Gundam Build Fighters Try

Episodes 14-15

Welcome to the halfway point in Gundam Build Fighters Try! There's a catchy new OP and ED (with adorable dancing Petit Bearguys!), a slough of new opponents, and our heroes have finally arrived at the National Tournament.

This week I'm taking a step back and reviewing episodes 14 and 15 at the same time. This more distant perspective has helped show me the ways in which Try falls short of its predecessor— and the distinct ways it has improved on it.

Let's start with the bad. Any way you slice it, this season's antagonists are lackluster. The parts of episode 14 that didn't involve our heroes were hard to watch. Every time I look at Minato Sakai, I see a shadow of a far more lovable Osakan, Mao. Wilifred and his sister Shia are more a representation of the elite status quo than true characters with motivations of their own. What these opponents are lacking right now is a clear motive for why they need to win, which was the reason I was able to root for Fellini, Nils, and Aila, even when it might cost Sei and Reiji's victory. Meanwhile, characters who do have compelling personalities, like Gyanko and Shion, are shuffled to the sidelines. I truly hope Meijin and Lady Kawaguchi aren't done battling, regardless of how I feel about Lady's pants/shorts ratio.

Part of the problem is that antagonists come in threes instead of singular personalities, which makes it harder for the show to devote time to developing individuals. The other part is that we're at the Under 19 Nationals rather than the World Tournament this season, meaning we have schoolkids instead of pseudo-celebrities from around the world. Fumina, Yuuma, and Sekai will have to fight a lot of battles, and it'll be pretty easy to tell if they'll win based solely on how much backstory is granted to their opponents.

Now onto the good. The Gunpla battles continue to be incredible. Whether it looks like an easy win or a brutal stalemate, the fluid animation and creative battle moves are top notch. Not to mention, Gunpla battling simply makes more sense in teams of three fighters. There's room for one-on-one duels and collaborative skirmishes. Every episode has the potential to be as good as the Battle Royal in Gundam Build Fighters, (which I consider to be one of the first season's best fights.)

Simply re-watch a bit of Gundam Build Fighters, and you can see how far battling has come. There was never any reason for Sei to be up there with Reiji—he built the model, but he never manned the controls. No other builder did that. In retrospect, it's just embarrassing. In Try, whether fighters build their own models or commission them elsewhere, the Gunpla they use always says something about them. In a show that's lacking in personality compared to its predecessor, this is a vital piece of characterization. Model damage levels also make serious sense and explain the elements of risk that differ from battle to battle.

Episode 15's battle was pure fanservice, an all-out bloodbath designed to show just how new and improved the main trio's Gunpla are. Did you catch Yuuma's new title for his, “Full Burnern”? That's a reference to an upgrade from Gundam 0083 which also offers a hint about this mecha's special power. (I suspect Burnern is a lost-in-translation pronunciation of vernier, a thruster for space propulsion.) I'm excited to see the new mecha we barely got a taste in this episode's teaser—the animal forms remind me strongly of GaoGaiGar. Since GaoGaiGar is also a Sunrise mecha show, it's totally a possibility!

In conclusion, here's to more battles and less exposition. Give me more killer robot moves and lots of explosions, and this show will have been totally worth the watch.

Review: B

Gundam Build Fighters Try is currently streaming on Gundam.info.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.