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DIVE START!

Gundam Build Divers is a 2018 anime series in the Gundam franchise. It is also served as the third installment of the Gundam Build Series, following the popular Gundam Build Fighters and Gundam Build Fighters Try.

In the near future, Gundam plastic models (Gunpla) have become more popular than ever through the release of a virtual reality game called Gundam Battle Nexus (GBN), where users can "dive" into a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game world and pilot their Humongous Mecha first-hand. Middle school students Riku Mikami, Yukio Hikada, and Momoka Yashiro are three such "divers" who dream of becoming champions in the game's yearly Player Versus Player 5 vs 5 squad tournament, despite their lack of skills, experience, or even a full team. Their luck begins to turn around, however, when they meet a mysterious girl named "Sarah", whose uncanny ability to judge people through their Gunpla starts to give them just the edge they need.

Has an October 2019 sequel as part of the "Mobile Suit Gundam: Beyond 40th" Milestone Celebration, Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE.

Gundam Build Divers provides examples of:

  • Absurdly-Spacious Sewer: The waterways under Team Avalon's Force Nest, which is wide enough for mechs to enter. Emilia rightfully suspects a sneak attack from that route.
  • Aborted Arc: At the end of episode 19, Nanami decides she really wants to get into the world of GBN and buys two Gunpla, one of which she wants to give to Sarah for her own. Once Sarah's secret gets out, this is put on the backburner and Nanami doesn't participate in any meaningful manner in a Gunpla. Even more, Sarah's new real world body is also her own Gunpla, so that is aborted as well.
  • The Ace: Kyouya Kujo, the leader of Team Avalon and the pilot of the Gundam AGE-2 Magnum.
  • Ace Custom: Par for the course for the Gundam Build franchise, many suits here have been customized through their Gunpla. For instance, Kyouya's AGE-2 Magnum adds in the funnels from the AGE-FX.
  • Adults Are Useless: Zig-zagged. There are adult players in the game and they are quite helpful, either being The Ace, The Mentor or The Leader, depending on their role. However, the administration of the game are the useless ones as their inaction has allowed the Break Decal menace grow rapidly, leading to those players to take up the charge in dealing with them and the Mass-Divers. It's later revealed that the administration knows of this, but their hands are tied as, apparently, the Break Decals are unable to be detected at all, and they somehow modify server data so that any abnormal behavior goes clear under the radar, so this leans more towards Police Are Useless.
  • A Glitch in the Matrix: Invoked. The Mass Divers are a slowly growing subgroup of users relying on Break Decals, which are intended to modify server data so that abnormal behavior slips under the radar, but somehow corrupt GBN's own base data, leading to odd phenomena like that Leo NPD rising from the dead in episode 1. And Sarah may be connected - the Devil Gundam from the serial battle somehow recognizes and attacks her, and the mirror match churns out a mirror of Sarah herself along with two mechs - but Sarah making contact with it somehow makes the two mirror mechs mutate together into something terrible.
  • All There in the Manual: The manuals for the 1/144 High Grade Build Divers Gunpla explains a lot of GBN's lore and the background behind some of the heroic units.
  • Animal Jingoism: The Sitcom Arch-Nemesis duo, Tigerwolf and Shahryar, are part wolf and part fox respectively.
  • Annoying Pop-Up Ad: Emilia entered the Nadeshiko-athlon despite not caring about the reward to become GBN's image girl because a pop-up ad for the competition appeared on a window she was using the reflection of to admire her earrings, and a passing-by Karuna said it didn't suit her. Emilia believed he meant she wasn't good enough to win the competition (he was actually talking about the earrings she was already considering replacing) and slammed the ad's "enter" button to join the competition and restore her pride.
  • Anti-Regeneration: Katsuragi modifies the patch meant for Sarah into special missiles that negate the bugged Raid Bosses' regeneration in the final episode.
  • Apocalypse How: Universal Metaphysical Annihilation with Tsukasa's Final Break Decal, which was so powerful, it would have destroyed the entire game. This is also Sarah's situation in both letting her be and a worst-case scenario in trying to rescue her.
  • Artistic License – Engineering: The show portrays the crashing of GBN's servers as some sort of irreversible event that would delete all copies of the game forever for the sake of drama. However, an actual MMO, being an online service and piece of commercial software, is easily cloneable onto new pieces of hardware (to deal with things like server failures, updates, and releases of the game in new regions of the world). Further, as a piece of software as complex as an MMO requires hundreds of individual software engineers and game designers working on it, multiple versions of the codebase would be held on one or more private repositories, along with multiple coders' work machines, entirely separate from the production servers actually running the game.
  • Artistic License – Law: One of the admins, "Game Master", claims in episode 10 they can't just ban people without proof of cheating in the logs. In fact, the terms of service you agree to in pretty much all online games include stipulations that you can be banned for basically any reason, and there are numerous cases across tons of online games of users being banned from nothing but video footage or reports from other users.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Gunpla Duel. It was the first game that allowed players to control their Gunpla, though it have the caveat of actually inflicting damage against Gunpla in the process. Though not explicitly stated, the sudden popularity of GBN meant that while Gunpla Duel was popular, the idea of actually damaging Gunpla just didn't sit well with other people and a Gunpla-friendly version made it the best alternative.
  • Bait-and-Switch Boss: In Episode 3, Riku, Yukki, and Kyouya are about to fight an AI-controlled Walter Gundam, but it is immediately defeated by three Mass Divers, who try to steal credit for the mission from the heroes. But then a glitched-out AI-controlled Devil Gundam shows up, effortlessly defeats the Mass Divers, and becomes the final opponent of the episode.
  • Big Damn Heroes: In Episode 24, the Build Divers are about to lose to the second Coalition of Volunteers, only for Hyakki to show up and save the day.
  • Big Fancy Castle: One of the perks of being Team Avalon is having this for their home base - compared to Build Divers, which just gets a big fancy bedroom!
  • Bland-Name Product:
    • The recurring McDaniel restaurant reappears, with an added twist as they have a new logo resembling the one for MosBurger.
    • The SD Shock Gundam team, thanks to having weapons based on candies, have a not!Chupa Chup beam javelin and a not!Glico beam saber. The sweets funnels and chocolate Zaku shield look generic enough to slip through.
    • Episode 19 gives us Gunstagram.
  • Breather Episode:
    • Episode 6 has no major battles except in flashbacks.
    • Episode 8 ends up subverting this when one festival-goer turns out to have Break Decals.
  • The Cameo: Besides the various Patrick Colasour cameos, the main hero and rival of the manga Gundam Build Divers Break make appearances in episodes 10 and 13 respectively.
  • Broken Pedestal: The ending of episode 21 makes it quite clear that Force Build Divers as well as a few others is not happy with Kyoya wanting to "eliminate the EL-Diver" after all the time spent with her.
  • Camp Gay: Magee wears tons of makeup and acts in a over-the-top girly manner despite having a male avatar with sculpted muscles. He is only slightly less camp in real life (though a lot more stylish).
  • Cast of Snowflakes: None of the major characters look very similar to each other in the Gundam Battle Nexus thanks to the fact that the Avatars are completely up to the Divers to design, allowing them to look like anyone or anything they like, be it their real-life appearances, famous Gundam characters, or anthropomorphic animals.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: While 3/4ths of the show come off as Serious Business MMO antics, the last few episodes suddenly up the ante to literal life and death levels with Sarah revealed to be an Instant A.I.: Just Add Water! whose ongoing growth may crash the entire game, and the admins quickly demonstrate they think the only way to fix the system is "patching out" Sarah. In the end, it turns into the main cast and the former Big Bad Tsukasa teaming up to save the life of their friend by fighting everyone.
  • Char Clone:
    • Invoked in episode 3 as Kyoya disguises himself with a mask. Momoka's suspicious, but Yukio blows it off as masked men are the norm for Gundam.
    • Then outright parodied with the Force Iron Masks, which is basically a bunch of guys cosplaying as Char clones throughout Gundam history.
  • Character Customization: Being an online game this time around, Gundam Battle Nexus allows Divers to create custom avatars of themselves. For instance, Momoka's avatar, Momo, is a Cat Girl while another Diver, Rommel is a giant ermine.
  • Civil War: A minor one in Episodes 23 and 24 as Build Divers, Chat Noir Neo, Tigerwolf and Magee battle the Coalition of Volunteers to rescue Sarah. Hyakki joins in halfway through episode 24 to even things out.
  • Composite Character: A number of gunpla combine elements of multiple mechs from previous shows:
    • The Galbaldy Rebake is a combo of the Galbaldy suit from Zeta and Gundam Gusion Rebake from IBO.
    • Magee's Gundam Love Phantom is a Strike Freedom with a Noir Striker from SEED customized to look more like a Deathscythe Hell from Wing.
    • Riku's 00 Sky is a combo of 00 Gundam from 00 and Destiny from SEED Destiny.
    • Yukki's Jegan Blast Master appears to be a fusion of the Gundam Double X and the Jegan.
    • The Impulse Lancier and Impulse Arc combine the original Impulse's design from Gundam Seed Destiny with some Gundam Age design elements, as a nod to their leader using the Age-2.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Orge and Do-ji didn't end up facing our heroes because Do-ji set them up for revenge or something, they just happened to be there at the same time.
  • Crippling Overspecialisation:
    • One of the Build Divers' greatest strengths is the huge diversity of mech types, flying in the face of GBN convention and giving them a massive edge over themed teams.
    • Invoked and subverted with Le Chat Noir, as their insistence in using only SD Gunplas led to their downfall when they started facing opponents who knew the strong and weak points of those Gunpla - but by present day they've learned to maximize the small size and mobility, leading to a new rookie team that somehow gives the Build Divers a decent fight.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Episode 3. The Devil Gundam thrashes three Jegans in rapid succession, and moves on to our heroes while bits of the third one are still stuck in its teeth. We're talking about IBO-level brutality in a fraction of the time.
    • Episode 7. Riku's newly-formed force fights some rookies that had joined Rommel's team. Thanks to careful planning, Riku's friends win the battle without losing a man.
  • Cute Machines:
    • Momo customized her Kapool giant robot to look like a blue and white penguin stuffed animal, and specifically left off or nerfed weapons because they weren't cute enough.
    • Force le Chat Noir and Chat Noir Neo has their SD Gundams - the Neo team takes it even further, as close examination of the actual models show a bunch of weapons based on candies!
  • Cute and Psycho: The Axe-Crazy Tsukasa's GBN avatar is an evil Haro, a round smiley face robot ball with oversized cartoon hands.
  • Cyberspace: Divers differentiates itself from its predecessors by focusing on this trope. Instead of having the actual Gunpla fight, they're recreated with VR technology inside the Gundam Battle Nexus, a virtual world where players gather to battle and hang out.
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Zig-zagged. If you die in GBN, you just go back to the hub world with a Diver Point loss penalty. But, the Diver Point loss can be more and more painful the higher rank you are.
  • Debut Queue: Build Divers has quite the staggered release for gathering Riku's force:
    • Riku, Yukio and Momoka are all introduced in episode 1, but only Riku and Yukio enter the game with Gunpla.
    • Momoka doesn't join the game until episode 3, gets her own avatar in episode 4 and doesn't get the Momokapool until episode 7
    • Ayame first appeared in episode 3 in a cameo, makes a full appearance in 5, doesn't join the team until 7 doesn't Heel–Face Turn fully until 12 and doesn't fully join the team in a heroic capacity until 14.
    • Koichi first appears and joins the group in episode 6, but doesn't get the Galbaldy Rebake until the following episode.
  • Deus ex machina: On the one hand, the appearance of the GN Wings of Light in the battle against Tsukasa comes across as this but is ultimately being attributed to the presence of Sarah; on the other hand, Nanami managing to score four Game-Breakerinvoked items is a definite case of luck of the draw.
  • Dirty Coward: Outside of Do-ji, who used underhanded tactics to ambush beginners to earn Diver Points, Mass-Divers are seen to be this as they manipulate data to earn their strength instead of improving their builds and their own strengths.
  • Eccentric Millionaire: For some reason GBN has one - Mr Racula, who never has to drive a mech and just spends his time buying and collecting fancy islands and other properties, just to resell them later at a fair price... and certain conditions.
  • Enemy Mine: In Episode 17, Sarah forces Yukki and Do-ji to do a difficult mission together. Working together winds up making them good friends.
  • A Father to His Men: Rommel to his 7th Panzer Division.
  • Floating Continent: There's a whole bunch of these in episode 8, apparently an implicit feature of the GBN 'verse.
  • Flying Seafood Special: Force Lotus not only has three customised Mermaid Gundams but a bunch of other mechs that are basically crabs, lobsters etc. with Gundam heads installed. And they operate in space.
  • Gang of Hats: Like some of the teams in Try, several Forces deliberately follow this aesthetic - Rommel's Force is all old-school combatants in Zeon uniforms, there's a Gundam Seed-themed one out there, and there's even one made up entirely of Char clones! Ayame's old team, Le Chat Noir, was themed around SD Gundam models and Tsukasa used it to destroy them from the inside.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: At the end of Episode 24, shortly after the Build Divers win the battle and rescue Sarah, a massive Raid Boss comes out of nowhere, guarding the tower used to recreate Sarah.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: In attempting their mission to save Sarah, Build Divers attempts to recruit as many people as possible. They're clearly the underdogs as they are only able to get Chat Noir Neo, Magee (who let his team decide on who they wanted to aid and it's made clear that they went with the Coalition), Tigerwolf (who quit his team when he realized they'd never pass up the opportunity to join the Coalition) and Force Lotus (who found the idea exciting).
  • Gratuitous English: Like in Build Fighters, the Gunpla Battle machines speak in English despite the Japanese setting. Somewhat justified by the fact that GBN is played by people from around the world and English is the most commonly spoken language by country.
  • Kid Hero: Riku and Yuuki are both 14, placing them squarely in the middle school age in Japan.
  • Karma Houdini: Of a sort. In episode 13, Kyoya reveals that those who used the Break Decals are unable to be punished for their deeds because the Main Program couldn't log in their actions. However, these people have effectively become pariahs to the games for their terrible decisions.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • Although they're extremely strong, Break Decal-influenced Gunpla can be defeated by using any part of their own Gunpla against them. Twice shown in the series:
      • To defeat an out of control Geara Ghirarga, 00 Diver Ace picked one of the dismembered tails of said Gunpla and pierce the chest with it before striking it with the help of Ogre GN-X.
      • The Heel–Face Turn Ayame defeats one of the mercenaries in Tsukasa's employ by using his Qubeley's funnels against him. For added Didn't Think This Through-ness, being canon blind meant that he didn't know that her Ninja-themed Unicorn Gundam could do such a thing!
    • Episode 7 has a literal version with the Build Divers' tactics - send out dummies in all directions to trip any traps, then find the traps and re-wire them with more explosives before the opponents investigate them. End result, more Stuff Blowing Up.
  • Killed Off for Real: Non-lethal variation. In episode 10 everyone enters one of the beginner servers followed by one of the administrators locking down the access to the server to prevent their target from escaping. This has the effect of making it so that anyone who is shot down will be forcefully logged out and unable to re-join the battle when they log back in, effectively making it appear as if they where shot down for real.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Why any of the Mass-Divers can be considered this, the three that show up in Episode 10, one of who shoot a Diver in the face, effectively killing him throws this anime right into Darker and Edgier territory that not even the original Build Fighters hit.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • At the start of the first mission, Magee reminds our heroes "don't skip the launch sequence!" The best known use of Stock Footage in the Gundam franchise is always the mecha launch (and skippable in some of the games).
    • When Momo brings up her design ideas for what would become the Momokapool, Koichi tells her it'd be better to build from scratch rather than modify the existing one. This is precisely why the HG Momokapool is the only model not remolded from a past one, as the only 1/144 Kapool is a "retail grade" model of a highly backdated mold.
    • The motivation Tsukasa, the initial Big Bad, is basically that he's a Gundam Build Fighters fanboy who doesn't like the change from actual models fighting each other to the more video game MMO setting of Divers.
  • Lighter and Softer: While the Gundam Build franchise has always been this, Build Divers, a story about a bunch of middle school students playing an MMO game, is even more so coming off the heels of the oppressively depressing Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans.
  • Limited Wardrobe: A lot of Divers out there tend to default to the familiar Federation and Zeon uniforms in their avatars. Maybe some ZAFT and 00-era ones as well.
  • Loophole Abuse:
    • This was how Douji got away with attacking beginners as he cons players into activating Free Battle Mode, thus it's their fault that he beat them.
    • To Ms. Tori's shock, this is how Break Decals worked - as it turned out, GBN was built from parts of Gunpla Duel with the rest tossed out. As it turned out, Tsukasa had saved one of the old Gunpla Duel servers and used it as a backdoor to work the Break Decals. For all intents and purposes, Break Decals were undetectable because it was literally built from their system.
  • Mecha-Mooks: Like the Mock previously, the Leo NPD (Non Player Diver) serves as AI opponents, as well as recurring mobs.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Even more so than previous works, with the characters shopping at the actual Gundam Base Tokyo store with the 1:1 sized Unicorn Gundam statue that you can visit in Tokyo, Japan.
  • Meta Sequel: Instead of being a sequel to another Gundam story, it's a spin-off set in a world where the Gundam franchise is fictional, allowing for a lighter tone and commentary about what Gundam stories are usually like.
  • Mood Whiplash: Episode 8, full stop. Going from a cute and hilarious romp through a Beargguy event to trying to prevent a Mass-Diver from breaking the area over their knee.
  • Naïve Newcomer: Unlike Sei, Riku comes in completely blind to Gunpla Battle. He and Yuuki also get baited rather easily by a troll who takes joy in manipulating and beating new players to take their points.
  • Narrowed It Down To The Guy I Recognise: By the middle of episode 5, half of the viewers would likely have guessed that the real Shahryar is NOT the fat Arab shiek Mass-Diver, but the fox-man who's already in the OP.
  • No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Heavily implied by the Serious Business related to GBN being destroyed by bugs.
  • Not Proven: Despite videos displaying the Mass-Divers actively cheating, the GBN administration claim they can't prove that they were cheating since, to their logs, they weren't cheating at all.
  • Opponent Switch: Subverted. In episode 17, Yukio and Do-ji end up fighting against copies of their Gunpla. However, they had decided to switch combat styles, which ends up overwhelming them as they're not used to using these new styles.
  • Original Generation: SD Shock Gundam, the only one not customized from some past mech, despite its striking similarities to the Winning Gundam (itself a series original) from Build Fighters Try.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Episode 21 ends with Kyoya announcing the reformation of the Coalition of Volunteers to "eradicate the EL-Diver". While the viewers know it's to protect Sarah until the very last moment, no one else does and it comes off as them turning against their friends.
  • Production Foreshadowing: The GBN Coalition formed to combat the Break Decals ends up splintering and turning on itself when different ideologies clash on the battlefield, taking the Three Kingdoms allusion to its logical conclusion. After Build Divers, Sunrise has a new Three Kingdoms adaptation lined up in the form of Sangoku Soketsuden.
  • Recap Episode:
    • The YouTube original short "[Magee's Commentary!] Gundam Build Divers" has Magee narrate a 4 minute simplistic recap of the first thirteen episodes of the series.
    • Episode 14 has Riku going around and talking to the various characters about the events of the first 13 episodes while trying to get ideas for his upgraded 00 Gundam, complete with various clips from those previous episodes.
  • Rewatch Bonus: Ayame's vocal flashbacks in episodes 5 and 8 and her warning about her piloting an SD Gundam in episode 7 suddenly make sense once you watch episode 11.
  • Serial Escalation: Try started the trend with each competitor now acting as a 3-man team, not counting attack drones and engineers backing them - Build Divers ups the teams to 5.
  • Serious Business: For an MMO game, some people take things insanely seriously. Beyond the standard online troll types, there are people who think they'll lose all their friends if they don't get better at playing it, the Big Bad wants to destroy the entire GBN game because it replaced the one he liked, and other ridiculously over the top things.
    • The motivations of the Big Bad make Build Divers a sort of sequel to the first two anime. Compared to the previous two anime especially the original Build Fighters what happens here is actually EXTREMELY toned down so far.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns:
    • Episode 9 - Nanami is a total no-show, while Do-ji could be considered a "clown" being the typical Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, but then the deconstructing starts...
    • Episode 11 - Momoka is relegated to a voice-only cameo as well as Patrick Colosour.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Team Avalon is a reference to the name of the legendary island in Arthurian Legend where Excalibur was forged and where King Arthur himself rests after the Battle of Camlann.
    • Rommel's name is a either a reference to Erwin Rommel, the famous German general known as the "Desert Fox" who led the North African campaign against the Allied Forces during World War II or Desert Rommel, a character from Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ who was naturally a Shout-Out to Rommel the Desert Fox.
    • Rommel's Gunpla, the Grimoire Red Beret, sports customizations that make it look like not only a combination of the Red Beret Gundam from SD Gundam G-Arms and the Grimoire from Gundam: Reconguista in G, but the Scopedog from Armored Trooper VOTOMS.
    • The Seravee Gundam Scheherazade is named after Scheherazade, the beautiful storyteller from Arabian Nights.
    • The Devil Gundam burst out from the digital sky a la broken mirrors, just like the monster-of-the-week from Ultraman Ace, another series Bandai does merchandising for.
    • From episode 4 we have a Western-themed Gundam dragging a coffin behind it. At the same time, the pilot spouting out random English in his stilted Japanese has shades of Jack King, pilot of the Texas Mack, right down to the use of "Me" as a pronoun.
    • In episode 7:
      • Momokapool's Belly Beam attack and pose is based off of Kotetsu Jeeg's Spin Storm attack. Or alternatively, Getter Robo's Getter Beam.
      • The 00 Diver Ace has a finishing move that cuts up the opponent in a massive A, just like Kamen Rider Accel.
    • Episode 8 does a Super Sentai shout out with Riku, Sarah, Yukio and Momoka doing poses and name calls with explosions behind them, calling themselves "Yonrengguy"/"Fourguy Rangers", which is an obvious nod to Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.
    • Kyoya creating the Coalition of Volunteers mirrors the Coalition Against Dong Zhuo from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and even the Storming the Castle battle mirrors how that chapter appears in Dynasty Warriors. This may have been deliberate as the makers of Dynasty Warriors also gave Gundam the same treatment.
    • The reveal of ZeroMaru in Real Mode leads to it doing the memetic Masami Obari sword pose.
    • How 00 Diver Ace delivered its final blow to Astray No Name is by using its amputated left arm to plug into a GN Beam Saber and pierce the latter Gunpla's torso. Did we mention that the first time this happen was by a possessed killer doll from a horror film?
    • Episode 14 is the first appearance of Aya Fujisawa, a.k.a the real-life Ayame. She actually resembles Sarah Kazuno from Love Live! Sunshine!!, another Sunrise anime. Also, both characters undergoes a Heel–Face Turn and their respective voice actresses has a singing career in their résumé.
    • In Episode 18, one of the ranking Divers is "Genm"
  • Spiritual Successor: Continues from Gundam Build Fighters to develop the basic ideas of Gunpla Builders Beginning G, which in turn is loosely adapted from the manga Plamo Kyo Shiro.
  • Status Quo Game Show: Zig-zagged in Episode 19: all the racers of the Nadeshiko-lathon cross the finish line first. However, they are all disqualified because they weren't allowed to use their Gunpla or make custom vehicles (which they were never told of and had only done so because the original vehicles were destroyed by a bug and Rose misconstrued the problem). However, the president of Sazameth is able to convince the admins to let them all win anyway.
  • The Stinger:
    • At the end of episode 4 it's revealed that Tsukasa and Ayame are in cahoots.
    • Episode 8 ends with Do-ji seeking help from Tsukasa.
    • Episode 9 ends with Rommel and Kyoya discovering the wreckage of 7th Panzer Division aces, which were determined to have been left by Mass Divers.
    • Episode 14 ends with a mysterious person having located Sarah for mysterious purposes.
    • Episode 15 follows up on this with a yellow bird (the diver avatar of GBN's original developer) quietly observing our heroes.
    • Episode 21 has Koichi requesting Tsukasa's help to save Sarah by combining both Break Decal and their GPD skills to possibly upload Sarah into a doll.
  • Stealth Pun: Erwin Rommel...Ermine Rommel.
  • Super Mode: In episode 4, Tigerwolf reveals that players who reach Rank C and save up their Diver Points can buy such things.
  • Superpowered Evil Side: Episode 2 introduced "Break Decals", a seemingly-illegal modification part that boosts a Gunpla's power to unheard of levels, giving them a frightening purple aura. Hellfire Ogre is furious over someone using such a distasteful modification. Episode 3 reveals that these modifications are breaking the game.
  • Talking Animal: Rommel is a talking ermine avatar who act as a skilled leader of 7th Panzer Division. Apparently this is an option for all Divers, up to and including the original GBN developer.
  • The Cameo: Patrick Colasour from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 appears Once an Episode.
  • Training Montage: Episode 4, making it the first episode to take place over more than 1 day.
  • Transformation Sequence: Aya's ZeroMaru gains an extended sequence where it switches from Super-Deformed to 1/144 mode in episode 14, complete with multi-colored backgrounds and various closeups of the changing parts.
  • Translation Convention: Despite Yukki stating that GBN is played around the world, everyone speaks in Japanese. It could be due to a translation programme but unless it is explained then it's this trope.
  • Underestimating Badassery: The 7th Division rookies fall to Build Divers in episode 7 due to underestimating their skills and planning.
  • The Unreveal: By the last episode, we get a bunch of the named GBN aces appearing in real life except Rommel, Do-ji and Ogre.
  • Wham Episode: Episode 20 is just one wham after another. First the Game Master isolates the new recurring bugs down to all of the Nadeshiko-athalon contestants, and sends out surveillance mechs to find all of them, but one of them runs into Sarah whose facial recognition fails to identify her, causing it to attempt to grab her - then the yellow bird that's been following our heroes around reveals itself to be the avatar of the original GBN developer, who reveals that Sarah is an anomaly of GBN that's unknowingly growing out of its parameters and affecting all of GBN just by its constant interactions with our heroes. Before they can do anything, Sarah's made a run for it - and the Game Master chose to put out an APB, effectively turning her into public enemy number 1.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: When given the choice between losing access to their favorite MMORPG and a fully sentient AI's life, one who's basically got the mind of a middle school girl at that, the admins and many players readily choose to kill the AI. Meanwhile, GBD's designer and Team Build Divers argue Sarah is just as much of a living, sentient being as any of them. Many of the fights in Episode 23 boil down to accusations of if Team Build Divers are acting utterly selfish over one person or if the players just genuinely don't get what they're willing to destroy for their game. Episode 25 confirms this as both sides apologize for their actions.
  • The Worf Effect:
    • This is the primary purpose of the 7th Panzer Division. They're introduced in "Prologue" to be incredibly badass, but also show how powerful Avalon is. They're (at least, their B Team) is then Team Build Diver's first Team Battle, resulting in Build Divers gaining a lot of notoriety for their win. They're later shown completely destroyed by a Build Decal-equipped team to show the threat. Finally, they're (off-screen) used as a Worf when it's shown they've failed the Lotus Challenge seven times, a feat that Build Divers completes on their first try.
    • Episode 10 introduces Randy, ranked as the world's #7 Gunpla battler... who's among the first to go down while Storming the Castle. He's also the only named character to be destroyed in episode 23.
    • In Episode 23, Tigerwolf and Shahry set aside their differences to fight Kyoya only for their combination attack to do nothing to the Champion. When Kyoya confronts Riku at the end of the episode, it's revealed that he defeated Tigerwolf and Shahry without getting a scratch on his Gunpla.
  • Your Mind Makes It Real: Subverted - Tigerwolf's lesson involves learning how the GBN world's lack of physical adherence means that Divers could accomplish some phenomenal things entirely on their own. So in essence, your mind makes it virtually real.
  • Zeppelins from Another World: Blimps with ads are a common sight in GBN - the twist being that this is another world.

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