While not as grand and awesome as the previous series, Build Divers does deliver the awesomeness when it calls for it!
The Prologue
- This ONA is literally about two hefty teams of seasoned Gunpla Battle veterans duking it out, and it shows. Even in this ONA, the Red Shirts on both sides using nothing more than Ace Custom versions of cheap-and-cheerful grunt units beating the crap out of each other is a joy to watch. The match that all these suits are taking part in is a 10-vs-10 team game where the objective is to search-and-destroy the enemy team's "Flag MS," which means that all the grunt suits that were shown in this episode made it to the top via a combination of pure skill and teamwork.
- The 7th Panzer Division take advantage of the map holding the match by hiding inside the fortress and luring Team Avalon's frontline squadron inside and laying down a number of traps. Not long after Kyoya and his teammates move in, Rommel orders one of his squadmates to kill the EWAC Jegan that had eyes on the locations of Rommel's team, effectively blinding them.
- However, despite that, Team Avalon move forward, and with the exception of that one poor Red Shirt, they suffer no casualties. One notable example is when Kyoya is caught in an exploding minefield, he's none the worse for wear when his F Funnels take out two of Rommel's team effortlessly.
- After the Clanche pilots take out a rather troubling Bawoo duo (that results in both their Clanches being damaged), the male Clanche pilot realises that he shot down a decoy earlier, and while Kyoya handles Rommel and his lieutenant with relative ease, it isn't until that Rommel's lieutenant holds down the AGE II Magnum that a massive beam blast fired by a well-hidden Big Gun comes out of nowhere.
- Kurt: Come on, Jack!
- And despite that, the only damage that the Magnum suffers is its F Funnels shattering.
- The result of this is Rommel and Kyoya going No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on each other, complimenting each other on how they've become their respective Worthy Opponents. The fight is essentially a glorious Combat Breakdown as both fighters take increasing amounts of damage, all before they stop before a Mutual Kill occurs. The reason they stopped was that the match had ended, thanks to the male Clanche pilot borrowing parts from his partner's Mobile Suit, in order to catch the Zudah that manned the Big Gun, and said Zudah was actually the 7th Panzer Division's Flag MS.
Episode 1
- The exhibition match that Riku and Yuuki go to at the beginning of the episode is nothing but full of awesome shots of various Gunpla duking it out in some really nice animation. This neatly leads up to the Gundam AGE II Magnum showing up and curbstomping everything its path from a Dijeh to a replica of the Turn X. All set to what might as well be Team Avalon's theme tune.
- After some brief encouragement from Sarah, Riku wastes no time charging into battle with Douji despite having no weapons. When the latter draws his beam sabres, Riku narrowly dodges them twice, and skids over to Yukki's wrecked GM III Beam Master. Within seconds, Yuuki gives him one of the Beam Master's hidden beam sabres, and the result is Riku charging forward once again, slashing off Douji's Zedas's arm, deflects the Chest Blaster attack with the Laser Blade and stabs the Zedas, effectively defeating the smug Troll. A near flawless victory.
Episode 2
- When Riku, Yuuki and Sarah get caught up in a fight between three Dom-piloting Divers and Douji's brother, the "Hellfire Ogre," Riku wastes no time summoning the Gundam 00 Diver to save Yuuki and Sarah from a stray arm that was cut off and sent flying their way.
- And this is while Ogre is beating the crap out of them. Heck, Ogre reels one of the Doms in after the latter's teammate asks if he can still move. The result: Ogre 1, Dom Squad 0 after one of the latter gets impaled on the former's shoulder spikes.
- Riku manages to dodge a pincer attack from the remaining two Doms' beam bazookas (one of which has activated his Break Decal), by manipulating his GN Drives to rotate the 00 Diver just enough for both shots to miss, resulting in one of the Doms suffering from friendly fire. This results in Riku and Ogre double-teaming on the last remaining Dom and killing it effortlessly.
- While Riku is understandably reluctant to use Trans-Am against Ogre (who has already activated his after seeing Riku's piloting ability first-hand), his own activation of the Super Mode actually allows him to nearly win against him. It's a shame that Riku's GN Drive broke down just before he could finish the GN-X off.
- Following up on that, the fact that Sarah had the guts to put herself between the 00 Diver and the Ogre GN-X, which makes the latter decide to leave with Douji.
Episode 3
- Kyoya makes a surprisingly good teammate for Riku and Yuuki. When Phase 1 of the Serial Battle begins, Kyoya uses the Dark Hound to draw out the Mooks by razing the ground with his beam vulcans and then jetting away, allowing Yuuki to mow them down with his Changeling Rifle in Gatling mode, with Riku sniping down some other units, and Kyoya providing further air support. They then tackle on aerial units, with Kyoya playing decoy again, while Yuuki switches to Sniper Mode and sniping from the ground, while Riku flanks them and shoots the others down from above. Not bad for two beginners and a disguised champion.
- When three Jegan-piloting Mass-Divers defeat the Walter Gundam before the protagonists can get even one shot in, they initially have trouble taking them down, but Kyoya proves that they're not invincible, by stabbing his DODS Lancer into one of the joints and blasting it at point-blank range, crippling the Jegan.
- Another one for Kyoya. When he takes a blast from the Devil Gundam meant for Sarah, the only damage he suffers is the Dark Hound armour and his mask breaking, revealing the AGE II Magnum in full glory. At that moment, he decides to go all out after making sure that Momoka and Sarah are safe. Notable highlights include deflecting the Devil Gundam's attacks back at it to destroy the smaller heads, deploying the F Funnels to cut the cables connecting the Devil Gundam to the ground, before combining the F Funnels with his shield to form a gigantic Raiser-Sword like blade to utterly destroy it. All set to (supposedly) his theme tune.
- Minor mention to Riku and Yuuki for intercepting those gigantic claws that were going to catch the Magnum by obliterating them with gunfire. Even when Kyoya stops messing around, they still do their best to support him.
Episode 4
- Tigerwolf's intense training regime. The final course of which involves battling a Leo... with your avatar, not your Gunpla.
- Then there is Daniel the Desperado, and his desperado styled Tequila Gundam, along with its missile launcher coffin! No wonder fans are begging for him to make a return appearance.
- After Riku and Yukki manage to land a blow on Daniel, Tigerwolf decides to take him on bringing out his Jiyeon Altron Gundam and activates it's Meikyou Seishui Super Mode and takes Daniel down with one of the most awesome Shaping Your Attacks ever!
Episode 5
- Turning his King Incognito act, Shahryar shows off his latest display: a Bearguy village! Why is this awesome? Because each Bearguy had a different expression or head, meaning Shahryar made each head and face from scratch!
- To save a not actually kidnapped Ayame, Shahryar lends the team one of his Gunpla (the server doesn't allow low ranking players to bring Gunpla). The gunplay in question? The Ptolemaios, with which the kids proceed manhandle the imposter's shoddy Gunpla... at least until the jerk activates his Break Decal, at least.
- And it only gets better once Shahryar busts out his Seravee Gundam Scheherazade! It turns out the Mini-Ptolemaios is actually a Mecha Expansion Pack for Scheherazade, with which he lets loose a rainbow colored blast of death!
Episode 7
- In case anyone out there forgot that Koichi used to be in the global top 10 of Gunpla Battle, this episode has his tactics bring Riku's force to victory in the manner of a Mook Horror Show. Some special tactics include:
- Wiring up the GN Swords from 00 Diver to act as traps on their own and disguise their numbers.
- Using optic camouflage to make a lake look like solid ground, trapping mechs and giving the Momokapool an advantage.
Episode 8
- Some merit should be given to the activation sequence of [Stea's Break Decal, which causes their Gundam to irradiate a massive purple aura that damages and distorts the surrounding area, a la each video game appearance of the Dark History Turn A, and nearly turning the Beargguy Festival into the battleground of its most recent appearance in Genesis.
Episode 9
- We really get to see Riku's strength shine in this episode as, for a little while, he's able to keep up with Ogre without the need to use Trans-Am. Too bad Do-ji's Break Decal chose that moment to show itself.
Episode 10
- Patrick is seen shaking Rommel's paw, which implies he and his force had enough Offscreen Moments of Awesome to warrant joining the Coalition of Volunteers.
- Surprisingly, Shahryah and Tigerwolf make a very good team, using the raw firepower of their respective Ace Custom Gunplas to tear apart legions of Mass Divers.
- Magee gets to demonstrate his combat chops in his Gundam Love Phantom, which can take out entire waves of Mass Divers with one swing of its scythe.
- Heck, the fact Riku and the others do extremely well against their fair share of Mass Divers shows that Team Hyakki recommending them for the Coalition was a good call. It basically says the Build Divers have reached Worthy Opponent status.
Episode 11
- An amazing two-fer for I Am Not Left-Handed here:
- Kyoya stops holding back against his Providence opponent when he comes to realize he doesn't give two licks for the game. He proceeds to get behind him and rip the backpack off of him and in half, then proceeds to obliterate the suit.
- Ayame shows both her true form and true strength when she reveals the Zeromaru has its own Real Mode, then proceeds to reveal its "NinTo-Do mode"... or rather NT-D Mode to take care of the mercenary in a Mass-Produced Qubeley Mk-II
Episode 12
- The episode is one big fight scene and it's pretty damned glorious. Special points to the scene where Kyoya and Rommel launch their almost suicidal zero-range assault, no doubt revealing where the animation budget went.
Episode 13
- Tsukasa and Riku's Gunpla Battle. Enough said.
Episode 14
- Tigerwolf uppercuts a waterfall. He manages to briefly knock it out.
Episode 15
- Team Build Divers' Lotus Challenge run gives the team a load of these moments:
- Koichi gets the first round of applause as he does something the other teams hadn't thought of: build their own shuttle. Thanks to this, they get a load extra time to complete the mission.
- Yukio gets the next bit as he overhauled his GM III Beam Master, giving its missiles scattershot capabilities and building a second Changeling Rifle, wiping out an entire minefield and using the extra firepower to save Momoka and Koichi.
- Ayame proves that because she's no longer working for Tsukasa, she doesn't need to be hit with the Redemption Demotion stick as the ZeroMaru is much stronger than before using new skills to battle her opponent, including snatching her opponent with her Scarf of Asskicking.
- Momoka decides to pull a Miss Matilda and rams Koichi's shuttle into one of the Mobile Suits attacking Ayame. Thankfully, it's not a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Riku gets a bunch to show off the power of the Gundam 00 Sky, including using a knee-mounted beam shield to kick back a beam shot and unveiling the Trans-Am Infinity, the fusion of the Trans-Am System and the Destiny Gundam's Wings of Light.
Episode 18
- We finally get the long-awaited match between Riku and Tigerwolf and it does not disappoint! Both fighters give it their all with Riku even using the brand new "Higher Than Sky" Super Mode and reveals a Lash Formation for melee combat. The shocking thing about this battle: Riku loses. That's right, Tigerwolf ends up the winner of this hard-fought match!
Episode 23
- When Game Master chides Kyoya for risking the very existence of GBN on a Gunpla battle, Kyoya bites back that GBN's entire existence is for the purposes of Gunpla battles.
- You can't write off the amazing planning Build Divers and Chat Noir Neo pulled off, creating a series of shuttles to ferry the team on, but one of them are actually parts of the Super Shock Gundam disguised as Build Divers, allowing Riku and Momoka to sneak in.
Episode 24
- Just when it looks like the Build Divers are going to lose, Ogre and is force arrive in a Big Damn Heroes moment to help turn the tide, due to Ogre's respect for Riku as a Worthy Opponent.
- Kyoya proves why he's the Champion by effortlessly holding his own against both Riku AND Ogre in their Trans-Am modes. It's only with Riku and Ogre combine their finishing moves in a single attack that they're able to narrowly defeat Kyoya.
- Riku and his epic speech Shaming the Mob, telling them that Sarah is important to the Build Divers and deserves a chance to live. This, in combination with Kyoya's defeat, essentially causes the Coalition and the Game Master to concede to the Build Divers.
Episode 25
- Patrick Colasour. Light blue Enact. Celestial Being pilot outfit in his AEU pilot suit colors. ACTUAL LINES. And not getting blown up, but that's beside the point...
- The sheer number of players coming out to battle the corrupted Raid Bosses, many of them inspired by Riku and his friends' determination to save Sarah, is both this and heartwarming!
