[Honey's Anime Interview] BEYBLADE X Interview with Masahiko Yamazaki, Hisato Takaoka, and Makoto Muraki at the Los Angeles Anime Expo 2025

Why did you choose Anime Expo as the venue for the U.S. National qualifier? What goes into organizing an event of this scale here?

BEYBLADE launched in Japan in 1999, and in the U.S. in 2000. That means it has been 25 years since BEYBLADE first arrived in America. Last year was our first time bringing BEYBLADE to Anime Expo and we were very, very surprised and excited to find so many adult fans here. We have always believed the potential of American fans and community, and seeing their passion firsthand was a very great opportunity for us. That’s why we wanted to return and hold the tournament at this year's event.

BEYBLADE started just as a toy, but we’ve been aiming towards making it an entertainment sport, that’s why we thought about Los Angeles, the city of entertainment. Anime Expo is a very, very huge event so, in line with our branch’s story, this is a very suitable opportunity and a suitable event at AX. If you had the chance to come here during the morning (Saturday, July 5, 2025) there were so many people in line, we were not expecting so many fans to show up! Last year, BEYBLADE was here, but this year is the first time that we’ve held a tournament. We could not have imagined the number of people who attended. We were pleasantly surprised and very impressed with the number of attendees.

What are you hoping that fans take away from this event, or what were you expecting to show fans by holding this tournament here at AX?

From what I’ve seen, there’s a great opportunity to further grow and support adult tournaments in the U.S. I want to give hope that in the future, we will have more and more events for the American fans. While at the booth, I wondered why 200, or 300 people had gathered here, staying all the time around the stage area; it got me thinking that maybe this is a very, very rare opportunity to witness an official BEYBLADE tournament.

I wanted fans to take away the experience of an official tournament. I hope that those people who participated in the Anime Expo Tournament, go back to their hometowns and do the same as they did here. We formally introduced how to participate in a BEYBLADE tournament, showed them not only the format, but the experience, and how it goes after you lose or win a match, where you shake hands, etc. That’s the experience I hope they take from this event.

After seeing the popularity of the BEYBLADE X tournament in Anime Expo, are you planning on coming back to AX next year or maybe plan on holding other official tournaments in other conventions across the U.S.?

Yes, as BEYBLADE X we plan to come to Anime Expo next year. We hope to expand with other tournaments or activities, as well as participate in other major U.S. conventions, working together with Hasbro, our U.S. partner.

With BEYBLADE X growing in popularity, what’s your vision for the expansion of the franchise in the next decade? Do you see it expanding into things like virtual or augmented reality battles, or is the focus more on growing physical product availability, especially here in the U.S.?

Seeing that there are many new technologies like AI, AR, or VR as you mentioned, in the case of BEYBLADE it had a weird introduction into the metaverse world through Roblox. Right now, nearly 40 million visitors from around the world have joined the BEYBLADE world on Roblox. I can see that technology is important, but from what I can see the most important thing is the community. BEYBLADE fans are encouraged to enjoy the brand in many ways, so it has great potential to cultivate a community no matter what technology it expands to. But we’ve committed to grow the community rather than focusing on introducing the brand to new technology.

Why did you choose Roblox as the “community builder” for BEYBLADE?

In Japan, Roblox is not really popular yet, but in the U.S.A, as well as other parts of Asia it's really popular. BEYBLADEs’ strength is that they can provide a physical experience, at the same time, this is our weakness. We want fans to enjoy BEYBLADE globally, but as of right now, Roblox is the answer the fans have created. And the fantastic thing is that you can play it from anywhere.

[Takaoka proceeds to take out his phone, which is already online on Roblox and actively spectating a BEYBLADE match between real people that are online at that moment]

The players of that BEYBLADE world in Roblox, the total of Japanese players is maybe around 5% but the other 95% are from all over the world; number one is currently Thailand, followed by Mexico and the U.S.A. That's why we embraced Roblox, since it’s a global platform that surpasses the barriers and restrictions of our physical limitations.

When designing parts for BEYBLADE X with competitive players in mind, how do you strike a balance between performance, durability, and customization? Is one prioritized more than the others, or is it always a compromise?

Those three elements you mentioned are very, very important. First of all, BEYBLADE X is a product that can be enjoyed by children and adults, so our priority is safety. At the same time, it has to be truly thrilling and fun to play. Although it seems at odds with safety the features that make the game exciting—like high-speed, intense collisions are essential for our products so it is a big challenge for us to pursue both aspects. We try not to have tradeoffs or compromises, they try to deliver all those points at the highest possible “level”, This is something we really take care of when thinking about new model designs.

As a competitive game, BEYBLADE must often introduce different "battle strategies". I see BEYBLADE X has a gimmick called "X-dash" Could you walk me through how you come up with these strategies?

BEYBLADE X physical contact is really important. “Physical contact” is the base keyword in the company, so everyone keeps it in mind when creating the product. If it goes faster, would it be interesting? If it falls apart, will it be interesting? Those kinds of unique ideas are always brought forward by the team and we bring it to life as a demo product by the design team to test it out. After everyone has experienced it and it makes sense as a strategy, then the idea will move on to the next level until it makes it to the actual product. One thing we’re always taking care of is that we don’t create only an idea, but also create a demo product to test it out within the team.

As for battle gimmicks like the X-Dash, so far what has been the most challenging or interesting gimmick that you have created?

3rd generation BEYBLADE Burst. This was the first time that the toy would be torn apart, breaking into pieces. That gimmick introduced in the 3rd generation was challenging because the point was for them to break apart on purpose, but also you should be able to put it back together. On top of that, we had to achieve for it to spin super fast and all the pieces would fly out all over the place, so safety was a challenge. Before this model, the arena did not have the guard piece, so we had to come up with the arena barrier too.

Now that you have seen the popularity of BEYBLADE X in Anime Expo, and of course, Anime Expo caters to an Otaku culture, do you have in mind any collaboration with some big anime title? For example, a series of toys inspired by big IPs?

In Japan, we’ve had experience collaborating with celebrities and sports groups. We won’t deny any future collaborations with any anime IP. We have already collaborated with major IPs like Star Wars and Marvel featuring characters like Skywalker or Spiderman, we even have a collaboration with FC Barcelona, a legendary European multi-sports club based in Catalonia.

I want to ask you all for your personal experience watching the popularity of the BEYBLADE X booth and seeing all the fans there as well as the competitive U.S. Bey community playing in the tournament. Has anything surprised you? Has the U.S. player base inspired you in any way? How’s the US community different from the Japanese community? Any personal feelings that you’d like to share about your experience at Anime Expo and the BEYBLADE Championship?

As I expected, United States fans are really full of emotion. Most of the American　fans are shouting “Woo, I did it! I did it!”. I like this style of celebrating, it's something I am really glad to see, hahaha.

During BEYBLADE’s panel event at AX, we played the first episode of our new anime season. The fans there were very very excited and had a good reaction. But we not only talked about the animation, we also talked about BEYBLADE as a product and the community was very curious about how we design our toys, about the making process. It gave me the impression that the U.S. fans are extremely curious about BEYBLADE, so I enjoyed their reaction to our panel.

When I saw the participants of the tournaments and noticed the kind of Beys that they use I thought their selections were interesting. Usually, when you compete in tournaments, the ultimate goal should be to win, right? But seeing the U.S. participants, they are using the BEYBLADEs that they really like, ones that they have emotional attachments to. The ratio is a lot higher in the U.S. than in Japan. The way that fans enjoy BEYBLADE X here in the U.S. is wider, so that’s the point of view I gained from this experience and I will take it into consideration for future product design.

The passion and enthusiasm surrounding BEYBLADE X at Anime Expo 2025 was undeniable. It's clear that BEYBLADE continues to evolve as more than just a toy, it’s a global phenomenon fueled by community, creativity, and competition. With plans to return and expand further into U.S. events, the future of BEYBLADE is spinning faster than ever!