Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise Part 1 Episodes 1-4

Two years passed since what’s become known as the “El Diver Incident” and Gundam Battle Nexus Online continues to thrive and the adventures of Force Build Divers have become legend.  As the game prepares for its most important content update, four players are pulled into a rumored but seemingly untested Story Mode.  They couldn’t be any different from each other: a brooding loner, a boisterous would be hero, a nervous rookie and an enigmatic beauty.  Together, they enter an unknown realm of GBN and soon find themselves chosen to become the next generation of Build Divers.

Welcome to Part 2 of my Extended Summer Series Review for 2023.  Despite the story becoming needlessly dramatic and the mood becoming a bit pessimistic in it’s final act, I did enjoy Gundam Build Divers a lot.  It recaptured much of the magic of being a Gundam and Gunpla fan that made Gundam Build Fighters so memorable but took it a step further into the digital realm.  The sequel we’re starting today, Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise, came out almost a year later during the Gundam franchises 40^th Anniversary and ended up being the only original work to debut for that celebration.  Sadly…I’m not sure what the powers that be were thinking with this new chapter of the Build Divers spin off series.  Not it’s not as downbeat or depressing as say Build Fighters Try was to Build Fighters.  No, based on these first four episodes I think it might actually be worse.  Seriously, I haven’t had this bad of a feeling about getting deeper into a Gundam series since I looked at Reconguista in G last summer.  So what’s got me so worried about this Build Divers continuation?
 
The biggest new addition that we learn is coming to GBN in Re:Rise is a Story Mode.  That’s a pretty exciting concept.  I mean yeah you can already revisit plenty of popular locales from Gundam History.  How cool would it be to dive right into the actual battles themselves?  Revisit the greatest hits of the Universal Century?  Defend the Sanc Kingdom?  Engage in some G Gundam Style Gundam Fights?  A Story Mode feels appropriate for a Gundam Anniversary, a chance to look back at the franchises rich history through the eyes of fans and their Gunpla.  But that’s not what the Story Mode in Re:Rise goes with.  Instead…so far our new quartet of Build Divers (that’s BUILD DiVERS just to differentiate incase you were wondering), spend the first four episodes defending a village of dog people from custom Death Army Mobile Suits dubbed “One Eyes”…ok WHAT?
 
First off, the new cast.  I don’t like any of them and four episodes in very little has changed my mind.  You have Hiroto, who’s a brooding, block of wood loner looking for a girl who I presume is an El Diver.  Then there’s Kazami, who’s the exact opposite of Hiroto, loud and boisterous and annoying as hell (and yet he’s the one asking all the obvious questions like what the hell this Story Mode has to do with Gundam and why cant they skip the dialogue…more on that later).  Parviz is a rookie who clearly doesn’t know what game he’s bought.  And finally there’s May and besides her very alluring character design there’s not much to her yet.  Four episodes into Build Divers I was ready to join Riku and Yuki’s growing Gunpla Force and I was excited to see what they would discover next in GBN.  Four episodes into Re:Rise, I couldn’t care less about any of these newbies or their goals or the missions theyre embarking on (forcefully I might add but I’ll come back to that). 
 
The Story Mode is the most mindboggling aspect of this new venture.  Who’s bright idea was it to not have it remotely connected to Gundam history beyond using Death Army Drones as the main enemies right now?  Why are there Furry NPDs?  Why are they taking up so much screentime?  Why cant we skip any of their dialogue and just get right to the action?  I had complaints like that about SD Gundam Battle Alliance but at least I was partaking in historical events across the Gundam Franchise by righting timelines then playing events properly.  This save the forest dwellers with Giant Robots plotline feels like it was meant to be an entirely different Anime before someone suddenly realized that there were no original Gundam titles ready for the 40^th Anniversary (just Compilation Films and TV Versions of OVAs), and they just pasted GBN and Gunpla over it.  I’m so bored and uninterested in this plot or the characters involved.  And the worst thing?  I don’t think we’re even close to being done with the Village of Dog People and their plight. 
 
There is a mystery laid out in the opening episodes concerning the Story Missions.  It hasn’t been explained yet how Hiroto and the others suddenly got pulled in when the Game Mode hasn’t even been launched yet and why they’re the only ones who seem to be able to partake in them.  Parviz theorized it was some kind of Beta Test but I’m not sure.  I sense some string pulling and the glow given off by the Death Army suits reeks of Break Decals, only theyre not crashing the game.  Instead, the Death Army are crazy strong enemies and they make rookies like Parviz and Kazami look below amateurish while Hiroto even has trouble with his own admittedly awesome Gunpla, the Core Gundam.  It’s a bit of a longshot but I do think that all of this as something to do with that unidentified girl Hiroto is scouring GBN looking for.  She’s an El Diver for sure, the design is very reminiscent of Sarah.  I don’t have any other theories beyond that but I’ll also admit, given how bored and let down I feel already I’m surprised I have that much investment in the main characters quest.
 
But there was something that worked in this premiere and I hope we see more of these in future episodes: Captain Zeon.  He’s a popular steamer who broadcasts his own Gunpla productions videos across GBN and they are a lot of fun.  The animation style looks like it was done by Studio Trigger and bears their energy as well.  Captain Zeon taking out villains for mundane or simple misdemeanors is funny too, from holding up lines to selling bad tech to new players.  Plus his Gunpla is a sick red painted fusion of Amuro Ray’s Nu Gundam and Char Aznable’s Sazabi from Gundam: Char’s Counterattack, now that’s how you combo and stylish and efficient Gunpla (Shary would be proud).  Also his ultimate finishing move is summoning the Zeon Asteroid Axis and dropping it onto his opponents.  It’s overkill but man is it hilarious…WHY ISNT THIS THE SHOW I’M WATCHING???!!!  I don’t think this is gonna be the case but I’d love if these were bonus mini shorts at the end of each episodes, a la the Welcome to Lodoss Island Chibi Shorts from Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight.  This way if Re:Rise continues to disappoint at least I’ll have something fun to look forward too after 22 minutes of misery.
 
Ugh, I cant believe how bad of a start this one got off to.  There were so many directions you could go in after the end of Build Divers.  I don’t mind a fresh cast but the ones we have are either dull and boring or loud and freaking annoying…or just there (sorry May but you have to do something to stand out besides being cute).  The Story Mode is such a letdown and the more I see the Furry’s the more I wonder if they’re in the wrong mecha Anime.  It’s kind of sad when Magee, a character I wasn’t really fond of in Build Divers, makes an appearance and it was genuinely good to see him again.  It gives me hope that others from the previous series will pop up and remind us why there were a great cast cause the newbies aren’t hacking it at all.  Suffice to say, I have a bad feeling about this one.  Anyway, review/rant over.  Check back Wednesday for more Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise right here at the Gundam Anime Corner…and pray this doesn’t join the ranks of Gundam Seed Destiny or Reconguista in G.