I don’t understand how this anime can even exist.
It should be impossible. There is absolutely no logical reason as to
why this anime came out the way it did -- or even the fact that it came out,
period. Like -- okay, the immediate
understanding is that this thing exists to shill both the Gundam franchise and the tie-in merchandise. It’s not about wars, political intrigue, or
meditations on conflict. The core thrust
of the plot is literally “these
people build Gundam models. They
fight.” That’s it. The bar has been set so low that Satan has to
regularly pull it from between his hooves.
And yet, somehow, somehow, this anime -- in my earnest, humble opinion -- goes beyond
that. Way beyond that. I’ll be honest: the primary reason I started
watching it was because I heard the second season (Build Fighters Try) has what’s more or less Burning Gundam, AKA one
of my favorite Gundams from my favorite franchise installment. The secondary reason was that I’d heard an incredibly glowing recommendation
from an anime blogger. So I watched the
first episode…and the second…and the third…and the fourth, and the fifth, and
the sixth, and then the next thing I know, I’m choosing Build Fighters over sleep.
I don’t understand how this anime can be so
good. I don’t -- I just don’t.
There’s an argument to be made that Sunrise didn’t
have to try with their colorful, silly, transparent merchandise-shill; they
could have tossed whatever they wanted out and let the wolves feed on the
carcass. It's said that Gundam AGE was apparently reviled and
more or less a money-sink, but the house of Gundam pretty much pushed out Reconguista in G just a breath
later. They weren’t in danger of having
production halted. The giant robot train
would keep on rolling.
But if I had to draw a parallel between stories, I
wouldn’t compare Build Fighters to
any other installment in the franchise (except maybe Try or their apparent predecessor, Gunpla Builders Beginning G). I’d compare it to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
The thing those two have in common is that they could both be reasonably
called But They Didn’t; any number of shortcuts and clichés could have
been employed, but both of them went above and beyond. They made tweaks to established formulas
where they could, and taken as a while their execution of even the basics are
on such a high level that it makes for something familiar, but something
unique. And above all else, something
exciting.
As a reminder, this is a franchise that once
gleefully put stuff like this
on display. And if nothing else, Build Fighters manages to top that. Regularly.
…What even
is this anime?
So here’s the setup. Our main character is Sei Iori, a Gundam
fanboy who works at his family’s hobby shop.
As you can guess, the hot business isn’t just about building Gundam models
(known in-universe and out of it as “gunpla”), but pitting them against one
another using some new technology powered by “Plavsky Particles”. As much as Sei loves gunpla and the battles
that follow -- what with his MIA dad being a top competitor on the world stage
-- he’s actually a pretty bad pilot. But
that changes one day when he meets the red-headed Reiji, a cocky kid who has
tons of natural talent. As such, the two
of them team up and manage to ward off a bully looking to claim Sei’s latest
model as his own -- and so begins their whirlwind adventure to try and take top
honors in a global tournament.
Given what I said a couple of paragraphs ago,
you’d think that BF is pretty much
just a bunch of sound and fury -- a constant onslaught of spectacle that has to
one-up itself with each episode. Or, put
simply, it’s a show that competes with G
Gundam by being as stupid as G Gundam. But that’s not the case. BF is
what G Gundam would be if it was
actually smart. If it actually had
something to say. BF goes beyond its predecessor by way of not only being thoughtful,
but -- if you can believe it -- actually making sense, even if it forces you to
play on its terms.
So here’s the overarching theme: BF is a show that teaches you that it’s
okay to be an asshole. And that’s
awesome.
In a lot of ways, the show is about beating your
opponents, and advancing to the next fight even if that means doing so by
building a stepladder out of your enemies -- or in the show’s terms, out of the
broken gunpla left behind on the field.
(I’m not exaggerating; these things are literally left in pieces at the end of plenty of fights.) So I guess the show’s obvious push towards
the thrill of competition and good sportsmanship slightly breaks down when you
see not only how…well, zealous these
people get during a match, but that BF is
half-built on the pride of its plastic warriors.
Incidentally, Reiji is a good 90% pride (and 10%
lazy dolt). He’s not such a tyrant that
he’ll refuse to show anything like good cheer or offer his thanks to those who
help him out, but he’s the sort that takes no flak from anyone. He’s a free spirit who does what he wants --
and thanks to jumping into the world of gunpla, what he wants is to prove how
much of a Cool Guy he really is. Being
dealt his first defeat is what kicks off both a chunk of the plot and his
character arc; it’s true that he learns about the world and the people around
him -- his partner Sei most of all -- and comes away with something gained, but
at his core he’s in it to win it. And
eat lots of food. And sleep. Shut up, it’s an endearing character trait.
What’s important to note about BF is that even if Reiji is the ace
pilot, Sei’s presence as the team’s “mechanic” is given as much importance --
if not more. That’s the way it should
be; the show puts weight behind the fights, but the competitors are in an arms
race where failure to keep up means losing before they even enter the
ring. Reiji doesn’t even try to build a
gunpla until the back half of the series, so it’s up to Sei to figure out what
needs to be done as both the mechanic and Reiji’s support mid-battle.
Because of that, Sei embodies the other half of
the show’s core concepts -- namely, passion. He’s the Gundam nut, and he’s the one with
aspirations of gunpla battles to start off (lack of talent aside). He’s the one who locks himself in his room
for days to put the finishing touches on his models, and the one who dreams up
new designs when he should be paying attention in class -- well before he’s
even qualified for the actual tournament.
There wouldn’t even be a show without Sei, let alone a team. And the show recognizes this, even if it
doesn’t outright say it. Even if it
didn’t, I certainly would; with technical skills and creativity like Sei’s, I
wouldn’t be surprised if he won just by virtue of appearing on a big enough
stage, and attracting the eye of some major corporations. No doubt he’d make one hell of an engineer if
he put the plastic away.
In the same sense that Sei and Reiji can’t do
anything without each other, the show wouldn’t work unless it shouted its two
themes -- passion and pride -- from the
rooftops. BF would have you believe that passion is useless without pride,
and pride is useless without passion…and in a sense, it’s kind of right. Sei at the story’s outset may have the drive
to fight, but without the belief in himself, his dream nearly ends before it
starts because he’s in danger of handing his baby to some smarmy doofus.
And on the flip side? Reiji may have natural talent and the guts to
show it off, but he’s directionless.
He’s got nothing to fight for beyond the incidental butting of heads…but
once Sei gives him something to aspire towards, he goes full tilt. Likewise, once Reiji gives him faith in his
skills, Sei decides that he doesn’t want to be in the shadows or let someone
steal his glory. Well before show’s end,
they both want to fight, and fight their hardest.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the wonderful world
of foils. Enjoy your stay. I know I have.
The ideas of BF
might seem pretty far-removed from all but those who see the script for the
average Pokémon episode as a holy
decree. But it’s worth noting that,
really, the stuff in BF can’t be THAT
far-removed from competitive gaming. Starcraft players, Counter-Strike players, DOTA2
players -- hell, the example that comes immediately to mind is the fighting
game community.
Spend some time on Eventhubs (during, in-between,
or after tournaments) and you’ll get a glimpse of countless personalities
talking about why they fight and what they do -- to say nothing of the
documentaries floating around about Street
Fighter and Smash Bros. players. The games they play are still that at their
core, but they’ve also transcended that to become something full of meaning.
There are fighters online and off -- in eSports
and national leagues, no doubt -- that do what they do because of their passion
and pride. It takes the mix of the two
to make a person say “Look at me!” and “Look at what I can do!” Competition is as much a mental struggle as
it is a physical one, meaning that those who want to grasp victory had better
reach for it with their hearts and minds as well as their bodies. Because of that, there’s something incredibly
resonant and honest about BF.
The drive to be recognized -- to even have the
right to be noticed -- is something that anyone can feel, whether they’re
competitors or not. People have passion,
and people have pride; they want success, and they want good experiences to
call their own, even if (or especially if, in BF’s case) it’s from the thrill of a good game between friends. Given that, the show speaks to some universal
truths, even while it masquerades as a kiddie merchandise-shilling vehicle --
and ends up surprisingly mature as a result.
...What the
hell is this anime?
I already summed up the majority of the plot --
there’s a big dumb tournament, and two kids want to win the whole thing. It’s not exactly Shakespeare; in fact, I’d
say the show is at its weakest when it actually tries to have a plot. There’s this
undercurrent about Reiji’s identity and just how turning plastic models into
fighting machines actually works, the latter of which in all honesty is pretty
interesting; it turns the company behind gunpla battles into an ersatz Willy Wonka’s
Chocolate Factory, and it’s discussed that cracking the secrets of that
technology could mean it’d see use as military weaponry.
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut when the show’s trying so hard
to be one thing, and even shuffles the majority of its B-plot aside for all but
a few minutes in a few episodes, it’s obvious which one a viewer should care
about more. In any other story, that
would be a problem. But you know what? I don’t need an explanation as to what the
Plavsky Particles really are, because I’m so invested in the fights and
relationships between these characters.
The plot is simple as all get out, but that simplicity and transparency
works to BF’s advantage. By design, it’s a stupid-ass show, but its
execution is its saving grace.
And I don’t just mean that story-wise. Because you see, this anime is absolutely
gorgeous.
Okay, let me be fair. There are times when scenes and episodes are
off-model; episode 20 is one example that comes to mind. But that’s forgivable when you remember that
episode 19 features a pivotal battle, and has visuals that threaten to rival Gurren Lagann (so I guess we know that
19 had one hell of a price tag). Even
so, there are more episodes with good animation than there are bad, to the
point where the bad ones stick out solely because
there are so many good ones. And
those good ones -- those good fights where no expenses were spared -- feature
moments so unbelievable that I’m forcing myself to keep the spoilers to an
absolute minimum. I will say this much,
though: some of the scenes in BF sell
a level of brutality that even the direst of battles in the more serious Gundam installments couldn’t match. If the gunpla were humans, there’d be one
hell of a mess to clean up.
So if you’re looking for an anime with the oft-sought
“epic fights”, then BF is for
you. But it goes beyond that. The aesthetics are clean and simple, but
embellished enough to give everyone a hint of pizazz. I seriously doubt I need to mention the
amount of color in display in any given frame.
The music is fantastic, too; sometimes it’s hard to notice in the heat
of battle with fighters chatting it up, but head over to YouTube
and you probably won’t be
disappointed. And if you’re a
diehard Gundam fan, you are in for a
treat. I nearly shat a brick when a
palette-swapped Allenby Beardsley showed up, and that’s just one of the G Gundam references on display. Gundam Maxter’s one of the later competitors,
and the unfortunately-designed Tequila Spike Gundam stands sentry on a
store shelf.
I’m surprised they had the restraint to keep him
from shooting tacos.
There’s a lot to love about BF -- and believe it or not, there’s even more that I could mention
beyond the previous 2300 words. Remember
what I said earlier? They could have
called this But They Didn’t: The Series,
and I stand by that. So many things are
done right, and it all starts with the characters. Opinions may vary, I know, but in my case, BF is in the optimal position. That is, I can’t pick a single favorite
character out of the cast because
everyone is uniformly amazing.
So you know what?
Let’s turn on Trans-Am mode and run through not only the characters, but
a laundry list of some of the things BF does
right. So if you’ve got any
appropriately-triumphant music in mind, now’s your chance to play it (though if
I may make a humble
suggestion…). Strap in, people. We’re about to have a ball.
Ready…GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
--It would have been way too easy to make Sei into
a shy kid who hides in Reiji’s shadow, but he’s more or less grown out of that
before the end of episode 4. He’s still
fairly nice, but if pushed, it’s surprising how hard he’ll push back. Then again, you can’t blame him, because
nearly everyone around him is completely insane…which he ends up commenting on
way early in the series. And continues
to comment on.
--I actually like that Reiji’s kind of an
asshole. They could have just made him a
cheery competitor (a pseudo Goku, as is the standard), but his swagger and
aggression is what makes him stand out in a good way. It’s not to the point where he’s intolerable;
it’s to the point where it becomes a part of his charisma. That’s cool.
--What’s this?
A young female character in a 2013 anime that isn’t just pandering to
moe tastes? It’s more likely than you
think. Meet China Kousaka (and you’d be
forgiven for subconsciously pronouncing it like China the country instead of
“chee-na”), and she’s great, too. She’s
soft-spoken and reserved, and her development from wallflower in the background
to outspoken supporter is so lightning-fast that it cuts out all the chaff
related to her archetype. That is to
say, it’s WAY before the show’s end that she’s not only willingly hanging out
with and helping Sei, but even manages to tease him at times. Also, dat smile.
--What really makes me do a spit-take is that,
yes, Sei and China do end up having that kind
of relationship. But again, it cuts out
all the chaff, and even manages to do so with subtlety. At the start of
the series the two of them are called out for being boyfriend and
girlfriend. You’d expect Sei to overreact, but he actually doesn’t. China actually seems all for it. In the middle of the series, though, Sei DOES
overreact…because it means he’s actually
getting closer to this girl.
The end of the series has them both turning red at
the mention of being an item, but their interactions up to that point have had
them interacting without a hint of awkwardness, appreciating each other’s company,
and just flat-out building their chemistry whenever the chance arose. Christ.
--Okay, remember how I said I can’t choose a
favorite character? I lied. It’s Mr. Ral.
He’s a Cool Guy who gives sage advice to the boys, knows Gundam as well
as Sei, and (spoilers) actually manages to give a Mafioso a taste of some moves
straight outta WrestleMania. Also? Fanservice?
Nah, man. It’s all about the Ral-service.
--I don’t want to be that guy, but…damn it, I just
have to take a moment to appreciate that there’s a black guy in an anime who
isn’t a 2D clown. Granted Nils Nielsen
is ostensibly stereotyping Japanese culture via his martial arts and
samurai-themed gunpla, but off the battlefield he’s as level-headed and
sharp-witted as it gets. Though now that
I think about it, it isn’t confirmed in-universe
that he’s black…but he’s got dark skin and dreads. Let me have this.
--Mao and Fellini are rival fighters that are
hilarious in their own right, albeit for different reasons -- Fellini for being
a wannabe ladies’ man, and Mao for being…well, Mao. (He’s one of those characters that almost
always keep their eyes shut, which in anime land is rarely
a good
sign.) That said, neither of them
are pure joke characters, because they reinforce the show’s themes as they go
along. And the beats of their arcs are
as effective as they are powerful. One
of Mao’s moments genuinely made me misty-eyed, while Fellini…well, let’s just
say he gets put through his paces.
--Sei’s mom Rinko is pretty much the embodiment of
hilarity, even when (and sometimes especially when) she’s giving her son some
support. Though I guess according to The
Laws of the Internet, I have no choice but to bring up her looks. In which case, I’ll let Combofiend speak
for me, post some pictures, and leave it at that.
(Still ain’t got nothin’ on Ral-service.)
--A lot of the character-based stuff after that
moves into spoiler territory, so I’ll hold off on going into detail. Still, it’s worth noting that even if it’s
obvious who’s going to make it into what round, the show does a spectacular job
of making the extra fighters more than jobbers -- to the point where they
legitimately give one main character after another a hell of a time on their
way to the next battle.
--On that note, winning in BF doesn’t always come down to shouting the loudest or pulling some
hidden power out of nowhere. Each
gunpla’s abilities are built in before the match and/or referenced mid-match;
more to the point, victories are had because one fighter outsmarted another. There’s a Gundam from 00 at one point, and it can do exactly
what you’d expect a Gundam from 00 to
do.
--You know you’ve got a good series on your hands
when even the one-off idol gets character development.
--Again, trying to avoid spoilers here, but I can
confirm that there
is a char. Two of them, technically.
--Time to go way back for a minute. Last
year I did a post on Infinite Stratos,
a mecha harem anime -- that’s a harem with a mecha element, not an anime with
robot girlfriends -- that’s about as terrible as you’d expect. One of the things I said is that it could
have been stronger if it focused less on going on dates with a guy as smart as
a bowl of oatmeal and more on the clashes between a strong lead and a
similarly-prideful match. By extension,
they could have dropped the serious/military aspects of the plot and just made
it about people training for a sport. Pride and Prejudice and Mechs was what I
called it. And guess what? That’s
this anime. And it’s great.
--Reiji ends up meeting his match, and while you
could argue that it’s the typical romantic progression, it’s done in such a way
that A) the tweaks make it original enough, and B) it’s so entertaining to
watch that it’s hard to care. Even then,
it’s not as if either character gets their…well, character diluted; they both stay willful and independent, only
with heavy subtext between them. It’s as
much about respect and friendship as it is love; two people coming together to
enjoy something is the key focus in BF…which
extends to the entire show.
I’ll be honest.
I’ve seen a good chunk of Gundam
00, but I couldn’t bring myself to finish it or even care about finishing
it. It’s not the worst anime out there. Not
by a long shot. But in its first season,
after a certain point I had to struggle to care about what was going on until a
certain, Louise-filled point. It doesn’t
say good things about a show when I care more about its antagonists (Cool Guy
Sergei Smirnov chief among them) than I do about the leads…that didn’t do any
favors for themselves by having generally the same personality at the
outset. It’s still a step above SEED, though, because the most important
things I remember from that are Kira looking sad, recycled footage of Murrue’s
bouncing breasts (consistent tone?
What’s that?), and Kira slapping a lady.
There’s a strong argument to be made that Gundam, if not anime in general, has an
image problem. With the former, it’s
easy to lump it into the stereotype of “a bunch of emo pretty boys” -- or if
you’re deep in the rabbit hole, “fujoshi bait”.
G Gundam was a firm stand
against that stereotype (skintight suits aside), but you have to remember that
that installment is just months away from being twenty years old. The series that followed it? Well…
There’s no doubt that there are detractors on
either side of the tonal fence. It’s not
enough to bring the franchise to its knees, but it does pose a problem: what do
you do when it seems like nothing you do is right? What happens when one camp is shrugging you
off for tossing out kiddie fare, and the other half lambasts you for trying to
be too serious and edgy?
In Sunrise’s case, I guess you can put out two
shows at once and hope for the best. But
even then, considering that one of those shows is BF/BF Try, it makes me think that they took a different
approach. Instead of trying to directly
please an audience, they just went “Screw it!
Let’s just do whatever the hell we want!” And in doing so, they gave plenty of people
exactly what they wanted…by giving them something they didn’t even know they
wanted.
But I could be reaching here. Because if nothing else, BF gives me something even I didn’t
know I wanted.
I like this show because even if there are plenty
of thoughtful undercurrents, even if there’s some high-level execution, and
even if it’s a technical marvel, I don’t have any problems overlooking
that. What I’m going to remember months
down the line is the sheer level of passion that the fighters and their series
of origin showed off on a regular basis.
In a world where big blockbuster movies threaten to ruin the majesty of
giant robots, this show reaffirms just how friggin’ awesome they really are.
The passion in-universe is incredibly important,
even beyond just winning fights or showing off how cool gunpla battles can
be. It’s about building a sense of
camaraderie through united interests -- a bond that gets sparked by seeing
these models, the physical embodiments of each player’s pride, take on lives of
their own. That emotion’s on full
display in the show, and it bleeds out into the real world for any given
viewer. As it should.
The purpose of art is to make an audience feel an
emotion -- and when the characters are putting every last shred of their hearts
on the line just for the sake of feeling the rush of battle, then it’s hard not
to get excited too. And that’s what
makes Gundam Build Fighters smarter
than it looks. It’s a back-to-basics
show that excels where every story should: in awakening the passion within
anyone. Within everyone.
I don’t know how this anime can exist, but I’m
glad it does. And with that, I’ve got one thing to say.
See you guys soon.
Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. Let the love run wild.
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