Anime News: "Beyblade: Burst" Set to Continue with "Beyblade: Burst God" in April

Having a total of three seasons, two series, spin-offs, and films with a live action adaptation and a 100 episodes overall, the “Beyblade” franchise is a log running work that continues on even to this day. Now a report has been made that the franchise’s latest series “Beyblade: Burst” will be gaining a second season set to air in April and is to be entitled, “Beyblade: Burst God” following the anime’s 51st episode set to air on March 27th.

The series itself focuses on a hot-blooded but cheerful boy named Valt Api who wields a Beyblade named Valtryek and drives himself to become better at the game he loves. Along with him is his best friend regarded as a genius in Beyblade, Shu Kurenei; a figure of inspiration for Valt for having been a participant in the National Tournament and gaining the title as one of the “Four Kings” Shu is considered as an elite in the Beyblade community.

Katyshito Akiyama, the director for this series as well as “Pumpkin Scissors” and Inazuma Eleven" shall be continuing as director for the upcoming follow-up for the series.

According to Wikipedia, Beyblade was originally created to promote the sales of spinning tops - similar to the way that Transformers promotes transforming vehicle action figures in America. Such shows, which focus on promoting a product, have existed for a long time as they provide an easy revenue vehicle which funds continued show development.

From wiki:

Beyblade, known in Japan as Explosive Shoot Beyblade (爆転シュートベイブレード Bakuten Shūto Beiburēdo?), is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takao Aoki to promote sales of spinning tops called "Beyblades." Originally serialized in CoroCoro Comic from September 1999 to July 2004, the individual chapters were collected and published in 14 tankōbon by Shogakukan. The series focuses on a group of kids who form teams with which they battle one another using Beyblades.

The manga is licensed for English language release in North America by Viz Media. An anime adaptation, also titled Beyblade and spanning 51 episodes, aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from January 8, 2001 to December 24, 2001. The second, Beyblade V-Force, ran for another 51 episodes from January 7, 2002 until December 30, 2002. Beyblade G-Revolution, the third and final adaptation, also spanned 52 episodes (the last two episodes were released together as a double-length special in Japan) and aired from January 6, 2003, until its conclusion on December 29, 2003. Hasbro Studios and Nelvana Limited licensed the anime for an English-language release. Takara Tomy developed the Beyblade toy line.