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Gundam Build Fighters Ep. 20: Aila’s Betrayal

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Summary

Allan calls a PPSE facility and asks them to send over the incomplete A5, a Gunpla based on the Gundam Exia. Elsewhere, Barthes meets Josef at the airport and reports that Nemesis has reached the best eight, but Josef only cares about total victory. Josef’s grandson asks if he can watch Gunpla Battle, and Josef promises to give him the championship trophy as a birthday present. Barthes thinks that’s a crazy reason to get involved with Gunpla Battle, but he tells Aila they have to humor Josef. Mashita is shocked to hear that Reiji has made it to the best four and yells at Baker, who is hiding underneath a desk. In the dorms, Nils tries to hypnotize Reiji and learn the secret of the Plavsky particle, but he falls asleep. Sei volunteers that Takeshi might know about Plavsky particles because he was a monitor when the system was developed 10 years ago. Nils believes that a young Sei might’ve seen something important and wants to hypnotize him. Mao shows up and starts crying about Misaki, so Reiji throws a pillow at him and starts arguing. Next door, Fellini grumbles about how much noise they’re making. He runs into Ral in the lobby, who asks Fellini if he has a chance of beating Aila. After his last fight, he wants to keep moving forward to settle things with Reiji. In the Nemesis trailer, Barthes briefs Aila on Fellini, but all she thinks about is that if she beats him, her next opponent will be Reiji. To Nils’ dismay, a hypnotized Sei is reciting all of Amuro Ray’s dialogue from the original Gundam series. Kirara interviews China about Sei and spots Fellini on his motorcycle.

The battle begins in a snowy mountain, and Fellini launches in the Wing Gundam Fenice with the Meteor Hopper. He fires at the Qubeley Papillon, which dodges and unleashes clear funnels. Fellini turns around and starts outrunning the funnels, in part because Aila is distracted. Fellini stops and fires his buster rifle to destroy the clear funnels. He then slices into the Qubeley Papillon’s shoulder, marking the first time it’s ever been damaged. Aila launches regular funnels, which Fellini dodges by getting back onto the Meteor Hopper. Kirara wraps up her interview and runs in to watch the battle. Fellini uses his rifle to destroy each funnel, and Josef’s grandson comments that they’re losing. Barthes notices that Aila’s Embody numbers are very low, and Josef demands that he switch to full output. Barthes points out that it could hurt Aila’s body, but Josef doesn’t care and says that if she becomes useless, they’ll replace her. Barthes switches the Embody system to full output, which takes over Aila’s consciousness. The Qubeley Papillon recovers after crashing and moves at high speed, destroying one of Fellini’s arms and wings. He tries in vain to dodge her attacks. Reiji and the others run to the match late because Sei ended up reciting Amuro’s dialogue from all 43 episodes. They reach the battle and find the Wing Gundam Fenice heavily damaged. Fellini sees that Aila can completely read his moves, so he tries to punch her and gets knocked down. Kirara calls Fellini and asks him to stop, but he refuses to give up. Aila stabs the Wing Gundam Fenice with her lance, so Fellini pulls himself closer to her and activates the self-destruct system. However, Kirara interrupts him and tells him that he’s full of himself. She says that if he loses today, he can try to win tomorrow and the next day after that. Fellini realizes that what he’s doing isn’t cool, so he concedes to Aila. Although the battle is over, Aila goes out of control and keeps beating down the Wing Gundam Fenice. Reiji uses the Beginning Gundam to intercede, but Aila slices it into pieces. Aila falls to the floor, causing her mask to crack. Reiji runs over to yell at her and discovers that she’s “Aina.” He angrily demands to know what she’s doing.

Commentary

Reiji finally learns Aila’s secret in an episode that serves as the culmination of several storylines. Now that he’s been defeated, Nils seems to have joined the group as he continues his quest to learn the secret of the Plavsky particle. Unfortunately, his attempts to use hypnosis backfire, but it definitely shows what a Gundam freak Sei is. Up to now, we’ve seen Aila effortlessly defeat every opponent thanks to her clear funnels, but Fellini actually makes a good effort at taking them down. Unfortunately, Josef’s greed forces the activation of the Embody system, which completely changes the tone of the battle, much like G Gundam‘s Berserker system. With no control over her body, Aila performs a merciless takedown of the Wing Gundam Fenice, which almost ends with Fellini doing a Heero Yuy self-destruction impersonation. Thankfully, Kirara convinces him not to take that way out. The battle’s end result leads to Aila’s unmasking, with Reiji learning the hard way that “Aina” was a Gunpla fighter all along. Although Fellini was fated to lose this match, he put up a good fight and managed to damage the undefeated Aila when no one could even touch her. Now, it’ll be Reiji’s turn to finish the job.

Overall Rating
4/5

Build Fighters Info

Director:
Kenji Nagasaki

Writer:
Yousuke Kuroda

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Kanetake Ebikawa
Junya Ishigaki
Junichi Akutsu
Kenji Teraoka

Character Designer(s):
Kenichi Ohnuki
Suzuhito Yasuda

Musical Composer:
Yuuki Hayashi

Airdates:
Japan 10.07.2013 – 03.31.2014
Streaming 10.07.2013 – 03.31.2014

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