Beyblade returned August 2008 in Japan with a new product line called Metal Fight Beyblade. A new anime series under the same name was aired in April 2009 and new episodes have been released every Sunday since then. Manga chapters by new Beyblade manga artist Adachi Takafumi are published monthly in Japan.

Three days ago it was announced that Nelvana, the company who dubbed the previous series Bakuten Shoot Beyblade (shortened to just Beyblade in the West), has acquired the rights to once again dub and distrubute the series on DVD in this part of the world. They have been co-producing the Japanese version of the anime (the music part at least) so it'll be interesting to see how they will do with the English dub.

As most Beyblade fans know, the English dub of Bakuten Shoot Beyblade was mediochre (in terms of keeping to the original Japanese) at best. The voice actors were good (despite being kids/young people rather than adults) and this was what most older Beyblade fans such as myself grew up with. It was not until we discovered the Japanese version a little later on that we found how different the two dubs were. Nelvana cuts a lot of things out in the anime they dub, from scenes, things said by the characters, endings, music and even entire episodes which is why most fans turn to the original Japanese with subtitles instead. Beyblade itself, Bakugan and Cardcaptors (its orginal Japanese name being Cardcaptor Sakura) are prime examples of this.

The previous series of Beyblade would have been received so much better if it had not been for Nelvana doing things such as changing the soundtrack, characters' names and cutting out great scenes. Many of us who have been folowing Metal Fight Beyblade or who have at least heard of it are apprehensive about how they will handle the new anime. It has already been renamed Beyblade Metal Fusion (which actually isn't a bad name! For once, Nelvana has done okay with this). What other changes will be made? Will the main character Ginga Hagane have his name changed like Takao Kinomiya (Tyson Granger)? Will the opening themes and ending themes be replaced and shortened like last time? Will scenes be cut out yet again?

I hope not. I'd love for the series to stay as it is when it's dubbed in English. That way Metal Fight Beyblade will do better than Bakuten Shoot, maybe even be around for longer and enjoyed more by the fans! If it is released on DVD with the original Japanese as well, that would be awesome; it was only done for some episodes in the third season of Bakuten Shoot. Let's hope it'll be done for all the episodes of Metal Fight!

My favourite anime has been given another chance. This second chance has gone down well in Japan and the series and the products are taking the country by storm. I hope it does the same here. Don't mess this up Nelvana, because you'll be setting the trend in the West!