Gundam Build Fighters Try

Episode 12

Winning is fun, but losing is where the real character development happens in Gundam Build Fighters Try. This episode found our three heroes still reeling from last week's devastating loss, and promptly isolated them to explore their varying reactions and resolutions to improve.

Yuuma took it the hardest. Yuuma believes that Gundam The End's pilot, Saga Adou, was the cruel fighter who turned him off of Gunpla battling for two years. (It's still ambiguous as to whether that's the case.) Luckily for him, he's got Yuki, AKA Meijin Kawaguchi, the President of Gunpla, to help him get over it. Despite his imposing demeanor, Yuki is humble, focused on doing anything to get Yuuma to like Gunpla again. That's like being a depressed scientist and having Albert Einstein descend from the sky to help you remember the joy of physics—it's a little too good to be true. Then again, Yuki has always had a thing for underdogs, ever since he was director of the Gunpla club in high school trying to unlock Iori Sei's potential.

Fumina, as always, thought about her teammates first. However, circumstance finally kept Fumina from burying herself in their problems and working on her own. She ran into Lady Kawaguchi, whom I originally suspected as Caroline Yajima back when she first showed up in episode five, but this seems unlikely after we've learned about Nils' marriage to Caroline—Lady doesn't wear a ring. Lady proceeded to wipe the floor with Fumina in no delicate manner—her attitude was more devil's advocate than adversary. If this is indeed the girl who inspired Fumina to become a fighter, I'd bet Fumina is feeling a little disappointed. However, the elegant shoujo-manga Gunpla battle—in a moonlit conservatory complete with flying rose petals—is sure to delight.

Sekai promptly collapsed after last episode's defeat, and stayed down for most of the action this time around. The Meijin has confirmed that what's going on with him is indeed assimilation; he literally shares his energy with the tiny plastic toy. Gunpla battling for Sekai is not a game anymore. If he dies in the game, does he die in real life? This episode showed us that the answer is no; the loss just takes him out pretty hard. Nobody listens to poor Mr. Ral this episode as they run off to deal with the loss in their own ways, but it cracked me up when Sekai refused to heed Ral's warning that, “With your building skills, fixing that Gunpla is… !” As if Sekai's simply that bad at building Gunpla.

Of course, Sekai is detoured in the end by a beautiful young girl with white hair, purple eyes, alien clothing, and exuberant adoration for Gunpla… all of which she has inherited from her parents, Reiji and Aila. All right, that's actually impossible, unless she's like six years old or they establish that time moves faster where Reiji is from. Regardless, all three of our heroes' paths indicate that we're on the brink of something big—a breakthrough in character development, or maybe an introduction to somebody new and important—but they never quite sated my curiosity as to what's around the corner.

Still, I can't help but feel optimistic right now. This episode of Try has put me in an anticipatory mood by referencing season one characters like Fellini and China without actually showing them, creating the illusion that they're waiting in the wings, nearly ready to make their season two debuts. It's inevitable that some of them have gone through some major life changes in the last seven years, and I can't wait to catch up.

Rating: B+

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

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.