natural, which I think is quite clever, it feels a bit like it's refering to how his personality had changed and become less natural to his true personality, and how he felt about all the events that had took place. After season 2 he gets a new more relaxed looking design, there's less detail to it, but it feels a lot more natural, and fitting to his personality, so I think I actually prefer the more simple season 3 design, it fits his nature a lot more.

 

Personality and other notes: *spoilers*

As I've already said, I find Zeo to be an incredibly interesting character,  when we first get introduced to him, there doesn't seem to be anything different about him to other characters, but we see as we look further into his story, that there's a lot that has happened between some of the other characters, and him.

We see how he met Dr. Ziggurat while his friend, Toby, was sick, and how this led to him feeling betrayel from Masamune, who left the country at the start of season 2, which led to a big misunderstanding between the two of them.

While we see how angry Zeo acts towards Masamune, and how upsets he makes him during these actions, it's understandable for him to be feeling this way, and I don't feel he can really be blamed, it shows how intense his loyalty is to Toby, and how his heart really was in the right place, and along with that, the added effects he was recieving from the Arrangement System increases his anger and intensity.

While he does and says a lot of things to the characters that is incredibly harsh towards them, I still find a lot of sympathy for him, because it was a very hard time of life for him, one of his best friends being incredibly ill, his other best friend leaving, and then being used by Dr. Ziggurat, it's hard not to be sympathetic for him, despite his actions, people have different ways of coping with things, and Zeo clearly struggled, which is completely understandable.

Zeo made season 2 very suspenseful due to this, we were left really wanting to find out more, and when we eventually did get more, it wasn't a disappointment, finding out his backstory and reasons made me see him in a new light, and you can tell deep down, he doesn't want to be doing this, and seeing how the friendship between him, Toby and Masamune used to be is both, heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, seeing how things have changed to such an extreme, and it's great that after season 2 when all the bad moments of his life were over, we got to see the friendship between them all grow once again. (I will be discussing the friendship between them more when I get to Toby's review, since I feel that Zeo's may be a bit longer.)

You can see how much the events that take place in season 2 change Zeo, compared to him at a younger age, as we see how their life went before that, you can see the major change to his personality, where he used to be fairly carefree, with some exceptions, and quite weak in term of skills, everything changes in season 2, mainly due to the Arrangement, but it shows how strong his beliefs and morals are, to be willing to put up with everything he did, and while he changes a lot, he's still respectable for going to any lengths to look after Toby.

In season 3 when everything has settled again, Toby has recovered and Zeo has stopped taking part in Dr. Ziggurat's experiments, Zeo is shown back in his more calmer nature, which he showed when he was younger, and it's good to see him in that kind of personality again.

It's nice to see how all the bad moments are behind and how Team Dungeon can just stay together as friends again, they all still have important parts to the plot, and they all still contribute a very good amount to the plot, enough to show they are still important.

Zeo is often shown together with Toby in season 3, and later on, when King joins the group, they all seem to be the perfect team, and it's really great to know they all stayed together at the very end, It makes me wonder of all the good times they must of had, while being back at Dungeon Gym, I would of loved to see more of what had happened between them all, but either way, it's a great group of friends.

But in all, Zeo's change in personality I was really happy with, since he came back to what he used to be, and showed even more how much he cares, I think he's a really respectable character for his loyalty.

Overall, I find Zeo to be a very interesting character, his change in personality was incredibly interesting for me to watch, and it always kept me in suspense, while also feeling sympathetic for him, after season 2 where the suspense in him ended, we got to see his nice side more often, and that was also great, his change in personality was something I really enjoyed and while he was more interesting in season 2, and the story was more plot important to him, he was a wonderful character in season 3, also.
Score: 9/10

Okay, that wraps up Zeo's review, looking at the current time, this may actually have to be all I can do right now, so if that is the case, reviews will start back up in a couple of weeks.
See you then.

- Surii

Ryutaro Fukami

Okay, so todays review is of: Ryutaro Fukami
For minor characters, like in this case, I wont put up seasonal reviews, for the issue that the minor characters were really only important in one season, so, for minor characters, I'll just give one whole review, without any sub headings or anything in particular, I'll just mention everyone in one big review, and because of this, it'll probably be shorter aswell, so we'll see how this goes.


Ryutaro is a fairly important character in season 1, with the later seasons really just being cameos, with a few exceptions.

He enters around midway through the first season, and we see, from the start, that he is a very unique character, his character traits are very different than what you usually see, so having some unique traits in a character, was something that made him likeable.
He does have some regular traits along with that, mostly overconfidence, and his belief in fate and destiny.

The overconfidence doesn't really make him less likeable, in the same way it does others, it fits well to his character, so I don't think this trait really flaws him in too many ways.
I like the fate and destiny addition too, along with being a fortune teller, Ryutaro believes everything happens for a reason, so he'll go with the flow and try to follow whatever destiny tells him to do, I like this because it feels more creative than having a character becoming good/evil for other reasons, since he does what he feels would be natural to the world, it feels different, and I like characters to be unique and not as easily compared to other characters.

He is, at times, shown to have little hope outside of the things he has already predicted, which can lead to a lack of independence for his character, but it manages to lead to him getting more character developement later on.

After season 1, Ryutaro rarely shows up, which I think is a shame, but he does gat the occasional cameo, and he plays a larger role in the movie, in the movie he also shows a new side: one of someone no matter how calm and collected, can also get impatient at times, it gave him a bit more humour to his character, and while I do have to question if giving me a new personality in the movie, rather than the series was a good idea, he was very enjoyable to watch in the movie, and his scenes along with his travel group were my actual favourite moments from the movie.

In terms of design, Ryutaro is very interesting, his design is very different compared to a lot of characters I've seen before, in particular, I really like his fan, mainly for all the detail it has, and in the way that it relates to him, I think it's a good little addition, especially since it wasn't particularly needed, it just shows more effort, and I'm a big fan of that.

His design, in all, is just very interesting to me, it's just very different, I wouldn't say I love his design, and I wouldn't say that I hate his design, I just find it very different and unique.



Overall: I find Ryutaro to be a very different character, someone who is very unique and interesting.
His role in the story, while little, wass enjoyable to watch, mainly due to his attitude towards life, in general, and I am disappointed he didn't get anything better than cameos after season 1, with the movie being the exception, I did enjoy his character quite a bit though, he was very unique.
Score: 7/10

That wraps up Ryutato, I apologise for the length being short, but for minor character, in situations where I have less to say, this is how it'll probably have to be done, so, until next time.

- Surii

Tsubasa Otori

Starting right up, Todays review is of: Tsubasa Otori (Tsubasa Ootori)
This one will perhaps seem a little different from all the ones up until now, since my views on this character are generally more on the negative side compared to the characters I've reviewed so far, since I plan to do as many characters as possible, I do have to cover the ones I don't generally care for, as well as the ones that I do, so that's how it'll go, so please bear with me.

Season 1 *minor spoilers*

Tsubasa enters the show midway through season 1, and, for the first season anyway, he was a very interesting character: mysterious, calm...it was all a very good start to his character.

He starts off seemingly friendly enough, and then he turns to join Dark Nebula, which shows his mysterious personality, which was interesting to watch.

He was, however, often rude and uncaring, which isn't exactly great, but at this point, the good outweighed the bad, and it only got even more interesting when he revealed he was a spy for the WBBA, and he wasn't really a part of the Dark Nebula, it was good to finally get to see what he was up to, and the spy idea was very interesting, I wasn't expecting it, so it made it more fun to watch.

Overall: Tsubasa entered the season as an interesting character who you really wanted to find out more about, however his personality was often on the low and selfish side, but there was more of interest to his personality, and it didn't make the flaws stand out too bad, he still often had moments of not being a very nice character, but there was still more to it at that time.
Score: 6/10

Season 2

Well after season 1, Tsubasa in all, just lost all of those things that made him likable in season 1, he gets a dark power this season which removes the good calm and collected part of his season 1 personality (even when he overcomes it). I couldn't help but feel that the dark power storyline in general, went to the wrong character, but I suppose it may of been used on him instead of others to show more his true colours: his inside feelings.

 

The cool spy job doesn't get brought up either this season, and I think a minor role with the spy storyline intact might of been more interesting.

 

He's also no longer mysterious, instead he just becomes overly rude, overly selfish, and overly uncaring to anyone who isn't himself.

I don't entirely know what happened, but his personality just went really downhill.

 

Overall: in this season, Tsubasa just completely changes for the worse, all of the traits he once had that made him likeable last season are gone, and just completely replaced with all his negative traits of the previous season, just much worse, there are a few tiny moments that shine through, but it becomes so rare, which doesn't seem to be a very good trait in a character, at all, he just completely changed.

Score: 3/10

 

Season 3



Well, after the mess that was Tsubasa in season 2, it really couldn't get much worse than that...right?...
...wrong.

It starts on a good note, with Tsubasa getting a mission from the WBBA, so first thoughts on this were on a positive note, because it sounded like Tsubasa would go back to the spy stuff and be a minor character again, which would suit him perfectly, but that manages to go wrong.

Tsubasa just completely mishears his mission, or changes it, or whatever, into something that will instead benefit him, he shows that he'd be perfectly willing to give up his bey in exchange for power...what happened to being partners!?

He has a few okay moments towards the end, but again, it's incredibly rare, and even those moment still carried part of selfishness in them.

Overall: Tsubasa actually managed to get even worse this season, which I didn't even realise could be possible, he just constantly continues with the selfish, nasty nature he started to show in season 2, even then, the only good thing I can think about him this season, is also selfish for other reasons, but despite that, it's still positive, so one shining moment just doesn't call for a good character, there isn't a single other thing apart from the moment I mentioned, that I liked about him this season, he just forgot all the lessons he learnt from his friends, and became an even worse person, the start showed potential, so it is a shame.
Score: 1/10

Season 4

Tsubasa returns in season 4, which was probably of no surprise to anyone, but either way, in the time gap he has become the head of the WBBA, I wouldn't say the morals in this are exactly great, (just be selfish all you want, and you'll end up rich and successful.) but either way, personality wise, he improves, however, this could very easily be only because we haven't seen enough of him to tell if he really has changed, but from what we've managed to see, he seems to have improved at least a bit. (but with all his money, I really do hope he's been sharing it with his friends around the world who are actually doing hard work, though somehow I think that wouldn't be the case, oh well.) at least we got some slight improvement.

 

Overall

Design: Well, there's not really too much to say on Tsubasa's design, other than, it's the main reason for his major popularity in the fanbase.

I think his design is okay, it's a lot less original and detailed compared to other characters, and I'm not really a big fan of the outfit colours, not to mention the obvious fanservice in parts of it, but overall, it's an okay design.

 

Personality and other notes:

 One of the things I constantly see regarding Tsubasa, is excusing his rude actions in the earlier episodes, because he was a "loner", I just need to put something to light for this situation:
The very first time he met Gingka, he acted totally normal, the same thing happened when he first spoke to Doji, if he was truly a loner, he would've acted off to everyone, not just selective characters.
Not only that, he works in the WBBA, one of the most well known organisations, that is bound to be full of people, and there are also people who must be the ones to give him missions, I think there's a big difference between being an outdoorsy person, and being a loner, and Tsubasa was certainly never a loner.

When Tsubasa first appeared, he showed a lot of potential, as I mentioned before, there were many good things about him to note, the calm collected personality in particular was something I liked, and the mystery of his strength. (though I do debate on this, everytime he lost/tied he claimed he wasn't fighting at his full strength, there was really no evidence of this, especially when later on, when he got to have real battles, he completely struggled on both opponents this happened to, I do pin that a bit to overconfidence, but nevertheless, it was still mysterious, and not completely a bad thing.)

Season 2 is really where all the bad aspects of his personality really come out, I suspect this is due to the dark power bringing out his true inside thoughts, since almost all of the bad things he did while under the dark power, have had familiar instances happen while he wasn't under the dark power, if anything, the dark power just seemed to make him stop holding back on his true actions, which would make sense, since when he overcame it, he decided to just go along with it, in that case, perhaps season 1 was all just an act on his personality, I'd like to think otherwise, but I'm trying to look at all perspectives here, and thinking about it, it seems like it could possibly be the case, in all, the dark power storyline really did drag on too long also, maybe making it less enjoyable to watch.

I do also have to make mention to Tsubasa's backstory, which was covered towards the end of the dark power storyline, It looks like it was really only used to try and cover up all his actions, and I really didn't like the way it was done, it felt very rushed, and not only that, the backstory wasn't anything particularly sad, actually it's very average, he just gets a few things, not even really bad things, said behind his back, I'm sure every person on Earth has gone through the same thing at some stage, and not only that, these other kids weren't friends of his or anything, just some random people, so it's not really that sympathetic, it feels a whole lot worse if you were to hear something like that from your actual friends, I just feel that it was very rushed.
And not only that, he has never been particularly nice to kids, he tells Yu that he has no talent, he ignores Kenta crying, all due to his own selfishness, when he beats Yu for the final spot in the regular team he knows full well that it's going to mean Yu will continue to get teased by Masamune, but he doesn't even care about that, he doesn't apologise to him, which, fair enough, he shouldn't have to do that, but does he even tell him he did well or anything like that? no, instead he just brags about his true victory (and even then it was a very luck based win) right in front of him, you would think if you really felt that bad as a kid, you would try your best to prevent any other child from feeling the same way, but he can downright brutal at times.







 

It's not only people he can act brutal too though, he also attacks his Eagle, an animal, while under the dark power, and I just want to make mention to a particular scene just a few episodes before he hurts it. He tells it to help him if anything happens, basically putting all responsibility on it, and when something does happen, Eagle does what it was told, and in return, gets attacked, for trying to help him like how he asked.

During this time, Eagle just disappears, and we don't ever see it again, so it seems likely that maybe he's scared it away, which is a shame, the Eagle had a better personality than him.

But something that I think would of made the dark power storyline, is that he should of stopped himself at the moments where he was going to hurt someone, it would of showed that he cared about his friends, and been heartwarming aswell, especially since he shows in another episode that he does know what's going on while under the dark power, the very least is we should of seen his behind thoughts during these moments, but nothing, it's a shame because all his friends care so much about him, and get next to nothing in return.

 

The thing that bothers me the most about Tsubasa is the selfishness and unloyalty though:

Which actually does surprise me a little, because I remember him saying in a season 1 episode, that he didn't want to sound selfish at one point with something he said (ironically which actually wasn't that selfish.), I guess season 1 really might of all been an act, but either way, on with the points.

While the whole dark power storyline is going on, and his friends are doing everything they can, he doesn't even seem to acknowledge how much they fight for him, he doesn't once consider quitting the team to protect his friends, he even sends them out straight into danger at times, even after they've all selflessly helped him.

Then he wins a bigger battle later on and everyone goes to congratulate him, they all praise him and he just looks around at each person, as if waiting for more praise, I think it would be nicer if he would at least say something to them, instead of recieve praise and then instantly ignoring them without saying a word.

He doesn't apologise for any of his actions either, he hurts people, knocks people out, says really horrible things to everyone and never once apologises to his friends, or to his Eagle either, though I guess Eagle had already left by then, so maybe there was no chance to in that case, but there was no excuses for any of the other characters at all.

It only gets worse in season 3, where he seems to make his own mission, a selfish one at that, brings up having a new bey for more power, which would mean completely abandoning his partner, which he seems to have no problem with whatsoever, there's also leaving Kenta who he's just upset, and Kenta's reason for trying so hard was very selfless, compared to how selfish Tsubasa was being, it leaves you wondering at what lengths he would really go to get this power.

And then he seems shocked when he finds out the thing he's aiming for wouldn't happen, I leave this to overconfidence, which I'll cover after this, but compared to all the potential characters who could of achieved this goal, he instantly believes he's the one who deserves it the most, which again, is overconfidence and just plain selfish.

Then he does have a moment where he can prove that there are some selfless intentions, which he did by agreeing to go with them to help out their other friend to achieve the same goal, all looked good at this time...until it turned out that he failed to even show up, showing more selfishness since we don't see him on this mission anymore after he finds out, meaning he clearly only wanted his part of the mission, and selfishness keeps him from doing the rest.

Along with that, there's a time where the team, along with Kenta are trying to encourage Masamune on his tough battle ahead, Tsubasa is absent from this, and instead is sitting somewhere else, worrying about himself, which again, It would be nice if he would acknowledge that other people have to go through hard times too.

During his battle with Argo, he brings up how they haven't had an easy time, and then he flashbacks to himself only, along with that, we see through the series, that the characters have nightmares regarding their friends, on occasion, Tsubasa on the other hand, only has dreams about himself.

During the battle with Argo, Argo begins insulting a bunch of people that Tsubasa knows, Gingka, Yu, and Kyoya in particular, Tsubasa doesn't seem to care at all about these insults, but the second Argo insults him, he goes completely enraged, not even caring about his other friends, he only gets angry when he, himself is insulted, which also seems kind of rich coming from him, he's already called a bunch of people talentless, he dishes it out but can't take it back, and that's a trait that I really dislike in him.

 

The other main issue I have with his character is overconfidence, from his first appearence, he believes he's strong enough to beat Ryuga.

He doesn't think up strategies in people he battles sometimes because he just believes he will beat them easy, leading to many luck based wins, which isn't really admirable.

He worries about himself in a scene I mentioned above because he thinks he'll probably have to fight, leading to him not believing in either Gingka or Masamune's talents, and later on when Yu battles Enso and loses, Tsubasa says it was impossible for him to win from the start, and then when he battles Kenta in season 3, he gets surprised that he's actually having trouble with him, these show how little faith he has in anyone that isn't himself, and he never seems to learn from this either.

 

He does have his very occasional moments of shining through, he has a selfless battle at the end of season to help his friend, though even then, he wasn't completely selfless, there were nicer ways to protect your friend, even if it put yourself in danger, but he doesn't do anything like that at all, he just uses the "If I win" way, again, showing more overconfidence, luckily it worked out, but what's he saying, if he didn't win, he'd just give up on his friend?

But he does manage to help a bit towards the end of season 3, it isn't perfect, since the entire world was in danger, so helping does benefit him in a way, but it's still better than nothing.

And towards the end of season 3, they all mention their new mission is to make people of the world smile through beyblade again, Tsubasa brings this up, though in the end, it seems this missions means 'everyone else, go around the world and do hard work, I'll stay here, be rich and successful, and sit down all day', but either way, he does have his very occasional moments, not nearly enough for me to consider him a good character, but very rarely is still better than nothing.

 

Overall: Tsubasa started as an interesting character with a lot of potential, after season 1, he gradually got worse and worse, he's very popular in the fanbase, due to his looks, but personality wise, he's not a good character at all, after season 1 anyway, all of the good traits vanish, and once he's shown his true colours, it shows he's really a rude, selfish, overconfident person who doesn't have faith in anyone, his moments of being a good character after season 1 are incredibly rare, and most of the time he just continues to do things that cross the line, multiple times, in regarding his backstory also, seems rushed, and just makes some of his certain actions many times worse.

Score: 3/10

 

That wraps up Tsubasa's review, I'll try to pick a character with a better personality and more positive traits for the next one, see you next time.

 

- Surii

Madoka Amano

Okay, no notes to start of with so...
Today's review is of: Madoka Amano
Let's dive right into this!!
(For the seasons I'm going to try to refer more to the particular role the character had in that season, so I can leave the more personality aspects in for the end, so the season analyses will be a bit shorter, but the personality notes will be bigger.)

Season 1

So Madoka enters the season very early on as a support character, and as such, she isn't entirely well receieved, since her role is clearly less significant than the other characters, despite this, I really do like Madoka.

Despite the fact that she very rarely battles herself, she always cares a great deal about her friends and is willing to help them in any way she can.

Mainly her role is throughout the series, as a support member, and while she doesn't get to as much as other characters, her personality still shines through as she remains a loyal and trustworthy friend.

Overall for this season, Madoka is a very loyal character, always caring about everyone, going to great lengths to protect her friends, despite her small role, without her, the characters would struggle a lot, so why we don't get to see much from her, she's a great deal of importance to the rest of the characters.
Score: 6/10

Season 2

Madoka, in general, keeps the same role for this season (as she does for the next season), but we do get to see a bit more from her in terms of personality, her more serious side, her more cheerful side, her more angry side, everything is more fleshed out for her in the second season.

I would probably conclude that to the travelling aspect of the series, you always loosen up a bit when you're on holiday, and for Madoka, who wasn't in the battling aspect of the World Championship team, probably saw it more as an exciting holiday around the world, well, at least before the more intense moments happened.

This doesn't stop her from having a temper, however, she clearly loses her patience at times, which she can't really be blamed for, it seems that her patience would have to be tested to constantly be with a team where 3/4 of them were pretty immature at times, this doesn't stop a bunch of cute interactions between them, Madoka really feels like the mother of the group, and that's definately adorable to watch.

Overall for this season, Madoka seems to take a new mother role in the main group, it's a good fleshing out to her character, and makes her much more enjoyable to watch, because it feels like she has a more important role now, keeping her team in line, and she does very well at it, too, at least, when her temper isn't getting in the way.
Score: 8/10

Season 3
In season 3, Madoka seems to go back more to her season 1 role, which is probably due to having a more mature group with her this time...for the most part anyway.

She still feels more helpful then season 1 however, she steps up when her friends are in danger, despite knowing there isn't a thing she can do about it, she still keeps on being completely willing to protect her friends, no matter what happens, and in the intensity of this season, it takes quite a lot to be able to go through that.

She still manages to help out her team in other ways, as usual though, such as working through the constellations to decide who may be the next Legendary Blader in terms of season, she still shows her intelligent side a lot, and while she still has the occasional temper problem, she's still useful to the team, and always ready to help.

Overall for this season, Madoka still keeps her loyal traits that make her such a sweet character, she doesn't do as much in terms of personality than season 2, but it was still an improvement over season 1, and she remains a loyal, trustworthy character who always stand up for her friends.
Score 7/10

Season 4
Madoka returns in season 4, running the B-Pit where she used to help out in the previous 3 seasons.

I like that she's still doing somthing familiar, and her personality is pretty similar, except she's mellowed out a lot, which is definately a nice thing to see from her.

 She stays very friendly to the new main characters, and she seems to have a very strong friendship with Maru (Mal), which I'll get into a little later.

But it was great to see Madoka make a return, and to see her so much more mellowed out, it's really great to see how she changed in the 7 years.

Overall

Design: I loved the colours in Madoka's pre season 3 design, it was very bright, bold, and new.
I think the outfit went well together, but it did feel a bit simple, which made it nice when they finally did change it.

Madoka's season 3 design seems a lot more mature, and in general, it's just a lot nicer, it feels a bit more detailed and complex, which, while I liked the pre season 3 design, did sometimes feel lacking in this.
So, in general, I preferred season 3's design a lot more, it just seemed to show more effort, maturity and detail.

Friendships:

Madoka and Gingka:

Since Madoka met Gingka in the second episode, and has pretty much been by his side ever since, their bond was definately worth mentioning.

Since as I said, they've been together for a majority of the show, and it's really nice to see how far their friendship has grown over the length of the series.

They're both very loyal to each other, always caring and concerning over each other, and overall it just developed really well, with lots of adorable interactions between the two of them.

Madoka and Maru:
I found the friendship between Madoka and Maru really sweet, since they both have similar roles to each other, I think it's nice to see how well they both get on together.

Maru really looks up to Madoka, and they act just like sisters, it's really sweet to see this friendship that started before we even got to see the how they met, which I'd love to see one day, how it all began, I'm really interesting in seeing more from them, I hope we'll be able to see those details at a later date.

Personality and other notes:


I often see Madoka to be one of the lesser liked characters, usually, mostly due to her not doing enough.

While I think Madoka could do more in some situations, I do believe her to be very useful in each season, and I don't think everyone would have progressed as far as they did without Madoka, the things that stand out about her most for me in general in terms of the positive sides of her character:

-She always stands by her friends, even if it puts her in danger, and she doesn't even battle, usually, so she knows her help will be minimal at best, but she still tries to help in whatever way she possible can, I think it makes her a strong character.

-Making the same point of the strong character: All the things she has to see throughout the series, she has to watch her friends struggling, getting hurt, comatose, fighting for their lives, lots of things, but despite everything, Madoka will stay strong and keep the most important things in the front of her mind, to help anyone she still can, it shows her bravery in a lot of scenes too, the one time she did battle was only to help someone else, and it was an awesome moment for her, I think it's a shame it never happened again, but it was good to see at least once from her, it shows the lengths she'll go for her friends.  

-She's an intelligent character, and it's always good to have at least one of those types of characters around for a well functioning group, it shows that even though Madoka can't help in the main ways as the other characters do, she can be there to give good advice, and the help her teammates out, she always tells them how she'll help in anyway she can, and it's nice to know, that while she doesn't do as much to contribute as others, that she's always there as someone to count on, and she manages to do a lot with her small role that makes her shine through as a good character.
 
-I really like the way Madoka bonds with the other characters, the way that she feels like the mother of the group is something I really like, seeing the way she acts with each of them individually is nice too, because the way she treats each character is usually unique, and I think it makes a good role for her, becasue, while her role was never too fleshed out, it gives her more personality, and more things to look into when assuming how she'll act towards a particular type of character.

I'm going to be putting both sides for each character, so now let's look more into the more negative aspects of her character.

- The role: now, don't get me wrong, I think Madoka is still a great character, even with a small role like she had, but like in season 1 where she got to battle, I would've liked to see more of that, personally, the things she does in general, are completely fine in my eyes, but I would of loved to just see a bit more from her in those kind of directions, it's nice that she gets her own unique traits to her character, but the time in season 1 where she battled, was just a really great moment, in my opinion, I definately would of liked to see a bit more from her, in that way.
 
 -The temper: I think it's great that we got a strong minded female character in the main cast, but I feel her biggest flaw probably comes from her temper, at times, she can really lose it quite often, and some of the time, the reasons aren't too huge, it's good to see that she's at least mellowed out in those terms by Zero-G, but for the earlier seasons, I think it gets in the way for her character, slightly, it gets a bit more under control by season 3, it's still there, but better, so I was pleased with that, and either way, it can be quite humorous to watch, in gereral, but in terms of her character, I think she needed to chill out quite a lot, mostly in season 2.

I did always find Madoka to be a fun character to watch, and I'm glad she got to be big part of the series, usually by Gingka's side, it was fun to watch her in terms of personality and interaction, and while I think she could have had a bit of a more involved role, especially towards the end, seeing her always prepared to help despite anything that's become an obstacle to them, is something that's always very sweet to watch.

Overall: I find Madoka to be a very sweet character, always ready to help her friends, and manages to help, despite traits that hold her back.
I think she's a really good character, but I think she hasn't quite reached her full potential in the way she could have, had she been a bit more involved with the plot.
Despite that, I enjoy watching her, and the unique interactions between her and each of the characters, I always find fun to see, and something I look forward to is more characters to be introduced, so I can see the way she acts around them.
Score: 7/10

That wraps up Madoka's analysis, see you soon for the next review.

- Surii