GundamReviews

Gunpla Builders Beginning G Part C: Beginning 30

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Summary

In a Gunpla Battle, a Mad Angler submarine is destroyed as a Hy-Gogg fights a Guncannon riding on a Dodai YS, but the Guncannon wins. In another battle on a snowy mountain, a Z’Gok destroys a Gyan and comes under fire from a Gelgoog, which is in turn destroyed. Hal, Kenta and Rina watch the Gunpla Battle Championship from outside, and the Axis manager explains that it’s a battle gathering Gunpla Builders in teams of three from across Japan. The manager asks them if they want to compete, and they all agree. He then gives Hal a runner sent from the Bandai Hobby Center, and he believes that they’re upgrade parts for the Beginning Gundam. Later, Rina goes over to Hal’s house to visit, but his mother tells her that he’s locked up in his room working on Gunpla. She says she’s never seen him so involved in something, but she wishes he’d study that hard at school. Inside his room, Hal works carefully to paint the upgrade parts. Boris sees that the Bandai employee sent the upgrade parts to Hal, and the employee wonders how close the upgraded Beginning Gundam can get to the Forever Gundam. Boris answers that he’ll wait for the championship to find out. Boris then sets out on his horse, followed on foot by his wingmen Sam and Diane Lee. During the championship battle, a Gundam Astray Red Frame is destroyed by Black The-O‘s sub-arm beam sabers. The Gundam Dendrobium Orchis destroys a Zaku III and EWAC Zack and then fights against a Zaku-Relo GPB Custom mobile armor. Both of the mobile armors are destroyed, and the Dendrobium Stamen uses its beam saber to destroy the Zaku. It then comes under attack from Tatsu’s rebuilt Super Custom Zaku F2000 and is destroyed. Outside of the game, Rina and Kenta tell the manager that they can’t reach Hal. Boris hears from Diane that Hal hasn’t shown up yet, and he wonders if Hal got scared. The Axis team gets called for its match, and Kenta says he and Rina will have to start without Hal.

After scanning their Gunpla, Kenta and Rina join the battle at A Baoa Qu. Kenta launches from the Reinforce Junior in a custom Sazabi GPB, followed by Rina in her Beargguy. The Beargguy flounders through space, and Kenta tells Rina that she shouldn’t have used underwater settings for a space battle. They come under attack from a Big-Zam, but when Kenta realizes that it’s only 1/550 scale, he kicks away the tiny mobile armor. Rina then comes under attack from a Zudah, so Kenta comes to her aid. Rina is scared and calls out for Hal to come and help her. Just then, the Zudah is destroyed by Hal’s upgraded Beginning 30 Gundam. He uses his beam saber bits to destroy several mobile suits and apologizes for being late, explaining that he was working on the kit until the last minute. Kenta and Rina come under attack from Kouji’s fin funnels, and Hal deploys his beam saber bits around them to make an I-field type barrier. Kenta deploys his funnels to counter Kouji’s, and Hal uses his beam saber bits to slice the Hi-v Gundam in half, sending the torso crashing into a Musai. Boris appears and says that was due to the abilities of the Beginning 30 Gundam, so he wants to see Hal’s skills as a Gunpla Builder. Hal destroys Boris’ shield, and Boris deploys his VSBR bits to create a protective I-field barrier. He then pulls out a Gundam Hammer and destroys Hal’s shield. Sam tries to attack Hal with his Blue Destiny Unit 1, but Kenta and Rina provide backup for Hal. Diane attacks Rina with her Kampfer, and Rina responds with her beam cannon recorder and backpack missiles. Diane grabs hold of the Beargguy, but Rina fires her eye mega particle cannons and damages the Kampfer. Kenta’s funnels are destroyed by Sam, and Boris chases Hal. Several mobile suits approach from the front, so Hal and Boris destroy them with their funnels. As they fight with beam sabers, Boris says that Gunpla is fun, and Hal agrees. One year later, Hal has become a Gunpla Meister and visits a Gunpla exhibit where two young boys are looking at the kits from his and Boris’ teams. The boys wonder if they can build Gunpla like that, and Hal tells them they can. Kenta explains that Hal was a beginner one year ago, and Rina adds that he’s now a Gunpla Meister.

Commentary

The last part of Gunpla Builders ends with a Gunpla Battle Championship. Set at A Baoa Qu, this battle features lots of suits from different shows. You can see famous ships from several Gundam entries, including the Nahel Argama, Ra Cailum, Reinforce Junior and a few Crossbone Vanguard ships. A cameo from the Gundam Astray Red Frame marks the only non-UC suit to appear. The Blue Destiny Unit 1 from the Sega Saturn game and manga makes its animated debut here, along with the first traditional animation appearance of MS IGLOO‘s Zudah. Perhaps the most amusing thing in this part is the Zaku-Rello, which I can only describe as a poor man’s Dendrobium. The small scale Big-Zam was also amusing, as it seemed to pose a larger threat from a distance than it actually did. Given their popularity, I’m surprised that there were no suits from either Gundam 00 or Gundam Unicorn. The upgraded Beginning 30 Gundam appears, and with its new beam saber bits that produce a Wings of Light effect, Hal is able to fight evenly with Boris. I like that we don’t see the conclusion of Hal and Boris’ battle because fighting isn’t the point – it’s having fun building Gunpla. Overall, this short and fun OVA is a nice bit of fanservice for Gundam fans that also manages to be interesting in its own right. I certainly wouldn’t mind if this series had been longer and featured more Gunpla Battles and more Gundams from other series.

Overall Rating
3.5/5

Beginning G Info

Director:
Kou Matsuo

Writer:
Yousuke Kuroda

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kunio Okawara
Atsushi Shigeta
Kanetake Ebikawa
Junichi Akutsu

Character Designer:
Kaichiro Terada

Musical Composer:
N/A

Airdates:
Japan 08.15.2010 – 12.19.2010

Video Release:
Japan 12.22.2010
U.S. 08.15.2023

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