Gundam Build Fighters

I mean, his GN Drives did explode when he used Trans-Am against Ogre, and I don’t believe he’s used the mode since. It’s not uncommon for gamers to hold back on powerful tools so that they can better understand the mechanics of the game first, and as a competitive PVPer with a video game empath girlfriend, Riku has more incentive than most.

The 00 Diver has also had a full refit - it’s now the Diver Ace, with an expanded arsenal and more ergonomic layout (the biggest difference is that the drives on the shoulders have been totally redesigned, which matters a lot for an Anno Domini suit). Riku’s taken significant steps to make his Gunpla a more in-depth custom.

edited 13th Jun '18 5:27:21 PM by Iaculus

Not to mention his GN Sword Blasters have been upgraded to work like a Grappling-Hook Pistol, so he's got more utility. It also helps that the backpack would most likely help stabilise the Trans Am effects, like the 0 Raiser in 00 canon.

I was not expecting Nena's evil Haro to appear in this series, but it was a pleasant surprise.

My guess is that next episode is the end of the Break Decal arc and the rest of the series is a tournament,

Overall, I'd say that this has gotten more enjoyable since they made a force, but it is still overall rather bland. I'm mostly still here because I want to see Patrick's obligatory late season Let's Get Dangerous! moment.

So yeah. Saw the episode.

Really weird how Break Decal-guy's apparent philosophy ("you're just using the trappings of what this franchise is really about to have silly fun") mirror my own repeated complaints of the Build-series, but Divers is by far the worst offender ("this isn't Gundam, it's just an MMO-anime with Gundam wallpaper").

... so holy shit at the resolution. I think they broke my brain on the sheer number of clichés used. The Mysterious Waif supports the Hot-Blooded Kid Hero who through his innate specialness (along with generic Japanese Spirit and The Power of Friendship) just grows power wings and wins. Holy shit. They just played every single cliché completely straight and I almost respect that.

So bad guy's plan is thus... get into Gunpla Duel. As Gunpla Duel dies due to the popularity of GBN, become world-class in GBN, infiltrate a way to hack and destroy it, and then go ahead and do that? Oh, and by the way, take an SD Gundam so you can have a ninja-girl who does your dirty work down the line.

Bad guy's Gunpla in the next episode looks cool, though.

edited 19th Jun '18 10:33:40 AM by Larkmarn

Is anyone else of the opinion that Sarah subconsciously made the 00 Diver Ace do its GN Wings of Light, instead of the virtual Gundam being somehow sentient?

That was the impression I got as well.

Probably a little of column A, a little of column B, really. She's certainly a catalyst for it, but the "spirit!" of the 00 Diver is playing a major role.

... god, I do hate Sarah. Have there been any Japanese polls yet? Curious to see how the Japanese fandom feels about her.

She's a cute young girl, that means the Japanese automatically love everything about her.

I swear, there had better be some kind of Arista crystal powering all this, because that was just dumb. Deus ex Machina out of nowhere with no explanation whatsoever.

And we still don't know what Evil Haro's motivation is!

(Though I will say that his avatar being Evil Haro did get a chuckle out of me.)

It seems clear that his deal is that he hates GBN overtaking the old Plavsky System entirely.

Actually, there's no indication that the old Gunpla Duel system is related to the Plavsky stuff. But that's just me nitpicking.

But yeah, I do agree that the Wings of Light kinda came out of nowhere. Maybe there's a second facet of Sarah that's actually doing all that weird stuff.

Are there any Moeblobs that Japan hasn't liked? I know I'm grossly overgeneralizing, but I'm trying to think of a Moeblob in a mainstream Japanese work that the Japanese fandom didn't adore.

Uhhhh.... Not that I recall.

Also, anyone else find it weird that the series writers apparently ship Sarah and Riku? Personally, it would make more sense to ship Momoka with Riku...

I will say, literally the one thing I kinda liked about Sarah and Riku is that he definitely had an "uhhhhh what?" vibe going on while she was going on about wanting to be with him forever.

Look, if it turns out that Sarah is a yandere insane program and takes over the 00 Diver because she's in love with Riku and tries to trap him in the game or something, I'd be willing to forgive a lot for a twist like that.

... if the twist is that she's part of GBN I will be... well, honestly not disappointed but still sad.

Huh.

That's an interesting theory.

Also, I seriously think that Kyoya is the Build Divers equivalent of McGillis now, because of that whole EX-Calibur thing, and a couple of poses that he puts his AGE-II Magnum in look kinda similar to what McGillis did with Bael.

Speaking of sad, NightmareFuel.Gundam Build Divers really makes me worried for some of our site's patrons if they actually think some of those are scary.

The first example is "a character griefs newbies." Seriously?

edited 20th Jun '18 6:16:32 AM by Larkmarn

Really, most of those entries basically treat the actual moments as if they happened in real life.

Which isn't a bad thing, mind.

And besides, it's the Darth Wiki, should we really treat those pages seriously?

Eh, just reflects poorly of the site. TVT has a pretty lousy reputation across the interwebs (it's why Troper Tales went bye-bye). Though it's not DW, it's YMMV. Just sayin'.

Gonna have to agree to disagree on the "treats it as if it's real-life" thing. It's... expressly not. Treating it as more serious business than the actual show is odd. Especially since Do-Ji was mostly played for laughs.

I'm not even advocating removing them necessarily just saying it... well, frankly anyone who finds such things legitimately scary seem... well, let's go with "jumpy."

edited 20th Jun '18 6:38:09 AM by Larkmarn

Well, I can only put forth a couple of theories about who Sarah is (apologies if it was said before):

• 1.) Sarah is an AI like Yui that serves to monitor GBN players and make sure the game is relatively bug-free. The only reason why she didn't function properly during the proliferation of Break Decals is because she was...incomplete or broken until Riku arrived. (Probably had a criteria as well when it comes to choosing who can help her with the task of monitoring GBN players and keeping the game bug-free, who knows.)
• 2.) Sarah is a real person and an actual Technopath who can "resonate" with Gunpla (or rather, the programming within GBN). Though I wouldn't be surprised if she can resonate with Gunpla via the old battle system.

End

Can't help but feel a bit of pity for the nameless Mass Diver who used a Break Decal on a Tallgeese II—colored similarly to the Gundam Epyon—instead of...you know, mastering its strengths and weaknesses?

Also, I can't help but chuckle upon remembering that Nanami's Japanese voice actress previously made a Shout-Out to ∀ Gundam in another anime. ("UNIVERSE!!!")

edited 20th Jun '18 10:51:37 AM by IncognitoNinja

Why single out that Mass Diver?

Well, I'm a "Winger" after all. Plus the Tallgeese was my favorite AC-era mobile suit.

Guess it's still Greco Logan who does justice to the suit in the Build Fighters/Divers-verse.

edited 20th Jun '18 10:55:45 AM by IncognitoNinja

I liked this recent episode. The Astray No Name is edgy as shit but its a neat design.

Tattoo face is clearly setting up a bigger villain than just Tsukasa.

Episode was... okay I guess?

The show seems like it's trying to have its cake and eat it too with Gunpla Duel. On one hand, (our page at least treats it like) it's a Take That! to viewers that think the whole "It's an MMO" thing is entirely without stakes and not really a Gundam. On the other hand, they are legitimately using it as a form of raising the stakes and it's hilariously regressive that the dramatic "the stakes are higher" is... the stakes are suddenly exactly the same as they were in GBF episode 1.

Choreography and animation were solid. Astray No-Name was too edgy for me both figuratively and literally, but damned if I don't like its cloak/rifle/claw. I'm glad they're releasing the cloak on its own.

Sarah's still the worst.

Ayame is fucking adorable. Jesus. The guy getting the SD Gundam back in a snap like that furthers my belief that it exists only in-game and not as a Gunpla... which also would explain why Tsukasa wanted to take it from them, he would hate a Gundam that isn't a Gunpla.

I do suspect there’s at least a certain degree of staff sympathy for Tsukasa’s position. That was the most dramatic and lavishly-animated fight we’ve seen in the show - someone clearly decided to make the villain’s ideal battle pretty as fuck. I wonder if we’ll end up seeing a GP Duel renaissance among hardcore PvPers, while GBN shifts into a more casual and community-focused model? Would certainly seem like the obvious next step from the current tone and themes. Avalon and the Build Divers facing off against each other in the real world would be rad as hell.

I mean, it's the midseason climax. Of course it's more lavishly animated.

Speaking of which, I'll miss Diver's High. Catchy song.

Ehh, I don’t think that explains why it blew the assault on the Mass Diver stronghold out of the water so handily. Even the Biggest Zam fight didn’t get this kind of love.