YMMV / Beyblade: Shogun Steel

• Badass Decay: Kite was originally one of the strongest characters during his debut and was even able to nullify Zyro's signature move. He even introduced the concept of Synchromes which was the most powerful combination at the time. However, he has since lost a few ranks with the introduction of new bladers and was hardly able to compete with many characters since.
• Base-Breaking Character: Zyro. He's either an okay protagonist or the worst one in the franchise. The latter stems from the character's lack of personality and little character development when compared to Gingka.
• Designated Villain: Sakyo. To say he's a villain is an exaggeration when at worst, he's just an Anti-Hero and does act aloof but really, he's just a blader who has as much right to reach to the top as everyone else. Unlike his Expy Ryuga, he isn't evil nor does he hold any destructive or selfish desires, he just wants to win and doesn't resort to any unfair methods to do so.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Ren Kurenai is arguably one of the most popular characters in this series. This stems from her Action Girl status as well as having more personality than most of the main cast.
  • Despite the series having some of the lesser favourite villains in the franchise, Kira seems to be well-liked for his interesting personality, his sadism and unique design. Some also like him for being Creepy Awesome.
  • Depending on who you ask, the other DNA Bladers (Captain Arrow, Genjuro, Spike, Baihu and Karura) have also gained some fans mainly because they're made as tributes to the characters from the original series though others also appreciate them for having more lively personalities.
• Ho Yay: Sakyo and Takanosuke have moments like this. Though it could be interpreted as a brotherly love, the way Takanosuke would occasionally blush or get excitable whenever Sakyo complimented him as well as when he reconciles with him after witnessing his loss against Zyro, where Sakyo vows to aim to the top together does raise further eyebrows. It doesn't help that both their beys can perfectly synchronise with each other which forces the bladers to bond as well.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: How some people view the series as it recycles some plot elements and character archetypes from the series prior to this one.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Eight. Does he act like an arrogant little brat towards his friends oftenly? Yes, but the injuries he had suffered in the hands of Yoshio is pretty hard to watch.
  • Kira (in the manga). It's revealed the reason he wants to crush bladers is because he was always alienated and bullied by a number of bladers as a child for the way he dressed as well as expressing petty jealousy towards him as he would always beat them.
    • The anime version strips away his sympathetic backstory by instead making him a power-hungry villain who wants everyone under his grasp. He's also more sadistic than he was in the manga, taking great pleasure and enjoyment in tormenting his fellow bladers.
• Moral Event Horizon: Whilst Doji was always one of the most frequent antagonists, he was usually sophisticated and polite. When he returned, he became more threatening and insane who took pleasure in torturing his minions and uses them as lab rats but what crosses it for him was when he decided to self-destruct his robot body after losing a battle in hopes of killing Zyro, his friends and even his own minions just to prevent them from creating a brighter future.
• Moment of Awesome: Ren defeating Genjuro with just one hit in a rematch.
• Nightmare Fuel: Has it's own page.
• Seasonal Rot: This is often considered one of the weakest seasons of the Metal Saga due to the recycled plot elements, flat characters and less episodes (though you'll find some fans who are willing to defend the series too).
  • The problem was that in its original run, the series was forced to reduce its time slot thus only allowing 12-minutes an episode with only 38 of said episodes that have aired in Japan. Given that the English Dub fuses two episodes into one making those 38 episodes into 19 makes this series incredibly short and leaves little room to expand on the storyline.
    • They did eventually release all the episodes during its run in South Korea making a total of 52 (or 26) episodes.
• Take That, Scrappy!: The scene where Kira betrays and attacks the Garcias and the other DNA Bladers with his new bey can be seen as this. To add to this, they also get locked up by him and his henchman, Yoshio.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The Unabara brothers. Kite started off as a challenging blader who could've posed as a difficult obstacle for Zyro, especially because his bey is both a Defense type and a Water-elemental bey. His relationship with his brother also had a lot of potential for the character to grow. Unfortunately, he's been shoved onto the sidelines as soon as his Orochi Leviathan was defeated for the first time and since then, his screen-time lessened greatly (in favour of Zyro and Shinobu) and he would start losing in battles more often unless Synchromed or paired with Eight but even then he could still lose.
• Vindicated by History: Despite being one of the lesser loved Beyblade seasons, some fans have warmed up to the series nowadays. Some appreciate a lot of the ideas (such as being able to combine two beys into one to show the bond of two bladers) and felt that the anime could've been more fleshed out, had they gone back to a full timeslot (instead of getting their episodes cut to 12 minutes).
• Viewer Gender Confusion: More often than not, Kira is misgendered by viewers because of his feminine appearance.
• The Woobie:
  • Shinobu. He's easily one of the nicest of Zyro's rivals and yet, his bey Ninja Salamander has been damaged/destroyed more times than the other main cast (with Kite following behind) and has suffered the most physical damage against other bladers, especially Kira (twice). Thankfully, things do get easier for him later on.
  • Takanosuke. He just wants to impress his friend, Sakyo and gain his respect. When he gets rebuffed by Sakyo, he's clearly hurt by him but still stuck by him till the end.