Build Divide: Code Black

I guess I'm just the resident cardgame nerd of the animanga forum now. Noticed there wasn't a thread about this anime yet, so figured I'd start one.

First episode was pretty promising. It's mostly a rule dump, but the fight looked nice and the seeds of intrigue are already sown for the plot at large. Both our main characters seem fun, too. There's not much to go off of, but of all we've seen so far I've no reason not to be optimistic.

Also this.◊

I found it a bit hard to follow the rules, anywhere I can read a good simple breakdown?

I'm going to try and give an explanation for anyone who wants to know.

Each player starts the game with 5 cards in hand, 10 Life cards divided between a Yellow and a Red Zone and 2 card in their Energy Zone. The main way to win, besides the opponent decking out, is to first deplete the opponent's life by and then deal one last damage.

Cards in Build Divide can belong to one of four colors: Black, Red, Blue and White. A player's deck must have 40 to 50 cards plus one Territory card. The Territory card can be "opened" by playing card that has the same title and, if the played crd's cost is lower than the Territory's own, paying the difference in energy. Once opened, the Territory's abilities are active for the rest of the fight and also enables some abilities to be used.

The game's other specificity, besides Territories, are Buster and Shot cards. A player must have 12 cards with the Buster icon in their deck and can have up to 12 cards with the Shot icon. These two are the equivalent to Duel Masters's Shield Trigger or Wixoss's Life Burst in that they activate when the player takes damage and a card with the icon is moved from life to cemetary.

Cards with the Buster Icon cause you to take more damage when revealed but in exchange they are stronger than the norm. On the other hand, cards with the Shot icon let you use their abilities for free.

Besides that, the gameplay is the standard fare for TCGs: the turn is divided into Stand, Draw, Main, Attack and End phases. Units attack by resting themselves and attcks can be blocked by resting units at which point you compare the respective Power of the units to see which one is destroyed.

All of the above is correct. If you want a more in-depth look at the rules, there's also this video which can help you out.

Thanks a lot! That really helped. Might rewatch the episode to see if I can make more sense out of it.

2nd episode dropped.

Hiyori is mega adorable. I love her already.

She’s kind of a jobber, but she put up a better fight than I expected.

Episode 3.

I'm generally positive on the first two episodes, but the third left me a bit colder for most of it. I really liked Teruto and Enjou bonding near Teruto's tent, but when it got to the actual battle, Teruto going all-in again just drained a lot of the tension from it. You know he's going to win because it's only episode 3. I'd rather step aside from Teruto for a bit and have had Hiyori or Sakura get another battle in, then return to Teruto in the next episode.

That being said.

"Outside Neo Kyoto, there's nothing at all!" is goddamn great. That's one way to hook me super hard into the plot.

Yeah I think at this point you have to buy into the fact that Teruto is going to win all his gambles, which kinda makes them not-gambles. As a fan of Black in Magic and Shadowcraft in '’Shadowverse'' however I enjoy this necromancer (edge)lording it over his opponents. Naomitsu is a cool dude too, definitely one of the players to watch out for.

Also interested in what exactly that post-credits plot hook entails. I love that this anime is going all in on how Rebuild is Serious Business.

I do like Teruto being a complete edgelord and kind of a dick. It endears me to his character. I also like how his strategy seems very consistent; we mostly see the same cards being played. Bloom, Rizome and Riverwort seem like his core three boss monsters. It makes it feel like he has an actual deck.

Granted, I bet some of that is due to the limited card pool the game is going to release with. Even so, I appreciate details like that.

Episode 4 drop.

Kikka's great. Kinda sad we didn't get a followup on "There's nothing outside the city" but it is what it is.

I already knew Teruto was going to lose because they didn’t bet chips in that match.

Yeah, I hope they follow up on that.

Not... much to episode 5, honestly. The scene where Ishinome riles up Teruto is cool, and Hiyori is adorable as always, but it still feels kinda weak overall. The most interesting part of it is figuring out just what Sakura's deal is, as she seems to have some relation to the king. Guess this week's a bit of a dud episode.

Also I can't believe they casually mentioned nothing being outside of Neo Kyoto again while refusing to elaborate.

The "strategy meeting" was pointless. That was a great setup for building the lore of Build Divide and Neo Kyoto but the girls only talked about... Teruto being weird. No shit. And they question if Kikka really is his sister but it's not like they tried to find actual evidence.

Yeah, the strategy meeting was just kind of a giant waste of time. It feels like they wanted to pad out the episode, which I find weird, considering there's not THAT many episodes they can work with.

If they wanted a more filler-ish episode, this would've been the perfect chance to give Hiyori, Sakura or Enjou another battle.

Actually, yeah, showing one of the others play a match would have been a better use of the time.

Iiiiii did not like this episode. The card professor is not an interesting villain in the slightest, and the episode is another case of "raises more questions than it answers".

I can feel that the plot is trying to build up to something, but it's not clear what, and right now it's just kind of dragging its feet. If the card professor was actually a decent character maybe I wouldn't mind so much, but he's just so basic, boring and only exists for the sake of one episode.

It's also blatantly Enjou's fight, so it's pretty ridiculous that Teruto has to be the one to battle and win. This anime does not like the idea of giving its side-cast stuff to do.

Me, I enjoyed the episode. I basically love it whenever the characters act super extra and the Card Professor fits the bill to a tee. I do think it’s a waste of a “card professor” kind of character though— would have been better to give fights to all our protagonists, then the reveal comes that their enemies were just minions collecting battle data for him, then the prof steamrolls everyone until Teruto kicks his butt. Instead, we get a merely decent match.

I do hope we get more worldbuilding soon. Sakura phasing through things makes me think their world is actually digital. It’s the Matrix and it’s ruled by card games.

Episode 7: Obligatory Beach Episode. Even in a city where the ocean is a curiosity from a textbook. Seriously we need some lore on Neo Kyoto.

The idol is annoying as heck but I’m glad to see Sakura in the spotlight.

Honestly, I think this episode had more characterization in it that the rest of the series has up until this point. Even Pearnia was more interesting that the Card Professor since at leas they juxtaposed her issues with Sakura and Teruto's.

That and it was also lovely to have a battle without Teruto for once.

Yeah at least Pearnia had a decent amount of characterization for a filler antagonist.

Also I love Teruto’s edgy float. And looks like there’s someone who knows pre-amnesia Teruto.

Episode 8 and the plot is back on track, thank god.

All of this somehow being Teruto's fault for being an incredibly sore loser seems appropriate, somehow.

Yeah haha it’s the perfect backstory for Teruto the edgelord. I’m more curious about Sakura now, though. Why does she have Iora? Is she some sort of split personality of Kikka?

Yeah I'm SUPER curious about Sakura too, especially as she seems to be a dead ringer of "young kikka with normal hair but grown up" and the like. There's some kind of connection there; I think maybe a type of splinter personality.

Honestly episode 8 is super good and has done a lot to get the hype back into the series for me. I can't wait to see how the plot develops.

Sakura could be the sane personality trying to defeat her yandere side. Maybe.