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Gundam Build Fighters Try Ep. 7: Straight-Assembly Shimon

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Summary

For the third round of the West Tokyo qualifiers, the Try Fighters face off against the aquatic focused Angelfish. Angelfish’s Zock, Gogg and Z’Gok launch into a tundra level and realize that the ice is too thick for them to get underwater. With no other options, the entire team self-destructs. Although the Try Fighters have reached the quarterfinals, the team isn’t happy about having won a battle by default. Ral tells the team to watch the current match because its winner will be their next opponent. The Crossbone Vanguard-themed Babylonia takes on the DESTINY-themed FAITH, and Fumina notices that FAITH’s Gunpla are all straight assembly. Sekai doesn’t understand, so she explains that they’re just basic construction out of the box with no customizations or extra detailing. Ral adds that Gunpla performance is measured by how well it’s built, but this team has made it so far with the lowest possible performance. Despite that, Yuuma doesn’t think they have any chance of winning. FAITH’s Murasame and Jet Windam are immediately destroyed, but the Destiny Gundam survives and singlehandedly destroys a Den’an-Zon, Den’an-Gei and Berga-Giros to win the match. Ral sees that the Destiny Gundam’s pilot won by his own skills rather than the Gunpla’s. In the lobby, FAITH members Gorou Masuda and Kouji Tanioka approach the Try Fighters and get on their knees to beg them to lose the next match. Shimon Izuna visits his sick little brother Mamoru in the hospital to tell him about FAITH’s victory. Mamoru still can’t believe that the Gunpla he built is winning championship matches. Shimon vows to bring Mamoru the trophy if he keeps building new Gunpla for the national tournament. Elsewhere, the Try Fighters sit along a riverbank and recall Gorou and Kouji telling them that Shimon quit from championship middle school boxing and took up Gunpla Battle to help Mamoru feel better. They then said they knew they were making an unreasonable request, but Shimon didn’t know about it. Yuuma can’t believe it, but Fumina notes that their need to win isn’t as pressing. Yuuma asks if she intends to lose, but she answers that she doesn’t. He asks Sekai for his opinion, but Sekai leaves without a word. Mirai runs into them and asks Ral what’s going on. He fills her in and says that everyone is probably questioning the reasons why they fight and how much resolve they have. Mirai asks Ral to help them, but he answers that it’s better if they find their own answers. The next day, Shimon comes to the hospital and finds Sekai showing the Build Burning to Mamoru. Shimon realizes that Sekai is his next opponent, and Sekai declares war against their Gunpla. Fumina stands outside the room and wonders what Sekai is doing.

After having a snack, Fumina asks Sekai what he was doing there. He asks the same of her, and they both answer that they were testing their resolve. Shimon angrily confronts Gorou and Kouji about asking the Try Fighters to let them win. He declares that they don’t need sympathy because they’ll win with Mamoru’s Gunpla. Gorou and Kouji argue that they’ll only get in Shimon’s way, but he hugs them and asks them to believe in him. At the tournament, Mirai asks Ral if the team found their answers, and he responds that they’ll know soon enough. The battle begins on an island level, and Gorou opens fire on the Lightning Gundam. Yuuma blocks and returns fire, which blows off one of the arms. Gorou then rams into Yuuma and starts pushing him at full speed. Yuuma hesitates and ends up getting a ring out. Kouji attacks the Winning Gundam with the same tactic and tells Shimon that everything is up to him. Fumina also hesitates and gets a ring out, leaving only Sekai and Shimon. Shimon opens fire, but Sekai dodges and uses a Senpu Tatsumaki-Geri kick to knock Shimon away. Sekai then knocks the anti-ship sword away, so Shimon tosses his beam boomerangs, which Sekai deflects with kicks. Sekai and Shimon hit each other with a cross counter, and the Build Burning suffers damage to its head. Shimon attacks with his hand beams while Sekai uses his Shippu-Zuki punch, and both inflict heavy damage to each other’s right arms. Both Gundams stagger to their feet, and they start punching each other with their left arms. Shimon comments that he thought this was all kid’s stuff in the beginning, but he sees now why Mamoru got into it. Sekai performs a flying arm bar to knock the Destiny Gundam down in a hold and rip off its left arm. However, Shimon charges the beam in his damaged right hand and grips the Build Burning’s face. He doesn’t want this battle to end, but Sekai announces that he’s going to end it. After an explosion, Sekai attacks from above a Senko Majutsu-Geri kick and destroys one of Shimon’s legs. He then follows up with a kick that destroys the Destiny Gundam and ends the match. Later, Shimon visits Mamoru and apologizes for losing, but Mamoru instead vows to build a stronger Gunpla like Sekai’s so that Shimon can fight again some day. Fumina finds Sekai by the river and asks him how he could fight without hesitating. Sekai answers that he did hesitate until he met Mamoru in person. He recalled one of his master’s teachings: “Don’t bring a lie to a battle.” If he’d lost on purpose, Shimon’s victory would be a lie, and Sekai didn’t want that. Fumina tells Sekai that he’s pretty cool, but he doesn’t hear her. At the G-Master club room, Meguta Yasu is shocked that his Zeo Zeong was so easily destroyed by Akira. Akira asks Sudou if he can be on the team and mentions that his previous school was the Gunpla Academy, which were the previous year’s national champions.

Commentary

Sekai meets a kindred spirit in an episode that heavily plays up the sports cliches. A sick younger sibling is a pretty common element to fuel someone’s desire to win, but here it’s used in a pretty interesting way. FAITH is using very simply constructed Gunpla made by a child, and it’s further handicapped by Gorou and Kouji being completely useless. However, Shimon is a skilled fighter in real life like Sekai and translates that to Gunpla Battle. It ends up producing a great fight, since Shimon is the first to inflict such damage on the Build Burning. I found the battle in a way was also a redemption for the Destiny Gundam to make up for its shameful defeat in its namesake series. It’s interesting that Fumina and Yuuma both got ring outs due to their hesitation, but Sekai didn’t waver because he didn’t want Mamoru’s happiness to be built on a lie. In the end, that proved to be the best approach since it only strengthened Mamoru’s determination to build stronger Gunpla. At the end, we discover that Sleggar lookalike Akira hails from the prestigious Gunpla Academy, which the Meijin also attended in his earlier days. That alone will make Akira a dangerous opponent to whoever faces him.

Overall Rating
4/5

Build Fighters Try Info

Director:
Shinya Watada

Writer:
Yousuke Kuroda

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Kanetake Ebikawa
Junya Ishigaki
Junichi Akutsu
Kenji Teraoka
Shinya Terashima
Susumu Imaishi
NAOKI
Fumikane Shimada

Character Designer:
Kenichi Ohnuki

Musical Composer(s):
Yuuki Hayashi
Asami Tachibana

Format:
25 episodes

Airdates:
Japan 10.08.2014 – 04.01.2015
Streaming 10.08.2014 – 04.01.2015

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