Max Tate

Max Tate (水原 マックス Mizuhara Max) is one of the deuteragonists from the Original Series, consisting of Beyblade, Beyblade: V-Force and Beyblade: G-Revolution. He is a member of the G-Revolutions and the All Starz. His Bit-Beast and Beyblade is Draciel - one of the 4 Sacred Bit-Beasts. He first appeared in the "Beyblade Fighting Tournament" as just "Max" in August 2000 and much earlier the manga in Volume 1 Chapter 5, released on January 2000.

Appearance
In 2000, Max has blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin. He wears orange overalls tied with a black belt. Inside the overalls, he wears a green t-shirt with with white linings on his neck and arms. He wears big green wrist bands from his arms to hands, his white socks are folded between his ankles and his green and white shoes.

In V-Force, his hair becomes dark blonde verging on orange and his eyes become darker blue. He wears a blue t-shirt with yellow stars over the top of the overalls which was changed from orange to grey. Underneath, his shirt is a lighter green. He also wears blue and red shoes with red fingerless gloves. He also wears a blue wristband on his left hand.

In G-Revolution, he received minor changes. His hair becomes light blonde and his eyes are still blue. He wears a green and yellow t-shirt with an orange 'M' on his left chest along with a orange sweater tied around his mid-section, and orange trousers. His red gloves are replaced with dark green semi-fingerless gloves and he also wears green, white and orange shoes. His beyblade container is behind his trousers.

Personality
Max is a happy, good-natured kid who always sees the best in everything and everyone. He is like a brother to Tyson and loves to laugh at whatever life throws at him.

Max is mostly known for his perky, upbeat nature and his defensive beyblading skills which have won him many friends throughout the series. He is always seen with a smile on his face and is rarely ever sad. He is a very patient and enthusiastic person. He is also a ladies man as seen by his behavior towards them.

Tyson
Tyson and Tyson get along well, as both boys are the same age.

In the manga was the first person to be friendly towards him was Tyson, which is why they got along so well. Max experienced a form of discrimination or mistrust as a new comer to the area mostly due to clearly being a foreigner due to his looks. Few people even realised he was half Japanese with Tyson and Keeny being the first two to learn about it.

Taro Tate
His Japanese father. He owns a hobby shop in Japan. Max lives with him.

Judy Tate
His American mother. She is is a Beyblade researcher in America. She is also the coach of the PPB All Starz. Max visits her when he has the chance.

Charlotte Tate
His baby sister, born some time before Bakuten Shoot Beyblade: Rising.

Skills
Max is a highly skilled beyblader specializing in a defensive style. Max strongly believes that the key to beyblading lies in the blader and not the beyblade. What he lacks in attack, his beyblade makes up for in defense. Max displays a strong will in relation to this, and as proven in the past has hidden potential at his best.

Overall he is the weakest member of the team, but is not a weakling and has proven himself capable of surprising his opponents time and time again. He mostly Beyblades because he enjoys it, though is takes it as a serious sport.

Other
He works in his father's Beyblade shop when he is with him and sells Beyblades. When he is with his mother, he also helps her with her research, though he is not a researcher like her and Emily.

Beyblades
In the GBA games, Max can often end up one of the weakest bladers due to his stat growth. He gets huge growths in Defence, resulting in a weakness in other areas. As the levels progress and he gets stronger his Defence is pushed to maximum before most other bladers. This gives him a huge endurance advantage. However, this begins to wane as once at max he cannot raise it any higher and since his other stats are often so weak he quickly wanes as the other Bladers in the games reach their higher levels with more balanced state distribution. Tyson has the opposite problem with his attack. Max's battles in game are pretty repetitive and he cannot deal much damage back, so it can be frustrating to play as him overall as matches get drawn out for a long time compare to the majority of other bladers. This is why he is considerable weaker then Tyson despite both having similar problems, and in contrast to Rei who at least can use lots of weak special attacks to deal damage. The issue is just to do with the GBA games having balancing issues with defensive types and Max being the most defensive usually of all bladers.

Spin Gear

 * Draciel S - Metal Ball Defense
 * Draciel F - Fortress Defense

Magnacore System

 * Draciel V - Viper Wall
 * Draciel V2 - Heavy Viper Wall

Engine Gear

 * Draciel G - Gravity Control. Ultra Gravity Control, Tidal Wave

Hard Metal System

 * Draciel MS - Aqua Shield

Beyblade: 2000
In Episode 3, Max makes his first appearance. He meets Tyson Granger and Kenny, revealing that he is a new kid in town who moved in a few weeks ago. After saving a puppy, Sparky from being trapped in a lake, he brings them to his father's hobby store called BB Shop. He shows that he has a large Beystadium and then battles in it with Tyson. Max uses his Draciel Metal Ball Defenser Blade while Tyson uses his Dragoon S Blade. Max wins the battle and then they meet Mr. Dickenson, who is the chairman of the BBA. He announces the Beyblade Battle Tournament along with Kai Hiwatari's involvement. Later, Max finds Kenny alone at a park and invites him and Tyson to come to BB Shop so they can train for the tournament.

In Episode 4, Max entered in the Beyblade Main Event regional qualifying tournament. Max battled in the B Block and won, becoming eligible to move on in the competition. He later spectated the C Block with Kenny losing to Kai and the D Block with Tyson defeating Carlos.

One sees Max, in the first season, as a blader full of energy. Max moves to Japan with his dad from America and also the first to befriend Tyson and Kenny. He meets them by the river when Tyson attempts to save a drowning dog, but fails; thus leading Max to come to the rescue. At first, Kenny is jealous because he showed up out of the blue with great Beyblading skills and was also somewhat jealous of his relationship with Tyson, but this soon passes. Max, along with Tyson and Kenny meet Mr. Dickenson, agree to enter the Japan Qualifying Tournament being hosted by the BBA, and comes in first place in Block B. In the semi-finals, he faces Kai and loses. Even though he lost, he offers Kai his hand in order to congratulate him, but Kai scoffs and walks off; a sign of his disregard for Max's skills at the time. Once Tyson beats both Ray & Kai and becomes the new national champion, Mr. Dickenson forms them into a team, named "Bladebreakers" by Tyson. They then go off to compete in the world championships.

He plays a significant role in the American Tournament in which he desires to compete in order to prove himself to his mom who is on the opposing team. All hope seem's lost for the Bladebreakers at Lake Baikal until Max jumps in and saves the day with his upgraded Beyblade having such high defenses that it could hold off Kai's Black Dranzer for some time. During a battle with the Demolition Boys Max loses Draciel to them, then later Tyson defeats Tala and Draciel is returned back to his beyblade.

Beyblade: V-Force
After the end of the Beyblade World Championships, Max moves back to America with his mother Judy to help her with beyblade research.

Max is first seen walking in a parking lot listening to music when he is approached by a mysterious cloaked female beyblader (who is later revealed as Mariam) who challenges him to a battle. Max tells her he won't go easy on her just because he's a champion. When it looked like it was time for Max to go on the offensive, the female beyblader charges for Draciel and wins the battle. Stunned by his loss, Max emails Kenny about the incident and learns Tyson, Ray, and Kai have also been targeted by cloaked beybladers. They all lost their matches except Kai, who tied his match with his opponent, Dunga. This and another organization known as Team Psykick are targeting the Bladebreakers which prompts Mr. Dickenson to have the team reunite.

The Bladebreakers have their falling-outs this season, with Max trying to be somewhat of a voice of reason when others lose their way. He also grows a bond with the Saint Shields member, Mariam. At the end of the world championships, he and Tyson are crowned the winners of the tag team tournament.

Max lost Draciel twice in this season, to Team Psykick and Zeo Zagart. But still managed to get him back after Team Psykick was defeated and when Tyson beat Zeo.

Beyblade: G-Revolution
He is the first to hear about the new tag-team format of the Beyblade World Championships and alerts the rest of the team to this development. Like Ray and Kai, Max realizes there is a chance he might not be able to compete if he fights with Tyson, so he leaves the Bladebreakers to join the PPB All Starz and gains a new partner, Rick Anderson. Max and his team tie with White Tiger X for fourth place. He seems to be a bit more serious this season than the previous ones.

After the tournament, Daichi Sumeragi takes a liking to Max and sees him as sort of a "person to beat" in order to become world champion, after getting tired of being associated with Tyson. Later, upon hearing the news of Boris buying out the BBA in favor of BEGA, Max reunites with the Bladebreakers (renamed the G Revolutions) to take the organization down once and for all.

Quotes

 * "We're a team!"
 * "With Tyson around, he'll have those chefs working overtime."
 * "I hope the hot sauce didn't spoil his blood."
 * "You're such a wet blanket. You should loosen up and have some fun. Tyson's got the right idea."
 * "I'd rather not."
 * "Everyone looks like ants down there."
 * "Hey don't forget about me! I want a battle with the world champ too you know."
 * "Probably. He's got everything else down there."
 * "Oh look, it's all so fake."
 * "I can't decide if you're really brave or really dumb."
 * "Um.I wonder which room is his?"
 * "Chief said if you win, he'll take us out for a round of ice cold gelato!"
 * "Take him down Tyson!"
 * "This is a big day for us Bladebreakers."
 * "You...can tell?"
 * "QUIT SAYING THAT! I'M NOT PUSHY!"

Trivia

 * His blonde hair and blue eyes are based on the common stereotype of westerners as portrayed in Japan. In the Japanese sources, he is often referred to as "the American Max" in reference to his identity as American; despite only being half American because his mother was American and half Japanese because his father is Japanese.  He is the only member of the team who is of mixed race.
 * Max likes to put mustard on noodles which he then eats with a great enjoyment and often forces this habit onto other people (i.e. Rick, Daichi). In the original Japanese dub, it was mayonnaise.
 * The English dub added a few aspects to his character;
 * Max is somewhat of a playboy in the series, as stated by Kenny when he calls Hilary cute.
 * Also in the dub of Beyblade: The Movie - Fierce Battle, Ms. Kincaid's mother points out that Max dyes his hair to try to impress girls, causing Max to cover his head and sheepishly say, "You... can tell?" This may also explain why Max's hair is a darker blonde in V-Force than it is in Season 1 or G-Revolution.
 * Max is the only beyblader who uses a mainly defensive style, he is often ranked in general media as the overall weakest member of the Bladebreaker team as seen in games such as Bakuten Shoot Beyblade 2002 - Fierce Battle! Team Battle!!.
 * Like Kenny, Max's voice in the English dub is deeper in G-Revolution due to Gage Knox experiencing puberty.
 * Like his teammates, Max's Bey/Bit-Beast is named after and based on one of the Four Saint Beasts in Chinese mythology; Draciel is modeled after Xuan Wu the Black Tortoise of the North and the Japanese name is "Genbu".
 * When Draciel was added he carried on the tradition of name the bit-beast after "dragon" and a military unit, in this case it is from "Seal", which is a unit in the US navy.
 * Max loses Draciel the most. In Beyblade he lost it against the Demolition Boys and in Beyblade: V-Force he lost Draciel again two times against Jim of the Psykicks and Zeo.
 * His height is at 4'6"
 * In the original Japanese dub, Max peppers his Japanese speeches with lots of English words (probably to emphasize his American roots). For instance he will say "so cool" instead of 格好いいね (that's so cool).
 * In the manga, Max first beyblade is called Protoshell.
 * In the final manga chapter, 15 years later, Max is revealed to own a "USA development centre".
 * Max is the only member of the Bladebreakers who has yet to have a "Black" version of his Beyblade and Bit-beast released. Kai saw his released in season 1 and later released as a Beyblade, Tyson's Black Dragoon was a special release with a dish, Ray's Black Driger later appeared in Bakuten Shoot Beyblade: Rising and released as a beyblade.

Gallery
For a full gallery of images of Max, see Max Tate/Gallery. Max Tate Max Tate Max Tate