Beyblade (爆転シュート ベイブレード Bakuten Shūto Beiburēdo) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takao Aoki. Originally serialized in CoroCoro Comic from 2000 to 2002, the individual chapters were collected and published in 14 tankōbon by Shogakukan. The series focuses on a group of kids who form teams with which they battle one another using highly powerful spinning tops called "Beyblades".
PLOT
Beyblade
A young boy named Tyson Granger (Takao Kinomiya) enters the Japanese Regional Beyblade Qualifying Tournament. Tyson encounters Ray Kon (Rei Kon) and Kai Hiwatari, and after defeating them, they organize a team, known as the Bladebreakers, along with Max Tate (Max Mizuhara). The Bladebreakers tour China to register for the championships, while confronting the White Tigers, Ray's former team. It is seen that Ray's old team holds a grudge against him for leaving them, but towards the end of the Chinese Tournament, Ray and his ex-teammates make amends, and the Bladebreakers win the tournament. After this, Tyson and his friends arrive in the USA to fight the All Starz, who are coached by Max's mother. After winning the American league, the team find themselves stranded in Europe. In order to get to Russia to register for the World Championships, they must battle the Majestics who are Europe's top bladers. Once in Russia, Tyson and his friends find themselves up against the Demolition Boys, the Russian Champions, who are ruthless and obsessed with power. The Bladebreakers then discover that the Demolition Boys are merely tools for the BIOVOLT Corporation, run by Kai's grandfather, Voltaire, and Boris, a criminal mastermind. Initially, Kai was pursued by Boris to join the Demolition Boys in the ultimate quest for power, the Black Dranzer Bit-Beast which Kai was seeking to become the best Beyblader. However, he realizes his mistakes and rejoins the Bladebreakers. During the finals, Kai loses the first round and his Dranzer to Spencer and his bit-beast Seaborg. Ray barely manages to win against Bryan, but has to be taken to hospital after the injuries from the match. Tyson manages to defeat Tala, the Demolition Boys whose body had been modified by Boris to win the match, in the final round and manages to win the title of the BBA world champion.
Beyblade: V-Force
At the start of the second season the team has gone their separate ways, but their enemies reunite them quickly enough. Two different groups, Team Psykick and the Saint Shields, attack the Blade-breakers by trying to steal their bit-beasts for their own reasons. During the second season, Hilary Tachibana (Hiromi in Japanese) joins the Blade-breakers, but takes time to learn the fact that Beyblade isn't just a stupid game as she thinks it is. The first half of the second season ends with the Blade-breakers defeating Team Psykick, who were manipulating their friends Kane, Salima, Goki and Jimmy. The second half of season 2 deals with the truth of why the Saint Shields and Team Psykick are after their bit-beasts and about a rock that Max's mother found that contains bit-beasts, which is stolen by Team Psykick. The Saint Shields' reason is because they wish to seal the bit-beasts in a rock because they fear that the bit-beasts could get out of control like they did in the past. Team Psykick's reason is because the Psykick's leader, Dr. Zagart, wants the bit-beasts to turn his android son (an exact replica of his actual son who died in an accident) into a real human. After defeating the Saint Shields, Zeo, who is one of Tyson's new friends, learns the truth about his past and how he was created Dr. Zagart, so he uses the rock's strongest bit-beast, Cerberus (pronounced ker-bur-is), to get the bit-beasts. The world championships are coming to Japan, so Hilary separates the Blade-breakers into two teams: Tyson and Max for one, Kai and Ray for the other. However, during the tournament, Zeo and his partner Gordo, are destroying the competition. Soon enough, Zeo and Gordo eliminate Kai and Ray, taking Kai's Dranzer in the process. Tyson and Max face Zeo and Gordo in the final. Tyson manages to beat Gordo, but Zeo defeats Max and captures Draciel. During the final battle between Tyson and Zeo, the Blade-breakers find out that Zeo is actually an android, and about Dr. Zagart's reason for trying to use Zeo to get the bit-beasts. Tyson manages to convince him otherwise, and manages to defeat Zeo, making him and Max the world champions once again.
Beyblade: G-Revolution
Kai, Ray, Max and Tyson went their separate ways and rejoined their old teams so that they have a chance to beat each other at the World Championship. This leaves only Tyson, Hilary, and Kenny on the team, but a new character, Daichi Sumeragi, and Tyson's brother Hiro Granger, join them. One week after the results of the World Championships, Boris, the secondary villain from the first season, says things will return to the way they were before. But he declares that all the Beyblade shops must sell beyblades and their parts to BEGA associated Beybladers only, otherwise they will not be allowed to run the shops.
Tyson and the team find some parts at Max's father's store, which are insufficient. Then after sometime Kenny comes with the solution, he makes new type of Beyblades, using different type of parts. But they still needed one more blader, that's when Kai, who tried to join BEGA but lost severely to Brooklyn, rejoins the team. Daichi and Ray lose the first two matches to Ming-Ming and Crusher and Max ends the third match with Mystel in a draw. Then it was Kai's turn to face the unbeaten Brooklyn. Kai then beats Brooklyn in an awesome match but loses Dranzer later. Then Tyson beats Garland. And then Brooklyn who becomes insane due to his loss to Kai, faces Tyson. In an explosive match, Tyson then beats Brooklyn after his Beyblade Dragoon absorbs the power of all the Sacred Bit Beasts and evolves into the most powerful Beyblade on Earth. During the end scene Tyson and Kai go at it one last time.
A new series of Beyblade has been released in 2009 (2010 in U.S.), entitled Beyblade: Metal Fusion (known as Metal Fight Beyblade in Japan). It features a new cast of characters and Beyblades. A sequel series has also been released in 2010 (2011 in U.S.), called Beyblade: Metal Masters.