Since its origins in the 1990s, the Beyblade franchise is one of the most topsy-turvy toy tie-ins out there. Beginning as a line of spinning tops, it received its own manga and later an anime, with the original entry in the series becoming quite popular with kids in the early 2000s. It’s now about to celebrate its 25th anniversary, and the festivities could be marked by a new series that brings back old concepts.
Beyblade X was the recently-announced newest entry in the Beyblade anime, though not much is known about it yet. Given that it’s releasing to celebrate the franchise’s history, one way it could really get nostalgic is by bringing back Bit Beasts. Once seen as obvious attempts to chase the success of Pokémon, these creatures could give the series a cutting edge in today’s anime market.
The 70zll0v” title=”origin”>Original Beyblade Featured a Long-Forgotten Concept
In the first line of Beyblade toys and especially in the resulting fiction, the spinning, serrated tops had “Bit Chips” within their center. These housed the corresponding Bit Beasts — powerful monsters that could lend their strength to the Beyblade. The creatures seemed to have lived long ago, with their spirits inhabiting objects before sometimes transferring to Beyblades in the modern day. For instance, Tyson’s draconic Bit Beast Dragoon was once housed in a sword, while Max’s Draciel was formerly in a locket. Whenever the Bit Beasts’ power took over a Beyblade, they threw around their weight and inevitably helped to win Beyblade battles for their users.
The idea of Bit Beasts was diminished in the franchise’s later years, with much of the original lore and even some of the Bit Chip designs being dropped. Part of this was likely due to the obvious intent behind Bit Beasts. Clearly made to jump on the bandwagon of Pokémon and even Digimon, the mystical creatures felt almost out of place in a series that was ultimately just about spinning tops. If anything, they somewhat foreshadowed how powerful Pokémon would become. It didn’t help that certain types of Bit Beasts had naming conventions similar to adding -mon to the end of a Digimon’s name. However, while this may have been a shameless bandwagon form of creativity back in the day, it would serve the franchise much better in the present.
The Newest Beyblade Series Can Bring Back Bit Beasts
Beyblade X was announced on March 21, 2023 — “Beyblade Day” in Japan — and it came with the news that the series would premiere in the summer later that year. The teaser trailer for the anime project took a look back at the original manga that later spawned the anime, making the anniversary nature of the show even more apparent. For this reason especially, it would be great if Bit Beasts became a major concept in the series again. After all, it would commemorate the classic anime and manga that the new show is so clearly hearkening back to in some way. Fans who grew up with the original can now see the premise truly reborn, making it a Beyblade birthday to remember.
On top of that, the passage of time would make the obvious similarities to Pokémon a bit less obvious. That series is still huge among kids of all ages, though it isn’t quite as ubiquitous in popular culture in the same way. That’s definitely the case with Digimon, which is mostly remembered in the West due to nostalgia. Thus, Bit Beasts could be played with and explored without coming off as too much of a “ripoff,” giving Beyblade its own mythology for future projects to build on. On top of that, it would logically elevate the series to be more than just tops, which is what the purpose of the Bit Beasts was to begin with. Likewise, it would be easy to use the signature monster designs for toys and merchandise beyond the tops. By drawing from the past and fixing some of its older issues, Beyblade X could easily be the Beyblade formula perfected.
Beyblade X lets it rip in Summer 2023.
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