Battle Spirits: Shounen Toppa Bashin

soaker87★ 8

This series has no reviews, so I figured I might as well write one, as it's a favorite of mine. Story: Admittedly, not the strongest part of this anime. It's very much a slice-of-life series, and that's not one of my favorite genres. With a few exceptions, I have a hard time staying interested in a series with no overall objective. There is a little bit of plot, but the series probably would have been stronger if it jumped into it earlier on. Art: I love the art. Besides just being plain cute (expected from the same designer responsible for Powerpuff Girls Z) the designs are very unique.Some of the characters have crazy hair, such as Striker's scythe and Number Nine's fish head. The art generally flows well too. There are a few episodes where the quality is noticeably lower, but generally, there's nothing distracting at least. The series also uses a lot of CG. Again, something I'm not particularly fond of, but the anime art makes up for it. Sound: The BGMs aren't particularly notable, but very rarely does a soundtrack stand out for me, so I wouldn't judge it too harshly for that. The OP song is pretty catchy, though it's unfortunately accompanied with a rather bland animation that feels pretty outdated by the end of the series. There's also another song on the OP single, which is played as an insert song a couple times, and is much catchier. Both EDs really stand out, however. They're very cute songs, and appropriate for the show, as they're supposedly performed by the idol character, My Sunshine. The second actually is sung by her seiyuu. When it comes to voice acting, as a seiyuu lover, I was a bit disappointed to see a mostly new cast. However, I've come to like some of these voice actors. Mutsumi Tamura and Kaya Miyake (the seiyuu for Bashin and J) sound convincingly enough like 12-year-old boys. Sometimes I have an issue with cross-dressing voices, as the guys can just sound too feminine for their age. Riki Kitazawa (Card Sensei) had no major anime roles prior to Battle Spirits, but has shown a nice range of emotion (going from comic relief scenes to quite serious ones) and I really hope to hear more from him soon. Character: Probably the strongest thing in this anime. The characters are amazingly fun. I have a hard time disliking any of them. They all have some interesting quirks, and are likable in their own way. Bashin, the protagonist, is typical of a shounen hero. He's very hot-blooded, persistent, and clueless. While this is a character archetype that tends to annoy me, I found him so absolutely braindead that it can be hilarious. While they're not my number one favorites, Bashin's rival J and childhood friend Meganeko are probably the two strongest characters. Both get a great deal of development throughout the series, in ways I didn't expect. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the villains, Thousand Spirits Group. They're quite unique (it's not every day the creator of a TCG is put in it's anime adaptation as an antagonist), and for a lot of them, "villain" is probably too harsh a word. Not to say they're all nice though. Smile in particular makes a great villain, as his appearance and obsession with J come off as quite creepy. Enjoyment: The series gets better as it goes on, with the second half being much more interesting than the first. The first episode is perhaps the slowest in the series, unfortunately. The 3+ minute long arena building scene does not help. But as it went on, the atmosphere really drew me in. It can be kind of a relaxing show, the type where I like to just marathon it to kill time and laugh a bit. Overall: Clearly, this isn't an anime for everyone. But I certainly wouldn't limit it to fans of the TCG only, as I had never played the game before I watched this, and still enjoyed it. If you like cute, funny anime (this series has made me laugh out loud countless times) you'd probably enjoy this. If you prefer your anime with a gritty look and a dark, serious plot, you'll probably hate this.

Lord_Valzin★ 6

This is a card game (obviously) about young kids. The main characters are obvious at what they are going to become (proxyenes). Up to episode 24 is actually good, they introduce the characters and the question marks (supposed to give you card if you win) I liked. It introduces how they get a little team and the early battles to ep24 are good you can actually follow on with what they are doing. The rules and everything of the cards and effects aren't really explained though till last ep, but the first half is good though there really are no new cards released till adude named smile gets introduced. After he is introduced a lot of new cards are introduced, way more than first half, it gets a little bit more difficult to follow, but not that much. The story gets more interesting when smile gets introduced (ep 26 or something) that is when it starts going. There is little romance in story.The art is pretty good if you ask me. The cgi and when monster appears from bellow just fast forward in the beginning to ep 24 it takes a while to get to battle. This anime has some parts you can just skip forward in the ep in some parts not really needed for story some dialogue unnecessary just get into the story or ep. I knew where bashin dad went to if you know what I mean. In the last ep in anime was like the only ep I would give 8/10. op good and ending didn't really like. If you want to finish this anime fast skip intro 2 min and ending 2min, in first half can finish fast like the cgi and some boring parts, but most was good ( if you do what I did each episode went by fast 15 min or less). In second half there was a bit too much dialogue I skipped some parts. Mom could have been a great introduction in story in second half, but yeah get kept a secret. There is some problems in the anime , but it's your choice to watch.