05/10/2026
Long read ahead! No worries, it's just some reflection that I have been doing, join me if you want.
Bird Kazami is my favorite character in the new Beyblade X anime. I am still stuck at the second season of the show (because your Tito here cant watch 12 episodes a night anymore) but I could see the vision of why Bird is there. Bird seems to be out of place in an anime filled with fantastical characters. A boy with outrageous RPMS. A girl with the talent to craft beys based on a person's personality. A dysfunctional family that has a psychopathic dad that names his kids using numbers because of reasons. Among these examples Bird, or in the Japanese anime “Robin”, Kazami has no notable achievements except for losing 99% of the time. Despite that, I firmly believe that he is the ideal depiction of a true blader.
In the story, Bird Kazami has almost no wins. He battles different people and beyblades and yet he doesn’t seem to see the light of victory (NO SPOILERS). In the first few episodes you could see and feel him lamenting over this, but when he meets Jaxon the perspective shifts. Jaxon enjoys blading and battling with other people. At first I just thought this was pure arrogance because he wins all the time. But somehow, when Bird adopts Jaxon’s philosophy it takes on a new meaning. At every pivotal match even if Bird loses someone in the cast will always ask him “Did you have fun?” and in the end of the first season we witness his (not first) most genuine YES.
“Enjoy blading” period.
That’s it. The whole show revolves on these 2 words alone and that is its whole message. The show itself is a showcase of new toys and marketing. But the writers somehow made it bearable with that simple anchoring philosophy while they present it with Robin. Honestly, it's a mindset that we should all adopt in our communities. This is why some of us in the hobby should watch anime once in a while to understand what our hobby really is for.
To tell you honestly, some aspects of the hobby are sickeningly toxic. Scalping, price hiking, BreKos, match fixing, and many more! These are all products of people entering the hobby and coming at it from the wrong angle. Players OBSESSED with winning, people BLINDED by money, OLDER members GATEKEEPING the hobby from its supposed target market. All of these are the reality of beyblades right now. To all these people, Bird is the counter thesis.
Bird has no record wins, but he still enjoys blading! I would even go as far as saying that his love for the battle made him better in every single match. Losing for Bird only means he still has room to improve and get better than how he played yesterday. Leading to the second counter point, Bird treasures improvement more than anything (that includes money). This allows Bird and team persona as a whole to attract more people to play beyblades and improve with them. Instead of gate keepers they become ushers to the future of blading.
These are the qualities that we should imitate and we already have existing models of these values! Zyrick who shows us an entertaining way to look at losses and how to be grateful for our wins. Nyoole's who always reminds us that despite any combo, the blade is nothing without its Blader. Blader Yomi who connects the community together here and abroad and shows us the universal language of competition and sportsmanship. There are many more but these three are the ones that I do my best to emulate. They may be at the top of these standards but it takes more than 3 individuals to make a safer space for more budding bladers to grow.
The community needs more Bird Kazamis. Emulating Jaxon is very basic, although he is still a good model. But we need more people who enjoy blading more than the wins and podiums. I honestly need more Bird Kazami in me. I still have a hard time swallowing defeats but, I still genuinely try. After that, we may even need more Burn Fujiwaras. But that’s a topic for a different post.
