Metal Fight Beyblade Was PEAK Beyblade Insanity

Article at a glance:
The Metal Fight Beyblade era was pure chaos in the best way possible, over-the-top battles, wild characters, and actual storylines that went harder than they had any right to.
The metal-on-metal clashing, the designs, the sound, everything about MFB felt raw, loud, and alive. It defined what Beyblade should feel like.
From Metal Fusion’s dark energy and iconic rivalries to Metal Masters’ world-level hype, the MFB trilogy gave us peak Beyblade energy that no other era has fully recaptured since.

Look, before I even start this article, I will admit that nostalgia is probably going to play pretty heavily into this. But I will still do my best to stay objective. I know Beyblade X has been pretty successful and has brought the series and toys back in a big way, and that’s always nice. But I will forever miss the over-the-top insanity of the Metal Fight Beyblade era. Also, the MFB era has some of my favorite-looking beys of all time. X designs are nice, but they often look cluttered and over-designed; meanwhile, MFB nailed that less-is-more approach.

Also, the signature part of MFB Bey, that metal Fusion Wheel. Listening to Fusion Wheels clash in real life is just so satisfying. I need an MFB fight ASMR bro. But, this article is not about toys lol. We are here to discuss the anime. I don’t know why, but I just felt like going through all 4 seasons of MFB again and reliving my childhood a little. And not gonna lie, some of them still hold up pretty good.

So, welcome back to another article, and today we are talking about the Metal Fight era of Beyblade, or just MFB for short. Full disclaimer, I will try my best to keep this discussion anime only, but the toys are bound to come up at some point, so please forgive me for that. But with that said, let’s get started.

Metal Fusion

If I were a kid watching in the Beyblade world, I would GIVE UP on my dream of becoming a blader if I saw Ryuga. He was an absolute monster back in the day.

Think of a random, absolutely insane battle shounen and then make that battle shounen into a Beyblade tournament. That is how you get Metal Fusion. I cannot think of a more perfect way to start off a new generation than Metal Fusion. This season had EVERYTHING. Good characters, a plot that made no sense, a tournament, and of course, intense fights. The animations were really good for the time. And bro, this shit was SERIOUS.

Also, that man Ryuga was on some absolute DEMON TIME in Fusion. Bro, he traumatized an entire generation of Bladers in Metal Fusion alone. He did Hikaru SO dirty that she retired from Beyblade altogether and took up an office job. Then he literally corrupted Tsubasa with the dark power and then actually straight up murdered Kyoya by impaling him with a dragon head. As I said, Beyblade was SERIOUS. This is what made Lightning L-Drago into such an iconic Bey. PEAK season, literally the perfect start to a new generation.

Metal Masters

How do you top Metal Fusion? Well, have another tournament, but invite people from the whole world to it. More beys, more characters, more mental breakdows, yeah, they cooked once again. In my opinion, Metal Masters had the best-looking Beys in the whole MFB generation. They utilized colors so well throughout this entire season; they even started adding colors to the Fusion Wheels. Oh yeah, there’s a whole secret organization that literally experimented on children to make them better Bladers. Again, Beyblade was SERIOUS back in the day lmao.

Once again, we had so many iconic characters and Beys from this season. Julian and Gravity Destroyer, Damian and Hades Kerbecs, Msamume and Ray Striker, Dashan and Rock Zurafa, etc. I could keep naming iconic pairs all day. Also, this is the season where Ryuga beats 3 dudes at once just by HAND SPINNING his Meteo L-Drago. Talk about disrespect. Ryuga and Gingka’s dynamic in Metal Masters is so cool. Ryuga, having moved on from his Dark Power days, is such a cool character. He’s calmer but just as arrogant and powerful.

Metal Fury

Look, I don’t hate Metal Fury, but come on, man, the writing just wasn’t there. They introduced way too many new characters too fast and basically had no time to develop any of them. The Legendary Beys is such a cool concept, but more of the existing cast should have gotten a 4D Bey update too, outside of the usual trio of Gingka, Kyoya, and Ryuga. Imagine how cool a 4D Earth Eagle or Libra could’ve been. At least Kenta got one, so that’s nice.

Fury has some insanely iconic beys, but the thing is, I don’t remember any of the characters who used those iconic beys. With Metal Masters and Metal Fusion, I also remembered who the Beys belonged to. For example, Duo Uranus is one of my favorite beys from the 4D gen, but do I remember who used it? No. Also, as cool as the beys were, they kind of went overboard with the purple coloration, I think. So many of the 4D Beys are purple-themed.

Also, the story relied too much on plot armor and power of friendship stuff, bro. I know the main antagonist is the literal God of Destruction, but at least give him some depth. He’s absent for half the season and has no solid motivations or anything. Fury is not a bad season, but definitely the weakest among the OG MFB trilogy.

Zero G

The often forgotten sequel of the Metal Fight Beyblade era. Zero G had to be canned midway through because the popularity and toy sales were just not there anymore. Some of the final episodes of Zero G were never even dubbed into English, if I recall correctly; that is how disappointed they were with Zero G’s performance. Once again, Zero G is remembered for the parts and Beys it brought us rather than the story and characters.

Even though it is a very scaled-back narrative compared to Metal Fury, the charm that made Metal Fusion and Masters so special is just not there in Zero G. This is such a shame, too, because the Synchrom system from Zero G had so much potential to be explored with future releases.

That is all for now

I wish I could end this article on a brighter note, but the end of the Metal Fight Beyblade era is kind of sad. But there’s still a pretty active community for MFB you can find online. And if you loved growing up in this era just as much as I did, I think it is worth seeking the community out; it is fun. But let me know what guys think in the comments. That was enough nostalgia talk for one day. I will take my leave here. See ya!

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