By Ral, Mirai and the team toast to celebrate their first victory. Sekai thinks it was an easy victory, and while Fumina doesn’t agree with that, she thinks they all showed their individual traits. Ral outlines the special traits that each of them displayed during the battle and notes that the Winning Gundam seems to be hiding something, but Fumina tells him it’s a secret. Yuuma thinks about his conversation with Sakai, who asked if Yuuma was trying to avoid competing with him. Mirai notices that he’s spaced out, but he says nothing is wrong. At Sekai’s house, Fumina plays a video that explains the basic rules of the U-19 tournament since Sekai didn’t understand, but he’s fallen asleep. Mirai returns with groceries, and Ral mentions that their next opponent is team SRSC, the Science Club at Seiren Technical College. Ral explains that they’re a favorite to win the championship, and Sekai is excited about facing a strong opponent. Fumina thinks they should watch the team’s fight from last year, but Ral cautions against that because they change Gunpla every single match, and he thinks any prior knowledge could be an obstacle later. Sekai thinks they’ll be ok as long as they’re strong. Ral mentions that previous teams who fought SRSC all reported that it felt like their moves were being read in advance. At Seiren, SRSC members Daigo Ishibashi, Shota Nishikawa and Yukio Okamoto study the data on the Try Fighters and decide to target Yuuma first. The coach thinks that shutting down Yuuma will lead to victory and completely dismisses Fumina and Sekai. Yuuma works a shift at the Kousaka family restaurant and isn’t happy when Sakai walks in. Yuuma gives him a sour expression and tells him he can leave if he doesn’t like it. Sakai orders a reiko, but Yuuma doesn’t understand that it’s slang for iced coffee. Sakai wants to know why Yuuma is in Gunpla Battle, and Yuuma answers that it’s to keep a promise and get back something he lost. Sakai thinks that’s irrelevant because Yuuma’s group has no teamwork and will lose to SRSC. Instead, Sakai wants Yuuma to compete against him at the upcoming Meijin Cup builder’s contest. Sakai doesn’t see a point in winning if Yuuma isn’t in the contest. Fumina asks Sekai and Yuuma to meet her at the club room at night so she can show them the Winning Gundam’s secret. She starts a battle against a Mega Size Hi-Mock to show off the Winning Road.
At the U-19 tournament, a Tieren High Mobility Type B, a Memedorza and a Super Custom Zaku F2000 are all destroyed by Kaoruko’s team. Kaoruko dedicates the victory to Sekai and is crushed when he says she doesn’t have to. Yuuma asks where Ral is, and Fumina answers that he overslept and will be late. Sekai thinks they’ll just have to win, and Fumina realizes that if they can’t do things on their own now, they won’t reach the nationals. The battle between the Try Fighters and SRSC begins in a forest level. Fumina cautions everyone to watch the enemy’s movements first. Unbeknownst to them, they’re all being tracked by Yukio’s Gundam Ez-SR Shadow Phantom. Yukio fires wires to connect to Daigo’s Ez-SR Intruder and Shota’s Ez-SR Eliminator for wired communication. He then fires bugs into the air to disrupt communications between the Try Fighters. Fumina mistakes the bugs as beam particle disruptors and moves into the trap. Sekai is bored by fighting people who hide, and their communications are suddenly cut off. Beam rifle fire and missiles come in, causing the Lightning Gundam and Build Burning to crash into each other. Fumina notices Shota sneaking around with an optical camouflage sheet to hide while firing missiles. Sekai rushes out on his own and can’t hear Yuuma’s warning to not do that. Daigo tries to snipe Sekai while Shota fires missiles. Sekai is able to kick some of the missiles away, but a second barrage overwhelms him and sets off an explosion. Yukio jumps out and shoots at Fumina while Shota keeps bombarding Yuuma’s position. Sakai watches the battle and sees that team SRSC is basing their tactics not only on the abilities of the Try Fighters’ Gunpla, but also their personalities. Daigo attacks Sekai with an electrified shield while Yukio gives chase to Fumina in the air and fires. Fumina activates the Winning Road and separates the Winning Gundam into multiple parts. Sekai docks with a torso piece that becomes the Winning Knuckle and allows him to use the Dangan Hagan-Ken punch to smash the ground and destroy the bugs. Shota destroys one of the Winning parts, but Yuuma is able to attach another to his rifle. Shota believes he’s pulled out of Yuuma’s firing range, but the Winning Launcher allows Yuuma to destroy him. Fumina uses the large vulcans on the Winning Gundam’s Core Fighter to destroy Yukio. Sekai then uses a Shippu-Zuki punch on Daigo to seal the victory. The SRSC coach can’t believe their loss, but he understands when he sees that Ral is the coach for the Try Fighters. Sudou thinks they showed good teamwork, but Sakai believes that Fumina’s unit forced Sekai and Yuuma to work together. Sakai thinks to himself that Fumina has skills. Later, a rough looking student named Akira Suga shows up at the G-Master club room and asks Sudou for a space.
The Try Fighters have their second battle of the U-19, and it’s one they almost lose if not for Fumina’s transformation gimmick. Although SRSC all use customized versions of the Gundam Ez8 from The 08th M.S. Team, they clearly seem to be inspired by the main units from Sunrise’s old series Metal Armor Dragonar. The SRSC guys place a heavy emphasis on data and tactics, not unlike the Renato brothers from the first series. They perfectly nail down the weaknesses of the Try Fighters, which include Sekai’s blindly rushing in and Yuuma’s tendency to camp. However, the Winning Gundam being loaded with upgrade parts for them clenches the victory and is an unknown factor. The turnaround is perhaps too quick, but the SRSC guys definitely suffered from arrogance and a lack of adaptability. Despite the bevy of upgrade parts that the Winning Gundam undoubtedly holds, it’s clear that Sekai and Yuuma need to learn to work together, which won’t be easy. Sakai wants Yuuma to quit battling and fight him in a builder’s contest, but that obviously isn’t going to happen. I expect that Sakai will return to Osaka and work his way up the ranks there before facing Yuuma at the national level. Finally, some weird-looking guy who resembles Gundam‘s Sleggar Law shows up to join G-Master. If he pilots a G-Fighter or Core Booster, it’d be too obvious of a joke. After his loss last episode, Sekai has taken Sakai’s comments to heart and started over with his training. Since Sekai can’t actually train in space, he does the next best thing and goes underwater like astronauts do. Given how unique Sekai’s abilities are, it’s interesting that he has to train physically in comparison to Fumina and Yuuma working hard on their kits. And it certainly pays off later when Sekai is able to run through space and surprise the entire crowd, including Sakai. We learn that Fumina has a female idol she looks up to, who makes an appearance at the end with Tatsuya Yuuki. Since he’s not wearing sunglasses, I wonder if he’s still Meijin Kawaguchi or if the title has passed on to someone else. Lots of other teams are there to see Yuuma’s performance, but I think by the end they realize that Fumina and Sekai are also threats. I don’t know how detailed this U-19 tournament will be, and I expect some of the rounds will be pretty quickly glossed over as with the first series to keep things moving.
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