Gundam Build Fighters

Though Gundam Plastic Models, better known as Gunpla, exploded in popularity with the release of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam, their presence faded before resurging with a new purpose. Through the power of Plavsky particles, fans are now able to pit their Gunpla against others in a virtual reality-style battle with the best competing at the annual Gunpla World Tournament.

Sei Iori, whose father was a once finalist in the competition, dreams of one day conquering the contest himself. However, while Sei is an expert Gunpla builder, he lacks the prowess to effectively fight his creations during actual battle. In comes Reiji, a mysterious boy who is curiously ignorant of society but quickly demonstrates to Sei tremendous ability in Gunpla battles. The two boys decide to combine their strengths in order to sweep the Gunpla World Tournament and take the Gunpla world by storm.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Reiji Main

Kokuryu, Sachi Japanese

Iori, Sei Main

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Jyrkiäinen, Aila Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Iori, Rinko Supporting

Mitsuishi, Kotono Japanese

Yuuki, Tatsuya Supporting

Satou, Takuya Japanese

Fellini, Ricardo Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Kousaka, China Supporting

Ishikawa, Yui Japanese

Ral Supporting

Hirose, Masashi Japanese

Yasaka, Mao Supporting

Fujii, Minami Japanese

Mihoshi Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Shiraishi, Makoto Producer

Nagasaki, Kenji Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Mima, Masafumi Sound Director

Oobari, Masami Episode Director, Storyboard, Animation Director, Key Animation

Reviews

Feb 16, 2014

Stark700

Recommended

Mecha series usually comes with the package of giant robots fighting space wars for liberation, conquest, and establishing a position in their perspective universe. Often or not, they adapt this style into a genre of warfare because colonies and countries rarely get along as result of internal/external conflicts. Gundam Build Fighters takes a bit of a different approach. Rather than world conquest, it adapts a competitive play involving technology that allows users to control Gundam models. These models are known by standards used in the so-called “Gunpla battles” as a sports competition. It presents a different atmosphere from the usual mecha series you may be ... used to watching. However, being different isn’t necessary a drawback. In fact, Gundam Build Fighters proves itself to be unique in its own rights.

Gundam Build Fighters is a sci-fi series directed by Kenji Nagasaki that is known for being the 13th incarnation from Sunrise’s Gundam franchise. Take this show as a more competitive version of the previous Gundam franchise. By competition, I mean it as a way that shows characters’ abilities at their best when pitted against each other. They fight for: honor, respect, dignity, and some for self-interest. However, if these competitors have one thing in common: it’s their passion to fight and embrace the Gundam culture.

This series is competitive. It’s more competitive than any of its similar predecessor such as SEED, Gundam 00, or Gundam AGE. This is because the pure nature that defines Gundam Build Fighters. The key word might be ‘fighters’ here because it sets forth two important factors: the user and the Gunpla. There’s a saying that goes “a sword is only as strong as the wielder itself”. For Sei Iori, he is definitely not a strong fighter in the beginning. Coming from a normal family background, he is your average boy who has a talent with building Gunpla kits. Unfortunately, his piloting skills doesn’t match his creative mind. It seems hopeless for him to ever make it into the big leagues until he meets a mysterious boy named Reiji. While lacking common sense or social skills, Reiji’s piloting skills allows him to compete against those of the elite. It’s a source of mystery with his exact nature, origin, and how he arrived to Earth. But regardless, he is quickly able to make friends with Sei and together become a formidable duo that has earned them recognition in the community.

Gundam Build Fighters elicits a feeling of attachment on many occasions. It’s not just the competitions but the way characters develop. Sei and Reiji starts out as obscure names in competitions. However, they are able to fight their way to the top with their skills, intellect, and teamwork. It succeeds in this field of progression because we get to see how they develop with every battle. Each opponent they fight makes them stronger while allowing them to learn from any mistakes. The show also doesn’t present them as Gary Stu characters as they do take losses on occasions against prominent opponents. Not only that but it’s also important to realize that neither Sei or Reiji blames each other for losses. They learn from their mistakes most of the time and use their knowledge to fight brilliantly through competitions. Of course, they also have the support of their family and friends. In the end, you’ll feel attached to these characters with their journey.

No journey is complete without competition. This competition comes in the form of various players across the world that truly tests Sei and Reiji to their limits. Foreigners from all over the world competes in the prestigious Gunpla Tournament to become a main event. It’s noticeable that some of these characters are also inspirations from previous Gundam predecessors. All of them have their own playing style, abilities, and personalities that offers a decent diversity of play. Prominent competitors such as Mao, Aila, Nils, Ricardo, Yuuki becomes major obstacles in the competition coming from various backgrounds. More importantly is the fact of how these characters develop relationships with Sei and Reiji. In other words, these competitors aren’t just a throwaway game. Whether friends or foe, they are able to bring out Sei and Reiji at their best and truly allows the audience to see the visage of Gunpla battles. Among other characters such as China and Sei’s family plays the role of support to show an inspiration of how they believe in the duo.

Friendship and relationships play prominent roles throughout the series. Sei and Reiji are perfect examples of friends. They help each other and compliments their abilities. For example, Sei is able to coordinate and provide strategic information during battles to Reiji as he pilots their Gunpla. It’s important to realize how far their teamwork goes towards each match. Without teamwork, they would never become who they are today. Relationship also extends to other major supporting characters such Aila that adds in a different flavor to the show’s themes. On the other hand, there’s also rivalries. Being a competitive game, this should be no surprise. There’s a sudden degree of how far rivalries ranging from being friendly competitions to cheating to gain an edge. Gundam Build Fighters explores both friendships and rivalries on levels that is relatable and appreciative with its style. Rather than just a gimmick, it extends to Gunpla battles itself and becomes a pivotal factor in determining losses, wins, or ties.

Being a Gundam series also means the audience should expect plenty of action. Gundam Build Fighters doesn’t neglect action and marks it as a major advertising event with its battles. Every Gundam is unique in their design, capabilities, and style. As such, expect every single battle to be different in its own way that brings out characters’ skills to their best. On many instances, the audience will be able to witness development of these battles as fields evolve, changes added to matches, and gameplay become more complex than ever. Complexity also reaches to the characters themselves as mysteries surrounds competitors such as Reiji and Alia. We don’t know much about their origins from the beginning such as where they came from. It provokes thought and formulation of theories that makes the show even more engaging to speculate.

Make no mistake though. Gundam Build Fighters does have its problems. Among some of these include a few episodes that feels fillerish and almost as meaningless. Examples includes training montages, a beach episode, and a few that only seems to add content that almost seems like a slice of life. China also seems to disappear into the background in later episodes as the series focuses more on competition and less on their relationship. It just seems that her relationship with Sei never really had a progression besides being close friends. It’s however easy to tell where China’s feelings really lies. While it is innocent, it can also feel childish and sway away older fan’s interests. And as ‘easy to tell’ goes, predictability is a word to describe some battles with outcomes. Speaking of childish, the series sometimes will feel that way whether you like it or not. It maintains its serious atmosphere on most cases when it comes to competitions but when outside of that zone becomes more like a cartoon for fun.

Artwork serves as an example that brings out Gundam Build Fighters’ diversity to various angles. Every single Gunpla has its own design that defines its characteristics and abilities. Sei and Reiji’s Gunpla, the Star Build Strike, serves a symbol of pride for the duo with its traditional design. On the other hand, some character designs looks blend. Most of the characters seems to be just there and doesn’t stand out in any particular way. Only a few competitors in the show such as Aila and Yuuki gives off more of an intimidating feature. Background designs outside competitions also seems average with basic designs. But if we’re talking about the battle fields during gunpla battles, that’s a whole other story.

Judging on soundtrack, this show has what it takes. Just from its OST, it’s easy to realize just how intense some battles can be with its well-coordinated orchestra. There’s a mixed beat of rock and metal on most occasions that brings out the intensity of the battles. It’s what fans should expect if they come into a competitive atmosphere that GBD is offering and thankfully, it delivers. Both OP/ED songs also offers a montage of the main characters and some foreshadowing. The strengths of these songs doesn’t lie with its lyrics. Rather, it brings out the show for what exactly it is: a game for the ultimate prize.

Watching Gundam Build Fighters will feel like living like a kid all over again. If you remember playing with toys during childhood days, then this show will bring back some of those nostalgia. However, these aren’t just toys but are plastic models that revolutionizes Gunpla battles. The story will bring out these battles at its best along with the characters. Even though the story may feel slow at times, you’ll be rewarded with patience for its dynamics, relationships, and mechanics. You don’t need to be a big Gundam fan to watch this show. No, what you need is some motivation. Relieve the experience of being a kid again and being the big dog of your neighborhood.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 31, 2014

zdude18

Recommended

Gundam Build Fighters is a prime example of turning a lame idea into something worthwhile. I really was not expecting it to be this good. Even with it's strange premise, it manages to reach outside the box of its genre and become something more than I ever imagined it could be.

The idea of special particles only reacting with the plastic of model Gundams is retarded, to be quite frank. That overarching property is applied too many times to the reasoning of things that happen during the show, but it is masked by emotion and epic battles, so you gradually come to not care anymore about ... how dumb the idea is. It is never fully explained how Arian and Earth are connected and how Reiji and the PPSE president are able to be there. Those 2 things aside, Gundam Build Fighters is fantastic in every other area. The story, while a little uninspired, takes flight thanks to the awesomeness of the fights and the characters.

Let's move on to the characters now. Sei is your run of the mill young shounen protagonist who loves something so much, but he's not great at something in it. Incomes Reiji to save the day with his piloting skills. Not much else can be said about him, he's not very impressionable besides his awesome Gundam building skills. Reiji on the other hand, is hilarious to watch with his "no fucks given" attitude and epic fighting technique. Unaware of his strong connection to Aila, who is bae as fuck I might add, it's hilarious to watch that relationship grow, and at the end when she returns to Arian, with him, you know they'll work it out. Some other notable characters are Fellini and Nils. Both awesome in their own ways, Fellini is just a big baller shot caller, while Nils is intellectual and witty. One more I'd like note is that Rinko is a fucking goddess and I want her to sit on my face. Everyone else has decent contributions to the series, and I can't name one terrible character.

Here's where this anime really shines though:
The visuals in this anime are striking and beautiful, even compared to today's animation quality. The fights are beautifully animated and wonderfully choreographed.

I can't say enough about the soundtrack. The timing is perfect with the background music, heightening your emotion at the right moments and really making you feel great about watching the show. The 2 OPs are fucking excellent as well.

Overall, Gundam Build Fighters has to be one of the most underrated anime in recent memory, and clearly goes beyond what most would think is a "kids' show". 9/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 17, 2015

ggultra2764

Mixed Feelings

Gundam Build Fighters is pretty much tailored as a promotion to real-life Gundam model kits (also known as Gunpla), though this series depicts the Gunpla in question being used by their builders to participate in virtual battles that can simulate differing terrain and bring the Gunpla to life to be controlled by their creators. Sei Iori is the Gunpla maker of focus in this series who is a horrible Gunpla pilot in spite of his talent to create excellent quality Gunpla models. He encounters a mysterious boy around his age named Reiji who claims to be from a different world and offers to become his ... pilot for Gunpla battles, as the boy quickly picks up on piloting them in spite of his lack of experience with participating in battles. The two partner up to take part in an international Gunpla tournament where they compete against Gunpla builders and pilots from around the world, a number of whom having differing reasons for their participation in the tournament.

Build Fighters is really different from typical Gundam fare in that it is quite light-hearted in its mood and content, doesn't revolve around war, lacks the high death count common with many titles in the franchise and obviously follows in the vein of merchandise-driven titles like Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon that fixate around battles involving the product that they are trying to persuade viewers to buy. The series seems to cater heavily toward both younger viewers and Gundam fans, the former due to Sei and Reiji being young boys made to be relatable to younger audiences with their simple personalities and the latter due to the fanboy fantasy one can get of seeing crossover battles between mobile suit units coming from differing anime, manga and light novel titles in the Gundam franchise.

In terms of the Gunpla battle gimmick to the series, Build Fighters is actually rather engaging on that end. There are a varying number of mobile suit units used by the various Gunpla fighters in the series, a number of which having a good number of modifications done to them that alter their weapons and capabilities as portrayed from whichever title they originated from. The virtual system used to simulate the Gunpla battles create a varying number of battle terrains to provide variety to the types of battles fought such as a mountain, city, forest and even outer space. The Gunpla fighters have varying degrees of knowledge in implementing the capabilities of their Gunpla, adapting on the fly, the battle terrain and knowledge of the game's technology to try getting the upper hand on their foes in varying capacities. The use of Gunpla capabilities and tactics make the battles involve intellect to a good extent and they are nicely animated when in action. However, some of the later battles in the series do resort to some rather convenient resolutions thanks to deus ex machina gimmickry similar to the Newtype powers milked in Universal Century titles in the Gundam franchise.

Beyond the Gunpla battles, Gundam Build Fighters is mostly typical fare as it milks conventional plot elements and character types common within shounen and merchandise-driven titles. The series has its fair share of hot-blooded characters, teasing of possible romantic pairings, overconfident characters showing off their mecha of choice, "power of friendship" plot devices and diehard Gundam/ Gunpla fans whose obsession is such where they frequently refer to mecha, characters and events from differing Gundam titles. The series also drops hints over the owner behind the Gunpla battles having some rather shady means in which he obtained the technology and being nervous with Reiji's presence in the Gunpla international tournament, but are either typical fare or not taken seriously thanks to the owner being a mostly comical threat. While Gundam Build Fighters is wise not to make the character types in this series obnoxious, many of them lack much dimension or depth to their personality and background, thus they are not really a memorable presence compared to the mobile suits that they fight one another with.

Overall, I suppose Gundam Build Fighters would make for a fun diversion for Gundam fans as it goes for something completely different from typical Gundam fare with its "model kit virtual battle" gimmick as it lacks the dark mood, deaths and storytelling about war found in most other Gundam titles. While the Gunpla battles are a treat, the plot and characters to the series are mostly cliched and don't offer any new ground to break for a shounen and merchandise-driven series. I'd only recommend this baby to either seasoned Gundam fans who would know about the various mecha and events referred to or younger audiences who will get suckered into the title's merchandise-driven storytelling.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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