Kai Hiwatari

Kai Hiwatari (火渡カイ Hiwatari Kai) is one of the deuteragonists from the Original Series, consisting of Beyblade, Beyblade: V-Force and Beyblade: G-Revolution. He is the former leader of the Blade Sharks and current leader of the G Revolutions (english dub only). He is also a former member of the Blitzkrieg Boys. His Bit-Beast and Beyblade is Dranzer - one of the 4 Sacred Bit-Beasts.







Appearance
As Tyson was originally based off of the image of Red from the Pokémon games in Jisedai Begoma Battle Beyblade, Kai was likely based on Blue.

Hudson made a number of Pokémon-like games aside from Jisedai Begoma Battle Beyblade and several characters also ended up referencing Blue also besides Kai.

Noted to have the most drastic outfit changes in the series, though he frequently wears a tight tank-top with baggy pants predominantly in purple and black.

Kai is tall and muscular. His appearance in the anime of season one is the most similar to his Anime counterpart; pale skin-tone (lighter in the Anime), brown eyes and dark hair with blue-gray bangs that get darker as the series goes on. Kai is the tallest member of the Bladebreakers, being at a height of 5'6".

His most recognizable trademark is his cobalt blue face mark that are revealed to be painted on in V-Force (Doesn't have them while he is at school). Kai's facepaint is "war paint" and he first wore it when he declared to erase Beyblade, though even when he stopped hating Beyblade he continued to wear it. The face paint itself represents shark teeth, being he was the leader of the Blade Sharks originally.

Another trait would be his long and thick white scarf though he doesn't wear this in V-Force. It is filled with weights and is so heavy that it cracks the ground whenever it is thrown. He briefly has a black piercing on his left earlobe in V-Force.

He is the oldest member of the Bladebreakers so is more mature and subdued than the rest of the team. He gets along the best with Ray Kon as they are similar in age and are the most mature. Though the role of Captain (Dub Only) was forced on him, he is a good leader who is able to calm down Tyson when he is about to let his temper get the best of him.

Kai is seen wearing cerulean baggy pants with large pockets, with a black tight-fitting tank-top, with red ends and yellow buttons. His shoes are black with red stripes and resembles skater-shoes. He is wearing his signature scarf, and red arm-guards. His eyes are Carmine/brown and his bangs are Carolina blue, with Egyptian-blue short slick hair.

In V Force he is wearing gray pants with red stripes above his knees, and a purple tank-top with a turtle neck, replacing his scarf, and with red stripes and yellow buttons. He is wearing purple on his arms as well. His shoes seem to be timberland or military boots. His eyes are blue/gray in this season, and his bangs a dark shade of gray while the back of his hair is almost black. He is also wearing a school uniform, a green blazer, white shirt, a red tie and gray pants. He is seen wearing a black earring and loses his blue triangles temporarily.

In G Revolution Kai wears purple pants with a purple top (it is debated whether it's a jumpsuit), and a black jacket/vest above with red stripes and yellow buttons. His scarf is back again and he's wearing black gloves and black shoes. His eyes are light purple, and his hair is a darker shade from his previous hair colour in season 2.

Personality
Kai is the son of a noble family and heir to the huge Japanese military company "Hiwatari Enterprise". He is a hard worker who is a cool, serious and rather unsociable person, but is full of ability in Beyblading and is one of the greatest Bladers to ever play the sport. His most distinguished trait is his sense of pride and fairness. Due to his Grandfather using him for his own means, Kai developed a hatred of Beyblades like in the manga, though for a different reason. He doesn't really enjoy the game because of it, and its only because of the events of the first season he grows to actually enjoy the game.

Kai is a proud and very confident Blader who is willing to sacrifice everything to get what he wants, which he usually gets through hard work, sweat or steel-hard determination, though he doesn't seem to mind stepping on some toes on his way up. He is also a quiet and mysterious person. However, if he at any time doesn't succeed in what he wants to do, he is very likely to feel down, and stay down for a while, in a depressed state, even willing to give up what he holds so dear, Beyblading. However, when the time comes he overcomes his defeat and rises stronger and even more determined than before.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[4760,5942,0,0]}">Although rather introverted, Kai is one of the most emotionally driven Beybladers in the series and far more emotional when he Beyblades, depicting the great importance that Beyblading holds over his life. He always kept a certain distance from his teammates. According to Emily, Kai was afraid to get to know them as he might start to like them which, eventually, happens. He has always acted alone without making friends and appeared to not know the meaning of friendship after being alone and friendless most of his life, only caring for his abusive grandfather who continuously used him. But when Kai was stuck in the ice at Lake Baikal and his teammates, whom he had betrayed and insulted, desperately tried to save him, he was appalled to realize that they liked him and never stopped being his friends, finally shattering the 'invisible wall' he had created as stated by Kenny. As the series progresses, he matures and becomes more open with his teammates and grows more comfortable around them. In the end, despite his differences with many of his peers in the Beyblade community, Kai sacrifices a great deal to free the world of the influence of Boris and his BEGA company.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[5944,6375,0,0]}">Although a tough guy, he is shown to be feeding a cat with milk, bringing food for a family of cats, sitting with a cat in an alley and worrying over the safety of a cat whilst training near it. This indicates he has a soft spot for animals, showing the more human side of his nature than the cool, collected and silent facade he usually wears. Even in the ending for the Japanese G Revolution "Oh Yes", he was shown feeding a dog.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[6377,6843,0,0]}">Kai actually does care about his teammates despite not showing it very often. He saved Max from being smashed under a meter thick glass in Beyblade, brought Driger back to Ray during a fight with Dunga, he saved Tyson, Hilary, Ray and Kenny from Team Psykick's headquarters in V-Force, he saved Hilary couple of times on the island in V-Force, he saved his teammates from the cage that was falling due to Sickle Weasel and risked his life to destroy the BEGA league.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[6845,7573,0,0]}">It has been demonstrated several times throughout the series that Kai is very good at deductions involving certain situations and does it quickly with very few clues. This includes figuring out that the Dark Bladers have challenged the rest of the team to a battle after seeing a light show at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Another instance (from V-Force) was knowing that Tyson dedicates his whole life towards Beyblading, especially when he battles a Team Psykick Blader despite being injured or when they battle each other. A perfect example from G-Revolution is when he brings food to a cat and her kittens, but upon seeing them eating a plethora of food brought to them, he already knows that Daichi is responsible for that.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[7575,7685,0,0]}">Kai is fond of old legends and prophecies, as stated by Max in the movie, Beyblade: The Movie - Fierce Battle.

Skills
<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[7700,7955,0,0]}">Kai's reason for beyblading in both manga and anime is born of hatred. In the manga, his father chose Beyblading over his family causing Kai to declare war on Beyblade. This made him much like Tyson, whose own reason for Beyblading was loss of his mother.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[7957,8839,0,0]}">In season 1 of the anime, he did not Blade for fun and although had a strong fighting spirit, he was fueled by the desire to gain power over opponents. The result is he willingly stole other Bladers and destroyed beyblades and was easily tempted by power, preferring this over teammates. While he was using Black Dranzer, he took all the Bit-beasts of the All Starz and all but Galman from the White Tigers. He was able to use their special moves to his advantage. He did not actually start enjoying the game until his match with Spencer, wherein he had rejection the bit for Black Dranzer in favour of his own Bit Dranzer. This allowed Dranzer to materialize with great splendor and beauty, despite both knowing the potential loss they could face moments later. Even though he lost Dranzer, he managed to maintain enough fighting spirit to continue on and train Tyson against Tala.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[8841,9081,0,0]}">As shown in V-Force, Kai possesses so much skill in Blading that he was able to tie against Dunga of the Saint Shields, while the others lost their battles. He is even able to defeat the Team Psykick bladers without using Dranzer in battle.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[9083,9583,0,0]}">Kai struggles however with new Beyblade systems at times. Going from his old Beyblade in V-Force to the new Dranzer V Beyblade left him like the other bladers unable to control their blades. Kai was able to set aside his pride and was the first to learn to control the new system Blade, simply by going back to basics; a suggestion by Hilary Tachibana that Tyson had mocked. Later he also struggled at first to master Dranzer MS, though it turns out the thing that was preventing control was himself.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[9585,10200,0,0]}">Kai also had skills enough to warrant him a chance to become BEGA League's fifth Blader, the offer having been given and turned down by Ray moments earlier. Kai just wanted the opportunity to fight Tyson again. He accepts any challenge against him and has a strong will to see the fight until the end. He, however, fights on his own terms and conditions and chooses who he fights for and against. When he fought for the 5th position of BEGA, he came across the naturally gift Brooklyn, though Kai had met many bladers he had never met anyone with a natural talent and he was caught off guard and lost because of it.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[10202,10815,0,0]}">As shown against his second match with Brooklyn, he has a strong threshold for pain and a heavy willpower. He stood back up every time he was knocked down. Even though he is strong, he can only take himself so far, he eventually as the match drew to a climax and Brooklyn looked like he was winning, Kai heard Tyson calling his name in support. This gave him the ultimate will power to fight back and win, putting the victory down to being a season fighter who had seen many defeats and victories, learning and getting stronger, noting how the other blader lost due to a lack of strong fighting spirit within him.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[10817,11086,0,0]}">In the GBA video games, he can at times end up the strongest Blader in the Bladebreakers simply because of game mechanics. Since Kai is the most balanced of his team, he takes longer to reach maximum resulting in him able to have more then a couple of stats at maximum.
 * As a example, Tyson has heavy Attack often and receives large boast in this area. He reaches max quickly, often before he even touches his maximum level. However his heavy focus in Attack results in his other stats never catching up and he suffers in these areas. Max is the same, but for Defence and Ray, Speed.

Bit-Beast
<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[11439,11869,0,0]}">Like his teammates, Kai's Bey/Bit-Beast is based on one of the Four Saint Beasts in Chinese mythology; Dranzer is modeled after Zhu Que the Vermilion Bird of the South and its Japanese name is "Suzaku". "Dranzer" comes from his Jisedai Begoma Battle Beyblade main bit of Ultimate Frostic Dranzer which briefly appears in the manga. This is similar to Dragoon, who also gets his name from Tyson's main bit of the game Spin Dragoon.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[11871,12502,0,0]}">In fact "Dranzer" was originally meant to be a dragon, hence the "dra" in the name of "Frostic Dranzer", Frostic Dranzer was a 3 headed dragon and was a play with the "Panzer" tank. Spin Dragoon also got his name from a similar and more obvious combination of "dragon" and "dragoon" the name of a mounted infantry unit. Frostic Dranzer is the only non-phoenix Dranzer bit-beast for this reason and the only "type" bit who is not the same species as the bit variant "type" it is named after. Other Bits he was seen using include; Hell Freezer (ヘルフリーザー) the pre-evolution of Frostic Dranzer, Konit (コオニット), Devil magician (デビルマジシャン).

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[12504,12781,0,0]}">Kai's bond and fighting spirit with Dranzer grows after season 1 a great deal and by G-Revolution the bare are extreme strong together. Before Kai battled Brooklyn, Kai stared fiercely at Hiro. At this point, you can see an image of Dranzer GT igniting in flames in Kai's eyes.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[12783,12989,0,0]}">Kai's Beyblades are normally blue in colour. The exceptions are Black Dranzer and Spark Knight. Black Dranzer's blade is black, while Spark Knight was issued in Orange. Both are also not his main beyblades.
 * Black Dranzer was a special "Black" version Beyblade issued of Dranzer. Two other Beyblades also have been printed namely Black Dragoon, which was a Japan exclusive, and Black Driger, in relationship to Bakuten Shoot Beyblade: Rising where it appeared.
 * Spark Knight was simply 1 of 3 Beyblades Kai had in Jisedai Begoma Battle Beyblade and was also not even his main Beyblade. Frostic Dranzer, his main Beyblade, was however blue.

Initial System
<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[13449,13568,0,0]}">These beyblades were featured in Jisedai Begoma Battle Beyblade. Frostic Dranzer was featured in the manga in addition.
 * Ultimate Frostic Dranzer
 * Dranzer Auto Change Balancer

Spin Gear System

 * Dranzer S - Fire Arrow, Spin Fire, Spiral Survivor
 * Dranzer F - Flame Saber

Magnacore System

 * Dranzer V - Volcano Emission
 * Dranzer V2 - Volcano Excellent Emission

Engine Gear System

 * Dranzer G - Blazing Gigs, Blazing Gigs Tempest, Blazing Gig Punishment
 * Dranzer GT - Blazing Gigs Turbo, Blazing Gigs Tempest, Blazing Gig Reverse Attack

Hard Metal System

 * Dranzer MS - Spiral Fireball
 * Dranzer MF - Ultimate Flaming Meteor

Burst System

 * Dranzer Spiral Spread Trans
 * Dranzer Flame Yell Zeta

Trivia

 * Kai has been on more teams than any other character in the Original Series.
 * Kai is the character that had received the most changes between each season, both in personality and design.
 * Kai has lost Dranzer once every season; once to Spencer in 2000, once to Zeo Zagart in V-Force and once in G-Revolution when Dranzer MS shattered into pieces after beating Brooklyn. Dranzer later reappears completely fixed to battle Tyson strangely enough, and Kai even lent Dranzer's strength to Tyson when he battled Brooklyn in the Justice Five finals.
 * The concept of Dranzer being repaired after the battle with Zeus could reference the idea of the Phoenix regenerating from death in Greek Mythology ("A phoenix rising from the ashes").
 * Among fans of the show, Kai is the most popular character in the west (in Japan it was Tyson who was most popular). Dranzer was also one of the most popular Beyblades in the west from the show (in Japan it is Dragoon).
 * Several references to Kai have been made in other parts of Beyblade
 * Kai's counterpart in Shogun Steel is Karura; both of them wear blue face paint, white scarves and baggy pant, Karura himself is a tribute to Kai.
 * "Ōtori Asuka"; made an appearance in the two part manga Beyblade Battle Saint Lolita and was the female counterpart to Kai who controlled Dranzer.
 * The Japanese boxart for Spark Knight has Kai on the box in the incorrect colours. His hair is blonde and his trousers green.