Generally, the characters were what drove this show along during the kind of forgettable and far to quick racing sequences and generic tournament storylines of the earlier half of the series. Molly is an angsty teenage girl but she feels like a realistic angsty teenager and her voice actor does a great job in the dub of making her sound angry but confused and sad, isntead becoming this obnoxious rebel without a cause sorta kid. Also the character dynamics were all pretty well done and interesting, specifically the relationship between Molly and her father.

And yeah, I did get surprised by the developments in the show. Mostly, I didnt expect a certain scene between Molly and her father until MUCH later in the series/the end of the series but it happened pretty early on. Also I expected something way more predictable and unpleasing to be the resolution between the love triangle but ended up being completely pleased with the way it ended. I was really impressed by how all the characters were handled and the level of drama this show had for something that has such a youthful looking art style. I was expecting Beyblade and I got Slam Dunk!