YMMV / Beyblade: Metal Fusion

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Just how much of Zeo's anger towards Masamune was his own and the Arrangement System messing up his psyche?
• Anti-Climax Boss: Despite being the main antagonist of Metal Masters as well as owning one of the most powerful Beys in the season, Dr. Ziggurat is defeated rather anticlimactically. He never actually fights Gingka and the others and is defeated in less than a minute by Zeo who blocked him from escaping and who knows what happened to him afterward.
• Awesome Ego: Ryuga, the Dragon Emperor himself. His arrogance, level of self-importance, and grandeur is unrivaled by anyone in the series, and the fandom absolutely loves him for it.
• Badass Decay:
  • Early on in the first season Hyoma was presented as Gingka's longtime rival who has always defeated him in the Green Hades stadium. But as the season went on he kept getting subjected to The Worf Effect losing to Gingka, Kyoya, Tsubasa as well as losing in the first round of Battle Bladers. On top of that, he had a really poor on-screen win record only defeating Benkei, Kenta, & Hikaru once. What's worse is that his signature move, his Eternal Defense spin track is overshadowed by bladers who can do the same and are far more skilled than him, such as Jigsaw, Chao Xin and Toby.
  • Yu also suffers this. In Fusion he was one of the strongest opponents in the season effectively defeating Gingka, Kyoya, and the others while only having 3 justifiable losses to Ryuga, Gingka, and Reiji. Come the rest of the series he kept getting suffered to The Worf Effect to new characters like Masamune and failed to shine much in battle as Tsubasa did most of the work during tag matches. He doesn't fare much better in Fury being absent for about half of the season and not getting a significant win in the process.
• Base-Breaking Character: Gingka. Whilst some like the character for being the Nice Guy and as having a sympathetic backstory, others find his English Dub voice and his constant need to preach about the 'Blader's Spirit' annoying.
• Cargo Ship: Doji and cacti. Says he hates them, but keeps a bunch of them in his office.
• Complete Monster:
  • Doji, the leader of the Dark Nebula, aims to sow darkness across the world. Invading Koma Village with Ryuga to steal the forbidden Beyblade, L-Drago, Doji seemingly causes Gingka's father to die. In the present, Doji forces Kyoya to work with him and puts him through a life-threatening training program so he can use him to defeat Gingka. Upon failure, Doji injures Kyoya and invites the heroes to challenge him at the Dark Nebula Castle, awakening Ryuga and L-Drago. Recruiting more Bladers into the Dark Nebula, Doji feeds their souls to L-Drago if they fail him. Doji opens Battle Bladers, allowing powerful Bladers to enter so L-Drago can absorb their power. Though Doji himself eventually suffers the same fate, he is revived along with everyone else killed by L-Drago and lays low until Metal Fury, where he assembles the Nemesis Bladers and reveals his ultimate goal—to awaken Nemesis. Provoking Ryuga into the battle that would cause his death, Doji sadistically mocks him all throughout for having been his pawn, right up until his death.
  • Metal Masters: Dr. Ziggurat is the CEO of Hades Inc. and the financial backer for the Dark Nebula. Running the prestigious HD Academy, Ziggurat puts his students through the Arrangement System, improving their blading skills at the cost of their physical and mental well-being, and takes the most successful products into Team Star Breaker, which he leads as the American representatives for the world championship. When Gan Gan Galaxy wins the tournament, Ziggurat crashes the celebration to reveal he was collecting data on the Bladers, using it to invent Spiral Force, and brainwashed Toby, Masamune and Zeo's friend, into Faust, the Blader who would generate and wield Twisted Tempo. Demonstrating the destructive potential of his energy source on innocent settlements, Ziggurat then announces his wish to sell it to the highest bidder, and is revealed to have forced Julian to join him by ruining the Konzern family name. As he is confronted by the heroes, Ziggurat boasts about his smarts and his plan's success, only for the generated Spiral Force to go into meltdown levels, leading him to realise he has failed and flee the scene, insisting the entire time that he is not to blame.
  • Metal Fury:
    • Pluto is one of the two leaders of the Nemesis Bladers, a cult that desires to use the God of Destruction, Nemesis, to destroy the world so that they can rebuild the kingdom of the ancient King Hades. Initially running the Nemesis Bladers alone, Pluto keeps his organization and himself to the shadows as he masterminds the creations of both Dark Nebula and Hades Inc., hoping to use both L-Drago and Spiral Force for the purpose of reviving Nemesis. When both Dark Nebula and Hades Inc. fail, Pluto and the Nemesis Bladers enter the fray themselves, attempting to recruit the Legendary Bladers to use their power to awaken Nemesis, luring in those willing with false rewards and by hiding the Nemesis Bladers' true goal of world annihilation. No slouch with a Beyblade himself, Pluto assists in the world's destruction and personally provides backup for Rago during the Nemesis Bladers's endgame, attempting to defeat Kenta before he can put his newly inherited power as a Legendary Blader to use.
    • Rago is the second leader of the Nemesis Bladers. Known as the Child of the Black Sun, Rago is the one who wields Nemesis and commands it to undertake the task of bringing ruin to the world. Appearing only once Nemesis's revival is at hand, Rago is utterly brutal and merciless to anyone who would stand in the way of the Nemesis Bladers's goal of omnicide. When challenged by Ryuga on his lonesome, Rago crushes him with ease, beating Ryuga down physically while Doji beats him down verbally. Annoyed by Kenta's persistence despite not even being a Legendary Blader, Rago declares his intent to kill Kenta next, and is only interrupted by Ryuga's final act of passing on his Star Fragment to Kenta. Merging into Nemesis along with Pluto for the final battle, Rago spreads darkness and destruction over the entire world, taunting Gingka to defeat Nemesis before the world is completely destroyed.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Sora Akatsuki is popular despite his few appearances.
• Fanon: Since the theming this time around for the Spirits are based on the Zodiac Signs, it’s common in some area’s to call them the Constellation/Zodiac Spirits or something similar.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: During his battle with Reiji, Hyoma gets rather emotional once Aries gets absolutely destroyed by Reiji, with the destruction of one's Bey in general being treated as a borderline death. Come the next mainline series, Beyblade Burst, where such a thing is an integral part of the game as a potential win condition, albeit due to the built in Burst function rather than the outright destruction of an opponent's Bey, which can still happen in brutal enough Bey battles.
  • At the end of Episode 19 of the first season, after having wrapped up their parts switching craze, Kenta and Benkei have a Here We Go Again! moment as they try to start up a new craze: New launching tactics, with Gingka and Madoka reacting in confused exasperation when said tactics are more outrageously ridiculous than practical. In the following Beyblade Burst series, launching positions would prove extremely important as they were a central part of the special moves Bladers would use throughout.
• Ho Yay:
  • Benkei and his obsessive Fan Boy attitude toward Kyoya.
  • Also the first time Gingka saw Tsubasa. It looked he was seeing Tsubasa in Fangirl vision with the Bishie Sparkle and all.
  • Hyoma seemed kind of jealous of Kyoya when Gingka announced he was his no. 1 rival.
  • If you must know, this◊ is an anime screenshot.
  • Even before the Arrangement System messed him up, a few have noticed that Zeo's reaction to Masamune (seemingly) abandoning him and Toby seems rather extreme, as he took the former's departure the hardest, coupled with him blaming Gingka for "stealing Masamune from them".
  • Yu and Tithi. He clung to Yu like a Damsel in Distress when Kyoya was bullying him. And he's always saying that he only goes to places if Yu's coming.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Kyoya Tategami is the leader of the Face Hunters and Gingka's fiercest rival. Picking on weaker bladers to steal their Beypoints, he takes an interest in Gingka after witnessing him defeat the entire group and challenges him to a one-on-one fight, stealing Kenta's bey and threatening to have it destroyed to ensure he comes. Upon losing, he realises he must get stronger, and is encountered by Doji, who forces him to partake in a harsh training program to awaken the "fangs of the heart", growing stronger and harsher. Disbanding the Face Hunters, he curb-stomps Benkei and Kenta, attempting to destroy their beys afterwards. He challenges Gingka again and shows off the crafty new tricks he's picked up, almost defeating him as a result. After losing, Gingka's words reach him, and he realises that Leone doesn't want him to be full of hatred, so he undergoes a change of heart. Always looking for a good fight and showcasing his skill at exploiting the terrain, the surprisingly crafty Kyoya proves to be one of Gingka's greatest allies and worthiest opponents.
  • Tsubasa Otori is a spy working for the WBBA. Appearing before Gingka, he teaches him an important lesson to improve his skills as a blader before letting him win once he'd put it into practice. Later, he joins the Dark Nebula, proving his skills to Doji and outwitting Yu multiple times with his bey's unique tricks as he battles him to a tie. Helping the Dark Nebula and remaining largely unsuspected, he sneaks through the building in hopes of discovering L-Drago's secrets, and succeeds, only to be caught by Yu and Doji. He is then attacked by the Dark Nebula's bladers and then Ryuga, defeating the former and putting up a good fight against the latter until he has to be saved by Phoenix, who encourages him to become Gingka's friend for real and help him take down the Dark Nebula. With a suave, respectful demeanour, Tsubasa remains a close ally of Gingka's, using his wits and overcoming the Dark Power to help bring Team Gan Gan Galaxy victory.
  • Phoenix, real name Ryo Hagane, is a mysterious masked blader and secretly the long-lost father of Gingka. Having lost to Ryuga and passing the Pegasus bey onto Gingka several years prior to the story, Ryo faked his death, laying low until the time was right. Making his debut taking Gingka's Beypointer from Tetsuya, he challenges Gingka to earn it back, crushing it and making him lose all his points once Gingka loses, in hopes that this would strengthen Gingka's strength and resolve to defeat Ryuga at Battle Bladers and remind him what Beyblading is truly about. Later appearing to rematch Gingka, Ryo is defeated, and gives Gingka his points back so he can enter the tournament. Later appearing to save Yu and Hyoma from Doji, Phoenix's mask is shattered after winning, revealing his identity as Gingka's father and the leader of the WBBA, and gives Gingka the determination he needs to win the final battle.
• Narm:
  • In the English dub, Hyoma's Not So Stoic moment as Reiji destroys Aries is... not particularly sad...
  • The narm is so strong that it's taken to almost sacrilegious levels, since Beyblading is apparently such Serious Business that, in the Beyblade canon, Moses used a Bey to part the friggin' Red Sea. It's so ridiculous that a type of grandeur seeps into it, and has reached memetic levels even outside of the Beyblade community. Jokes that Moses had used his Bey to challenge the Pharaoh and his magicians' own Beys and/or their card monsters prior to parting the Red Sea are very common. It's common for people to joke that the history of this world is decided with famous figures using beyblades instead of conventional weaponry due to their ridiculous power and even other events in the Bible are handled the same way, some even going as far to say that the Bey's rotation concept was taken a step further by Jesus, who would invent the Infinite Spin with it.
• Narm Charm: While the over the top Serious Business nature of the Metal Saga can be quite ridiculous for some as detailed above in Narm, for others, it's what makes the Metal Saga so memorable. With history revolving so much around Beyblading, characters taking it as seriously as they do with full on Ham and Cheese, and the absurdly Crazy Is Cool-level powers Beys have in this series, plenty of fans see these things as a high point of the Metal Saga, making it much more memorable compared to its predecessor and successor when people are discussing how cool the Beyblade franchise is.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Kenta. Some fans didn't like him in the beginning of the series as he was seen as a nuisance to Gingka. A lot of people later warmed up to him as he was given more sympathetic moments as well as arguably getting the biggest Character Development in the entire Metal Series.
  • Masamune. Though he started off as somewhat of a Creator's Pet (to some fans anyway) as well as being an Expy to Daichi, (A Scrappy from the original Beyblade series), fans quickly warmed up to him for having more depth than Daichi did as well being a bit more sympathetic. Some fans also agree that he's not as annoying as Daichi (although you can find some who still think otherwise).
• The Scrappy: Team Garcia, for mixing Combat Pragmatist with Dirty Coward. Not even their backstory, which averts Heartwarming Orphan, is enough to earn them a pass for most of the fanbase. To some, it's the fact that they tried to pull off the Heartwarming Orphan routine to justify their acts. Because having a sympathetic backstory is supposed to make you instantly forgivable, right?
  • And among the whole group, Enzo stands out due to bratty personality and the nerve-grating "Amazing, huh?"
• Signature Scene:
  • Doji's exposition on the history of the power of Beyblades, in particular the scene revealing Moses was involved with the history of Beyblading and used one to part the Red Sea, is a heavily remembered moment from the Metal series for revealing just how much this world embodies Crazy Is Cool.
  • Ryuga's vicious Curb-Stomp Battle to Hikaru in Battle Bladers is one of Ryuga's most well-known scenes just for how brutal the curb stomp to her was, partly thanks to the over the top presentation of Ryuga's One-Hit Kill special move and the fact it rendered Hikaru permanently Demoted to Extra.
• So Bad, It's Good: The voice acting and emoting in the English dub, especially the laughably bad translations and strained expressions.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Zeo can come off as so. While he was right to be angry at Masamune for leaving America without coming back or even contacting him and their (at the time) sick friend, Toby, and that most of his hostility could be attributed to the effects of the Arrangement system, him not even giving Masamune the chance to explain why he didn't come back, flat out accusing him of abandoning them, and then insulting Masamune's new friends causes him to lose a lot of sympathy. It also didn't help that he's never seen apologizing to Masamune since most of what happened to Toby was also Zeo's own fault for blindly trusting Ziggurat, aka a total stranger at the time. It's likely possible that he apologized some time offscreen, seeing how close Zeo, Masamune and Toby are in Metal Fury, but still...
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Though nobody gets mistaken for a girl in the series, Ryuutaro, Teru and Jack all have some very feminine looks. And Tsubasa's first appearance was complete with the sparkles that are usually reserved for pretty girls. It's to the point that almost every other dude has feminine looks, particularly long hair and bared midriffs. A lot of them look more like women then the actual women.
• The Woobie:
  • Gingka after we find out about his backstory.
  • Also Tsubasa. Especially throughout Masters.
  • Kenta. He's emotionally fragile, has been bullied by the Face Hunters several times, had his bey stolen once and even broken on several occasions, he goes through some of the most physical abuse in battle, he has experienced extremely harsh training, etc. The poor kid really needs a hug.
• Woolseyism:
  • Tetsuya's Cancer Beyblade (named for the constellation that resembles a crab) was renamed "Gasher" in the North American franchise, probably so people wouldn't think of the "other" kind of "cancer" (especially since Tetsuya is a rival)...
  • While it is likely unintentional, all of Damian's references to "hell" in the original are replaced by "hades" in the dub, like Hell Kerbecs being changed to Hades Kerbecs. His beyblade is a reference to Cerberus, so the "Hades" term fits him more.

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