Build Divide: Code Black

Neo Kyoto is a place where everything is decided through the card game "Build Divide." From resolving personal conflicts to determining social status, success in Build Divide means success in life. The biggest ambition of every player is to become the King, whose peerless skills grant them near-total rule over the city.

One day, a young man wakes up in Neo Kyoto—with the knowledge of just his name, Teruto Kurabe, and carrying only a deck for a card game he no longer knows. Teruto soon encounters another player, Sakura Banka, who helps him remember both how to play Build Divide and his original mission: that no matter what, he must meet the King. Teaming up together, Teruto and Sakura find that their best chance for a royal audience is with the Rebuild tournament, where the one who collects twenty-one tokens from other competitors can challenge the King for their throne. However, as Teruto continues to play, he begins to regain his lost memories that call into question the very nature of Neo Kyoto.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Banka, Sakura Main

Watabe, Sayumi Japanese

Kurabe, Teruto Main

Uemura, Yuuto Japanese

Kurabe, Kikka Supporting

Serizawa, Yuu Japanese

Munenashi, Hiyori Supporting

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Enjou, Naomitsu Supporting

Tamaru, Atsushi Japanese

Higuma, Mario Supporting

Seki, Toshihiko Japanese

Ishinome, Tatsumi Supporting

Matsukaze, Masaya Japanese

Nakayama, Nobuhiro Producer

Yamamoto, Kou Producer

Komada, Yuki Director, Storyboard, Original Character Design

Handa, Daiki Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Dec 25, 2021

Spirit_Chaser

Recommended

Redemption. Master and teacher. Teacher and student. Finding your path. As banal as that all sounds, Build Divide: Code Black excelled in executing great story telling behind those ideas. Teruto is the loveable and fun main character whom the viewers can't help but constantly laugh at how awkward and funny his mannerisms are. He definitely became my favorite protagonist of the season. Having lost part of his memory and personality, all he can think about is the king and finding his path towards that. As a result, he has lost the ability to function as a normal human, and for whatever reason develops a hilarious ... obsession with bread as well. Blasted into a digital city, he wakes up and takes up shelter in a tent by a river, battling his way to the top to earn enough chips to fight the King. That's all he knows and strives for, and he could care less for anything else.

(SPOILERS AHEAD) He meets Sakura along the way. A mysterious individual who appears to be partially glitching out of reality at times. She runs into him by fate, and pushes him by guiding the path for him. Though she appears sincere, she has a use for him that he isn't aware about. She is a part of Kikka, Teruto's sister, who, in her desperation to see Teruto, sent her out there to bring him back. The tragedy of Sakura is that she knows she is going to cease to exist and eventually become a part of Kikka again. Realizing this, and being somewhat advised by Ishinome behind the scenes, she ends up realizing to a certain extent what is going to happen. As a result, she stole the chips from Teruto and fought a battle against Kikka she knew she couldn't win I assume because she wanted to fuse back with her before Teruto got to her.

Naomitsu is the 8th of several clones who is out to get revenge against Mario who happens to be his father. His father is looking for a powerful Build Divide player for a new body to take over, but it's unclear still what he means by wanting to reach a new dimension. Naomitsu wasn't that prominent in season 1, but I expect him and his father to be around a lot in season 2 since there isn't much known about them at the moment.

Hiyori is an energetic, optimistic, kind, and clumsy girl that meets Teruto and convinces him to become her master. As her student, she hilariously doesn't learn anything from him as he can never commit to actually teaching her anything. For the rest of the season she becomes his cheerleader, until Teruto becomes the sacrifice at the end and passes the torch on to her, as she has now become the main character of season 2, at least assuming based on the reveal. Her character has a lot of room for development and I am sure she'll grow a lot.

Ishinome is the most interesting character in the series besides Teruto. He wants to achieve his dream, whatever that is, and is often pulling strings behind the scenes. Despite being part of Mario's organization, he has an agenda of his own that Mario doesn't know about. Often, he manipulates the cast and uses his mysterious powers to alter events. As the battles go on, he often reacts to certain things that happen or that people say with either displeasement or amusement. I can't read him at all, and look forward to what he is going to do in the next season.

The biggest resolve in the series is the redemption of Teruto. He grew up with Kikka, and taught her about Build Divide until she was able to surpass him. Raged with jealousy, he decided to neglect her, steal her cards, and even bury her deck outside. He didn't want to fight the King just to get to the top; ultimately he wanted to apologize for his actions. Kikka had gone mad after being hooked up to a CPU and losing part of herself after making Sakura, but was able to wake up from this after Teruto apologized. In the final battle, Teruto redeems himself and offers himself to save everyone in the end.

The battles in Build Divide were mostly amazing. There is the rushed battle here and there, but ultimately they can be very epic such has the conclusion of the card professor battle. The directing was top shelf as Teruto and Sakura synchronized their lines, the music climaxes, and the professor gets exploded into a giant ball of chaos. I didn't know anything about the card game at all but this was a decent introduction to the rules and functions that I can somewhat understand as I learn along the episodes. The music is incredible, and does a great job adding mystery or intensity to the battles. The art is great and consistent throughout, and overall I have very little complaints about the series. The staff passionately crafted a beautiful and meaningful story. There is still a huge mystery as the world of Neo Tokyo became corrupted, and I can't wait for the return of this series in the Spring 2022 anime season.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 25, 2021

Ammokkx

Mixed Feelings

Build Divide: Code Black is weird to judge; at least when it comes as an entry into the general "card game anime" genre. Speaking of that: This is a show about card games! I'd say "don't dismiss it out of hand" but whether or not you can suspend your disbelief as to all kinds of fights in the universe being resolved through the power of trading cards is pretty make-or-break for a lot of people. I can say that Build Divide: Code Black at least tries to do a slightly more mellow, less adventurous and overall slightly more serious plot than your average Saturday morning ... cartoon, but it's still about card games in the end. Consider this your formal warning.

You follow the story of one Kurabe Teruto, an amnesiac waking up in the mysterious city of Neo Kyoto. He meets with a girl his age, Banka Sakura, who fills him in on how the world works; there's one "King" that rules the city, and people who want to have any one their wishes granted participate in what's called a "Rebuild Battle": A city-wide tournament where only a single person gets to have the right to challenge the king to a match. In this city, being good at Build Divide makes or breaks a person, and via collecting twenty-three casino chips they will earn the key to the king's lair. Sakura tests Teruto on whether or not he has the strength to reach this goal and, ultimately, set out together to take the challenge.

Depending on who you are and the type of anime you've seen, this might sound like the best plot hook in the universe or cliché beyond belief. As an avid card game enjoyer myself, and someone who barely has exposure to shows with similar setups, it's a breath of fresh air to have the story hook essentially being a PG-13 death match. What it definitely is not, is Yu-Gi-Oh, despite comparisons you may or may not have heard. Yu-Gi-Oh, even at its most mature, still falls into that Saturday Morning Cartoon Adventure feeling. Even if they don't start out that way, all of them end up feeling it by the end. They're overly long plotlines that take 100+ episodes to tell, which Build Divide is most certainly not trying to do. It has a focused plotline which it wastes no time in telling (except for when it does) which could be exactly what you want, or leave you wanting for more. The story also aims at a slightly older audience, which you can see shining through in its less colourful setting and general character writing.

On the topic of character writing, to give you the short of it; it's a mixed bag. To give you the long of it: While most characters in Build Divide are interesting, have depth to them, are cute or have any combination of those three elements, they're woefully underutilized. The story mainly focuses on our protagonist Teruto, who, while not a bad character, does take a while to kick into gear and can come off as very one-note until the final stretch of episodes where his character arc finally comes into play and resolves about as quick as it came. Other characters are left either the same as they start, or show up once to then never come around again. The only exception to this would be the main lead Sakura, who gets a lot of intrigue and depth over the course of the show. You'd question if she were the main character, but with Teruto getting the vast majority of card battles in the show, there's no doubt that it is his show in the end.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the card battles themselves are not for the inexperienced. In discussion around the show you'll often find people complaining they don't understand the rules of the game. While I wouldn't call the show unclear by any means, it seems to expect the viewer to have at least a basic knowledge of how a battle-centric card game works. It tries its best to rush through a tutorial on the first episode, and slowly trickles in some concepts as it goes, but it generally goes through its battle extremely quickly and never slows down to re-explain anything. Thus, if you're not immediately up to speed with the rules from the first episode, you're going to have a hard time following. Therefor, even though it might be counter-intuitive, I recommend either making sure you understood what happens in the first episode or look up a rule video ahead of time so you can follow along with the action. The battles, for what they are, seem very reasonably scripted and are easy enough to follow if you know said rules. They're also pretty, which is a not-unimportant aspect to mention. There's a good amount of tension in them, though one complaint is that the winner is incredibly obvious each and every single time, leaving them lacking in impact by the end. If you're a fan of upsets, this isn't going to be the place to look.

As for the overall plot of Build Divide, it's totally okay. The plot goes in a radically different direction to what I'd personally expected/wanted, and I wish Teruto had dealt with more obstacles and pushback than what he eventually got, but the story is perfectly serviceable on a surface level. The only issue is that the pacing is incredibly weird around the middle part, having what I can only describe as "filler episodes" despite its 12-episode runtime. It almost feels like they wanted to do 8 or 9 episodes, and honestly feels like they wasted a bit of time with pointless diversions. The episodes in question are by no means horrible, they just end up feeling pointless in the grand scheme of things.

If you're a fan of good music by the way, well, even there, I can only give a resounding "It's okay". The score they have is utilized well and nothing sounds bad, but there's nothing in the track that I'd consider an "absolute banger" as they say. You won't walk away hating it, but it does end up being pretty forgettable by the end. Mileage on the opening and ending may vary.

Overall I would say I enjoyed my time with Build Divide well enough. It has a very strong opener and I do think it sticks the landing on the ending too, but the entire stretch of episodes 5-8 are mediocre enough to me to where I can't honestly recommend this as a must-watch. It's a shame, as I had high hopes for this, but ultimately it comes down to a "worth checking out if you're a fan of card game anime" type of deal and a "go in with tempered expectations if not a card game fan" on the other end of it. If you want a more traditional card game anime akin to the ever-popular Yu-Gi-Oh, you're in the wrong place. This show is much more akin to Wixoss, though even that is not a full one-to-one comparison. Build Divide is very much its own thing and stands on its own merits in the genre, even though those merits may not always be that impressive.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 25, 2021

YeeYeeAss

Not Recommended

Fun concept but fails to deliver

It has been ages since I have seen an anime with card games as the main concept. Last was Yu-Gi-Oh which was great. Where this show fails to capture the fun that card games really are. I think it is mainly because the mess this show is.

Let's see. When I was watching the first episode it certainly seemed like a fun idea and it was good for the first episode because we got to see how the world works and how the game itself works. It had many unique ideas but the games kinda just over used them. Like with ... Shot Triggers and burst triggers which can alter the games quite heavily. But after the first few fights, all the fights were just identical. The same shit happened in every fight which made it boring.

Story could be better. We just followed our MC Teruto who was gathering these chips, and when you have enough chips you are allowed to challenge this King who is just the best player or something. Over the journey we see Teruto fight identical fights which made everything just not intense

The Opening honestly slaps but it is EGOIST so of course it is bound to be good

So, I wouldn't recommend this show really to anyone. The concept is cool but it is at the end boring

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Build Divide: Code Black Episode 12 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 25, 2021	20 replies	by Unkrowned »» Aug 22, 2022 2:10 AM
	Poll: Build Divide: Code Black Episode 11 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 18, 2021	8 replies	by Unkrowned »» Aug 22, 2022 1:47 AM
	Poll: Build Divide: Code Black Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 11, 2021	12 replies	by Unkrowned »» Aug 22, 2022 1:32 AM
	Poll: Build Divide: Code Black Episode 9 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 4, 2021	10 replies	by Unkrowned »» Aug 22, 2022 1:17 AM
	Poll: Build Divide: Code Black Episode 8 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 27, 2021	21 replies	by Unkrowned »» Aug 21, 2022 3:11 PM