What Happened to Tyson in "Beyblade: Metal Fusion"?

The "Beyblade" anime revolves around young kids who engage in non-violent fights with each another by launching beyblades -- special spinning tops -- at one another during team tournaments. The long-running anime series launched real life beyblade tournaments as well. If you watch the fourth season, called "Beyblade: Metal Fusion," you may wonder what happened to Tyson.

Tyson Granger, originally known as Takao Kinomiya in the Japanese version, stars in the first three seasons of the "Beyblade" anime, known as "Beyblade," "Beyblade: V-Force" and "Beyblade: G-Revolution," respectively. Tyson appears in over 150 episodes of the series. He starts off as a 13-year-old in the first season and becomes 15 by the third. If he continued to sage one year per season and continued to star in subsequent seasons, he would be too old to be a kid protagonist.

"Beyblade: Metal Fusion" is the fourth season of the "Beyblade" anime. Because the first three seasons starred virtually the same cast and world, the creators wanted to start over with a new cast and a new setting when they launched the "Beyblade: Metal Fusion" manga in 2007 and the anime in 2009 in Japan. Tyson's story ended with "Beyblade: G-Revolution" and he does not appear in "Beyblade: Metal Fusion."

The star of "Beyblade: Metal Fusion" is Gingka Hagane, known as Ginga Hagane in Japan. Gingka acts similarly to Tyson and is the outgoing, courageous leader of a team of bladers. Gingka starts off being 12 years old in "Beyblade: Metal Fusion." Rebooting the series with a younger set of characters keeps the "Beyblade" series relevant to the younger generation interested in the series.

"Beyblade: Metal Fusion" is the first of three series of over 50 episodes each and is followed by "Beyblade: Metal Masters" and "Beyblade: Metal Fury." Gingka is the protagonist of all three of these series, just as Tyson starred in the first three seasons of the show.