Sardaukar Concept Art By Moebius, For Jodorowskys Dune

Sardaukar concept art by Moebius, for Jodorowsky’s Dune

So I’d been meaning to talk about the Gundam Build Series for a while, since I mentioned a while ago that I’m quite fond of it. I should mention that I haven’t watched either Build Fighters or Build Fighters try in over a year, so I may get some details wrong.

I really like both shows, and I think they’re about the same in terms of overall quality.

I will get one quick elephant out of the room first though. These series exist to sell toys, even moreso than the other Gundam series. This is basically the thesis statement of the entire series, and this is the main reason why they’re so very different than the “regular” Gundam series. It’s…… not too bad? Since they’re generally preaching to the choir when it comes to the actual model kits, and the designs for the show are essentially a showcase of some really cool custom models based on existing ones. Like, yes, thesis was to sell cool robots, but you can’t really accuse them of skimping on the cool robots.

At its core, it’s a story about “to be the greatest there ever was, wholly distinct from those before you” with a good sprinkling of personal growth.

The very general plot of the original Build Fighters is: Sei Iori (left, blue) is a bookish nerd whose parents run the local model shop, Sei dreams of entering the Gunpla Battle World Championships (essentially where Gundam models are animated by special particles so they can duke it out amongst each other; think fighting game tournaments but with physical objects) but though he’s really good at building them, he’s absolutely terrible at fighting with them. However, he meets Reiji (right, red sunglasses), a mysterious boy who’s really, really good at fighting with the Gunpla Sei builds, and together they form a two-man team to take on the other competitors.

It’s a pretty solid premise, and it works well. There’s a revolving cast of characters (Sei and Reiji make many rivals, who are pretty well-rounded) and the stakes start low, but get steadily higher as time goes on, giving the series a natural progression and allowing them to introduce darker elements as it goes on. Gunpla battles provides a nice, solid core for the ancillary elements to move around (though the show is still very much about the Gunpla battles).

So how are those Gunpla Fights?

They’re pretty damn good. Honestly, I’ve watched a little over half the shows they’ve made for Gundam, and I still count several of the fights in Gundam Build Fighters as my all time favourites. I’ll admit I usually like a little bit of philosophising with my giant robot fights, but you can definitely see the influence of this series on later ones, simply through the fight scenes.

Character wise? Yeah, solid. The show does wring a lot out of the “rival” template (The Main Rival, Mentor Rival, “Cool” Rival, The one who starts off goofy but is actually just as determined as the leads, etc), but there’s other side characters with their own goals. Build fighters does create a very believable world around its premise, since the rest of the world is pretty contemporary, it’s played almost like a sporting thing - fans and other people in the know can look at it and get passionate about it, but the works isn’t exclusively built around it. Due to this, a lot of the characters - even the bit ones, can feel very fleshed out. Gunpla Battle is a thing they do, it’s not there entire personality. To expand on that a little, I’m going to swing back around to the protagonists. Sei is a Gundam nerd, yes, but as above he has other aspects to him. He has friends and relationships through Gunpla Battle but they rely on who he is, not just on him being a nerd. Reiji is sorta the “cool idiot” he doesn’t really have an arc in the story, fundamentally because he’s the catalyst for Sei’s, triggering his growth as a person. Reiji just wanders about triggering other people’s character growth (other than the episode when the duo split up, but that doesn’t really change Reiji as an individual, it’s more about Sei) and seeing how other characters interact with him. It goes in well with the conclusion of the series (which I shan’t spoil) because it basically ties all that up really rather well.

The mobile suit designs are honestly pretty good across the board with this one. It’s smaller than on average, both due to the smaller series (25 episodes) and the fact that other series mobile suits get used as grunts.

Gundam Fighters Try is the sequel series, set several years later, with a different cast. I’ll probably do a separate post on it some other time, but pretty much all the points I made above that aren’t related to the protagonists also apply to it.

In a nutshell: Gundam Build Fighters: To sells toys, but the fight scenes are amazing and the characters are pretty solid.

Really loving the Definition on these, particularly the eyes, Akihito’s forehead and Eugene’s hair.

The gradient on Mikazuki’s boots and lower body in the first picture is also really nice, it really helps his head and chest pop, with the red of the blood and Tekkadan logo and bright blue of his eyes also serving to effectively draw the attention there.

I also want to draw specific attention to Atra’s eyes being really good, but I’m not sure how to describe it.

Mika, etc.

Urbosa as Gustav Klimt’s Judith and the Head of Holofernes (1901) for Atelier Hylia (on twitter)

*Spoilers for Witch from Mercury Episode 19*

Gonna be honest, I’m really happy that we finally know, at least a little, where the Schwarzette fits into all this - it’s a Gundam that was being developed by Shin Sei and Jeturk Heavy Machinery jointly.

It was just so very central in a lot of theories I had running around that it’s nice to lay it to rest, Y’know?

Though I’ll admit that just because it’s a Jeturk suit that doesn’t really lay to rest who’s gonna eventually pilot the thing. I mean Norea Du Noc was able to pilot the Pharact briefly, so I wouldn’t quite dispel the idea of it being stolen. Given recent events I’d probably have my money on either Suletta or Guel, but I think that Prospera’s still a good option, especially since Aerial doesn’t need a pilot past a certain point. Then again, it’s still possible that this is (or is installed with) “quiet zero” that Prospera and Delling were working on, and is in fact a trap of some kind (especially since it was being developed with Jeturk). Hm. Though this might explain the apparent leverage Prospera had over Vim Jeturk early on, and why he seemed to be hedging his bets when it came to gundams (one one hand, it beat his best; on the other, he’s also in the Gundam development gig and thus can’t tip his hand).

I am looking forward to seeing this thing in action, though I’ll admit it’s quite tentative, mostly because I believe it’s going to be an antagonist (the design and the curves and the colour don’t exactly scream “ally” to me, though on the plus side: Hey! Another White Devil!).

Actually, that might be partially why Miorine went for the Aerial, since it’s more recognisable (from all the duels it won) and less sinister-looking (and of course, she’s seen it in action).

Which reminds me. It is kinda odd that Suletta loses to Guel because of a clear shutdown of her mobile suit, and nobody really thinks to investigate that. Yeah yeah, “the result is the only truth” but given the kinda stuff we’ve seen Aerial pull in the past and the fact that Aerial’s kinda generally terrifying, you’d think that Shaddiq or somebody’d be looking into that.

Dark History - by RintaroKomori

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