It’s good v. evil!
What They Say:
“Unbreakable Heart”
In the quarterfinals of the Gunpla Battle Japanese Championship, the showdown between Sekai Kamiki and Junya Inose, who are both students of the Jigen Haoh school of kenpo, has reached ferocious heights. To break the stalemate, Sekai activates the Burning Burst, but Junya activates his own Burning Burst as well. Even the original Gunpla technique that Sekai created is completely overcome. As he faces Junya, who is obsessed with the ultimate strength and seeks the extremes of strength to satisfy his own desires, Sekai continues to pursue his own kind of strength with a pure and earnest will. Putting their respective beliefs and feelings into their fists, the two combatants clash on. Sekai is hard-pressed by their difference in experience, and by Junya’s unfair attacks. But just as his consciousness fades due to the painful backlash of assimilation, Sekai is guided by a miraculous radiance.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
If the voice wasn’t enough to tell you that Junya was a bad guy, he’s an old rival that fell off the tracks and his gunpla has a black and purple color scheme. All point to bad guy! …that could be reformed. He’s an old rival after all—he wasn’t always bad—and this is Gundam Build Fighters. People aren’t inherently bad and, if they are, they have some silly reason to be like Mashita in the first season.
The fight between Sekai and Junya was one of the best in the series, and I think I’ll be saying that for the rest of its duration. In the last episode, Yuuma and Hoshino showed their worth. They got rid of the two others pretty quickly and, despite what the Gunpla Academy and Lucas Nemesis (more on him later!) would have you believe, you can’t get through an entire tournament with one team member. Yuuma and Hoshino let Sekai and Junya settle this like men though: one on one with prides clashing against one another.
This truly showed Sekai at his strongest. And he’s not at his strongest in the off moments of the series, like Yuuma (fighting against thugs for Try Burning’s spare parts) or Hoshino (generally being a pillar of support) are. Sekai is at his best when he’s in the ring fighting. He’s constantly growing and the Sekai that walked into the match certainly wouldn’t be able to beat Junya. But the Sekai that walked out of the match could do so handily. The transformation is literally happening on screen. The subtlety in Gundam Build Fighters is not here, but in other moments. It loves to be straightforward with moments like this because they are absolutely the most fun. Because Junya is controlling his Denial Gundam while Sekai is working with his Try Burning. Try Burning wants to see Sekai win this match as much as Sekai wants to. Denial Gundam is a machine to be moved at Junya’s will.
Not just that, but there’s a clash of fighting styles. Junya sees a wall in learning and perfecting one style of fighting. He’s assimilated as many styles as he can into himself to make himself stronger, but he’s not. He needs to innovate those into his own style, but they’re just a mere imitation. It’s shown from the get-go when he copies Sekai’s technique. It doesn’t beat Sekai, but it puts him off. It’s even with Sekai’s own and the “win” here is from Sekai’s reaction, not the clash of gunpla. Sekai has mastered Jigen Haoh Kenpo and has innovated it into gunpla battles. That’s his strength. He’s fighting on the strength of Jigen Hoah, but with his own two fists. It’s like Junya is using others to fight for him.
When I said Gundam Build Fighters is extremely straightforward? I meant it. There’s literally a scene where Sekai asks if his final punch—the winning blow—got through to Junya. He shows up at that moment and his voice is softer, less “evil” sounding, and he says outloud that Sekai’s punch got through to him. I laughed out loud at how both terrible, awesome, and touching it was all at once.
The new kid in town is, you guessed it, Lucas Nemesis. I love the names in Gundam shows because they’re ALWAYS ridiculous. I mean, Bright Noa, come on. Anyway, Lucas is the European champion and they’re squaring off against White Wolf. They beat them, handily, and likely almost all due to Lucas’ skill. Between the Gunpla Academy and Von Braun, Team Try Fighters has a lot to go through.
In Summary:
Gundam Build Fighters Try put in a knockout episode this week and I this was only the quarterfinals. With five episodes left, I can’t wait to see how the semifinals and finals turn out. There’s not going to be any weird going to different worlds like there was in Gundam Build Fighters, and I’m 100 percent fine with that. Gundam Build Fighters Try isn’t about that. It’s about these three kids just trying to have fun gunpla battling. And by god is it succeeding.
Grade: A
Streamed By: YouTube
Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV, LG NB3530A Sound Bar
