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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
