Come To Gundam, We Have;

Come to Gundam, we have;

The Fat Uncle

The Gaw Attack Carrier

The Mad Angler

The Gattle

And the Rewloola (imagine a report of being “sunk by the Rewloola”)

I’m begging you to name your ships something else

I have also just found out it’s only going to be three episodes, as opposed to a full series.

The protagonist, Rio Hojo, is essentially standard energetic boy, his design reminds me of Wistario Afram’s a lot, and I’m liking the style of protagonists we’re getting here. He’s also Hawaiian, which is cool. It’s a nice contrast to his avatar, who while I don’t dislike, I do think looks kinda generic in comparison (it’s probably the black hair).

I don’t really have any strong opinions on the mentor, Seria Urutsuki, other than the fact that she’s probably gonna be Mask Lady, the Char. However, Mask Lady?

Is that an Ippei Gyoubu lady? I freaking love it so much. Yeah, it’s a lot like his other work, but his other work is good and we get to see this one animated. I absolutely adore the jacket. It’s always wonderful to see the similarities between how he designs people and how he designs mechs, which elements are common, and which are not.

And now; the mobile suits.

The Lah’s just fine. I don’t really dislike it or anything, I’m inclined to believe that a lot of the design choices are due to it wanting to be an Entry Grade, and thus needing it to be based of a suit that already has an Entry Grade model (this being reinforced by the Build Strike Exceed Galaxy also being an Entry Grade). I do like the RX-78 design and it is justifiably iconic, It’s just we see a lot of them, and it gets routine.

The aforementioned Build Strike Exceed Galaxy looks lovely, and I’m sure it’ll make for some wonderful poses and designs, especially with all the effect parts.

I honestly don’t have much of an opinion on either the F-Kunoichi Kai or the Plutine Gundam. I’m not that interested in Cross Silhouette as a line, and Gundam Build Divers re:rise wasn’t that long ago. I would hope that if they’re releasing the Plutine that we may eventually get kits for the Dubious Arche Gundam and Reverse Turn X from the finale, but I wouldn’t expect it. Though I will admit I would love to Display the HGBF Plutine and the HG00 Plutone opposite each other now.

And now the two I’m actually looking forward to. The Shin Burning Gundam and the 00 Diver Arc. The Shin Burning looks to have such a dynamic pose, and it’s precursors were all typically suits that had an emphasis on Martial Arts, so it’ll make for some cool poses even before considering the wings or effect parts. I do think that the legs look a little odd though, probably the roundedness. The 00 Diver Arc is an odd one, since while I very much disliked the 00 sky, I had basically no feelings on the regular 00 Diver. This one looks to have a fancy energy sword system like the AGE FX or 00 Quanta, which I’m very much interested in (as well as those little sword bucklers on the arms). However, I do find the chest quite boring. Sticking a gun in the chest isn’t an alternative to actual visual design.

Finally, I don’t actually have a stake in the “Metaverse” as a concept, in series or out. I think that someone at Bandai just realised they’d accidentally created advertisement for such a thing in the form of the build series. I should probably also mention that due to the massive amount of MMORPG’s and similarly massive, all-encompassing online things in Japan at time of writing, it’s quite possible that it’s a very different climate to that of the western world in regards to how feasible a metaverse’d actually be.

Okay, so we gotta a bunch of information on Gundam Build Metaverse this week, and I got opinions on it.

I’m also gonna just quickly preface this with two things for context.

1. If you’re new to Gundam (since there’s always a bunch of new people with any new show, and Witch from Mercury is no exception), then know that the Build Series has massively lower stakes. The general target demographic is a lot lower, and it typically patterns itself a lot of Pokemon - the whole shonen-y vibe, the whole “to be a master” thing. I personally also like this, but it can be a bit of a tone whiplash going from “mainline” Gundam to the Build Series.

2. As above, I generally like the Build series for both the Anime and the model kits, with both Build Fighters and Build Fighters Try having some of my favourite fight scenes in the entire Gundam series. However, I absolutely loath the first season of Build Divers (I might do a post on it later), and as such a lot of what I don’t want to see is directly cribbed form that.

In a nutshell, though it’s lower-stakes, I’m usually here for the fights and the model designs, and a lot of what I focus on is gonna be those.

I’m trying to stay away from long posts unless it’s analysis or me gushing about something, so I’ll follow this up momentarily.

Just for fun, let’s think up a list of reasons as to why Mcgillis chose not to use the Fareed Family Gundam.

It was destroyed/lost in the calamity war.

It reminds him of Iznario, and he wants to reject that connection.

It’s got a very specific way of fighting (like Flauros) and he wants something with a more generalist bent.

He feels a greater kinship with Agnika Kaieru than he does the Fareed family founder.

It was the 72nd Gundam frame built, and was completed postwar, thus running counter to Mcgillis’ ambitions to be like his idol.

It’s been chained up in a similar manner to how Bael eventually will be.

It was scrapped to repair another Gundam frame.

It’s biometrically locker to a blood member of the Fareed family for some reason.

The previous pilot was an amputee, and didn’t so much pilot the Gundam in so much as they were “plugged in”. (Think Gundam Thunderbolt).

Iznario (or a prior member of the Fareed Family) sold it, or parts of it, for bread money (as the Warrens did).

It was stolen by Gundam thieves.

It requires three pilots.

The colours clash horribly with his hair.

Despite their great combat skill, the Fareed family founder was just kind of a prick, and nobody looks on their history with much fondness.

The Fareed family founder was very small by modern standards, and the cockpit’s uncomfortable to sit in for any length of time.

The hands were damaged, and are now in the permanent pose of throwing up gang signs.

Bael’s just, like, so much cooler.

It’s really, really uncomfortable to look at for a significant period of time.

Any time it’s activated, the Fareed family founder’s custom mixtape of post-calamity rap starts playing and nobody knows how to turn it off.

It’s haunted.

Iznario lost it in a poorly conceived bet.

It’s likeness was bought out by a prominent snack food corporation some years back, and as such it legally is not allowed to be viewed by anyone.

The door to it in Vingolf is stuck, and nobody ever noticed until Mcgillis came along.

Somebody spilled drink on the controls, and now they feel weirdly sticky.

The cockpit’s stuffed with body pillows, and nobody can bring themself to clean them out.

It’s lying at the bottom of the ocean after someone took it for a joyride.

It’s got an absolutely awful paint job that Norba Shino would be proud of.

It’s uninsured.

It was mounted on the prow of the Fareed family ship, and it’s exceedingly difficult to remove.

It’s stored in multiple separate locations. All Vingolf has is a pair of legs and the right hand.

It’s currently being used as a soundstage for a prominent punk-rock band on Jupiter, and no-one’s sure when the lease ends.

It has the words “free ice-cream” prominently painted on it somewhere.

It achieved sentience and promptly grabbed some popcorn.

The Fareed family never had a Gundam, and just killed that many mobile armours with conventional tactics.

It’s covered in rust.

It doesn’t have nanolaminate armour for some reason.

It’s being used as a power source for Gjallarhorn’s premier health spa and resort.

The Fareed family threw it into the sun when the war ended, believing they wouldn’t need it anymore.

It’s been repaired really badly, and the duct tape and welding really doesn’t inspire confidence.

It’s off starring in its own, less successful show.

It’s got a hit play on broadway.

It runs off a subscription service, and nobody’s been paying it for the last 300 years.

Mcgillis has really poor gatcha rolls, so he just got 26 common rarity grazes instead.

It’s really a Leo somebody scotch-taped a v-fin to.

The entire Gundam is made of cardboard.

Mcgillis forgot the password to get into the hangar, and he can’t ask Iznario.

Somebody doodled angry eyes and a handlebar moustache on it, and nobody can look at it without cracking up.

It was taken apart, then reassembled incorrectly. (It’s got a leg sticking out of where it’s head should be, and nobody’s sure where the sword ended up)

He can’t activate it without deleting the entire Fareed family’s Doom highscores.

It’s currently being used to hold a massive tv that the rest of Gjallarhorn use to watch the hockey.

It is currently on fire.

When he went to pick it up, two of the engineers were using it to hold a romantic candlelit dinner and he felt awkward interrupting so he hasn’t been back since.

A head of the Fareed family used it as the site of a drunken party and when everyone came round from their hangover it was just gone, and nobody could remember what happened to it.

It looks exactly like the Gundam Dantalion, and records have been lost as to why this is the case.

It’s currently being used as a scarecrow.

Feel free to add any more in the comments!

Joe Jusko

Oscar Chinchoni

Hm, maybe I should start a high grade G-Witch collection for dead pilots.

By my count, I’d have three (for major characters, at least).