Gundam Build Fighters Episode 23
What They Say:
The finalists for the Gunpla Battle Championship World Tournament have been decided at last. With the finals one week away, a grand festival is held in the tournament arena. Life-sized Gundam statutes are displayed, and booths host a variety of events. For a little while, they all forget the fierce fighting of the tournament, and appreciate the fun and profundity of Gunpla with all their hearts. On the eve of the finals, Sei and Reiji have finished their preparations for the battle. Then Tatsuya Yuuki appears before them, and discards his Meijin mask.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While getting behind some of the participants in the tournament isn’t always easy, often because there’s not a lot to them beyond the archetype, we do at least get some decent battles out of them. But when you take the core group out of the picture, who sometimes don’t even come across as observers for the matches, it does allow for more of a disconnect. The last episode had some neat minor reveals and prodding going on with the bigger picture, but a lot of it was wrapped up in the fight, the change beforehand and the kind of rivalry that’s going on there. It was flash and worked well and it definitely put Kawaguchi in the forefront for a bit.
With some fairly serious episodes going on for a few of them now, the show takes another one of its light turns for a bit here, which is to its advantage as we basically get a circus flair festival going on outside. It’s even set up so visitors coming to the tournament can play against some of the participants, which is a pretty fun thing for some younger kids. The tournament itself we learn is going well, the revenue is strong and the business of it all is going in the right direction, though the man in charge is still really worried about Reiji being involved in any of this. What helps to allay his fears is the arrival of Nines Barthes. With there being a lot of adults apparently in the know about larger issues, bringing someone else in is not a surprise, not that we get much on him for a bit.
The bulk of the time is spent with the festival of sorts that’s going on outside though, which helps to keep people entertained during the week break before the finals themselves hit. There’s a lot of cute moments with various characters as they participate in a number of building activities and get in on the Gunpla battles themselves, but there’s also a pretty engaging fight that happens as Sei and Reiji get to go up against each other in a space setting outside of a colony which works really well. There’s a lot of fun to this, but we also get a little bit of a twist as we get Nils tracking down the truck that disappeared and it leads them to a large underground facility, which coincidentally enough takes them right under the tournament center itself. There’s a lot of interconnected things going on, which we’ve seen for awhile, and we’re getting another nibble here but again nothing to really chew on.
In Summary:
Gundam Build Fighters has something of a fun approach to Gunpla here, which is important since the show is angling at kids while starting to tell a larger story. Giving a bit of a festival atmosphere to it and almost a community approach, a lot of the episode is simply light and fun as it works through a few of the characters, their interactions and a touch of minor background material here and there. We get a decent if shorter than usual fight and a few more hints at the big picture, but it’s all just teases once again. Which is admittedly really straining things at this point in time.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Official Gundam YouTube Channel
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.