Benkei Hanawa

''This is an article about the Anime Character. For the manga counterpart of the same name, see here.''

Benkei Hanawa (花輪ベンケイ/花輪弁慶, Hanawa Benkei) is one of the main characters in the Metal Saga, first appearing in Beyblade: Metal Fusion.

He is a former-member of the Face Hunters under the leadership of Kyoya Tategami. He and Kyoya later reformed and became best friends, Benkei always supporting Kyoya from the sidelines hoping to be right next to him when it counts. During Big Bang Bladers, Benkei joined Kyoya's Team Wild Fang under his alter ego: The Masked Bull. He is an energetic and enthusiastic blader with the heart of a bull that matches his partner: Dark Bull H145SD.

Physical Appearance
Benkei is tough and physically strong. He has a big build with a large stomach. His short purple hair is normally covered by his white beanie hat that has a red bull's skull on it. His eyes are of a red-ish brown. He wears a red and black jacket with red strip on both the front side that is usually zipped on his torso, white bands around his wrists, gray shorts on his legs, and black shoes on his huge feet. He also has a brown belt with a holster covered by his jacket in which he keeps his Bey Gear.

Personality
Benkei seems tough and burly on the outside and looks like a typical bully, but he is actually very kind and has a good heart and a love for burgers. Whenever that part of him shows too much, he tries to cover it up because he doesn't want other people to think of him as soft. He also admires Kyoya very much, which causes him to tear up, or cry when Kyoya has his moments; going as far as to hug him in Episode 11, when he sees that Kyoya has awakened. He stubbornly follows Kyoya around, never giving up on their friendship. For the sake of Kyoya, Benkei can endure a lot - no matter how harshly he is treated, he will wordlessly forgive it. He is also a very determined Blader, and does not give up easily in hard situations.

Benkei is a former member of the "Face Hunters" gang. As a part of this group, he acted ruthlessly and didn't shy down from hurting weaker and smaller children. This largely changes after he befriends Kenta and Benkei begins helping out other. Coincidentally, he was removed from the Face Hunters exactly because of this side.

As a loud and expressive person, Benkei sometimes gets into fights with his friends, but he doesn't seem able to hold a grudge for long. He is a very loyal friend, not only to Kyoya, but also increasingly to the rest of the group. Despite the fact that he can sometimes be rather naive, his friendship is rightfully held in high regard by most.

Beyblade: Metal Fusion
Benkei first appears as a leading member of the Face Hunters, attempting to take Kenta's Beypoints. After Gingka comes to Kenta's rescue and manages to defeat the Face Hunters leader Kyoya, Kyoya is taken away by Doji for training, Benkei is immensely worried. Doji appears before him as well, giving him his  Dark Bull H145SD so that he can defeat Gingka and be useful to Kyoya. However, Benkei fails to win over Gingka and instead begins to change for the better. While he remains hesitant for a while, he eventually offers to train Kenta and in the process befriends him. This is followed up by him beginning a friendship with Gingka and Madoka as well, ending up a part of the main group.

When Kyoya finally returns from training, Benkei finds him a changed person. Kyoya, now only after destruction, cruelly defeats Benkei and then proceeds to kick him unconscious. Despite this, Benkei immediately forgives Kyoya, after he's defeated by Gingka and returns to his normal self.

Benkei is together with Gingka and his friends for most of the Metal Fusion main plot. With them, he fights at the Dark Nebula castle and participates in the Survival Battle, meeting Yu. In the Battle Bladers tournament, he finally has a channce to battle against Kyoya and show him how much he's improved. Despite the fact that he loses, Kyoya acknowledges his progress, which makes Benkei incredibly happy.

By the time of Gingka's final battle with Ryuga, Benkei is there to cheer him on.

Beyblade: Metal Masters
Benkei appears in the Selection Matches for Team Gan Gan Galaxy, but fails to join. He then joins Team Wild Fang as their 4th blader, the subsitute, alongside Kyoya Tategami, Nile, and Demure. In the team, Benkei appears as the Masked Bull, trying to be anonymous. Wild Fang wins the first and tied in the second round but lose to Gan Gan Galaxy in the third. In particular, Benkei fights in a tag team battle with Demure, but loses against Tsubasa and Yu.

Finally he joins the fight to destroy the Spiral Force located in Hades City, alongside team Gan Gan Galaxy, Wild Fang, Excalibur and Wang Zhu Zhong. By this time, he's taken of his mask and acts as Benkei again.

Beyblade: Metal Fury
Benkei has been best friends with Kyoya until Kyoya ran away due to his anger of being teased by the Legendary Blader of Saturn which causes Benkei to train hard to try to become a legendary blader so that he can one day impress Kyoya again and that they can travel together. They became best friends again after Kyoya saw the errors of his ways and his anger subsided (which made Benkei jump for joy).

Beyblade: Shogun Steel
Benkei appears in Beyblade: Zero-G as the owner of the fast-food restaurant Bull Burger that Zero Kurogane and Mal seem to enjoy. He agrees to help Zyro train in "Metal Fight Beyblade Zero-G: Episode 2" to become strong enough to defeat Shinobu Hiryuuin and Shinobi Saramanda SW145SD. He later then trains the whole gang.

It is also revealed in "Metal Fight Beyblade Zero-G: Episode 2" that he has not seen Kyoya in a very long time, to most fans' surprise. It is not known why they were separated.

Beyblades

 * Heat Leone 125FS: Benkei's original Beyblade when he was part of in the Face hunters. He discarded it when he obtained Dark Bull H145SD from Doji.
 * Dark Bull H145SD: Benkei's primary beyblade in Beyblade: Metal Fusion, Metal Masters and Metal Fury. It is a balance type beyblade which Benkei exploits as a pure attack type. Thanks to his heart of a bull, Benkei and Bull have an incredible connection that allows Bull a massive amount of raw power that can ram through virtually any beyblade.
 * He also has about 5 different Beyblade Combos in the Metal Fusion Tag Team Tournament along with Kenta.

Special Moves

 * Bull Uppercut: Bull goes underneath the targets spin track to uppercut it into the air with the horns, causing the target to loose control and crash.
 * Red Horn Uppercut: Bull digs itself under the ground to make it underneath the opponent, then Bull will use its amp ; horns to uppercut the opponent.
 * Tornado Bull Upper: Bull goes underneath the to tip itself and uppercut the opponent, but Bull follows up by following through while in the air to uppercut the opponent further into the sky, giving it no chance of recovering in the air, but adds an added risk to Bull's landing aswell.
 * Maximum Stampede: Bull uses all of it's raw attack power into one attack, the raw energy materializes into a flaming aura that represents the incredible attack power of the head on assault.

Trivia

 * In the english dub, he always says "B-b-b-b-b-b-bull!" before launching his Bey as a quote.
 * When Blader DJ announces Benkei's name he says: "B-b-b-b-Benkei!!", which might appear as mocking him.
 * He is the only member of Team Wild Fang who doesn't use a plain 145 spin track.
 * Despite the fact that it was Doji that gave him Dark Bull, Benkei is very attached to his bey.
 * His feet are said to be the size of the other characters heads.
 * He is the only main character from the 'Metal Fusion' series, along with Yu Tendo and Tsubasa Otori, to not have his Beyblade 'evolve'.
 * Between all Metal Saga characters,Benkei is the one of two characters based from Japanese historical figure.In historical figure,he was a warrior monk who serve Minamoto no Yoshitsune.