Beyblade (franchise)

Beyblade (爆転シュート ベイブレード) is an anime and manga series about a group of kids battling with highly powerful spinning tops enchanted with sacred bit-beasts or spirits of mythical and powerful creatures. The show focuses on the battles between Beyblading teams as they compete to become the world champions. The main characters are the Bladebreakers, a team consisting of Tyson Granger, Kai Hiwatari, Ray Kon and Max Tate. During their quest to become Beyblade champions, Tyson and his friends meet many new friends, enemies and competitors whilst overcoming problems. Beyblade is an immensely popular series internationally, attracting millions of viewers since its inception.

The Beyblade anime is licensed by Nelvana in North America. The Beyblade manga, made by Takao Aoki, is published in English in North America by VIZ Media, some names are changed to match the English anime version. Anime News Network has recently announced that Tomy Takara has renewed Beyblade for a fourth season.

Development
Beyblade began during 1999 as a manga and a series of toys in Japan. After the manga became a success, Beyblade was made into an anime, that premeried in Japan, and was later dubbed and played in several other countries. Beyblade had three seasons, a few video games and a vast line of merchandise. The show originally was broadcast from 2001 and ended in 2004 in Japan, with an attempt to revive the franchise in summer of 2008. The anime is aimed at younger elementary/primary-school aged children. It is a Shōnen anime.

Aoki's most well-known work is Beyblade, which became a franchise around children who battle with spinning tops. He also made "Bakufu Slash;Kizna", "A War Story of Metal Walker" and "Mini-4WD Fighter V". Most of Aoki's manga revolve around video games or toys. His works are highly liked.

Anime details
Bakuten Shoot Beyblade is an anime and manga series about a group of children battling with highly powerful spinning tops enchanted with Holy Beasts or spirits of mythical and powerful creatures. The show focuses on the battles between Beyblading teams as they compete to become the world champions. The main characters are the Bladebreakers, a team consisting of Tyson Granger, Kai Hiwatari, Ray Kon and Max Tate. During their quest to become Beyblade champions, Tyson and his friends meet many new friends, enemies and competitors whilst overcoming problems. The Beyblade anime is licensed by Nelvana in North America. They have also announced that there will be a new generation of beyblades.

Metal Fight Beyblade! (2009)
Takara Tomy has renewed the Beyblade franchise for a fourth season, the new beyblades will be made of metal and not of plastic and will be released around the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. There has been no confirmation to whether the series will continue with Tyson and the gang or whether it will begin with a new series. It is unknown if there will be another Beyblade manga as of yet. If the Beyblade anime reaches English speaking countries, it is not known if the original voice actors and nelvana will continue to dub, although this is most likely to happen.

Differences Between Anime and Manga versions
In the manga, most characters in the anime have slightly or significantly different backgrounds. For example, Tala Valkov (Yuriy Ivanov in Japanese) is less loyal to Boris/Bolkov while he was a part of Biovolt, mostly because he did not want to take other peoples' Bit Beasts away. Another example is Kai, who was a lot more ruthless, and slightly more sinister in the Manga than his appearance in the Anime. While he may have been heartless and cold at times during the Anime, his representation in the Manga was slightly more evil.

Original Soundtracks
in the English language there are two different soundtracks, one of them which was made in Canada called "Let it Rip!" and the other soundtrack was made in the UK and was called "Beyblade Let it Rip!"

In Japan there are two Original Soundtracks for the first season Beyblade OST 1 Beyblade OST 2" The second season has no original soundtracks. The Beyblade Movie: Takao VS Daichi, has an Original Soundtrack. The last Beyblade series G Revolution has an Original Soundtrack also.

Movie
Beyblade: The Movie - Fierce Battle (爆転シュート ベイブレード THE MOVIE 激闘!!タカオVS大地) is chronologically set between second and third seasons, even though Daichi appears in the movie. A new Beyblade team named Shadow Bladers (consisting of new beybladers Steven, Ashley, Daniel, and Henry) was introduced.

After Tyson won Japanese BBA tournament, Daichi challenges him inside the stadium. Meanwhile, Professor Tengai discovers an ancient warning of the dark spirits inside a cave on the island. When Daichi's Beyblade starts glowing during the beybattle, the dark bit beast from the Demon Rock Island starts possessing Tengai's students. The Shadow Bladers seek Daichi's bit beast, Strata Dragoon, in order to release the bit beasts from the ruins. After the Shadow Bladers captured Daichi and Strata Dragoon, the dark bit beasts possess Daichi and are intent to reunite with the four sacred beasts, Dragoon, Dranzer, Driger, and Draciel.

The original movie storyline was also featured in volume 14 of the Beyblade manga books, but ended on a cliff hanger due to being released on DVD. Characters in the original timeline also include China, Ping Pong, and Sarenia

VHS/DVD Releases
The popularity of Beyblade in Japan was popular enough to have VHS and DVD releases of the show. In Japan all of the episodes have been released on VHS and DVD. The Beyblade 2001 DVDs first two volumes had three episodes a piece and were sold new at 4,200 yen per DVD. The rest of season one that had five episodes were sold new at 5,500 yen. The Japanese Beyblade DVDs first season titles were Called SHOOT (plus the volume number). The Beyblade 2002 DVDs were released in two separate titles. Blader Project (Vol 1~10) and BB Victory (Vol 1~8). G Revolution the volumes were called by the series name G Revolution and the volume number. There are 17 DVD volumes in G Revolution.

When Beyblade got dubbed by Nelvana, the USA DVDs all of the first season were only released in Nelvana TV dub edited. The second season V-Force DVDs have only got released in Australia in a box set of 12 episodes for now at least. When Beyblade G Revolution was the next season that Nelvana dubbed, Funimation released them on DVD. Volumes one to four were edited-only English dub, but then due to fan outcry, Volume five onwards contains the original Japanese episodes as well as the dubbed version. Volume five and six were released but no new releases have been confirmed.

Video games
There have been several video games based on the show, spanning the Game Boy Advance and the PlayStation. However, as is the case with many video games based on licensed properties these games have been critically panned.


 * Beyblade V Force Adventure (Game Boy Advance)
 * Beyblade (Game Boy Color, Japan Only)
 * Beyblade (PlayStation)
 * Beyblade 2 (PlayStation, Japan Only)
 * BeyBlade: Super Tournament Battle (GameCube)
 * Beyblade: GRevolution (Game Boy Advance),
 * Beyblade Ultimate Blader Jam (Game Boy Advance)
 * Bakuten Shoot Beyblade 2002: Takao Version (Game Boy Advance, Japan Only)
 * Bakuten Shoot Beyblade 2002: Daichi Version (Game Boy Advance, Japan Only)
 * Beyblade V-Force 2 In 1 TV Game (Plug-and-Play)

Broadcasting Blocking Issues

 * Brazil: Jetix (and some time ago, Globo(TV Xuxa's block), but not any more.)
 * Denmark: Cartoon Network (Toonami block)
 * Pakistan: Cartoon Network (Toonami)(not broadcasted any more)
 * Ireland: RTÉ Two (The Den block)
 * Nepal:Ntv {not broadcasted any more}
 * Poland: Jetix (and some time ago, Polsat, but not any more.)
 * Portugal: TVI and Canal Panda
 * Netherlands: Yorin, Toonami (not anymore)
 * United Kingdom: Toonami, Five, S4C (In wales/Welsh language only on Planed Plant), Cartoon Network (2002 - 2004), POP (January 28, 2008 - ), Kix! (May 19, 2008 - )


 * United States: ABC Family (JETIX block) and Toon Disney(not broadcast anymore)
 * Germany: RTL 2, Jetix (nowadays not broadcasted)
 * Austria: ATV
 * Czech Republic: TV NOVA (nowadays not broadcasted)
 * Italy: Italia 1
 * Latin America: Jetix (before it was Fox Kids).
 * Costa Rica: Repretel canal 4, only G-Revolution
 * Canada: YTV (not broadcasted any more)
 * India: Cartoon Network (Toonami)(not broadcasted any more)
 * Israel: Kid's Channel (nowadays not broadcasted)

Changes in the English version
Beyblade was significantly changed to make it more palatable for a western audience. The most notable of the changes include:


 * The phrase "Go Shoot" was replaced with "Let it Rip", possibly to avoid references to gun violence, but the official reasoning is unknown.
 * New intro/opening sequences.
 * Several characters' names were changed, many characters having their Japanese names changed to English alternatives. The original ones can be found on the list of Beyblade characters.
 * Instrumental soundtracks were changed to punk and metal style music, with lyrics. There wasn't any original Japanese soundtrack remaining.
 * Sound effects are changed to familiar American sound effects. There weren't any original Japanese sound effects remaining.
 * Logos originally displayed in Japanese were redesigned in English.
 * In V-Force dubbing, the name of Ray's new beyblade Driger-V was mistakenly(?) called "Driger 5". However, the "V" actually stands for "Vulcan". But seeing as "V" is the Roman numeral for "5", it's easy to guess how this mix-up occurred.
 * AJ Topper and Brad Best were added to make comments about the tournaments. They did not exist in the original instead, Blader DJ filled this role.
 * Kenny's bitbeast, Dizzara (aka "Dizzi"), was added for comic relief during the first two seasons. It was said in the dub version that she accidentally entered his laptop causing her to speak. Dizzi did not appear in the third season.
 * Before every official fight, a small scene talking about the bladers and the stadium appears. First, it shows the stadium, in different angles, with its name. Then it shows an image of the blader, his/her attack, defense and endurance points, name and special attack. An image and name of the bit beast also appears.
 * Elements of the dialogue were also changed.
 * Every episode and season had its title changed from its Japanese counterpart, except for the third season's title (G-Revolution).
 * Many team names were changed in the English dub. (e.g. Team BBA was changed to Bladebreakers).  The only two teams to not have their names changed were the BBA Revolution and BEGA (also known as Justice 5),  both of which come from the third season Beyblade G-Revolution
 * Originally the Beyblade name and the bit-beast name was different; for example, instead of Dragoon for both the blade and the bit-beast, it was Dragoon for the blade and Seiryuu for the bit-beast.
 * The characters were younger in the original with Tyson starting the series at ten instead of twelve, with the rest of the team aged accordingly.

Fan reaction to these changes were mixed. Hardcore fans disliked the dubbed version of Beyblade and used the original Japanese versions as references instead. It should be noted that in the pilot, Tyson says winder, the original name of the tool, rather than ripcord. It should also be noted that in V-Force, whenever a bit-beasts' data was shown, its original name is shown (e.g. Seiryu rather than Dragoon).

Seasonal Themes
First season:
 * Let's Beyblade (opening theme) - Lukas Rossi
 * Never gonna take me down - Anthony Vanderburgh
 * Let's go Beybladers - Krystal Band
 * Heavyweight Generation Beyblades
 * All Across the Nation - The Black Europeans
 * Swing Low

Second season:
 * Underdog - Mudd
 * Always be in the game - Jason Dean Bennison
 * Switchblade - Lenz

Third season:
 * Rise Above the Storm
 * I'm Not Going Down
 * Hang On

English

 * Beyblade official website
 * JETIX U.S. Beyblade website
 * Beyblade Battle League - the new online beyblade community
 * YTV Beyblade website
 * Hasbro Beyblade website

Japanese

 * Official d-rights homepage
 * Takara Toys' Beyblade website

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