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Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE Ep. 12: The Shuddering World

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Summary

Parviz wonders if the Moon is moving, but May believes that it’s a weapon. The Gundam Seltsam and mass of Eldora Army units open fire on the Build Divers. On Eldora, Stola sulks while riding in a car with Calico and Zabun. They try to reassure him that he has a role in helping the village, saying they need people who can lead, not just fight. Across the surface, people notice the appearance of the Moon beginning to change. Hiroto’s Jupitive Gundam destroys an Eldora Daughtress, and he’s confused by a HUD message that the mission’s victory conditions are unclear. An Army unit then tries to attack Hiroto from behind, but he destroys it. Parviz fights off an Army unit, and he wonders if the victory condition is to destroy all the One-Eyes, defeat the Gundam Seltsam, or stop the cannon. May sees that the cannon is slowly moving and fires a beam blast that destroys multiple Army units located near it. May flies toward the cannon and announces that she’s going to stop it, but communications are then jammed. Hiroto wonders if she figured out that the cannon is the victory condition. Kazami destroys an Eldora Brute and goes back inside the lunar base, saying they just need to defeat Alus as the last boss. The Gundam Seltsam attacks Hiroto from behind, and he uses the Jupitive Gundam’s mobility to dodge and return fire with his beam Gatling and bits. Parviz wonders what he should do since everyone is separated, and the Valkylander is attacked by multiple Army units. Alus spots May flying towards the cannon and issues orders to the masked man, who breaks off from fighting Hiroto. Hiroto gives chase, but the masked man tosses as wrecked Army unit in his path as an obstacle. The Justice Knight blasts its way deeper into the lunar base and reaches a large area filled with many branching paths and One-Eyes that open fire. The Gundam Seltsam attacks the Wodom Pod at close range, but the Jupitive Gundam shows up to provide backup. Kazami defeats multiple enemies, but more appear and chase him through the base. May tells Hiroto that the Moon cannon is targeting Seguri, so they have to stop it. Hiroto is knocked back trying to attack the Gundam Seltsam, but just then Kazami blasts his way out of the lunar base and crashes into the masked man. Hiroto then attacks with his beam saber and stops when he gets a video transmission from the masked man. Mobile Doll May ejects from the heavily damaged Wodom Pod and uses beam handguns to destroy it after it drifts into the cannon’s barrel, setting off an explosion. Unfortunately, the attack causes no damage to the cannon. The Valkylander transforms into Avalanche mode and prepares to fire the Avalanche Rex Buster. The masked man briefly struggles in pain, but the Gundam Seltsam then kicks the Jupitive Gundam away and fires its cannons. Kazami tosses his shot lancer in the path, which deflects the beam blast away. Hiroto and the masked man charge toward each other with beam sabers, and Parviz fires the Avalanche Rex Buster. However, Alus fires the massive cannon at the same time, which counteracts the Avalanche Rex Buster and destroys everything in its path. On Eldora, Jed looks up as the beam hits Seguri and annihilates the city. The shockwave from the blast hits the Resistance forces at the Silver Tower, and the beam sweep damages ruins. At the village, Maiya asks Jiric if he’s seen Stola, and the children mention that he was playing hide-and-seek on the way to Seguri. A massive cloud of dust then engulfs them.

The lunar cannon suffers damage from firing. Mobile Doll May is pulled into Eldora’s atmosphere, but the Valkylander arrives and acts as a waverider. Kazami panics because the Justice Knight isn’t designed for atmospheric reentry, but Hiroto deploys the Earth Armor to give him a lift as a waverider. Hiroto’s Core Gundam is also pulled into the atmosphere, so he deploys protective film to cover himself during reentry. The Build Divers complete reentry and spot a massive crater where Seguri once stood. Freddie notes that Jed was in Seguri, and Hiroto apologizes because they’re out of energy and can’t change course. The Build Divers crash land in the desert and return to the village on foot, where they find many injured people. Freddie runs over to hug Tonoi and Jiric when he spots them. Tonoi asks the Build Divers what happened, and May reports that Seguri was annihilated by the One-Eyes’ cannon. Maiya can’t believe it and mentions that Stola was on his way there. She wants reassurance that everyone is okay, and Kazami awkwardly tries to give it. Asha cries after tripping and spilling water, and Maiya rushes to comfort her. Asha sees that Maiya is crying, but Asha denies it. Heavy rain starts to fall, and Kazami wonders what’s going on if they failed the mission. Parviz wonders if this is all really a game given what happened, since they lost but haven’t been battled out. Kazami thinks it has to be a bug, but he stops and looks at all the people crying around him and wonders if it’s real. May says there’s no way to prove Eldora is real, and the Build Divers all get a pop up message about connection failure before vanishing. The Build Divers reappear in the GBN lobby along with many other Divers who have experienced connection failure. The GBN servers then fail, logging everyone out of the game. Hiroto finds Ken watching a news report about massive, unexplained communication failures occurring around the world. People across Japan watch the news broadcast, until it too is lost from connection failure. Hiroto wonders what’s going on.

Commentary

The Build Divers wage a fierce fight in what they presumed would be their last mission, but things don’t turn out the way they expect. They fight against overwhelming odds to destroy Alus’ cannon, but unfortunately Parviz’s attack is mere seconds late. The resulting blast from the cannon vaporizes Seguri and leaves behind a large crater, not unlike the destruction of Sydney as seen in many Gundam titles. It’s only after the destruction of Sydney that the Build Divers finally reach the critical mass of odd occurrences to wonder if the game they’ve been playing is actually real. The hints have been there all along, and given the massive communication failures on Earth, the hints can’t be ignored anymore. This is a sort of twist on the Ender’s Game surprise, because in that story, the characters found out it was real only after they’d won, so the shock was buttressed by the relief of victory. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way for the Build Divers, and Kazami is likely to feel a lot of guilt given that he ran his mouth and told Alus about Seguri in the first place.

Overall Rating
4/5

Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE Info

Director:
Shinya Watada

Writer(s):
Yasuyuki Muto
Yasunori Yamada
Atsuo Ishino
Tatsuto Higuchi
Shogo Yasukawa

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kanetake Ebikawa
Kenji Teraoka
Ippei Gyoubu
Fumikane Shimada
Kunio Okawara
Junya Ishigaki
Takayuki Yanase
Shinya Terashima

Character Designer:
Shuri Toida

Musical Composer:
Hideakira Kimura

Format:
26 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 10.10.2019 – 08.27.2020
Streaming 10.10.2019 – 08.27.2020

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