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Gundam Build Divers Ep. 25: A New World

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Summary

The buggy Disaster Gundam Raid Boss opens fire on the Build Divers in the GBN hub city. Ms. Tori calls them and reports that Raid Bosses are running out of control on many servers across GBN. Ms. Tori also tells them that because lobby access is being blocked, they can’t perform Sarah’s transfer. The Build Divers and their friends then rush in to face the Disaster Gundam. Their attacks seemingly have no effect, but Koichi states that the bugs are making the boss more durable. Tigerwolf performs an attack at point blank range, but the Disaster Gundam immediately regenerates. The Disaster Gundam fires at the 00 Sky, but the attack is blocked by Kyoya’s AGEII Magnum. The 7th Panzer Division arrives to provide ground support, and Rommel apologizes to Riku for what happened before. Kurt interrupts Rommel and tells Riku that he should be apologizing, but Riku insists that the Build Divers are the one to apologize for being selfish. Rommel scans the Disaster Gundam and notes that its strength comes from its energy supply, so they have to cut that off to defeat it. Across different servers, Coalition members are attacking the sub-units that supply energy to the Disaster Gundam. An attack knocks Momoka out of the air, but she’s rescued by Kanari and Stea, who tell her that more Divers are showing up to help in the fight. A Disaster Gundam tentacle targets Ayame from behind, but she’s saved by Tsukasa’s Astray No-Name. Tsukasa lands next to Koichi and tells him they need to beat this boss so that his creation doesn’t go to waste. More and more Divers attack the Disaster Gundam, and Riku tells Sarah that he loves GBN and wants to fight alongside everyone. The Game Master calls Ms. Tori and asks for her help. The Game Master fires missiles based on the update patch that temporarily stop the Disaster Gundam’s regenerative abilities. Similar missiles are being deployed to other servers, and the Game Master tells Riku that he also wanted to take a chance on the miracle that Riku is seeking. The Divers begin destroying one sub-unit after another, and Riku uses Kyoya’s Excalibur to cut into the Disaster Gundam and destroy it. As a result, the Raid Bosses across every server are also destroyed. Later, Riku returns Sarah’s necklace to her in the lobby. Ms. Tori activates the transfer program, and Sarah leaves the GBN lobby. Sarah flashes through all her experiences as her data is transferred into the custom Gunpla Mobile Doll Sarah. She wakes up in the real world surrounded by the rest of the Force.

Later, Riku, Yukki, Momoka, Koichi and Nanami gather to attend a party where they’ll meet other Divers in person for the first time. Yukki reports that Do-Ji and Ogre wanted to come, but weren’t able to. Aya joins them and is shortly followed by Magee and Kotaro Ogami (Tigerwolf). They’re then joined by Kyoya Kisugi, and a limousine pulls up to drop off Ruck Arge (Shahryar). The party moves to Magee’s bar, and Momoka opens her purse to bring out Sarah. Kotaro asks how Sarah can move, and Ruck states that it’s the Planet Coating technology from GP Duel. Koichi explains that he had help from a friend who knows the system, and they designed the Gunpla to be controlled by Build Decals. Kyoya apologizes to Sarah for putting her through a hard time, but she tells him she’s thankful that he pushed her to realize her feelings. Kotaro says that some good came out of the whole mess with all the new players that have signed up since then. Everyone toasts with their drinks and Magee asks what Sarah does. Nanami explains that when everyone is at school, Sarah serves as a mascot girl at The Gundam Base and has become very popular. Momoka adds that Sarah usually stays with her or Nanami at night, but soon she’ll be staying with Aya as well. Ruck offers to send his private jet so everyone can visit him. Riku is amazed by the quality of the actual AGEII Magnum and apologizes to Kyoya for causing so much trouble. Kyoya say there’s no need and that he was inspired by what Riku and the others did. Riku thinks he didn’t do anything and wants to keep admiring Kyoya. Kotaro and Ruck argue over which Gundam songs to sing karaoke, and everyone else mentions what they want to sing. After the party, Riku suggests they keep things going by visiting The Gundam Base. Sarah launches in her Gunpla, and Tigerwolf is confused by the idea that Sarah is piloting herself. Sarah joins Riku in the 00 Sky, and he says he wants to experience a new server.

Commentary

Gundam Build Divers fizzles at the finish line with a token final battle against a monstrous final boss, much like Gundam AGE did. There’s not much to say about it… the Disaster Gundam in this context is pretty similar to the Devil Gundam with its self-regeneration, but the combined powers of all the Divers destroys it and saves GBN. When Tsukasa appeared, I did half expect him to do a heel turn and pull out some Break Decals to take control of the Disaster Gundam and try again to destroy GBN again, but they went the earnest route with him. With the Disaster Gundam defeated, Sarah is transferred to her custom Gunpla, thus putting an end to the question of if she would be saved. The second half of the episode is basically an epilogue that has the Build Divers meeting all these other people IRL for the first time, which is admittedly a nice touch. Overall, this series is disappointing, especially compared to Build Fighters, thanks to its aggressive mediocrity. The characters are bland, the story makes little sense (and shows little understanding of how MMOs or computer servers even work), the animation is low quality, the soundtrack is forgettable and even the mecha designs can’t be pointed to as a saving grace. Although the term “Mary Sue” is so often misused and has taken on a toxic connotation, it is quite fitting here to describe Riku. He has felt the entire series like a fanfic self-insert character who is perfect at everything that he does, knows all the famous Divers and is loved by them all. There is never any sense that his skills have progressed throughout the series, and he defeats much higher level players with mere gimmicks. There is literally not a single redeeming quality I can find in this series. It is simply an utter waste of time on every possible level. Nothing is missed by skipping this, and the only reason I can see somebody having for watching it is that they’re a diehard Gundam completionist who wants to see everything no matter what it is. That’s not reason enough for me to ever want to revisit it. Hopefully, the sequel series Build Divers RE:Rise improves on its poor predecessor.

Overall Rating
2/5

Gundam Build Divers Info

Director:
Shinya Watada

Writer:
Noboru Kimura

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Kanetake Ebikawa
Junya Ishigaki
Junichi Akutsu
Kenji Teraoka
Ippei Gyoubu
Naohiro Washio
Takayuki Yanase

Character Designer:
Shuri Toida

Musical Composer:
Hideakira Kimura

Format:
1 episode (prologue), 25 episodes (TV)

Airdates:
Japan 04.03.2018 – 09.25.2018
Streaming 04.03.2018 – 09.25.2018

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