Gundam Build Real Ep. 2: Wasted Treasure

Taichi explains that the reason there are girls in the clubhouse room is because they wanted to stream about cosmetics and got kicked out of the café. He notes that his parents own the building so he can’t do anything about it. The girls, including Momoka Nakamura and Mana Hayashida leave, and Satsuki stops to say goodbye to the boys. Taichi wants to let them stay, but Sota hopes it doesn’t impact their activities. Hiro watches a video from team MONSTRE where they refer to BRIGHT’s embarrassing comeback loss. Sota jokes that Hiro shouldn’t worry because he isn’t a natural at Gunpla Battle anyway. Hiro finds Taichi watching Gunpla videos by Shuji Sendo, a retired master Gunpla builder. Hiro asks why Sendo’s retired, and Taichi answers that Sendo had some dispute with his team and left. Taichi asks Hiro if he’s spoken to Takumi yet, and Hiro answers that Takumi doesn’t answer his messages on Line. Taichi tells him not to use the group Line but to actually talk to him, and Sota agrees. Inside the clubhouse, Satsuki and the girls finish a stream and talk about ways they could improve. Taichi shows Hiro social media posts about BRIGHT’s return battle, but many of the comments are about how attractive Sota is. Taichi then shows him a private message they got from MONSTRE challenging them to a battle. Hiro gets fired up because they’ll be considered the best in Japan if they beat MONSTRE. At the MONSTRE headquarters, team leader Jin Shiraboshi tells everyone that BRIGHT has fallen for their bait. He then asks Sendo to prepare a Tallgeese shield for him immediately, and when Sendo asks what he wants, Jin answers he wants something stronger than what Sota makes. Kentaro tells the rest of the team that he can’t help them, and Taichi mocks him for studying to get into the fancy medical school his dad wants him to attend. The girls arrive and pull Sota away to examine his skin. Kentaro changes his mind after seeing the girls and decides to rejoin the team. Kentaro calls Taichi a good for nothing in terms of his skills, and Taichi counters by telling him to have fun on Cucuruz Doan’s Island. Takumi then walks in during the chaos, and the girls cover Sota in makeup. The team talks about Imaizumi, and Sota removes the leg panel with the paint streak to spray paint around it. Sota works on the weapons, and Hiro complains that the beam saber is too heavy and should be lighter so it’s easier to hold. Sota disagrees and tells Hiro to go train his core muscles. Taichi asks Sota which of the three girls he likes, but Sota says he doesn’t have time for this. The team, minus Sota, goes to eat at Taku-chan, and Takuji offers to help Takumi if he needs any advice on the Gunpla build. Maiko silently tells Takumi that he should talk more to their dad because he seems lonely.

Later, the team shows up for the battle at MONSTRE’s headquarters. They discuss how the Armageddon bazooka is too strong to use in battle, but Taichi reveals that one of MONSTRE’s conditions was that it had to be used in the fight. Hiro complains that Taichi should’ve told them this sooner and decides to stick with the current loadout. Hiro dons his VR headset for the battle, while Jin sits down at a cockpit-like gaming rig. The battle then begins in a space level between BRIGHT’s RX-78 and MONSTRE’s Char’s Zaku II. Hiro repeatedly fires his beam rifle but Jin dodges every shot. Jin comes in at high speed from above and performs the famous Char kick from the original Gundam series. Jin taunts Hiro to come at him, and Hiro rushes in to attack with his beam saber. Jin expertly dodges every attack, and Kentaro comments that it’s like watching an adult toy with a child. Jin deploys the Tallgeese shield, and Sota adds the Armageddon bazooka to the battle. Hiro fires off a direct hit, but it causes no damage to the shield. He then fires more bazooka rounds, but they have no impact. Kentaro thinks that Jin is acting like a sitting duck on purpose. The other members of MONSTRE collect enough data to analyze the Armageddon bazooka, and Jin then destroys it and the RX-78’s right arm. He then swoops in with his heat hawk and slashes Hiro for a K.O. Several days later, Takumi walks by the waterfront and sees Sota showing Gunpla weapons to Jin. At the MONSTRE headquarters, Jin decides to send the Tallgeese shield back to Sendo. Taichi reads a text message from Takumi about Sota and Jin’s secret meeting. He then immediately tells Hiro the news, and Hiro storms out and runs off to find Sota. Takumi meets Sota at the gas station where he works, and Sota comments that he won’t be at their next meeting because he’s joining MONSTRE. Hiro catches up with Takumi later and asks him why he didn’t stop Sota, and Takumi answers that he couldn’t. Hiro angrily yells at Takumi and asks what Sota said, causing Takumi to trip and fall on the ground. Later, Hiro goes to Yatabe’s hobby shop, and Yatabe asks what he’s going to do. Hiro runs across the waterfront and angrily screams from the edge of one of the piers. At the clubhouse, the rest of the team is angry over what they see as Sota’s betrayal. Kentaro asks them if they want to win as a team, and Takumi says he’s tired of arguing. Hiro shows up and says he’s not here to play around and wants to make it to the nationals. He exclaims that he wasn’t going into this half-heartedly. Later, he visits the MONSTRE headquarters and sees Sendo walking out of there.