#to anybody on mobile or that the readmore doesn't work for: I AM SO SORRY

[kanamesengoku]

If it's not much of a trouble, can you tell me what happened in the BEY manga till now?

OOOOH WOWOW this might take a bit, but I will do my best anon! I’m putting this under a read-more cause it’s more than likely gonna get really long even if I try to be as simple in my summary as possible. it got long. Really, really long. Actually, I think I’m gonna do this via bullet points, and try to group it by story arc if I can. 

ok HERE WE GO ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

we meet Fujita Tatara, a middle schooler with no special interests/sense of purpose, who gets bulled, rescued by Sengoku Kaname, and pulled into the Ogasawara Dance Studio. There he meets Hanaoka Shizuku and eventually gets inspired to learn how to dance

Shizuku is paired with Hyoudou Kiyoharu, the Junior dance champ, who Tatara at first believes is too aloof and indifferent, but eventually realizes is very dedicated and extremely hardworking.

Shizuku and Kiyoharu compete in the Mikasa Cup, a big deal tournament, but we find out that Kiyoharu has a leg injury and he falls down some stairs, leading to Tatara standing in for him (on Sengoku’s suggestion, and completely against the rules) to dance the waltz with Shizuku. Kiyoharu recovers enough to dance the Tango, but then collapses again and their pair is disqualified and banned from competition for several months

     - - -

Shizuku is without a partner as Kiyoharu’s leg recovers, and suddenly in swoops Akagi Gaju (and his little sister Mako), who are also dancers and a pair of their own. Gaju is tired of dancing with Mako, who is having trouble keeping up with him, and therefore wants to snatch Shizuku as his new partner. Shizuku agrees, and since Mako is left in the dust, Sengoku pairs her up with Tatara.

Tatara eventually challenges Gaju to dance at the Tenpei Cup, an informal “competition”, on the condition that if Tatara & Mako win, then Gaju will have to leave Shizuku and partner with his sister again. Gaju agrees and everyone starts preparing (which involves a lot of Tatara actually learning how to dance in competition and with a real partner)

At the Tenpei Cup, lots of stuff happens- Kiyoharu shows up because his mom (a former pro dancer) is a guest judge for the Cup, Tatara and Sengoku realize that Tatara doesn’t have the stamina of a dancer who’s been doing competitions for years (like Gaju), Gaju taunts everyone, Shizuku shows that she’s amazing, and Tatara and Mako show everyone an amazing waltz

After a heated finale, Gaju and Shizuku end up taking first place- however the wager between Tatara and Gaju wasn’t necessarily about who would take first, but who the better partner was! Mako ends up taking the prize for Queen of the Ballroom due to their epic waltz, Gaju has to break up with Shizuku and pair with his sister, and everyone is more or less happy with it

     - - -

Three days later, Shizuku and Tatara are at the studio practicing together. Shizuku praises his dancing at the Tenpei Cup and encourages Tatara to find a permanent partner of his own, telling him she wants to compete with him again. This lights a fire in Tatara and makes him want to try even harder. He also devotes time to school, studying hard so that he can get into a good high school.

Tatara’s first day of high school ends up with him being made fun of by a girl in his class for having ballroom dancing as a hobby (as she calls it, “lame”) and meeting bullies (again) but being rescued by none other than Gaju, who is a year ahead of him at the same school. They begin to hang out at school and any hard feelings are mended. They both get invited by Sengoku to see him at a pro competition, which they eagerly attend.

at the competition, Tatara eagerly watches to see what he can learn from Sengoku. Both he and Gaju meet Sengoku’s partner, Hongou Chiduru. Then Tatara is surprised to run into the girl from his class who had mocked him for dancing, who warns him not to talk to her at school and leaves in a hurry.

Tatara learns later at school that the girl is Hiyama Chinatsu, and is confused by how much she knows about dance/dancers and muses that she carries herself like a dancer. She later follows Tatara and Gaju to the Ogasawara Studio since she overhears that the Sengoku pair will be there (we find out that she has crazy admiration for Chiduru and wants to be just like her). Sengoku invites Chinatsu to “try” dancing with Tatara, which she hesitantly does, which only furthers Tatara’s belief that Chinatsu has danced before.

We find out that Chinatsu used to dance, but since the ratio of boys to girls is very low in young dancers, she was made to take the part of the leader in her pair. Her partner (Koumoto Akira) has since moved on and found a new leader, but Chinatsu decided to give up dancing. Tatara senses she doesn’t really want to stop and invites her many times to practice with him.

Eventually, Chinatsu’s rivalry with Akira spurs Chinatsu into action and she decides that she will pair with Tatara, become and amazing pair and crush Akira in competition. Tatara and Chinatsu register as an official pair and begin practice, but continually run into problems based around Tatara’s overall passive skills as a leader vs. Chinatsu’s more finely honed and aggressive ones (aka she’s a better leader than he is and they fight constantly)

     - - -

Tatara and Chinatsu enter their first competition to move up in the dancer rankings (which is necessary for Tatara since he still wants to compete with Shizuku and Kiyoharu before they leave in a year to study abroad, meaning he’s on a strict time limit to reach high level competitions)

during the competition (where Akira is also present as a competitor), Chinatsu once again flares up and takes the lead. In order for them to even have a chance at moving up, Tatara ends up following her but simultaneously trying to look like he’s the one leading

Hyoudou’s mom (Marisa) is there since another pair of her students are competing (the pair that coincidentally wins) and sees Tarara, noticing what he’s doing and calling him “sly”. Tatara and Chinatsu win runner-up in the competition.

Tatara decides to pay a visit to the Hyoudou studio to get advice on how to be a proper leader. He meets Kiyoharu there (who has since healed and is killing it once again in competitions with Shizuku) and also meets the pair that won the other competition, Kugimiya Masami and his partner Idogawa Tamie. Tatara tries to dance with Kugimiya (on Marisa’s request) but ends up getting shoved back into the role of partner again (lol)

Tatara and Chinatsu end up moving studios to be coached by Marisa

     - - -

Because Tatara has his self-imposed deadline and wants to move up through the ranks quickly, he and Chinatsu decide to take part in another competition, the Shizuoka Grandprix- but since Marisa doesn’t approve of it, they enter without her permission

At the competition the usual issues present themselves (Chinatsu leading, Tatara not knowing what to do, etc.) and they find themselves competing not only against Akira and her partner, but also against Kugimiya and Idogawa again. 

after Tatara has a bizzarre out-of-body experience (where he feels like he has 4 legs), he and Chinatsu miss their next heat and are dropped in the preliminary round, so they leave. What they don’t know however is that they were awarded full checks for the dances they completed.

Marisa knew the whole time that they were going to enter, and though she’s displeased she tells them she will prepare them properly to enter the next competition. She invites them to a training camp at her family home, which they accept.

     - - -

At the camp (which the Kugimiya pair is also attending), they meet up with the Akagi siblings, Kiyoharu and Shizuku who are all there resting up. Everyone trains together and tension grows between Chinatsu and Tatara, who just can’t seem to get it right.

The pressure builds up to a huge blow-up and Chiantsu won’t speak to or practice with Tatara. Kiyoharu (at his mom’s insistence) becomes their “coach” and tries to give them advice (which 99% of the time just confuses Tatara further)

Shizuku has another talk with Tatara where she initially tells him not to worry about reaching competition with them by the deadline (ex. to ignore what she told him before), but ends up with her praising his dance again and telling him that she truly does want to meet him as a competitor. Tatara renews his decision to work hard and fight for his goal

Eventually Chinatsu decides to give it another shot and she and Tatara begin practicing in earnest- still arguing constantly, but at least making progress. Their next competition is the Metropolitan Tournament, where they will be once again competing against the Kugimiya pair (who have been winning every competition they enter) and Akira’s pair

      - - -

The Metropolitan Tournament begins. The usual difficulties present themselves. Akira and her partner are eventually dropped, but first we get backstory about Akira and Chinatsu (they attended elementary together, became friends, began dancing, and Akira wanted to keep Chinatsu to herself *, Akira’s feelings got hurt when she felt Chinatsu didn’t value her as a dancer, and then Chinatsu quit dancing, leaving Akira indignant and solo)

(* basically Akira’s totally in love with Chinatsu, there’s not really another way to explain it succinctly lmao)

The Kugimiya pair is crushing it

Gaju, Mako, Shizuku and Kiyoharu are all there to watch and Kiyoharu once again gives “advice” to Tatara, but this time he also stretches out basically every muscle in Tatara’s body to help him be more flexible. This pretty much backfires and Tatara can’t dance the way he wants to, with Chinatsu left to pick up the slack

Chinatsu finally decides to up her game and match Tatara, thinking about how much she owes him for being the one to match her this whole time

Tatara once again experiences the weird 4-legged feeling, which he now associates with partners matching up and a sense of unity

Tatara and Chinatsu are finally putting up a real fight against Kugimiya and Idogawa….

AND THAT’S THAT UP TO THE LATEST CHAPTER

……. PHEW