History Anime / BakutenShootBeyblade

Season 2 (''2002'' in Japan, ''V-Force'' elsewhere) shifts gears, moving largely away from the tournament narrative to provide a story of the BBA Team having to defend their four sacred bit-beasts -- Dragoon, Draciel, Dranzer, and Driger -- from two organizations trying to steal them: the Saint Seals and Zagāto Industries, which are at odds with each other too. The BBA Team's numbers increase with the addition of Hiromi, who provides support to the team alongside Kyōju.

** ''V-Force'' is the very definition of this trope. It takes a fairly short part of the manga involving the Saint Seals, Team Psychic, and Zeo Zagāto and adds characterization, two trial teams, several bit-beasts, and a minor subplot for Kai. Meanwhile, where the manga features Volkov as Zagāto's subordinate, the anime utilizes new characters Gideon, Doctor B, Doctor K, and Dan. The latter two would go on to temporarily manage a new team, the Parts Hunters, when they go rogue.

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: There's a big one that we'll call the Volkov-Zagāto tree. In the manga, Borg is a small army of bladers headed by Volkov. Borg is defeated by the combined might of the BBA, the Bái Hǔ Zú, and the All Starz. Its members go in hiding, except the four elite bladers, who break with Borg and become Neoborg. Volkov returns to the true mastermind behind Borg: Doctor Zagāto, head of the Zagāto Ichimi, whose true goal is to acquire the most powerful bit-beasts in existence. To this end, he hired the Saint Seals, aware they meant to betray him, but would be useful regardless. Knowing that the Saint Seals work for Zagāto, Yuriy confronts them, but is defeated by Ozuma. Meanwhile, Zagāto brings together a new elite quartet: Team Cyber. Both the Saint Seals and Team Cyber were defeated, after which Zagāto and Volkov invest their final resources in ZO. When ZO is also defeated, Zagāto turns a new leaf and Volkov is just never heard from again. In the first season of the anime, Borg is an organization that aims to take over the world by means of stealing bitbeasts. Borg is headed by Volkov, who takes orders from and whose organization is financed by Sōichirō Hiwatari (who in the manga wants nothing to do with beyblading). Borg is defeated during the Russian Tournament, its elite bladers break with Borg and become Neoborg, while the other bladers are implied to walk out too. Neither Volkov's nor Hiwatari's fates are given. Then comes the Zagāto arc in the second season and it has no ties whatsoever with Borg. Rather, Volkov's main henchman is Gideon, who, until his death, oversees Psychic, more or less the anime name for the Zagāto Ichimi. Rather than evil, the elite team of Psychic are mind-controlled into their roles. The Saint Seals never work for any branch of Zagāto's organization. Zagāto's goal remains to acquire the most powerful bit-beasts in existence and he eventually bets on Zeo to get them. When Zeo is defeated, Zagāto turns a new leaf. Then in the third season, Volkov returns by himself and, after his henchman Barthez fails with the Barthez Soldat, sets up BEGA to gain control of beyblading. His elite team are the Justice 5, whom are confronted by Yuriy, Boris, and Sergei, but the three are readily beaten. When the Justice 5 learn what Volkov is truly like, they cut ties with BEGA. Volkov is left with nothing as BEGA ceases to exist.

* AbandonedWarehouse: The hideouts of the Shell Killers in Season 1 and the Saint Seals in Season 2. The manga specifies that the Shell Killers' hideout belongs to Kai's family's company, but this is not stated in the anime.

* GoodIsDumb: Just about any person who fought the BBA Team and reformed is an example. The two most glaring ones are the Saint Seals, who were legitimate threats in their first appearances, and Yuriy, who fought Takao for the World Championship at the end of the first season. Then he returned in Season 3, and was demoted to Kai's second banana.

* ShorterMeansSmarter: In effect for Kyōju of the BBA (at least prior to Daichi joining), Emily of the PPB All Starz, both of whom are TheShortGuyWithGlasses, Jim of Team Psychic, and counting TheSneakyGuy, Kiki of the Bái Hǔ Zú and Yusuf of the Saint Seals.

* SenpaiKohai:
** Poor Yūya tries to be Kai's kōhai, but to Kai he is an unwelcome responsibility. So, Yūya tries to force Kai to notice him by joining Team Psychic. But Psychic only sees a test subject in him and during his first battle wielding Digital Bird he gets badly injured. Kai regrets giving Yūya the cold shoulder and does the next best thing to being a proper sempai: Take revenge.
** The anime and manga are separate continuities, but incidentally (or perhaps Aoki was inspired by Yūya) in ''Rising'' it is revealed that Kai's father was a sempai himself to his colleague Yōichi Kagami. Yōichi died and it wouldn't have had to happen if Susumu had taken a more supportive role.

* ExcitedTitleTwoPartEpisodeName: Along with ExcitedShowTitle That is, the two part type title was used a lot during the first season. The second season dropped it, lacking a notable structure in its titles. Then the third season returned the exclamation marks with the latter type of title.

* OffModel: Anyone even only half-paying attention to the show can catch the numerous amounts of animation errors. Mostly rampant in Season 1, with the animators tending to draw the wrong beyblade in a certain scene. Seasons 2 and 3 have their fair share of this too, though.

* SempaiKohai: Poor Yūya tries to be Kai's kōhai, but to Kai he is an unwelcome responsibility. So, Yūya tries to force Kai to notice him by joining Team Psychic. But Psychic only sees a test subject in him and during his first battle wielding Digital Bird he gets badly injured. Kai regrets giving Yūya the cold shoulder and does the next best thing to being a proper sempai: Take revenge.

** The third season, [=S2E30=], takes place after the tournament finals between Takao and Kai, has Daichi leaving Takao's house after being annoyed his partner has all the glory, and gets into shenanigans, where he eventually ends up living with Max after an argument about mustard that leads to a battle. Meanwhile, Dickenson and the BBA's buyout and Ming-Ming's cameo are foreshadowed and is the central antagonist for the next episode.

* TheChick: Hiromi is the only female on the main team. She is more of a manager and doesn't actually blade herself. Prior to her, the dub had Dizzi, who isn't even human.

* DeadpanSnarker: Many of the characters in dub get this type of dialogue, most noticeably in Season 3.

* {{Eagleland}}: The All Starz.

* [[EmpathicWeapon Empathic Plastic Toys]]: They're actually made of metal, in-universe. It's the official toys that are plastic, though some toys come with metal parts. Some of those quite heavy, and some comes with small pieces of a material that sparks on contact.

* HeroicRROD:
** Rei after defeating Boris.
** Kai after beating Brooklyn.

* SixthRanger: Daichi is introduced in ''G-Revolution''.

* TheSpartanWay: Welcome to the Abbey, kids!

* SummonMagic: The bit-beasts.

* TournamentArc: Most of the series, with the exception of a bulk of the second season.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: There are a few, but of course they've all been edited out for the international version.
** Kyōju slaps Giancarlo in [=S1E35=] for not having proper control of Amphilyon, which resulted in the bit-beast attacking Takao and causing massive destruction.
** In [=S2E35=], Dan tries to encourage Doctor K to continue her work and to not let that day's failure bring her down. She slaps him for his efforts, and hard!

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** ALadyOnEachArm: Giancarlo's ability to manage two girlfriends on the surface is just a show of his playboy-ism, but it's also a first glimpse towards him handling a two-headed bit-beast and utilizing a strategy that involves "doubling" his bey.
** AceOfSpades: In [=S1E38=], Ralf draws this card. Knowing that he views a beybattle the same as a true battle with the defeating party "dying in spirit", things weren't looking good for him.
** JapaneseBeetleBrothers: Seems to be what J's hat featuring a stylized Japanese rhinoceros beetle is getting at in [=S3E9=]. Rock Bison and therefore Rick follows as the stag beetle.

** The inherent imbalance is why no ''Beyblade'' generation after the first incorporated bit-beasts.

The differences between the anime and the manga are significant and plentiful. Firstly, the flow of time is different. Where in the manga everything happens within one year, each season of the anime represents a year, making for three years total. To this end, the length and amount of battles got vastly upped: the manga features a one-battle-only mode while the anime uses a best-out-of-three setup. Furthermore, in the manga, many of the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters team-type bladers]] are [[FlatCharacter bodies at best]] whereas the anime fleshes out as many characters as it can. One important thing to note is that the manga and anime were in part produced concurrently and Aoki did do work for the anime too. This means that on occasion it's the manga which is the adaptation rather than the other way around.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are many beyblade teams -- enough teams to warrant three tournament arcs in the series -- which numbers can range from two to six members. Thanks to AdaptationExpansion, many of them also get more spotlight compared to the manga.

** Inverted. Daichi's long-running arc before meeting Tyson is not included in the anime. As a result, he comes across as a pesky ball of arrogance rather than someone who worked hard to achieve what he did.

** Tyson is the BBA Team's captain in the original version, as it was he that won the Japanese Tournament. In the dub, Kai is the team captain.

* BackForTheFinale: Done at the end of the first season, when literally every blader Tyson and the BBA ever met cheers Tyson on during his match against Yuriy. Done again at the end of the Japanese version of ''G-Revolution'' in the form of a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue. It consists of a slideshow what everyone is up to these days.

* TheBenchwarmer: The first season's tournament has a format of 3 vs 3, while the important teams have four members, so someone is going to end up with the short end of the stick. Kai often willingly sits out due to lack of interest in most opponents, or being busy with something related to the larger plot. ''G-Revolution'' having a 2 vs 2 tournament ensured that the Bladebreakers broke up so they wouldn't all end up getting benched and overshadowed by Tyson.

** The third season, [=S2E30=], takes place after the tournament finals between Tyson and Kai, has Daichi leaving Tyson's house after being annoyed his partner has all the glory, and gets into shenanigans, where he eventually ends up living with Max after an argument about mustard that leads to a battle. Meanwhile, Dickenson and the BBA's buyout and Ming-Ming's cameo are foreshadowed and is the central antagonist for the next episode.

** Kai in ''G-Revolution'' wears a weighted cape and [[TheCoatsAreOff discarding it for dramatic effect]] during his battle with Tyson.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Kai has this attitude towards Tyson. Not only does he join several rival teams over the course of the series, he also makes sure to always be the one who takes on Tyson and that Tyson is in the best possible shape for their duel.

** There's Makoto (Hiruta), the Blade Shark, Makoto (Amō), Kaoru's sister, and Makoto (Kinomiya), Tyson's son.

** There's Hitoshi (Kinomiya), Tyson's brother, and Hiroshi, the Shadow Blader.

* ParentalAbandonment: When it comes to the main characters, Tyson's mother is dead, and his father is away most of the time because of his job. Kai is in a similar situation, but has it worse than Tyson. Max's parents are separated most of the time and he has to choose with whom he lives. In Daichi's case, his father is dead, but he does have the fortune of still having his mother. Rei's parents never appear and are never mentioned, so his case is left unknown. Kyōju and Hiromi have regular home-lifes.

* ShouldntWeBeInSchoolRightNow: Some 90% of the cast are teens and preteens, yet there are only two times, three if we stretch it, their current education is addressed. After not going to school for the whole of Season 1, Season 2 starts with Tyson and Kyōju in school, and Hiromi is introduced to the main cast on account of being their classmate. Kai is later revealed to be off to BoardingSchool, which introduces his classmate Yūya for a plotline later on. It all lasts for 12 episodes, and then no one goes to school anymore. Another mention occurs in the first season regarding Giancarlo, who is introduced while sneaking away from his private lessons about to start. Similarly, Zeo in the second season is shown to get violin lessons from his valet, which opens the possibility he gets private lessons in other subjects too. Then there are various characters for whom it's not hard to theorize how their education works, but that's only theorizing and still leaves plenty of character that just... don't seem to get an education at all. Since then, ''[[Manga/BakutenShootBeyblade Rising]]'' has addressed these issues too, but just as ambiguously. In the fifth chapter, Daichi has been made to study harder by his mother because his grades have been slipping. Needless to say, he's never been shown to go to school before, but here he gets a private tutor in the form of Hitoshi. Kyōju speaks of preparing for his high school entrance exams in the second special chapter, which is a new kind of concern of his.

** {{Tuckerization}}: In the original version of [=S1E1=], Hiruta tells Tyson and the others to meet him at the Aoki River, a reference to the mangaka Takao Aoki.

** Any and all CharacterDevelopment Tyson went through in the 1st season was completely disregarded in seasons 2 and 3, which had him acting like even more of a hot-blooded brat than when Season 1 started, and even ''back then'' he was much more mature.

* TheTalk: Occurs in the dub of [=S1E1=] when Tyson hopes his grandfather is not going to give him the 'birds and bees' speech, to which Ryūnosuke replies that's scheduled for next week.

** In [=S2E20=], Tyson gets this from Hiromi for yelling at Kyōju all because he was trying to help and he gets this from Max too after he yelled at Hiromi. He also gets this from Rei and Kai to an extent, when they accuse Takao of cheating.
** In [=S3E13=], Tyson gets this from Hiromi, Kyōju, and his own brother Hitoshi when he blames his loss on Daichi.

* WithOurSwordsScene: Tyson gets to be the wielder at the end of Season 3.
* YearsTooEarly: In the original version of [=S3E5=], Tyson tells Kyōju he's a 100 years to early to be his rival, which Kyōju agrees with even though Tyson's words hurt him. When at the end of the A-Block Kyōju helped Tyson win against a tricky adversary that deceived them both, Kyōju shyly asks if the 100 years have shortened to 50. Tyson apologizes for what he said and declares Kyōju his rival, no ifs or buts.