Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa Bashin Ep. 01

More BS for everyone. Yeah, that joke will probably be done after about...two more uses. Anyway. This clears up most of my confusion from my previous entry. Battle Spirits Genkai Toppa Bashin episode 01 is inexplicably episode two of Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa Bashin. I'm not sure why. Or maybe the video files are just poorly labeled. Anyway. Episode opens with J vs. a masked fighter named Suiiren. She appears to be ahead, but with some magic (cards), he suddenly pulls ahead from behind and defeats her soundly. In the meantime, Bashin does normal hero things like sleep in, feed his pet, cluelessly walk past the girl who's totally crushing on him, goof off in class, play Battle Spirits, and make deep and lasting friendships. Oh yeah, and his mouse doesn't talk yet. It's apparently some unfortunate side effect of playing Battle Spirits in THE MAGICAL ZONE (not real name). All through episode two, I really thought he was just referring to his talking mouse as "buddy," or "partner," but apparently its name really is "aibou." Clever. Really.

There's actually a TV program about Battle Spirits. With like, commentators and analyists and stuff. And here I was worried that this card game wouldn't be unnaturally popular in this alternate Japan. The guy on the right is totally my hero.

It's his father. Naturally. Nothing like a good shine on the glass to keep mysterious characters a mystery. Oh yeah, and did I mention that Bashin has some sort of magic pendant that once belonged to his dad? MYSTERIOUS.

His soccer loving friend has large hair, a fact not unnoticed by this clever fellow. He probably attacks other players with it too.

So uh, a good intro to the game and the characters, I guess. Not much happens, and it's overflowing with enough stereotypes and tropes that only someone interested in blatant commercials would probably go for it. Also, the animation is noticeably worse than episode two. Or not worse...but a lot more lazy. More talking heads, still frames and walking in place. I wonder what happened to change the production values so much?

--Ou-bento