I liked the first anime for Beyblade because of how outrageously HOT BLOODED it was and all the outlandish thematic launchers they had. It was just so goofy yet totally earnest about it. The following series were really bland compared to it.
I don't know how generic it is... I mean Liorga starts the show as the King of the Land Gloria kingdom! He's obviously a powerful warrior and respected by his people. He flakes on his training with Big Serow to go have fun on the town apparently, but his kingdom seems fairly peaceful. Normally in those types of show the main character starts off at the bottom of the ladder and has to climb it up by defeating powerful enemies and overcoming obstacle. Seems to me like they'll have to spent time defending Gloria more than anything...though there might be some sort of quest for those stones. Or maybe next episode hte Sea Death Heart crew shows up and invade Gloria, forcing Liorga to form a group of freedom fighter.
I'm actually surprised they didn't just re-skinned Romance of the Three Kingdom. Would have been fairly easy with this set up.
At least it's not a show about kids playing Beast Saga
I found this episode to be too much like the first episode of the new reboot of Thundercats from 2011. Liono skips out on some necessary duties back at the palace, which finds Tigera frusturated with him. We find out that Liono is secretly spending time in the common areas of the city, with his only disguise being a loose, hooded cloak worn over his normal armor. However, once a group of thugs starts bullying someone, Liono takes off his cloak, revealing who he is, the prince of Thunderra, and begins fighting the thugs in the street, with a crowd of people watching. Watching this felt like I was watching that episode again, just with different names.
Now, with that being said, I still really liked it. I didn't understand what was happening when it was all dialogue, but I was able to understand the majority of the story. I thought the animation was pretty good. I'm always happy to see hand drawn cell animation in a time when everything, even 80s and 90s properties like Transformers and Ninja Turtles, is going CGI. I am interested to see how they end up incorporating more of the characters.
It was also interesting to see a world populated by non-armor clad animals, showing there are clearly "citizens" of the planet. In the old headmasters cartoon and the old comic book, it was always portrayed as if all the animals were Battle Beasts with battle armor who were all animals in their own right. Interesting to see non-warrior animals that give a little bit more gravity to the threat of any bad guys.