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Anime / Beyblade: Shogun Steel
aka: Metal Fight Beyblade Zero G

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Beyblade: Shogun Steel, known as Metal Fight Beyblade Zero-G in Japanese, is the fourth and final season of the Metal Saga in the Beyblade franchise. The manga and anime both premiered in April 2012 in Japan, and the anime premiered in mid-August 2013 in the West.

The beyblades now revolve around a "crystals" theme and they are used in "zero gravity" battles, in a new bey-stadium with three corner pits. The plot takes place seven years after the end of Beyblade Metal Fury. Zero Kurogane is the protagonist who, inspired by Gingka's acts of heroism, pushes himself to become the best at beyblading.


Tropes include:

  • Anime Hair: This trope is applicable to almost every character in this series.
  • Adapted Out: Kenta was the owner of the Beyblade store in the manga instead of Madoka. In the anime, the roles are reversed.
  • Beach Episode: Episodes 13-14, equivalent to episode 7 in the dub.
  • Big Bad: DNA, aka Dark Nebula Again, lead by The Garcias, and Kira.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Hurting Eight will not end well with Kite.
  • Cat Smile: Maru often sports this expression.
  • The Cameo: In the Japanese versions of the final episode, a lot of characters from the Metal Saga make cameos, including Team Dungeon (Masamune, Zeo, and Toby), Kenta, Hikaru & Ryo at the WBBA, Team Louvuska and Helios, Team Wang Hu Zhong & the Beylin Fist, Team Excalibur, and even Kyoya and his brother, Kakeru.
  • Cheaters Never Prosper: Akuya and his gang use this tactic whenever they battle an opponent.
  • Continuity Nod: Shogun Steel takes place 7 years from the previous series.
    • Benkei has mentioned that he trained Kenta to both Zero and Maru.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Until the finals of the Neo Battle Bladers tournament, Sakyo and Kira were constantly handing these out.
  • Dare to Be Badass: Gingka gave Zero Samurai Ifrit at a young age and told him to become the best blader of the next generation.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Duh! The Synchrome Bey usually relies on either friendship, a strong bond, or loyalty. Sakyo calls out Yoshio for only being a servant to Kira instead of sharing a strong bond with each other, hence why Sakyo and Takanosuke's combined Synchrome Bey defeated Yoshio and Kira's Synchrome.
  • Dub Name Change: From Zero to Zyro.
  • Dubstep: The theme song in the dub is this. And it's awesome.
  • Expy:
    • Zero looks a lot like Masamune from Beyblade: Metal Fusion.
    • Many of the DNA Bladers, minus Kira and Yoshio, represent the Bladebreakers. Captain Arrow is an Expy of Tyson, with his wind-based specials and bey Archer Wyvern, Spike Is an Expy of Daichi, Genjuro's appearance and bey mirrors Max, Xiao's clothing and bey makes him an expy of Ray, and Kareida's hair, scarf, and special moves are related to Kai.
      • The Four Gods: This motif is required for expies of the Bladebreakers. Genjuro and Xiao's beys are even named after Genbu and Byakko, respectively.
  • Faux Action Girl: Unfortunately, Ren seems to be heading down the same path as Hikaru Hasama from the previous series, as her battle count holds more losses than wins (with some of those wins being won as a team).
  • Fanboy: The main cast whenever the legendary bladers, specifically Gingka, are mentioned. Takonosuke becomes one to Sakyo before they become Synchrome partners.
  • Hot-Blooded: Takonosuke, even more than Zero.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Gen appears to be a jerk, but the show makes it unclear if he really wants to help protect the beach or scare the crap out of people for fun.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Once Kira arrives and the DNA plot starts kicking in, the show gets darker, but not as dark as the rest of the Metal Saga.
  • Lighter and Softer: After the events of Nemesis in "Metal Fury", this series is more light-hearted, though the DNA plot darkens the mood a little.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Like the two previous series, the show mainly exists to show off all the awesome customizable tops available at your nearest ToysRUs. Read about them here.
  • Non-Action Girl: Maru doesn't battle, just like her mentor Madoka from the previous series. Unlike Madoka, Maru does not get a Let's Get Dangerous! moment.
  • No-Sell: Kira and his Bey have done this to nearly every special move he's experienced.
  • Older and Wiser: Many characters from the Metal Saga have grown up: Benkei, Madoka, and Tsubasa are the more prominent ones.
  • Power Crystal: The main gimmick of the new wheels. A hole in the metal wheel allows a small peg on the plastic wheel to stick through.
  • The Power of Friendship: There's a lot of emphasis on part-swapping and how a deep connection between the swappers powers up the Beyblade.
  • Quarter Hour Short: In Japan, each episode lasts half the time of most anime. When exported to the West, episodes were combined into pairs to make full-length episodes, turning 38 episodes into 19. Thanks to the unaired episodes in Japan, the series got extended into 52 short episodes made into 26 full-length episodes.
  • The Rival: Zero becomes rivals with nearly everyone. First it was Shinobu. Then he and Kite became rivals when the Synchrome arc kicks in. Afterwards, he develops a rivalry with Sakyo similar to that of their idols, Gingka and Ryuga respectively. However, he also focuses on Kira at the same time due to the conflict with DNA. Then Shinobu became focused on Kira as well, partly for breaking his arm, and resorts to creating a new special move to defeat Kira, only for that to fail when Kira uses a completely different bey. Kite becomes this to Kira and Yoshio because the latter defeated his brother and himself, and the former for being the one who stole the Sychrome data. When Zero defeats Yoshio, Kite nearly attacks him. Ren becomes this to Genjuro after losing to him and vowing revenge, which develops further in the Return of DNA arc.
    • And there's even more. It's Beyblade. We knew that there would be a lot of rivalries.
  • Third-Person Person: Maru often speaks like this.
  • Token Mini-Moe: Eight and Maru are some of the shortest characters alongside Kenta, Kyōju, and Toko & Nika.
  • Tournament Arc: Episode 27-38 (14-19 in the english dub) features the Neo Battle Bladers tournament, the sequel tournament to Battle Bladers.
  • The Mentor: Benkei ends up training Zero, Maru, Shinobu, Kite, Eight, and Ren. At the end of the first arc (episode 38/19), he also ends up training Akira and Gen.
  • Training from Hell: Zero/Zyro went through this after losing to Shinobu, subverting Gingka's Hard Work Hardly Works.
  • The Worf Effect: With the exception of a few characters, the majority of bladers pose a challenge upon arrival, and then proceed to lose several battles in the future. The most prominent of these examples are the Unabara brothers. Eight has never won a battle against a main Blader except in team & Synchrome battles, and since Kite uses the Sychrome bey, those don't count. As for Kite, he at least defeated Garuda. On the villain side, Spike Bourne and Garuda never once win a battle out of all the DNA members.


Alternative Title(s): Beyblade Zero G, Metal Fight Beyblade Zero G

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