Burning Soul Episode 1

  

Hi, I'm Gear, and I need to make a proper introduction post.

So. Livetweet threads are hard for me to maintain and so I decided to copy someone on WordPress and do a blog format. So this entire thing is inspired by blackace4000's Battle Spirits Commentary Archive.

Now instead of doing this with my favorite, Ultimate Zero (I miss Rei already...) or any of the other shows I've started, I've decided to start with a bang and plunge completely blind into Burning Soul, a show apparently so bad that the few people subbing anything Battle Spirits gave up on subbing the show right after it. ...What a first impression indeed.

Without further ado, let's see if Burning Soul is ACTUALLY that bad!!

Okay so what in the everloving hell is Dan Bashin doing here. Why is he here. Does he actually show up? I know the worse Bashin (Toppa) does but what about the better one. Why is he here lmao???

 

Well, yes, this is a card game show, of course the entire world revolves around the card game or who else would buy the cards? 

 
...Speaking of, I need to get on that.
Anyway, looks like this is our protagonist, Yukimura Rekka. I'm not sure what his first name is, but the show seems to like to call him Yukimura so I'll stick to that. He's got an interesting hairstyle and is notable for being the first Battle Spirits protagonist with multiple hair colors, unless you count my glorious king Rei, who's hair color changes with his various forms (if I remember correctly, Tsurugi got red hair in his final form as well). 

 

 Who?

 

Sasuke (the guy with the most interesting design on screen) here sounds a little familiar. My ears are always wrong with this kind of thing, but he sounds sort of like the Kappa guy from Ultimate Zero, Tohno. I'm probably wrong, but it stood out to me immediately. Probably because it reminds me I could be watching a much better show right now. For some reason, that came to mind before Ginga Hagane Beyblade Metal Fight?? I'm not gonna check but he does sound like him, so if they had the same voice actress I wouldn't at all be surprised. 

 

Now this is a much less interesting design. So far, it seems Yukimura is the best designed one here, which is unfortunate coming off of Ultimate Zero but I should probably stop comparing things for the sake of my sanity. 

 

Well THIS is a very different battle field from the previous shows (I think...) Its fitting, though, with the whole Sengoku era theme Burning Soul has going on. I don't think it actually takes place then, though, because so far everything seems too modern to line up.

RIGHT this is the show that introduced Soul Cores!! I'm used to playing with them with my Contract decks, but I don't know if those are a thing here (my knowledge about the game really stops at Ultimates, in all honesty). So I'm actually excited to see how this battle goes!

 

Sasuke here seems to be playing some oldies judging by the card frame. Since there's Bladra, it's probably going to die early. Unfortunately, unlike blackace4000 who I shamelessly stole this format from (sorry...) I know very little about the actual game to analyze anyone's hands or boards or just what they're playing in general, so sorry about that.


The CGI here is definitely a nice step up!


"I can summon it without paying the cost."
Maybe this one is actually incredible for beginners like me because they sure as hell didn't explain cost reduction anywhere else.


Personally, I think he should've just taken one of the attacks so he could get more core on his next turn. Though I get what he was aiming for (he wanted the other guy who's name I already forgot to not be able to block), so I guess it's fine.


I QUITE like this effect. It's neat!


For an Ultimate user like myself, that's nothing.


It took him way too long to start trying to farm some aura gains...


More than halfway into the episode he finally introduces himself... and I think we're gonna finally see our protagonist battle properly too. I hope, at least, because that took way too long!


I like the eyecatch. I guess this confirms we'll be seeing more of Sasuke.


Me neither, man.


Isn't that Dan's thing? ...Normal Clash, but still. Neat to see it back!!


Now THOSE are Ultimate numbers!


Yukimura's kinda awesome.


There's the guy everyone and their mother was talking about! His hairstyle is so tall it almost rivals Yukimura's. Speaking of, I wonder what Yukimura looks like without the headband...


A main girl who uses blue?! That's...actually really interesting, because so far they've been either purple or yellow. Excluding Eris, who was also red, but unlike Rei and Kiriga with her new battle form she didn't change out her whole deck and so her yellow cards remained. In the 15th anni PV we see a blue Eris form, though, so she might've gotten herself some blue cards! But that was way after this show aired, so this girl in the ED would be the first. I think, at least. Kyouka in Bashin played blue, but she wasn't the "main" girl of that show (which would be Suiren, I think?) and so I don't count her.


Here's our card of the day!
"[LV1][LV2][LV3 True-Clash (When Attacks)
The opponent must block with Spirits/Ultimates if possible.

[LV1][LV2][LV3] (When Attacks)
Draw a card. Or, during this turn, this Spirit gains +5000 BP.

[LV2][LV3] (When Attacks)
While this Spirit has (Soul Core) on it, when the blocking opposing Spirit is depleted/destroyed, send an opposing Life to their Reserve."

So True Clash mentions Ultimates having to block? From what I know it is around this point where Ultimates lost their special quality of not being able to be targeted by effects that specify Spirits, because those same effects would now specify Ultimates...

Overall, I can't judge how "good" this card is, but it definitely seems interesting (especially seeing a use of Soul Core outside Adventing)!

Overall thoughts...
Y'know, for the series that many people rank the absolute lowest on their lists, I expected to like it much less, but to be fair I like Ultimate Zero which isn't exactly the most popular. I think pacing wise, it's a little meh and I found it incredibly odd how it took more than halfway into the episode for Yukimura to give his name and battle properly, considering he's the protagonist, and that one girl remains nameless and mysterious which really bothers me, but so far I quite enjoy it! Yukimura seems more like Rei than the other protagonists, so I immediately like him a lot, though in my eyes he also reminds me of Dan, a less excitable Dan that is (*I've only watched Gekiha), considering he seems to be a relatively relaxed sort of guy but can show a hotblooded side when the time calls for it, and Dan in his earlier outings was definitely more laid back (and less of a prick) than Bashin.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Burning Soul goes on from here! Especially to see if it really gets that bad. I can't help but be curious...

Until then, that's it for now!